Suggestions to make eBay better: come and contribute!

[everard6920]

I don't know who reads these boards, but I thought it'd be interesting to read people's thoughts and ideas for eBay. Almost every thread is filled with complaints (in most cases, warranted) . . .  but let's turn that around and have a positive, constructive discussion about what needs to change/what can be improved.

More functionality for eBay stores. We're paying a subscription fee, and "store" software is readily available all over the internet - so let's try to bring eBay stores in to line with other "stores", me thinks.

1. Minimum order amount: I'd love to be able to set a minimum order amount for my buyers. This is standard throughout most online stores, big and small. The advantages of this would be that it'd be easier to provide free (or discounted) postage, as you could set your minimum order to an amount that would allow you to absorb the postage. You can't do that if someone buys only a $3 item (and forget about posting that with tracking or insurance . . .)

2. Consistency with the shopping cart: this works on some eBay sites, and not on others. Please eBay, decide whether you're going to support it or not, and implement some consistency across your sites.

3. Stop policing my pictures. If my pictures are too small, then that is my problem. Some items are ACTUALLY small and they don't need a 39485743957934 x 495874395794379 resolution. Okay?

4. Fix payments for multiple items. You don't go into Big W or DJ's, buy 5 items, and pay for each one separately. The "bug" that stops people using combined payments on smart phones needs to be fixed, and ideally, sellers should be able to change settings allowing them to force a buyer to pay for the 384328947 items they bought in the last hour, in one payment.

5. Obviously, the DSR, defect and feedback systems need a major overhaul. Refunding a buyer shouldn't automatically be a defect - in many cases, that's good customer service, not bad. We all know that the wording of DSRs needs to be fixed - so do the ratings, because only in the eBay universe is a 3 out of 5 a "bad" rating. If you're not going to allow sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers, then at least provide EVERYONE with more transparency by showing an unpaid item count on their profile.

Might post more later, but that's what I've got for now.

[beautysecretfashion]

Definately NEED to know if a buyer is a REPEAT customer -  at least within 3 months, that would be sooooo great!!

I would like the buyers ID shown on the invoice we print for our records - currently not showing.

New ebayers with a star ranking less than 5 MUST pay straight away - this would solve a few non paying newbies that happen regularly.

REMOVE the current ranking system of 5 stars and replace with the following:

Were you satified with the product  ( YES/ NO)

Did the Seller provide excellent service (YES/NO)

Would you Recommend this Seller to other Buyers (YES/NO)

to me the above are the most important factors in a transaction. How ridiculous that we are ranked like little school children ESPECIALLY being scored on Delivery time!! That is beyond our control!

Greath thread by the way!

[aztonline]

Change the process of "Streamlining Returns"

One of my buyers wanted to return the item he purchased and since we mutually agreed I thought of using the ebay returns process.

Little did I know ebay actually opens a case and consider it as defect.

All items returned must not be considered as defects.

[luvpuppy]

The DSR should be abolished totally or at least be made not to affect the seller's selling. DSR restricts the number of item a seller can list and it also affect the visibility of the seller's item. Ebay has to remember that ebay sellers also make ebay buyers (which they seem to have forgotten!). I buy lots on ebay because I know if I dont like the items, i can sell it on ebay. But now that DSR made it very difficult for me to sell, it makes my think twice before buying something - it is a vicious cycle!. The number of sellers that have left ebay because of the DSR means the number of buyers ebay has lost.  I hope ebay will wake up and realise this.

Also, now that the ebay charges a commission on postage (increases the cost of selling) which is a service that they do not provide, they should lower the final selling commission.

[clarry100]

You should not receive a defect if the reason given for the return is buyer changed mind.

If you did and have evidence from messaging between you and the buyer then challenge this one. Call them and present your case.

But if it is for not as described or not received then you will for sure.

[i-love-my-sheep]

1. Abolish DSR's

2. Fix the phone app so it's seller friendly, not just buyer friendly

3. Buyers have to contact the seller before being allowed to leave neutral or negative feedback.

4. Have time ending soonest as the default in search, not best match.

5. Fix the glitches in the seach page so it stops defaulting back to 25 results per page

I'll probably think of more.....

[aztonline]

Should I ask the buyer to change the reason? and can the buyer change it? or should I contest it with ebay?

Regards

Thalha

[cq_tech]

As far as I'm concerned, the problem which needs fixing more than any other on eBay at the moment is the disgusting oversight with the "Item Description" section of the DSRs. As you can clearly see, if you enter one or two stars, you get a pop-up warning and a check-box to complete, while the seller automatically receives a defect!

However, enter three stars (Neither accurate nor inaccurate) which to many buyers means exactly what it says, while others simply look upon it as average, not only is there no pop-up check box, the seller receives a defect for that as well!

In all my time on eBay, I've never seen anything as blatantly unfair as that and it's almost as if they've intentionally set up sellers to fail. Whatever else may be wrong with eBay, that is clearly the thing which needs to be fixed most urgently.

[digital*ghost]

What they really need to do (just IMHO 🙂 ) is make it a clear-cut good / bad system. As far as I'm concerned, if a buyer's problem isn't bad enough to leave an outright neg and/or open a case about it, it's not bad enough to get the seller restricted or banned from selling, so shouldn't have that potential.

Secondly, if they do want to count every last little niggling issue against sellers (and restrict them from selling) when said issues can be relegated to minor irks, many of which are not only absolutely no fault of the seller but are typically inherent to online shopping, or the buyer themselves, no matter which site the buyer may have bought from (eg delivery time, not paying attention to details or description - people like that shouldn't even be rating item description, let alone given the opportunity to kick a seller off eBay due to their poor attention skills but fabulous imagination skills), then eBay should recognise all the sellers that remain are "premium" - you have to be to hang in there in this kind of environment (seemingly protected sellers notwithstanding), and the sellers who are ticking certain service boxes are no more or less "premium" than the ones who aren't. 

[whar_debb]

Personally I think eBay should clean up the selling item page.

Get rid of all the non related mess that is overwhelming to the eye.

Take a page out of etsy's book. The item selling page is only related to the item that is being presented for sale,

It is clean clear and extremely pleasing to the eye. All the other bother takes away from the item Im paying fees for to sell.

I mean come on you don't go into a Cole's store and have to wade through a barrage of Woolworth's advertising's.

                                                                               

[lane-ends]

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@cq_tech wrote:

In all my time on eBay, I've never seen anything as blatantly unfair as that and it's almost as if they've intentionally set up sellers to fail. Whatever else may be wrong with eBay, that is clearly the thing which needs to be fixed most urgently.

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How about when a buyer opens a request for item not received, just to find out when something is likely to arrive. When in fact item has already shown by tracking to have been picked up by buyer from adressees PO box?

You get a defect simply because they asked the question, regardless of the fact they alreday have it.

How on earth can you get a defect as a result of a buyer aking a question regardless of answer