eBay cares little for sellers!!!

[blinkin-bonkers]

I sold a funnel that was EXACTLY as described and the dimensions are stated very clearly on the full description page. The buyer disagreed with the title but admitted he didn't read the full description page, if he had he would have known exactly what he was receiving. Therefore the buyer was 100% at fault so the feedback can be removed right? Wrong!! eBay concierge said that this was the opinion of the buyer so just be aware that even if you put all the relevant information on your full description page and a buyer doesn't read it they can still leave negative feedback without any recourse whatsoever and the seller has to suffer as a result.

Help from eBay for sellers is absolutely diabolical and they are solely focused on the buyer and I am sick and tired of it. All they care about is profits and trying to keep buyers happy to the detriment of the seller, they couldn't care less about is. They put a message out every now and again saying that they've been listening to sellers concerns and they are making changes but that is an absolute load of rubbish, they couldn't care about sellers at all!!

[*devils.advocate*]

eBay cares little for sellers?

IMHO, they seem to lack any care at all for sellers.

There’s this insidious intrusion to, and more and more control over, the seller/buyer relationship.

There’s the forcing of managed payments, increases in fees and requirements (or the need?) to use the promoted or advanced promoted con and bid for clicks, to the point where eBay is taking an unsustainable percentage of profit from too many sellers.

eBay keeps losing active buyers; after all, eBay marketplace's GMV has consistently decreased each year since 2020.

Maybe it's the added competition due to the pandemic, the poor economy, the regular mail rate increases, the thousands of fake items which eBay allow that compete with authentic items, many other websites and apps taking away eBay's declining market share?

Maybe it’s decline in reputation because of their failure to combat fraud committed by buyers and sellers alike, the concerns over its rating systems and concerns over sales of controversial or illegal items?

Maybe there are so many things broken on the site which sellers constantly complain about but these are never repaired?

IMHO, eBay is intentionally controlling sellers’ views (false numbers shown) no matter what in order to encourage higher seller expenditure on promoting their listings - screw the sellers.

There’s their apparent inability to develop any viable further growth strategy except the continuance of the (too) high level of fees.

The simplest and most obvious way eBay could start to improve the site is simply by really seriously paying attention to their customers - the sellers - rather than seemingly treating them with contempt.

Also concentrate on simplifying the design and layout of the site - the (listing) pages are cluttered, confusing, and in many places redundant (like some help pages, laughable) and generally making improvements/repairs to improve the experience for everyone - buyers and sellers alike - rather than the useless continual cosmetic fiddling.

After dreaming up all these wonderful ideas, does any eBay employee use the site to experience the carnage they cause?

I doubt it - it’s all working as they intended.

IMHO, eBay cares sod all about sellers.

Apologies for the rant.

[pg_kicks]

---

@*devils.advocate* wrote:

After dreaming up all these wonderful ideas, does any eBay employee use the site to experience the carnage they cause?

---

This is the biggest issue for me, nobody who works at eBay will be a business on here, yes they might sell 5 things a year but that doesnt show you the issues. They very rarely speak to businesses on here as if they did they'd not come out with some of the soundbites they do and stuff might actually get fixed in weeks not years. What they need to do is have small meetings with business sellers on here (we pay majority of the money eBay get from fee's) and listen to us without punishing when we pick the site apart, I'd be happy to travel to London or Ireland if it meant I sat down with people who could actually sort out the issues instead of just asking customer service if they could pass on a message.

I had a call with the shipping team on Friday, it seems they are finally admitting theres an issue, its only been a year and now after everyone has been told there wasnt an issue they are phoning accounts up and wasting 15/20+ minutes as we all explain it for the 5th time.

[four_mid_able]

"After dreaming up all these wonderful ideas, does any eBay employee use the site to experience the carnage they cause?

I doubt it - it’s all working as they intended.".

Nail,hammer,head and spot on.

No point ever thinking that a 50,000 million tonne steam roller without a driver would ever have a thought about what may lay ahead.

[*knight-rider*]

I'm curious as to what he disagreed with, because the only thing i can see to disagree with is that it in't heavy duty or the measurements in the description are a couple of mm out. 

Nearly 60 negs and 400 neutrals, one more won't make any difference.

[dch2112011]

Although I agree that the feedback should be removed looking at your excellent feedback scores I very much doubt that it will have any impact on your sales whatsoever.

You are obviously passionate about your business and you care !

With the volume you are selling you will always get a few buyers who do not like the product or believe that they are buying a better quality product than the price dictates and of course they want to blame you or the product - they will never admit an error on their part. 

The only tweak you may want to consider is the way you respond to negative feedback which is negligible in reality.

It is obvious that you care about your customers and offer easy and attractive resolution to problems.  Let potential buyers know how courteous and helpful you are - turn the negs into positives by  losing the  insinuation that the buyer is wrong simply respond with an apology  detailing the resolution offered.

By concentrating on your excellent service and customer care in your response ignoring the disagreement with the customer disagreement  it will go down very well with potential buyers and overcome any negativity created by the negative feedbacks even if you do not agree with a single word written by the buyer

 Something along the lines of 

Sorry the item was damaged - an immediate refund has been offered.

or

Sorry you were unhappy with the item - we want all of our customers to be happy with their purchases - a full refund has been offered 

[blinkin-bonkers]

He disagreed with the size saying it wasn't big enough yet admitted he didn't read the full description page where the ACTUAL dimensions are given. 60 neagatives and 400 neutrals pale into insignificance when you send over 100,000 items a year so you need to look at the bigger picture. I don't understand the attitude that that one more doesn't matter because a responsible seller doesn't like to see any negatives..

[blinkin-bonkers]

At the end of the day if an item is proven to be EXACTLY as described then it should be removed. But eBay bend over backwards for buyers and no longer give a damn about sellers unfortunately.

[dch2112011]

I am not disagreeing with you - the problem is that feedback is based on opinion not fact therefore if a buyer voices an opinion correct or not it generally stands.

You however can turn these few opinions that are incorrect into a showcase for your excellent customer care which may be more advantageous to you than getting ebay to remove the so called negative comments. 

If a potential customer sees how you react positively in their eyes to customers voicing discontent - they will feel comfortable and reassured to buy from you.

You should not allow this very small minority of buyers get under your skin - you are running a growing and successful business  which in this day and age is no mean feat - if ebay cannot help you as a seller by removing feedback - use the feedback to promote your business.