Tuesday, May 3, 2011

No, eBay, screw YOU

Somebody made one of these with a Michigan logo on it, but then I read the post and he hated Michigan and 'Shopped a pic of bin Ladin in a Michigan t-shirt, so screw that
A lovely email from eBay graced my inbox this evening, one several of you might have received as well (although I'm hoping not, as you'll see):
Dear caljr3000-half:

Several weeks ago, we wrote to tell you about coming updates that may affect your selling. This is a reminder to take action now to make sure you're ready.

Update to the way sellers below eBay's minimum performance standards are paid through PayPal

Starting May 31, sellers who fall below eBay's minimum performance standards may have their buyer payments show as pending in their PayPal account for a period of time to help ensure successful fulfillment.

Your account was below the minimum standard as of this writing. If you're subject to this update, you'll be notified when you list and you'll receive an email notification from PayPal when your funds are pending. You'll also find information in My eBay showing the estimated date funds will be available and steps you can take to help get your funds faster.

What you need to do:
[then some other crap nobody cares about]

As always, we appreciate your selling on eBay.

Your eBay seller team 
Oh hi, extremely appropriate Google Image Search result!

Oh, well maybe my feedback got progressively worse--no, no, that's not, it, it's still at a little number I like to call 100% (155).

I guess it's because of all those times I didn't follow the "best practices" that bit me in the ass.  Except I always accurately and clearly describe what I'm selling and I'm great about communicating with buyers (and let me emphasize, I'm referring to the FEW times I sell on eBay--I don't do it as a living, just a couple times a year to unload stuff I don't want) and I've never received one complaint, with the exception of an idiot whose brain was too small to process the four letters in "as-is".

That leaves my failure to "upload tracking information...and ship the same day the buyer pays..." which I neglected to do exactly zero times.

Which means there's only one explanation:  this bullshit, plus eBay's selling fee jacking-up spree and the inability to leave negative feedback for buyers (buyers who've failed to follow "BEST PRACTICES" SUCH AS PAYING FOR ITEMS THEY WON WHICH HAPPENED TO ME MULTIPLE TIMES), not to mention hating on people taking "gift" payments through PayPal to avoid their ridiculous fees (and charging 15% for run-on sentences, which I only MIGHT be making up) equals eBay extending an olive branch to sellers, except instead of olives it's made of middle fingers and AOL CDs (the next worse thing I could think of at a moment's notice while trying to keep things PG-13).

So as of today, I'm done with selling on eBay.  It's become more and more detrimental to "sell" crap there and I've had enough.  It used to be one thing when you could pay a reasonable fee to post stuff for sale for a large audience and expect a pretty good result, but with eBay's ability to tax you more times than the IRS (assuming you even get paid, with almost no recourse for the buyer if you don't) it's just not worth it.  I may pursue other routes (in the few instances I look to sell; I'm more of a trader anyway) such as the BlowoutCards boards, COMC or more creative outlets, such as the ingenious Zoolbay.

As for others, I doubt anything will happen, but I'd be thrilled to see enough people get fed up that they get eBay by the short ones and force them back into rules and fees that make sense in 2011.  Put up with your bullshit one more time?  No, eBay, screw YOU.

[Sorry for the rant, back to real content in the next day or two, I promise.  Also, bonus "Topps is dumb" tag because they continue to pull stupid shit on the level of eBay and I like using it when I can anyway]

Update from Dirty josh via comments:

after a post on ebay's forum I am told that it's due to my DSR being low [requires 10 detailed seller ratings to be valid]. I have 6 DSR's so I am unable to access the seller dashboard they say to manage everything from. I mailed about 12 buyers that have not left feedback yet so now it's just a waiting game to see if they go leave feedback. I heard from a couple of them saying they haven't gotten the chance to test everything and make sure the item works and they'd leave feedback after that so that's a positive.

I will start leaving a note with the item [like I have received a few times from sellers] reminding them to leave feedback and to let me know before leaving feedback if there are any issues so I can correct them. I hope this helps other people that see this.  
It's not the seller's job to harass buyers for feedback that they should be leaving in the first place, so  eBay can continue to sit and spin.  However, thanks to josh for some constructive feedback.  Also, here's another funny picture:

6 comments:

  1. Wow...I got this email but deleted it thinking it was nothing. Just went back and checked...I'm on the list too (even with 100%, 148, similar to you). Makes me want to stop as well. Hell I just made $85 on Blowout recently...who needs Ebay? lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is the email I got from them today:

    Dear hertz27:

    Several weeks ago, we wrote to tell you about coming updates that may affect your selling. This is a reminder to take action now to make sure you're ready.

    Category and item specifics changes

    Note that the final group of category and item specifics changes is going live this week. Find out if your categories are affected.

    Get details on the 2011 Spring Seller Update. Use the Seller Checklist to stay on top of important dates. For more insight, visit the archived webinar held several weeks ago on these updates.

    As always, we appreciate your selling on eBay.

    Your eBay seller team

    ReplyDelete
  3. I got the same mail today. Absolute BS! the only thing I can think of that does not put me at their "standard" is that even though I give GREAT service [no pun intended for sick minds] and ship when I say I will and post tracking....buyers don't leave feedback. Even though I have sold about 30 items in the last 30 days I've received 3 feedbacks [all positive]. I believe that you have to have 10 feedbacks to get to "ebay standards". This is just my speculation on the entire matter. I will start looking for somewhere else to auction stuff off.

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  4. My experience receiving feedback as a seller hasn't been nearly as bad as yours, but I've definitely gone through that too, and again, as a seller, you have zero recourse. Middle fingers for everyone!

    ReplyDelete
  5. after a post on ebay's forum I am told that it's due to my DSR being low [requires 10 detailed seller ratings to be valid]. I have 6 DSR's so I am unable to access the seller dashboard they say to manage everything from. I mailed about 12 buyers that have not left feedback yet so now it's just a waiting game to see if they go leave feedback. I heard from a couple of them saying they haven't gotten the chance to test everything and make sure the item works and they'd leave feedback after that so that's a positive.

    I will start leaving a note with the item [like I have received a few times from sellers] reminding them to leave feedback and to let me know before leaving feedback if there are any issues so I can correct them. I hope this helps other people that see this.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I used to sell full time on eBay (not cards, video games) and the practices have to do with the star ratings for feedback. Basically if you average less than 4 stars on any of the 4 categories you get the warning. Which is awful practice on so many levels. One big sellers are never affected by this and two small sellers, like yourself, are always affected by one lone idiot leaving one star with positive feedback. Small samples always creates skewed stats.

    ReplyDelete