The new ebay survey. Trust issues? (haha) + my response

Hi all,

I just took an ebay survey. They asked, “In what areas, if any, would you like to see eBay make improvements?
Please be as specific as possible.”

I have no illusions that anyone important will ever see it, but I started writing for the the hell of it and turns out I had plenty to say. They “wanted to hear from me,” but not too much. There was a character limit (no not that kind of character), so I had to edit out my “jokes” and trim the fat – but I copied it before that because I thought someone might be interested. I mean, I’m barely interested, but if anyone would be, this is the place. 😉

If I can post this in the right place, maybe some people will see it. Yes, you can accuse me of being negative, but I think everything said has merit and I do also offer substantive suggestions for improvement (which, as we all know, will never be implemented). This is more just to spark conversation. Oh yeah, they also asked questions about how much sellers trust ebay and there was a series of questions like, do you feel ebay is on your side? I thought that was interesting.

– Hope everyone is staying safe and doing well.

Here it is:

“In what areas, if any, would you like to see eBay make improvements?
Please be as specific as possible.”

Seller fees are still too high, especially when combined with store fees.

Incentives and crumbs ebay minimally doles out to sellers are usually slaps in the face.
Save on fees when you list stuffed squirrels in the taxidermy category for the next 2 hours, is just…nothing…especially the last “we’re all in this together” offer of “free” shipping supplies (that are, surprise surprise, almost never totally free to sellers with small stores because the coupon is just under for the minimum required order on almost every shipping store item). Why not just give us a coupon to spend anywhere on ebay?

Ebay provides no healthcare or benefits. They expect full time sellers to take care of pesky things like health and retirement and loss of income. If we’re “all in this together” the least they could have done was suspend store fees for a few months. It would still be crumbs, but sellers would have appreciated it. We’re all in this together – unless it affects the bottom line. Sellers always feel ebay doesn’t share the wealth.
I remember as a relatively new seller I worked hard to meet the top rated requirements, achieved them, and then my status was taken away when I didn’t meet arbitrary sales goals ebay had set. Eventually, they ended up taking away most of the benefits anyway, but it’s that kind of SNAFU that sellers have come to expect from ebay. Not only does it not inspire sellers, it sours them on ebay management and selling on ebay. Sellers constantly feel nickel and dimed.

Antiquated feedback system.
Sellers are forced to leave positive feedback for buyers if they choose to leave feedback. Either get rid of that or let sellers rate buyers. Why is there still a “Neutral” option for buyers to choose when they rate sellers? That gives buyers two chances to leave negative feedback, because they have no clue that ebay treats a neutral as a negative. Stop it. The feedback system does not motivate sellers to sell more or do better. It just causes anxiety. There has to be a better way.

Seller protection.
The overall feeling among sellers is that ebay does not protect them against fraud or less-than-honest buyers. A buyer can still claim there is a problem with an item or simply say it’s INAD, when there was no problem and send it back on the seller’s dime. Even if the seller can prove it isn’t true, there is no recourse on the seller’s part. Hopefully, with managed payments the loophole for buyers to request a refund from paypal after losing at ebay will no longer be a worry, but ebay never attempted to fix that either. It left a bad taste in seller’s mouths and, again, sellers still don’t feel protected.

Programming bugs and interface design.
e.g., I answer a question and the interface shows there is still a question to answer – for months. I told ebay about the problem and it was never fixed.
When I look at solds I can no longer see shipping and item price on one page. I have to click to another page to see the breakdown and then back again. No rhyme or reason. The option to see it on the same page just disappeared months ago.

After a sale, the custom label for the listing cannot be seen in the notifications. It cannot be seen in the notification emails, app, or message notifications. ebay actually changed the identifying product number for themselves and even advertised it to sellers as something useful, but they still don’t show the custom label info that millions of sellers use as a SKU inventory number (you know, so they can actually go find the item to ship). This is a perfect example of ebay’s relationship with sellers.

ebay customer service should have a chat option for sellers and faster turnaround times.

Seller updates are getting less traumatic, but many sellers still have PTSD. There are too many changes all of the time and sellers want less hassle and more benefits from updates (and fewer updates), not more hassle and less money.

Stop trying to be Amazon. In almost every way, it’s a losing proposition. Market ebay as THE place to buy vintage and used goods – as well as all of the new stuff. Even though amazon sells used stuff, people don’t think of amazon that way. Ebay has the edge there.

Pushing sellers to offer free shipping should stop. There is of course no such thing as free shipping and sellers lose money as shipping prices rise – and they are always rising. (Just in case some are saying, but the buyer pays shipping if i don’t offer free shipping: when shipping prices rise, we eat anything over the maximum price a buyer will realistically pay for an item – whether it is offered “free” shipping or not; therefore we lose income as shipping prices rise.)

I think there is a better way:
Buyers should just see one price. That would eliminate the issue of “free” shipping altogether. It simplifies everything and gets rid of the question totally. One price and the shipping stays behind the scenes.