How we’ve acted on your feedback in 2023 & what’s in store for 2024

[vintagewatchpart]

Just finished watching the video, will keep this fairly simple, I am sure many of you will have comments...

At around 1 Minute:

"my management team and I are already looking at what we can do in 2024 to remove more barriers, advocate for your interests and give you access to more information to help you keep growing"

I've got a great idea, you don't need a management team at all. Just read these message boards.

Stop putting up barriers in the first place then perhaps there would be none to remove?

You are just so out of touch with what everyone things, says and feels it is unbelievable. Look at the YouTube comments on the video after a few minutes.  

If you really care EBay, then reply and engage properly with some of the comments and evidence based issue reporting people are leaving on here.

[simplyc-accessories]

You will have to consider my post an empty one. if I write what I want to say I will be banned for life from these boards and most likely eBay as well.  🤣 After watching that I am so looking forward to 2024 🤐

[pg_kicks]

I'd love to know who they actually ask, the pop up questionnaire they are are pretty pointless as majority are ignored or just answered in 30 seconds to get away from them.

I attended the ebay open event and you'd think theyd email everyone who attended (as we are some of the most active on the site) and ask for actual feedback on how the site can improve and what you'd like to see happen over the short to medium term.

[bravergrace]

There was one ray of home.

It was the first time I've heard eBay mention "your customers" rather than "eBay's buyers".

That's all I can say with a reasonable chance of being able to use this board again.

[ojewellery]

I'm glad they're (eBay) continuing to engage in a tough economic climate.  eBay is run by people.  Some of them even accessible and present in the UK.  Even more present when they host events/ conferences/ roadshows/ webinars.  This is vastly different to all the other online marketplaces.

Whilst there is validity in lots of the issues in the comments, even more so on the boards, the way comments are made is often really unconstructive.  I don't see how some think being rude/ aggressive will create change - my fear is that it builds bigger barriers and more closed communication paths. 

Why boast about loads of negatives - I didn't delve into that persons eBay account in the way we can if they post from their eBay account on the forums, but usually when someone has high negatives you can see from the comments and the follow up comments that they're really unprofessional.  Leaving those negatives to stand and ultimately if they don't change their act they leave the platform makes it a better platform for the rest of us.  I've never (yet) seen a poster with a high negatives count, read down the list and thought those are all obviously undeserved.  I'm guessing when they ask for them to be removed the eBay agents are also excercising a bit of judgement (okay not all do, but some are good and helpful).

The bigger the organisation the longer it takes to evolve.  We've made changes, constructively, through some of the threads on the forums.  I think when issues really matter we can continue to.  We've also been able to vent and support each other here which has certainly benefitted me.

I've given some headspace to a better way to communicate with eBay.  Loved the idea for a while of a technical glitch board but what ever I think of has more negatives than positives. 

How could an evidence based reporting system work, proposals and votes, priority system for fixes, request tickets - remembering anything labour intensive would cost us in fees?

[pg_kicks]

Whilst I agree with you, always being negative isnt helping, thats why when I have positive experiences I shout about them.

With regards to the changes costing money, they dont need to really, I have a few simple solutions that would actually save money and improve the site.

Have it working, there are so many bugs that are never fixed, this in turn wastes cs time as so many people complain about it, reporting feature, if that actually worked we'd have less people needing to return items, again taking up time of cs staff, cs staff if they even knew the basics and didnt just give you the answer to get you off the phone you'd not need to phone up 3 or 4 times to actually get your question answered and the issue solved.

When I need to contact the authentication department I have to go through the AI chatbot who asked a lot of questions to narrow it down, they know I need that department, but first they send me to somebody else who transfers me, so I've wasted 10 minutes of that persons time who are just acting as a switch board for the department.

Stop changing stuff to try and improve it when the site isnt running well, nobody would replace a kitchen when they have a hole in the roof so no idea why eBay try.

Other options would be to have a weekly, biweekly, monthly chat so we can ask technical questions to the correct department, waiting for 4+ weeks to get a question answered is a joke tbh, we are eBays customers but they sometimes treat us like we are a child in nursery asking pointless question.

I'd love it if they reached out to top sellers and asked for actual constructive feedback as a successful eBay is a successful seller.

[bravergrace]

---

@pg_kicks wrote:

I'd love it if they reached out to top sellers and asked for actual constructive feedback as a successful eBay is a successful seller.

---

They do ask for actual constructive feedback from some sellers.

They won't necessarily get it from the best sellers, though, because they rarely compensate sellers for their time (in the way that other organisations do when asking for half an hour or more), so they'll be talking to the ones who aren't too busy.

[pg_kicks]

Maybe 2024 is the year I am asked, like I said you'd think theyd just send out a blanket email to everyone invited to the open event as they clearly think those sellers are engaging and know we take a full day (more if travelling) so a 30 minute questionnaire wouldnt be much.

[ojewellery]

I'm sure I did a follow up feedback form thing on the open event  - but I do so many of these things I could be muddling them!

I have done some interesting seller council events in past years - think they've moved onto fresh blood this year.  I find chatting to other sellers really interesting.  You only need to pick up one little snippet of gold from another seller to justify your time.    I'm not sure how a rate of compensation could be calculated to attract the right people - it slightly puts me off.  Some would be after money rather than the longer game of constructive contribution and business gain.

@pg_kicks Without asking details or specifics why would you ever need to contact the authenticity department?

nobody would replace a kitchen when they have a hole in the roof so no idea why eBay try.

I worked as an engineering manager and project managed a lot of software heavy projects (cross discipline) getting new stuff developed was always easier than patching up other peoples messes.  Retaining (good) staff just patching up legacy stuff was also hard - frankly its boring and more time consuming than starting fresh with something not yet live.  Evolution is essential without it the platform would certainly die.  I do agree the balance from our angle is very off.  We're not being heard on some tech blips.  

Other options would be to have a weekly, biweekly, monthly chat so we can ask technical questions to the correct department, waiting for 4+ weeks to get a question answered is a joke tbh, we are eBays customers but they sometimes treat us like we are a child in nursery asking pointless question.

What about as an interim step if we could see if we can get the weekly chat sumarised/ minuted with responsible action person initials against items and then each new weekly chat opened with summary of completed and outstanding actions.  It could become a sort of tech reporting record board.  Stop the same comments repeating, create accountability like in a proper meeting and then if seperate communication lines needed to be opened up between users eBay they could be private to the open forum.

[pg_kicks]

With regards to contacting the authenticity department 50% of my sales are for items going through them, we all know you can tell a buyer everything they need but they dont act upon it, so I need to contact the AG department and get them to email the buyer letting them know that there parcel is here or there, then in the last month they have accepted 4 (I think it might be the 5th sometime this week) pairs of shoes that they claim are brand new in box which have actually been worn so you need to contact them, send pictures of the proof (which theyve seen) and then send them back, then chase them up for the refund. 

Add in the fact that the latest AGS update means you dont get top rated badge or discount, so spoke to a manager regarding that, and they are just as bad as every other department regarding phoning you back when they promise to do so. I think I will phone them twice a week on average, so thats 20 minutes wasted a week just on me, 1 small seller.

Accountability and owning issues are major problems for eBay, they love a we will let the team know, we havent heard back, sorry but chase up your questions.

[spence0175]

I have never seen or heard of anyone wanting  the give your payment details scheme implemented before making an offer and having to give your details. I was never asked and I'm quite sure very few were.  So there are ghost offers.. so what...relist your item instantly. What is the point of going through the motions and then the buyer wants to cancel anyway. And then to top it off get a neg feedback for refusal to cancel the order. 
Ebay must be desperate for the 30p when the item gets cancelled and the refund is minus the 30p.

[ojewellery]

So you don't NEED to contact them.  You need them to improve their process flow.

We need eBay to put automated systems in place to keep buyers informed at every step in the authenticity process where their item is and its current estimated arrival date (a bit like royal mail fully tracked tracking, a sort of multi scan/ touch points through the network). 

We need there to be a process like the current disputed returns but to contest returns of the very high value items through authenticity guarantee.  Again like the royal mail item delivered but customer says not type form - some you can input the info on and get on with your day.  eBay authenticity from their end also hopefully will monitor numbers of disputed returns to check if there is room for improvement in their handling and what percentage are getting through the system.

For the TRS badge - I don't understand why it can't be like with sending to global shipping.  At that price point couldn't sellers build shipping cost into the price.  Its a level playing field from that perspective with all non brand original sellers having to send to authentication.  This is a nonsense that must have a simple solution if you can get your message heard by the right person.

[iew-signed-books]

All I can add is that she'd make a great Tory MP.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Ebay do listen sometimes so they must read the boards.

I complained about "lowest price" search with lowest price on items starting at £40 !

This omitted some perfectly relevant items at £20 and so some sellers listings didnt appear.

I see that has been fixed now.

There are still lots of other problems to fix like the Chinese infestation of the listings.

Multi listings all starting at 99p for a sample and then hundreds of same item spamming the results.

[pg_kicks]

Sorry I did NEED to contact them as they accepted trainers that had clearly been worn and had already refunded and gave them back to me stating they were in the same condition as they were sent out, not sure if you can just write off a loss of £400 but in my case thats a pretty good reason to NEED to speak to them. For the customers questioning where their parcel was, again I NEEEDED to speak to them as my customer wasnt happy, I like to keep all my customers happy, something eBay doesnt seem to care about so I took ownership of the issue (again something ebay staff dont do) and contacted eBay, if I didnt contact eBay then my customer could rightly leave negative feedback so pretty much NEEDED to contact them on that occasions too. Again if they have a business that worked then I'd never NEED to contact them but as they are putting my reputation and money on the line its only right that I NEED to contact them at some points.

With regards to the TRS badge its because ebay are trying to sprint before they are walking, they have tried their best to copy StockX but it seems they have just looked from the outside and not thought of the differences in the businesses, if they asked sellers in this category I'm sure a few of us could help them out, I'd not even charge a fee, but they dont seem to care what their customers think, as long as the money is rolling in.

[ojewellery]

Apologies, I don't think my message has been interrupted as intended.  My point which hopefully I can convey better is there are two processes missing that shouldn't involve sellers jumping hoops to find work arounds.

Of course customers need to know where their expensive items are.  This should be a very simple fix - far cheaper than you having to phone and chase.

Also mistakes on returns will always happen and you shouldn't have to shoulder the burden of cost.  Again it's a missing eBay process that could be semi automated.

The NEED comment was the fix doesn't appear to be hiring lots more staff to answer and handle the queries.  This isn't the need.  It's to look at why sellers are having to take there valuable time and use staffs valuable time.  What I had intended to convey is the problem, customers knowing whate their item is, needs fixing, not improving the expensive work around.

[dwtrading2015]

I would be intrested to ojewllery know if your positive spin and defence of eBay worked in generating better listing positions and sales.  It is now so often repeated those voicing issues and problems see sales suddenly drop or vanish.  Sold your soul to the devil.  What was the reward?

[ojewellery]

---

@dwtrading2015 wrote:

I would be intrested to ojewllery know if your positive spin and defence of eBay worked in generating better listing positions and sales.  It is now so often repeated those voicing issues and problems see sales suddenly drop or vanish.  Sold your soul to the devil.  What was the reward?

---

I'll take positive spin.  I can't see the point in dwelling n what's happened.  We have to find a way forwards regardless of our opinion on rights/ wrongs/ perceived logic.

As for defence.  I don't feel I strongly defend.  I do try to bring a balanced view to the table.

People who are having problems with their business, vent and seek consolation only from others having problems refusing to believe any element of the solution could be within their control, I can't possible start to imagine why they'd have issues evolving their businesses and finding a new path forwards. I do have enormous sympathy for it being a tough year.  When ever people reach out on, and increasingly off, the forums, I give as much time as I'm able to listen, support brainstorm and generally help people find their right path forwards.   Personally, I've just worked five weeks straight, without a day off, because every sale counts and it's been a really tough trading year so whilst things are going well I can't afford to take my foot off the gas.  

As for selling my soul to the devil - I can't remember that contract. eBay works for my business as part of a multichannel selling strategy.  Without eBay I wouldn't have had a business so I do have a certain loyalty (so long as it stacks up).  Three years ago I was 80% eBay. 20% Amazon.  Last year 60% eBay and a mix of Amazon, Etsy my own site.  eBay is now over the year maybe 25-30%.  I haven't fully run the numbers. 

As for reward for being proactive, evolving my business not allowing myself to get too deep into ruts.  I'm in the top couple of percent of sellers on Etsy, my website is rapidly growing, Debenhams has been a great business expansion and I've just heard I've been awarded retail jeweller of the year by  from memory SME news but on my mobile and can't remember.  I'd love to get TikTok smoothly running but it's a big learning curve.  Its damned hard work running a business. Support from others on the forums and from some of the eBay programmes (sorry how dare I actually like anything) are looking like they'll have made this my most profitable December yet.

[iew-signed-books]

This process is spasmodic and does definitely not apply to all best offers being made as I have found out to my own detriment, so more eBay porkies.

[dwtrading2015]

"eBay works for my business" - you are therefore unique.  We've all had your optimisim at times, we were all once believers.  We can not avoid dwelling as the accumulating bad policies and knackered search engine can only be identified with hindsight, reported and then fixed.  Except no mater how loud the message, there is no fixing and business are dying in plain view on the platform.  eBay has over the years turned to micro manage businesses to try and leaverage returns.  It is failing and that needs to be vocalised.