ebay Seller Survey

[stephystarfish]

Just got an e-mail to complete their seller survey. It's mainly about how they're thinking of introducing ebay branded packaging (boxes, tape etc) but the last question is "Aside from reducing Selling fees, how could eBay improve your selling experience?"

This is what I have:

1. Don't charge fees on reasonable postage cost.
2. Only charge final value fee when buyer has paid.
3. Fix: after listing an item, the 'auto relist' button becomes unchecked or disappears.

4. Fix: for clothes, the size entered in 'item specifics' shows up as a different size when the listing is saved.

5. Allow sellers to see bidder's bidding history (currently only a third party can see the bidder's bidding history).

6. Provide option to set 'auto decline' offer for best offer listings when creating a listing using the website.

7. Add 'free local pick up' as an option when selecting 'charge actual cost' postage option.

8. Allow 'remove auto relist' in bulk rather than doing it individually for each listing.

9. Allow reserve prices for auctions.

10. Allow sellers to state that payment for pick up is cash.

11. Add 'calculate' button when preparing an invoice which calculates the total including postage/discounts etc

12. When preparing an invoice, change name of 'recalculate' button to 'restart'. 
13. Close a return case in the seller's favour once the due date for return has passed and the buyer has not returned the item or provided tracking number/post details of return.

14. If a seller has specified no returns, don't allow buyer to request return for "wrong size" (clothes).

15. Get rid of insertion fees. Allow unlimited free listings (or at least 1,000 per month).

What other suggestions do you guys have? 

They might not do anything but if enough of us share the same feedback in the survey, at least we tried. 

[lyndal1838]

I am not a seller but I can see things wrong with several of your suggestions.............

How does ebay know that the buyer has paid if they use bank deposit?   How will they know to charge the FVFs?

What is a "reasonable postage cost" to allow before they start charging fees?   Reasonable postage depends on what the seller is posting....the larger the item the more the postage is going to cost.  Why should a seller of heavy items be charged a fee when the seller of light items does not have to pay.

You can set auto accept and auto decline amounts in Best Offer listings (unless it has changed very recently)

You can stated that cash is preferred for local pick up....most buyers are happy with that especially when it is explained that they have no paypal protection anyway.

I would suggest that you pick your battles....not point in complaining about things that you can already do.  My eyes glazed over before I got half way down your list.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

as a buyer, I am not in favour of sellers being able to set a reserve price for auctions . . . . . . they can already set a pseudo-reserve by starting the auction at their "reserve amount".  After all, that is the point of a reserve . . . . . to not sell below the amount you are prepared to sell for.  I think the days of bidding wars among buyers that lead to a bidding frenzy are long gone for most items/categories.  As a seller, I stopped running auctions when the decline in bidding started and I now only run Buy-Now listings . . . . . and I include best-offer when I am prepared to consider offers.

One thing I would like to see is that the bidding block for buyers that have two or more UnPaid Item Strikes in 12 months becomes a default setting when a listing is prepared.  Sellers would have the option to remove or modify the block, but having it as the default will put a stop to a lot of habitual non-payers.  It would also encourage sellers to do UnPaid Item cases against first-time or low level non-payers.  Buyers would also still be able to contact sellers about putting them on the Blocked Bidder Exemption list as the default setting should not include blocking contact from blocked bidders, leaving sellers to initiate that setting.

Additionally, you could look at this thread from some time back.  Some of the suggestions would no longer be relevant to eBay in 2016 because of policy changes and eBay already introducing some of the suggestions, but many are still resonating with sellers on the boards.  I also would caution members from adding to that thread and suggest that they add new ideas to this thread.

http://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Selling/How-to-improve-eBay-au-for-sellers/td-p/1364849

[*tippy*toes*]

I put that I'd like to be able to send invoices via the device app and that buyers should be able to pay for a combined invoice via the app because a lot more buyers are shopping that way. I suggested that buyers should be made more accountable for their actions, e.g serial neg leavers, serial non payers, and to stop them from being able to create new accounts to bypass blocks. I said it wasn't fair that the instant either party asks eBay to step in and help the dispute is closed in the buyers favour without the need for the buyer to return the item, even if the buyer is at fault. I said it is not eBay's item, so they have no right to tell buyers they can keep the item.

I said that sellers are becoming increasingly stressed because buyers can do no wrong, even when it's proved otherwise, and sellers are treated with utter contempt. I suggested that the estimates be removed because it's not a sellers fault if the carrier takes longer to deliver than the estimate eBay gives, yet sellers are being punished for it. I added that buyers don't see the dates as an estimate, they see the dates as gospel and will open a dispute (and win) if the parcel hasn't arrived by the due date. When the parcel does turn up, they aren't forced to repay the seller.

There were quite a few other things that I can't remember now. I do the surveys on 2 accounts and have only done one so far as I want to think about anything else I'd like to add. I'm open to suggestions from others who didn't opt in to the surveys.

[designers*n*more]

"You can stated that cash is preferred for local pick up....most buyers are happy with that especially when it is explained that they have no paypal protection anyway."

This is about to change. PayPal are going to allow protection/disputes for pick up items.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@designers*n*more wrote:

"You can stated that cash is preferred for local pick up....most buyers are happy with that especially when it is explained that they have no paypal protection anyway."

This is about to change. PayPal are going to allow protection/disputes for pick up items.

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July 15th is the change of policy date.  Hopefully we will receive some more detailed info about this change before that date i.e. the circumstances where P/U items are covered.

[*tippy*toes*]

I can see it now, buyer claiming not received for a pick up item. Pffft.

[lyndal1838]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

I can see it now, buyer claiming not received for a pick up item. Pffft.

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And what is the betting that the poor old seller will lose their money.....the scammers will be out in force for this one.

[bsal6160]

i can only see one reason why paypal would rule in favour of the buyer for that situation. When buyer has paid via paypal and gone to pick up item and its not there.

[bsal6160]

set your start price accordingly. Get rid of reserve price across the board.

Charge an insertion fee for every listing but remove fee on postage.

NO unlimited listings. Just what buyers dont need, more unrelated items flooding every catergory