The Ebay Boycott: Reaction

massahwahl

massahwahl

VIP Member
http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/15/smbusiness/ebay_strike_update.fsb/

If you have not heard yet, ebay has made some strange changes recently that have hurt many ebay sellers, including myself.

For starters, as a seller you are no longer allowed to leave feedback about a buyer. This means rude and unresponsive or non-paying buyers can no longer be disciplined for their actions from sellers whom they have hurt. This is possibly the biggest injustice the online auction site has commited and will undoubtably turn many users off to them.

The second mess up they made was to lower insertion fee prices but increase final sale costs. Meaning ebay will charge you a lower price to list your item, but a larger chunk of your final sale will go to their pockets. This has caused many ebay sellers and shops to no longer justify selling on the site because their profit margins have so severely decreased. I found myself in the same hole, I go to stores a lot and buy items that are marked down or on sale and resell them on the site, but now its not even worth it because what used to be a $5 or $10 profit is now a $3.00 or $7.00 profit.

So I was curious if anyone else had a reaction to the boycott going on this week or if anyon else has been screwed over by ebay. :(
 
Geoff

Geoff

VIP Member
I haven't sold anything on eBay recently to notice the new updates, although I have heard about them. The only thing I can see about not letting sellers leave feedback on buyers, is that no longer will the buyer feel pressured to leave a positive comment, as in the past usually the seller would not give them feedback until the buyer left positive feedback.
 
PohTayToez

PohTayToez

Active Member
That is a point... often a buyer leaves a negative then the seller will do the same and then try to mutually withdraw the feedback, regardless of fault. While this sounds good on paper, I don't see it working great. Having sold a decent amount on eBay, I find that you'll often run into people that wont be satisfied no matter what. People don't always read the item descriptions, and some people buy stuff without knowing what their buying. It happens, and now these people will be able to leave negative with no fear of retribution.

As for the fee increase... well, you gotta expect it some times... things get more expensive, that's just how the world works, but there is no way eBay is hurting for money, so of course they are just being greedy. The thing that really burns me is that they're adamantly advertising that it's actually going to save most people money. I don't buy that for a second... if it was going to save people money they wouldn't be doing it.
 
J

jbrdbr111x

New Member
I've had a lot of non-paying bidders myself.. It's hard enough getting a refund,but not being able to leave feedback to warn others? Come on eBay!..

Unless it goes back to the old way, I'll never use eBay again...
 
Z

zaroba

Member
the fee change i have no problem with. people need to accept that ebay is a business, its not some people providing an auction site for them to use for free. business is business, there goal is to make money. they continue to raise the fees and since people continue to use ebay and continue to pay the fees, they have no reason to stop raising them or to lower them.

as for the feedback change,
letting buyers leave feedback over pathetic stuff that might be there own fault and not sellers? that definitely wont be accepted among most of the sellers. if somebody wants to leave me negative feedback due to them making a mistake, darn right i want to leave them negative feedback as well due to not properly reading the description or whatever.
guess its time to look at those other auction sites. i'm probably not going to continue selling on ebay if i can't leave feedback.
 
Geoff

Geoff

VIP Member
If you really think about it, since the insertion fees are less people don't have to worry if their item doesn't sell, which is something a lot of people feared when selling an item.
 
Archangel

Archangel

VIP Member
that a seller cant put a rating on a buyer is most likely due to scammers (people who say they sell a pc or so, and instead oyu get send a box of bricks) because they used to use that to blackmail scammed people (from what I've heard)

'you give me a negative rating, I'll give you a negative rating' and unless someone who wants to buy someting also sells something (a lot, or buy's a lot) to get a load of positiva ratings, the buyer who got scammed would have a really high negative %, and would most likely be unable to buy off ebay anytime soon.
 
Geoff

Geoff

VIP Member
Archangel said:
that a seller cant put a rating on a buyer is most likely due to scammers (people who say they sell a pc or so, and instead oyu get send a box of bricks) because they used to use that to blackmail scammed people (from what I've heard)

'you give me a negative rating, I'll give you a negative rating' and unless someone who wants to buy someting also sells something (a lot, or buy's a lot) to get a load of positiva ratings, the buyer who got scammed would have a really high negative %, and would most likely be unable to buy off ebay anytime soon.
Click to expand...
Thats true, also some people just buy lots of cheap stuff to get their rating up, so by not allowing buyers to receive feedback, they will need to actually sell something.
 
S

SirKenin

banned
I think it's a great idea. Twice I got ripped off by sellers. Once I left a neutral, the other a negative. Both sellers retaliated with a negative (even though I paid instantly, complied by the rules, etc). The once, the guy immediately sent an email demanding to "settle" it and mutually withdraw the feedback. I refused, as I couldn't give a damn, until I was refunded in full. Eventually he did refund the money, at which time I withdrew the feedback.

I think that was a smart move on Ebay's part.

As for the higher fees.. It was barely profitable before.. Certainly now I won't even bother unless it's something I can't possibly dump off anywhere else, even for much less. I'd rather not waste my time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top