Archive for February, 2010

Dear eBay Queen;

I’ve been selling on eBay since 1997.  I sell mostly high-end antiques, and keep around 200 items a month on the platform.  I’ve enjoyed reading your article for years now, but feel like there is something missing when you’ve written about eBay.

eBay was a community.  It had its own personality and a unique collection of items available in one place.  It also had NO competition. The eBay changes that are being put in place are killing that community.  This community was a virtual setting, where a member paid for exposure in a global market. How a member conducted business was their own dealing. Some sellers were bad, but not to the degree reported.  It certainly did not justify how they are treating sellers now.
eBay is my ONLY source of income.  I keep myself up at night thinking about these changes.   Sometimes I wonder, who does eBay think they are to dictate a set of performance standards that are unsustainable, very poorly implemented, and not even applicable to their Diamond PowerSellers? Most importantly their policy is completely out of kilter with the community that made it a success!

Have you ever thought that eBay has no inventory, yet they dictate terms of service? They lack customer service, yet order customer service quality standards.  They do not have any claim to the payment for goods sold, yet put limits on the method we use to accept payments.

Those of us, who have made a living on eBay, find themselves passionately arguing the wisdom of these eBay changes.  Do you remember “New” Coke?  They just had to do something to compete with Pepsi!  Fortunately for them, it only took 72 days to see the error of their ways.

It seems to me that eBay is ignoring everything the community is saying.  They even got rid of the community boards (as we know them).  I have heard eBay executives say “all this will hurt for awhile, but that pain will go away.”  Isn’t this the same thing doctors tell their dying patients?  At least that patient knows that after the worst has passed and the funeral well attended, the community will be OK.

I’m not sure why I am complaining to you.  What can you do to help me? You are in the same boat I’m in.  I read in your February 4^th article, that you are not a Top Rated Seller.  What are your plans to improve enough to become a Top Rated Seller?

Matthew; Lawrence, KS

Dear Matthew;

I am sorry to say, I agree with your comments about eBay.  eBay was founded on the belief that “people are basically good”.  They aren’t treating us that way, are they?

My plans are to ride this out.  I don’t believe the current staff is making the right decisions for eBay, (let alone me) but, I still am successful on eBay, and that’s where I receive most of my sales.   How about you?

I don’t believe the Top Rated Seller program is a reasonable way to grade a seller. What happened to 99% positive feedback? What happened to the Detailed Seller Rating Program where 4.7 out of 5 stars were good?  Now they are saying you can only receive a 1’s or 2’s  on .5% of your sales.  If you have 100 sales a month, that’s less than one a month.  This to me translates to perfection.  I try to make every sale a good one for the buyer, but can I make it perfect for someone I’ve never met, that just had a bad day? Probably not.

My current goal is to keep moving product and selling on eBay.  Believe me; these policies have kept me up at night too.  It’s been a struggle, but I’ve been focusing more on my business and less on eBay’s policies.  Ultimately, this is my business and I need to do what is best for it.  Keep trying, and moving forward.  The ridiculousness of their ways is going to come back on them eventually.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item 140384015380 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page): I love the Olympics! It looks like other people do too! 2010 Olympic Torch, and Torchbearer Uniform SOLD $4,050.00 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140384015380

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul. Do you have a question for the eBay Queen? E-mail: questions@asktheebayqueen.com.

Dear eBay Queen;

I accessed my eBay account today and the “alert” told me I did not meet their new April 2010 DSR standards and I better improve them.

I ship my orders well within my “three business day” selection, usually the next mail run after receiving payment.  The only way I can improve that is to ship them before they are actually bid on.

The only rating I passed on was “Communication,” so that means I fell short on all the other ratings.  I can’t seem to get access to the rating specifics and even if I can, it doesn’t matter because I can’t address any of them.  It says contact with the buyers that are rating you is forbidden, I thought that rater identity was anonymous from the get go.

My head is not so deep in the eBay sand that I can’t see offering free shipping is what eBay would like me to do.  That way they get a cut of my shipping COSTS in their FVF and in their sister site, PayPal fees as well.

eBay has steadily turned on sellers for sometime.  They have forgotten who brought them to the dance.  Sellers have been their bread and butter, because buyers do not pay invoices.

The number of eBay buyers has dropped because of the economy and some other reasons, but the matter of seller treatment is a double whammy.

Marv

Dear Marv;

I am really sorry you are experiencing this frustration with eBay policy.  There are many sellers that are in the same boat with you.  Except, it’s not a boat, it’s a 100,000 + passenger ship.  I would urge you to keep trying if you enjoy selling on eBay.  If not, have you tried Amazon, Bonanzle, Etsy, or your own webstore?

I hope that you resolve your problems with eBay, and you are back selling your wares.

Dear eBay Queen;

I listed a bunch of new auctions tonight, but two just wouldn’t list — kept getting errors for prohibited words in the titles and/or descriptions. I had NO idea what the problem was, and it took me FOREVER to figure it out!

The first problem I should have seen right away — IVORY. The name of the manufacturer of this celluloid item was IVORY PY-RA-LIN.  Had to remove the I-word and tell the shoppers to see if they can just read it on the back of the item in the photo.

But the second one was a real stumper. The only error I received was a pop up telling me a word was not allowed, but they didn’t tell me what the word was!

The description included all sorts of possibly offensive words copied straight from the documents themselves. I had to read the VERY long description over and over until I caught the problem. Its am selling a collection of very old documents, and two of the items were Western Union Telegrams. Bingo! For some reason, eBay is afraid of, or hates Western Union. So I had to change it to W. U. Telegrams (they do show in the photos).  I feel sorry for anyone who collects Western Union memorabilia.

There are currently 32 auctions with the words Western Union in the titles, and there are 83 if you search descriptions, too. I just don’t understand how the other sellers are able to list these auctions. I use a third-party program, and I suppose most of the other sellers are using eBay’s software, so you’d think I could get away with more than they can. Any ideas on how they get away with it?

PinkPosy; Lawrence, KS

Dear PinkPosy;

This is one of my pet peeves also.  It could make a person CRAZY trying to figure out what word is offensive!  I did a little research on eBay and I came up with some discussion about it here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/offensive.html . I have emailed eBay and asked them to provide a list of offensive words to help all of us comply with their policies.  I urge you to do the same also.  I don’t think they realize the time it takes trying to figure out what is wrong with a listing that will not list.

I use Blackthorne Pro (eBay Software), and I’ve received ALL kinds of error messages when listing this week, similar to the one you are describing.  I think this is an area they have just updated.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item 140381385645 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page): How much would you pay for your favorite discontinued shampoo? Check out Clairol Herbal Essence Shampoo SOLD $50.99 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140381385645

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul. Do you have a question for the eBay Queen? E-mail: questions@asktheebayqueen.com.

Dear eBay Queen;

Why does eBay dislike their sellers? I guess I am just SO FRUSTRATED I don’t know what to do.  To get Top Rated Seller status and the commission discount, eBay only allows up to .50% for DSR ratings in any one category. If a seller gets more than one negative from the same buyer within the same week, only one of the negative ratings will count against him.  BUT… If this same seller gets their DSRs dinged from this same buyer; ALL count against the seller. This is true even if the items were shipped together, all communication was about the same shipment, and all had the same shipping cost structure.

In other words, if a buyer buys 10 similar items (like all books, all DVDs, etc.) to be shipped together, he can give negative feedback for all ten items but it will only count once against the seller.  On the other hand, the DSRs left by this bidder will count TEN times against the seller.

Is this stupid, or what? This happened to me, and now I've lost my Top Rated Seller discount for the entire year and the commission discount, just because the USPS lost the package.  As soon as the buyer let me know he didn’t receive the item, through the 10 negatives he left me, I shipped another set of the DVD’s to him.

What do you think will happen once the unsavory buyers realize this?  I believe they will become AGGRESSIVE. I would hope that your readers would complain to eBay about their policy of counting all of the DSRs from the same buyer from the same transaction against the seller.

Paul; Nashville, TN

Dear Paul;

I understand your frustration.  I feel the same way about this policy.  I don’t believe eBay dislikes their sellers, I just think they have gone a little off track.   If you will remember a few years ago, eBay was the butt of a lot of jokes and scammers.  They’ve cleaned up the site, but I believe their ego is still a little bruised from the jokes.  I don’t know any place but eBay where 99% positive feedback and 4.8 stars out of 5 are bad.

You and I don’t have the power by ourselves to change eBay’s policy, but you do have the power to change your buyer’s mind about the negatives that were left.   If this were my transaction, I would email (or call); sincerely apologize for the postal error.  Ask if she has received the new DVD’s and if she would consider removing the negative.   To start this process go here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-removal.html 

Dear eBay Queen;

For my eBay store I am looking for a third party checkout. Can you recommend one?  Just to give a background, I started my eBay store about a year ago and sell about 350 units per month with average customer value around $120. Business is good however I am spending a lot of money driving traffic through Google Adwords.

With the current eBay checkout, I am unable to install any type of tracking code which can tell me whether this Adwords traffic is converting or not.  Hence, the reason I am looking for a third party checkout which can give me this information.

I look forward to your reply.

James

Dear James;

In June of 2009, eBay eliminated most third party check out for all but approved providers.  Here is a list of eBay's approved third party checkout providers:

·         4Seller

·         Afterbuy

·         Auctiva Corporation

·         ChannelAdvisor

·         Cultuzz Digital

·         Media Digital River

·         Kyozou

·         Sandbourne Systems

·         Vendio

 These providers (listed above), not only provide check out services, but list, keep track of sales, etc. They vary in price, and services.  I also found a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about checkout and eBay: http://pages.ebay.com/checkout/faq.html

Congratulations on the great sales!  I hope you find the right provider for your needs.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item 26054716595 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page): Need to get rid of some perfume?  Check this auction out: 487 Perfume Bottles Old & New SOLD $1500.00 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=26054716595      

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul. Do you have a question for the eBay Queen? E-mail: questions@asktheebayqueen.com.