eBay Employee Reveals Practice of Secret Seller Limits

[bigbrickshop]

An eBay employee has posted some interesting info on the US boards in response to a complaint about seller limits.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Selling-Standards/m-p/23358986#M387798

• There are several types of limits that sellers may experience when selling:
  • Site Wide Limits (SWL, referred to as “selling limits”)
  • Silent limits (limits placed on an account that can’t be seen by the seller)
  • URC limits (User Risk Code, limits reduced or placed on an account due to concerns)
  • Category limits
  • BTAC limits (Building Trust by Reducing Counterfeits, for branded items)
  • Hot item limits
  • Multi-Account limits
  • Velocity limits
  • feedback limits

When

• All sellers on the site will experience at least one type of selling limit when selling on the site.
• These limits are in place to:
  • Reduce fraud and circumvention on the site
  • Ensure sellers can successfully manage their sales
  • Ensure sellers are increasing volume at a manageable pace
  • Ensure sellers can meet the expectations of buyers.

Why

• Although there are several types of limits, the questions members ask are usually the same:
  • Why do I have limits?
  • How many items can I list?
  • How can I remove (or increase) these limits?
  • How/when can I list more items?

• LVIS (Listing Violation Inspection System) is the most effective tool in determining the type of limit the member is experiencing.
• Please see the information pertaining to their particular limit to determine qualifications for an increase or potential removal

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y14/m12/i09/s01

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2014/12/1418064225.html

[thecatspjs]

If this is true and secret limits are in place it will confirm what many sellers have suspected for years.

If this gets more coverage and further information is revealed about the limits that are in operation I reckon that the seller exodus will ramp up as will the level of mistrust and contempt.

[sueken4812]

Could you imagine walking into a shopping centre, and half the shops are shut.
When you ask centre management why, they reply

"Oh they've reached their selling limits, we have to let the other shops have a go now. 
They'll probably open up next week, when their limits are reset. We can't tell you exactly when they'll re-open, that's a secret."

W T F

[thecatspjs]

Just looked at the us board and the thread and the post by the ebay employee is still there ????

What games are being played out here?

[character_parties_aus]

A few months back  I had an abandoned order on my website with some weird name on it very soon after I placed eWay on there alongside paypal as I was sick of people paying by bank transfers as they assumed they needed paypal account ( even though we stated you didnt in a million places but as we all know consumers often dont read whats in front of them) . Upon checking the IP addresses of the abandoned order they referred back to eBays servers!!!

Since almost that very day my sales on eBay have dropped around 40% and I've changed almost nothing.

No joke.

SO I have no doubt eBay seeks to silently punish those who don 't tow their line.

[chameleon54]

This is all pretty scary stuff and confirms what many of us have suspected for a long time. The lights on, lights off phenomena is very noticable.  It doesnt matter how much or how little effort a seller puts in, they still sell almost exactly the same amount each 3 months

One of the interesting things in the ebay reps document was the account restrictions across multiple accounts. I have two main stores, one of which is only 18 months old. As this the new store has grown, my older stores sales have fallen in an opposite mirror image, so that my combined sales from the two stores are the same as I once achieved from the single original store.

I have just had a customer enquire about an item. I have given them a series of letters to use in the search bar to find it. ie. something like "AS FPG". This search brings the item to the top of a very small list when I search it. The customer has done the same search and the item does not show at all. Obviously my listing is not visible to this buyer. Other reputable forum posters have reported the same thing happening. There is no doubt that ebay are manipulating our sales BUT WHY ???   Surely they collect more commisions the more we sell.

One suggestion is that ebay has outgrown its technical capacity to service all of its customers and does not have the funds available to spend huge amounts of money on replacing a clapped out, obsolete system. Another suggestion is that we are being given "pocket money" to spend at the big box shops that ebay is encouraging to the site, with the bulk of traffic directed their way.

The only thing that does not appear to be affected by ebays account resrictions is auctions. It is still possible to break through ebays glass ceiling with large numbers of auctions and achieve some big results with high sales figures. ( Using a seperate account )  Maybe this is a way around ebays account restrictions ???

[character_parties_aus]

There is enough circumstantial evidence now seemingly backed up by actual evidence to know that eBay is certainly not a level playing field for honest sellers plying their trade.  Prices and range etc are one thing but I would wonder about the legalities of manipulating things such as best match. Of course its their platform at the end of the day but the moral obligation to provide a fair go for everyone out strips the legal one for me.

[sueken4812]

• Ensure sellers can successfully manage their sales
• Ensure sellers are increasing volume at a manageable pace

I honestly can't understand how they can determine this.  They have never spoken to me to find out what my aims or objectives are.

Do they have some sort of crystal ball...they are some sort of all-seeing overlord, passing judgements without any consultation with their customers....positively feudal. Talk about "cooking the golden goose".  

[chameleon54]

---

@sueken4812 wrote:

• Ensure sellers can successfully manage their sales
• Ensure sellers are increasing volume at a manageable pace

I honestly can't understand how they can determine this.  They have never spoken to me to find out what my aims or objectives are.

Do they have some sort of crystal ball...they are some sort of all-seeing overlord, passing judgements without any consultation with their customers....positively feudal. Talk about "cooking the golden goose".  

---

The lights on, lights off thing does nothing to help manage sales. I had a big flurry of sales on the weekend resulting in more than a days frantic packing. Since then, its lights off with ZERO sales in the last 24 hours, so now I,m twiddling my thumbs. Maybe ebay think I havnt got everything packed yet and are " HELPING " me to manage my sales, by giving me some time to catch up. THANKS EBAY  !!!!!!!!!!     

[clarry100]

Hi Chameleon,

We also operate two basic stores.

And we are seeing consistently the same phenomenon you speak of.

When sales on one store are up the other goes down and vice-versa.

Corresponding with that is the ranking result in Best Match.

The store that is up has higher rankings while the one that is lower ranks lower in search results.

So we have no doubt our rankings and hence our ability to sell is clearly being manipulated.

But we are at a loss to understand why they would do this. More sales means more fees for them so why not give us the best opportunity on both stores.

On the other hand our ability to sell on our auction IDs (of which we have 3x) is pretty dismal. Overall about 10% success rate.

...and we still don't have that web site running yet either. Have to take the bit between the teeth and make it happen sooner rather than later.