eBays latest changes

United States
April 22, 2010 8:40am CST
I have been selling (and buying) on eBay for well over a year now and have completed over 100 transactions. I've always made it a point to be as fair as possible to both buyers and sellers. Ebay's recent changes are pushing me away from being a seller though. First, they take away seller's choice to accept checks or money orders - the policy now is you can only accept a payment via an online method such as PayPal. Then they take away the seller's ability to give negative, or even neutral, feedback to buyers. Yes, this provides extra protection for the buyer to feel more comfortable being honest with their feedback. However, as a seller I've had several negative experiences with buyers, and the worst I can do is just not leave any feedback since the only other choice is positive feedback. How is this fair to sellers and how can I warn other seller's they're dealing with an at-risk buyer? Now their latest change is not being able to make insurance optional for the buyer. And if we want insurance, it has to be rolled into what we charge for shipping (meaning we raise shipping costs), as a handling fee, or included in our starting bid price. All of these changes are getting very frustrating for me as a seller, but the biggest one is the feedback issue. I contacted Ebay about my concern and they basically could care less. All I received back was a reiteration of their policy. And their system is set up so that if it detects any wording or settings contradicting these policies in your ad, it flashes a big warning and tells you to go back and change it - and if you post it anyway without changing it, they can pull the ad at any time. Do you sell on Ebay? What do you, as a seller, think of these changes?
4 responses
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
22 Apr 10
you are right! i dont like the fact that you as the seller, cannot give negative feedback. it doesnt seem fair to me because as a seller, you are bound to need to give negative feedback.
• Australia
22 Apr 10
i agree!!! I have had numerous buyer never pay me. i think we as sellers should be able to leave negatives in this case to make sure other sellers are aware of the persons previous behavior on ebay.
@newtalent (1112)
• United States
22 Apr 10
eBay is geared for the buyer, definitely. I had issues to but this is starting to just be unbelievable. I do not know what is worse, the consumers or the sellers, we still go back to the same treatment. maybe if we all quit eBay for a week or two (hard to do ) in protest, then maybe they will see what is wrong and change it, maybe not. What else can we do????????
@benny128 (3615)
22 Apr 10
I personally stopped using ebay a long long time ago when the prices went through the roof and business sellers could sell on it. So unfortunatly I guess the way ebay see it is that you are only one seller and they will prob have millions and millions also look at paypal guess who owns it ?? yup its ebay lol so the more transaction's that go through paypal the more ebay make. I stopped using ebay as I say and have been using a usa based web site to sell my stuff on thats only a few cents to list items and no selling fee's one heck of a lot cheaper than ebay. If you want any more info drop me a friends request.
• Australia
22 Apr 10
The one thing I really hate as a seller is that I cant leave a NEGATIVE for a buyer even when they dont pay me. Yet buyer who receive there items can still leave NEGATIVES even though they have received their items. Its crazy!! The one thing I am happy about is that they have lowered the insertion fees. Now I can list anything under 99 cents and not have to pay that darn listing fee. I think that was a good change.