"We’ve allowed buyers to make offers to help you sell" NO HELP!!!

[laawesome2017]

I'm new to ebay and I have noticed Ebay allowing offers on my items. I don't want this. I price my items at an excellent price and most of what I sell are handmade. I don't want to sell any lower. Ebay sends me an email and I have to go to 'manage my offers' on every single item. How do I stop this from happening all together.

Thanks Lisa xoxox

[digital*ghost]

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@springyzone wrote:

I wouldn't have a problem so much if ebay had a clear policy that any item unsold after being listed a couple of times had to have a 'make an offer' attached to the next ad, but under no circumstances should ebay be able to unilaterally accept an offer or set the actual acceptance price.

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I tend to think any interference on eBay's part is unethical, and legally questionable, I also think there's a point where a site like eBay dictating the selling terms of an item starts to blur that "The seller accepts all responsibility for this listing" line - how can a person accept full responsibility for a listing, if they do not have full control of it? Even some of the ads eBay place on there are utterly irresponsible (for those that never see the ad placement on listings, they decided to whack one right at the top, in the main info section, between Payments and Returns. These are just a small bar graphic, but can say whatever the advertiser wants. I've seen some that just say "30% off your purchase"; and I know these advertisements have caused problems for sellers because the buyer assumes it's part of the seller's ad - what an absolutely stupid place to put third-party advertising, but I digress, as per usual  ). 

I think forcing Best Offer on listings is likely to have one effect - higher prices, rather than lower ones. Many sellers who choose best offer will have their BIN price a bit higher, obviously, to leave room for negotiation. If sellers are forced to have best offer, the natural response will be to increase their prices, but rather than have the potential to increase average sale prices, or even average sales, most buyers will just see high prices as a con, affecting their overall perception of eBay, and any seller who doesn't inflate prices but won't negotiate them either while eBay insist on it, again will be met with buyer frustration and disappointment.

I'd love to meet the people who come up with these hare-brained schemes. 

[springyzone]

I agree with you.

If you look at gumtree, all the ads there have a 'make an offer' section, so the accepted practice is that buyers make offers.

But what I have noticed is that many prices are vastly inflated (compared to similar thing on ebay) and my guess is those sellers have inflated their price to allow for coming down a bit.

Even sellers who state their price is firm still get offers.

If ebay wants to go this route, where sellers are forced to have a best offer tab in their listings, I think it would be a shame. Like you, I think we would see a mind set with customers that the stated price was only a maximum guide.

But if ebay still thinks it is the best way to go, then it should be clear to sellers that it is in the listing, but that should be the end of it. ebay has no right to go deciding anything at all about accepting prices that have not been set by a seller. As you say, how can a seller accept full responsibility for an ad if they don't have control over what is in it?

What it will do is turn customers off. If ebay set and accepted an offer without a seller's knowledge (which i am pretty sure I read has happened), the seller can later explain to the buyer what happened and refund but my guess is a buyer is not necessarily going to believe it, they will just assume either the seller is lying because they have changed their mind or the seller is a bit incompetent and didn't know how to set an ad correcfly. Neither inspires confidence in the ebay site.

And also, your point about the placement of ads is valid. I too have seen some that say something like 30% off your purchase and have momentarily been confused till i realised it was a separate ad.

In fact, I think there are a few areas where ebay can confuse customers and I think that can in the long term be lethal. buyers need to be confident that when they buy & pay for an item that the deal is exactly as they see on the screen and everything is likely to go smoothly.

[melinachristina]

Our eldest dorta deals in international business, law and marketing, but at a corporate level, not as a practising lawyer. She lost me in the first sentence, but I did take note of her saying that it’s inconceivable given the number of years eBay has been about and some of their nefarious practices, that someone outside the jurisdiction of the US has not already litigated and won, probably many times. She pointed out though that we’re not likely to know of it, because eBay would most likely settle if they were blatantly wrong, which she believes they are in many instances, and a non disclosure clause would prevent the affected from speaking out.

Apparently too, it’s not that difficult as there are firms Who specialise in these types of actions, day in and day out, with affiliate lawyers based in the States. Cost of course, would be a big consideration (which is what eBay would Bank on), although she says much can be achieved at a minimal  and reasonable outlay. Even if eBay settled with 1% of their total customer base, they’d still be many miles in front with the other 99%.

All food for thought I guess, and she wouldn’t hesitate, but then people with $$$$ usually don’t. Which leads me to wonder about the large Corporations who sell on eBay, or are they at the comfort of different behaviour from eBay?

Melina.

[countessalmirena]

Yes... different rules for different fish.

The midget dwarfgoby (the ordinary sellers) do not get the same treatment as the southern sunfish.

[old-gold-4u]

Time to leave eBay

[old-gold-4u]

EBay dictating and altering my listings to include offers, and unrealistic offers at that, without my consent. The changes are made whilst being notified until after they have been nade.

With over 700 transactions and a history since 2012, I am totally dissatisfied with eBay. I am ready to walk away.

[imastawka]

700 transactions, but only 142 as a seller.

Only one sale in the last 12 months.

And the offer accepted was $275 for a listed price of $290

Hardly an earth shatteringly low price and you didn't have to accept the offer.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@imastawka wrote:

700 transactions, but only 142 as a seller.

Only one sale in the last 12 months.

And the offer accepted was $275 for a listed price of $290

Hardly an earth shatteringly low price and you didn't have to accept the offer.

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I think the issue is that eBay are also including auto accept. The auto accept can be 50% of the listed price.

They kept adding best offer to one of my listings. I kept removing it. 24 hours later it was back. So, I played along. Listing price of $90. I set it to auto accept offers over $89.95 and reject offers under $89. So far it's stuck and they haven't fiddled.

[Anonymous]

This annoys me  so much i have to constantly  check my listing to make sure ebay hasn't changed anything 

[davewil1964]

Keep checking, you have best offer on 2 of your 13.