eBay Turns on Business Policies by Surprise

by: shut1968

It wasn't "snarky" I quoted what you said..
It's unfortunate that there are a few sellers that complain whenever Ebay finally gets something right for a change that benefits the majority of sellers.
In this case all they are trying to do is satisfy sellers who complain that people win auctions.place orders and never pay.. I applaud them for finally addressing the problem, not only does it stop people from making bids/orders and not paying for them.. it also helps curb shill bidders trying to run the price up in the last few seconds with the fear of outbidding and being forced to pay for their own items.

You can't have both, while I can't see it as being a major issue since I myself will sit down and go through a sellers items quite frequently and in some cases it's "thousands" of items I am scrolling through and adding what I want to my cart it's a rare case where someone actually buys it before I complete going through them.. and being someone who has close to 40,000 items listed I can only think of it happening once or twice a year from a selling standpoint..
There are workarounds, let your customers know to add the items they want to their cart and when done submit the order for a total with combined shipping, and if they see something they can't live without go ahead and buy it and you'll refund the extra shipping later... OR price all your items up and include free shipping then you don't have to worry about it at all.

by: eBetsy

Business policies are a nightmare — too many duplicates or near-duplicates created automatically, all named with numbers so I have to actually read them to see what they say. If I could rename them with, say, a category of item, they might could be useful. As is, not so much. Going to go check now that my account is not affected.

by: WhySoManyDownVote

If only eBay had some place that they could warn buyers and sellers when they make changes. They could also post when multiple buyers report the same error and acknowledge that they are looking into it. Oh, wait it does exist and eBay runs it… but they only admit mistakes and changes once everyone has already found out the hard way.  

by: Snapped

“ It's unfortunate that there are a few sellers that complain whenever Ebay finally gets something right for a change…”

Sure.  Except when they (finally, after a DECADE) got around to it, they didn’t get it quite “right”, did they.  Instead of giving sellers a CHOICE, they defaulted yet another function that sellers now have to turn OFF if they don’t want it.  By surprise, without announcement no less.  And that’s commendable?  

They just can not ever seem to assimilate the fact that not everybody fits ‘their’ definition of what works ‘best’.  That it is diversity that drives richness and quality, not sterility and inflexibility.  Or that the way to attract more customers is to offer a wider array of choice, instead of my way or the highway obfuscation.  Confusion caused by lack of clear communication.  

“There are workarounds…”

Right.  But the list of ‘workarounds’ (typically a little ‘different for everybody no less) for trying to navigate almost everything eBay is longer than their list of ‘instructions’.  And in too many cases will still enrich eBay at seller expense.  Imagine that.  

So it becomes a matter of what one is willing to tolerate just to operate.  Which continues to exasperate and alienate.  

Nobody is ‘complaining’ about the idea here; as noted, it was ‘requested’, albeit too long ignored.  It’s about the execution, or lack of it, as too typically applies.

by: unkevin

I thought that the immediate payment was not optional, and it would eventually become standard.  I find it annoying and potentially expensive if my account does not have the cash and eBay puts their greedy paws in it without reminding me.  Plus, as a seller, again their greedy little paws are in my business, the auto payment costs 30c each offer that is accepted or buy now is made without add to cart, which is discouraged.  30c each adds up and cuts into my profits.