One Fear about eBay GTC Mandate Is Laid to Rest

by: industrystones

Typical Losers.
Roll out the changes Quick, Quick Quick - Be the first in line. go go go
We are the pioneers! The innovators! The online force to be reckoned with!

...meanwhile, their system is rife with bugs, codes all f*c%ed up and no one has answers to anything. But hey!  We got our idea out from drawing board to completion. We'll deal with all that small nonsense later on at the expense of our sellers time and energy.

by: Silver Ice King

Ebay has been making promises they do not keep at least since Donohoe took over, although i think it has gotten so much worse under Wenig because he talks out of both sides of his mouth depending on who he is talking to and needs to accomplish.  So lying about anything is deemed business as usual in the ranks since the CEO also does it.

by: nothingnew

I will be doing the EXTRA work to insure to manually end listings on day 29. Unless I want an item to repost. Nothing to see here but a money grab by a pathetic sinking ship.

by: hawk

if ebay would actually do something to help sellers (you know , the ones that actually built there sorry as**s to a huge company) i would drop to the floor. that time they spend screwing with sellers is slowly destroying everything. greed destroys all things in the end.

by: sasikat9

If Ebay every had an original idea they would require brain surgery for the idea clot filling their brain.

by: ZZ

One thing we can deduce about this GTC policy is from eBay claiming it will make for better placement if you have multiples of the same item, because the Cassini algorithm will know if you've sold X number of copies. That implies when an item is relisted, regardless the number of copies offered, that Cassini doesn't remember it, which makes me think the whole concept of a "stale" listing is made up BS by eBay.

by: Rexford

"Cassini doesn't remember it"

Whether or not items sell is dependent on whether or not Cassini "remembers" it.

They can't just show folks the items that they are actually looking for.  It is should be so simple, but they had to create some search monster that needs to "remember".

A company that can't do simple programming playing with artificial intelligence.  Oey vey!

by: Chicago48

This is the part that should scare everybody:  and will incur listing fees with each renewal).  This might be a good step for someone who sells in massive, or bulk quantity, but for those of us who sell one-off, it's not a good policy.  And....is there a guarantee with each GTC listing, your listing will bump to the top of the search -- NO!!!

by: jewelryqueen521

Already last week when I repisted on my cell, it would only allow good til cancelled. On my Regular computer I could still do 30 days. Odd???

by: VV

Ebay has the short yellow bus of IT

by: spooky

I use 30 days for my non-auction listings. A big problem with the GTC policy is I will probably have to cancel my listings manually on day 29 but I have found that the last day is also one of the most productive for sales nearly equalling the first day or two.

by: Frank Abagnale

@spooky

"I have found that the last day is also one of the most productive for sales"

These buyers usually watch an item in hopes that the seller will put the item on sale because some sellers will put an item on sale if there are watchers. If you don't put the item on sale then some buyers will buy the item on the last day. One thing you might want to consider is to start all your listings at midnight. Then, when you end your listings, at say 10pm for example, you will get the benefit of the sales on the last day. This of course should work if the automatic renewal is schedule to start at midnight.  

by: mcposty

Ask them about the charging for gallery plus bug please. If not caught, once relisted, you won't really know if you have been charged until your bill comes.

by: Paul W

eBay could make all GTC listings renew on the same date each month with some workaround for February to avoid the double relists in any month.  Seems like that should be simple enough, but with eBay, who knows?

by: RKTOYS

The part about 31 days surprised me.  It's a little clumsy but it'll work.

by: Lightning

@Paul W
You are right, Paul.  I was just thinking the same thing yesterday.  Each listing would have a ''month-iversary'', instead of an anniversary (annual).  You list on the 15th, it ends on the 15th, month after month.  No creeping forward like it does now when relisted for 30 more days during a 31 day month.  You wouldn't even NEED an adjustment for February.  It would just relist on Feb. 15th, like all the other months.  You could never get double-billed.

Or they just do 31 day GTC instead of 30.  Either way works.  EBay will never understand such a simple system, and oh yeah, they don't care!

by: NoMoreEbay

Another day, another change to screw sellers. Nothing new.

by: DRA

The NEW GTC on Fixed Priced Listings Policy is that Sellers may cancel listings early without penalty...though, as has always been the Case with GTC Listings, the eBay System will not allow GTC Listings to be cancelled within the last 12 hours of the listing. So, you may want to keep this in mind in determining when you want to end your items prior to the 30 or 31 day period (depending on what eBay decides to do about that issue).  

by: Lightning

According to eBay's NO-Help section, you can cancel a Fixed Price listing at any time.  It's auctions that can't be cancelled within 12 hours of their end time.  At the top of the relevant page:

"You can cancel an eBay fixed price listing at any time, but auction listings can only be canceled in certain situations."

Here's the URL (that will always come out formatted in a weird way here):
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing
-listings/canceling-listing?id=4146&st=2&pos=2&query=Canceling%20a%20listing&intent=cancel%20a%20listing&context=9014_BUYER

by: Number 6

Alas, the latest, and for us, probably the final straw, scummy ebay money-grab trick has begun - today I can't list for 30 days anymore - we list all month so keeping track of this is going to be a nightmare, or not, perhaps we'll just knock ebay on its head when our store runs out and concentrate elsewhere, for all its faults at least Amazon (and every other selling website) only charges a monthly fee + fees on items that actually sell - and at Amazon for $40 a month as a Pro Seller you can list as many items (that aren't gated) as you want, a way better deal than a paltry 1,000 items for $60.00 ebay store + 10 cents every extra item over 1,000 a month - anyone who can afford the next store tier up might as well have their own website infrastructure as far as I can see, it'd be way cheaper.

What's great though, is despite telling us GTC gets lost in search rankings, and, as we know, continually emailing is to 'lower our prices as customers [prey telll me, what are they?  An extinct species one bay] are 'looking' at our listings - maybe they'd make more money charging non-buyers to brose the site instead.  Our listings don't even show up in search half the time (I just checked, yep, a whole bunch of our current listings aren't showing up in search whatsoever despite being non-generic type items, Free Shipping and competatively priced)...ebay's had an about turn, apparently GTC is forced on us to help us sell our items, not line ebay's pockets:

• To help you sell your item, fixed price listings can only be listed with a Good 'Til Cancelled duration. The listing duration has been set to Good 'Til Cancelled.

One thing this GTC proves is that ebay makes more money from repeated listings that DO NOT SELL (we all live in hope these days don't we, those of us that are unfortunate to have to eat and keep the lights on), that it then doesn't show in search, unless you pay extra for 'Promoted Listings' and who knows if these are actually seen anyway....than it does from fees on the handful of sold items I now see in just about every different genre of Completed listings on ebay.

Most of our sales come from new listings, listings about to close, and mysteriously a few days before our store invoice is due (when they show our items briefly so we can earn enough to pay them) - with GTC TWO of the main selling periods per month will be gone for good - I'm sure many sellers have experienced this - many buyers treat fixed price items ending almost as if they are auctions coming to a close.

But hey, they're helping us sell our items...

I seriously doubt they'll have more than one or two month's spikes in income from this malarky - when most sellers realise what is happening to their listings and fees they are far more likely to quit selling than they are to come up with workarounds like tracking what to end on day 29, etc.

Of all the things they've forced on sellers of late, I think no-choice GTC is perhaps the nastiest, most deceitful, and to quote Daffy Duck, 'disspicable' treatment of sellers in a long time.


Whatever will they come up with next?

Oh, I know, a fee to END your listings early - bet they're working on that one already.