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I understand what you’re saying, but I’m still barely surviving financially so every sale counts to me… I’m not willing to take an $8 hit when ebay should have my back, and it shouldn’t be an issue I have to call 4+ times about. Plus when you add original shipping + return shipping, that becomes around $25
When I worked callcenter, there were definitely tiers of service reps reserved for different levels of customers. The more money the company made from the customer, the higher level of agent they would be routed to.
- This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by JamesC.
I’m pretty sure you also get a higher level of customer service being an anchor store. I’m on the 500 listings plan currently
As I’ve mentioned before, I have many years callcenter experience including outsourced centers like ebay uses, and my experiences with ebay’s customer service mostly reflects my working experience with these call centers, which is not great…
Like I said, the last ebay rep I had to call told me they were going to send me an email in order to resolve a bad return, and they sent me instructions to file a report with the local police department.
This was regarding a drinking glass that buyer claimed held only 8oz instead of 9oz (and it held 9.5oz measured accurately). So ebay’s response to buyer returning a $8 glass while lying about INAD was for me to call the police. Buyer had 5 feedback, I’ve got over a thousand plus over a year of paying hundreds of dollars to ebay every month…. Not good service.
Yeah, I don’t have any beefs with promoted listings & I’m not sworn against them ๐
Its just really aggravating that they are inserted to searches where they clutter the results and don’t make sense, so I have blocked them altogether.
Pretty much agree with MyCottage’s post. The only additional point I’d make is that some adblockers actually do block these listings by default, its just a matter of coding being updated. I use Ublock Origin which is also one of the most popular adblockers. Adblock Plus is good, but they are known for being lax on their blocking rules while working with advertisers. More strict blockers such as Ublock Origin will block much more by default.
I think the people who buy promoted listings are not all that smart generally, or don’t care about price. The kind of person that just goes to the default search box and does one search. So yeah, more or less a non-issue.
I just wanted to add that these listings are in fact blocked by some ad blocking users
And also, I never had a problem with showing same listings twice. The reason I wanted to remove them is because when I sort by lowest price, the sponsored listings kept showing up at the top. And the items I’ve been searching for had several sponsored listings so its was pretty aggravating when searching regularly for good deals. So that’s why I wanted to block them
If you do some google searching on how to remove sponsored listings, you’ll see quite a lot of users wanting to do this
Yeah, like I had said, it takes a little extra work on the user’s part currently. You have to open the settings of the adblocker and add this line into user rules: ebay.com##li.s-item:has(span:has-text(/S[^P]*?P[^O]*?O[^N]*?N[^S]*?S[^O]*?O[^R]*?R[^E]*?E[^D]*?D/))
Once you do that, all sponsored listings are removed.
Its because ebay changed their coding to avoid adblockers, but the people who code for adblockers have figured it out. Its really just a matter of time until the adblockers are updated with the new code, and then cycle may just repeat.
Again, people like me probably aren’t going to buy your sponsored listing anyway, so perhaps a moot point. But if the adblockers do update with the new coding, then any average user with adblock would have them blocked again
I got really annoyed with promoted listings showing up in my search results when I am looking for ebay items – its rather obnoxious to me when I’m trying to sort by price and I keep seeing sponsored listings..
So I am now actively using adblock to remove all sponsored listings. It works, confirmed. At the moment it takes a little extra work on the user’s part because ebay has been trying to work around ad blockers by changing their coding… but plenty of people have figured this out and the adblockers will likely catch up soon.
That said, people such as me using adblock to remove these listings probably are not your buyers anyway
- This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by JamesC.
As far as my experience goes, its not even possible to disable automatic returns any longer.
I had setup a rule to disable automatic returns, all of my returns were still automatically approved any way.
This was a problem for me because I was having multiple buyers falsely select “Item not as described” when they clearly just didn’t want to pay return shipping.
I called ebay several times about this. Reps wouldn’t help me on this issue at all. One rep told me to delete my return rule and this would fix it. Big surprise, that didn’t fix it. I never got any answers from any reps regarding why I can’t disable. I’m pretty sure I remember a while back that it wasn’t possible to disable, only possible to add RMA option.
Additionally, ebay will not help you as a seller with INAD returns any longer until you receive the actual item – even if its 100% clear that the buyer has selected a false return reason. And then when I follow up after receiving the item, it usually takes multiple calls to actually resolve the issue & even then the ebay reps act like they are doing me a “one time favor”.
Ebay’s customer service has gotten continually worse for me over the last 6 months, and I am always very nice to them
The last time I had to call about this issue, the ebay rep told me I had to file a report with my local police department ๐
04/15/2019 at 10:08 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 406: Disposable Income, WTF is that? #60246So I don’t want to be a repetitive stickler, but I feel like I was kinda blown off on my first post asking the question of whether or not you guys feel like you could start reselling from the ground up today, by your original model of going to thrift stores and garage sales. I had mentioned that I had heard you two say on several podcasts that you don’t like garage sales or thrift stores so much lately because you aren’t finding much there, and that you like auctions now. The reply from Jay was that is just what you are doing now but that there is still plenty to be found at thrift stores.
But on the last few podcasts, you have again been talking about not finding much at thrift stores worth buying, and how you need better quality items which you only find at auctions..
So I’d like to pose the question again, with some serious consideration….
I’d also add that if you still feel there is plenty to find at thrift stores, garage sales, how do you actually know when you aren’t actively going to these places to source items?
I have been working a lot and am on my way up to 500 items from 300, and have seen a small increase in sales so far, but its still continuing to become harder to find quality items at good prices… Goodwill just increased all shirts to $4 minimum (often when I find name brands they are priced at $8+), jeans are $5… I saw a copper clad pot today for $9… and this isn’t just Goodwill. The trashiest shop I go to is trying to sell artwork at $50 a piece..
I am still finding stuff, but I feel like a lot of people have to be recognizing the trend of increased competition, and stores steadily rising prices as they become more hip to the game seeing all the resellers in their shops.
Yeah I don’t believe in the idea of normal people either, or the average person, and of course we all have issues. Humanity/society doesn’t let anyone escape… But we all have particular issues, and for me, working normal jobs after years of making myself deal with them leaves me in a mental place where it could literally be the end of me. And I’m not sure I want to put myself in that place, knowing this. Like I said, I know this sounds ridiculous to probably everyone reading, but its the only honest reply I have. But I know getting a job may ultimately be what I have to do.
Yep, that’s very true.
And this is the kind of statement that makes me cringe to say, but I’m very far from a normal person and having a normal job is a lot more than depressing for me, in regards to the place I get to mentally. And the types of normal jobs available to me are among the worst, since I gambled on a career as a musician which failed and left me with nothing for a resume… Not looking to be excused for my ridiculousness, just trying to show where I’m at.
You’re right. I think my main problem is being financially crippled, which makes it very hard to do anything at all. I had to file bankruptcy a couple years back, haven’t had any savings at all for a long time. Without getting too personal because I’m sure nobody wants to hear it, I had to quit my job and pursue this fulltime because of the place I was getting to mentally didn’t leave me a lot of options. This is also why the idea of getting another job is a difficult prospect for me, although its likely the option that may help turn things around in regard to being able to take things farther. It probably sounds ridiculous to most everyone, but I have a kind of PTSD in relation to the kinds of jobs that are available to me, and its extremely hard for me to be in these situations at this point in my life.
Anyway, thanks for the tips. Its helpful to hear things even if I already know them, put things back in perspective.
- This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by JamesC.
I am in Missouri and the closest would be Kansas City or St Louis. KC is about an hour closer than STL. I have planned on making trips to both for scavenging but its been hard to work out as I share the car with my girlfriend who works full time on the week, and works part time on the weekend doing something she actually likes. So she needs the car a lot, and this makes it very difficult for me to do things like go out of town on buying trips.
My plan has been to become very aggressive in taking my sales to the next level so that I can just get another cheap car for my own use, and remedy this situation, but I haven’t been able to do so because of my described difficulties.
I’ve just made enough every month to pay my bills and keep going… not much wiggle room for doing things like renting a car or such. It also limits my ability to just wait for finding good items, because I have a window of cash being available.
My original post about this stuff was regarding the ability to start from ground up in 2019, buying inventory from thrift stores. Because its one thing if you have an established store with thousands of items, and you just need to keep the ball rolling by regularly adding new inventory as you find it.
But finding those thousands of items in 2019 from just thrift stores seems like its getting pretty hard, at least where I live.
Yeah I do have varied inventory and I prefer non-clothing items. As I’ve posted elsewhere though, I’ve had to fall back on clothing as its been increasingly difficult to find items. I regularly go to all thrift stores in town, there’s less than 10 in the entire city with 2 of them being goodwills and several being the types that don’t usually have much. They all mostly model pricing after goodwill as well, and several have been starting to sell stuff like old coats for $20 to as high as $80, even when ripped up and stained.
Estate sales are generally run by the same couple of companies who price everything based on ebay prices… but I do go to them and find some things.
I’m beginning to think I need to find a way to attend auctions because its been very hard to find stuff, and when I do find good stuff, its often priced too high to make a lot of profit at these sources. I had started a topic about this, but it seems to have disappeared. I think I’ll make another one that is more specific / less grouchy regarding this stuff.
I know there are a lot of people doing this and coming through these communities that don’t understand this stuff and just want to complain about the world.. I promise I am not one of them ๐
Yeah, since I have only a few hundred clothing listings, I only buy stuff that is better quality brands, unique vintage stuff, stuff that is wool, etc. But I still have plenty of learning to do as well so I guess I’ll get on top of better knowledge regarding the brands.
Lots of people are saying the same things about clothes lately though, no? Surely there is something to it
Its definitely best to walk away from bad buys rather than buying out of desperation.
I will still sell mugs if I’m only making $5-10 profit. To me its worth it because they are like .25-.45 to buy, small and easy to ship. I won’t necessarily buy a mug that is only worth $5, but I’ll definitely still sell one if I end up with it.
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