eBay Changes Seller Policies in Surprise Summer Update

by: blueribbon1844

A beta eBay would be great, that way they could test all their moronic policies and see what works and what doesn't. meh

by: Windkissed

I have not had a sale in over 3 weeks.  I have been told that I can promote another website on my packing slips.  Is this true?  Please address this in one of your newsletters about ebay.  Thanks.

by: thebobman

>I have not had a sale in over 3 weeks.

I sell used electronics. About the time May started, I went from a combined average (ebay/amazon) of 8.5 sales a day totaling about $600 down to about 5 sales a day averaging $325. I did have a bulk order of some mini computers yesterday($700) but things have been really hit or miss

by: weber796

AS USUAL EBAY HAS DONE IT AGAIN. THEY KEEP CHANGING RULES AND POLICIES AND ONLY HARMING BOTH SELLER AND BUYER FORCING THEM INTO DISPUTES LIKE NEVER BEFORE. TELL THE IDIOTS WHO SIT AT BOARD MEETINGS TO START LISTENING TO THE PEOPLE THAT GIVE THEM A LIVING. A FORMER EBAY SELLER FOR 17 YEARS WHO WAS A VICTIM OF RULES AND REGULATIONS MADE UP BY THE MORONS WHO LOST A GOOD SELLER.

by: spooky

for those of us that sell unique collectibles, antique & vintage, often only one of it's kind listed on eBay, this should have minimal effect unless they want to punish us?

by: etbubba

Virtually everything eBay has done over the last many years has been harmful to the sellers that built them into the giant they are.

Every few months they come up with more and more rules and restrictions, almost all at the seller's expense and inconvenience.  Still sales are less and less continuously.  I had already pretty much decided that this is my last year as an eBay store seller.  I've already shrunk the size of my store. Just wish there was an alternative.  

by: RKTOYS

I swear there must be two different people posting under the toolguy account.  One day he's up in arms about the free rental policy, the next it's back to "weeding out weak sellers" rhetoric.

I have almost 70 people watching a set of listings right now.  Not because of anything eBay did (promote listings on sale? LOL, right) but because I reached oout to past customers.  It's a little disappointing that they've responded through eBay but if they want to pay 15% more that's really on them.

As tempting as it may be, keep quiet about how you're reaching customers or they'll take it away like they just did with social media and links.  That's the kind of pettiness that small minds are consumed with.  Afterall, they're not happy until you're not happy.

by: Michael in BC

To respond to ''strife'' and his/her impolite response..... my point was that if someone were to be in business in Canada, and is registered to collect PST/GST/HST, then the 13% Ontario HST which will be applied to your eBay/Paypal fees is recoverable through input tax credits (you deduct what you paid from the amount to be remitted to CRA)..... so at the end of the day, you're not out of pocket for this ''expense''.

No, I did not state I was a ''Tax'' auditor........I was a ''government auditor'', in a completely different ministry, but do understand how the system works.  I have no vested interest past or present in CRA operations.

If you are an active seller who is not registered as a business, depending on the dollar volume of your sales, quite likely you should be registered and collecting and remitting sales tax.

If you're not, then, again depending on your activity level and volume of sales, potentially, you're evading taxes.

Personally, I don't care who you are or what you do, or what you sell, or what thought processes encourage you to respond to polite comments in such a manner. .  You can explain all that to the CRA when the call comes in.

by: Rural artist

SUCKS. Already we hate that we can not find what we are looking for instead we have to use multiple devises now this! Way to lose more customers Ebay.  

by: The Grey Fox

Here's a little something they slipped into the user agreement changes:

"We may automatically renew your fixed-price listings unless your listing sells out or you cancel your listing."

We specifically quit using Good Till Cancelled to get away from this! Where does eBay get the right to decide whether we want to continue a listing that has expired? I doubt the legality of this, and I doubt eBay can charge us for listings it decides to renew. At the very least there has to be an opt-out to this provision.

by: LasVagueness

Better a buffoon run eBay under the slogan Make eBay Great Again™ while whittling away all the 'new and improved seller updates,' and implementing what truly made eBay great a mere decade ago.  

by: pace306

First eBay came for the auction sellers ...... but because I only list in the BIN format,  I didnt care. I didnt care that my fellow eBay sellers were hurting because I only buy new goods - at B&M retailers and NEVER at  "filthy auctions" and so I didnt speak out and I didnt care.


Then eBay came for sellers who have high returns issues ..... but because I sell items that dont have very many returns issues, I didnt speak up. "The Poor shmoes" who complain about people sending back incorrect items ...... "the fools!  dont they realize that eBay buyers SAID they need 60 day returns with no restocking fees and more!  Those sellers  "should sell what I SELL, who told them to sell those XXXXXX items, the dolts!". So I was silent, what do I care?


Now eBay is coming for sellers like me, and for the pictures I took to make myself successful. 100's of hours of work, 100's of man hours and eBay says its all theirs "just because they feel like it". When I did it, I got VERO'D and punished. I was told that using other peoples pictures ISNT fair use and cant be used WITHOUT PERMISSION, but its ok for them since THEY ARE eBay!

On top of that, now they want to make sure that if I dont knuckle under and do an insane 60 day returns policy, they will  hide my listings. Worse, eBay will start relisting my sales without asking me - charging me HUNDREDS of dollars again "just because they can".


But wait - I know! My fellow sellers will help me - the powerful Auction Sellers, the Sellers of clothing and electronics who get high returns - THEY will help me! After all, dont we sellers stick together!? One for all and all for me .. ? NO wait - all for one - yeh THATS it.


But all I hear is silence. Where are they ? Where did they go? Seems that they are simply not here anymore.... They have taken the abuses, they have heard the blues, the "seller advocates" all tell them too bad eat loss after loss "just to make eBay successful".


So now eBay is here with another seller dumbdate and there's no one here to help me. eBay will steal my pictures, hide my listings, relist my items with out telling me - and THERES NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT .......


Question is, did I learn my lesson?????

by: mindelec

Just want to point out they aren't pushing 30 and 60 day returns... they are pushing 30 and 60 day FREE returns.

by: laurengrace

Forvive me if someone has already posted this.This was in their surprise update.

"We may automatically renew your fixed-price listings unless your listing sells out or you cancel your listing."

by: The Grey Fox

To Pace30: This is from a 20-year eBayer.

First of all, don't sweat the 60-day returns. I played eBay's game up to 30 days but I'm not going any further. I suspect I'm not alone. They only buyers who need 60-day returns are the con artists. Legit buyers don't need or care about it. I can't see buyers filtering by return policy, particularly once they figure out that they're missing dozens of the same item at lower prices. Buyers care about price and the integrity of the seller, not a ridiculous return policy.

If you want to protect your pictures, host them on third-party sites with a watermark only you use, and delete the picture a few days after you know the buyer has received the item. Yes, eBay may have retained a copy, but if you see it on someone's listing file a complaint that the picture was stolen and you can prove it.

And don't sweat the relisting issue. First of all, it appears it really only applies to the Quick Listing Tool which has Good Til Cancelled as the default, but many user don't realize that and have been complaining. Second, if you post a 30-day listing, eBay cannot relist it without your consent. Ah, you say, but they'll claim your consent to the user agreement allows them to do it. Actually, it doesn't, because when you chose 30 days you and eBay entered into a contract, a contract in which you both agreed only to a 30-day listing. And by choosing 30 days, and not GTC, you made it clear you did not want to renew it automatically. Your clear intent in establishing that contract precludes any vague language in the user agreement, because a UA provision that leads to an illegal action or breach of contract is not enforceable. Not the first time eBay has tried to impose unenforceable policies.

And why is it that you only hear silence from us veteran sellers? Because we learned long ago that most of what eBay does is BS that while irritating is mostly noise without substance. We've learned that if you do a good job, treat your customers right, deliver what you say you'll deliver, and act with honesty and integrity, eBay can make all the new rules they want and they for the most part won't affect you. In other words, keep your head down and forge on.

by: thebobman

I have a few GTC listings. Even one thats been run since 2009. I used to sell 3-4 a week of the item, but as technology passed on, I sell maybe 6 a year. But I still make a couple hundred $$ a year on them so thats fine. The listing has sold almost 400 units at about $30 each, with almost 18,000 views. I'm going to have to remove some of the help/driver links if thats what the new rules state.

by: Barbbie

I was in the beta at one time to "help" sellers who had issues with buyers that lie/misrepresent or return something wrong.  They still gave the buyer all my money and I had to pay for the full price of a return of a fifth of the items I sent them in the first place. Why? Because I cannot prove they did it and best of all, there is no ebay return way to only refund 1 of 5 items; therefore, the customer can only get a full refund on a return of any amount of items.
Good luck if you believe this mess. I sincerely doubt that ebay is doing anything to help any sellers.

by: GotToGetOut

The thing that bothers me is that they do not want us to have any further contact with OUR customers once they buy something on Ebay. They want us to consider that an Ebay customer and not a customer we've made and can do business with outside of Ebay.

My feeling is that if I have made a contact with a customer on Ebay and I sell him a dinner plate in a specific pattern and I find another piece the customer wants, I will contact him directly and have all the right in the world to make a deal with him to sell the new item that was never listed on Ebay. I was told once by Griff (the useless) that I am not allowed to sell anything to these customers without going through Ebay.

This policy chance is trying to do that by taking away all personal contact information, even on sales we've made. HOWEVER, I don't believe they will ever be able to take away the email address from Paypal that isn't even their own company. We'll see what happens.

Ebay is doing so poorly, they are doing everything they can to eek out every sale we can make.

The only thing that can save Ebay is to change their business model and go another route rather than internet sales. Now that Paypal is gone, that loss will be a big impact on their profits.

I wouldn't be surprised if Ebay had to go into a totally different business like a start-up of internet financial services and they only allowed us to use that account while building up their business. I was just saying this facetiously but I can actually see this as an option. Unfortunately for them, though, I think that would be the last straw and people would just migrate to other sites if they needed to stay in this tough business.

by: GotToGetOut

To Strife -- if Ebay starts charging us fees on our month subscriptions, you've got to believe I'll be contact the Fair Trade Commission or Department of Taxation or whatever to make sure, they're paying these fees directly to the government. I can just see it now -- they collect the taxes and KEEP it to keep their business afloat. It will take years for the government to catch up with them.

by: GotToGetOut

AND, I think the only reason Ebay is doing 60 day returns is because they can't even afford to give top rated sellers a 10% discount. Once they REQUIRE top rated sellers (eventually) to offer 60 day return, that will return a lot of fees to Ebay's pocket because who's going to agree to that?

I already went to an anchor store seller to a premium store seller saving $300 in month store fees. They just erupted me for a year subscription in May so I'm stuck with my $59.99 premium subscription for another year but I will be seriously thinking about just selling a few items in the non-store category where they continue to offer those people 500 free listings nearly every month (yes, they made it look like they made a big change by lowering the amount to 25 from 50 but what's the difference if they offer 500 free every month).

Why pay Ebay a store fee when we could list for free and the only difference is pay .98% more (not sure of the exact new fee we store sellers have to pay) as a selling fee. In order to make the premium store fee of $60 a month worth it, I'd have to sell $6000+ a month and I'm nowhere near that.

I had 5 days the beginning of this month without a sale. Finally, they started to pick up a little but I will still be lucky to sell $1000.

I don't think it matters if I'm a top rated seller. It's pretty obvious Ebay is only trying to hamper my sales, not help both of us.