Is it time to move on?

[weiwu108]

I am not a professional seller, just an ex-fan and seller/buyer on eBay but I have to say my experience with eBay lately has been really disappointing. Even the chat advice from agents (which used to be so helpful and often generous) has deteriorated into to lengthy, pause-filled dialogues which seem to take forever to answer the simplest of questions. 

When I finally get my money out I plan to move to another selling site, not as good as eBay was in its prime, but so much better than what is left of it now. I think the only way to demonstrate that the recent changes and unvarnished policies of greed will not win over customers is to stop selling on this platform and to support eBay as little as possible.

 I feel bad for people who make their living as sellers, I hope a viable alternative will become obvious soon.

[*vyolla*]

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@weiwu108 wrote:

I am not a professional seller, just an ex-fan and seller/buyer on eBay but I have to say my experience with eBay lately has been really disappointing. Even the chat advice from agents (which used to be so helpful and often generous) has deteriorated into to lengthy, pause-filled dialogues which seem to take forever to answer the simplest of questions. 

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To be honest, I'd say that most questions that are asked of eBay CS can be answered by looking at the help and guidance pages or just asking about on one of the many eBay Community boards, it's only questions that require account access that they'd need to deal with.

I think, in a couple of decades, I've only had to contact eBay CS 4 times.

As regards selling your items, you need to do what's best and viable for you, for sure. 

[weiwu108]

OK, understood, I know how to use the help pages, thanks. However, maybe you have been missing out... in the past, I contacted CS several times when an order went missing and they gave me (and the buyer) an immediate refund, no quibbling, no messing around with Royal Mail or Evri etc..

I'm not complaining that they didn't do that on the last occasion but when I have asked them legitimate questions lately the agent comes across as very distracted or as if they have been told to have multiple chats going at the same time, hence the lengthy pauses. They also used to email a follow-up query about how the agent answered the question and if I was happy with their assistance. They no longer ask this, perhaps for obvious reasons.

[theelench]

I think a lot more private seller / buyers should be planning to do the same and move to other sites that might not be as good right now but, if enough people started using them, soon could be.

Ebay in its prime managed to be cheap, easy and enjoyable to use as both a buyer or seller and had the huge advantage of being cheaper than B&M shops weighed down with high rents, business rates and staff costs.

It's no longer any of those things.

It wasn't greedy Wall St. that made ebay a success, it was the 'little' people who made it safe for them to move in and make it into the near monopoly that it's been feeding off ever since.

It's about time that they had the rug pulled out from under them, just as they do to swathes of sellers whenever it suits them and they see even more profits by doing so.

[weiwu108]

Thank you, theelench, you seem to get what I was saying (or venting about). Remember MySpace, Friends Reunited etc.? No one is too big to fail if enough sellers and buyers vote with their feet....

[*vyolla*]

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@weiwu108 wrote:

OK, understood, I know how to use the help pages, thanks. However, maybe you have been missing out... in the past, I contacted CS several times when an order went missing and they gave me (and the buyer) an immediate refund, no quibbling, no messing around with Royal Mail or Evri etc..

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If a package goes missing then I'd claim from the carrier, I wouldn't expect eBay to pay out of their own coffers unless it was a chargeback and I had proof of delivery, then their Seller Protection kicks in. 

[shadbolts]

I am also not a professional seller, but I have had enough of the changes so I have taken down the 11 items I had up for sale.  

I am not happy about the Buyers Protection Fee, or the Simple Delivery nonsense. 

My loss I know, but not prepared to fight the website when trying to arrange postage, I do not want to be dictacted about how to send parcels.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

well i have actually managed to list my first item on another site today, finally figured out how to upload the photos myself!!  My problem is that after so many years on e bay i have become too comfortable with the system and even all the changes because they were one at a time (until the past few months) i was able to adapt pretty quickly.  It took me ages to get the one item listed but i am sure i will get the time down as i go along.   Just hope there are enough people there to buy...   I would probably come back to e bay if they ever let us use our own postage but am not holding my breath.

[theelench]

If it just happens to be ebid, you'll find that once you get used to it, it takes about half the time to list the same item on ebay.

Depends what you're selling about number of sales, it's smaller and slower but for about the last 5 years since Lock-down I've sold more there than I've managed to on obay although I've listed about the same number of items on both each year.

As I've said before "People buy my stuff there because they can find it easily.  On ebay I don't think that half the time anyone can see my stuff because I refuse to Sponsor it." 

[jon18uk]

Move on to where?

[kath3735_wxmjn]

quite a few places but whatever suits your own needs best.  Just look through any of these threads on SD and you will find suggestions!  Ideally for me that would be V but as they have the same lack of freedom to walk into the post office and pay my own postage i will not be going there.  

[a45heaven]

@*vyolla* 

If a package goes missing then I'd claim from the carrier, I wouldn't expect eBay to pay out of their own coffers unless it was a chargeback and I had proof of delivery, then their Seller Protection kicks in. 

Thats how it used to be when ebay only took the percentage of  the buyers payment.

Now ebay control shipping in SD, and take the fee - so why not have ebay pay the buyers for non delivery as they kinda suggested was protocol in their selling pitch, or do they want monies and no risks?

[humbers724]

I've sold as a business for 30 yrs & never know it this bad. There's no commonsense & little incentive to sell on here now. Glad I had the best of it.

[weiwu108]

Agreed - you sum it up well.

[humbers724]

I bought a workbench yesterday - the carrier emailed me to say I'd be charged £25 if I wasn't in for the whole day to accept delivery. I told them to stuff it & got a refund on the item. Sick of it. Ebay's gone super stupid.