eBay Makes Major Fee and Feedback Changes in New Spring Release

by: WOODJUNGLE! ON EBAY

The drop from 11% to 9% for fixed priced listing will actually lower fees for many of those who's shipping cost are a larger percentage of the total sale.  I've calculated that I pretty much being forced to move to an anchor store but with that 2% drop in FVF, this may actually decrease my fees. Unless I'm missing something.  I've never been a recipient of having my fees lowered when Ebay announces lower fees.  I may have lucked out this time.

by: dans parts

As I mentioned in my post above, and what Jeff was referring to was the ''Fee Illustrator'' eBay came up with, and all it illustrates is the difference in your fees with the different Store scenarios.  The Calculator comparing eBay fees to Amazon is a different thing altogether.

And there's also the EcommerceBytes fee calculator.

by: Marie

@bitbybit

Even adding in PP fees doesn't make Ebay higher overall.  In some places yes, in most no.  But PP's fees or at least some kind of money processing fee should be represented in the comparison because Amazon's number include the money processing.

http://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/sell/sellinfocnt
r/amazon-compare.pdf

Now with that said, Amazon is reported to be losing some of it's major retailers due to their recent fee increases and they may be coming to Ebay because it is now cheaper.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/18/us-amazon-se
llers-idUSBRE92H0CR20130318

by: 16mmfilmseller

@Jeff@ebay - have sent you a message - hopefully it got through. Thanks!

by: captain obvious

@jeff@ebay

I would love to participate in these changes..i very much enjoyed selling and buying on the site for over 9 years.  unfortunately I can only buy now, even though I was told otherwise by one rep.  I guess second chances are only for criminals behind bars and in government.

by: Tula

@Ed Gadfly said: "Remember the true purpose of eBay - to return value TO THE EBAY SHAREHOLDERS."

Um, how is that any different from what we sellers are doing with our businesses? Companies are in business to make money for their owners. Sure, Ebay does things we dislike - no arguments there - but there is nothing wrong with a business making profits for its owners. That's the goal of everyone of us, after all. Now the way Ebay does it may not be to our tastes, but the goal is not invalid because of that.

Sorry for the rant, but it just bugs me to see people complain about businesses wanting to make a profit as though that goal is somehow a bad thing. Yes, they should be legal and moral about it, but profit is not a four letter word.

by: pace306

Everybody needs to just understand how this all works ...

Nothing eBay does is for you the seller. eBay firmly believes buyers are the key to growth and each and every policy is geared towards them, not you. No matter what eBay Pinks tell you - and they have been trained to lie to you - to placate you - the simplfied fee changes are a way to slip in fee increases without saying so.

1) Its simply obvious how bad things are if you read the other stories here about how eBay goes out of its way to pay off bad buyers - including ones that refuse to return items, lie, dont follow the rules AND excuse bad sellers - ones who have 100-1100 negatives a month under the lie of "its all proportional to sales". No, its not - if you have 200-300 negatives a month - you are doing it wrong! Its about obtaining buyers at ANY COST.

2) Item isnt sold until blah blah pays. Instead of doing like a human being and not a monkey (sorry monkeys) there wouldnt be any unpaid issues. Sears doesnt have them, Newegg doesnt have them, Buy.com doesnt have them and neither does Amazon. Only in eBayland can this occur, and then the sillyness of its in or out of your inventory - needs to even be discussed!

3) Pictures ... well eBays grand scheme of a catalog (ala Amazon) isnt going the way it should ... in fact it sucks. Its not all eBays fault - alot of manufactorers just dont want thier items on eBay in any fashion and vertainly not in some online eBay catalog. Of course eBays coziness with some of them was supposed to help solve that issue - but if those manufactorers are serial VERO abusers to eBay sellers, why would eBay think they wouldnt be hostile to eBay itself (that would be people like Monster and Skullcandy just to name 2). Premium stores, free first page banners and dels of the day arent enough to make them like eBay (you should have asked me - Id have saved you the embarassment!). The pictures (nice, clean and sized) are away to get YOU the buyer to help them complete thier catalog - with no work on eBays part. Its not about Googles SEO - eBay and Google hate each other - eBay no longer even submits auctions to them! Read the eBay policy - data you enter becomes THEIR property! Thats why last yr there was a push for UPCs! You the poor schleppy buyer will fix eBays catalog - and if you dont go along with it - suffer!

4) the push for stores and the fee structores is part 2? 3? of the getting rid of auctions game. eBay is too well "known" for auctions so they cant just dump them. Besides, it leave loosing buyers with a bad experience (remember its thier opinions that count ala free shipping and returns). So all eBay has done is A) make sure you are committed (like an asylum) to eBay via the 1 yr up front store - they hope you wont stray and B) made doing auctions unprofitable.

Thsi update like all others will only cause more seller flight - not that eBay cares. Note the Apple deals on the front page - another shady "we wont tell you who it is" eBay backroom deal. They sell ALOT of Apple goods there - enough that my headphones and your art mean nothing to them in FVFs or otherwise! Why do yo think eBay sent around the survey about what YOU do to merchandise your sales? To find out whats going on and tighten the noose yet again. (They cant legally stop you from putting a flier in the box)(they can try but have no standing).

Remember - as Annie and Ric and Ming and Howler etc have said - DIVERISIFY. There are other choices besided eBay - AHEM Amazon (esp if you have goods you can sell there). Amazon eats eBays lunch all day every day. And if they dont work for you - then go to Etsy, Buy.com, Newegg, Sears and anyone else - including your own site - or even RETAIL. eBay doesnt own you or your goods - do whats best for YOU!

by: Anonymous Annie

@Marie: It disappoints me too... but it rarely surprises me.

You're right to point out that we are adults and that we have more sense than eBay gives us credit for. It seems to be something that eBay has forgotten.

It's bad enough that they do things like this at all... but then for someone to be so dismissive about it, and to try justify it with such a lame excuse.

''Not all sellers use PayPal as their payment system.'' ... oh brother! It's maddening AND laughable all at the same time.

Ultimately, these types of omissions and inaccurate comparisons (aka ''smoke and mirrors'') do very little to improve eBay's reputation. Instead, it confirms our suspicions about eBay, and it validates our cynical and sour attitude toward eBay.

I concur with your observation about having met some fantastic people. A couple of online meetings have turned into face-to-face meetings. Pretty cool and great fun! And there are many other wonderful folks with whom I've only spoken on the phone, and communicated with by email. --- The sense of camaraderie and community has definitely waned during the JD years.

by: arisdisc

I'm with dragonfyree on the 'for sale until paid for issue'.
I have about 5 regular buyers (all International) who take their time filling up a 'box' (I sell records) to get the shipping discount. Some of you would say 'only 5 sellers? not a big deal', but the fact of the matter is, these 5 end up spending a LOT more $$ than the normal buyers.

I understand Ebay's move on this, but there ought to be a way for sellers to 'select' a handful of buyers to opt out on this.

My other issue (not answered in Ebay's newsletter) is whether the free monthly listings are the 'first' listings of each month. I specifically pick special times to run my auctions. I don't like the idea that they have to be used every month at the beginning of the billing period.

by: Marie

Oh Annie, I couldn't agree with you more.  This thread is a perfect example.  If members felt more valued, all this complaining would be minimized.  

But because most are so use to Ebay not being straight forward with us, no matter what Ebay does they are looking for the down side or evil in it.  

***********************

In this Seller update, there are several VERY good things in it. But that isn't getting much mention.  And for most sellers if they would take the time to look at the fees overall, I think they would find it is a minimal change.  It is just a different and far more simplistic structure.

Yes there will be sellers that pay more and there will be sellers that pay less overall.  Not everything works the same way for everyone.  We have diversity and way too many variables.  With this Seller Update it is an excellent time to re-evaluate your business procedure on Ebay.  There just may be ways you can modify your business in a POSITIVE way and pay less fees.  But it requires an open mind and consideration on multiple points.

by: Marie

@arisdisc

That is addressed in the email release.  You may have just overlooked it.

It is first come first served.  They don't have to be used at the beginning of the month.  If you don't post until the middle of the month, they will be there for you when you start posting.  They are good all month until you use them up.

by: JustTheFacts

I guess the FEE increases have shaken everyone so much that no one really seemed to see the other smoke and mirror change ebay is promoting, which is the FB and DSR removal for cases sided for the seller.  

What ebay is not telling sellers is that under ebays new policy ALL cases are automatically decided in the BUYERS favor through an UNRESOLVED format.

It does not matter what the buyer claims, they are not required to return the item, provide proof or do ANYTHING for that matter.  They can even ignore ebay.

It does not matter what the seller offers them, unless the buyer agrees to it the seller automatically LOSES.  The seller does not have to do anything wrong nor have any other legal obligation to do anything further.

If the buyer does not agree, the case is now classified as "UNRESOLVED" and is AUTOMATICALLY decided in the buyers favor, and the case counts against the SELLER and the seller will be penalized accordingly.

I believe ebay is doing this to try and FORCE sellers to do WHATEVER the buyer demands without question and no matter how much the seller will lose.

Because ebay cannot legally demand we refund without the item being returned, they are retaliating against all sellers for NOT doing it.

It is like they are saying; "No we cannot legally force you to give us your lunch money but if you do not, we are just going to keep hitting you with a billy club until you hand it over."

I posted this in another post but I think it should also be posted here to bring attention to it as it deserves.  And maybe Jeff can address it.

This is ebays new buyer EXTORTION PROTECTION racket.

So again, ebays new "seller protection" is a SHAM because they already ELIMINATED the chances of sellers winning cases unless they agree to be EXTORTED.

Jeff, could you please explain to sellers about this.

by: Ming the Merciless

Sorry to chime in so late, but I had to make an emergency trip to the pharmacy to buy some Dramamine and Pepto Bismol.

All the ebafia spin made me dizzy and nauseous.

We're essentially back to losing Neg Meg Whitman/Bill Cobb model only cubed, and it will be no more successful now than it was then.

If there's anything more that the Wall Street banksters love more than employee layoffs, it's fee increases.

Too bad these criminals continue to perpetuate the myth that ebafia is a healthy corporation.

No one attacks ebafia because they want to make a profit. But most of the profit they make comes at our expense -- ads in our listings and higher and higher fees.

They're nothing more than parasites.

by: nsc

pace306,
If ebay is gearing this change towards the buyers, then why are they taking a site that is already flooded with cheap Chinese carp and ensuring that it will become twice as flooded?

by: Marie

@justthefacts

Please provide a link to the policy change you are speaking of.  

by: arisdisc

@marie

I'm aware of that, but I have buy it now items ending everyday that I'd like to relist immediately.
The free listings would only be beneficial to me for 'auctions', which I would like to start at specific times.
I don't want a lot of 'buy it now' inventory sitting around in my 'not sold' area until I do my selected auctions.

The perfect way for this to work would be to allow us to 'pick' the listings we want for free.

by: Massachusets Howler

Huge fee increase.
I am DIGESTING this and collecting info-
MH- good eye ina for seeing that the PP was not in that chart!

by: JustTheFacts

@Marie..

Are you talking about the "Unresolved status" that all cases go into and STAY now?

If so, you have to find that out the hard way as several of us have because I have been told it is an new INSIDE policy.  But have been held accountable to it.

Aren't you a ebay CSR?  If so you should know about this by now.

ebay seems to have MANY INSIDE policies they hold sellers accountable to but do not tell sellers until they are using them against them.

by: Marie

@arisdisc

I certainly see your point.  But the policy is whatever posts first is credited towards your free listings for the month.  

The only way I can think of for you to avoid the BINs mixing in and maybe using up your free listings it so do your BINS for 30 days only.  Then you will control when they relist instead of doing them as GTC.  You could then fire off your auctions as whatever works for your schedule, then your BINS.  That will work as long as you don't have a ton of BIN listings.  If you have too many of them, then you have to decide if your labor is worth the money you are saving.

by: Marie

@justthefacts

Nope, I'm just a seller on Ebay.  I know it is popular to say that about other posters that some don't agree with or they don't like what they have to say.  But no, I'm merely a seller.

I am sincerely sorry you had the problems you did with your recent claims, however this is not a policy that Ebay has.

I too had a recent claim and I described it on the other thread you were posting on.  It was ruled in my favor and the buyer did not get a refund as I was clearly able to prove they were not truthful.

Without the specifics on your claims, there is no way of knowing what happened to you.  

********************

Jeff if you are still out there, would you please address this as it is on another thread here as well and there is a lot of mis-information going on.