eBay Buyers/Sellers IMPORTANT

RFW

giveithere wrote: »

There are numerous other changes but users are planning a one day boycott on May 1st.

PLEASE do your bit to keep eBay a marketplace for all and not just the big established boys. There are tens of thousands of us out here trying to make a living on eBay and it just got a whole lot harder - consequently from May 1st I personally have a average price increase on my sales of about 10-15%!!!!

So you're not taking part in the 'strike' then.

All the fee changes are in, why the wait in increasing your prices until May 1st?

The main problem is the buyers who claim that they haven't received items. Also, Royal Mail charges too much for recorded delivery. Neither myself nor my buyers will be willing to pay for it.

If your buyers won't pay 72p then you are probably only selling low value items and need to review how you are selling. Ebay make it as difficult as possible for the sale of low value items (sell something for 50p and the Ebay/Paypal fees are almost 50p!), they don't want you to.

StaffsSW

candyflossing wrote: »

The main problem is the buyers who claim that they haven't received items. Also, Royal Mail charges too much for recorded delivery. Neither myself nor my buyers will be willing to pay for it.

It's basic risk management - I mentioned in another post yesterday that from over 6000 items sold in the last 3 years-ish, I've had about 20 "not received". I'm happy with that ratio, and given that a large portion of those have been under £5, it's also an acceptable shrinkage to absorb and it's much less of a loss than a high street shop would lose through shoplifting!

It's not up to the buyers to pay for Recorded Delivery though - it is there to protect the seller in the event of a non-delivery claim.

Brooker_Dave

Premier wrote: »

Or put another way:
Their gaff, their rules!

Ebay should listen to it's customers.

Many of it's rules stink.

shilcor

stevew8975 wrote: »

It's not up to the buyers to pay for Recorded Delivery though - it is there to protect the seller in the event of a non-delivery claim.

The problem with Recorded Delivery is that the item isn't trackable and as far as I can see, is only useful for confirming receipt of your item, which feedback should do most of the time anyway. You can easily email the buyer and ask them if they got your item too so why waste 72p? If the item gets lost, Proof of Posting is just as useful for claiming from the Post Office and is free. I used to offer Recorded Delivery but buyers rarely wanted it so I don't bother any more. If someone can tell me anything else that Recorded Delivery provides that Proof of Posting doesn't (other than confirmation of receipt) I'd be pleased to know. It also means that buyers who are not at home have to trog off down to their Post Office depot to collect their item or phone up and arrange re-delivery which means more expense and inconvenience for them.
I'm not a professional ebay seller, just someone who clears some unwanted bits and pieces from time to time.

StaffsSW

As far as a paypal dispute goes, you require online proof of delivery in order to fight a Item Not Received claim. Recorded delivery is sufficient for this, feedback is not.

HOWEVER... with the 21 day holding rule that is being introduced, a positive feedback will signifiy delivery!

Personally, I send the vast majority of items without any tracking/proof of delivery, but I do get a proof of posting for everything, but that is more to keep my accounts in balance.

With regards the buyer having to collect an item, if the item is too big for the letterbox they would have to do that regardless if it was recorded or not. I've had a few requests were buyers have asked me to "tell the postman to leave it behind the shed/with the neighbour/under the car" etc. I do no such thing - It goes recorded everytime at my own expense.

patriciaellen

As soon as there is a viable alternative to ebay then I'm gone. I think a lot of sellers think the same way. We use them but we hate them. When they eventually do get toppled from the number one spot (and that day is coming), there will be no tears.

StaffsSW

The million dollar question though is "what is a viable alternative"?

There are loads of specialised auction sites for trading cards, car parts, collectables etc, there are dedicated online sales outlets for books and video games, (Play & Amazon), there is always the option of your own website if you have a ceratin regular line of products to sell, there are also dozens of smaller "catchall" auction sites, such as ebid, tazbar 121bid etc.

Thing is though, eBay is all of these at once, and more importantly, it has the traffic. There are plenty of ebay-alternatives out there, and some, I think, work much better than ebay in principle, but very few people visit them!

There is so much noise around the eBay strike on May 1st, but once again, it is being organised ar5e about face. A coordinated effort should be made to get sellers listing on one alternative site, and bringing their buyers with them, rather than just a big PR stunt with loads of stroppy self-employed sellers cutting off their nose to spite their face.