when does your "throttle" come on

[knewdoors]

Convinced that throttling is occuring..and it happens at a certain time for us..at around our billing cycle..just after our store invoice has been paid..when we start paying for extra listings..no sales..nothing..past 6 months same thing..then like many describe "the lights are turned back on" sales start happeneing..maybe this an approach Ebay uses to gouge more money from us...and like a You tube video we saw from a USA ebayer who argues you have a stretch of sales to keep your interest up and then..all of sudden nothing...it wasnt nothing like this  about 3-4 years ago and this was on or close to the GFC...

[saarzi]

I find it bizarre that people still need to be "convinced" throttling exists when there are clear allowances for it in their T&C's and Ebay employees, including the CEO, has stated it occurs themselves (tho theyve never used the word "throttling"). lol

Its like Target saying "we sell clothes"....  and people running around their store, seeing the clothes, and still not believeing them and needing to be convinced.   **bleep**?

lol

[saarzi]

Also, not sure if you use them, but you can clearly see traffic to your item listings through your traffic reports. So theres no need to guess when theres less people viewing your items.

Click on 'manage your store', left hand side 'traffic reports'.

[mbselections00]

I believe throttling occurs without any doubt what-so-ever & have done ever since I first came to the boards looking for answers, lol.  It all makes so much sense and adds up.

I also believe when our lights are on, they are only on in certain areas - it is way too coincidental that when my lights are on 95% of sales are to certain States, allbeit that the locations do alternate as the lights go on and off.

What I am upset about atm is that they have almost throttled me to death this month - totally forgetting to turn my lights back on until yesterday - a bit late for this month though.  I just have to hope I'm on high beam now for a while

[saarzi]

Re: certain areas 

Yes, ive mentioned that before. There seems to be many factors taken into account when throttling happens..  including category of item, price, and location of buyers, and probably a lot more.

The majority of my sales this month were to South Australia and England.  Last month was NSW and QLD.  I sell in a few categories  and some are favoured WAAYYY higher than others in different months. 

I dont really believe throttling is ever 'turned on' or 'off'... its just the variables change. I suspect that depends on which big sellers contracted sale figures Ebay is trying to hit each month, along with the hidden seller restrictions on each account, traffic from various areas / countries and sales in general, among other things.

[mbselections00]

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@gtx305 wrote:

Re: certain areas 

Yes, ive mentioned that before. There seems to be many factors taken into account when throttling happens..  including category of item, price, and location of buyers, and probably a lot more.

The majority of my sales this month were to South Australia and England.  Last month was NSW and QLD.  I sell in a few categories  and some are favoured WAAYYY higher than others in different months. 

I dont really believe throttling is ever 'turned on' or 'off'... its just the variables change. I suspect that depends on which big sellers contracted sale figures Ebay is trying to hit each month, along with the hidden seller restrictions on each account, traffic from various areas / countries and sales in general, among other things.

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I would like to agree with the first part of this statement, but can only say, if it is just that the variables change, then they change so much it results in zero sales for days on end, even weekends with no sales and I have not been able to find a real pattern, other than to say that if I compare the monthly sales from last year to this year they are relatively the same with each month consistently different (hope that makes sense).  I know this has also been discussed in other posts, but no-one really seems to be able to pinpoint why.

However the second part of your comment makes a lot of sense to me and I have not heard it mentioned before - but if that is the case the way I see it, nothing we do as sellers is going to help over ride that variable.

And your comment  I sell in a few categories  and some are favoured WAAYYY higher than others in different months makes a lot of sense to me also as I basically only sell in one category and some months the sales are down to 20% - 25% of other months, for no otherwise apparent reason (eg. time of year, seasonal, special events etc)

Lots of food for thought, thanks gtx

[digital*ghost]

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@knewdoors wrote:

Convinced that throttling is occuring..and it happens at a certain time for us..at around our billing cycle..

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Just out of curiosity - and this is a general question, particularly to anyone who may have noticed a pattern for throttling that often coincides with billing - but how often do people generally make payment to eBay for their selling fees? (eg once a month when the invoice arrives, or regular one-off payments etc). 

[mbselections00]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@knewdoors wrote:

Convinced that throttling is occuring..and it happens at a certain time for us..at around our billing cycle..

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Just out of curiosity - and this is a general question, particularly to anyone who may have noticed a pattern for throttling that often coincides with billing - but how often do people generally make payment to eBay for their selling fees? (eg once a month when the invoice arrives, or regular one-off payments etc). 

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I pay once a month, automated, by memory about 5 days after the bill arrives

Personally I haven't noticed a connection but will be looking now to see if there is one, but I doubt it, at least not this month - my sales have been dead all month

[digital*ghost]

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@mbselections00 wrote:

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I pay once a month, automated, by memory about 5 days after the bill arrives

Personally I haven't noticed a connection but will be looking now to see if there is one, but I doubt it, at least not this month - my sales have been dead all month

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A couple of years ago, I noticed my sales pattern coincided with my billing cycle (I always paid once a month when the invoice came in), and it has always been a theory in the back of my head that maybe these silent limits are - at least in some ways - related to credit limits (which is what eBay essentially provide, i.e. credit).

So, I started making regular one-off payments of my fees, at first when it hit a certain amount (i.e. $30-$50) (then after a while my fees would get that high before I was able to make another one-off payment, so now it's usually every 4-6 days). I do still experience quiet spells, geographic sales patterns, and month-on-month sales figures seem to have something of a cap, but are still steadily increasing. Often, after a payment is made, I'll have a quieter day or two, then a very busy day or two, then things go mostly back to normal.

If anyone is willing and/or able to try making regular fee payments for a while (eg a month or two, to see of it effects any distinguishable change), I'd be very curious to know the result, as right now it's just a theory based on my limited (circumstantial) evidence.

[saarzi]

Regular one off payments. As soon as I notice there are fees owing, or my account is getting close to zero credit, I top it up.

I am always in credit.... I dont like owing anything, so if Im a bit low on cash or theres an emergency and I forget all about Ebay, Im still in front.

I have recently noticed on two payments no sales after. But could be a coincidence - in general, I dont know.