Many years ago when I first started selling on eBay I was always impressed to see the number of eBay staff who sold online. If you ever went into the eBay offices you’d see desks piled high with items listed on the site waiting to be shipped as soon as the auctions finished.
Jamie Parkins who looked after sellers was a prolific seller as was Matt Priddle who ran eBay Universities and Matt didn’t just sell, he for many years run an eBay Shop and was a PowerSeller (as well as doing his day job working for eBay). Matt was all to familiar with the day to day problems that eBay sellers faced, especially those running an eBay business alongside a full time job as that’s exactly what he did.
Over the weekend I was thrilled to see a LinkedIn post from an eBay Sales Director who is now an eBay Top Rated Seller. I’m not going to disclose his real name as he obviously still works for the company in a senior position, so I’ll call him ‘Bert’ but many eBay employees will know who he is.
Bert decided to do some business selling to step into eBay seller’s shoes and so will be discovering some of the issues that you encounter every day running your business. One thing I can tell you is that he has a late delivery rate of 2.38% (Top Rated Sellers have an allowance of 3%) so Bert is doubtless familiar with how buyers rate him and consequently how buyers rate you.
I’m massively impressed with Bert, he’s not a big seller, he’s not running a business full time as a PowerSeller. What he is doing is using the site as a business seller and at least getting some real life insights into how eBay works and the problems that sellers encounter.
I wish there were more eBay Directors like Bert. Top marks my friend!
18 Responses
Wonder if when he phones up about a feedback or case its handled a bit differently than the rest of us doing the same…
And then he’s paypal account is limited and they want lots of information and put him in paypal jail dean
useless bugger, out late delivery rate is O%
Whoopee doo! He doesn’t rely on the flawed beast that is eBay for a living. The rest of us mortals jump through hoops to make a diminishing return whilst eBay try to convince us all these steps are here to improve our “experience” – becoming too much like that other behemoth and that’s not good.
2.38% is terrible – what is the love in for this guy all about ??
Well the late delivery metrics are “totally” stupid. To actually try and penalise sellers because RMG or another courier is late is “stupid”. We are on around 1.4% UK right now and global we will probably go over. Wait till Dec when RMG do not cope and plus if they have strikes there will be backlogs and alot of them. eBay will not react as normal. Even PRIME start coming late at that time of year.
Hope this Bert know how it feels to be put in an “impossible situation” totally out of his control trying to comply with a “stupid” system. Of all the markets I work on still the most time consuming and problematic (as well as expensive) is eBay. Anyway maybe some common sense may prevail we can only hold our breath.
getting top rated is a doddle if you dont care about profit, just refund every crackpot that demands a refund.
I’ll bet Bert doesn’t have “Immediate Payment Required” enforced on his account. Just like Bob Kupben’s account.
The thing is….eBay is so all over the place that internally nobody knows what the hell is going on. Ask three agents the same question & you’ll get three different answers. Last week an agent tried telling my freind there was no such thing as a 3 day listing. Point blank refused to look into a revision. Early this year I called eBay support & tried communicating with one of the many poorly trained Philippino support drones, when I heard a baby crying in the background! I asked “what was that” & there was some shuffling around & a door closed. When I asked about a baby crying there was a few seconds silence & then I got cut off.
He may be finding out how hard it is but I am unsure how that is “admirable”, he has a day job and may or may not, be using inside data to sell things on Ebay. What would be admirable is, if after encountering problems, as many of us do, he got them fixed.
The question is, If many years ago you were impressed to see the number of eBay staff who sold on-line, why is there so many problems for sellers, why have issues not been fixed?
the more we think about this the more we think it would be an awfully bad show if this top ebay sales director chappie,could not make a top rated seller with ease,
he should be aware of all the hoops ,traps, and problems ,not finding out on the hoof,
hes a sales director,
not an apprentice,
Ducks quack
With the greatest respect, you don’t have to sell more than a handful of bits and pieces a week to become an eRTS, it’s really not any kind of a deal.
In fact, I’m finding it genuinely quite shocking that this is even a news item without people being aghast that only one director has what most here would regard to be the most casual usage of the service.
Nothing can beat ‘hands-on’ experience and this will hopefully give him a valuable insight.
He will have full support of concierge no doubt,,,,, after all who wouldn’t look after the interests of their boss? For the rest of us mere mortals who pump TENS OF THOUSANDS of pounds a year into eBay coffers with no concierge and no customer support,,,,,,,,, struggle on, suck it up and smile
I’ve been selling on ebay – off and on – for a good many years and in my opinion, EBay – the concept – is dead!
What we have now, is a huge corporation – beholding unto its investors – that is out to screw as much money out of its users as possible!
Flame me if you wish, agree with me if you want – I really don’t care either way!
EBay has, in my opinion, lost its way and now sucks up to the big players! You have only to look at the number of business sellers using the service. The small man really doesn’t stand a chance.
The original idea was ground-breaking but, as is so often the case, corporate greed killed the concept…….
I’ve a few items to try to shift and then I’m gone. I’m sick of having to jump through ever moving hoops, just to appease Ebay and its rampant desire to bend over backwards to help the buyer…….