eBay trying to get business sellers to go for Simple Delivery?

[vinylscot]

I posted this about half an hour ago on the Seller Central board, but perhaps I should have posted it here. Sorry for duplication.

I got an invitation to fill in an eBay survey today, on this account.

It was mostly very bland, gobbledegook about all eBay's nefarious high-minded "enhancements".

One thing that worried me, as a business seller, was how often they tried to get me to say "Affordable Postage Options" was the most important thing to me. That option turned up in about half a dozen similar-ish questions, where you MUST select one as the most important, and in each case the other choices were totally banal and trivial.

They obviously want to be able to report that their business sellers view "Affordable Postage Options" as their number one priority. It's only a short step from there to bringing Simple Delivery on for business sellers too (at least those too small to negotiate their way out of it.)

I couldn't go "back" and see all the questions again, but here's one example. See how it is weighted - seven "nothings" and "Affordable Postage Options".

This is not a good sign.

[vinylscot]

I see my post has now been removed from the Seller Central board by admins.

I do hope that's just because of the duplication, and that they are not attempting to suppress comments?

When a post is moved, you usually get a message explaining why. Not this time.

[santlache_sales]

Oh yes, how predictable, a loaded survey trying to get you to say you agree with eBay.

Probaby a bit like all the others, of which I have never been asked a thing, so eBay can then introduce something new they want and say the majority of their sellers also want, even demand it.

Loaded surveys, eBay take a bow.

[santlache_sales]

My Mrs went to sell something on her private account last week, and every suggested eBay postal option was below the actual cost price, they haven't updated it since RM price rises.

PLUS, absolutely nothing is allowed for packaging, so ebay clearly expect you to take a hit not only on their postage prices, but allow nothing whatsoever for any packging.

Allow eBay to dictate what people pay for post - that'll be another straw broken on the camels back.

The attraction for free listings simply is not there either, with payments sometimes taking over two weeks, not to mention how they have totally screwed the businesses over too.

She gave up in the end and went to Vinted

[theelench]

Perhaps ebay was inspired by some of the business sellers on SC telling private sellers what a good idea SD is, how much easier it will make selling on ebay for them and how they should embrace the changes.

Frankly I'm surprised that ebay is even testing the water while the dust is still thick in the air on SC and repairing any damage that has been done can hardly have even been started yet.

Ebay must either be so desperate for the extra revenue that it's throwing caution to the winds or its arrogance truly knows no bounds when it comes to upsetting its customers.

Whichever it might be, it doesn't bode well that the softening-up process is already starting for businesses.

Best of luck to you all.  

[zed.1015]

A lot of the posts telling sellers that SD is a good idea and what a great service they experienced have the stench of ebay marketing masquerading as genuine users.

I've seen an quite a few posts extolling the virtues of SD dropped into threads from random users who don't seem to participate any further .

[vinylscot]

I think the distinction here is that SD does actually work for many private sellers. Also, there are far more posters defending the concept of SD for private sellers rather than raving about their actual experiences.

However, for business sellers, it most certainly would not work, at least in anything like its current form.