Feedback changes announced!!!

imagia

stevew8975 wrote: »

I'm pretty certain those sellers won't be finding it entertaining. Too many malicious feedbacks will only make it harder for buyers to identify the decent sellers. How does that improve the buying experience?

Yeah, I'll leave my sarcasm out of this post. Let's say it'll be interesting to see how eBay copes with the trouble it causes. I imagine they'll introduce another system like DSR to automate their way out of the problem. :rotfl:
Another interesting thing will be the May 1st boycott. I hear that one isn't going to end. :j

soolin

imagia wrote: »

If
As far as the good eBay alternative goes, well, there isn't one. There are alternatives, such as eBid and Tazbar (the U.S. has many more that are starting to catch up on eBay), but if you want to make them into good alternatives you'll have to start voting with your feet. And bring all your friends.

I still think that rather than go to another auction site people will just do something else entirely..I have experimented with both Ebid (for three years) and Tazbar for a couple of weeks without a single sale. On Tazbar I did actually get a watcher although like ebid most of my auctions never had a single view..these were items I sell regularly on a weekly basis on ebay.

I will continue experimenting at least with Tazbar for a while, but I think realistically I will just run down my stock further and do something else with my time. I've already cut my stock by at least 50%.

imagia

soolin wrote: »

I still think that rather than go to another auction site people will just do something else entirely..I have experimented with both Ebid (for three years) and Tazbar for a couple of weeks without a single sale. On Tazbar I did actually get a watcher although like ebid most of my auctions never had a single view..these were items I sell regularly on a weekly basis on ebay.

You're probably right there. People with a customer base who want to move to another venue need to do a heck of a lot of work to let their buyers know where they're going. In the end, you have to wonder if it's worth it. If you don't have a customer base, you're probably better off doing daily clicks instead. :rotfl:

Let's be positive though! While we're a bit thin on the ground here with competitors, in the U.S., etsy, bidville, OLA and ecrater are rapidly catching up with eBay with A LOT of people moving their businesses over. I think this will play an important role in how the situation pans out. You can only lose a certain amount of sellers (who also do a lot of buying), and you can only lose a certain amount of trust before you reach a tipping point.

RFW

grunnie wrote: »

I have someone this week who hasn't paid for a Buy It Now. By looking into their feedback I discover they have done that twice before. After May I would not be able to leave a negative to warn others. Seems stupid to me as I always leave fair comments for others. I have had some really weird sellers who are mad about keeping their 100% feedback even when they don't provide a good service. Also how do you deal with the few? many who say item hasn't arrived when you know it has been signed for. I refund and state on their feedback FULL REFUND GIVEN item lost in post- as a positive so anyone looking will know they have tried it on before. I think it is time I gave up ebay and tried somewhere else.

If someone buying from you has bought and not paid for 2 items previously, if you and the previous sellers file(d) a non paying bidder report then that buyer would then no longer be a registered user and could not be a future buyer so negatives are irrelevant. You can also bar bids from someone who has two non paying bidder strikes, so in this case the negatives wouldn't matter.

If an item has been signed for and buyer claiming non receipt why are you refunding? Surely if signed for then you can either claim with courier or report the buyer for fraud. You also say you leave the remarks mentioned on positive feedback, you will still be able to leave a positive, so this is not changing.

As for the sellers who are "mad about keeping their 100% feedback even when they don't provide a good service", this is precisely why they are changing the system.

RFW

v0n wrote: »

[SIZE=-1]

In the same time, none of the long standing problems will be affected and won't make eBay better place, even for buyers. Chinese sellers will still be able to change their location to town of "We ship everywhere", England, UK and no amount of "Show items in UK only" filtering will get rid of them in the listings. Clever powersellers will still be able to overcharge for delivery selling items for £1 plus £50 delivery, knowing they are obligated to refund item price only, not delivery. For me those are the reasons why buying numbers on ebay are going down. Try to find any electronic item. You get 200 pages, most of them from sellers outside UK pretending to be local, some of them from so called "selected international power sellers", completely irrelevant hits from US with prices in dollars. Sort the listings by price, to find cheapest item and you'll get thousands of 99p items with £30 delivery, as there is no way of sorting by "total". Plus now [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]some of the listings are pushed artificially back by 4.7 detailed scores.[/SIZE] It's a mess. It has lost it's purpose to buyers and appeal to sellers. It was supposed to be an auction site, not the shopping mall. Someone please suggest good eBay alternative.

Some good initial points. The last one above is likely to be changing though. Detailed seller ratings are going to bump down high postage (including Chinese) sellers in searches. Also the fee changes should see that those with lower DSRs will lose out financially. The changes are flawed but I genuinely believe they have improved an already flawed system and that once they settle in, it will steadily improve.

No system can remove the conmen and no alternative would be able to do it either.

If whoever wants to answer was in charge of Ebay what would you do to improve the system as it is, bearing in mind you have to satisfy buyers and sellers and your shareholders?

imagia

Apparently eBay has responded at last to the ongoing boycott, saying that it's not having any effect. Of course that would be why they are running lots of test auctions to make up the numbers then!!!

On a more serious note, has anyone noticed sales dropping? I've seen items that normally go for at least £17-20 in my category go for a steal at £8-10. Could it be that the sellers who have left are the ones not buying too?

http://www.appscout.com/2008/03/ebays_boycott_response_protest.php

StaffsSW

cough.

Excuse me....

cranhill

This is my tenth year with eBay and I agree it is losing it's gloss (should that be lost) . At one time everything I placed on eBay sold at a good price, these days I am lucky to sell at the starting price. I think come May 1st I shall cease using eBay to sell stuff, I still have 100% feedback (1400) but I am finding more and more bad buyers. These new rules take away any protection I had as a seller.

Tea3

I stopped selling on ebay when word of these new rules came out and I closed my ebay shop - website sales are up so customers still finding us and dont have the whole 'feedback blackmail' to deal with from come customers and also alot less hassle skipping the whole ebay thing in general. Occassionally a few of the items I need I can only get through ebay but have been keeping purchases to a bare minimum with only 3 or 4 a month if that. I am however noticing that more and more sellers on ebay are sending links in with their parcels saying to visit them on ebid or their website (showing links to either), so it seems like lots of the small sellers are moving to ebid - good luck to them. I never used ebid as nothing sold but if more people are selling there then hopefully I and others can start getting all our items from ebid and forget ebay altogether (heaven).

Also this latest thing of sponsored adverts everywhere on ebay is doing my head in - you click a link cos price looks good, get to website and price is nothing like that advertised or loads of extras etc.

imagia

Let's imagine you have a feedback total of 1000. And it took a lot of work.

You've been on eBay for 10 years, with 100 sales a year.

If the feedback proposals are implemented in May:

April 30th - 1000 fb total
May 1st - 100 fb total

Sure, you might retain a 100% score, but don't plan on keeping that for long...
So, does eBay honestly think that sellers who have been around for that long are just going to roll over when they see this has happened?? :rotfl: