Posts Tagged ‘Free shipping’

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;