on 13-11-2023 02:45 PM
Hi all,
I started a seller account with eBay a while back. After about 2 months, I requested for an increase in the selling limits (am on 50). eBay told me they couldn't do this because 'I was not in charge of my inventory'. Basically they said I was dropshipping. This came as a HUGE surprise to me because I had never drop shipped at all. I had/have all my items on me. I even have the receipts and all for all my items. But eBay kept insisting I was dropshipping. I asked them why they kept accusing me of that, and I offered to provide them photo eveidence of ALL my inventory including receipts. They didn't want to know. All they kept saying was that I was dropshipping. Later when fulfilling an order, I realised that I had not updated one of my addresses. I had shifted houses, and I forgot to update that address on ebay. So I thought perhaps that was the problem. I rectified it, then I called/chatted with them about what I thought the problem was. They said they were going to fix the issue and said I should wait for about a month to have the system clear out. I waited. A few months later, I ask them to increase the selling limits since what I thought was the problem had been rectified. But I was surprised to get the same response of dropshipping. They said, they had escalated the issue, but I never got any positive response. It is 4 months now and my inventory is rotting in my house. I have contacted ebay endless times, and they never help. They cannot tell me why they say I'm dropshipping because 'they can not reveal how their system works'. I am really frustrated as my store stopped ranking, I no longer make sales, and I can't increase my inventory. I am thinking of shifting to another marketplace for my products and where they have better customer care and they listen to their sellers better. I am wondering if anyone has ever faced this issue, and if so, what did you do. I decided to reach out to the community before closing my ebay account for another marketplace. I can't keep paying monthly fees for a store, put in so much time and money in my listings, and only end up with unfair treatment from ebay. If anyone has been in a similar situation, please help. Regards,
Arthur M
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on 13-11-2023 08:13 PM
Hang around these boards long enough....it will be a fast learning experience.....
on 13-11-2023 08:26 PM
I made so many mistakes when I started......best learning experience
on 13-11-2023 08:40 PM
Yes, absolutely . Many mistakes. Sometimes it gets discouraging. But with the community support so far it will get better I believe. It is a steep learning curve.
on 14-11-2023 10:30 AM
@ruthra101 wrote:Yes, absolutely . Many mistakes. Sometimes it gets discouraging. But with the community support so far it will get better I believe. It is a steep learning curve.
It is a steep learning curve, but you'll get there. You've asked your question in the "Ask a Member" forum. For any future questions about your selling, I suggest going to the Seller forum. You will get a lot more people see your posts. Go to the top of this page, hover over Discussion Boards, then hover over buying and selling and select selling. If you are using a phone, I'm not sure how to find it, but I expect it would be similar.
on 14-11-2023 10:46 AM
I left it too late to edit, so I have to make a new reply. I had a look at your page. First up, close your store. You are wasting your money by having it. When you don't have many items listed and not many sales, there is zero benefit to having a store. You are throwing money away, especially when you say you are making little to no profit (not sure why you'd bother, but that's your choice). Unless you have over 200 items listed and making regular sales, pointless. These days, pretty much everyone gets unlimited free listings, so the days of needing a store to increase your listing amount is no longer.
Until you establish yourself and learn the basics of selling, I would only be selling to Australia. Close down worldwide. If something goes wrong with an overseas sale, and often they do, you're not going to know how to handle it. You will likely lose the money and the item.
You have a 1 day handling time. Increase that to at least 3 days, preferably 5, but still post same or next day. You set yourself up for disaster by having a 1 day handling time. There only has to be a small glitch in delivery times by Aust Post and suddenly you're getting unhappy buyers and negative feedback. By having a longer handling time, it extends the ETA. When the item arrives a day or 2 before the ETA because you still posted same or next day, buyers are stoked! So many buyers blame the seller for postage delays, even though they can see by the tracking the item has been posted.
on 14-11-2023 11:28 AM
Thanks for the advice. As for the few items. I ended all my listings yesterday and I'm redoing the cover art based on the advice I got yesterday. It's why they are currently few, I'm still uploading more.
on 14-11-2023 11:32 AM
I was interested in one of your listings so I had a look at it, the first thing I saw was that there were two in the photo but presumably the listing is only for one, even though nearly half of your photos show two.
Secondly with your price with postage you can't possibly compete with the other sellers of that item (even with two). Scroll down your listing to see the other sellers prices.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/404619694524?hash=item5e353691bc:g:1NoAAOSwA~FlUd6L
on 14-11-2023 11:57 AM
Thanks for the checking out that listing. I actually have many of those items. But if I list all of them, then I won't be able to list some other products due to the limit I have.
As for the postage, Initially I was offering free postage for it (using standard parcel postage- I don't have option of the letters). Then someone in this board said that I shouldn't do that. Because it is misrepresentation. But thanks for pointing it out. Let me see how to go about it.
on 14-11-2023 12:01 PM
Can you list them in bulk lots of say, 3 at a time (they should still fit in the small satchel) saving you fees on postage?
on 14-11-2023 12:23 PM
@ruthra101 wrote:
As for the postage, Initially I was offering free postage for it (using standard parcel postage- I don't have option of the letters).
Your postage is the killer on them, perhaps have a look at AP's postage options (maybe a CD mailer would do the job for you).