The demise of ebayuk

[dmacbrewp]

EbayUK is going down the pan big style - there`s no doubt about that. It can be fixed however but needs drastic action. It can start by getting rid of all those involved in policy making and replacing them with one or two people with at least half a brain. The following steps should be taken at once, the reasons given underneath.

1) No charges whatsoever on (not new) items listed by private sellers with a start price of £1 or less. This applies to both seller and buyer and includes what ebay quaintly calls BPF.

2) Sellers free to fix their own postage charges using whatever service they like.

3) Sellers to raise their own invoices when items are combined whether auction, BiN, offers or a combination of those.

4) Get rid of the (anything but) Simple Delivery. Enough has been said on here about that without me adding anything. Similarly the atrocious Global Shipping Programme which merely makes it impossible to buy low-priced articles from abroad. Fortunately not compulsory though it seems some US sellers are too dumb to wonder why their items aren`t selling here.

1) Customers need to be enticed back - sellers need buyers & buyers need sellers. Currently ebay are losing both in a stampede. Every seller starts small but some go on to become worthwhile businesses. The more choice the more buyers will return and they will of course be searching both private and business listings. Likewise the more chance there is of items selling the more sellers will list. THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.

2) & 3) These should really not be ebay`s concern but a matter between buyer and seller. The current situation is just part of the ever-increasing bloat which has taken all the enjoyment away from listing. Something that once could be listed in a couple of minutes now takes ten or more.

If ebay can`t or aren`t willing to fix this then I suggest they sell off the whole concern to someone who will. In the meantime more and more people will catch on to the likes of ebid and once the momentum shift starts it will be impossible to stop.

[jonatjonatjonat]

You don’t have a chance with 1). why would eBay willingly do something for free? They have to pay card processing fees for a start!

no company would do this.

[thepillenwerfer]

"Tell me the old, old story ..."  The immanent demise of e-Bay has confidently been foretold by users of this forum ever since I've been looking at it, which is about twenty years.

Sellers not being able to leave meaningful feedback for Buyers, e-Bay taking a cut of postage costs, PayPal extending their deadline for SNAD cases, Managed Payments even the introduction of Kudos (the forerunner of Helpful) on here were all predicted to mean "the end of e-Bay."

As jonatjonatjonat says, e-Bay aren't going to offer their services for free — and why should they being neither a charity nor part of the Welfare State.  They won't make as much on cheap items and would probably quite like to have fewer of them on the site anyway as for years they've been trying to get away from their original "Flea-Bay" on-line carboot sale image.

If you don't think e-Bay is value for money, and given that it's now free for Private Sellers I can't see how that is even possible, don't use it.

[vinylscot]

There comes a time when certain things are no longer worth doing.

Selling items at £1.00 or less online is one of these things.

Forgetting #1, your other proposals call for the return of the old clunky eBay, with Wild West postage charges and long delays in invoicing holding everything up.

If you don't like GSP, use your own arrangements for overseas items. Nobody forces you to use GSP.

Simple Delivery does need a LOT of attention, and, to be fair, it does seem to be receiving that attention. There's a long way to go, and it should never have been introduced in its half-finished, problem-ridden state, but there are far more posts now from individuals who actually like it, and have seen its benefits in action. I'm not there yet, but I am hopeful that it will develop into something worthwhile.

[thepillenwerfer]

Well said: the idea of Simple Delivery is fine but they've launched it half-finished and are using us all as guinea pigs to find the problems.  In the few weeks I've been using it it's improved, or maybe I've got used to it.

Selling something for a pound or less has always struck me a pointless, unless you just want somebody to take whatever it is away.  Let's say SD and the BPF hadn't been introduced and something sold for 99p and could be posted for 87p the Seller would actually get 46p.  Out of that has to come the cost of sticky-tape, printer ink &c — assuming you can re-use the other packaging. Is it really worth the time it takes to list, pack and post something (if it sells) for less than 46p?

That's assuming the sale goes well.  If the Buyer claims the item is not as described you'd be out-of-pocket to the tune of the 87p stamp.