How ebay could improve itself

SlowCooker

Flyonthewall wrote: »

No sales is bad for the site, it's bad for the private sellers and it's bad for the buyer. It's also bad for the business sellers because unhappy buyers leave sites and the site will struggle if it's not gaining as much money.

Exactly.

The 2-tier system you want eBay to follow can't be good even for business sellers. Why? Because in order for eBay to be successful, they have to give the impression that they are protecting the buyer.

eBay is far from perfect, but it is successful and it has no competition to speak of. Other supposedly similar websites have been around for years and still have no buyers. Tried one of them, offered items cheaper, and couldn't even have views, let alone buyers.

soolin

You have a point Slowcooker, I buy from ebay as I know i am protected, regardless. I am on the Facebook selling pages a lot but rarely buy at distance as people tend to want bank transfers and I am not even going to risk £5 on a gamble.

There have been some rather unpelasant events on the facebook selling pages, you can often see a scam unfolding in all its horrible detail in front of your eyes- but by then it is too late to do anything. Remember as well how many times we get a thread on here that starts 'I saw an item but seller said their paypal wasn't working, but they had lots of good feedback so I sent a bank transfer and haven't got my goods. How do I get my money back?'

I do sell privately, a great deal in fact since the last change to ebay fees, yet my buyers all assume I am taking paypal, which I am happy to do .

Road_Hog

soolin wrote: »

There have been some rather unpelasant events on the facebook selling pages, you can often see a scam unfolding in all its horrible detail in front of your eyes- but by then it is too late to do anything.

What's Facebook like? I can't say I'm a fan of FB, it seems to be another ebay type company.


people seem to love Paypal, but in this day and age, instant money transfer through bank accounts is much cheaper. Like I said in an earlier post, I sell some stuff through an ebay forum and people are quite happy to pay by bank transfer.


There is a seller feedback section, where buyers leave feedback for purchases. A bit like ebay, and buyers know which members to trust, without having to resort to paypal.


It works well, and generally there is a good relationship between buyers and sellers with no need for negative feedback or gouging on DSRs.


Still, I remember the old days of ebay, when people used to pay by uncrossed postal order. Fantastic, go to the post office to post your items and cash the PO at the same time.

campdave

I remember the day where you got a cheque, the buyer hadn't included their buyer ID so you had to work out who it was from. Then I had to take it to the bank, wait several days for it to clear so I could post the item.

Ah, the good old days.

Flyonthewall

SlowCooker wrote: »

Exactly.

The 2-tier system you want eBay to follow can't be good even for business sellers. Why? Because in order for eBay to be successful, they have to give the impression that they are protecting the buyer.

eBay is far from perfect, but it is successful and it has no competition to speak of. Other supposedly similar websites have been around for years and still have no buyers. Tried one of them, offered items cheaper, and couldn't even have views, let alone buyers.

I don't want the 2 tier system...

SlowCooker

Flyonthewall wrote: »

I don't want the 2 tier system...

I know I just agreed with you then discussed the system in general.

I have to say that I remember the "good old days" of the postal order as a buyer. It defeats the purpose of buying online from the comfort of your home, and you also have to pay more than 10% in fees. No, thank you Might be good for sellers though, I'm not sure

Flyonthewall

SlowCooker wrote: »

I know I just agreed with you then discussed the system in general.

I have to say that I remember the "good old days" of the postal order as a buyer. It defeats the purpose of buying online from the comfort of your home, and you also have to pay more than 10% in fees. No, thank you Might be good for sellers though, I'm not sure

Oh right, fair enough. Just the way it was written lol.

I'd been buying on ebay long before I started to sell and by that time it was basically all Paypal. I've never paid for anything by cheque or postal order either though. There may be annoying things about Paypal and I'd certainly prefer no fees but it works, it's quick and you're protected as a buyer. I also use sites that pay into Paypal which means I can then either transfer the money easily or just use it for buying on ebay so it does have its good points.

SlowCooker

Flyonthewall wrote: »

Oh right, fair enough. Just the way it was written lol.

It seems I'm discussing two (or more) points without making it clear in my posts. Multi-quoting is too much work, lol

Flyonthewall

SlowCooker wrote: »

It seems I'm discussing two (or more) points without making it clear in my posts. Multi-quoting is too much work, lol

lol. I usually realise when people are discussing more than one point but sometimes when the other points are related/seem to follow on it can be confusing. The problem with text eh

lovinituk

Road_Hog wrote: »

Pretty much everything I sell (or rather sold) went recorded. I don't think you're right in your estimation of delivered items.


As for a gamble, you are missing the whole point. Nobody would force anyone to buy from a tier 2 seller, they could all go and buy frim tier 1 sellers.


But I guarantee you, that two 2 sellers would have the best priced items and also the items that people want, that aren't sold by tier 1.


I can't see why people are getting so uppity about it. I mean, if there wasn't the demand, everyone would keep buying from tier 1, so no buyers or sellers would be upset or bothered by this.


And just to reiterate, this was the model that ebay was based on and what made it grow. Now we have Amazon MKII.

I send out thousands of orders a month and less than 1% go signed for. Less than half a percent of all my orders are lost the post. The amount of money I save by NOT using signed for is way more than what is lost. A lot people can't comprehend this saving though.

The old ebay model was a train crash waiting to happen. Sellers leaving unfair retaliatory negative feedback, charging silly amounts to over compensate for Paypal fees and so on.

eBay recognised that buyers were getting p*ssed off and its the buyers that make the site. Sellers are easy to come by and if a few don't like it then eBay are happy for them to go elsewhere. I am 100% certain that there are more sellers that are happy with the way eBay is now than those that are not!

If a few private sellers are upset and go elsewhere, eBay won't even notice. However change back to the way it was and buyers will migrate away in the tens of thousands. Its not difficult to understand why eBay won't change for the whims of a minority of private sellers.