What would you do if you were the ceo of ebay

[casbit33]

If I were the Ceo of Ebay I would make all items free to list and relist.

Storeholders would have a lower FV fee.

Money back guarantee would be scrapped.

Negative feedback button returned for sellers.

Bad buyers and sellers would have their accounts shut down.

And the whole place would get back to being a fair and equal place for all.

What does everyone else think? any ideas?

[unique_pre-driven]

Does anybody know ebay's Mission Statement?   

[englishrosegardens]

If I was CEO of ebay.... Well, I know that's never going to happen so dreaming about what I'd do is a fruitless exercise, rather akin to banging my head against a wall, so I refuse to waste time on it.  

While human nature is what it is, nothing ebay can do will solve all the problems.  The system can never be fair to both sides and there's no way to prove who's lying in a lot of cases, so things are either slanted in the sellers' favour (as in the past) or in the buyers' favour.  There are just as many crooked sellers as buyers, if not more so, and this is why ebay has been forced to swing the pendulum to favour buyers.  I've certainly lost a LOT more money from dishonest sellers than I've had stolen from me by dishonest buyers!  I know some items are more subject to scamming by buyers but those items are a bit like postage - some things aren't best suited to online selling.

[merfar2107]

One person's 'Junk' (trash) is another person's traesure, as the saying goes.

In fact that used to be one of the positives of ebay - finding that 'junk'. I can get the rest of the new stuff at the shopping centres.

[chameleon54]

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@casbit33 wrote:

If I were the Ceo of Ebay I would make all items free to list and relist.

     Imagine the carp that would find its way onto the site, clogging up searches and servers and the same old unsaleable, valueless $h!t going round and round for years, turning off buyers.

Storeholders would have a lower FV fee.

Why ? ebay are struggling to make a profit now. If fees where reduced it would just accelerate the business decline into insolvency. The fees are not out of kilter with most other similar privately run businesses. Ebay is not travelling all that well. It cant afford to reduce fees right now.

Money back guarantee would be scrapped.

Less confidence in the system means less buyers overall and everyone including sellers would end up worse off. The MBG system certianly needs to be modified to make it more equitable, but not scrapped all together.

Negative feedback button returned for sellers.

Like others I was around when sellers could leave negative feedback. It left buyers fearful of leaving deserved negative feedback for sellers, as retalitory negs from sellers where common place.

Bad buyers and sellers would have their accounts shut down.

Agree 100% on this one, but ebay needs to have a genuine appeals process in place for sellers who are unfairly shut down by ebay bots. For many sellers this is their livelyhood. If they dont have confidence in the system they will be reluctant to expand and grow their businesses.

And the whole place would get back to being a fair and equal place for all.

Ebay is not a " nice little socialist, community service, experiment ", it is a major international business, competing with other major global players. Unfortunately global business is not always fair and equel. If ebay cant compete, it will fade away and eventually shut down. That wont be good for any of us.

What does everyone else think? any ideas?

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One of ebays main problems is that it lacks a clearly defined image. Is it a place to find rare collectables,

 ? A chinese $2 shop ? A junkyard / garage sale ? or a "mini me" Amazon. ????? 

Ebay needs to find its core market and work to develop that in a clear concise way, with an advertising campaign to cement its brand and direction. Without access to internal sales data we are not in a position to identify where the business is generating growth from.

Small sellers have in the past been an important source of buyers for ebay, returning money from sales back into purchases from larger stores. I suspect ebay still needs this army of small sellers / buyers and should look after them better than it currently does.  

The global online sales market for new, quality goods is already dominated by Amazon and large retailers private websites. Ebay has global dominence in the private sale, small online business segment. I would have thought this was a large, niche market that ebay could easily consolidate its position in, building on its past history and reputation. Basically going back to its roots to find market share and avoiding the increasingly crowded brand name goods, online sales sector.

[chameleon54]

---

@casbit33 wrote:

If I were the Ceo of Ebay I would make all items free to list and relist.

     Imagine the carp that would find its way onto the site, clogging up searches and servers and the same old unsaleable, valueless $h!t going round and round for years, turning off buyers.

Storeholders would have a lower FV fee.

Why ? ebay are struggling to make a profit now. If fees where reduced it would just accelerate the business decline into insolvency. The fees are not out of kilter with most other similar privately run businesses. Ebay is not travelling all that well. It cant afford to reduce fees right now.

Money back guarantee would be scrapped.

Less confidence in the system means less buyers overall and everyone including sellers would end up worse off. The MBG system certianly needs to be modified to make it more equitable, but not scrapped all together.

Negative feedback button returned for sellers.

Like others I was around when sellers could leave negative feedback. It left buyers fearful of leaving deserved negative feedback for sellers, as retalitory negs from sellers where common place.

Bad buyers and sellers would have their accounts shut down.

Agree 100% on this one, but ebay needs to have a genuine appeals process in place for sellers who are unfairly shut down by ebay bots. For many sellers this is their livelyhood. If they dont have confidence in the system they will be reluctant to expand and grow their businesses.

And the whole place would get back to being a fair and equal place for all.

Ebay is not a " nice little socialist, community service, experiment ", it is a major international business, competing with other major global players. Unfortunately global business is not always fair and equel. If ebay cant compete, it will fade away and eventually shut down. That wont be good for any of us.

What does everyone else think? any ideas?

---

One of ebays main problems is that it lacks a clearly defined image. Is it a place to find rare collectables,

 ? A chinese $2 shop ? A junkyard / garage sale ? or a "mini me" Amazon. ????? 

Ebay needs to find its core market and work to develop that in a clear concise way, with an advertising campaign to cement its brand and direction. Without access to internal sales data we are not in a position to identify where the business is generating growth from.

Small sellers have in the past been an important source of buyers for ebay, returning money from sales back into purchases from larger stores. I suspect ebay still needs this army of small sellers / buyers and should look after them better than it currently does.  

The global online sales market for new, quality goods is already dominated by Amazon and large retailers private websites. Ebay has global dominence in the private sale, small online business segment. I would have thought this was a large, niche market that ebay could easily consolidate its position in, building on its past history and reputation. Basically going back to its roots to find market share and avoiding the increasingly crowded brand name goods, online sales sector.

[chameleon54]

Ebay forum glitch there and wouldnt let me edit / remove second post.

[casbit33]

The reason there is too much stuff on ebay for you is because of the big businesses and Chinese sellers. Take them out of the picture and you get a great mixture of interesting products.

To say it's junk is wrong. As another person has said "one persons junk is another persons treasure".

This is so true. We don't all like the same things.

I'm sure every seller on here likes to think their items are good and not junk. 

[englishrosegardens]

chameleon, most of what you said was worth repeating, so the double post was appropriate!

There's already too much unsaleable stuff listed because of all the extra freebies and perhaps ebay has taken a close look at it and decided the extra listings aren't earning a correspondingly higher amount of fees.  Just because it's a good product doesn't mean it's a viable product when it comes to online selling.

I don't know why people think they're entitled to something from ebay when they give very little in return in the way of final value fees.  Ebay is a business like any other, not a charity, and it's not up to them to provide a free selling platform for unviable items.  I think they're generous giving us 40 every month, especially with the free relists, and any more is a bonus - NOT an entitlement.  If we're trying to make money out of a hobby, why should it be ebay's problem if it's an unprofitable/unviable hobby?

Interesting that the OP thinks it used to be fair and equal on ebay, yet they think someone else should pay for their mistakes. How is that fair??? 

A refund will be given if the item is clearly not as described or faulty.

The buyer must return the item to obtain a refund.

Return postage is paid by the buyer.

[englishrosegardens]

I could list plenty of categories where there's no listings from Chinese sellers or big businesses, but they're cluttered with stuff that'll never sell.

Take your single bed sheet that's merely in 'good' condition,, for example. For $7 + $14.40 postage (minimum), I could buy a new one in a b&m shop, or I could buy one in an op shop for $3 to $5 in excellent condition.

[merfar2107]

I thought the forum was to help each other, not pull another's items and listings apart. We could very well say that about everyone's if we wanted to be nasty. However, isn't it better to support each other, rather than trash another's listings?

I respect the right of all members to sell what they like as long as it's withing ebay rules, and to charge whatever they deem to be right for them.