New eBay Fees (Caymen)

[A K]

Tom--



I was just wondering how the new fees will affect the missus. I just read the note (I'm behind the curve with this news) and crap--nearly 9 percent final value fee! That's insane.

 

[Tom Schindler]

They lowered the listing fees by over half. For what she sells, it isn't that big of a deal. It still isn't going to cost the seller anything extra. They buyer still pays the fees. (Expect shipping charges to go up)



The bad change is the feedback system. Power Sellers will not be allowed to post negative or neutral feedback against a buyer. A buyer can post any feedback he or she decides to leave, even if it is unsubstantiated.



Sometimes there is ABSOLUTELY nothing you can do the please a buyer. They give you negative feedback when the post office loses the package, they never make payment (but still expect you to ship the item anyways. They will pay it when "they get around to it"), fail to read the auction (Item is 4" long, 6" wide, and 8" deep, though they expected it to be bigger), claim it is used when it wasn't, etc. There are more scam artist buyers than there are sellers.



Some sellers are calling for a boycott, but we all know boycotts don't work. If 20% of power sellers boycott eBay, 80% of the rest of the sellers will take advantage of the lesser competition.



My prediction.



eBay sellers will no longer go out of their way to please you since if you are going to leave negative to them and they can not do likewise so forget it. From what we read, 90% of "power sellers" sellers will quit leaving feedback out of protest.



We expect eBay fees to go up. They is the way eBay, and everything else, works.



Taking away the power of a Power Seller to leave negative feedback is wrong. If anything, a power seller should have the power to leave negative and non-power sellers don't.



After all, getting the power seller status should be a reward, not a punishment, for good service to your buyers.





Tom

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

Tom - it's too bad eBay turned into what they are today. Their CEO is on her way out. They don't have the growth potential as in years past.



One way to eliminate eBay is to build your own shopping cart, learn SEO, how to get ranked in Search Engines.



My sales far exceed what eBay ever did for me. Plus, no fees other than my merchant account to accept credit cards.



My hosting fees are 100.00 a month a dedicated server that can host 35 domains.

 

[Tom Schindler]

One way to eliminate eBay is to build your own shopping cart, learn SEO, how to get ranked in Search Engines.

That may be true if you sell the same things all the time. She never knows what she is going to sell at any given time. One week, she finds deals on make-up, and then the other it is bed sheets. (Got a set of BRAND NEW Tommy Hilfiger sheets for a buck. Retail price over $40.00) The following week, some special sweetener, then some Lego's.





Tom

 

[Jeff C]

I used to be a power seller, but it started getting ridiculous when I would pay $20 in PayPal and eBay fees for one item sold (I sold electric pet fences). The feedback system now is terrible. My girlfriend ordered a shirt for me and I asked if the seller left feedback yet, and she said no. I told her to e-mail them to get feedback (she's new to eBay and has a feedback of +2 100%) and the seller said he would not leave feedback until she left it for him. I wrote the next e-mail thoroughly explaining how eBay works and that she completed her part of the transaction so there was no reason not to leave feedback first. She got feedback that night, my shirt came yesterday, and she left positive for the seller.



I always leave feedback as soon as payment is completed because the buyer has done their part. I still shop on eBay, but I try to avoid power sellers.

 

[Curt NA]

IMHO, eBay has not been the best place to shop now for a little while. Certain stuff, like books, are much cheaper at Amazon through vendors because of standardized shipping costs and stuff.

 

[Fudged Undies]

Have to agree with Jeff. I've lost plenty of feedback because of the BS seller tactics in refusing to leave feedback until you leave yours. At this point I buy so little from ebay I do't care anymore.

 

[Tom Schindler]

Have to agree with Jeff. I've lost plenty of feedback because of the BS seller tactics in refusing to leave feedback until you leave yours.

Unfortunatly, as a ebay seller, the issues about feedback affect us. As I said before, some buyers just do not read the auction, do not read the terms and conditions, etc. I can not tell you haw many times sellerd leave negative feedback because they thought when you said "You are bidding one one pair of shoes" they read it as "A pair of shoes is two, therefore you get two sets of shoes".



The best option eBay COULD HAVE DONE would have been to hold feedback until both sides have left it before posting it. So, if you are unhappy with the deal, you could have placed your feedback without having to worry about when the other guy would do.



I see it both ways. Unfortunatly, being a seller of over $4,000 of goods a month, you get tired of the idiots that buy on eBay.



A common question is. "I know your auction says that insurance is required. Do I have to buy insurance?".



If selling a shirt. We get emails saying "I was looking at your auction about the size small shirt. Is that shirt size large?"





Tom

 

[Les]

Tom, if it wasn't for the "idiots" on e-bay, you wouldn't be selling anything...

 

[Tom Schindler]

Actually, the idiots are not the ones that buy. An experienced buyer is the best customer.



I would sell a bunch of stuff without one idiot.





Tom

 

[Joe B 4]

Ebay sellers range from the quick and honest transactions to the ones that never leave feedback until you have left yours, despite the buyer fullfilling their obligation and paying immediatly after auction ends. There are good ones and bad ones on both sides of the equation.

However I quit using Ebay due to an increased trend in sellers not leaving feedback or waiting until you recived their bad goods, then not responding to communication attempts, so you have no choice but to leave bad feedback and then that finally gets their attention and they use the feedback option to retaliate. B.S in my mind. What ever happened to honesty and integrity?

 

[A K]

Tom, I didn't realize that the missus was a Power Seller and I didn't pay attention to the difference in fee structure there. I seemed to gravitate towards the non-PS nearly 9% final value fee for $10+ auctions. I thought, shoot, you sell something that's $500, you're paying eBay $50 just so they can have it up there. While eBay is a phenomenal outlet for exposure, $50 also is a pretty significant amount of money. I suppose for one-shot sellers like myself, it makes Craig's List much more attractive than it ever has been (ignoring the lack of hard security there).



I can relate to stupid comments. I never ship to Canada, but only because I like that I can cheaply and easily track UPS/FedEx to their doorstep, with a signature, and have a local police department on hand if they claim they did not receive it or otherwise try to scam me. But, I'll routinely get "Do you ship to Canada?" questions. Nope. Read the red, size 18, bold type under the item picture.



And, I guess I never really thought about the feedback issue--but yeah, that's a huge problem. Many times my positive buyer feedback will cause them (automated maybe?) to shoot a reply positive to me. I cannot see the utility in this at all.



And, after reading everyone's responses, I feel lucky that I sold my old GPS on it, without hassle, to a good buyer who paid $600 without so much as a peep. I can only imagine the problems that could have occurred. Between deadbeat or moronic buyers, it seems like it's not much better than going to a flea market.

 

[Richard L]

I got ripped off by a sell on ebay when I won an auction for a JVC Mini digital camcorder. The sell claimed the camera was new but the box was opened.



The camera arrived fast enough but displayed an "Error" on the screen and there was no users manual in english. I downloaded a manual off the internet and began to check out the camera and discovered that someone had obviously pried open the tape transport mechanism. I immediately contacted the seller and she said that she got the camera from a supplier but did not check it out herself. No problem just send it back and she will send me a replacement...She could get a new one from her supplier in a couple of days. I sent the camera back and never heard from her again. Suddenly all her feed-back went negative as she ripped off all of her customers in the last two weeks before she disappeared.



The buyer was listed as being in the Phoenix, AZ area, however when I contacted ebay to get her address and phone number it turns out she actuall has a post office box in a little town, just across the boder from Mexico, and the telephone number is actuall a Mexican telephone number. I called the number and got someone who did not speak english, and I don't speak spanish.



I filed a complaint with the post office, ebay, paypal, and my credit card company and never got any satisfaction.



I also tried to sell my EZLift kits on ebay without success. I had two people get into a bidding war only to have the winner email me to say that it was his mother who did not speak english and though she was bidding on a tonneau cover? My ad clearly stated right on the first line that "You are bidding on a lift assist kit, and not a tonneau cover".

Anyway, in the end the two sales I made were retracted because the idiots did not read the ad and thought they were buying OEM hard tonneau covers...For $100 ??? what were they keeping there heads ??





...Rich

 

[Kevin Lang]

it's not much better than going to a flea market.

It's far worse--when someone tries to blatantly scam you at a flea market, violence is an option. The losers who scam or snipe on ebay are most likely the sort who hide from the sun in reality, so their cheap tactics wouldn't be as present in reality, especially at a flea market, which is far more local than ebay.



I gave up ebay after the last debate of it on here, when ya'll revealed the sad truth that there are programs to snipe, but the fees will kill off the already atrocious service. A buyer can't leave feedback until the item arrives, lest it come to the doorstep packaged by a moron and broken, or not at all.



And sellers can't be bothered to leave feedback these days, and if they do, it is never personal. I go out of my way to craft meaningful statements into that 80 character field, but all I ever get are the stereotypical automated feedbacks, which to me--and someone examining my feedback--means absolutely nothing.



Feedback is already dead. I give my testimony in support of those who said amazon.com is superior--all the guys who used to care on eBay have moved over to it.