2009 is going to be an even bigger disaster in my opinion.

Next year is when they are going to ban most scripting, which means a lot of very useful listing tools are going to be useless (ClicPic for example).

Ebay UK have informed me that the new search (i.e. the shit-search) will be implemented as standard across ebay.co.uk at the end of August.  No more opting out for us over here.  

Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but I just hit upon a new ebay feedback policy.  (at least it's new to me)  I went to leave a powerseller neutral feedback (totally justified mind you) and got this message:



"You cannot leave negative or neutral Feedback for this PowerSeller within 7 days of the transaction.  In the mean time, email the seller or request additional contact information, such as a phone number, to resolve any issues."



WTF???  So I guess this means if you are a powerseller, you have some kind of temporary immunity from neutral and/or negative feedback?  This seems like a very twisted policy.  Ebay wants us to leave feedback.  When I go to do so, it prevents me from doing so.  Then it puts up this roadblock.  All this policy does is annoy me and make me want to turn my neutral into a negative, in six days from now.  Giving me seven days is not going to change my mind or make me contact the seller.  They deserve at least a neutral and they are going to get it.



More and more, I'm thinking that all the previous people are right about ebay.  Anyone else get hit with this lame policy?

First, I've noticed the quality of items I acquire via Ebay has gone significantly down.  I've had to file four disputes in the past two months.  Before these changes I had filed only two disputes between 2000 and 2007.  I'm starting to question if Ebay is even a good place to buy stuff on a regular basis.
In any case, I'm still through with Ebay as a selelr.  I'm going back to direct mail to old customers, e-mails to those who want them, convention flea markets, and live auctions.  You've got to be careful at the live auctions though.  As a seller you can really take it in the shorts if you're pushed into a no minimum price situation.  However, if you bring enough stuff you can usually negotiate with the people running the auction so you neither sell $20 items for $1 nor wind up paying a commission based on a $20 minimum bid that never came.  I've still not found an effective on-line replacement for Ebays fast sales and high fees but I'll go for slow sales and low fees.
Unless Ebay cuts back to the early days of "sell what you want, how you want; we're just providing a forum for you to do it in" then I'll never (sell) there again.  It's not about trying to deprive Ebay of my business, it's a simple matter of Ebay not being worth the stress.

Kingofpain89 wrote:
That happened to me as well.  I received an item from a powerseller a few months ago that I paid almost $10 in shipping costs.  Once I received the item I realized that they only spent $4 to ship it and pocketed the rest.  Wouldnt have bothered me that much if they had put the item in a box with some packing material but they just stuffed it in an oversized envelope.  When I got the item it was damaged.  I sent the seller a noxious email communicating my displeasure at being obviously ripped off.  I waited a day for his response and when I got nothing, I went to leave negative feedback and got the same message you did.  It bugged me but it also gave me additional time to wait for a hopeful response from the seller with an option for reimbursement.  Of course it never came and I ended up leaving a nasty neg anyway.

It is just Ebays way to give the two parties involved time to let cooler heads prevail and settle their problems.  I dont think it is a bad idea but they shouldnt make it exclusive to Powersellers IMO.  The really funny thing about it all is about a month later the dumbass seller gave me positive feedback.  Go figure.  

I have also had some similar problems, and have filed disputes with Ebay and Paypal (months long or more processes), but unfortunately they're not competent enough to resolve the issues (at least not in my cases...and they were really obvious overcharging and even double-charging on shipping, and not disclosing their intention to ship out media mail, etc.). They were really a waste of time, and very insulting on the phone. I get the feeling Ebay/Paypal sees their dispute process as an obligation to make it appear they have some sort of official manner in resolving issues.

I had mentioned to another person some weeks back that if you've paid for the item using your credit card through paypal, you can take up the dispute through the credit card company.  They're a million times more objective and efficient at resolving a dispute than Ebay/Paypal.  I can't remember what they're usual last date of filing a dispute is, but I want to say it's at least 60 days or maybe even 90 days.  You can even request partial refunds (if it's a shipping dispute, etc).  Just print out or save the auction pages as pdf's after you've bought anything, and keep all the emails from the sellers, so that you can forward those to your credit card company for the dispute.  You won't be able to put them out of business on Ebay, but at least you'll get your money back.

Mike.

bspaul41 wrote:Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but I just hit upon a new ebay feedback policy.  (at least it's new to me)  I went to leave a powerseller neutral feedback (totally justified mind you) and got this message:

"You cannot leave negative or neutral Feedback for this PowerSeller within 7 days of the transaction.  In the mean time, email the seller or request additional contact information, such as a phone number, to resolve any issues."

WTF???  So I guess this means if you are a powerseller, you have some kind of temporary immunity from neutral and/or negative feedback?  This seems like a very twisted policy.  Ebay wants us to leave feedback.  When I go to do so, it prevents me from doing so.  Then it puts up this roadblock.  All this policy does is annoy me and make me want to turn my neutral into a negative, in six days from now.  Giving me seven days is not going to change my mind or make me contact the seller.  They deserve at least a neutral and they are going to get it.

More and more, I'm thinking that all the previous people are right about ebay.  Anyone else get hit with this lame policy?

    Why were you posting a negative within seven days, bspaul41?



    The seller must have done something pretty bad to warrant such a fast negative response.  



    Not saying you were wrong.  Did you try some sort of resolution of your issue before posting a negative?  A negative posted within seven days does sound a bit hasty.



     This is the first I have heard of that policy, but I can see the logic behind it.  Allowing their most valuable sellers seven days of grace before someone hammers them with a neg seems like a pretty reasonable policy.  Ebay has not prevented you from posting a negative.  They have only required you to wait a couple of days longer to do it.  



    What did the seller do (or not do) to rate an immediate negative?

Just saw this in their latest eBay Canada newsletter.  I've highlighted the important parts:

Why is eBay.com setting limits on shipping charges lower than my actual costs to ship?
eBay.com based the maximum shipping & handling charges on recent US transaction data of what sellers from the US and other countries are charging and what US buyers have said is reasonable. We know that what US buyers consider to be reasonable will be less than sellers' actual costs in most cases for Canadian sellers. However, we believe that by offering US buyers at least one shipping option that they deem reasonable, Canadian sellers may increase their overall sales and conversion.

Dear eBay,

Believe me that I mean it from the bottom of my heart when I say this:
FUCK YOU.

(Granted, it only applies on listings made via eBay.com; listings made via eBay.ca aren't subject to the shipping costs limit but are subject to placement penalties if the shipping is above the limit. I also note that it also only applies to shipping within or into the US.  So for US sellers $40 First Class Mail is still A-OK! )

Edit: As a buyer, I'm also bitter about this.  By enforcing a shipping limit for US auctions (and telling sellers to stick cost overruns into the starting price), but allowing them to charge whatever they wish for international bidders (translation: cost + "handling fee"), they've essentially increased the initial costs of items for all international bidders -- since they'd be essentially paying to ship it twice: once to the US and once elsewhere.

It gets better. I read an article today that said eBay is chaning the fixed-auction fees. LOWER.
they're certainly closer to the fixed-price model they want to be at.

wow, this is amazing, alienating more and more people.. how to destroy your business.. I see listing are down down down...

Brette:)