topic Bye Ebay in Selling

Bye Ebay

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 11:10:27 GMT

I have been selling on ebay for over 11 years. Always had a good seller rating and we are the world's largest producer of speed skates, so we are not a small company. We use ebay to sell off excess skates. Last year, we had shipping issues that were caused by Aust post late deliveries during covid. Ebay banned us from selling. I contacted ebay and said that I have had a great seller score for 11 years, can you help us to fix this problem. The customer service said 'do you expect me to contact senior management for every problem that occurs? They then went on to tell me that we are not welcome to sell on ebay but we are welcome to continue to purchase on ebay. No thanks. By Ebay, we are moving on to Amazon. I know why ebay is dying, it is because of poor customer service and a lack of respect for their sellers.

Re: Bye Ebay

davewil1964 — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 11:13:38 GMT

Cya.

Re: Bye Ebay

jellybirddesigns — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 12:14:12 GMT

Sorry to hear this, but I have a couple of thoughts.

1) Don't know what your handling time is, but I moved mine up to 15 days to give me a massive buffer in case of delays. I didn't have a single item that ended up being late. You must have had a large number of those to increase your defect rate and put your account at risk. Ebay cannot help you if you over-promised and under delivered in a pandemic.

2) Ebay customer service is atrocious, but Amazons is just as bad if not worse. Before you jump on board there, I highly suggest you spend several days reading the forums which have some excruciating stories that make Ebay seem like a kids lullaby in comparison.

3) Amazon can and will shut you down and withhold payments at a whim, with no help or explanation given. You have to be super focussed on your metrics and be prepared to shell out higher fees in general.

Re: Bye Ebay

gutterpunkz05 — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 13:25:21 GMT

Ebay only takes BS from really big fish. Ciao

Re: Bye Ebay

*sons_and_daughters* — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 13:27:30 GMT

Always love it when someone has to announce their departure, and also mention they are moving to Amazon. Like ebay would care. Reality is, they don't. No skin of their nose.

As for ebay dying, I'd love to see the proof of that. No one ever seems to be able to show proof that ebay is dying, or sellers are leaving in droves. Funny that.

Re: Bye Ebay

sandypebbles — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 18:58:25 GMT

Don't forget to send eBay a postcard

They will have no idea you have gone away otherwise

Re: Bye Ebay

springyzone — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 21:05:10 GMT

I'm a bit puzzled, wondering why you started this post now.

I may be missing something but when you said you had had some problems with late deliveries etc I went to look at your feedback. From what I can make out, most of your feedback as a seller was very good but it appears you may have stopped selling over 12 months ago. So why the post only now?

On the other hand, you have made a handful of purchases since then as you have more recent feedback as a buyer.

I'd be a bit peeved too if I had been selling for years with a good record then I was banned, but I am not privy to exactly why ebay has done that. In your shoes, I'd probably not feel like giving ebay too much of my custom either, if I felt they had treated me unfairly. Luckily, there are plenty of other online sites to buy from these days. Not so many to sell from but if your company is the world's largest producer of online skates, then it could probably do with having its own sales webpage.

Re: Bye Ebay

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 21:45:30 GMT

Ebay said the same thing, we should have changed our shipping time. That's a fair point, we didn't. However, they gave us no chance to resolve the situation. We are banned, and they told us in no uncertain terms to never come back.

Re: Bye Ebay

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 21:46:22 GMT

This message is more of a post to others going through the same situation rather than a message to Ebay because we all know they do not care.

Re: Bye Ebay

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 21:51:29 GMT

Right, this occurred a year ago. I can't remember how I stumbled on this forum yesterday but it just jogged my bitter ebay memory so I felt like sharing. In the past year, we started selling on Amazon and while they are difficult to work with, our sales are extremely good.

Re: Bye Ebay

springyzone — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 21:58:16 GMT

I'm glad your sales are going well.

Yes, this forum isn't necessarily easy to find. I was on ebay for years and never noticed it either. I think most users just pop in to look at what is for sale, they don't necessarily explore all the other bits.

Re: Bye Ebay

chameleon54 — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 22:38:10 GMT

@*sons_and_daughters* wrote:
Always love it when someone has to announce their departure, and also mention they are moving to Amazon. Like ebay would care. Reality is, they don't. No skin of their nose.

As for ebay dying, I'd love to see the proof of that. No one ever seems to be able to show proof that ebay is dying, or sellers are leaving in droves. Funny that.

While I,m not buying into the " ebay dying " thing, the company is certainly in serious decline and needs to turn the ship around fairly quickly. The proof you ask for is in the companies reports to the stock exchange. ( the only reliable statistics ebay publicly provides )

https:/https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/EBAY/financials//finance.yahoo.com/quote/EBAY/financials/

If you read these you will see ebays Gross profit has declined each year for the past four years and its EBIT ( earnings before interest and tax ) have declined to a pitiful $667.000 U.S. last year. That's right.... Less than a million dollars in earnings for a global giant. I,m not sure what you understand about economics but that's a pretty scary number and an indication of a company thats teetering on the edge of the abyss.

Further if you follow quarterly reports they show a company that is struggling to hold onto experienced long term sellers and FALLS in active buyer numbers a common feature.

All up the Company has some major challenges ahead. I have already reduced my reliance on ebay recently as I can see the slow decline in sales continuing as ebay further decays.

The regular knockers here scoff at sellers such as the OP leaving, but every time an experienced seller with specialist product leaves ( in this case the largest global seller of a particular type of skate ) that's one less reason for people to shop here and when they buy elsewhere they are less likely to come back here again.

Re: Bye Ebay

gutterpunkz05 — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 00:52:23 GMT

Oh Cham, ,,,,,,If 1 = 1000

667000 = DOH !!!! $667M US (not bad for the quarter)

Re: Bye Ebay

gutterpunkz05 — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 01:06:31 GMT

Latest ebay financials

eBay Inc. Reports Better Than Expected Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2021 Results

Note: In the table 1 = $1M US

Re: Bye Ebay

domino-710 — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 01:17:09 GMT

LOL - Simple Maths.

Re: Bye Ebay

gutterpunkz05 — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 01:38:05 GMT

I used to actually trust Chams Economics

Re: Bye Ebay

jellybirddesigns — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 01:52:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Ebay said the same thing, we should have changed our shipping time. That's a fair point, we didn't. However, they gave us no chance to resolve the situation. We are banned, and they told us in no uncertain terms to never come back.

Everyone knew from 2020 that shipping was delayed. I even stopped my international sales altogether as items were taking around 6 weeks, up from an average of 2 weeks. Defects would have accrued gradually but you would have known at a glance that you had a metric that needed to be fixed. You could have changed that at any time from the very first instance you received a shipping defect, so it was entirely in your hands to rectify the issue right there and then, not ask Ebay to give you a chance to fix it once the damage was done. Either you were particularly stubborn about changing your handling times, or you didn't think Ebay was serious.

Ebay service metrics information can be found here:

https://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/seller-performance

Specifically the paragraph that indicates the time frames and what happens when accounts fall below standard. Nothing is hidden - it is there for every seller to be informed about and avoid risking their selling abilities.

Re: Bye Ebay

gutterpunkz05 — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 03:28:06 GMT

I have found ebay relatively obliging and helpful, regarding just about anything at all covid related.

I highly doubt the OP is the producer of product, in all likelyhood "Bont", which they were selling.

I wonder if drop shipping was involved, as such ebay would be highly unlikely to tolerate late delivery.

Ironic ........ Speed Skates.........Slow Delivery

Re: Bye Ebay

twyngwyn — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 05:27:06 GMT

eBay Sales, Buyers, Sellers Drop in Q4, But Revenue Grows 5% (ecommercebytes.com)

Re: Bye Ebay

chameleon54 — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 11:10:46 GMT

@gutterpunkz05 wrote:
Oh Cham, ,,,,,,If 1 = 1000
667000 = DOH !!!! $667M US (not bad for the quarter)

OK I admit I,m very tired at the moment. Currently working on a couple of $ 1,000,000 plus deals of my own so have millions on the brain. ( hence why I,m not here much these days ) I,m also selling off around $40,000 worth of stock that would have gone on ebay as I am reducing my exposure to the platform. ( it will all be gone in around a weeks time ) so the brain fog is starting to set in.

The correct figure was $ 667 million EBIT for THE FULL YEAR of 2021 not a quarter. ( just over half a billion dollars U.S ) Compare that to Australia's Commonwealth bank which made Aust. $ 7.2 billion in 2020 ( no figures I could find for 2021 ) and you can see how pitiful eBays financial performance is for a global internet platform during a pandemic.

Your link also shows ebay lost 9% of its active buyers during the year and 8 % of its active sellers. Gross merchandise volumes ( how much stuff was sold ) was also down 10% for the year.

People can bury their heads in the sand and tell themselves ( and others ) everything's fine on ebay, but the only reliable source of figures ( eBay's reports to the stock exchange ) show the company is in serious decline.

Ebay has got an identity crisis. Is it a giant garage sale ..... not any more. It tried to be a mini me Amazon and that has clearly failed, so now it is trying to target the numpty moron market by being the biggest $2 CHINESE CARP shop in the world. Want proof .... watch their mindless adverts that target hair straightners and noise reducing headphones, all promoted with cheap prices. You dont see Amazon spruking CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP !!! do you.

Ebay has lost direction and doesnt have a clear picture of where its heading or what it is trying to achieve. The result is it is wandering around in the online wilderness and its own figures show both buyers and sellers are leaving the site in droves.