Survey: Does your account qualify for the weekend listing promotion?

[thegaminggamer]

1) Does your account currently qualify for the weekend listing promotion?

Yes, it qualifies for the current weekend listing promotion.

No, it does not qualify for the current weekend listing promotion.

2) Did it previously qualify for the promotion before?

Yes, it has qualified for the promotion in the past.

No, it has never qualifed for the past weekend promotion.

3) When was the last time this account was used for selling (approximate)?

It is currently actively selling

The last selling activity was 1 month ago

The last selling activity was 3 months ago

The last selling activity was 6 months ago

The last selling activity was a long time ago

4) What is the registration date (year) of that account?

XXXX

If you have multiple accounts, please separate.

I'll begin:

Account No. 1

1) No, it does not qualify for the current weekend listing promotion.

2) Yes, it has qualified for the promotion in the past.

3) The last selling activity was 1 month ago

4) 2012

Account No. 2

1) No, it does not qualify for the current weekend listing promotion.

2) Yes, it has qualified for the promotion in the past.

3) The last selling activity was a long time ago

4) 2015

[gutterpunkz05]

Another short survey, brought to you by....  Click      Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[annieoakley2000]

I think the survey has merit, considering there is no transparency how E-Bay qualifies their sellers in receiving promotions.

It is haphazard at best or perhaps I should say - it has been haphazard at best   

[*tippy*toes*]

Why does it have merit? The weekend promo is GONE and these members need to accept it. I don't like it any more than anyone else, but I'm not obsessing about it, or losing sleep over it. Running a pseudo survey isn't going to get it back.

[davewil1964]

The 'survey' would only be seen by the estimated 3% of members who regularly read the boards, including those who only post when they feel they have been dudded by eBay/a seller/a buyer (as evidenced by recent posts about this issue). Then it would only apply to sellers within that metric, then those sellers who think that such a 'survey' would be meaningful or result in eBay changing THEIR metrics.

Self-selecting surveys are, by definition, flawed, skewed and not worth the screen they're written on.

[thegaminggamer]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

READ the myriad threads about this issue before starting another one.

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I read the myriad threads, and this is what I got:

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@ramcycle2010 wrote:

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@shinebrightalways88 wrote:
This tippytoes #### must work for eBay lol ... get over it ... people ARE actually allowed to vent and express their own personal dissatisfaction and opinions ...

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There are a few regulars on these boards that love to criticise and attack others that have come here with genuine concerns and issues. Instead of helping, they do more to offend and upset. I've often wondered if they do indeed work for eBay, otherwise, surely this would have been addressed by moderators. Years ago, I stopped coming to the boards because of the insensitivity of this nasty clique. Now I just tend to ignore their comments, but it would be better if they occupied themselves elsewhere, perhaps find a little job or something.

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I'm guessing you two are part of this "nasty clique"? Are you sure you're not an eBay employee? Because the amount of posts and time you spend in this forum suggests that would be a possibility.

Did you used to go to Whirlpool forums? Because based on your writing style, I might have seen you there before. There's a person on there that used to post in every eBay related thread, similar to what you're doing here. That same person was talks to people in a nasty manner too. Know who I'm talking about?

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

There is no "current" weekend promotion. The previous one is GONE. No amount of new threads, or surveys, or whinging and moaning is going to change that. We've all had to deal with it. Maybe everyone else needs to start dealing with it too.

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Perhaps you should follow your co-worker davewil1964's advice and read the myriad threads to find out you're wrong:

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@go-tazz wrote:

I've had choices

The 40 free of listing fees per month,the 1.10 FVF or the $3.30 FVF's (now why would I select the $3.30 offer when I still have 3 to go on the $1.10 offer).

Just finding it a bit difficult to find something else that might sell for over $50.

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I'm not going to reply point by point to the rest of your posts because of strawman arguments.

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@annieoakley2000 wrote:

I think the survey has merit, considering there is no transparency how E-Bay qualifies their sellers in receiving promotions.

It is haphazard at best or perhaps I should say - it has been haphazard at best   

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Every time there is a promotion, people ask things like "how come I didn't get one and you did?", "how does eBay decide who qualifies for one and who doesn't", etc. This goal of this post is one step closer to transparency but it seems like the "nasty clique" of this forum prefers more secrecy. Regardless of the success or failure of this post, I propose that, from now on, the regulars of this forum will hereby be informally refered to as the "Nasty Clique".

[davewil1964]

Another thing about surveys -

Statistical deviance. You have to get a cross-section of the target market to ensure your results aren't skewed. By definition you aren't reaching a cross-section of your target market and, as your 'survey' is self-selecting, any results you get will be skewed. As I said earlier.

IF you had read the myriad threads you might have taken more out of what you read than a few attacks on long term members.

It is a common fallacy for somebody who doesn't agree with what another poster says, especially when it doesn't support an anti-eBay mindset, to accuse them of being eBay employees. Apart from the fact that eBay doesn't allow their employees to post on the boards without identifying themselves, it smacks of a lack of imagination or cogent answer.

I can assure you I don't work for eBay. I don't have the time; I am busy finding another home for about 1000 listings.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

Regardless of the success or failure of this post, I propose that, from now on, the regulars of this forum will hereby be informally refered to as the "Nasty Clique".

That is a bit unfair, don’t you think?

I understand that some members take issue with some posters, but to now class all regulars as being in this so called “Nasty Clique” is an overreaction.  I mean, that would mean that 4channel is in the “Nasty Clique” and I am sure he would take issue with that.

As for me, a regular poster, I don’t give a toss whether anyone here thinks I am a member of a clique, or whether I am nasty or not, but I will take issue with broad statements like the one I quoted above.

[padi*0409]

"The goal of this post is one step closer to transparency but it seems like the "nasty clique" of this forum prefers more secrecy"

Was that rant which included the above sentence really needed ?  Perhaps the regulars simply didn't post what you wanted to hear so you decided that they were either "part of the nasty clique" or eBay employees.

A pretty inflammatory daft insinuation either way - Oh, and I don't get on Whirlpool either............................

[gewens]

Hello,everyone. To be respectful is very important in your interaction with other members here. I'd like to remind you that content that is harmful, hostile, threatening, abusive, baiting, vulgar, defamatory, harassing, or includes hate or racist speech, name calling, or profanity will be edited or removed. Please read about our policy here: https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Community-Feedback/Updates-coming-to-eBay-com-au-Discussion-Boards/... Thanks very much. 🙂

[countessalmirena]

@thegaminggamer,

I'll ignore the derogation portion of your post; I hope it is just driven by frustration at not receiving the information you would like to receive, as well as some disagreement with other posters. Robust disagreement and argument are not forbidden, as long as they don't tip over the edge into an abuse of community guidelines.

I understand that you have a particular goal; you want to be able to plug the how, why, when and wherefore of eBay promotions into a sort of formula so that you can predict them, rely on them, and understand them as classifiable events. You want to be able to tweak an account that doesn't receive a particular promotion so that it does, and you want to be able to create any extra accounts so that they will be eligible for the promotions that best serve you.

It's perfectly understandable. It's a factor that I have no doubt is affecting your listing and selling patterns, possibly substantially. No one like to be making financial decisions with some salient factors left undisclosed. It's like hearing the rustle of money in a pitch black room, followed by a man's voice saying "I've left $5000 on the table there for you, as a gift," and you wonder whether to trust him (the rustle of money WAS $5000 being left on the table? the rustle of money was just him rustling his money before stuffing it back in his wallet? it wasn't money that was being rustled, but just some love letters from a stalker? it was just a recording of money being rustled and there was never any money there in the first place?)... because by the time the lights go on, the man's gone from the room...

You want the lights on, and the man present, so that you can see with your own eyes what is on the table.

BUT...

                       eBay will not tell you.

I doubt that it's calculable. (If it were, by now it would have been posted on various forums around the world. Ina Steiner, Chris Dawson - neither appears to offer any advice on how to ensure that you're eligible for every eBay fee promotion/deal.)

You've used the term "transparency", which is one of the buzzwords of corporate and political language... as though we are entitled to know eBay's process in deciding when to run promotions, how to run promotions, and to whom particular promotions will be offered.

If these promotions/deals were part of the package deal - the User Agreement, the contract that you have with eBay, that I have with eBay, that we as members have with eBay - there'd be no question that you would be correct in wanting these terms to be absolutely transparent and clear and able to be relied upon.

However, they aren't. They are things eBay offers at its own discretion, with no obligation to do so... eBay could potentially offer deals to everyone who has ever searched on eBay for the book "The Island of the Day Before"; they could offer deals to everyone except eBayers who have never sold a meat cleaver; to everyone who's ever bought or sold something related to pets; to everyone who's never requested a refund; to every seller who's never sent a feedback revision request; to everyone whose total number of items listed on eBay is less than one hundred; to everyone whose total gross amount sold on eBay for the last year exceeds $80,000, to everyone who has accessed eBay from a smart device...

The list goes on.

It isn't eBay's technical team / IT department who decides to run a promotion or specifies the parameters of it. The techs will do as they're instructed to do (within - sometimes - broad parameters, since the tech team need to justify their employment to management); they are most definitely not in charge of special deals and marketing and offers to eBay members!

The promotions may have specifics generated by bot code, but if so, it's certainly not going to be revealed by eBay. If these offers are indeed specified by coding in an approximation of randomness within certain parameters, eBay won't negate the very element of randomness by laying out the specificities that dictate those elements. In other words, if eBay want their promotions to be given out randomly, they won't reveal anything that allows eBay members to manipulate or predict the results since that would stop it from being random.

I don't think that asking people on an eBay-owned Community Board will garner the information you'd like to have, and even if it did, it wouldn't give you the raw data that you would need. I also suspect (but don't know for certain) that eBay's algorithms with regard to promotion offers - if there are algorithms involved - start from a random sample. I think eBay's promotions and offers are made strategically, but that sometimes there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why one account would be eligible for an offer, and another account would not.

It's not that anyone on these boards wants this information kept secret. (In my opinion. I might be wrong. There may be a secret organisation here - The Sub Beneficentia Unit or something of that sort - dedicated to keepingn eBay promotion criteria under wraps. I doubt it.)

In the end, the promotions must be treated as ancillary by anyone selling on eBay as a business. They can't be relied upon, can't be predicted, and can't be manipulated (to the best of my knowledge). eBay aren't obliged to offer them at all, or to one person rather than to another. You will want to subscribe to eBay communications (allow them to send you promotional offers), and check on these boards for promotional offers which you may not have received but for which you might possibly be eligible - and grab every offer that suits your purpose... Make sure that your seller metrics are good, and perhaps have several accounts with different product lines or different sorts of activity... but there is (in my view) no magic formula. eBay giveth, and eBay taketh away.