Ebay policy changes

Posts: 377 · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:18 am

Next change I've just spotted (though it is probably old news) is the Handling Time.

This is going to be required. I try to ship next business day but I can't always do it. I will probably have to put down 2 business days because I can't guarantee 1 business day.

I have run across a huge number of lousy sellers recently. Most aren't bad enough to put on the shady sellers list but bad descriptions of condition, bad packaging and absolutely terrible handling time.

I just had one seller whom I'm in a dispute with get mad at me for being in a rush with the shipment after he hadn't shipped in two weeks. I had another tell me the package had shipped on the 3rd only to get a reply to my repeated inquiries that he'd been mistaken and they'd shipped on the 12th (and not arrived here with no tracking or proof of shipping).

I just read another sellers listing who is trying to say that if you buy from him you agree not to file a claim till 30 days after the item has shipped. Or what I wonder?

I'm in favor of the handling time being listed but I suspect it is nothing but a bench mark to use to lower sellers DSRs.

Posts: 626 · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 8:42 pm

I'm sure this is old news, but I don't have time to read a 30+ page thread.

Is there any way to see who has won an auction, assuming you didn't win it?

Posts: 377 · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 9:02 pm

NetRodent wrote:

I'm sure this is old news, but I don't have time to read a 30+ page thread.

Is there any way to see who has won an auction, assuming you didn't win it?

There shouldn't be. Ebay has said they now intend to keep non-winning bidder IDs hidden.

Posts: 87 · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 9:20 pm

NetRodent wrote:

I'm sure this is old news, but I don't have time to read a 30+ page thread.

Is there any way to see who has won an auction, assuming you didn't win it?

Once the bidding ends, the winning bidder's eBay name is shown (but, as Jason said, not the losers). You can do a search on completed listings, although if you were also a bidder it should also still show up in your My eBay under the Lost heading.

Posts: 781 · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 9:22 pm

thought was trick question. unless private auction Smile

Posts: 626 · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 9:36 pm

Thanks for the advice. It seems the only place it shows up is under the lost auctions listings. Viewing the actual item doesn't show the winning bidder.

Posts: 781 · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 9:42 pm

NetRodent wrote:

Thanks for the advice. It seems the only place it shows up is under the lost auctions listings. Viewing the actual item doesn't show the winning bidder.

thought might be canada only but still see high bidder in ebay.ca Confused

got an example??

Posts: 626 · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 9:51 pm

I generally use the US site. I had opted out of Ebay's recent changes, but that does seem to affect the actual auction display pages. Here's the auction I was looking at:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=380064237759&s sPageName=STRK:MEDW:IT&ih=025

It seems the Canadian version of Ebay still has the old layout:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=380064237759&ss PageName=STRK:MEDW:IT&ih=025

Most interesting. Confused

Posts: 781 · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 9:55 pm

could have said who won that Laughing

appears on both links ok for me. strange
have been worried ebay behaves different depending on how used + need to be careful dont miss auctions but is not same as your problem there

Posts: 87 · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 10:26 pm

Very odd. The pages look the same to me, and both have the winning bidder. Confused

No idea why it would be different for you. But I guess that's par for the eBay course.

Posts: 128 · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:51 pm

EBay has changed the minimum DSR requirement.

Quote:

Seller Standards: new policy requires minimum DSRs to list on eBay
I also want to remind you that the new Seller Standards policy is going into effect on November 3. We will begin enforcement of this policy as follows: Sellers with one or more Detailed Seller Rating (DSR) below 4.1 will be restricted from listing. Sellers with a DSR between 4.1 and 4.3 will be allowed to list, but their listings may be subject to further demotion in search results. See best practices for improving your DSRs.

The original announcement was 4.3 as the cut-off point for selling, now it's any DSR less than 4.1.

Edit: added the following information

Here is the original announcement eBay made on August 20, 2008 | 07:04AM PST/PT

Quote:

Updated seller standards – minimum DSRs

Finally, we're instituting a new minimum Detailed Seller Rating (DSR) requirement, as a way to further improve the customer experience for everyone on eBay. As of November 1, 2008, sellers will need at least a 4.3 across all four DSR categories, over the prior 30 day or 12 month period depending on volume, in order to list on the site.

I strongly believe that eBay thinks we are all idiots and won't remember things like this.

Posts: 1104 · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 3:48 pm

I want to know: why 4.1? The number of sellers I've seen with a 4.0 or lower has been minuscule, yet below 4.3 is only a marginally larger group. A 4.0 or lower is the type of score it seems you have to be actively working at to get that low.

All I can guess is that there are some high-volume listers that are below 4.3 but above 4.1.

Or, on other words: yet another eBay policy that they can trot out as doing something about bad sellers, but that actually does nothing.

(But, as gyg says, I'm just a cynic. Wink

)

Posts: 1001 · Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:49 am

g026r wrote:

(But, as gyg says, I'm just a cynic. Wink

)

I thought you were a Canuck, not a Cynic.

Posts: 2437 · Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 5:47 am

I don't think eBay think we're all idiots. They don't give a f*ck about us or what we think. They have no reason to. They have a solid business model in an expanding market with almost perfect monopoly position. Why should they give a f*ck what the buyer or seller thinks? And as the countries of the world enter increasingly unstable times, their position grows stronger as the source of all cheap products in the world. And never forget, we gave this company this power. We should stop whining about it and live with our decisions.

Posts: 4449 · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 12:47 am

Unbelievable....

Quote:

Making Winning Bidder IDs Anonymous
Early last year, we began to anonymize bidder IDs on listings. This change was designed to protect bidders from fake Second Chance Offers and other malicious emails. As I’ve shared before, this initiative has been very successful, resulting in a 90% reduction in this type of fraud.

Today, however, the winning bidder’s ID is currently visible to everyone after the listing ends, and this continues to lead to fake checkout offers and other spam. Consequently, it also leads to unpaid items, as winning bidders who fall victim to these fake emails often send payment to someone other than the seller.

Based on the positive results we’ve seen by anonymizing bidder User IDs, as well as our commitment to protecting all bidders from becoming targets for fraudsters, we’ve decided to extend anonymized User IDs to winning bidders, as well. This change will be implemented sometime this week.

As always, the following information will still be accessible:

Sellers will be able to view all bidder IDs on their listings.
All members can click on the bidder ID and view the bidder’s Bid History page, which will detail the categories in which they’ve bid over the past 30 days.
Feedback pages will show the same information as now – buyer and seller IDs, with comments visible to all.
Thanks for taking the time to read about these updates to improve safety on eBay, and we thank you for your support

So to recap....

No one but the seller will know who has won an item....?

Ebay just keeps proving they don't give a damn about shill bidders of any stripe.

Mike B.

Posts: 2437 · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:39 am

Shill bidding pushes up the final valuation fees, and eBay get more money. I fail to see the motivation to change a system that increases the revenue the company earns. Why would they change something to reduce their income? It makes no sense. As with fake or stolen goods, provided they 'investigate' reported suspect incidents, there is no requirement for them to do anything, and if they do it would be to the detriment of the business. At least by making the final winner anonymous it will reduce the reported incidents of shill bidding and therefore they can demonstrate that incidents no longer happen and they have tackled the issue.

Everyone's a winner. We've been tackling crime and ejucashin in that manner in the UK for decades.

Besides, why should they give a f*ck about the buyer or the seller. They have a complete monopoly in the market. You have no choice other than not to sell/buy or to sell at a loss or buy at a greater price. If you want cheap goods, or to sell at a decent price, you have to sell on eBay. We've all seen RPGMarketplace was a non-starter, and I'm sure most of us have tried using Yahoo or eBid and discovered how truely shite the competition is. eBay have no need to care what anyone thinks or wants, other than purely as a PR revenue generating exercise.

Posts: 109 · Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:30 am

Amazon keeps looking better. At least payment processing is free and you aren't forced to use Paypal. eBay failed to implement this in Australia so they figured why not make everyone else do it instead?

Attention Sellers:

Please review your item

It appears that you are offering checks as a payment method which is no longer permitted in the eBay marketplace. As of January 15th, we will be removing any items that offer this payment method within the listing. Sellers must offer to accept one or more of the following payment methods

* Paypal
* Credit or debit card processed through an Internet merchant account
* Propay

Sellers may in addition offer to accept Payment Upon Pickup.

Please revise your listing by removing the banned payment method. Based on the safety concerns and input from the Community, eBay has established an Accepted Payments policy that clarifies eBay's position on payment methods.[/b]

Posts: 4449 · Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:05 am

argyrebasin wrote:

Amazon keeps looking better. At least payment processing is free and you aren't forced to use Paypal. eBay failed to implement this in Australia so they figured why not make everyone else do it instead?

Attention Sellers:

Please review your item

It appears that you are offering checks as a payment method which is no longer permitted in the eBay marketplace. As of January 15th, we will be removing any items that offer this payment method within the listing. Sellers must offer to accept one or more of the following payment methods

* Paypal
* Credit or debit card processed through an Internet merchant account
* Propay

Sellers may in addition offer to accept Payment Upon Pickup.

Please revise your listing by removing the banned payment method. Based on the safety concerns and input from the Community, eBay has established an Accepted Payments policy that clarifies eBay's position on payment methods.[/b]

That's ok, Ebay stock is now trading at $12 a share (down from a high of $45 last year), it's lowest ever. A few more weeks when it's lower than $10 a share maybe we can all buy it up and run the company ourselves!

BTW, anyone notice that nearly every change of the past few months has been rescinded until January? What morons. Trying to change everything just as the holiday buying season (what little we will have this year) is upon us was Class A example of idiots running the place.

Mike B.

Posts: 264 · Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 3:39 pm

Quote:

That's ok, Ebay stock is now trading at $12 a share (down from a high of $45 last year), it's lowest ever

Due to a bear market, more than bad businees practices, that's why I've picking up shares lately.

The S&P 500 is littered with companies down 40-60% for the year...have a look at some in my portfolio CAT, AA, IP, PCU, GT, GOOG, GE, HD, BAC, TWI, DOW etc...

Posts: 4449 · Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 6:17 pm

Ekim Toor wrote:

Due to a bear market, more than bad businees practices, that's why I've picking up shares lately.

The S&P 500 is littered with companies down 40-60% for the year...have a look at some in my portfolio CAT, AA, IP, PCU, GT, GOOG, GE, HD, BAC, TWI, DOW etc...

True, but Ebay is the type of company that should THRIVE on lowered economic expectations and tougher buying conditions. That it's failing miserably points to something. Especially since it's been known for awhile now Paypal is the moneymaker there and the Ebay part itself is losing money like a sieve. But the shares don't have anywhere to go but up, I agree. As I said if it hits $10 a share it should be a strong buy.

http://techland.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/10/15/no-merry-christmas-fo r-ebay/
Here's a good article that talks about some of the problems for ebay beyond the bear market. I'd especially note the following as a warning sign:

Quote:

However, some analysts were skeptical that eBay’s problems could be blamed primarily on sagging retail spending. “eBay’s model has been probably hit harder than the average e-commerce company would be,” said Jeffrey Lindsay, Sanford Bernstein’s Internet analyst. “This is a fairly poor performance, but it looks like it’s going to get worse with no improvement any time soon.”

For the first time ever, eBay’s marketplace business, its main revenue driver, fell 1% to $14.3 billion from a year ago. The decline in eBay’s transactions are not a healthy sign of the company’s growth prospects.

A steady decline in eBay’s traffic for the past two years has prompted the company to spend the year trimming costs and restructuring its auction model. eBay recently announced plans to cut 1,000 jobs, or about 10%, of its global workforce. The company is also focusing on items that consumers can buy immediately and offering standardized shipping rates to better compete with Amazon (AMZN), which has been gaining popularity with buyers and sellers.

Donahoe said the company is seeing improvements with its turnaround plan, citing a 3% increase in users for the third quarter Still, that hasn’t translated into more eBay users buying on the site

.

I'd agree and say the problems with Ebay go far beyond the horrible retail predictions. People have simply left due to poor advertising, merchandising, or being fed up with Ebay's arbitrary and self-defeating attitude and changes. As an example, a reseller like Half Price Books has seen their sales rising in the current economic context due to the fact people are cutting back on new retail items and settle for used items. Shouldn't Ebay be receiving the same sort of bounce? That they aren't should be worrying.

Mike B.