New Ebay fees, 50% higher, will it drive up prices or drive away sellers?

[SwedishHeat]

Speaking as mostly a 100% Buyer on ebay I was REALLY happy with this change. It simply wasn't fair before that if I paid as soon as the auction ended, got a terrible product, and the seller didn't want to do anything to fix it, I was penalized because if I left negative feedback, I would get negative feedback despite doing everything I could and paying for the item, which is my ONE JOB as a buyer. So while this may sound silly to YOU, it really helped ME a lot to be able to finally leave honest feedback about how a seller was doing.

Was negative feedback that big of a problem for you?? As in, this situation happened numerous times??

 

[karamazov80]

What I don't get is why buyers get feedback at all, since it has to be positive? It's completely meaningless, except as a means to make buyers feel good about themselves I guess.

 

[Hydeous]

What I don't get is why buyers get feedback at all, since it has to be positive? It's completely meaningless, except as a means to make buyers feel good about themselves I guess.

Cant even leave neutral feedback

 

[TheFiend]

What I don't get is why buyers get feedback at all, since it has to be positive? It's completely meaningless, except as a means to make buyers feel good about themselves I guess.

That's all it is. I sold something about two weeks ago and I let two days pass before I left feedback and I got three emails from the guy demanding positive feedback. As if I could leave anything eleven anyway.

I don't even care about feedback as a buyer.

Sent from my LG-E739 using Tapatalk 2

 

[karamazov80]

Yeah, I usually leave feedback immediately after payment, with effuse praise for how awesome the buyer is for, y'know, paying for the thing they agreed to buy.

 

[Deckard]

I like when I goto Radioshack and buy batteries and after I pay, they hoist me up on their shoulders and carry me outside of the shop and announce to everyone in the surrounding area of commerce that I'm trustworthy, patient, and they would deal with me again.

 

[TheFiend]

Yeah, I usually leave feedback immediately after payment, with effuse praise for how awesome the buyer is for, y'know, paying for the thing they agreed to buy.

Yeah, im still new to selling on ebay. I dont really like it though. Im terrorfied im going to get scammed from all the stories i hear around here. The girst thing i sold i never got feedback for. That irritated me to no end. It was a brand new bust and it was in the mail the same day. My first item sold and I wanted to do a good job and get some sort of positive feedback. At the time I didn't know 't was optional and I sent the dude a message twice with no reply.

Anyway, even when I was strictly buying on ebay I didn't think the all positive feedback for buyers was fair. I don't bid or buy unless I have yje money in my account and I always pay immediately. So I don't think it's fair that my feedback is no different from someone that the seller had to hassle for money. That's what what happened to me on both the second and third thing I sold. Both wanted for time. I ask for payment within 3 days.

I like when I goto Radioshack and buy batteries and after I pay, they hoist me up on their shoulders and carry me outside of the shop and announce to everyone in the surrounding area of commerce that I'm trustworthy, patient, and they would deal with me again.

Sent from my LG-E739 using Tapatalk 2

 

[karamazov80]

I'm happy when I get no feedback from buyers honestly. . .because that means I'm not getting anything negative from them But I have established nearly 1,000 positive feedback marks at this point, so one here or there doesn't mean much to me.

 

[Darth Waller]

Yeah, I usually leave feedback immediately after payment, with effuse praise for how awesome the buyer is for, y'know, paying for the thing they agreed to buy.

 

[Aumakua]

For people who never sell on ebay and mostly buy, the reason sellers hate that we can't leave feedback on buyers now is because I would say at least 25% of buyers e-mail asking for partial refunds! they will complain about shipping time (even when they live 2,000 miles away, they are upset it took 5 days to receive the item) or they will say something is wrong with the product (when there isn't) because they figure you would rather give them $10 or $15 back then go through the hassle of a return, and even if they pay shipping back you are out $10-$15 of shipping it to them and don't want negative feedback... First few times I caved and refunded, but since then I have just e-mailed them back saying "I am sorry, it was sent in perfect condition and insured, if something is wrong please return it to me and I will issue a refund under ebay's policies". So far only 1 item was actually returned, the rest either never responded or e-mailed back saying they will keep it...

 

[Aumakua]

Yeah, its bout time google or microsoft or facebook step up and offer us alternative instead. Ebay kinda sucks nowadays for sellers. I prefer the old system better.

Yahoo tried, I remember listing some things on Yahoo auctions but it didn't last long.

The problem is "eBay" is like google. its a household word now, like "Kleenex" (facial tissue...). So for any new companies even if they are big name ones its still tough to get people to use it. And since eBay bought Paypal several years ago (brilliant move) they would also need a payment method that people have heard of. Its just not worth it for anyone to get in the game, which eBay now realizes and is capitalizing on, pretty soon those will be 15% flat fees, then listing fees will come back.

But don't look at amazon, their whole system is horrible for sellers, if you think eBay is bad, Amazon is worse (returns and fraud).

 

[ActionJackson83]

The thing that sucks about selling on forums is you'll get people that want you to offer them discounts by like 30% just because you're not selling on ebay which is totally unrealistic. Like today, I had 3 offers, and it seemed like every statue they wanted to add on, they wanted me to give them an additional 25% discount. I was like wtf. $1500 worth, I cut it down to $1200 and he wouldn't budge on his $1000 offer saying that's all he had for the month. So I said how about you buy 2 statues instead of 4? and he never responded. That's typical of the buyer you find on these forums.

Don't even get me started on craigslist buyers. It's like the buyers expect you to give them an ebay discount 10%, a local forum discount 25%, and make you pay the paypal 3-4% fee, and then give them free shipping too. Half the crap I'm selling isn't even retail price!

 

[Hydeous]

So what you are saying is that right now ebay could just charge sellers basically any amount they want and we cant do nothing out it?

How does google check out work so far? Heard that theres no fee?

 

[Indeedely]

Google checkout, now Google Wallet, sucked monkey *****. Mostly due to the bugginess and unfriendly system esp for refunds. Nevertheless I used it quite a few times, but in 11/11 I refunded someone for a double charge (ecrater or the system's fault), and google shut it down off the cuff (until I corresponded with customer service and it was opened again). Maybe they worked the kinks out but I found no reason to give it another try (no one else used it)--but mostly I was afraid to try...they sorely need to work on friendlyzing their communications (this is what I got for refunding a customer):

"Your Google Payments account ... was recently reviewed by our payments specialists. As a result of this review, your account has been closed. Any pending, uncharged and future transactions made with this account will not be processed.

Google Payments merchants are periodically reviewed to ensure an overall positive online retail experience. Our specialists review a variety of merchant account details including, but not limited to:

-Business model
-Products sold
-Inability to verify account details
-Buyer chargebacks, claims or poor ratings
-Merchant responsiveness to buyer complaint

...Unfortunately we're unable to provide further specific details related to your account closure. We hope you're successful in finding an alternate payment processor which better suits your business needs."

Versus paypal which literally called me a "VIP customer" even with the occasional refund made. They were SO very grateful when I called them recently LOL

eCrater is OK for BIN stuff and free. fleaBay is easier to simply GET RID of stuff, mostly due to the higher traffic (if you're willing to deal with the problems...couldn't beleive how many flakey bidders there are nowadays). eCrater WOULD have the same traffic if google didn't screw them out of it, as well. I really don't get why they did that if they're not making their own auction site?

Amazon is on par with feeBay. Their fees seem worse than greedBay, whatever. But then they block me during the holiday season to monopolize buyers (ostensibly becuase I am low volume) >_<

Conclusively I try to avoid greedBay as much as possible, but I get to a point where I just need to take my chances and cut my losses with an auction.

 

[Web_Head91]

I used to work for eBay in the Resolution Center department. One of the reasons why I quit that job (even though it paid well and the people I worked with were AWESOME) was because I got tired of having to explain to sellers on the phone why lopsided policies that favored buyers weren't lopsided at all. I dunno. I just got tired of playing spin doctor all the time. Sometimes I'd just tell a seller straight up, "You're right, such-and-such a policy IS unfair to sellers like yourself".

Some of the complaints I'd get from sellers were pretty ridiculous, though. In my experience, sellers were generally just as shady as buyers. Some of the worst people I had to deal with were sellers. I know selling on eBay is tough, stressful, etc. I've sold a bit on there and don't like it. But yes, there ARE sellers out there who try to cut corners and get away with stuff.

Like this one seller I talked to once...they had sold an item and their buyer had filed a case for not receiving it. My first question to the seller was, "Okay, what day did you send the item?" They replied, "I haven't, yet". I looked at the auction page and saw that he had sold it two months prior. I asked him why he hadn't, and he said, "Because I just haven't gotten around to it". When I asked him why he was upset that the buyer had filed a case, he said, "Because I just kinda feel like, if a person buys something online, they should be patient and just get it when they get it. And they should beware of sellers".

I couldn't believe this guy, and I actually lost my temper with him and closed his case against him, thus refunding the buyer. It's true, sellers as bad as him didn't come around too often, but I just wanted to share that story to illustrate that not all sellers on eBay are saints, and it's people like that that make eBay need to make policy after policy that protects the buyer.

I don't mean to anger anybody, either. I have tons of respect for good eBay sellers. Like I said, I've done it a bit and it's just too much for me. I buy on eBay all the time, though, and I just love honest sellers. It really sucks that there aren't any alternatives to eBay. I'd definitely support an alternative site, so long as they were trustworthy and such.

 

[Aumakua]

I used to work for eBay in the Resolution Center department. One of the reasons why I quit that job (even though it paid well and the people I worked with were AWESOME) was because I got tired of having to explain to sellers on the phone why lopsided policies that favored buyers weren't lopsided at all. I dunno. I just got tired of playing spin doctor all the time. Sometimes I'd just tell a seller straight up, "You're right, such-and-such a policy IS unfair to sellers like yourself".

Some of the complaints I'd get from sellers were pretty ridiculous, though. In my experience, sellers were generally just as shady as buyers. Some of the worst people I had to deal with were sellers. I know selling on eBay is tough, stressful, etc. I've sold a bit on there and don't like it. But yes, there ARE sellers out there who try to cut corners and get away with stuff.

Like this one seller I talked to once...they had sold an item and their buyer had filed a case for not receiving it. My first question to the seller was, "Okay, what day did you send the item?" They replied, "I haven't, yet". I looked at the auction page and saw that he had sold it two months prior. I asked him why he hadn't, and he said, "Because I just haven't gotten around to it". When I asked him why he was upset that the buyer had filed a case, he said, "Because I just kinda feel like, if a person buys something online, they should be patient and just get it when they get it. And they should beware of sellers".

I couldn't believe this guy, and I actually lost my temper with him and closed his case against him, thus refunding the buyer. It's true, sellers as bad as him didn't come around too often, but I just wanted to share that story to illustrate that not all sellers on eBay are saints, and it's people like that that make eBay need to make policy after policy that protects the buyer.

I don't mean to anger anybody, either. I have tons of respect for good eBay sellers. Like I said, I've done it a bit and it's just too much for me. I buy on eBay all the time, though, and I just love honest sellers. It really sucks that there aren't any alternatives to eBay. I'd definitely support an alternative site, so long as they were trustworthy and such.

I don't think your post would anger anyway. as I said in my OP, I like the policy when buying because it does protect me against bad sellers and to tell you the truth I have dealt with more bad sellers than bad buyers, and I sell MUCH more than I buy (recently at least). But I also learned from those experiences and now list all my items with every last detail of information and as many pictures as I can. I have found that the more descriptive you are the better, even if its tiny little things like (the box has a small crease on the bottom) every box has a crease somewhere but I think buyers seeing that you would put that sort of descriptive detail feel better that there are no major issues with it. I have actually been shocked that items I have sold with some damage to the boxes received much higher selling prices than I thought they would, no problems with the transactions either because the buyers knew exactly what they were getting.

My problem is with eBay fees on top of those practices, if I am going to be held accountable on all accounts I should be paying 13% total fees. And with the increase in fees they should have increased the discount to top rated sellers (which I finally just qualified for again after the change). My fees now even with the discount are still higher than the old system without hte discount, thats messed up.

 

[Web_Head91]

I don't think your post would anger anyway.

Oh, I've had a fair amount of interactions with some very unpleasant people on this forum. Always so quick to piss other people off. I've even gotten attitude from a moderator on here when I asked a legitimate question. I considered reporting the moderator because in my mind, a moderator is supposed to be a model member of the community, not a jerk who tears others down. But then I figured nothing would come of it, since there's obviously an "in" crowd here. Anyway...

It's good that you go into great detail on your listings. Not only will that help with buyers, it'll help you if you ever have to have a case settled by eBay. The more detailed, the better. A lot of the time, the person deciding your case will want to help you, but won't be able to because of stupid policies. So help those case-deciders help you. Be really descriptive so buyers can't pull the "he didn't say this-and-that in the listing!" Even if the buyer's complaint ISN'T in your listing, if you give a thorough enough description, eBay can use that in your favor and say that your listing was detailed enough for the buyer to know what condition to expect and what not.

 

[vangeta]

Selling on ebay is appealing because the flakers on this site are trolls. You answer their billionth question, go out your way to take photos, and then they never respond or just plain jump ship after commiting to a buy. I already have a nice list of users to ignore whenever I get PMed about sales.

Not to say ebay isn't plagued with flakers either. I put all of my listsing with BIN along with 'buyers must pay immediately' option. Even then they'll make up some 'dog ate my homework' type of excuse to refund them.

If you buy from ebay, stick to top rated sellers. Sellers have to bend over for buyers to keep that status.

 

[gypsycatcha]

And they now have taken over gumtree in the UK too.
They can basically do what they like

 

[Irvy]

Yeah I only buy stuff from evilbay now. Their fees are getting out of control for average joes just trying to shift some old stuff. I'm guessing they just keep buying out the competition. **** fleabay.