is e bay damaged beyond repair

[reasonable..robert]

question.... is e bay damaged beyond repair ?

a lot of buyers and sellers both private and business have abandoned e bay some giving up selling some have gone to vinted which is now flooded with former e bayers and some like myself have a foot in both camps.

e bay appears to have back pedaled on SD as i can still use the normal option but with a trustpilot rating of bad 1.2% and the constant sell for free ad on tv  being run has e bays quest for a larger slice of the cake damaged the platform irreprobly (apologies if i spelt this wrong) or have e bay any intrest at all in trying to reverse its disasterous decisions and try and get members back.

[crafty_cat_lover]

Interesting that you say that vinted is flooded with former ebayers when you bear in mind that vinted has both BPFs and SD - why would a former ebayer who is unhappy with both of these go to another site that also has them?

As for whether Ebay is damaged beyound repair, no I don't think so. I'm still buying and selling on here with no problems. My items are still selling so BFP hasn't put most buyers off. I haven't been moved to SD yet but when it happens I'll deal with it. I suspect I am in the majority as the so-called petition on these forums has not reached 200 replies and I'm sure there are thousands of private sellers on Ebay UK.

[direct.gifts]

I don't think it is broken.

In fact my sales have been better than they have been for a long time. As a business seller I think some of the measures that have been introduced have really helped to increase sales. Previously it was very hard to compete with Private Sellers selling the same items, especially very low priced items. 

I don't think buyers are deserting the platforms. Most are probably unaware of all the changes that have happened. The mix of who they buy from may have changed, they maybe buying more from business sellers now.

As for private sellers going to vinted, this operates very similar to how ebay operates now. There maybe more sellers using vinted but that is probably because it gets decent traffic and sales.

[goldenwolfman]

"As for private sellers going to vinted, this operates very similar to how ebay operates now. There maybe more sellers using vinted but that is probably because it gets decent traffic and sales".

I think your last comment is the most valuable to add to this discussion..

But, I'll add one other - Obey now charge a whole lot more to 'promote' listings - in other words give visibility, back in the day that visibility was available without having to pay 'extra'.

Vinted may indeed be the model on which Obey now mirror themselves, but its Obey that changed, making it harder for sellers AND buyers - because it is most certainly NOT 'Free to sell' - and every costing has to be factored into the sale. That then upsets business sellers who get miffed by other business sellers masquerading as private when its pretty clear they are anything but! All to avoid fee's and legal obligations.

Problem is this has had a detrimental effect on private sellers - whose items are now liable for add on fees to 'protect' buyers (still laughing) - thus increasing the cost of items for sale - so gone are those cheap items - its no longer cheap here to buy! So what do those sellers do - they LEAVE and take with them any buying power they had. Businesses might still be making sales, but for how long - my funds have now gone elsewhere and won't be coming back - prepare yourselves for the drought !

[susapric-68]

Think you private sellers give yourself too much importance. I work with 20+ people and to this day still the only person the sells as well as buys here. Huge majority of the people who will come here have never sold an item online. One thing that stands out on these forums is a large amount of post about refused returns or refunds, private sellers getting buyers to open the wrong return so eBay will close it. that does more damage to eBay than your small buying power

[nuggett46]

Damaged beyond repair? Well, let us put it this way, one would assume that it is run by intelligent business people, after all it has come a long way from the second-hand market place that Omidyar founded, and is now a multi billion pound platform. They have changed their approach to accommodate the selling of billions of *bleep* 'NEW' items buy millions of business sellers, that is sold on all the other sites, and  this site is not the cheapest by a long way, whilst trying to maintain the private sellers niche items. When eBay decide to do something, no matter how outrageous it may seem to us mere mortals, it will be done. After 22 years on here I have seen it all before, many many times, and it 'aint going to change now. So sellers, you either suck it up or try something else and save yourself the heartaches. I will say this though, it is my firm opinion that the viewing public has been drastically reduced since the laughable introduction of '' Buyer Protection Fees'', and I mean drastic! On another ''e'' platform with who I have been  on for over 12 years, viewing and selling anything were almost zero, but as a little experiment I put some bits on, the viewing figures surprised even me, They made it appear that eBay was closed, so there are people out there still looking for stuff, you just are not going to find them on here at the moment I think.

[reasonable..robert]

i agree its the buyers we need not more sellers

[goldenwolfman]

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@susapric-68 wrote:

Think you private sellers give yourself too much importance. I work with 20+ people and to this day still the only person the sells as well as buys here. Huge majority of the people who will come here have never sold an item online. One thing that stands out on these forums is a large amount of post about refused returns or refunds, private sellers getting buyers to open the wrong return so eBay will close it. that does more damage to eBay than your small buying power

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Lot of sweeping statements there.

You work with 20 people, who what... 'buy but don't sell' ?

Does that mean therefor they are 'private' buyers - if so they must be very important, as they are putting money into Obey and not taking it out- unlike businesses which are run to earn a living so obviously the money is taken out. I hope 'your' private buyers don't read that you think they 'give themselves too much importance' or that's you scuppered!

It's pretty obvious that the overwhelming majority who come here have never sold a thing online - that's always going to be the case so you're stating the obvious. HOWEVER - Obey was the one place that private individuals could sell a few items to make a bit of money which they usually spent on here buying often from businesses (like your own) - but now that's being culled and eventually that will filter through to ...business

As for your comments about private sellers 'deliberately trying to get buyers to open the wrong case to stop refunds'  ...never read anything like that here. Having said that, I'm sure that you are correct that the odd unscrupulous sellers (including businesses) will try anything to make a pound. But overwhelmingly people here are honest and in my 24 years here have only ever had a handful try and take advantage.

Last comment - maybe my 'small buying power' is actually larger than your own - you are business so as I said earlier are withdrawing more than you are spending here - so maybe your fellow workers are actually putting more into Obey than you are ?????

[henley-theatre-services]

I have started selling my private goods on facebook marketplace, its surprisingly easy and quick now compared to ebay. Unless ebay change back I doubt I will go back there its spiralled into a useless platform since the week they introduced buyer protection and delayed payments nonsense. Even this business account I am on for my workplace has dried up since, its not just private sellers its effected.  

[henley-theatre-services]

This is 100% true i find it unbelievable that you now have to pay for exposure which was originally part of the deal for already paying them a percentage. Total greedbay now, they must be making a lot less now that they have implemented all these hidden charges and fees and delays because unhappy sellers do not list as many items if any at all, all day every day on all social media platforms about ebay is everyone complaining. I kinda hoping for them to crash

[akemp1]

I don't pay attention to Trustpilot reviews as that site has it's own problems.

But yeah I think ebay need to wake up to the competitive pressures it now faces and it can't keep going on  squeezing more profit out of everyone as buyers and sellers are voting with their feet and seem to be increasingly doing transactions elsewhere at other marketplaces that seem to appreciate them more. Particularly younger people I know who wouldn't touch ebay with a barge pole. Ebay are creating a bad reputation for being untrustworthy, expensive and stodgy - deeply unattractive qualities.

It's not too late for ebay to get some management in that understand the problem but having reflected on it then it's healthy for competition that ebay makes these mistakes so the other marketplaces further develop as it was never right for ebay to have such a high share of the online second hand platform market.

These changes have caused me to signup to another place to buy and sell and I'm unlikely to ever go back to only using ebay again. They are currently my last resort for listing something where there might not be categories or audience for elsewhere. As a buyer the layers of charges mean I will buy a lot less here as there are often better deals elsewhere.

[technthread]

I submit tax returns so will try to put myself in the shoes of a private seller:

I think the HMRC digital sales reporting is the elephant in the room and does more damage to confidence of private sellers than any changes eBay make could ever do.

[susapric-68]

Sorry I can't stop laughing, you attack my post but then counter it by making assumptions based on what you think and not facts. Business sellers can't get buyers to open the wrong return because we have to deal with ALL returns. I have no idea what the workers i work with do, maybe you can tell me. I might be withdrawing money but at the same time paying fees, you do understand no one that works for eBay will work for nothing so fees are paid to maintain the site. What a stupid statement about buyers not being important, you private sellers are not as important to the running of the site as you think. You spend a few pence but want to pay no fees for selling. Like i said in another post, if running a site for free is worth your time then nothing stops you setting up a site and offering it all for free. Think of all the sellers you would get. edit, wow you have sold over 1200 items and  brought 12 times, 12 lucky sellers getting a bit of the money you TOOK AWAY but moaned about a business taking money away

[wintersdawn1]

I think ebay will destroy itself with it's out of control greed.  They show absolute contempt for the users of their selling platform by making change after change to make more money:

• Buyer Protection Fee – a total lie, they are just pocketing the money.
• Holding private sellers money - earning interest/investing.
• Simple Delivery - once mandatory ebay will make money on every postage label for every item sold.
• Hiding listings - ebay are hiding sellers listings so they have to pay to make them visible again.
• Disabling the invoice facility - buyers are forced to pay BPF on each item so no combining orders now.
• With Simple Delivery they make the buyer pay higher postage if a seller only offers one carrier.

[lucy_farmer]

'I think the HMRC digital sales reporting is the elephant in the room and does more damage to confidence of private sellers than any changes eBay make could ever do.'

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think there's something in that; I don't know that it's the major reason for lack of confidence, but there's probably some effect. 

From the point of view of a generic 'genuine private' seller, who's never been self-employed or had to deal with HRMC in any way shape or form : yep. HRMC are a huge terrifying ogre 👹 with the ability to send you to prison for making mistakes! 😱

(Obviously it's not quite like that, but HMRC do like to keep up the 'front' of being frightening so everybody pays their taxes!)

[goldenwolfman]

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@susapric-68 wrote:

Sorry I can't stop laughing, you attack my post but then counter it by making assumptions based on what you think and not facts. Business sellers can't get buyers to open the wrong return because we have to deal with ALL returns. I have no idea what the workers i work with do, maybe you can tell me. I might be withdrawing money but at the same time paying fees, you do understand no one that works for eBay will work for nothing so fees are paid to maintain the site. What a stupid statement about buyers not being important, you private sellers are not as important to the running of the site as you think. You spend a few pence but want to pay no fees for selling. Like i said in another post, if running a site for free is worth your time then nothing stops you setting up a site and offering it all for free. Think of all the sellers you would get. edit, wow you have sold over 1200 items and  brought 12 times, 12 lucky sellers getting a bit of the money you TOOK AWAY but moaned about a business taking money away

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I suggest you take a look back at your original post....

It was YOU who raised the 20+ people you work with - and said you were the only one who buys here and sells here - but now you say you have no idea what they do?

I suggest you read 'your own post' in order that you may be able to grasp my response ...which at no point said buyers were not important - in fact it said the opposite! Neither did it say you were not entitled to take money out of Obey. As for your research into my purchases - if you had done it correctly you would see there are 3 pages of purchases - not 12. Do try and keep up.

Please note also my account has NO negatives, NO neutrals and I won't bother responding with insults as that would be below my level of intelligence.

[susapric-68]

Oh dear you're trying to twist things. People i work with buy but not sell online (didn't think i needed to add pictures when the next sentence said majority people who buy online never sell). For 2 months you lot have been leaving/not buying yet eBay are still here and will be here for years. Have a nice day

[goldenwolfman]

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@susapric-68 wrote:

Oh dear you're trying to twist things. People i work with buy but not sell online (didn't think i needed to add pictures when the next sentence said majority people who buy online never sell). For 2 months you lot have been leaving/not buying yet eBay are still here and will be here for years. Have a nice day

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If quoting what 'you said' is twisting things then you must of course be correct.

Yes 'us lot' have been leaving on the day that SD came in - given as 15th April, just (still) waiting...

All anyone has to do is READ YOUR original post ...the rest is self explanatory.

[susapric-68]

Cut and pasted it for you "I work with 20+ people and to this day still the only person the sells as well as buys here. Huge majority of the people who will come here have never sold an item online. " what part are you not understanding? Out of all the people I work with I'm the only one that sells on here, rest just buy online. Please explain how you're reading it. BTW I do find it ironic you call eBay obey but keep posting because they won't obey you.

[vinylscot]

I only had to see who the OP was to realise this would be yet another negative, but pretty baseless comment.

Of course eBay is not damaged beyond repair. What a ridiculous question.

eBay has introduced a number of changes recently which are widely unpopular (including with me). These changes are still in their early days, and may yet be amended further.

Their timing is pretty poor, I admit. Bringing all this in during a recognised "cost of living crisis", when so many people (mostly needlessly) are worried about the change in HMRC arrangements, was probably a bad idea.

However, it will pass. Once this is all bedded in, and users have grown more accustomed to it, and hopefully there is a bit of a general upturn economically, things will run a lot smoother. Users may well, probably rightly, hanker after the "good old days" before BPF and SD, but that will be pointless. You either work within eBay's rules, or you clear off.

I don't give eBay a free pass on this, their implementation and communication have both been an utter disaster, certainly not fitting for a major multinational company. They should be able to introduce things like this without all this delay and dither.

But, once things calm down, eBay will still be the biggest and best marketplace for most buyers and sellers. To think otherwise is extremely naive.