Zero sales after changing listings to 'Send with the Global Shipping Programme'

[fricdawf]

Hi guys.

I'm not sure what has happened here. Last week, I turned on 'Send with the Global Shipping Programme' on all my listings, thinking that opening up to a wider audience would increase sales. The result is that I've gone from a consistent  1-2 sales per day to zero sales whatsoever over a period of 8 days. I've checked on somebody else's PC and my listings are visible as normal. Something has definitely gone wrong - does anyone have any ideas what can have happened?

[claire_leonhart]

Hi, they can still see my listings, but I had to turn it off, maybe price are too high now by them, and so people are put off the sales, plus it wanted to use UPS and such, which I don't use, I always sent by a local UK service and nobody ever complained. I made peace with myself that in the current way of deals with deliveries by Ebay I won't make anymore sales even abroad, so I am thinking another place where to do it like before. Price are too high with them and so uncompetitive, plus you have to put the packaging in the item price which is higher now, and the fact I cannot choose the right amount for offers, put away sales by them now completely, buyers are not silly, they notice the spike in price. Try to put it off again and have a check about how things are going, this is the busy time before Xmas, you can have a good understanding of what works and what not.

[fricdawf]

Thank you for your response.

I've discovered what actually happened. Today, eBay sent me an email stating the following:

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One or more of your listings have been hidden for not following our Search manipulation policy. We understand that this must be frustrating. But don’t worry — we’re here to help!

What happened

Manipulating search results to gain unfair visibility of a listing is not allowed.

Please understand that you used the keywords "(G.I. Joe" in the title or description of the listing. Keywords are often used for the purpose of diverting members to a listing, which is not permitted. Also, usage of different keywords in the title results in a poor search experience. Keywords can be defined as brand names, celebrity names, designer names, specific products, or other much searched words, which are unrelated with the actual item for sale. You can relist your item by removing the unrelated keywords from your listing.

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As you can imagine, I am rather annoyed by this. Firstly, eBay took 8 days to inform me of this 'infraction' which has cost me that amount of time in sales. Secondly, it would appear that this is just AI Bull*bleep* as the listing keyword was perfectly legitimate.

Another eBay customer that has had a bad experience with a company that appears to be swirling down the drain due to unmitigated greed and stupidity. eBay used to be great. What happened?