topic Re: Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me in Selling

Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me

lupercal — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 09:08:21 GMT

This is purely venting, after an annoyting, time-consuming episode.

I noticed tonight that I had a message that read (something like) "Good News - your items now qualify for 'Best Offer'. Customers really like this, because bla bla bla"

Since, as far as I could remember, my items ALWAYS qualified for this, and I almost never use it, I found this information odd but otherwise uninteresting, until I discovered that ebay had apparently arbitrarily applied 'Best Offer' to a whole swathe of my items.

An annoying phone call ensued, during which i asked them if they could stop doing this, and please remove the 'Best Offer' options from the items they'd applied them to. I was told there was no way they could do this in bulk, but the 'good news' was that I could go through all the auctions one by one and do it myself.

I explained that I realised this in the first place, and hung up. Luckily I managed to find themall and remove them before anyone actually made an offer and things got tied up while I declined it and explained to them why it shouldn't even have been there.

Ok. Back to normal viewing. Thanks.

Re: Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me

*tippy*toes* — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 09:19:51 GMT

It's surprising how many are reporting that eBay is putting best offer on their listings, when they clearly don't want that. The disturbing part is, eBay is putting an auto accept offer for less than half the price. Unless these sellers are on the ball, they are losing out big time. The sellers are removing the best offer and eBay is putting it back again.

Even if it's only appearing on some items, if it's more than say 20, I'd be ticking the lot and then bulk editing to remove the best offer. Saves having to go through one by one.

EBay should stay the hell out of seller's business. This latest thing really takes the cake. They have stooped to a new low. How dare they set an auto accept offer of less than half the price the seller wanted.

Re: Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me

lupercal — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 09:28:30 GMT

I also noticed that the latest iteration of the ipad app defaults to 'Best Offer'. I couldn't immediately see a why of preventing this, so I just loaded the item photos which were on the ipad, saved the drafts, and finished them on the PC/website. This wasn't, BTW, how all those Best Offers suddenly got in there. Last night I definitely had none.

I can't really see the benefit to ebay from doing this, unless it's because, since they've given me so many $1 listings, they make more money from a high turnover at a low price, than from a low turnover at a high price. In any case, if they're going to make a regular practice of arbitrarily doing this without warning, someone needs to remind them who the damn seller is.

Re: Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me

countessalmirena — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 09:37:26 GMT

I wonder whether sellers ought to place something in their Terms and Conditions to address this...

PLEASE NOTE: This item has a Buy Now fixed price. Best Offer is not enabled and will not be entertained.

In the event that eBay arbitrarily change the settings on this listing to enable Best Offer (including where eBay may arbitrarily enable Auto-Accept), any offer or purchase under such conditions will be deemed a breach of our terms and conditions and will be cancelled.

We regret any confusion that may arise as a result of eBay changing this listing arbitrarily, and refer any affected individuals to eBay Customer Service who may be able to explain to them why random listings are being arbitrarily altered by eBay without permission, without sellers' knowledge, and against Australian consumer legislation.

This is half tongue-in-cheek as I expect buyers would simply be put off by anything of that nature.

Re: Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me

lupercal — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 09:49:13 GMT

If they persist with this - and something tells me it may not be a one-off - I would probably consider something like this. I would want to word it very carefully to ensure that it doesn't accidentally come across as hostile to the customer, though.

Of course, even then it would depend on the assumption that customers always read the description, and I know that I sometimes neglect to.

Re: Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me

twyngwyn — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 09:57:29 GMT

I can't see "make an offer" on ANY of your listings......or, have you managed to fix already?

OK, re-read & you have done so....good on you....poor form eBay 😞

Re: Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me

davewil1964 — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 11:15:52 GMT

@countessalmirena wrote:
I wonder whether sellers ought to place something in their Terms and Conditions to address this...

PLEASE NOTE: This item has a Buy Now fixed price. Best Offer is not enabled and will not be entertained.
In the event that eBay arbitrarily change the settings on this listing to enable Best Offer (including where eBay may arbitrarily enable Auto-Accept), any offer or purchase under such conditions will be deemed a breach of our terms and conditions and will be cancelled.

We regret any confusion that may arise as a result of eBay changing this listing arbitrarily, and refer any affected individuals to eBay Customer Service who may be able to explain to them why random listings are being arbitrarily altered by eBay without permission, without sellers' knowledge, and against Australian consumer legislation.

This is half tongue-in-cheek as I expect buyers would simply be put off by anything of that nature.

The main issue would be eBay arbitrarily deciding the seller is no longer in good standing and cancelling their account. Crows can tell you what avenues of appeal exist in that case.

Re: Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me

countessalmirena — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 11:23:22 GMT

eBay's certainly got the pocket on "arbitrary" sewn up in their favour. You're right - I can imagine any sort of disclaimer concerning this being greeted by eBay with all the enthusiasm of a Texan home intruder facing a homeowner waving around a gun. Somehow one just knows that the gun isn't loaded and that the intruder has steel-capped boots...

Re: Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me

lupercal — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 11:26:19 GMT

Yes, fixed already.

Re: Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me

pancaket52 — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 21:27:55 GMT

I was exploring the new Selling Form with a dummy listing and was caught out by the 'hidden' ticked 'Make an Offer Box'.

If anyone is using the new Listing Form this is hidden between the type of sale i.e. Auction or Buy it Now and the post charges in very small blue letters ' Add your own specifics' You have to click on this for the Ticked Box to drop down.

Since unticking the box I have made a couple of real listings and it has stayed unticked - but I will keep an eye on it.

Re: Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me

lupercal — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 13:56:45 GMT

Goddammit, they did it again! This time without even notifying me.

I was checking through my items, and realised I hadn't actively scanned them to see if any of them had been put into 'best offer' mode, and sure enough, it had been aplied to about a dozen or fifteen of my items - completely arbitrarily as far as I can see.They had nothing in common. Some were re-lists, others were only a few days old; some were a little ambitiously priced, a couple were so rockbottom I'd almost not bothered listing them. They had nothing in commnon at all, and they were listings that had been up for some time, and not all originally listed at the same time.

I'd already had a rather annoying day, and it's probably good that it's too late for me to ring them up at the moment, because I'm spitting chips about this. What's worse I know that another phone call would be as pointless as the previous one. I don't want to say this, but many of the first-line ebay operators I seem to get not only have trouble communicating or digesting information, but it's clear that they're also woefully under-informed by their employers, and simply don't have more than a tenuous knowledge of the workings of the company they're representing. At least twice I've had to explain how something works to them!

I really think I'm going to have to put a disclaimer on my items. This is just completely absurd. I'm going to have to religiously monitor my items to weed out these damn arbitrary alterations. Again, I managed to get in before someone actually took 'me' up on any of those offers with pre-set, arbitrary alterations.

I'm probably going to regret posting this. To anyone else who this is happening to, I seethe on your behalf.

Re: Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me

lupercal — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 14:03:27 GMT

@pancaket52 - yes, do keep your eye on it, because I was aware of that new default trick, and my auctions are still having it applied days after they've been listed.

Re: Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me

karecoope-95 — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 00:45:34 GMT

They are sending me that message and as soon as I get it I alter the best offer to what I want or not at all. They seem to want best offer on all listings. Im selling stuff but obviously not quite as fast as they'd like. They sent two messages yesterday - one for thirteen and one for fifteen listings. And this morning for just one! I too am becoming paranoid stalking my own listings!

Re: Automatic 'Best Offer' - or Ebay finds new ways to annoy me

karecoope-95 — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 03:41:15 GMT

Ok now they're sneaking them on with no warning email. Offers for less than half!