eBay UK have today announced the changes known as “Seller Release 2”, due to roll out over the next six months. Many are similar to the eBay.com announcement but there are subtle differences so it’s worth reading the entire announcement to check exactly how it’ll affect you.
New Top Seller Program
From the 1st October the Top Seller designation will be added to the PowerSeller program. Top Seller status is open to all PowerSellers and in intended to focus on those giving exceptional service. To be eligible PowerSellers will need at least 100 transactions a year and meet the DSR requirements which (to be a Top Seller) will be less than 0.5% low (1 or 2 star) ratings with an average rating of 4.6 across all four DSRs.
Top sellers will gain the Top Seller badge, promotion in search, exclusive access to certain features (e.g. Featured First), preferential customer service and the highest level of seller discounts. The PowerSeller icon will no longer be shown on item pages, about me pages or any other pages that buyers can see.
Improvements to DSRs
1) Only DSRs from domestic transactions count – International DSRs will no longer count towards PowerSeller or TopSeller requirements
2) Tranactions and DSRs from repeat buyers count
3) No postage related DSRs for items which only offer local pick up
Changes to search
Best Match will change with an “Item Quality” score replacing “Recent Sales”. Item quality is the ratio of sales to search impressions (how often a listing was shown on the search results page). Some features including Bold, Highlight and Featured Plus will discontinued as of 22nd September. Top Sellers will get a boost in search with the Top Seller icon displayed in search results. Poor performing sellers will be demoted in search.
New Selling Practices
As with eBay.com there are new seller standards which bar comments such as “I’m not responsible for items lost in the post”. Sellers will be expected to live up to their stated terms which also means no hidden charges.
Postage and shipping changes
Free shipping will appear in more categories – notably CDs, Cassettes and and records. Optional insurance will no longer be permitted. Sellers will be able to specify where they ship to on a country by country level and tracking information will be expanded to include more carriers.
Unpaid Items & Dispute Resolution
There will be a streamlined unpaid item process with more neutral emails sent by eBay cutting the time it takes to resolve a dispute from 60 days to 30 days. There will also be a new dispute resolution process for when buyers claim an item was not received or the item they received was different than described in the listing. This should be in place by Christmas this year.
As with all eBay changes they’re likely to please some and not others. What do you think? Are they largely in your favour or do you feel they’ll disadvantage you? One thing is for sure, eBay is changing again and sellers will need to change with it.
203 Responses
What do I think? I think I’m glad to be just an interested observer now rather than still selling seriously on ebay and having to continually contend with change.
I welcome these changes, as my business is geared to to achieving this already. What I would like eBay to take note of is buyers leave a 1* for the slightest disatisfaction. For instance I had a 1* recently from a buyer who was pissed off that I was asking him for payment for 14 days, I then filed for my final value fees back. His excuse was he went on holiday, and neglected to tell me. All I was doing was following standard customer service (i.e. polite emails) and then the dispute resolution. I am sure there are many of these incidents, but I fear a minimum of 2 a month is cutting it very fine??
now we have to ensure that no more than half a percentage of people we deal with have an issue
can no one else see that to obtain the discounts you have now you need to have more than 99.5% happy customers
who else or where else has this level of customer satisfaction?
in fact its further than that
to obtain the discounts you have now you need to have more than 99.5% happy customers in 4 areas
lose out on one area and you lose your discount
how close to 100% customer satisfaction to obtain discounts can you get!
excuse me while i take the rest of the week off to read through the numerous pages and understand it all…
did they actually TRY to make it as complicated as possible?
#6 >> lose out on one area and you lose your discount
Which, by the way, may be less than you are getting now, even if you do improve your customer service to less than 0.5% disatisfaction.
If I’ve read this right, our FVF discount will be going down by 5%, even though we currently meet the requirements for PS and Top Seller.
hmm i note that even with Top-rated seller status, the FVF is 10% less than currently….
Hmm. category changes coming to Home & Garden, announced on the 28th July to enable us to ammend listings bla etc >>>wrong, list of category updates will be availabe at the end of August.
Gee thanks.
“To be eligible PowerSellers will need at least 100 transactions a year and meet the DSR requirements which (to be a Top Seller) will be less than 0.5% low (1 or 2 star) ratings with an average rating of 4.6 across all four DSRs.”
The 12 month eBay average DSR score across co.uk for Postage & Packaging is 4.58.
#3 using some basic calculations Gill based upon current levels of feedback etc I need a miracle 😆
Only time will tell I guess, as I have said many times before I am only here for the traffic, when that stops I am gone.
Sure the new FVF structure is 10% less generous than the scheme it replaces .. but highlight + bold + gallery plus + FP was £17.70 per days.
For lowish item prices you are better off…. which is me.
I just done a quick DSR score check and im on 2% 1s and 2s for everything apart from Item as Described.
Bit of a farce when our average DSR score is 4.8 and our feedback score is 99.6%.
It must seem that too many sellers are getting FVF discounts from ebay where ours is currently at 35% and looks like it will be dropping to 5%.
Its just getting dearer and dearer to do business on ebay now considering we must now offer free P&P in computer and laptop accessory categories.
You do have to laugh at DSR scores though. On the items we sell with free P&P we have a DSR score of 4.91. I wonder how much more free we can make P&P in order to get 5/5.
On Best Match the annoucement doesn;t say that hits per sale will “replace” recent sales, simply that it will be added into the cakemix in an unknown proportion.
Think about it… if it did replace recent sales completely it would destroy chaining of scores and every listing would be a new listing , ramping up sales in a saw pattern.
Let hope that Royal Mail/CWU make friends before this all kicks in….
For anyone interested theres a link on the ebay.com site just above the DSR chart which will tell you if you qualify for the new Top Seller program.
They say…
No postage-related DSRs with local pickup: When we can be sure that local pickup was used for a transaction, buyers will not have the option of leaving postage-related DSRs
so they have option to blank this out, this should also be case for FREE p+p, any sub 5 score is spiteful by the buyer
Also – There is confusion regarding FF and FP, I can’t see anywhere FP is removed…
The fee discount sucks is for people like me selling higher ticket items, 10% makes all the diff.. ;(
#14, linky?
#10, we never used any extra features. never seemed worth it.
#16 I agree, could never understand the point of those extra features, waste of money IMHO
additional features are a total waste of money. I’d rather have my addional 10% discount back please,. This 10% discount i’m losing is over £150/month for me and I’ve never spent anywhere near that amount on additional features.
i wonder how much I’d need to list as additional features to save £150. Oh yeah, it would start costing me money no matter how much they reduce the cost of featured lsitings.
Total b*ll*cks, in my opinion
I can’t beleive ebay try and make this a positive change for us. Last time they reduced the discount on free p&P in DVDs from 25% to 20%, now this. They are just like the government and think slowly making negative financial changes will go unnoticed.
@ 15
You need to visit ebay.com, log into My Ebay and look at your dashboard through there. Just above the DSR chart you will see a link saying click here to see if your on track to qualify for Top Seller Program.
Not sure if this link will work but here goes:
https://etrspreview.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?TopratedSellerPreview
To quote from the announcment “From 1st October 2009 all eBay sellers (including PowerSellers) will need to keep their number of transactions with DSRs of 1 and 2 for item description below 3%. For communication, dispatch time, and P&P charges we’ll be looking for no more than 4% of transactions with DSRs of 1 and 2.”
So I’m being forced into so called free P&P and as such have no control over that DSR, yet it’s something everything else hinges on. How does that make any sense. 🙄
Also, it isn’t 10% of fvf discount you”’ be losing. e.g. If you currently get 35% and manage to get the TRS dscount at 25% it is actually a deficit of around 29% in value. So for every £100 you usually get in discounts, from January, you’ll only get £71
Another way of putting it. If you pay £1000/month in ebay FVF’s and get 35% discount (That’s £350/month)
Under the new TRS programme you’ll get 25% at £250, which is a lot more than 10% of £350 (£35)
very good point elvis, drop from 40% to 30% using £100 example is £40 saving is now only £30 saving, so a 25% loss…
also FP is finished 22nd sept
TracyL – What do you mean by FP finished 22nd sept?
#22 she means Featured Plus.
#17 that works perfectly, thanks. we need to find a way to get out 1s and 2s in P+P DSR down before Oct. Thankfully we have some ideas.
It seems to me that if you have any DSRs under 4.85 you’ll be lucky to qualify for Top Seller, as your 1s and 2s will likely be too high.
For those who do achieve high standards the loss of featured first may mean drastic reductions in sales
but if you’re a Top Seller, you’ll have exclusive access to Featured First.
not that we’d ever use it.
Amongst the plethora of new info. I read an acknowledgement that the changes are a pain…
‘We understand that changes can be disruptive, so these are being phased in over the next five months to give sellers an opportunity to adapt their business to the new standards.’
So we are getting changes twice a year to reduce disruption, but each one lasts 5 months… Well that means 2 months of actual selling to look forward to then…
What do the new media free P&P guidelines mean for US sellers listing on ebay.com but using the international site visibility feature?
Will those listings be demoted? Or will we no longer be able to list media items with that feature?
I miss the days of being to list directly on international sites.
I also find it interesting that ebay.com didn’t mess with media caps–but left them where they are despite a 10% postage increase; ebay.com.au RAISED their caps to respond to a 4% postage increase, and now ebay uk is forcing free P&P on BOOKS–even book LOTS–which are heavy!
Not sure how things work in the UK, but in the US, books are already a low margin product with firm retail prices.
Oh well I’m glad I’ve cut back on CDs. How can “free” p&p be any use to anyone except ebay? So now a £2 CD will cost £3.50, ebay will get a bigger fvf and the customer won’t get any discount for multiple purchases. No wonder so many people contact me off ebay for deals on multiple purchases.
Another load of old ebay b*ll*cks.
What’s the benefit of being a platinum powerseller compared to a Gold Powerseller? (When the new changes have taken effect)
Sue, I’m sorry I wasn’t clear
I can’t afford to list directly on ebay uk as I used to do before the caps went in. I’m still technically able to, but with free postage to the UK for media items, it just wouldn’t work from a financial perspective.
It’s nearly $US 10 to post a small paperback via First Class International Parcel. So while there’s still a nice demand for North American books in the UK, adding that $10 to the item price just wouldn’t work (and how ouchy would the fees be!?)
“From 1st October 2009 all eBay sellers (including PowerSellers) will need to keep their number of transactions with DSRs of 1 and 2 for item description below 3%. For communication, dispatch time, and P&P charges we’ll be looking for no more than 4% of transactions with DSRs of 1 and 2.”
Sue
Can you clear something up for me regarding the above exerpt (being the usual a bit on the slow side), I would be qualifying for the TS program (following Whirly’s link) apart from the despatch time DSR, which has 0.75% (5) of low between Apr-June. So what does the 4% in the above exerpt refer too if mine states .75% gives me a fail?
Excuse my apparent blonde-ness
Yeah ill assume that everything must be below 0.5% or 2. If anything goes over the threshold bye bye Top Seller Icon.
I just had a look at my DSR’s and we wont make it.
The strange thing is we have had completely FREE shipping for 5 months now and the 1’s and 2’s are 0.63%.
eBay what do you want me to do exactly?
You are better giving up trying to achieve Top Seller status and going back into 99p shipping.
The way I see if that works better.
For an £8 item that will drop FVF by approx 4.5p in the tech category, plus you dont need FP any more which was £15. sell 100 and thats 15p per item sold. FVF discount of 40% would be 13.5p so you will be better off abandoning trying to ever get there……
thats my opinion
Surely the bar for top seller is ridiculously high.
The fact they need four (yes FOUR!) pages of worked examples to explain how the DSR scoring works speaks volumes. eBay have finally disappeared up their own backsides.
Hi All
Am puzzled. (What’s new!)
Delivery information will be more visible to buyers to help DSRs: Buyers will see a message next to your dispatch time on the item page. Plus they’ll see tracking information, delivery costs paid, and your stated delivery time in the Feedback and dispute resolution flows.
Erm how will eBay and my buyers know actual delivery costs paid when I use OBA. ..?
Just a thought – any ideas?
Suz x
#38 I think it means delivery costs paid by the buyer, not YOUR costs.
# 19 Patty,
Cheers for that link.
We, according to that WON’T get a top seller rating.
So, how’s this happened, According to our DSR ratings we don’t have any 1’s or 2’s……….Or we must be doing something wrong.
Very relieved that there seems, from what I have read, to be no reason for me to change all my listings this time around.
I can change if I want to!
Concerns mainly in 2 areas:
First: the ‘winter of discontent’ that some PS may suffer who do not make TS. A small number may decide on a campaign of action against those that do.
Second: the timing and content of emails post sale that will be generated by eBay. I have already noticed that 2 types of post sale email (SMP) are going out on .co.uk.
Auction items: ‘you’ve won this ebay item …….’ includes seller generated message set in preferences.
BIN items: ‘you bought this item on eBay …….’ does not include seller generated message set in preferences.
I will need to get after PS support on the latter. Vital info to buyer is not being communicated.
Ebay EOA mails have always sorta puzzled me.
“you won this item”…well duh I just bid on / bought it 30 seconds ago, I aint a goldfish!
Sue, thanks. Yes I guess it could just be the standard eBay one that is going out for BINS. My preferences are set in SMP to copy me on the emails and I only get 1 for each type of sale. Seems odd that the sales would be treated differently. (Whoops – it is eBay)
Something is certainly not right. Will have a fiddle.
Actually have just checked, I do not send SMP end of auction emails.
I do have the ebay end of auction email customised with the ‘include my custom message in this email’ checked.
I had assumed that the end of auction email would be used for all sales. There is no sale of BIN equivalent!
The ‘tin’ says also:
This email always includes item information, your payment instructions from the listing, and a Pay Now button. Create your additional message below. Use the AutoText feature to have personalised information (such as the buyer’s User ID) inserted automatically.
The ‘payment instructions from the listing’ have not been in either variant for quite a number of months.
Is there anyone here who would qualify for Top Seller status? None of our stores do, even with 100% positive feedback.
And agree with Elvis, the change in FVF discount will cost us £100s per month. Thanks eBay.
#47 Yes, we do qualify – however, it doesn’t make me feel special in any way.
According to eBay, TS means:
* Enjoy more discounts
* Increase buyer’s trust with the eBay Top-rated seller badge
* Improve your search standing
Without (too much) sarcasm or irony intended, what it ACTUALLY means for us is:
* See your discount fall by 5%
* Confuse buyers by removing your PS icon, and replace with a new one
* Maintain your existing seach standing
Bizarre.
#48 Whirly 🙁
I think having the Top Rated Seller status will be a genuine benefit & having it will help to increase sales (much more so than power seller). I would imagine that the power seller programe will soon be a distant memory.
Like it or not the way to do well on eBay is to go with the eBay flow. I imagine that there are many sellers who will do very well out of this round of changes.
#48 that could be a good thing.
all that is required is that you are the best of a (allegedly) bad bunch.
to be raised in the search you only need to better than rest and not worry about ebays hoops.
“Best Match will change with an “Item Quality” score replacing “Recent Sales”. Item quality is the ratio of sales to search impressions”
Hahaha…changing it so people can’t easily see that best match does not work. Next eBay will let nano bots decide who gets the best rankings and name them something like liposomobestmatchobots and get Andy McDowell to promote them as a new face cream.
#47 Morning. We don’t.
I have checked all the top sellers in my product cats. none of them would qualify based on DSR, maybe when someone searches for a jacuzzi in a few months time a message will pop up
“Sorry all our sellers are total crap, why dont you buy a rubber duck instead”
#50 Don’t be sad Gill 😆 I won’t be beaten by this load of dross, it’s along way away in the distance, plenty of time to sort out the pecking order.
#52 Good point.
Like many things involving eBay the best bet is just to get on with it, take what you can and not pay to much attention to daft hoops & rules.
Is it just me, or does Ebay treat its sellers as scum ?
#57
Yes ebay do treat some sellers badly – its the sellers that consistently let buyers down. Good sellers welcome these changes (not in their entiretly, but the ethos and the majority of changes!)
This is the score…
Good sellers, with good DSR ratings = good buyer experience = buyers come back and spend more = more sales = more profit = lower prices for buyers = happy buyers
The ebay top seller will be difficult in the clothing category for sure, as buyers can find fault with many things. For me, its an opportunity to really focus on the things that matter. The discounts I dont care about – its the search results that matter here!
I just went to my seller dashboard just to double check yesterday wasn’t a bad dream, it says
1. Your DSR scores are all above 4.60, your average score is better than the average eBay score.
2.Your listings receive standard placement in search results
3.You earned a 35% PowerSeller discount
4.Your PowerSeller level is Platinum
5.Your buyer satisfaction rating is Good
6.Your policy compliance rating is High
7.Your account is current.
But when I logged into .com to double check if I qualified for Top Seller Status it said I was pond life.
😆 o well, onwards and upwards we go.
I’m guessing most of you are shops or regular sellers on eBay, I’m just a normal bloke at home who sells something once every 2 years so the amount of money involved is small in comparison, however I used to use ebay to sell things now and again when I needed to and didn’t walk away feeling like I’ve been robbed. That’s now changed.
I just auctioned a collection of equipment I owned for about £260 on ebay, not very much for what it was but I need to raise money as I’m moving to a flat and need to cover expenses. The ebay fees were about £27 which was quite high, then I was forced (really against my will) to use paypal which took nearly £10 again! It never ever cost this much before. Then to top it all my postage costs were £22 but eBay only allowed me to charge a maximum of £14.
Is it me or has something gone very wrong somewhere along the line? Will these new changes make an even further impact? I just wonder if I could grab a time machine and go forward to 2013 to sell something, will my seller fee’s be 60% of the final value?!
I’d like to use somewhere else, although the problem is eBay’s the first stop for almost everyone so its hold on the market is massive.
I just think it’s unfortunate that just by using the site I’m left feeling ripped off, not an emotional state I’d expect to have after an eBay experiance but it seems more and more people are feeling this way.
Sorry for the gripe, but it doesn’t seem fair to me, although I’m sure that’s arguable.
Its good that international buyers will be exempt – as most of my 1/2’s come from Italy, where postage can take from 7 day to 70 days (yes I had one parcel arrive 70 days later). If I had a button where I could block all Italian buyers, I would – not because I dont like them or Itay – its Italia-Post thats screwed up!
@59 “The discounts I dont care about”
I’m sure you run a very successful business John, but to say you don’t care about this change is very curious. This will cost us hundreds of pounds each month, so we do care about it.
I agreee entirely with you about Italian post though (#61), very little seems to arrive safely or on time.
My main client is also scum on eBay.com, as we were just thinking how to celebrate bringing the shipping DSR up to 4.7. and his elevated search standing.
eBay will loose around £500 a month in featured first fees because he will not be a top seller. Wonder if they thought of THAT one.
Well someones telling porkies, I ran a DSR report and I have zero 1 & 2* from May through to July, logged on to .com to check and I have had 14 (across all 4) from April til June, now either April was a really bad month or something is wrong with the “Top Seller” report…
I still qualify, but I would be more than upset with the conflicting reports if I failed.
#58, Maybe you might change your tune and get off your high horse when a few stupid buyers ruin your top sellers status and you have to put up with being pond scum sellers like the rest of us.
#63 Interesting point actually.
My standard listings fee’s are pennies, like 400 at 4p per month, but I spend £1000+ on Featured first + all the associated FVF’s that follow, I suspect I will be spending £1500 a month less when the new system kicks in.
Re unpaid item,
This will be better for us as we get allot of buyers who want to re cant saying they thought the item was a auction, No idea re why they want to recant from a BIN, but a less harsh sounding way to get money back if seller doesnt often check emails for mutual agree not to complete is better for me.
I wish Ebay would see sellers who sell on the ebay site more as partneners and treat us like as grown ups rather than being treated as a child.
I have sold exclusively on ebay for 5 – 6 years and its been this year (though i think the ecomoney spooked people to look for a cheaper price point) though i am now about to open a website becuase i cant seem to keep up with changes and i have been reported for have 2 multi listings on i didnt know and it was a mistake but i didnt know i was falling foul of a strict rule.
This now means ebay has limited the amount of brands i can sell, edit or relist for 30 days ~ I accept that i should have known etc etc but this is no way to treat a good seller imho! I havnt been told i can only sell X amount i just get a large screen saying you have listed all you can for 30 days!
I do not have negs, or low star status and i have never sold fake goods and feel ebay are being ridiculous~ Sorry i needed to rant!
I didn’t want a website right now but i cant live with these terms, Yes i was in the wrong but to take these steps!!!!!!!
#67 You are right, but it’s a difficult area to manage. The line has to be drawn somewhere and no matter where that line is, there will always be someone just over it.
Push you account manager to help you out and keep pushing.
Hi #67 I am clearly hopeless but i didnt know i had an account manager.
I phone ebay and get someone who says they cant help.
I realise the line needs to be drawn and also that i messed up its just so hard at times.
Thanks though i will try to find my A.C MANAGER!!
lol, If the person you get through to at eBay says they can’t help…You are most likely talking to your account maanger…Just kidding, give it a go.
Hi All,
Our Current Stats are
Feedback = 100% (10300+ feedbacks).
Currently Gold Powerseller (Platinum after Xmas)
Current DSR’s
Item as described = 4.90 Stars:1-2 = 0%, 3-4 = 4%, 5= 95% (Total=99%)
Comms = 4.88 Stars:1-2 =0%, 3-4 = 6%, 5 = 93% (Total=99%)
Dispatch Time = 4.94 Stars: 1-2 = 0%, 3-4= 3%, 5 = 96% (Total = 99%)
P&P Cost = 4.74 Stars: 1-2 = 1%, 3-4 15%, 5= 82% (Total= 99%)
= NOT TOP SELLER (according to the link in Seller Dashboard) as P&P 1 & 2 stars = 1%
It seem 1 – 2 stars carries 82 times the value of 5 stars!!!
If we can’t be a “top seller” with these figures I have no idea what we need to do – we are already out of pocket with our P&P charges.
One competitor who offers free P&P only has 4.8 for P&P Charge DSR!!!
I still feel That P&P charge should not be a DSR as this cost is published clearly in all listings. The buyer knows this cost BEFORE they commit to buy so a post purchase judgement cal is not necessary.
My hope is that our competitors have the sames issues as we do, therefore the effect of lowered visibility will be negated.
styleperfumes
Re: automatic payment reminders from eBay – the .com proposal, more detail. It may of course be different for sites other than .com.
Personally I would much rather that the seller had an individual choice to opt out of all of these. Certainly has scope to impinge negatively on the service that I give now.
Lifted from (login required):
https://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/72709-Announcements-Discussion/Can-We-Opt/510120073
Hi everyone,
I noticed there’s a lot of questions surrounding the Payment Reminder emails and what the changes really mean to the buyer’s experience. If I may, let me take you through the buyer’s experience:
——————————–
If the seller has opted out of Automatic UPI scenario:
AUCTION ITEM:
1. The buyer wins an Auction, and immediately receives an email notifying them that they have won the item (Buyer Successful email).
2. 48 hours later if the item is not paid for, buyer receives an email reminding them that they have not yet paid for the item (Payment Reminder email).
BIN/SIF ITEM:
1. The buyer buys an item (ie. BIN or SIF), no emails are sent immediately.
2. 48 hours later if the item is not paid for, buyer receives an email reminding them that they have not yet paid for the item.(Payment Reminder email). Please note that this is the first and only time a buyer will receive an email reminding them to pay.
——————————–
If the seller has opted in to Automatic UPI scenario:
AUCTION ITEM:
1. The buyer wins an Auction, and immediately receives an email notifying them that they have won the item (Buyer Successful email).
2. 48 hours later if item is not paid for, buyer receives an email reminding them that they have not yet paid for the item (Payment Reminder email).
3. 96 hours later if item is not paid for, buyer receives an email reminding them that they have not yet paid for the item(Payment Reminder email).
BIN/SIF ITEM:
1. The buyer buys an item (ie. BIN or SIF), no emails are sent immediately.
2. 48 hours later if item is not paid for, buyer receives an email reminding them that they have not yet paid for the item (Payment Reminder email).
3. 96 hours later if item is not paid for, buyer receives an email reminding them that they have not yet paid for the item (Payment Reminder email).
——————————–
I hope this clears up some questions regarding how these reminder emails will work going forward. We greatly appreciate all the feedback.
[email protected]
To Simon #71
Seems everyone is in the same boat as you, I have all DSRs over 4.95, still not qualify. If you competitors is not in the same boat as you, it is not difficult to make sure they are, all they is only few 1&2 star.
Roger
@ 74
Will all the big companies such as Argos, Littlewoods, Schuh, Branch 309 etc etc all qualify for the Top Seller Program?
Their DSRs dont look too great.
Where can you view if you qualify or not?
#77 https://etrspreview.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?TopratedSellerPreview
Never mind found it on .com.
We are “on track to qualify for the eBay Top-rated seller program when it starts in October”
Woo Hoo! I guess it’s good news?
Hi,
Bigpoppa #77
Login to .com you will be able check it in the seller dashboard.
Roger
I read yesterday on the UK board that the oldest UK powerseller has perfect 5’s, has never had a negative or neutral or a paypal dispute since joining ebay and doesnt qaulify as a top seller.
This is not about qaulity or discounts or fee’s or whatever spin ebay want to put on it, this move is all about giving the likes of Argos and littlewoods etc the top slots on all the pages, you would be daft to think otherwise.
#75 I am probably more cynical than you 😆
I am not surprised to see changes that appear to involve reductions in fee discounts – the economic climate suggested a likely increase in fees paid would come at some point. I’m no business guru, but I do calculate my margins based on the full fees rather than the fees after a discount.
I think the whole eBay feedback thing is dated and a bit childish. I don’t think green, red and grey dots or a choice of gold stars really contributes to, or supports, adult business transactions. I think in reality it detracts from communication between customer and seller and creates a division where there shouldn’t to be one.
I can see its usefulness for eBay as a tool they can use to claim they are trying to improve the marketplace and remove bad sellers, but really they have been making those claims for years and years and the site is still rife with “I am not responsible for items lost in the post.” and suchlike.
It’s the old “we are only a venue” versus the paternalistic attempt to control participants in the marketplace again – and all done from an impersonal set of automated codes that don’t deal in the nuances of whether a person really is a bad seller because someone left them a 1 star rating because it was the easiest place to vent their frustration about a bad day at work.
One of the flaws of the feedback system is that it encourages the culture of keyboard heroes, no matter which way you tweak it.
So eBay thinks really good sellers are scum. Nothing new there. It’s been going on for years.
In addition to that, I agree with Whirly’s #74 – I suspect that Argos and suchlike will be able to navigate to the top spots on volume alone simply because the lower volume, higher quality sellers are hit more harshly by a low rating.
@74 Totally agree (again)
Another thought about the DSR reports….
3 people gave us 1/2 for p&p charges over a 3 month period.
Which means that over 400 people were quite satisfied with the exact same p&p we charge.
So, clearly those 3 people had issues with my service in some respect. Perhaps they really thought we were charging too much, and that’s fair enough; but I suspect it goes deeper than that. Particularly if other sellers already offerering free p&p are also getting 1&2’s.
Also, I GENUINELY would like to know why they left me 1/2, but I have NO WAY of telling – perhaps eBay could force those folk to leave an anonymous comment that only the seller could see – gotta be better than nothing. Until that happens, those people ARE NEVER GOING TO BE HAPPY with my current level of service because I’ll never be able to address their issue in the future. There’s a great oppurtunity for eBay to further improve after-sales care here, but it’s being missed, and frustrating sellers in the process.
I’m all for improving our service if I’m given the precise data to do so.
eBay’s new Top Seller programme is unfair on high volume sellers!
I give eBay no credit for considering small sellers.
All small volume sellers will qualify for top seller, because they are allowed 1 low DSR per 50 transactions.
The higher volume sellers are working on 1 low DSR per 200 transactions.
I will credit eBay when they look after ALL sellers (Big, Medium and Small)
All size sellers have supported eBay’s growth in the past 10 years, and they think that this is how they should re-pay them?
eBay’s attitude towards their long term business sellers is disgusting. If we treated our customer like they treat theirs, we wouldn’t have any.
#83 Perhaps you a running a temperture 😆
We are a high volume seller and we qualify.
There is only one solution to this farce and I would suggest that all sellers get together and take action.
1. All list on eBid
2. Email all customers to inform them that you now list the same items on eBid at a reduced price as you are not paying so much on fees as you do on eBay
3. Wait until the next shareholders meeting and see some heads roll.
wasn’t it only 2-3 weeks ago when eBay were askinh for our help to sing a petition to help them ?
I have 99.9% 2 neuts and 1 neg (from a non paying buyer)
I fail the TSR as I have (6) 1-2’s on P&P only, the other 3 pass
No matter how eBay try to make this sound it is nothing but a revenue generator and will the BIG guys have to adhere to these policies? I don’t think so.
They introduced the DSR scheme to improve sellers which was a good move but it obviously did not cull enough sellers (Dolphins) as they thought it would.
eBay sellers take the hint eBay do not want or need you no more so lets go help a site that does and stop being walked on like this.
Nice idea…. but:
1. All list on eBid
eBid only have sellers – hardly any buyers. I need to make money
2. Email all customers to inform them that you now list the same items on eBid at a reduced price as you are not paying so much on fees as you do on eBay
As with most eBay sellers 99% of my customers are not repeat buyers. Buyers are unlikely to be swayed between sites for the tiny saving from fees. Most sellers with a high proportion of repeats if they check their feedback will discover it’s multiple purchases on one order – not repeat orders – so emailing old customers (as well as breaking the eBay user agreement and being spam) simply won’t work. Sends me back to 1. above
3. Wait until the next shareholders meeting and see some heads roll.
Many have said this in the past and it never happens
eBay do not want or need you no more so lets go help a site that does
“Help” a site? I’m not here to help anyone but myself. The majority of sellers still use eBay because they can make money on eBay. That simply isn’t true for eBid. I know plenty wish it was true but they simply don’t have the buyer base to make it a realistic reality except for a bit of pin money. Show me just one eBid seller turning over £100,000.00 a year or more on eBid.
eBid, if you are reading this… We are Platinum PS’s and have multiple websites, one with over 11,000 items for sale.
I would be more than willing to list my entire inventory on eBid, once listed I would happily market my listings (thus promoting your site).
However…I simply don’t have the time to list my goods on eBid, only to wait for the buyers to arrive. If you come up with a quick easy way to import eBay listings to eBid, I’ll move in a flash.
This is where someone says there is such a tool.
eBid…bless. 😆
If I wanted to live my life on the brink of starvation I might just at a push give eBid a call. Sorry eBid is just not anywhere near being in the same league.
Yes, eBay are total shitzers..I couldn’t agree more but, eBay have traffic, eBid have dreams.
Bigpoppa : Well, for me it’s actually not a bad idea, and not one that I’d really given much thought to until now. I’ve also been quite skeptical.
Chris – Maybe there are ways of informing people you list on eBid without using e-mail and spam, such as rubber-stamping your packaging with “We sold this even more cheaply on eBid!” or “Get a postage discount on eBid”, or marketing flyers, etc. I’m not sure if this breaks eBay rules either, haven’t checked, just floating it as an idea!
There are “no buyers” on eBid because there has been little need for them to go there…. For my market / niche / whatever-you-want-to-call-it, as of October, there could be two very good reasons for buyers to try eBid. 1. They can get a postage discount. 2. I can pass even more savings on due to lack of final value fees, and even no insertion fees.
I do intend to start listing my duplicate products on eBid as soon as I have some time. I don’t expect to make a lot of money from it, but it’ll only cost me 50 quid.
That 50 quid will give me access to traffic I may not have access to now. Surely it’s worth a punt?
eBid – if you’re reading this – NOW is the time to reduce your sign-up fees and have a promotion!!!!
#95 … or you could auction it off on eBay for 99p starting price with no insertion fee
oh wait, no you can’t – you’re a registered eBay business seller! J
😉
#93 I had a punt on eBid. It didn’t work. Until eBid attracts a few million more buyers I can’t see anything changing. Their traffic levels haven’t changed significantly in the last year/18mths so nothing leads me to suspect that it’s worth wasting the time on another punt.
On the other hand Gumtree got me more sales than eBid. I have to admit to being lazy and not wanting to spend time driving traffic away from eBay to a competitor. Why wouldn’t I just drive it to my own website where there are never any fees? Chances are driving it to a marketplace won’t get me personally any more sales and so won’t be a profitable exercise.
It’s a catch 22 really. buyers won’t come until there is a large range of items to buy, seller won’t come until there are a large amount of buyers.
One of the groups (buyers or sellers) need to make that leap…the obvious solution is for the sellers to make the first step.
An easy to use migration tool would be an enormous leap in the right direction. If I were at the top within eBid, every spare £ would be being spent on developing such a tool.
#93 I have a lifetime membership to ebid, you can have full access to it for 10p, may aswell cut my losses and get something back!
Chris, certainly a brave experiment and an interesting read.
99%+ of my sales are through BIN – did you try that?
Also, as you say, you have next to no repeat buyers, so that’s not something you can leverage. However, I have the same users buy stuff from us every single week. I can only guess they’d switch if they could get a better deal.
I sound like I work for eBid now – I don’t! (Chris knows this, he’s met me) However, what doesn’t work for Chris and whirly may work for me or others.
My problem Simon (and my advice to others) is always to look at the hard facts.
Take a look at the alternatives to eBay (although they’re not all still trading):
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ebid.net+tazbar.com+cqout.com
Absolutely no question that eBid is the leading alternate auction site.
Now bung Gumtree into the mix, oops eBid is nowhere to be seen
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ebid.net+tazbar.com+cqout.com+gumtree.com
Now drop eBay UK onto the chart – See that flat line beneath Gumtree along the bottom of the chart? That says it all for me and that’s why as far as I’m concerned any effort in that direction is a waste of time
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ebid.net+tazbar.com+cqout.com+gumtree.com+ebay.co.uk
#99 Well, putting my website in the mix sees eBid still waaaay up there too…. but I take your point.
I guess I’ve got more to worry about at the moment, what with 3,000 listings to update by October and all!
Driving repeat buyers to your own website won’t cost you anything in fees. Driving them to an alternative auction site might cost you a sale if they find something from another seller 😉
I’d enclose a 5% discount voucher off their first order from your website with every eBay shipment.
I agree with Chris – driving repeat buyers to your website rather than another marketplace is the way to go, trust me 😉
However if you are looking at other marketplaces as well, Amazon is likely to be far more viable than ebid.
I think it MAY be a litle short sighted to simply ignore eBid (although we have up to now). It wasn’t that long ago when eBay was in the exact same position.
If everyone back then had the same attitude, where would we be today.
I’ve got a guy in house who doe sall our web “stuff”, I’m going to get him to look at automating (as far as is possible) the migration from eBay to eBid.
When/if it’s available, I’ll let you know and if you want you can use it.
101+102. Trust me, I’ve been trying to convert those repeat buyers for literally years! But for some reason, they insist on continuing to use eBay. I do know a couple of those reasons, and am trying to address them.
I’ve no intention of abandoning eBay – for us, using Ebid may mean access to additional traffic on a new platform. But, it is low on a long To Do list…
Did eBid ever come out with their own API? I did some searches and all I’ve found is a forum that says they will release it in 2005, many from 2007 saying it’s coming soon, and an AuctionBytes article from 2009 that mentions one but doesn’t indicate whether it was released or if it is just planned.
#103, Ebid are not new to the market by a long way, they’re nearly as old as eBay.co.uk, how long should we wait before they start to make a dent on eBay’s market, another 9 years?
It’s interesting to see the alexia link that Chris posted above in that the most popular destination on eBid isn’t the main site but it’s helpdesk.
Another nail in eBay’s coffin, it’s like watching a plane crash in slow motion….
Steve – https://www.ethicalcompanies.co.uk
Another nail in eBay’s coffin, it’s like watching a plane crash in slow motion.
Steve – ethicalcompanies.co.uk
#107 Ohh I hadn’t spotted that Richard! Very telling! 😯
heck of big coffin
soooooo many nails
Actually, Ebid.co.uk may be older than eBay UK –
https://whois.domaintools.com/ebid.co.uk
domain registered November 1998, though of course this doesn’t tell us when the site launched.
eBay.co.uk first registered September 1998, though as we know, site didn’t go live for nearly another year.
Can any one clearify the following
Only DSRs from domestic transactions count – International DSRs will no longer count towards PowerSeller or TopSeller requirements
In the case of HK/China Seller in co.uk how dose it work?
Hi Roger
Have to be honest I’m not sure, will try to find out next week
Re; Ebid
I just thought I’d do a little looking & one of the things that does stand out is the sellers in various catagories on ebid, in the main do not have much feedback, which also indicates there not much business on there.
Chris, there’s hardly any printers & not many feedbacks either.
Cd catagory seem about the same (-1 in feedback seems quite common)
A good way to see how much is being sold/feedback given……….
#114, I seem to recall some while back that eBid was letting people import their eBay feedback until ebay stepped in a stopped the practice. Anyone remember the details of this?
As for eBid personally, a quick look tells me all I need to know, it’s not worth my time or effort, I’d rather work on venues that actualy have real buyers.
Their message boards are lively and vibrant if all you want to do is slag off big bad greedy “feebay”, must admit I find all it rather sad.
ebid have no significant buying activity. Look at alexa.com…..i think tamebay has nearly as much traffic – and thats with no buying activity on tamebay!!
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ebid.net+tamebaynew.wpengine.com
Hi Sue, that’s something I was aware of, although I can’t recall how long that clause has been in there. Possibly put in after eBid did this.
Oh I hate getting old, my memory keeps fading. 🙂
Surely FB is just a number, would be interesting to see that one in court. I would have thought taht Fb is a measure of the reputation earned by the member. Should that member want to publicise/use that reputation elsewhere, I think eBay would be hard pushed to stop it, UA or not.
Some terms are simply not enforceable.
Bigpoppa – iirc comments were being imported as well. I think that would be a different thing: comments left are allegedly copyright eBay. Like Amazon told me I couldn’t use reviews I’d submitted to them on my website, because by submitting them, I’d handed over my copyright.
Is it enforceable? Maybe. Would it be enforced? Possibly. Do I have the money to take on big scary US corporation’s lawyers to find out? No.
I am not a lawyer, I don’t even pretend to be one on the internet…
Oh ‘eck, don’t upset the eBid Maffia. Not unless you want a lecture about the big bad greedy feebay. 🙂
It’s worse than that, Richard 😉
https://meetup.ebid.net/showthread.php?p=735926#post735926
https://meetup.ebid.net/showthread.php?p=742755#post742755
There is also a hidden clause on the eBay site stating they don’t allow any automated access. It could be argued that anything done outside the API (scraping feedback pages, etc) goes against this agreement.
https://ebay.com/robots.txt
#124 Sue
You know, I don’t think anyone wants to knock Ebid on Tamebay, but the facts stand up for themselves.
In the 2nd link, he guy says:
“However, as a long time seller, a power seller for a while, on eB-y, I would never look to internet auctions to be my sole source of income – those days, I think, are long gone”.
If this is the case it appears only to apply to ebid in preference to ebay, as most sellers that contribute to this forum, do seem to be making a living (Part or Full time) on ebay.
One more thing about Tamebay ‘knocking; ebid,…….they (ebid) should take a long look. as most people on here are knocking Ebay 10 times as much.
All most of us want is a worthwhile alternative to ebay (in tandem or seperately)t
Too many knockers. 😉
While people do knock ebay and sometimes for good reason, you can’t get away from the fact that eBay does bring in the buyers.
Following on the the comments re eBid.
1. I was not suggesting abandoning eBay, continue as normal on there but in the meantime let the buyers know that you exist on eBay.
Chris #89 your way of thinking is singular, my suggestions are meant to be a community thing i.e if a large majority of sellers also list on eBid and they all inform the buyers about the existence of eBid and they come and see that most of the same items are available at reduced prices they may look on there as well as eBay, no they may not be repeat buyers for yourself but they may buy a different type of product from a different seller, whereas as a previous buyer from another seller may come and buy one of your products.
If we all help each other in this way the only looser is eBay, and if this makes them look at the results of their greedy bullying actions then that can only be a good thing surely?
here is an insert from an email I received from one of my buyers
Thanks for the info, and yes you could say my eyes have been opened! Not only does it seem unfair to both buyers and sellers, but also it’s way too complicated!
I wish you all the best with the move to ebid; you certainly seem to be aiming at (and achieving) excellent service levels, so I’m sure you’ll succeed. I didn’t know of the ebid site but will call in there in future to see if they have what i am looking for for sure
The main problem is Buyers don’t know about eBid and the ones who do do not have enough choice on there, can we change that? I think so as we are the ones who can provide the listings and inform the buyers of it’s existence.
another way of looking at it is if a Major shopping center suddenly increased all the rental prices and the retailers got together and decided to relocate to the new shopping center 2 miles away do you think the shoppers would just go without or travel to the new shopping center?
If my suggestion is done as a community then it can work, even if it only make eBay review their own actions and greed.
#128, Give me one good reason to promote eBid over my own web site? Because I can’t think of a reason to promote other possible competitors on a site either.
#129 continue to promote your website obviously.
If you look at the bigger picture eBay is the main site buyers visit they buy from you and you promote your website with your correspondence, this is logical and good marketing. What harm can it do to also make the buyer aware of eBid for other purchases? (no this won`t increase your sales from this buyer as he will be aware of your website where he may make savings) but he might buy from another seller selling different products than yourself.
Now if we all did this the the buyers from other sellers would become your future potential customers on eBid rather that eBay.
Keep in mind my suggestion is not designed at individuals it is aimed at us sellers as a community informing the buyers of where they can buy at reduced prices due to lower fees.
I agree ShaGGy, but the effort “currently” involved with managing/creating listings etc on ANY other site is something most sellers simply don’t have the time for. Especially where there is no sign of an immediate return on that investment.
A tool that migrates listings would transform eBid overnight, I would suggest that almost every seller would populate eBid if the process was quick, simple and risk free. This is a solution that eBid should really be working non-stop on.
#131 Bigpoppa
I am inclined to agree.
Once ebid introduce a migrating listing tool, most sellers would take the punt anyway.
Afterall, we are here to make a profit (preferrablyor at least a living).
Ebid prmised this tool some years ago (see Sue above) but it has not happened.
If Ebid seriously want to consider themselves as an alternative to the current leaders then they have put in the groundwork, to help & make it happen. It cannot stand well with sellers, when they say a tool will be available, then there is silence……………………
We’ve been registered with ebid for about 2 years & have yet to list 1 item (we’ve been waiting for the tool since 2005).
SO EBID if you are reading this forum, don’t complain about no one being there, get the tool working, sellers will come, Then spend a few grand (well a few hundred grand would help) on retail advertising and you will get buyers.
ShaGGy, what kind of utopia are you living in? Why should I waste my time creating and maintaning hundreds of listings on another site that’s been trying to beat eBay for the last 9 years and failing badly, for the benefit of others? Harsh as it may seem I couldn’t care less about the “Community” other sellers or eBid. Yes I’m looking after number one.
I checked that top seller program check link. 5 of my eBay IDs qualify 🙂
Steve – ethicalcompanies.co.uk
#133 is why alternatives to ebay never stand much of a chance.
Too much me and not enough us, sadly a inditement on most of society.
#134 I presume you know the rules re trading on ebay while Narued?
#135, I run a business, not a charity. Do you list on eBid?
Richard,
If a company as competition they have to be more careful on the changes they make that affect their customers.
eBay as no real competition at the moment and that is why they basically can do what they like and we follow like lemmings until we reach the edge of the cliff.
Before you spout the ‘well you don`t have to list on eBay’ well yes we do as they are currently the best place to list and promoting your own website can be very expensive, so there is no real alternative, Do you really think eBay would have introduced the Top Seller programme which is set at an unachievable level if eBid were a bigger threat to them? plus the Top Seller Programme is so open to abuse it is unbelievable, eBay reducing our fees to 5% from 35%, where do you think the extra is going? my guess is to fund the reduced fees that Argos etc will be getting regardless of their customer satisfaction, if your happy to loose discount and increase your prices to your customers just so eBay can keep the big guys on board you are being very short sighted.
eBay are aiming to be a major shopping Mall with the Major retailers on board only, They are not interested in the small sellers no more (they just want us a bit longer until they manage to attract the Big Guys).
Why wait ? act now.
I agree that eBid need to really get their fingers out of their rear ends regarding the import tool as this is a major reason sellers are not listing there, if the tool was available then I guess most sellers would list there if it is not time consuming.
Hmmmmmmm, wonder if there is any mileage in creating an eBid bulk upload tool – taking the data from eBay listings ?
On diverting buyers from eBay to eBid – Quite frankly I pay eBay fees to generate traffic to my listings and to find me buyers. If I listed on eBid I’d pay eBid fees to generate traffic to my listings and to find me buyers. If they can’t do that then there’s no point chucking them fifty quid as the return on investment (both time and money) just isn’t there.
Overstock are useless for UK merchants – They made a splash about how they were “opening up in the UK” and all that turned out to be was to convert currency to Sterling and ship from the US to the UK. They’ve done nothing to make a proper UK site.
For limited product lines Play.com and Pixmania (Pixplace) are options, both sites offer limited categories but for those they suit both are better than eBid as at least they have traffic.
At the end of the day there are too many people wishing there was an alternative when to be honest they’d do better swallowing their pride and annoyances with eBay and admitting that (with the exception of Amazon) eBay are the only UK marketplace worth listing most product lines on.
Eddie if you create a tool there will be three certainties:
1) A load of sellers will bung eBid their fifty quids and use your tool.
2) Most of the imported listings will have links to sellers eBay shops, eBay T’s and C’s, eBay galleries from the likes of you or Auctiva etc. etc. etc. Import tools are fine….. once you’ve got description only descriptions, but most sellers haven’t.
3) People will soon realise that eBay ain’t so bad after all if you actually want to turn over an amount of money that can generate a proper income.
#137, While I continue to make money on eBay I’ll keep listing. The powerseller discount should be a bonus, not something you rely on, I never have. When/if a decent competitor to eBay with the same sell through rate appears I’ll use them.
I’m no longer into office politics, I gave that lark up nearly 5 years ago when I went self-employed. I look after number one, if that offends anyone, tough. 🙂
eBay for me? – usp – worldwide reach with trust – has my full commitment.
Proposed changes – still more questions than answers.
But looks like:
As a PS (now) worldwide
As TS status (future) probably 2 or 3 sites at best
Fees more
Pushed to own website most unwillingly but it makes sense
Fees much less, turnover a bit less, profit more
Well done eBay.
Actually eBay probably will be more efficient (for eBay) with lots fewer sellers all paying lots more fees.
I have seen this model before.
Bon voyage!!!!
# 139 With all due respect, Chris, I think we’d all do well to listen to the wise words in # 137. Ebay tolerate us for now. We stick our heads in the sand as non-corporate sellers if we “swallow our pride” and just put up with the constant changes designed to slowly squeeze the life blood out of us.
I’d go as far as to say it’s naive to think otherwise.
The irony is, we’ve seen likes of Dell and Sony try eBay and not like what they’ve seen. eBay customer’s are demanding (I’ve been advertising a two weeks on Amazon – made 16 sales, all at full price and had ONE pre-sales query).
There’s been talk (and what looks like real evidence) that eBay have been manipulating the DSR scores of the big boys (someone on YouTube did the maths and queried how it was possible to get a 5.5 average and on a 5 point scale. The soundtrack of that video’s now been wiped).
eBay can and do remove feedback IF they want to – (heck, they’ve even done it for me, and I’m a nobody) meaning they can ‘assist’ (shall we say) those Diamond geezers to keep good averages.
We should all be looking to diversify as much as possible. If we don’t jump, we will (eventually) be pushed.
I don’t expect to make much on eBid, but I sure am willing to give them and as many others as I can find a try.
@ # 143
I’ve been monitoring the diamond powersellers for almost a year. All I’ve found are a handful of feedbacks being removed that most normal sellers would have no chance of getting removed, one case where a seller oversold one item and got every neg/neutral removed for that item regardless if it was due to the overselling or not, and a bunch of people getting suspended almost immediately after leaving non-positive feedback. Unfortunately, all in all the level of manipulation these sellers receive is not enough to alter their feedback scores more than a fraction of 1/10 of a percent.
It may be the case that their DSRs and search rankings are being manipulated (maybe each 4 is really a 4.6, guaranteed top results in best match, etc) but that is a system hidden from everyone. There is simply no way to prove it one way or the other.
I don’t really think that ebay should be worried about sellers migrating to ebid. We all know that ebid is not a viable market.
What ebay should be concerned about is that a heck of lot of sellers WANT to migrate to an alterative platform. Ebay know that they are the only option for most sellers, but they really should be concerned about the resentment and hostility many sellers have for ebay.
I would love to jump ship, but I can’t see any viable alternative on offer.
But, and this is the crunch, if a viable alternative entered the market place then sellers would leave in droves. Some consortium of businesses might just pick up on the idea and launch an alternative.
We live in hope.
#135 I presume you know that I don ‘t give a stuff about anything you say ??
#135 actually something you mention is really stupid. Even within eBay’s rules I can still trade on eBay if I choose to. My NARU’ed accounts are not me personally, they were the limited company’s. I can still trade with an account in my name or in the name of another company (if I so chose to start another Ltd). eBay’s rules would have a tough time getting round that one in court. However, I will admit I would not have, nor be prepared to spend the money to find out.
#145 eBid is the viable alternative. Anecdotally from this thread, it would seem its major obstacle is a lack of buyers.
I know one thing’s for sure – anything I buy on eBay, I will check for on eBid too from now one. And my wife will do the same too.
So they’ve just got two more potential buyers.
For those who want an alternative (and I mean alternative, not replacement – competition is good) then make sure you stress to all your friends, colleagues, buyers, distant relatives, etc that before they buy on eBay … check on ebid too!
Wouldn’t take very sales to pick up over there.
As sellers, that has got to benefit all of us in the long term. Turnover may not increase, but there could be freedom from restrictive directives and increasing fees.
Quote from the help pages.
“While your account is suspended, you will not be able to use eBay in any way”
please note the words “you” and “any”
I do hope you havent annoyed anyone.
Note: you = Retrowarez.com Limited
Note: you does not = me personally
I could still use any accounts in my personal name. Limited companies are a separate legal entity, a “person” (legally) in their own right, but I guess you don’t realise that.
And this is the way it should be, hardly anybody would start a company otherwise, if they had to “carry the can” for everything if the company went astray in any way. That’s why sole trading is scary stuff.
Why would anyone choose to shop at eBid?
#151 To see if the same item is cheaper.
Look at the home page it’s geared to selling (not buying). As Johnny Rotten once said “ever had the feeling you’ve been cheated.
PS How long has that limited offer been running?
Hey Jimbo, I have a sneaking suspicion that eBid’s current and only business plan is to sell fifty quid memberships to sellers. If someone coughs up their fifty quid everything else they need is free which doesn’t incentivise eBid to do much else.
I’m sure that’s a vast over-simplification, but it sure doesn’t appear to build a long term revenue stream which is kinda essential if you’re going to have funds to promote the site to buyers.
OK, so I just looked at eBid as a potential seller, first thing I did was look at potential competition from other sellers. I easily found one with close to 1000 feedback and a couple of hundred auctions running, most sellers in that category had a LOT less feedback
On examining that feedback, recieved as a seller only, much of it (120+ only in 2009) was received from the same buyers, and reciprocal feedback was left !
Is this par for the course on eBid, ‘buy’ off each other only to increase your feedback score ?
This reminds me of another ex eBayer who punted eBid on eBay, they had over 5000 feedback (imported from eBay) 1000’s of eBid auctions listed, and virtually NO sales since they were a member – so where are the buyers ?
Maybe Chris has nailed it – maybe their business plan is to collect £50’s from hopefull sellers ?
Well put Sue.
Steve – ethicalcompanies.co.uk
#150 i think you might find that legally and the ebay way are some distance apart.
ebay tends to act first and worry about your “legal” standing later, they aint too big on presuming innocence.
Either way directors (unless they’ve made personal guarantees etc) are not responsible for a company’s “wayward” ways unless illegal and/or of malpractice etc. eBay have no right to block my personal account on the grounds of “associated ids”.
Steve – ethicalcompanies.co.uk
What you are all saying is correct eBid at the moment is not going to make you a fortune, but why?
I think it is because the buyers don’t know about it (try asking you friends and family)
Now if we all listed on there and informed people of eBid’s existence then they may go there and buy (especially if the sellers are passing on the savings in fees to them)
Once you have one happy buyer who saved on eBid don’t you think they tell their friends and families also? remember that’s how eBay became so big (it wasn’t from advertising but from word of mouth)
If we had done this 12 months ago do you think eBay would be introducing the impossible to achieve Top Seller Programme now? (including the discount reduction)
Do you think eBay are going to stop at this? if so you are blind.
Are you going to wait until the day eBay make it impossible for you to sell on eBay unless you are a Major retailer and then sit there with all your stock and no way to sell it wishing that there was somewhere else you could be selling it on?
It costs £50 to have an account on eBid
Most of us have a customer database of hundreds or thousands of which most do not know about eBid (see my email above from a customer)
How many sellers are there? say 1000 of us also listed on eBid and notified our customers.
That is potentially 1,000,000 (one million potential direct buying customers) add to that all their friends and families, is it such a daft idea?
If it only forces eBay to review their ill thought out ideas then we all benefit.
If your car insurance company tells you that the 70% discount you have earned over the years for being a careful driver who has not made a claim and been a valued customer, then in the next breath said but were reducing your discount to 20% what would you do? just say okay or change insurers?
I would guess the latter and why? because you can and there are alternatives.
Given the amount of anti-ebay feeling around at present post phase II announcement, I’m sure many won’t be feeling too upset by the following headline….
Skype could be cut off for good over dispute
https://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article6735381.ece
(Note to Chris / Sue – This could be a tamebay story in its own right?)
#160 shaGGY
Just out of interest,
You appear to be very pro Ebid, so please do tell how many listings you have on ebid, how many items you sell & what your feedback is on there (not inported from anywhere else).
Ebid, if they want to be the new ebay, need to get some good software to import bulk listings as they said they would in 2005, & then some good retail advertaising.
BUT as Chris & Sue have said, do they want that or do they care if anyone sells anything.
The new ebay ”top seller’ program stinks & frankly it will make more & more sellers jump ship, but to their own websites I suspect.
We have no objecion to being rated on how good we perform, it makes us keep working, but Powerseller discounts do that anyway.
We enjoy getting that bit off our FVF & if now, it ‘ll only take a fraction of your buyers ‘having a bad hair day’ to screw it all up, then ebay will suffer.
We do DSR checks regularly & the latest shows 2% gave 1s & ‘2s for poor description, yet we have no new listings, all of our listing have run for months with the same descriptions, no buyer has complained about any fault in the descriptions,or returned/requested to return any item so how do we deal with it.
DSRs are not a bad thing, but Ebay always say they are educating buyers about how to write them, but clearly that message is not getting through. It give the buyer a strangle hold over the seller, who on the opposite hand has NO tools to help themselves.
Last year we all had to adapt & change, but here we are in 2009, all shaved & cleaned up, & ebay then (for all our hard work) give more power to the buyers & take more power from ‘THEIR’ fee paying sellers.
One of ebay’s good parts is it allows anyone to sell something worldwide, be it privately or business, & we all know how the local high street in the Uk are becoming the sameness, where the big boys rule. BUT if ebay keep driving out the smaller seller in favor of the big boys, ebay will just become another high sreet online.
# 163 Sue
Sorry Sue, I was doing 164 at the same time, so it’s a bit of a repeat of what you’ve said.
Firstly i’m not PRO eBid as you say, no matter how you look at it eBid are the only other real alternative.
Sue: yes I do agree with you regarding eBids efforts but your website wil never be eBay for traffic.
My point is let the buyers know there is an alternative give them the items to purchase and let the buyers decide where to shop.
As in my example of car insurance when there are alternatives on one company becomes a tyrant who create rules and changes to benefit themselves only as they know they will loose a lot of custom.
eBay are becoming a tyrant and will continue to bully us until they feel we have no use and then dispose of us.
I am also NOT anti eBay I DO LIKE a lot of the changes they have implemented as they have been fair and workable, the recent TS programme is not fair in anyway, anyone who does qualify for it will not, once a competitor marks them down, and eBay have no power to prevent this. (I JUST fail to qualify due to 3 low scores which are due to expire in the next 2-3 weeks so I should qualify, so this is not sour grapes on my part I have excellent DSR’s and great comments from my customers)
As Sue says eBid need to get there fingers out of their rear end and get this tool implemented as there is no better time than NOW.
#164 Gerry I don’t think the top seller program stinks. I am very optimistic about it & think that it is very achievable & will be very beneficial (but won’t pass any final judgment until it is up & running). For years power sellers have been complaining that the power seller criteria has been far to lenient.
There is already viable competition around for ebay (mainly own websites and Amazon) – it just doesn’t come in the same format and maybe never will as the world has moved on now. I suspect future competition may come in completely different formats again.
As others have already said, ebid has had many years in which to make it’s mark, but unfortunately it just hasn’t really taken hold from a buyer’s point of view (remember a couple of years ago – come to ebid where you can buy and still be negged). I have a lifetime membership which I picked up for a couple of quid when there was an offer on, and I have had some sales on there in the past. However, I’ve never got round to listing more, partly because I’m not convinced the effort needed would be adequately repaid and partly because last time I looked my categories were full of a few people selling stuff for a few pence above trade price.
I do understand where you are coming from Shaggy, but I sincerely doubt that ebid is the answer 🙁
#174 You told me I could have it for 10p!
The problem with eBid is their is little or no money in the pot, you pay £50 and thats it, for a lifetime of selling with no fee’s, what would happen to customer support,software,hardware if things got serious?
You can’t run a succesful business if all your customers only pay a £50 one off fee and then never have to hand over another penny again IMHO.
I wasn’t clear then 😆 IF things got serious and it suddently became swamped with sellers and buyers all draining resources,customer support etc their wouldn’t be any money as all the £50’s have already been spent. (thats a guess of course)
btw, I am one of those people who paid £50.00, however I paid it to protect my brand name, I don’t want some second rate firm pinching my name and ending up on the front page of google when punters do a search by business name.
#174 mind you, can’t remember ever seeing one of my products on eBid show up on the first page of anything apart from the ‘Daily Waste of Time News’
Talking to yourself is a sure sign that its time for dinner and a lie down.
I lied Simon, sorry. 😆
#168 Jimbo
It stinks, beause it gives more power to people that want to give the seller a £100 worth, when spending £1 (and I add, we give the same service to both).
I am not against buyers being given good service & as I’ve said in 163 above, if you give good service, then hopefully you will get good vibes back. It is the tiny percentage of 1 & 2s that bothers us.
Our latest DSR check ran between 19/7 and 31/7. We had only 43 buyers complete the DSR out of 150 + feedbacks. Having read ALL the comments, we can see nothing but praise.
No buyer has made any comments in feeedback or directly by email, but still we have 1s & 2s in descriptions from 2% (3 buyers).
We’ve no way of countering this, because we do not know what we have done wrong, if anything?.
The effect is we will almost certainly loose some FVF discount & we cannot do anything to stop it.
We are on edge of completing our own site & of course ebay will be a good platform for getting buyers to it, but we’d much prefer to give all to both, but ebay’s made the decision for us.
Gerry for me, I’m not even thinking about the FVF discount. It’s the improved search standing & the push that I think eBay will be giving “Top Seller” sellers which will be important.
Am I right in thinking that you need to be looking at your stars over a 3 month period rather than a two week period? If your doing 1000 transactions in a 3 month period you should have a fair bit of leeway.
#180-Agree with that.Sales first, discount as bonus. We currently would only fail to qualify as a TS by being 0.02% over on shipping time, based on May to June scores. We get a Green Tick (!) on all the other criteria. Will ebay make the decision at the start of October based on August to September ratings?
S’ok, found it on the eBay page now.
“Sellers with more than 400 transactions in the last three months will have their instances of 1s or 2s on any of their four DSRs counted for that three month period”
#180 Jimbo
The FVF is not the main part for me either. It is definately the search standing that is the +.
Atually, I just had another look at the ratings & as you said the figures up there are for April-June.
These were not brilliant months I must say*.
Seem to have had an many arguments with a few buyers during this time, but I will say that these will drop out by October, so hopefully we’ll keep an eye on it, we may get there!!!.
* 1 buyer thought he was buying 6 of something, but it vwas 1. Claim thrown out by Paypal.
* Buyer said something was faulty, but refused to return it for inspetion. Claim thrown out by paypal.
* Buyer said item faulty, but again, refused to return it inspection, then said
‘if you send me one free I’ll remove feedbak (My back in the air……heels firmly on he ontree & called his bluff, Got him for feedbak extortion, though.
Sorry if my posts appear to have lots of spelling mistakes, it’s just the C & T on this laptop’s keyboard that keep dropping out.
Needs an MOT , like me!!!!
Ive thought about this and the top seller program is very bad. The margins are just too low.
Ive just had a buyer buy 2 brand new items. Apparently one doesnt work. He wants a replacement for the one that doesnt apparently. Wont go to the post office to return an now wants another (3rd) He’s saying “ebay told me to leave you a negative” which i know is codswalop. If i was a top seller, id probably just go along with his demands, it happens about once a week that they veil the threat of these negs unless i bend over backwards for them and give them extra stuff. Its always worded so its not a threat meerly a suggestion or the new fav “ebay told me that”
it makes my blood boil.
Rant over lol
@ Sue: ‘far too strict’, probably, far too complicated for sure.
And eBay is going to send all my longstanding customers who pay periodically emails @ 48 hours which I cannot switch off.
Those customers will all get emails from me telling them to ignore the ebay email.
Who is going to look silly me or eBay?
@Sue
Its all about the service – me
or
Its all about the dropshipper, can’t combine, won’t combine – ‘them’
Many bad feedbacks to biggies (US anyway) mention the fact that they won’t combine to save shipping charge. Well if shipping is ‘free’ that sort of goes away?
You decide!
#186
They will want us to clock in and out each day, give deadlines and replies to ASQ’s and reprimand us for not doing so probably 😛
BTW, Gerry – when a couple of letters broke on my lappie’s keyboard, I found someone on eBay selling replacement keys separately. Might be worth checking.
#190 – good point. Working for myself is now a little less fun than it was a couple of years ago, because I have so many more rules to follow now – just like when I was working for someone else!
I know, I know, I don’t have to sell on eBay, but actually, I kinda do.
BTW – will the Optional Postage for international postage also disappear, or is it just domestic?
#193 – Oops – I meant optional insurance 🙂
MY FEEDBACK SCORE 9556 JUST LOST MY 100 PERCENT TO BUYER FROM ITALY GIVEN TRACKED AIR COST BUYS THEN GIVES A NEG FOR HIGH POSTAL CHARGES,YOU ALL KNOW WHAT WE DO TO KEEP GOOD FEEDBACK GUESS I CAN SLACKEN THE SEVICE A BIT NOW
The whole Fb thing is a bit tired now, don’t you think? it’s about time eBay dropped it completely and only have stars, no comments or little green/red blobs.
195 totally agree. ecom. has come along way, feedback I would guess was a way to rate sellers in the early days when alot of punters were still nervous about buying over the net, these days its 2nd nature…that might explain why only about 60% bother leaving any and 50% of those only bother leaving stars.
eBay would still be great without feedback.
As far as I am concerned its just an irratation for buyers, when I buy something and it arrives and I am happy …thats it! I really can’t be assed to leave feedback, the only reason I do is because I know from personal experience just how important it is.
I spent all of 2 minutes wondering about the feedback I leave buyers…as a a rule I just say ‘yep your fab blah blah’ am I missing a trick? can you promote your biz effectively. in the feedback you leave?
But I only sell to get feedback!!!
I knew I was doing something wrong!!
Agree with all the comments on feedback. I think the idea of leaving feedback in this day and age is soooooo primitive and somewhat childish now.
I never bother leaving feedback as a buyer, let alone fill out DSRs. They’re akin to taking part in a market research survey and I just haven’t got the time!
Also, I think once eBay have got enough Diamond sellers on board – and a select amount of other high volume sellers – they will do away with the feedback system – or at least water it down.
I can’t see them allowing buyers to badger their brand name sellers with negs and low DSRs. Or else they readily remove those that these sellers object to.
Based on my observations over the past year or so on all the changes, I believe that feedback on eBay is only there as a means to protect PayPal. Feedback is used indirectly as a tool for them to assess your risk as a seller and they kick you off when you are no longer profitable to them. Feedback doesn’t protect buyers because eBay/PayPal now supposedly do that. It definitely doesn’t protect the seller. Still, I’d never buy or sell on eBay again if they took away the seller’s feedback.