Your Thoughts on eBay's New May 2 Business Policies?

by: Ina

It's about time eBay had a feature like this - could save sellers tons of time when they want to change policies across a certain category of listings! Video was helpful, but it will be interesting to hear what sellers experience once they start using.

by: Ric

Hopefully, this system has been fully tested and will be released glitch free unlike most eBay releases.

Imagine setting up policies to be applied to hundreds of listings only to find the typical eBay "glitch" that will cause sellers to have to repair their listings one at a time.

It will take minutes to set policies for hundreds or thousands of listings, then take days to fix them if eBay's process has any bugs.

Sellers would be wise to wait for a couple of months before attempting to make use of this new eBay process solely based on eBay's history of rolling out programs that have not been fully debugged.

by: Tula

This is a good thing, if it works properly. A lot of us sell a wide variety of goods, so being able to quickly assign appropriate policies and profiles should make things easier. Let's hope there are no "gotchas" that kick in, though.

by: Henry

Not interested. We use Auctiva for listing management and have had this capability for quite some time.

by: Bill

We use SixBit and do not have any use for this but it will be interesting to see what is involved in this and to see if it Does work. LOL

Bill

by: GazLanNaThai

This is all very well, but the key question has nothing to do with bugs and glitches ...

... will PayPal (or eBay) honour the contract between buyer and seller as set by the seller's policies?

Or, will PayPal continue to steam roller over the Terms of Sale the buyer agreed to when purchasing from a seller?

I suspect the latter.  Until eBay returns to recognising that it is only a venue, and allows the sellers to set their terms of sale which are then binding on both buyer and seller without interference from PayPal (for example), then any announcements such as this are just smoke and mirrors for the inexperienced.

by: Sean Mal

I agree with the commenter above. As of now, you can say whatever you want in your Terms and Conditions, but who cares? ebay and paypal FORCE you to accept the buyer's "terms". As a result, I'm not very excited about this "good" change.

by: Brainiac jones

What possible difference could it make to have this? eBay's allowance of business policies flies in the face of the fact that eBay sets your business policies already with its 'business policies' designed for us to all strive toward Top Rated Seller status. Free shipping. 1 day turnaround. eBay's preferred return policy. Whatever! So long as 'your' business policies in your store match what eBay wants...you're golden.

It's a complete joke!

by: genejhsn

I have had this capability for some time now using Auctiva as a listing service. It costs me 9.95 a month and is well worth it, far better than anything provided by eBay.

I sell disk compilations of public domain works on various subjects. The thing that I saw as an issue was having to offer money back to get placed in the searches. I do not shrink wrap or use jewel cases for my items in order to be a bit greener on the environment so my items could be copied and returned for money back, kind of like the ''rental service'' that apparel sellers are concerned about. I ship in cardboard envelopes with a sealed flap. I put the address label on the side that has the flap and stated in my return policy that money back will only be given on items returned unopened in the original shipping container. So far no flack from eBay, but then I service a niche market and sell unique items. My buyer demographic seems to preclude people trying to rip me off, I have thus far had very few problems in that respect.

For those not familiar with Auctiva, they let you set up profiles for payment, checkout, etc and apply them to your listings with templates as well as individually. The ability to edit hundreds of items at a time is easy and very handy.

Having said that, I also have an Auctiva web store that I ma developing as a hedge against the inevitability of eBay making it impossible for me to sell any longer. I know it's coming. I had all my items in compliance with eBay's new rules and my traffic has dropped dramatically. Oh well...

by: Caroline

Ebay/Houdini is all about "Smoke & Mirrors" they are all about "presentation" ;making something sound good that isn't! They write so that the audience is intended to be deceived, they like to make the  client  think they have capabilities necessary to deliver, when in fact it is all about deception.

"Everything that looks good, ain't", If it is to good to be true, then it is to good to be true!

Ebay thrives on policies made to deceive, with insubstantial explanations!

I agree with the others, being able to create "custom business policies - payment, shipping, and return policies" is just another magic act. Ebay & Paypal are the Judge, the Jury, and make decisions without substantial evidence. A real court of law would throw out cases without substantial evidence

They are God!

by: Bloggo

Why bother creating custom business policies on eBay? On eBay, they are unenforceable.

by: The End

ETSY already has ALL of this and more. All simply laid out in every listing.
Know this : On Etsy you may sell : Vintage ANYTHING, Digital Files, Antique ANYTHING, American Hand Made ANYTHING.
ETSY is the only venue that comes to mind when considering where to acquire Good Stuff.