Small Sellers: Our Competitive Advantage

JJHOn 05.13.2008 at 1:35 pm Said:

“This one is a fit only because its chock full of ebay refugees and we help each other. Think mexican cheer”

That doesn’t help, or I’m stupid. Just mention it by name. There’s no reason to censor it…

DawnOn 05.13.2008 at 2:04 pm Said:

I believe she means ola.com.

Patricia1On 05.13.2008 at 4:44 pm Said:

Things are picking up there. Everyone is pretty active.

kimbersOn 05.13.2008 at 5:40 pm Said:

Thanks Ms. Norrington to and the rest of the eBay braintrust in advance for the coming destruction of my 10 yr, 100% feedback score next week when you start calculating neutrals into the percentage.

My one and only rating that wasn’t positive that came as a result of a buyer who didn’t read the auction description:

Nuetral- The “print” turned out to be a print of a photograph…but I’ll keep it.

Reply by xxxxxxx:
From auction description: ‘This print was made from a photo’.

DawnOn 05.13.2008 at 8:47 pm Said:

Here are the neutrals that are about to bring my “lily white” 100% feedback down to 99.8%:

*This item was cancelled
–The buyer bought the same item twice by mistake. I “cancelled” the duplicate order by filing the mutual agreement UID option.

*I’m out of town for three weeks
–The buyer bought, paid, then immediately left this neutral FB. I emailed him to try to find out why and never got a response.

*Rather long delivery time - well over 1 week and not on projected date.
–The buyer ordered the item on Sunday, 11/4. We shipped 11/5, and it was delivered 11/8. I emailed the buyer, and he said he had us confused with another seller.

*Great customer service.
–I emailed the buyer, and he said he had no issues with our transaction, and leaves neutrals for all transactions that aren’t bad.

*For gifting, Seller should have shipped to recipient’s address.
–I double-checked the PayPal notes, as well as my eBay messages, my email and my spam folder, and could find no request to ship to an alternate address. I emailed the buyer, and got no reply. She left the same type of feedback for another seller that same day, and that seller responded that no request for shipment to an alternate address was received.

And here are the two negatives:

*Seller took over 10 days to ship out product, did’t arrive in time to use.
–PayPal eCheck cleared 0n 9/18, we shipped on 9/19, package was delivered on 9/21. We always email buyers who pay with an eCheck and explain that the order will be shipped when PayPal notifies us the eCheck has cleared. In addition, we offer a 14 day no questions asked return policy. The buyer never contacted us, and left this negative within minutes of receiving the item.

*item very overweight for ladie`s model bot otherwise service was fine
–Item was not advertised as a lady’s model, and the weight was indicated in the listing. See above for our return policy. This customer also never contacted us, and left the FB within a couple of hours of receiving the item.

So, that’s it. 7 non-positive FB comments and almost 5,000 positives over the past 12 months. If I had known eBay was going to start counting neutrals as negatives some day, or that eBay was going to start completely ignoring the 10,000 positive feedback comments we received more than 12 months ago, I would have tried to have the bad FB mutually withdrawn. But I was stupid enough to believe eBay when they said neutral feedback would not affect our FB score in any way.

eBay should, at the very least, count neutrals as negatives going forward from May 19th (for US sellers). Actually, I still don’t understand why they don’t remove the neutral option entirely.

MechelleOn 05.13.2008 at 10:00 pm Said:

No, at the very least they should quit their deceptive games and get rid of the neutral. Leaving the neutral at this point (we can’t give feedback anymore)would only be from someone who just leaves neutrals- anyone else will be just thrilled to check the neg box especially after eBay’s encouragement to do so. The neutral is the equivalent to the 4 in DSRs- both are only for the purpose of degrading the seller’s standing and reputation by using the buyer who wasn’t intending or wanting to punish the seller. Of course they just didn’t know they wanted to, but lucky for them eBay knows what they want- just like they no what is good for us. What exactly is the role of the human mind in eBay land? It appears eBay knows what is good for everyone, and none of us have a clue what we want, think, intend, or need.

Of course- the deception is to bring down the sellers “quality” ratings- to set and perpetuate the stage for decreasing PayPal coverage, avoiding incentive rewards for powersellers. Really, they said it themselves- they had to pay out much more than they intended. Remember tossing the mutual feedback withdraw was a sudden addition to the S**** the seller plan underway. Of course they don’t want any communication going on between the buyer and seller, because then they might come to terms and withdraw the neg/neut and then that will cost eBay/PayPal money.

Oh, and of course let us not forget the 21 day holds. The lower the seller’s ratings the longer PayPal/eBay get to earn interest off the buyers money - that the buyer initiated to pay for their purchase, but of course eBay/PayPal knows better so must protect the buyer from his/herself.

What would we all do without you eBay/PayPal?

Patricia1On 05.13.2008 at 10:24 pm Said:

So much for good enchanted buyers. We have a harrasser on the discussion boards. He’s been insulting people for a long time now. Just for the heck of it, I put his ID in the program on auctionbytes that tells what your rate will be after May 19 - his would have gone from 100 percent down to 88 percent! But being he only buys - he’s untouchable!!! Yeah - just the type of buyer ebay wants? Good work ebay!

The ColonelOn 05.14.2008 at 2:57 am Said:

Looking at the Top 100 eBay PowerSellers*, 60% of them will no longer qualify for PowerSeller status after May 19th. Though the stripping of these sellers PS status may not be fully complete until July 1st, it is quite obvious that the majority of Top eBay Sellers cannot meet eBay’s selling standards.

These sellers have had since January to change their ways and have not been able to do so either because it is not economical to do so under the eBay fee structure or they just don’t care because their sales keep on going without adding the substantial costs to meet eBay’s standards.

Until eBay actually gets to the point where they refuse to accept further listings from these sellers or pushes their results to the absolute bottom of search results regardless of ending time, these sellers will just keep on creating “Bad Buying Experiences” because eBay keeps letting them on the marketplace.

EBay has made all these changes to the detriment of its best sellers and lets the worst sellers still participate. What is the point? All I see being accomplished by this is the eBay marketplace as a whole will look far worse on Monday May 19th than it did the day before. FB percentages for ALL sellers, good and bad, will drop on Monday and a huge influx of far more unrestricted negatives will soon follow as buyers will have absolutely no accountability what so ever for the FB they leave on the site.

And to make things even worse, I just received a confirmation email from eBay Trust & Safety that a buyer demanding a full or partial refund under the threat of Negative FB, even if the ad posting specifically says NO REFUNDS, will NOT be considered FB Extortion. T&S feels that buyers should ALWAYS have the option to demand a refund no matter what Terms of Sale they agreed to with their purchase.

Just wait till Monday if you think your FB looks bad on the Australia site today, it will be far worse in the coming weeks and months for good sellers and bad. It only takes just over two percent of the buyers to be troublesome for this whole system to collapse. But then again, Brian Burke head of eBay Global Feedback Policy has already said live on eBay Radio that if FB gets too bad they will “Adjust” the PS and DSR thresholds to ease the standards. Well they better start sharpening their pencils because starting Monday it looks like they are going to loose 60% of their Top Power Sellers and that is before feedback even starts to go all to hell under the new one way only feedback debacle.

And remember everyone, those top 100 or so sellers, they ALL have eBay management business cards, phone numbers and email addresses. They will also be the ones at the special Top Seller events with eBay management in Chicago at eBay live. The TOP Sellers are the ones that really get eBay’s ear and if anything changes, it will be most definitely be to their advantage.

* Top 100 PowerSellers based on top 100 active accounts on this list:

http://www.topsellerlistlive.com/report_top1000feedback.php

14 sellers were inactive out of top 114 listed, out of 100 remaining, 60 will not have 98% FB and 4.5 DSR’s as required for PS status after May 19th.

.
Thanks,

Doctor-Deals

Bonus points if you can name all four people in the picture. Hint: I am the one holding the award.

Kathy_the_green_fishOn 05.14.2008 at 5:28 am Said:

No responses to any of the educated thoughts on this blog?

Have blogs become the new discussion boards, where eBay employees post a thought and flee?

I was hoping for an educated give and take.
I would really like to hear a response, as there might be a really good reason for all these changes that I cannot see.

I really cannot see a good reason.
I see eBay adding a new carrot to the end of a stick (Powerseller discounts)
Then adding a longer stick (DSR and no seller negatives)
Creating less Powersellers and more disharmony.
I see no responses, just announcement after announcement.

Instead of just telling us, open lines of communications.
Accept that the plan may have to be tweaked.
It doesn’t make a bad leader to listen to the customers.

BernieOn 05.14.2008 at 9:27 am Said:

My next door neighbor in her 60’s just got wired! So she is on the internet now. She knows I do ebay so that is one the first places she wanted to go.

At 2:30 I have to go over to her house to teach her how to turn off best match or whatever they have defaulted her to. Because she can’t find items for sale with the names she enters and she can’t see what items have sold for.

So have to go over and find where the little check boxes are hidden.

Anyway I have work to do and this discussion is unlikely to become a dialog so I will use my time productively.

To me the summary of all of this stuff is it comes down to Pierre. He is the boss. These things would not be happening if he cared to prevent them. He should have named it “mebay”

DJOn 05.14.2008 at 9:55 am Said:

I’m sorry, but I will have to totally disagree with you when you say the small sellers are respected. As many have said above (and as many are saying on forums, online communities, and on TV discussion), now 2008 has arrived, it’s only the powersellers that eBay cares about.

What’s worse, is the reasoning behind this. Say I sold 1 car, for £750, once a month. That would make me a powerseller. The buyer wasn’t to happy with the item, so didn’t leave feedback or DSRs.

Compare this to a seller that sells, let’s say hand made table cloths, sells 90 per month, and has a close, working relationship with customers. Despite their good feedback, and good DSRs, they would not get the benefits that the scummy guy selling the car has, simply because he’s a powerseller, the cloth lady isn’t.

Ebay used to be a fun marketplace, somewhere you would go to bid on auctions, and buy products at ease. It’s now become a ruling, biased, awkward place to shop, making other online platforms such as Amazon much easier to shop at.

Lucky for me, I’m now a powerseller, but I wasn’t. Even though all my DSRs are at 4.9, and I’ve 100% feedback, I wasn’t showing on the first 3 or so pages. Why? Because I didn’t meet a particular sales volume.

I think rulings need a think over, and what should be taken into consideration is solely DSRs and feedback, not the fact that you sell a certain volume of items.

Anyway, I firmly believe that ebay is slowly killing itself, more and more people are feeling angered by their actions, and sooner or later, another competitor will come in and create a much fairer, more welcoming platform.

GOOGLE, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!

Mark ClassicOn 05.14.2008 at 10:16 am Said:

@Thebrewsnews

Thank you for clarifying that.

I did not realise the US site did not allow the negs to be viewed on one page!

That clears that mystery up (we are in the UK)…

Mark

BernieOn 05.14.2008 at 11:07 am Said:

Gee this thread is depressing to me so I will say my peace and forget it is here.

When I first started selling I got a pop up every other day it seemed asking me to open a store. Finally I opened a store.

Shortly thereafter ebay decided to hide the stores.

Ebay likes the stores, the don’t like the stores, they like the stores, they don’t like them.

Neutrals are now a negative. Never mind that it is a lie. Never mind that the buyers had the choice to leave a negative and did not. Ebay decides to go back and turn them into negatives and that is that.

Ebay wanted to move to fixed price. Then Bill Cobb comes out and says ebay will be an auction site. It is ebay’s niche. Now ebay want to be a fixed price site again.

Ebay is unstable, and unreliable. Ebay has made it plain that ebay will smugly do whatever they wish and always with the sole consideration of ebays perceived best interest of the quarter.

No matter how much money ebay makes, billions and billions, the primary interest is always to take more.

Ebays base is people like me, who are stuck with you.

Good luck getting all of these pie in the sky “latest and greatest” retailers to partner up with you.

You are unstable, unreliable, and transparently motivated exclusively by self interest.

I’m not worried about these supposed big retailers flocking to ebay. It’s not going to happen.

But you are messing things up for the people already here, to do try and do it. That’s what hurts. Tinkering and meddling and experimenting and feeling none of the impact of the failed experiments you try.

But what depresses me is you are mean. Call it business. Call it what you wish. You can afford to gamble to try and make your mark and if you have to crush millions of regular people to do it well that’s just business isn’t it?

TWOn 05.14.2008 at 1:40 pm Said:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought a discussion was a two way street. You know, we (the members) talk, you (eBay) responds. We respond to that and so forth.

I really thought that was how things were going to go but I guess the execs are too busy coming up with new policies to communicate with the paying customer.

CrunchyPostingGoodnessOn 05.14.2008 at 2:06 pm Said:

“I think it’s important that we address the misperception that eBay dislikes small sellers. Let me be clear: eBay has always believed that small and casual sellers — “the little guys” — are eBay’s most important competitive advantage … These sellers created our community, bring a human touch to the marketplace, and continue to make eBay a truly one-of-a-kind shopping experience”

That small statement, and the title, are the only things that mention the importance of small sellers to eBay. The real question is is eBay demonstrating this? Actions speak louder than words.

Instead of trying to justify the existence of Buy.com, why not provide concrete examples of what eBay is doing, and how exactly the recent changes affect small sellers positively?

Not to mention the fact that the type of buyers who are purchasing from Buy, are not the same customer base that is looking to purchase antiques and collectibles. They are two different buying bases with different interests. So how does an increase in one, lead to positive effects for the other.

Lorrie’s affirmation would hold more weight if she had supported it with examples, instead of more bolstering for Buy.