Have you been switched 'off'?

mrs_sparrow

Well, found this on the BS board, others might have seen it already:
http://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-Board/EBAY-ADMITTING-SWITCHING-SELLERS-OFF-AND-ON-DEPENDING-ON-DEFECT/td-p/3781699/page/2

Rather interestingly I have been pretty much defect free, it is running at around 0.54% and have been selling 80-100 items a week but last week someone in the US filed an INR as 'it had not arrived in the time stated on the eBay screen'. I emailed her and explained that sometimes it takes longer. The case is still open.

However, since that day my sales have dropped through the floor, a few low price items a day (so far today, nothing) I've gone from £1000 a week to £100 this week (and I've got items coming back). I have more stock listed than I have had for a long time and hardly anything is selling - one of the ranges I am the cheapest yet I appear far down the list on Best Match I am a TRS too.

So, makes me wonder really whether there is a ring of truth in this. I had no issue with sales until this latest INR - co-incidence maybe - but it has really made me reconsider shipping overseas. I do have some things listed in the US in $ but I am seriously considering removing them as the delivery times are often more than it says and the buyer is always very quick to open INR.

Just wondered what other people though and whether you have ever been switched 'off'.

This week has been a complete waste of time - I opened a pop up shop this week and am dealing with F2F buyers and I am hoping that this takes off as I feel I can no longer rely on eBay anymore when they do things like this. I have quite obviously had my chop turned off, it's a real worry as I still have things to pay for but when do they decide I can start selling again? When I refund the buyer maybe?

RFW

I've seen threads like that here and in the US for some time now, there may be some truth in it. I do wonder if Ebay can manage to get a sophisticated system whereby they turn sellers on and off at a whim. Given the general difficulties they have in just running the site of late I find it hard to believe.
I'm more inclined to think the erratic nature of selling is largely down to general incompetency. I've worked a few things out that work for me regarding selling on Ebay but they're only very slowly starting to work.

heman2012

I think ebay is just dead at the moment.

My sales have dropped drastically this week too.

I did a search for one of my items last night and it never appeared either, quite disturbing!

soolin

My sales have never been so strong I am up about 100% on this time last year. However, I do think that some of my items are hidden at any one time- one day I can sell nothing but widgets in x category , the next day nothing from x category but all from Y . I can also sell faster than I can pack one day, and then nothing at all for 20 hours.

mrs_sparrow

soolin wrote: »

My sales have never been so strong I am up about 100% on this time last year. However, I do think that some of my items are hidden at any one time- one day I can sell nothing but widgets in x category , the next day nothing from x category but all from Y . I can also sell faster than I can pack one day, and then nothing at all for 20 hours.

Yes, it is all rather odd - the items I am selling are all much lower priced items that I have had in stock for ages. Some stuff has free postage, some stuff does not - there is no pattern as far as that is concerned. Rather bizarrely, the only stuff I have sold since posting this are 2 items bought from .com and I only have about 20 listings on there.

I don't think we will ever know. Oh well, it is good in one way as I have had time to sort out the shop stuff and I am about to go get ready for decorating my hall, stairs and landing. Make hay whilst the sun shines and all that.

While typing this message I have sold 2 of those lower priced items that I mentioned in my opening paragraph. If I could sell another 200 of those this week that should see me through, LOL.

RFW

On items that are slow it has been working ending and relisting items. If they have some sales I 'relist', if they haven't had any sales I use 'sell similar'.
This also stimulates sales if there are any watchers on an item as they get an email that "an item you were watching has been relisted".

campdave

I'm with RFW - I just can't see that ebay can manage to write a system that turns sellers off an on according to whatever criteria when you look at how much functionality on the site just doesn't work. It doesn't seem logical that things are launched untested, but this sophisticated system sits in the background and makes sure sellers don't sell over certain amounts.

mrs_sparrow

RFW wrote: »

On items that are slow it has been working ending and relisting items. If they have some sales I 'relist', if they haven't had any sales I use 'sell similar'.
This also stimulates sales if there are any watchers on an item as they get an email that "an item you were watching has been relisted".

Its all of them though, not just slow sellers, I have nigh on 2000 items listed - I even went through a phase of ending all listings that were ending and then relisting them later - could give that a try I suppose - but even then, that would assume that it is favouring new listings and it should not do that either.

It makes no sense whatsoever that I get the first INR in ages and then sales just stop for a week apart from the odd £5 item. No sense at all.

soolin

mrs_sparrow wrote: »

Its all of them though, not just slow sellers, I have nigh on 2000 items listed - I even went through a phase of ending all listings that were ending and then relisting them later - could give that a try I suppose - but even then, that would assume that it is favouring new listings and it should not do that either.

It makes no sense whatsoever that I get the first INR in ages and then sales just stop for a week apart from the odd £5 item. No sense at all.

Can I please make a daft suggestion?

Put your holiday settings on for an hour, then see what happens in the 24 hours after you switch them back on. I'm using my holiday settings a lot at the moment (fully hidden, not just a message) , far more than I did last year, and I seem to get a bit of a kick start when I switch my sales back on.

mrs_sparrow

campdave wrote: »

I'm with RFW - I just can't see that ebay can manage to write a system that turns sellers off an on according to whatever criteria when you look at how much functionality on the site just doesn't work. It doesn't seem logical that things are launched untested, but this sophisticated system sits in the background and makes sure sellers don't sell over certain amounts.

You say that but last week, on my private account, I had some furniture listed and it was not appearing in the search on the app was was appearing if I used the laptop. My account is above standard, so something is going on and not all items are being shown in the search.

mrs_sparrow

soolin wrote: »

Can I please make a daft suggestion?

Put your holiday settings on for an hour, then see what happens in the 24 hours after you switch them back on. I'm using my holiday settings a lot at the moment (fully hidden, not just a message) , far more than I did last year, and I seem to get a bit of a kick start when I switch my sales back on.

It's not daft at all. I will go and do that now. Thank you.