eBay

[Nigel]

Mar 21, 2011 14:00:20 GMT blueshift said:

Apparently one of mine was DANGEROUSLY LOW even though I've never had any negative feedback in my life.

It's not based on negs, it's based on the number of low DSRs (1 or 2 stars). You can offer the best service on eBay and there are still buyers who mark you down. You know, the buyers who expect to have the item before the auction has started and which you pay them for postage.

[Bogatan]

Mar 21, 2011 14:37:09 GMT Nigel said:

Mar 21, 2011 14:00:20 GMT blueshift said:

Apparently one of mine was DANGEROUSLY LOW even though I've never had any negative feedback in my life.

It's not based on negs, it's based on the number of low DSRs (1 or 2 stars). You can offer the best service on eBay and there are still buyers who mark you down. You know, the buyers who expect to have the item before the auction has started and which you pay them for postage.

Thats the problem i keep having. I know I'm not going to speed out the day after payment to send the item so I say it'll be the following weekend (allowing for big items to be taken by car) and if it gets sent early then great, but I still keep getting people leaving low stars for dispatch time because they think they are meant to be based on what they want not how long I said it would take.

Competition to ebay is the only thing that will improve service and unless someone like Google step in I can't see that happening anytime soon.

[Nigel]

I do dispatch next day and often the same day yet I still get the odd low rating, probably because some people don't understand that "dispatch time" doesn't mean "time it took to arrive". It's not limited to eBay; I had Amazon feedback the other day that read, "All good, just a bit slow." That order was dispatched the same day.

[The Doctor]

I am sorry to hear of difficulties. I long ago gave up selling on Ebay: the fun had gone out of it. Alas, some buyers often forget that they're often dealing with everyday folk just clearing out what they don't need anymore.

-Ralph

[jameso]

Yeah, I had a transaction go a bit tits up recently, and totally my fault, not blaming the buyer, but when I told the buyer the issue he replied 'e-bay is a place to do business, not a playground'. Like I say, it was my fault so he was right to be annoyed, but e-bay isn't my business and selling stuff on there is for me a bit of fun and a way to get some extra cash.
I have to say the last three things I sold the other week went really well though and was very positive, I haven't checked my detailed seller ratings bit though.

[Andy Turnbull]

Ebay just want to be a storefront for businesses these days, like a virtual mall. Such a pain, a it used to be handy place for getting shot of things.

Andy

[The Doctor]

I now either pass things on to Oxfam or give them away to folk and/or exhange them for other tat. It was nice to get extra cash but I can't say I miss selling.

-Ralph

[grahamthomson]

I'd prefer eBay if they'd separate into a Pro version for actual legitimate businesses and a personal version for the rest of us, and make it very clear to buyers which is which.

Of course, you'll always get the kind of customer that approaches a car boot sale table expecting champagne and canapes on arrival!

[Dark Stranger]

At what frigging point did ebay fees jump to 10% of the final price?! That was an unwelcome surprise.

[Nigel]

I think they lowered the insertion fees at the same time. I'm not really up on personal fees because they're different to the business fees that I pay.

[The Doctor]

Mar 21, 2011 21:34:26 GMT @grahamthomson said:

I'd prefer eBay if they'd separate into a Pro version for actual legitimate businesses and a personal version for the rest of us, and make it very clear to buyers which is which.

An excellent idea.

-Ralph

[Nigel]

It is indicated at the top of the listing: "Registered as a business user". But strictly speaking, "business use" on eBay also includes individuals who are actively using eBay to make (taxable) profit without actually being a business.

And there is a pro version of sorts, the eBay Shop.

[Nigel]

It's that time again: eBay is fixing things that are far from broken.

Anybody looked at their My eBay Summary page over the last couple of days? There's uproar on their discussion boards and their customer service is being inundated with complaints because it's been changed. Buying, selling and other things have to be viewed separately on different pages rather than all being visible together as an overall summary.

It doesn't affect me much because I mainly use Selling Manager instead, but this has also been changed this week. The layout is now a horrible column-based layout that's too wide for the screen and is ineffcient and impratical to use. I've submitted a complaint.



Elsewhere, this announcement has appeared today:

***New page design for bidding on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie***

25 May, 2011 | 01:19PM BSTHi,

There will be a new page design when you bid on auction-style listings from 26 May 2011.

When clicking on ‘Place Bid’ we’ll show a layer window across the view item page. From here you will be able to review, confirm, change, and increase your maximum bid. Bid confirmation and any other related messaging will also be shown in the layer.

This change will allow you to place bids on auctions-style listings without leaving the View Item page.

Regards,
The eBay team

Someone with more knowledge of programming than me may correct me, but that sounds like Java to me. If anyone here likes to use a work computer without Java to bid, you may have to actually do your work instead in the future.

[The Doctor]

Yes, I do indeed find the new layout to be less than user-friendly.

-Ralph

[blueshift]

Yes, I noticed that, it's mental

My buying stuff is still there when I click on 'my ebay' but the selling stuff has been hidden away. Why? Why? WHY?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And especially don't fix it with a sledgehammer! Did anyone ever think there was a problem with having the buying and selling stuff on one handy page?

[Deleted]

I hate the new layout.
After the last change I had managed to get the my-ebay page to some semblance of usability and now I have to end up multi-clicking into pages again...

Thanks for that ebad.

[Philip Ayres]

No eBay Buyer, the point to tell me you're going on holiday is when you pay for the item NOT 2 days later while I'm out posting it when you're leaving the next day.

(and even allowing for that 3 days, including a weekend, isn't an acceptable margin to be sure of getting a parcel!)

£25 of Simpsons toys has apparently been returned to me from their sorting office. Except of course it hasn't actually been returned to me.

GRRRRRR.

[Andy Turnbull]

People are idiots. Some of the people on ebay, excel in stupidity.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

Interestingly Royal Mail's website believe the parcel is still at the sorting office. So I'v told her to try and re-arrange delivery online.

[Bogatan]

I just got my second negative feedback, to be honest it was my own fault, but I'm well past caring.

I sold some stuff and listed it as estimated post 6-7 days and clearly said in the description I would probably have to post the following weekend. The guy pays on Sunday and then on Wednesday I get an email asking if it had been sent. Before I get the chance to reply (I was at work) I get a second email complaining that I haven't replied to the first and that he is going to complain to ebay.

So due to failing to instantly answer to a question that didn't need asking if he'd read the auction he was going to start getting ebay involved. I couldn't be bothered to deal with the guy so replied by refunding him and filling in a cancel auction request which he agreed to but not before leaving the negative feedback.

Like I said my own fault but so much less stressful than having to continue to deal with him.

[Andy Turnbull]

Arsehole.

Andy

[blueshift]

That doesn't sound like your fault Bogatan, I'd complain if I were you.

Some buyers are huge jackasses and ebay offers barely any protection to sellers. That said, they did find in my favour in the case where someone claimed to have not received £100 worth of stuff.

Of course I had dug through his ebay history and found that the same buyer tried that on EVERYONE, and I luckily had tracked the package. People like that should be banned from ebay, seriously.

[The Doctor]

Yes, they should. That's called fraud.

-Ralph

[Bogatan]

Aug 7, 2011 14:24:24 GMT blueshift said:

That doesn't sound like your fault Bogatan, I'd complain if I were you.

Some buyers are huge jackasses and ebay offers barely any protection to sellers. That said, they did find in my favour in the case where someone claimed to have not received £100 worth of stuff.

Of course I had dug through his ebay history and found that the same buyer tried that on EVERYONE, and I luckily had tracked the package. People like that should be banned from ebay, seriously.

I don't really think its my fault just that ebays buyer bias means I don't know if I went about it in the right way and don't much care if I didn't. I have contacted ebay about the feedback as he did mutually agree to end the auction minutes after leaving the feedback so I might get it removed.

Yeah got to track, its sad that ebay has created a situation that requires everyone to assume the worst of each other, but as they have anything less than second class recorded or parcelforce 48 for larger items is just foolish. In fact I'm starting to like Parcelforce 48 more than 1st or 2nd recorded as it has proper tracking as well as signature.

[legios]

This all pretty much confirms me in my decision of a while ago not to bother selling stuff on ebay any further. It is simply too much stress..

Karl

[jameso]

If he'd complained to e-bay three days after the transaction ended they wouldn't have done anything anyway, so might as well as said you were going to post that weekend and if he didn't like it, tough. I can totally understand that's easier just to get shot of him, though.

[Bogatan]

Yeah I knew ebay would do nothing, but from experience I could see that would just have been the beginning. If he found something to complain about after getting them it could have ended up costing me money as well as negative feedback.

[Philip Ayres]

Free listings this weekend!

[Hero]

I feel like a right goon. I've sent the wrong box of stuff I sold on eBay to the wrong person and have no idea how to properly resolve it. It's never happened before.

I've tried to chase up the buyers, have apologized and now trying to sort out arrangements to either send the wrong stuff back or forward it on to correct destinations.

Has this happened to any of you guys?

===KEN

[Bogatan]

I did it once before ended up having to pay back both posters for them returning the items to me then resend to the correct person. So basically paid postage for each item 3 times. I also gave a partial refund to each for the hassle. Ended up costing me more than I made as they were quite large items.

Oh well. I was just glad both were willing to return them, one lot was worth a whole lot more than the other so one of them could have kept or sold them and left me even further out of pocket.