I asked Ebay what new changes have damaged my sales...and they responded...

[Anonymous]

I just opened a chat with an Ebay representative and asked them "what changes have recently been made that has seen my sales drop by 95-100% this month?" I received the following response

Jean Su. "We have done nothing to destroy any seller's account. It is up to the buyers to buy items and some items are seasonal. Also, there are many sellers nowadays that the competition is very stiff."

....I then mentioned that the drop in sales happened instantly which is neither seasonal nor due to competition being "very stiff" and the response I received was ...dead silence... It appears that rather than tell the truth o a lie Ebay will just go silent and wait for you to go away. So after years of advertising and telling us all to build our own Ebay business and encouraging us to rely on it for our living this is the response we get when they decide we are no longer of any use. I would have some more to say but i have already received 4 warnings from the Ebay moderation team today for speaking out of line. I guess they will shortly send me another dozen or so.....because i know I have been speaking my mind a lot lately. Shame on me.

[coast_golf]

I'm a little perplexed, across my various accounts my BIN items have dropped by at least 50% across the board in the past 2 months. However many of my auction items are going for prices far in excess of what I expected, in some cases double or more. Even though the costs of auctions have increased substantially, for me at least it has been more than worth it (although it could of course be nothing more than short term variance).

[***super_nova***]

Well, our dollar going down should help a bit to off-set some of the increases in costs. 

[fourandsixpants]

.....and now, started as of 15/6/2013, where USA ebay items show up when one does a search.....with NO LOCAL OR AUSSIE ITEMS OR SELLERS SHOWING.....sales and *grumbles are going to increase....... 

[mesonquark]

A bit of an update if this hasn't been raised in any of the other Posts. It may help explain some of the downturn in sales that I too have experienced recently.

I don't know what percentage of eBay buyers use the mobile app, but I think it's fairly high and that really matters.

I accidentally found out today that any search done via the mobile app ONLY shows listings with FREE P&H. Any listing that has P&H is simply never displayed. It doesn't matter what sort criteria you select, (Best Match, Price + postage: lowest first, ending soonest etc), your listing is simply non-existent as far as the eBay mobile app is concerned.

I contacted eBay customer support and they admitted that there was a technical issue that they already knew about. I don't know how long they've known about this. When I asked what sort of timeframe a fix will be implemented in, I was told that she couldn't say. When I said that this was costing me sales and continues to do so, she commiserated, but I couldn't even get the vaguest idea of when this problem will be addressed and technically resolved.

If you list with FREE P&H, your listing will show up on the mobile app.

If you add P&H, your listing becomes invisible.

If you have the mobile app, and have listings that include P&H, then do a search by description for items you sell and see for yourselves.

The more people that report this fault to eBay, the sooner it's likely to be fixed and ultimately should benefit your sales. You can't sell something on eBay if it simply doesn't show up to people searching for the product you're selling.

[thecatspjs]

I am sorry, that is simply not true.

My listings, and other sellers, with or without free post show on mobile app.

I also subscribe to inkfrog and can see the device and platform used by viewers (history and real time).  My inkfrog views show a significant proportion of those viewing my listings with and without post included, use a mobile device to view. 

[thecatspjs]

Easily found your listings on mobile app just then, through using key search terms used in your item titles 🙂

[mesonquark]

I did about 40 searches for listings using key words that I have in my titles and only those listings that have free P&H show up on my phone on my version of the app. Hence why I reported this to eBay this afternoon and also was told that it was a "known problem".

I can imagine there are various revision levels of the app and it's been designed to run on many platforms. All I can say is that my listings with "free P&H" do show up and those with P&H added, don't, not on my phone anyway. I don't have another phone to test this out on.

My mobile is a Samsung Note 2 and the App Version that I have loaded is 2.1.2.15. Perhaps you have a different platform as there are multiple versions of the eBay app for Android, iPhone etc.

[mesonquark]

Thank you everyone who's responded to me via eBay messages and for all the ideas you've suggested.

The answer is now apparent. However it's a major issue to all sellers who list with P&H added and not with FREE P&H.

It would appear that the default setting, when the eBay app is installed on a mobile, is to show listings with "FREE POSTAGE" only. I know that I would never have set my phone up to be like that, so that's what the eBay app came with. It's also why this problem / issue has been reported to eBay before.

It also explains to me why I've had so many people contact me asking if I stock certain items that I've been listing for years and they haven't been able to find them via the eBay app on their phone. When I give them the item number and they search for the number, they find it, no problem.

I am positive that to most users it isn't apparent that the FREE P&H default is what the app comes with. In fact, on my mobile, these settings are on the second screen that I didn't even notice until I accidentally found it. How many people tinker with the default settings after they download the eBay app?

What it means is that if a phone user doesn't modify the default settings and doesn't un-check the "FREE POSTAGE", any listings with P&H will never show up on their mobile. Also it defaults to show international sellers as well and that's not good for us in AU.

How many phone users are out there running with the eBay app with the default settings as they were when their app was installed? I reckon there must be hundreds of thousands in Australia alone.

I have contacted a couple of friends that use the eBay app this afternoon and their defaults were exactly the same as mine (show only those listings with free P&H), so they would never have seen my listings that had P&H added.

It may explain at least some downturn in sales because if people can't see your listings they can't buy from you.

[12order]

I have read all the people trying to help with your comment ..

everything from offering free postage to offering returns, well all of these are useless if no one can find your items in the first place, and no one can find anything , the Australian site has been opened up and Australia is forced to compete against the Americans ( the world biggest consumer Market ) and china ( the worlds second biggest consumer market )  (China who also list on Australian site) ..

Type in  www.ebay.com  and try and find an Australian listing on there , YOU CANT!!! we don't exist yet type ...www.ebay.com.au and its 90% American listings, this is why your sales are down and yes it doesn't he...

Now if the Australian Listings where on the

www.ebay.com site you would experience greater sales again. Its almost like the Australian website i...

you can check out the other e bay sites and like

www.ebay.co.uk

www.ebay.fr

www.ebay.ca

www.ebay.it

www.ebay.de

and you will find that is Only Australians That is receiving this go to the back of line treatment..

[revampz]

wow that is really scary re above.  What is going on.....now that the Australian dollar is going down and American dollar is stronger, I wonder if things will change again.