Ebay gone to far with new policy change from 4th Feb 2025!

bittyboy101

MattMattMattUK said:

bittyboy101 said:

I mean the original eBay setup worked so well for almost 30 years... why change something that's not broken ?

The way eBay operates has changed considerably over that period. It worked well in some ways, not in others, in my opinion over the last decade it has swung against sellers and in favour of unscrupulous buyers. My only issues over the last decade have been dishonest buyers who ebay went out of their way to actively help screw me over.

bittyboy101 said:
As a private seller and even with all my listings optimised for keyword searches (the first 4 key words in listing title)  I've had many of my listings sitting there on ZERO VIEWS for 14 DAYS and I've had to take them all down and relist them all again under "sell similar" with only 1 or 2 listings out of 10 actually making it  through the indexing stage and getting any views !

They also tell you as a private seller that you can pay extra to promote your listings (basically a bribe to eBay) but even after paying - NOTING CHANGED !, NO VIEWS AND NO SALES FOR MANY WEEKS.

So if you think private sellers have it cushy then you really don't know the half of it ! and what really goes on !

I've been on eBay since 2004 and I remember very clearly how it was dead easy and fast to get hard to find niche items sold quickly at good prices and to generate QUICK MONEY !

All that indicates is there is not adequate/any demand for what you want to sell. It does not say anything about eBay as a platform or how they operate.

Just google "No sales eBay" - Please do it and read the 100's of posts from private and business sellers all saying the same thing.  Coincidence ? Nope, I don't think so.

soolin

bittyboy101 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

bittyboy101 said:

I mean the original eBay setup worked so well for almost 30 years... why change something that's not broken ?

The way eBay operates has changed considerably over that period. It worked well in some ways, not in others, in my opinion over the last decade it has swung against sellers and in favour of unscrupulous buyers. My only issues over the last decade have been dishonest buyers who ebay went out of their way to actively help screw me over.

bittyboy101 said:
As a private seller and even with all my listings optimised for keyword searches (the first 4 key words in listing title)  I've had many of my listings sitting there on ZERO VIEWS for 14 DAYS and I've had to take them all down and relist them all again under "sell similar" with only 1 or 2 listings out of 10 actually making it  through the indexing stage and getting any views !

They also tell you as a private seller that you can pay extra to promote your listings (basically a bribe to eBay) but even after paying - NOTING CHANGED !, NO VIEWS AND NO SALES FOR MANY WEEKS.

So if you think private sellers have it cushy then you really don't know the half of it ! and what really goes on !

I've been on eBay since 2004 and I remember very clearly how it was dead easy and fast to get hard to find niche items sold quickly at good prices and to generate QUICK MONEY !

All that indicates is there is not adequate/any demand for what you want to sell. It does not say anything about eBay as a platform or how they operate.

Just google "No sales eBay" - Please do it and read the 100's of posts from private and business sellers all saying the same thing.  Coincidence ? Nope, I don't think so.

Have a read of some of the threads on the community board with those sorts of titles and note the dates of the original post, some go back several years with the same sellers complaining it’s never been so bad, yet posting the same comment twice a year every since, but never leaving eBay.  It is a case of adapt or die , just a decade ago I could buy a box of Wedgwood Jasper ware, cars or other items at auction and make a fairly decent part time living, now I can’t give those things away. 

I would agree though that a business can adapt , stop selling in certain categories and start looking at new emerging markets, I’ve done it several times before. Whereas a private seller by their very definition can’t do that and are stuck with unwanted household or other personal items. However there must come a time when a seller accepts their fancy Lladro ornaments, or china tea sets are all but worthless and decide whether they want to persevere or just donate them and be done. 

Incidentally I could probably find ‘100s’ of posts all moaning about trivial other annoyances nothing to do with sales, people by  nature will find a thread that suits their argument and consider themselves justified, not realising that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, aren’t posting comments as they don’t have the same issues. 

I always used to sell on Amazon, not as much as on eBay, but I did OK. Then several years ago I got caught up in a catch 22 situation of trying to verify my bank account , I went round and round in circles and finally gave up. Do I think Amazon bemoan my loss ? no I’m not that naive, they wouldn’t even have noticed that I stopped selling. 

MattMattMattUK

So we have now gone from eBay has faults, to it is some sort of conspiracy...

bittyboy101

MattMattMattUK said:

So we have now gone from eBay has faults, to it is some sort of conspiracy...

Just read the honest reviews on trust pilot - It seems eBay is not what it used to be. 
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/ebay.co.uk  

soolin

bittyboy101 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

So we have now gone from eBay has faults, to it is some sort of conspiracy...

Just read the honest reviews on trust pilot - It seems eBay is not what it used to be. 
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/ebay.co.uk  

I’m all for a very honest and lively discussion but let’s not be  naive  and pretend Trustpilot reflects anything useful. 

amazon UK 
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.amazon.co.uk

etsy

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/etsy.co.uk


Tesco

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/tesco.uk.com

soolin

Also re the eBay Trustpilot, 18,000+ reviews over several years and less than 3000 in the last 12 months with a mix of buyers moaning they can’t leave negatives without getting them removed, through to parcels arriving late ia policy changes. That’s against millions of sales in the same 12 month period. 

bittyboy101

soolin said:

bittyboy101 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

So we have now gone from eBay has faults, to it is some sort of conspiracy...

Just read the honest reviews on trust pilot - It seems eBay is not what it used to be. 
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/ebay.co.uk  

I’m all for a very honest and lively discussion but let’s not be  naive  and pretend Trustpilot reflects anything useful. 

amazon UK 
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.amazon.co.uk

etsy

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/etsy.co.uk


Tesco

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/tesco.uk.com

Whilst I agree and respect that every online company has its fair share of negative reviews from unhappy customers !

eBay's overall rating is the lowest at just 1.2 !

compared to 1.4 for Amazon & Etsy and a rather huge 2.2 for Tesco !

So eBay wins an oscar for the lowest Trust Pilot rating and worst customer experience !

They (eBay) really need to swallow their pride and change this. They cannot be 100% right in everything they do.  

soolin

bittyboy101 said:

soolin said:

bittyboy101 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

So we have now gone from eBay has faults, to it is some sort of conspiracy...

Just read the honest reviews on trust pilot - It seems eBay is not what it used to be. 
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/ebay.co.uk  

I’m all for a very honest and lively discussion but let’s not be  naive  and pretend Trustpilot reflects anything useful. 

amazon UK 
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.amazon.co.uk

etsy

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/etsy.co.uk


Tesco

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/tesco.uk.com

Whilst I agree and respect that every online company has its fair share of negative reviews from unhappy customers !

eBay's overall rating is the lowest at just 1.2 !

compared to 1.4 for Amazon & Etsy and a rather huge 2.2 for Tesco !

So eBay wins an oscar for the lowest Trust Pilot rating and worst customer experience !

They (eBay) really need to swallow their pride and change this. They cannot be 100% right in everything they do.  

Define right though? 

Make investors happy by making money, or keep a tiny minority of people using the site happy. Look at the posts in reverse date order, how do you keep people unhappy at the feedback system happy, do you favour buyers who want to leave negs for every perceived slight, or keep sellers happy that unjustified negs can be removed? Whatever they do the other side of the argument will be unhappy. Same with lost parcels, who should eBay side with? The problems around policy change don’t even amount to the majority of complaints. 

At some point in any business the money will come first and in these very difficult times where a lot of online sites are struggling then chasing the money becomes important . Money lies with business sellers, the outcry from businesses when eBay announced free selling for private sellers was much bigger than the current outcry that private sellers need special treatment to the detriment of the larger sellers that make eBay money? It was always suggested, and possibly even hinted at that free selling was a short term option with a return to fees on the cards, we had a good run of totally free sales, now we perhaps need to accept that selling comes at a cost. EBay is a business not a charity. 

soolin

Quote ‘ ...those who own and invest in eBay just want to make more and more money as an addiction’

Yes it’s called business and I can assure you that is what successful businesses are designed to do. If you want a philanthropic organisation then start a charity .

1995 was 30 years ago and a lot has changed, many big businesses have gone, places like Woolworths and Debenhams disappearing from our high street, eBay must be doing something right to still be here. 

I do understand that some sellers might feel aggrieved at the changes , but ultimately as consumers we have the ultimate power to walk away if we choose. Some businesses have disappeared due to ‘people power’ perhaps an advertising gimmick that pushed users too far, or policies on customer care or staff welfare, no doubt at at some point in the future eBay will disappear, or change entirely, I just don’t think that time is now. 

jeffuk

bittyboy101 said:

...those who own and invest in eBay just want to make more and more money as an addiction ! without any regards for the little people (the public private sellers) who originally started eBay off and made it so successful.

Ebay means everything to private sellers, but, private sellers mean (almost) nothing to Ebay, they could probably get by without them altogether.