Ebay loosing the plot?

leonvquinn

I'm getting increasingly frustrated with ebay. I started out a few years ago singing its praises and telling everyone it was the best thing since sliced bread and I've saved a fortune on purchases as well as making a few bob selling.

Heres the latest ebay stupidity thats got me thinking about moving to another online auction site:

1. They wont allow merging of accounts or feedback.
2. As a seller, I can no no longer leave negative feedback for a buyer even though they might give me the run around (as one just has!)
3. There doesn't seem to be any way to contact ebay to get answers!? I had an email contact in ebay by chance but it took forever to get a reply to the questions above and even then there was absolutely no info given!

Heres my full rant about ebay - www.reverbstudios.ie/blog/new-ebay-feedback-rule/

Anybody else disillusioned!?

rubadub

the only thing I like is the fact they make it so hard to search for stuff, most people do not have a clue how to bid or search or put up an auction, it is like they go out of their way to make it hard to use.

The reason I like this is that I can end up with bargains by exploiting this ignorance.

Really is shockingly poor, what is more shocking is google have not been a good rival yet, same goes for paypal, (what happened to that googlemoney?)

Judgement Day

leonvquinn wrote: »

I'm getting increasingly frustrated with ebay. I started out a few years ago singing its praises and telling everyone it was the best thing since sliced bread and I've saved a fortune on purchases as well as making a few bob selling.

Heres the latest ebay stupidity thats got me thinking about moving to another online auction site:

1. They wont allow merging of accounts or feedback.
2. As a seller, I can no no longer leave negative feedback for a buyer even though they might give me the run around (as one just has!)
3. There doesn't seem to be any way to contact ebay to get answers!? I had an email contact in ebay by chance but it took forever to get a reply to the questions above and even then there was absolutely no info given!

Heres my full rant about ebay - www.reverbstudios.ie/blog/new-ebay-feedback-rule/

Anybody else disillusioned!?

I am a regular eBayer with a 1,000+ positive feedbacks but like you am throughly p......ed off at the autocratic way eBay operates. Sellers - the lifeblood of eBay - are never consulted about changes and making contact with a live human being is an impossibility! The forcing of PayPal on all sellers and the non-allowing of negative feedback for bad buyers is the final straw for me and I too will be leaving eBay for good in the near future. They are slowly but surely killing the goose that laid the golden egg. :(:(

leonvquinn

No

I pointed out to my ebay email contact who has a VERY high ranking in the organization (ebay.ie) that NO company was too big to loose its way. Havn't heard back!

kmart6

Well what's pissed me off recently is sellers leaving no feedback at all even after I've left positive feedback!

DundalkDuffman

kmart6 wrote: »

Well what's pissed me off recently is sellers leaving no feedback at all even after I've left positive feedback!

That used to really bug me too, however as I am the buyer and I pay instantly for items I fully expect to receive my feedback first. I always let the seller know when my item arrives so there is no excuse given that they have been paid promptly and that the item is landed and OK for not leaving it for me first. Its the exact way I operate when selling anything too, as soon as the payment lands I feedback them.

mneylon

I've never sold anything on eBay. I buy quite a bit however.

I've spoken to quite a few people in eBay and was also given a phone number to use if I had any issues (oddly enough I then had issues with some DVDs I was buying, so it came in handy)

The feedback change they made a few months ago struck me as a bit odd.

Though I did get negative feedback from one "charmer" who sold me some software that I simply could not use and then managed to lose the parcel when I sent it back

AsSeenOnTV

No

Ebay used to be fun and easy, now it is simply confusing and a lot of hard work. The never ending stream of rule changes and red tape indicate a fundamental lack of confidence in the business model by senior management within Ebay.
Dissatisfaction among Power Sellers has never been at such a low ebb with more defections and leavers than ever before.
Ebay have got themselve into this muddle and have only themselves to blame.

byte

Since eBay is now considered so bad for sellers, what's the alternatives (relevant to Ireland)?

leonvquinn

No

I heard www.ebid.ie was ok.
Failing that just google "online auctions ireland", theres a few apparently.

leonvquinn

No

Hang on a sec, just lookin at Ebid.ie and theres a few links to Ebay.ie on it, wonder is it owned by Ebay!!? Typical.

Maybe they are doing things right on Ebid though....

leonvquinn

No

Ok folks, forget Ebid.ie, don't know what the **** that site is about, must have got it confused with below:

Try http://ie.ebid.net

*Dallas

Not sure

i have to make some points here, albeit a bit of a rant:

1) eBid has no where near the amount of visiters/ buyers/sellers that eBay does

2) the fees right are low now, but im sure the majority of you will all complain next year when eBid introuduce higher fees, much like Google plan to do with their checkout.

3) how much respect can you have for a company that could not come up with their own unique domain name or website look? (not alot)

4) the feedback situation in eBay changed becasue too many sellers were leaving retalitory negative feedback for buyers, then wondering why they never got repeat business.

5) eBay is one of the easiest sites i have ever had to use, How hard is it to type keywords in to a search?- not very

6) with regards to customer care, think of the amount of people registered on eBay, proberbly hundreds of thousands... now think how many employees do you think it would take to individually answer queries via email or fone? No company that is trying to turn a profit would ever do that, especially in todays market.

Plus id say 80% of eBay queries can be answered by simply doing a search on the help pages or forums.

Rant over lol

leonvquinn

No

@ Dallas

1. Doesn't matter how many people use either site, they can still get pissed off!

2. Ebays fees are also going up too apparently at least for the small seller. They are obviously favoring power sellers with their latest fee structure.

3. Nothing wrong with copying a working/proven model.

4. What about retaliatory negative feedback for sellers! Aren't sellers a bit more important than buyers as ebay get more money out of them!? Sellers can basically get *****d around more now, I have been twice this week and I've no comeback.

5. Searching might be easy but what about the rest of it? I wanted to merge accounts recently and searched ebay for ages to find out how then tried contacting them and nothing.

6. If ebay aren't prepared to answer queries then get rid of the contact function rather than let people email and then just ignore them.

Basically ebay are ignoring the people who made them..

*Dallas

Not sure

i know all small sellers are peeved at the moment, but people need to bare in mind eBay is a business, if PowerSellers are making eBay money, then of course eBay will reward them.

i dont think alot of you understand the vast numbers of buyers that left and wont return to eBay becasue of bad service they have received.
this is the reason for the changes in May.

you might think to yourself, oh it could only be a few hundred, but that is so far off the mark

im just saying, its a business, they are not going to make decisions for the hell of it, there is always a valid reason behind it

leonvquinn

No

Yep I get all that but ebay is driven by a community of people and if a lot of them become unhappy (sellers or buyers) then ebay will suffer. Be nice if they made less 'corporate' decisions and listened to what customers want. That whole corporate thing is dying these days as sites and businesses become more open to the public. Ebay seems to be going the other way!

mneylon

*Dallas wrote: »

1) eBid has no where near the amount of visiters/ buyers/sellers that eBay does

Considering it went out of business, that's hardly surprising

AsSeenOnTV

No

*Dallas wrote: »

i know all small sellers are peeved at the moment, but people need to bare in mind eBay is a business, if PowerSellers are making eBay money, then of course eBay will reward them.

i dont think alot of you understand the vast numbers of buyers that left and wont return to eBay becasue of bad service they have received.
this is the reason for the changes in May.

you might think to yourself, oh it could only be a few hundred, but that is so far off the mark

im just saying, its a business, they are not going to make decisions for the hell of it, there is always a valid reason behind it

I know the majority of large sellers are more than peeved, they are making plans, and top of their wish list is a reliable parachute.The PowerSeller boards are lit up daily with complaints of chaotic rule changes, falling sales, and lousy customer service.

Their is no question that ebay have issues in relation to rogue sellers, this is understood. The majority of PowerSellers have always supported any reasonable measures designed to address this problem. Yes changes are being made and agreed, not for the hell of it. However the action plan to address buyer dissatisfaction is only one strand of a much broader agenda.
Inevitably, when dealing with corporates the devil is in the detail.

However, back to my central point. There is currently a deep pessimism among Ebay PowerSellers. In less than 12 months they have contrived to alienate their core wealth creators in a way no one would have thought possible.

There is a very real danger Ebay will end up throwing the baby out with the bath water, and this I think would qualify as 'loosing the plot'.

ednwireland

No

ebay lost the plot a long time ago mainly when buy it now came in. I only now use it for items that are so cheap I won't mind losing money. the last thing I bought was a pack of light dependant resistors for a fiver(30 retail inc shipping)and a set of server fans which I was quoted £50 for one from dells recommended supplier got 4 from US for $60 shipped on ebay. so I check online stores first then gòto ebay because of the possibility of getting ripped off.
my other gripe is how do people make money anyone I know who has a bricks and mortar setup gets their profit margin wiped out if they sell on ebay, most use it to get you to their website as a loss leader. the only power seller I met a couple of years ago I said to him the only way he could be making money was by not declaring tax he didn't speak to me after that.
so ebay seems to encourage fake products and tax evasion as far as I can see, which will turn into a real problem whe revenue work out how track people. and don't get me started on paypal.

leonvquinn

No

I've had 2 more dodgy experiences with ebay now recently, I lost out on a best offer sale cause I read on ebay that I could decline a best offer and send a massage to the buyer at the same time - LIES! I declined and was left with no way to reverse the decision or contact the buyer.

I've also sold the same phone twice recently and am about to sell it again and neither of the first 2 buyers paid or replied to my emails. I had no comeback at all.

The love affair is over

dropes

No

leonvquinn wrote: »

I've had 2 more dodgy experiences with ebay now recently, I lost out on a best offer sale cause I read on ebay that I could decline a best offer and send a massage to the buyer at the same time - LIES! I declined and was left with no way to reverse the decision or contact the buyer.

I've also sold the same phone twice recently and am about to sell it again and neither of the first 2 buyers paid or replied to my emails. I had no comeback at all.

The love affair is over

In future if you wanted to contact or know who sent you a best offer try this:

you can look at their feedback comments, so pick a feedback comment at random, then do a google search for this comment inserting it in quotes "..."

my matching the timestamps/comment you can find their ebay username, and then email them that way.

Though I agree with the other comments about ebay..

leonvquinn

No

Thanx for the trick, tried it but not working out - his last feedback comment was nearly a year and a half ago!