eBay - PLEASE read the room and Trustpilot

[downsizingxs]

A few years ago I'd have been really shocked to see the results below. Not now after the new rules forced on Private sellers.

[clearingmyshelves2025]

Wow is all I can say. 

But not surprised.

[thepillenwerfer]

So the vast majority of a very small sample of e-Bay users are unhappy — a sample that is self-selecting too. We all know that people are far more ready to leave negative reviews or complain than they are to leave positive ones and praise.

How many people post on here to say they sold something for a good price and all went well or that they got a bargain from a good Seller or even that there were problems but they were sorted out to their complete satisfaction?

The 'Partition' that been running for nearly three months still hasn't managed to get five hundred 'signatures.'

[plpmr]

Trustpilot cannot be trusted because of those leaving 'reviews'.

Examples one star review - because eBay failed to help the buyer [outside case time frame], because eBay refused to help after the buyer had been to PayPal first, because eBay allows fakes to be sold etc. 

Also so many reviews are without detail.

[jonatjonatjonat]

Not to say there aren't issues, clearly there is a lot of hate for ebay at the moment - but you only tend to get positive reviews on Trustpilot when you reach a critical mass if you actively request reviews from customers. For which, you have to pay Trustpilot for the privilege.

ebay don't do this and all Trustpilot then becomes is a complaints board, just like these forums.

Amazon.co.uk aren't much better - and they haven't even claimed their Trustpilot profile!

Do you honestly believe only 83 people have had a positive experience on ebay in the last 12 months?

Trustpilots business model is in getting businesses to pay them to filter out negative reviews. Clearly, ebay don't want to pay.

[roberpalme_236]

Like a few people I know I've not signed the petition or left a review on Trustpilot.

Those same people, myself included, have instead voted with their feet and stopped selling and buying on eBay.

[pinemarten56]

Trustpilot? ...Trust no-one. 

Especially on Ebay (or even Ebay itself, it seems) 🙄

[plpmr]

"The 'Partition' that been running for nearly three months still hasn't managed to get five hundred 'signatures.'"

Indeed that's a very good example, especially as I've just looked at it and the last responder is clearly a business seller trading on a private account.

[honeymonster007]

Never even heard of Trustpilot until reading this forum! 

[thepillenwerfer]

@roberpalme_236 

You have done the sensible thing.  If e-Bay is no longer suitable for you or anybody else don't use it; none of us are forced to.  If enough people did leave things would change.  However I suspect only a small number (out of the huge customer-base e-Bay has) will do so as the majority are satisfied, if not happy, with things as they are.  Some who do leave will probably come back when they find that the grass isn't greener elsewhere.

I wouldn't mind betting that if in, say, five years time — after the squawking over them has died down — e-Bay scrapped Simple Delivery and reintroduced Seller Fees instead of the BPF there'd be howls of anguish and cries of "This is the end of e-Bay," "Sellers are leaving in droves" &c

[kath3735_wxmjn]

in regards to your last comment i doubt it!   There may be plenty who are willing to go with the flow, so to speak, and adapt but it does not mean they would object if it was changed back again.  What would probably happen though is that those of us who have stopped listing would return.  Regardless of my success or lack of on the site i have moved to i will not be back on e bay until i can post my own parcels in my own manner.

[ruby*ryan]

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@thepillenwerfer wrote:

I wouldn't mind betting that if in, say, five years time — after the squawking over them has died down — e-Bay scrapped Simple Delivery and reintroduced Seller Fees instead of the BPF there'd be howls of anguish and cries of "This is the end of e-Bay," "Sellers are leaving in droves" &c

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Totally agree. Remember when Paypal was made mandatory, flounces and protests galore.

Move on a few years to the scrapping of PP in favour of Managed Payments, flounces and protests galore!

[gnosemalf]

A few notes.

Firstly, and quite trivially I suppose, as I have mentioned elsewhere, scores out of ten with a minimum score of one are effectively the score minus one out of four so in eBay's case, their TrustPilot score is 0.2/4 or 5% which is beyond abysmal.

Secondly, the suggestion that people only leave reviews for negative experiences does have some merit - I personally expect companies to give good service if they are taking my money and don't think to give a review for satisfactory service but occasionally leave good reviews for exceptional service. That said, and in context of everything already said in this thread, how can anybody explain Evri's TrustPilot score of 4.2 (or 82.5% using the above calculation)?

Finally, what petition are we talking about here? I see a thread titled 'A 'Petition'' but even though I contributed to that thread, I don't consider it to be a valid petition as there is no way to tabulate such nebulous answers. If there is another petition, where is it? I often see social media posts talking about one sort of petition or another but they aren't much use if they are impossible to find.

[downsizingxs]

I'd welcome modest seller fees and the sooner the better!

[jonatjonatjonat]

That said, and in context of everything already said in this thread, how can anybody explain Evri's TrustPilot score of 4.2 (or 82.5% using the above calculation)?

The below is why. They have a paid Trustpilot account and email their customers to ask for reviews. Assuming the reviews in this case are the senders, not the receivers.

If you filter on Organic vs Verified - the following reveals itself...

Verified reviews are 81% 5 Star
Organic Reviews are 92% 1 star

In the case of Evri - organic reviews may well be the receivers of the parcels, but could also be people who have never even used Evri - you just don't know - but unsure why so many senders would be happy with the service - surely you'd review at the point you knew your order had been safely delivered. But it indicates that those customers who have a verified usage of Evri are perfectly happy with the service.

[thepillenwerfer]

The point I was making is that people (including me) don't like changes and having to amend how they do things.  I agree that there'd be jubilations if things changed back NOW but I doubt there would be if they were revoked a few years hence when people have got used to them, and some people will have never known any difference.

I didn't like the sound of Simple Delivery before I used and understood it.  Now I'd use it even if given the choice not to.  I'd certainly rather have the BPF than Seller fees.  I can now sell for what I want rather than what I want plus fees.  That reduces the price to the Buyer and at least partly offsets the BPF; on more expensive items they end-up cheaper.  As a Buyer it's so trivial that it isn't worth bothering about — my latest purchase was no doubt listed at 99p but even after having to pay £1.98 it was far less than I could have got the same thing elsewhere.

[jonatjonatjonat]

Easiest solution is Identical FVFs for businesses and Private Sellers.

Lower fees for anything that isn't New (or a variant there of)

[ruby*ryan]

I wasn't a fan of SD either when it was first announced. But I took the time to understand how it worked, listed a few items using it to start with, found that it worked OK, and now happily use it on nearly everything, other that the odd paper item that I can opt out on and use a stamp. On the whole my buyers get a better deal on postage than they would if I was setting it - partly due to the fact that eBay AI is pretty rubbish at guesstimating the weight and size, and often recommends 'Large Letter' for a parcel!

I too would continue to use it if it was optional.

[thepillenwerfer]

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@gnosemalf wrote:

Finally, what petition are we talking about here? I see a thread titled 'A 'Petition'' but even though I contributed to that thread, I don't consider it to be a valid petition as there is no way to tabulate such nebulous answers. If there is another petition, where is it? I often see social media posts talking about one sort of petition or another but they aren't much use if they are impossible to find.

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That's what I was talking about and don't consider it valid either, hence my putting the word Partition in quotation marks.  My point was that even if  every reply were a  'Signature' there aren't many of them.

[gnosemalf]

Yes, but whenever I, as a receiver (or not, as the case may be) have always given the tracking number and been given an automated response telling me to phone the Evri rabbit hole which, after requesting a phone reply, always results in an e-mail and to date, not a single enquiry has ever been resolved.

I would argue that it is generally the receiver who is left out of pocket - unless, like me, they have resorted to making a claim via PayPal. If the sender makes a claim and the tracking shows a problem, they will probably get a refund. Receivers cannot make a claim and are generally told to deal with the seller which often leads to Escher style slope-shouldering.