TRS and Premium Badging…!!!

[5kazam]

I’ve just received another email from eBay telling me to update my listings in accordance with their Premium Badging Service and the benefits (??!!) of TRS.  Apart from the fact that I couldn’t care less about either, I am wondering if part of eBay’s long term agenda is that it will become mandatory.  It’s sort of like eBay’s ‘Business Policies’, you can ‘opt out for now’, but how long before sellers can’t.

Within my own category, Australian Pottery, I can clearly list why I can’t/won’t ‘update’.  And I am quite sure there are a lot of other categories that fit similar criteria.

30 day return : I source all my items on the secondary market.  A buyer will know upon opening their package if (i) item not as described (ii) damaged.  If I offered 30 day return that could only constitute change of mind or buyer has damaged item, if said buyer wanted a return/refund.  So it is definitely not acceptable.

Free postage/express post : This one really gets to me.  If I send a package (up to 22kgs) to Metropolitan Melbourne the postage is $8.95.  If I send it to WA, NT, Q’ld (in particular) the minimum would be $13.40 (soon going up), if I could package the item into a mailing bag.  Multiple items (boxed) could, and have been, $40-$50.  If I tried to factor this into my listing prices I wouldn’t have any sales.  (And I agree with comments on other threads about eBay and FVF’s on this issue).  And in spite of what eBay thinks, buyers DO expect postage to be added to their purchase (at least certainly in my category).  My pottery will not slip into an envelope allowing me to add $3.00 to the item and offer free postage.

Same day/1 day postage :  I usually do post the day I receive payment from my buyer (depending on what time of day the payment is made).  But just sometimes a hiccup can occur.  My listings say 2 business days for postage – which I don’t think is unreasonable.  There is only me, I’m not a store, I don’t have employees.

I believe I already offer my buyers PREMIUM service, with good communication, and ensuring their packages get to them in the same condition they left my place.  My feedback will attest to that.

What I am attempting to get over, is that eBay needs to get it into their heads that eBay, with all its categories and sub-categories, is not a ONE SIZE FITS ALL.  For eBay to continually email about ‘upgrading listings’, gives me the impression of ostriches.  

[harley_babes_hoard]

Just ignore it.
Ebay is getting too stuffy with rules and regulations for listing these days. Just let people list and sell things without all the new business policies and TRS badging, it makes no difference to buyers.

[5kazam]

I couldn't agree with you more on making no difference to buyers, and eBay getting too stuffy.  And I am ignoring it as said above, 'cos I can't and won't.  

My only concern is if eBay try to enforce it as a 'policy'.

[davewil1964]

I have 0 out of 957 listings that qualify. And yes I got the email on all 3 IDs today. Even the 2 that will never qualify.

I sell books.

As I'm not a library, I won't offer 30 day returns. I have never actually required a return; the one time a buyer had an issue (it had a duplicate 32 page block and was missing the one that should have been there) I told them to do what they wanted with it. No point in enriching AP any more than I need to.

I don't offer express as a generic option, although I will send that way if asked, because I sell books. They are generally not time specific, are usually less than postage anyway, and express without a lot of mucking around or extra cost is not Paypal protected.

I offer 'free' postage on the books that will go as a large letter.

My handling time is 2 days, too. I work all day. If somebody buys something late in the evening, and I end up working past 6 the next day I can't post on that next day.

TRS allegedly gives a boost to 'best' match rankings anyway. I have no idea where any of my books sit in BM, as I don't search for them unless I need to edit them and can't work out where they are in my 'My Selling' list. And my default search is P+P - Lowest, anyway.

[digital*ghost]

eBay's great and all, and they do occasionally make changes that ultimately provide some decent insight, but I will listen to my buyers before I'll listen to eBay in regards to what buyers want and/or expect. In fact, since I'm a buyer just as much as I am a seller, I'm often bemused by what eBay tells me I expect from sellers. 

If buyers wanted / expected free postage, my sales wouldn't die every single time I've tried it, and while I do offer change of mind returns, I'm personally prepared to give buyers more credit than thinking they need 30 days to decide if they want to keep an item, not to mention I'd rather attract buyers who don't want 30 days to decide . (Faulty items etc are different, and I will provide after sale service months after a purchase, if required).

I'll also do express by request, but wouldn't offer it as standard unless I was in a position to guarantee a maximum 24 hour turnaround, which I'm not. Sometimes it is more professional to manage expectations accordingly than try to comply with other's. 

[diecastcarsvicki]

have to agree free postage is nothing but a myth and a total lie that ebay wishes seller to use.

postage is never free you see many sellers looking like fools in there listings. example look at a dvd say $4.00 plus $6.00 p&h check sellers other items. listed the same dvd at $10.00 free postage lol  result if item listed at $10.00 with free postage sells ebay gains a couple of extra coins in fvf . all these so called business policies and TRS badging are designed to add revenue into ebays profit and does nothing to improve sellers selling.

[clarry100]

We changed all our listings to TRS badging about 5/6-months ago.

We have been unable to attribute any change at all to doing it.

Certainly our BM results are not getting any boost.

At the moment our listings are way down the BM result list and this past week our sales have been down about 60% or so.

This same thing happened back in September just about when we made these changes.

So don't bother with it I'd have to say.

[mbselections00]

Hi all,

I often drop in here for answers & inspiration & find these forums very helpful. I usually don't comment as you are all way more experienced than me, lol.  I just have to comment this time as this is a subject that has really got under my skin.  I only started serious selling & opened a store late last year and constantly receive the same messages from eBay and as others have commented, (I agree with everything that has been said) I also see it as another money grab by eBay - not a tool to help either buyers or sellers.

I sell a product that I realise is not the most popular around here, but that's beside the point.  Sales since the second last week of February have been almost non-existent, (like someone commented in another thread, don't know that there will be any profit this month!) but I was concerned it may have been because I wasn't following the premium badging requirements, but also attributed it to all the site glitches.  My smaller items are vey low priced items, so to add Free Post would be ridiculous as I also offer Combined Postage.  Anything over about $15 in value, I offer Registered and Combined Postage.  eBay must think we are fools . . . . . .  worse still, what are Buyers really going to think if the price of the item is increased to cover the postage ?  Using the DVD as an example, what if I want 3 DVD's ? 3 x $10 ($30) instead of 3 x $4 + $6 ($18).  And I don't have the time to list every item twice anyway.  And wouldn't that be spamming ?  I do have little single item sales, but the majority are multiple items. I think it would be very poor customer service and immoral to overcharge like this.  If a buyer purchases more than 1 item from me and pays individually without requesting a Combined invoice, I refund them the overpaid postage !!

If you go to a shop that charges for bags and you buy 5 items, you would not expect to be be charged for 5 items plus 5 bags if all items fit in 1 bag - to me, it's the same thing, it is just wrong.  Worse still and more deceitful if the price of the bag is already included in the price of the item. 

Totally agree with the comment, when the buyer opens the parcel, the item is either in good condition (which it should be as I post in bubble lined envelopes) or it is broken - it doesn't take 30 days to work that out !  Mind you, I have only ever had 1 buyer

complain a charm didn't fit  ? so I offered a refund and 1 buyer who received a broken bracelet, (everything else in tact) so I sent a replacement (It seemed the package had been bent). In both cases they let me know the day they received the parcel, so I feel 7 days is adequate.  Who knows what they could do with the item in 30 days and if it was a genuine complaint outside 7 days, I would resolve the issue anyway.

I have spoken to eBay along the lines that I think these requirements are unfair - for certain products, but as someone already mentioned - it's a one size fits all policy !!  I do believe they are trying to push us little guys out.

I post within 24 business hours of cleared payment, but I don't think buyers really consider that when leaving Feedback, they rate based on how long it takes for them to receive.  I spoke to eBay about this also as I received a '1' for postage time which I took very personally - they refused to look into it, saying it didn't effect my rating, but to me, that wasn't the point - what if I received a second '1' ?  I suggested if you list as 1 day turn around & the item is marked as posted within that time, it should be an automatic 5, I know this could be open to dishonesty, but at least it would protect the majority of us honest Sellers.  I know there are overseas Sellers who must have worked out how to do this somehow, because the instant you pay, your item appears as 'Posted'.  My daughter actually bought something recently and two days after she paid and it was marked as posted, she received a message saying the colour she chose was not available, lol.  Well, she's a bit feisty (like her mum) so went straight back to them, with well, you had it listed and marked as posted, etc so . . . . .  find one !  My point is, they then admitted the Marked as Posted comes up Automatically.  I have also noticed the automatic 'Posted' when I pay with some overseas Sellers.

Now that I have ranted and vented, does anyone know -  If you offer a discount on your invoice do eBay charge FVF on the original price or the amended price. 

I was thinking this may be a way around it - deduct the hidden overcharge for postage ?  It would be very difficult though, because most buyers pay immediately and unfortunately, they don't seem to read much.  It would create more work, but was thinking if you could offer 'Request Combined Postage discount before paying' - can you, if its FREE ? , then you could deduct the multiple charges.  I would consider doing this if it were possible.

Lol, maybe it is just too hard !!!!  Sorry to have bored you all and raved on, but it's all very much connected.  eBay appear to be so strict in some matters and then down right dishonest in some of their policies and guidelines.

[clarry100]

Hi

Don't disagree with any of your thoughts on all this. They have been banged around up here many times. But unfortunately this is the beast we work with and if we don't like it then, as a seller, we always have a choice to vote with our feet and sell elsewhere.

We are currently developing our own web site and hope to have it up and runnning in the next month or two. Once we have that working at least as well as ebay then we will scale back our operations on here anyway.

As for discounting on invoices....

If you have only FREE post items on any invoice you cannot discount against it at all. If you have mixed FREE and "PAID" post then you can discount up to the maximum of the total postage cost only.

So if someone orders 5x items and all are FREE post then they effectively pay for 5x lots of postage since it is embedded into the item price of a single one. The invoice will not allow you to discount anything in this case. The only thing we can do is to do a partial refund in PayPal to give the buyer back the overpaid postage. Or sometimes we offer to include an extra item of their choice for no extra charge. Their choice!

[mbselections00]

Hi,

I acknowledge that I have tried several other sites and have to concede, like it or not, eBay does seem to be the best platfrom.  Yes, I do currently refund overpaid postage through PayPal and don't have a problem doing that, but if postage was built in to the selling price and eBay were making extra on FVF, I would just consider that unfair and it would also require many more refunds.  It wouldn't add up to a fortune fee wise, but every little bit counts when you're only a small seller.  Plus I read somewhere - maybe here, PayPal are talking about not refunding the fee portion - so that would just add another expense.

Lovely sharing with you, you always have good comments to add 🙂

Take care & good luck with the website