eBay open - I'm parched

[lord_and_lady_m]

Made it, but as a vary small business that works around school hours, getting here early is impossible for me. 

Last 2 years I've been able to get a cuppa on arrival even when I'm dashing into the talks I want to hear. No chance this time. Tea and coffee was a luxury for the early arrivers.

Very disappointing and unwelcoming start in my opinion. 

[the-nutwood-collection]

eBay must be short of cash if they're limiting the beverages!

Never, ever, run out of beverages or biscuits and, if there's choccie bikkies in the mix, make sure there's plenty for everyone.  We had to stop a computer demo because one greedy delegate took all the choccie bikkies from the plates, and we couldn't carry on because the other delegates were demanding that he shared his haul.

I had to run to the canteen and empty umpteen mixed packs and take out all the choccie ones.  Only then could we restart the demo.  The canteen manager was furious about the devastation I'd left in his kitchen.

On the way home I had to stop at the supermarket and buy packs of choccie bikkies  for the next day's demo and put them on my expense sheet.  Then finance queried it!  

[theelench]

Expenses ??  and BIKKIES ??  For mere sellers ??

Do you think ebay is made of money ??

[the-nutwood-collection]

eBay is made of money - our money.

However, I do think it shows eBay's complete lack of understanding of customer psychology.  It's the small things that customers remember and appreciate - like free beverages and snacks.  What makes it worse is that beverages were provided to those that turned up early.  Customers (like you) that made an effort to get there but weren't waiting on the doorstep when the event kicked off, were made aware of their lesser status by being denied a cuppa.  No good vibes there.  A hungry, thirsty customer is not a happy customer.

My finance people suggested that, in future, we shouldn't include chokkie bikkies in the mix then there would be no disputes.  I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it was eBay's finance department that blue pencilled the ad-lib beverages.  Their opinion would be that delegates should either turn up early or bring a flask!    

[returns_andexdisplay]

Just like the planning for lunch, over 600 or more including staff trying to sit down at around 200 - 300 seats. 

Few things that stood out to me from the day, they don't have a clue what it is like to run a small business and the many frustrations they cause with policies, metrics and poor user experience. 

Staff very defensive when you speak to them about the frustration of things like EDD or service metric defects. 

Faied to mention the important bit abiout Pro trader plus - open to everyone if you want to pay £399 a month.  

[howmuchtobid]

Apart from the lack of coffee did anyone learn anything worthwhile from the day?

[pg_kicks]

Yeah I learnt a lot, I also got a lot off my chest as many will know I'm far from eBays biggest cheerleader but clear and open communication actually works (hopefully this is continued in the future eBay).

A couple of negative points being the serious lack of seating but I think that seems to be the case of every venue they do events in, not sure how other companies do food at events but it would seem sensible to stagger it so talks/workshops were ongoing during a longer lunch so it wasnt everyone wanting it together. With regards to tea/coffee and snacks, at the entrance to the main hall was that where you could get them first thing? I had a 1 to 1 at 9 which lasted longer than 20 minutes so went into the keynote speech but saw a lot of people with tea/coffee around that area. One negative was in the fashion takeover talk they mentioned that eBay had figures what they wanted to hit with regards to the free listing for private accounts in clothing, but due to higher ups they could not tell the target or the actual number of new buyers this brought to the site, so you just had to accept that it was actually a benefit, that workshop got slightly heated when people started asking what eBay ever do for business sellers and no answers were coming back.

One thing I found interesting is that many of the teams read these boards (hello Dublin), so whilst we rarely get feedback we still need to be highlighting issues and bringing examples to the weekly chat. 

Many other good points and bad but its a Saturday and theres football on and I already sound like an eBay cheerleader.

[sheba-knows-best]

Well - to add to the cheerleading - I didnt go to the open (car issues, dont ask) but did go to a pre-loved fashion event in the summer in Richmond.

The food was brilliant, drinks even better, and despite an afternoon of 'talks' we were completely invited to interrupt the speaker when something suggested/rolled-out was 'not going to work' (in our humble opinions). And all of the involved speakers/experts/pro-trader reps etc sat at as panel on the sidelines taking notes, and saying they would 'feed back' throughout.

Issues noted and discussed:  businesses selling as private sellers, complexity of offers/coupons (hard to know when a buyer will 'stack'), free fees to private sellers in clothing, emergence of Vinted, how is ebay working to keep market share amongst youngesters plus much much more.

It was a fantastic afternoon and great to connect with some thoughtful pre-loved sellers. So (Dublin, if you are out there), thank you very much and please keep me on the invite list.

[lord_and_lady_m]

That sounds good.

We definitely were't given the opportunity to interrupt and ask questions.  I particularly wanted to interrupt and ask questions when there was a speaker for Royal Mail telling us all about preparing for peak, considering when we dispatched etc, and most importantly to not oversell an under deliver our service. It was a perfect moment to ask RM if they knew that ebay like to make up the delivery dates based on apparent information given by royal mail that they can deliver faster than they advertise. And, to ask if they knew that sometimes, so matter what dispatch time we offer and service we provide, ebay will show the same EDD for all the royal mail options, so no customer is really going to pay to upgrade to a 'faster' service when ebay is essentially telling them it'll arrive by the same date no matter what's chosen.

Alas, I did not get the opportunity, however I did get chatting to someone right at the end from Royal Mail and told her this information, obviously just to double check how close the relatitionship is. She wasn't too happy and alluded to being in a directors meeting this week and will bring it up.