Another way the Fall Changes will affect Canadian Sellers

[Anonymous]

Hi - I know we are bummed out enough with this new "defect for delivery time standards & input tracking" issue and don't need anything else to stress about, but I just thought of this as another kicker...

The jubilation over at the .com boards is happening as many US sellers feel with this new defect system that they now have a chance and can get ahead with less defects (true as most USPS services offer tracking, they are off the hook) and now "bad" sellers can more easily become "good" sellers, and good sellers can become Top Rated Sellers - irregardless of their return rate, product quality or feedback, which means they are rewarded with higher visibility and can appear higher up the Best Match search, etc.  I don't blame their elation - if CP offered tracking for every single item, I would be thrilled with the changes too.

SO now this can potentially push us back down in search, etc etc with this new huge wave of potential TRS's, as we are left open to possible defects due to CP's lack of tracking services (in a nutshell).  EVEN if our performance, product and customer service is impeccable.

I don't even know if I am making sense here -- I just need to vent, I am mad, sad and nervous about my lil Business that I worked my tail off for the past 10 years :(.  

[rose-dee]

Yes, this occurred to me today, too.  Even those of us Canadian sellers who may be able to hang on long enough to survive for a few months will find ourselves shoved to the bottom of the heap, regardless of our top performance.  

You know what?  It feels as if all the effort, time, and persistence I've put into doing everything "right" on eBay is now completely worthless and being totally disregarded by eBay HQ.  I knew we Canadians were small in eBay's eyes, but do they really want to get rid of most of us?  

Which begs the question, how does pushing bad U.S. sellers up the ladder while at the same time getting rid of thousands of experienced and top-performing Canadians serve eBay's interests?  

I'm just flabbergasted.  I expected some changes to the defect system this fall, but not this! 

[femmefan1946]

Going by your S&H charges you are mostly using Letter /Light Packet for mailing. Me too.

Sellers of bulkier items would be using parcel rates and those are automatically tracked by Canada Post within North America. So the change has a positive not a negative effect for them.

One thought.

The drop in the loonie has meant that I am now offering Free Shipping on all items I can ship by Letter/LightPacket. My purchase costs and my shipping costs dropped by 25% since I am buying in Canadian dollars and selling is US dollars, making this affordable.

But I mostly source at thrifts and rummage sales. Your items are new and your costs may have risen.

However, look into using Free Shipping to offset the problems with this new policy.

Remember that FS means that the cost of shipping is included in the asking price for the item. I made a quick look at your Sonia Kashuk Blush. Your $8 asking is $2-$5 below your US competitors at a glance. So there may be room to add in postage without pricing yourself out of the market.

And buyers looooove 'free' shipping.

But you know your business better than I do.

[rose-dee]

---

@femmefan1946 wrote:

Sellers of bulkier items would be using parcel rates and those are automatically tracked by Canada Post within North America. So the change has a positive not a negative effect for them.

I would guess that most Cdn sellers shipping bulkier items are relying on Small Packet, which has no tracking.  Upgrading to Expedited or Xpresspost is a lot more costly. 

However, look into using Free Shipping to offset the problems with this new policy.

I'm not sure what you mean by this.  Free shipping will only mean even higher costs (to pay for tracked services) in order to avoid getting a "late" demerit.  I don't see how free shipping directly relates to the new policy.  Do you mean a buyer is more likely to say the item arrived on time if she/he hasn't paid for shipping?  That may be so.  

Or do you mean that a buyer won't be able to leave any shipping cost DSRs (as is now the case if a seller offers free shipping)?  My understanding is that the "on time" question is posed to the buyer as part of the FB process, i.e. not connected with a particular DSR, but I could be wrong.  I should ask them today...

[momcqueen]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Hi - I know we are bummed out enough with this new "defect for delivery time standards & input tracking" issue and don't need anything else to stress about, but I just thought of this as another kicker...

The jubilation over at the .com boards is happening as many US sellers feel with this new defect system that they now have a chance and can get ahead with less defects (true as most USPS services offer tracking, they are off the hook) and now "bad" sellers can more easily become "good" sellers, and good sellers can become Top Rated Sellers - irregardless of their return rate, product quality or feedback, which means they are rewarded with higher visibility and can appear higher up the Best Match search, etc.  I don't blame their elation - if CP offered tracking for every single item, I would be thrilled with the changes too.

SO now this can potentially push us back down in search, etc etc with this new huge wave of potential TRS's, as we are left open to possible defects due to CP's lack of tracking services (in a nutshell).  EVEN if our performance, product and customer service is impeccable.

I don't even know if I am making sense here -- I just need to vent, I am mad, sad and nervous about my lil Business that I worked my tail off for the past 10 years :(.  

---

This was my initial reaction to the Update. Defects as they currently exist were the ONLY thing keeping the really bad, really terrible LARGE sellers in line. Whoosh, defects gone, and now a seller can now do anything darn nasty thing that they want as long as tracking shows it was delivered on time. This is a bad deal for buyers who are going to vent their frustration wherever and on whomever they can. This a big step backwards in the evolution of ebay. Good intentions, perhaps, but very badly done. The people who make these decisions should try buying and selling here before creating policy.  

[mr.elmwood]

There is a back-up for when tracking is not a viable option for the seller. eBay will email the buyer and ask "Did you get it by the date?". They have been testing this and have found the buyers to be very honest.

eBay is very aware that tracking is not cost effective for a lot of sellers. They are very aware that it is not viable for Cdn sellers.

[momcqueen]

---

@mr.elmwood wrote:

There is a back-up for when tracking is not a viable option for the seller. eBay will email the buyer and ask "Did you get it by the date?". They have been testing this and have found the buyers to be very honest.

eBay is very aware that tracking is not cost effective for a lot of sellers. They are very aware that it is not viable for Cdn sellers.

---

Aware does not imply they care. So little feedback is left for me that I'm fairly certain even ONE late claim will eliminate my TRS. I hold myself to the highest standards of customer service possible. I won't tolerate being blamed for situations beyond my control. 

[rose-dee]

---

@mr.elmwood wrote:

There is a back-up for when tracking is not a viable option for the seller. eBay will email the buyer and ask "Did you get it by the date?". They have been testing this and have found the buyers to be very honest.

eBay is very aware that tracking is not cost effective for a lot of sellers. They are very aware that it is not viable for Cdn sellers.

---

Buyers may be honest, but they may also be careless, mistaken, or forgetful, all of which will easily impact a smaller seller like me.  

Beyond the actual buyer responses, Raphael confirmed today that the allowable percentage will be based on the number of buyers responding to "The Question", not on a seller's total number of transactions in an evaluation period. 

What this means to smaller sellers like me is that the fewer buyers leave FB, the more impact there is going to be on my allowable "late rate" from the ones who do.  When FB gets down around 30% or less, I'm skunked with just one piece of bad luck in the mails in an entire year.  

This is not going to be pretty for us smaller Canadian sellers.  In fact, they will lose the best of us.  If you have a chance, please tell them so at the party. 

[rose-dee]

I never thought I'd say this, but this Seller Update has convinced me that I was right several months ago when I decided to branch out and get established on other venues.  

Remember my musing on more than one occasion that I felt I was just one Seller Update away from being washed up on eBay?  Good thing my store subscription runs out in April, 2016.  I may need to escape. 

[momcqueen]

I think this tracking thing was, in part, a move to placate the big US sellers and wipe-out the crummy ones from overseas... and we Canadians are caught in the crossfire. 

[rose-dee]

---

@mjwl2006 wrote:

I think this tracking thing was, in part, a move to placate the big US sellers and wipe-out the crummy ones from overseas... and we Canadians are caught in the crossfire. 

---

You may be quite right.  Yet we do still have an eBay Canada staff to speak up for us, don't we?  I thought that was part of their job.  

A simple measure, such as exempting Canadian sellers from the "late rate" where free shipping is offered, for example, or giving us a somewhat higher ceiling on late shipments (say 10% or 15%) would have alleviated a whole lot of concern.  

I simply don't believe these things aren't possible within eBay's programming structure.  They make changes like this all the time.  Clearly either somebody somewhere didn't impress upon eBay HQ what a crucial factor this was for Canadians, or eBay HQ doesn't give a hoot whether they lose a whole lot of us.  

I'm not feeling the love today, not at all...

[pocomocomputing]

---

@rose-dee wrote:

I never thought I'd say this, but this Seller Update has convinced me that I was right several months ago when I decided to branch out and get established on other venues.  

Remember my musing on more than one occasion that I felt I was just one Seller Update away from being washed up on eBay?  Good thing my store subscription runs out in April, 2016.  I may need to escape. 

---

From what I read on eBay.com, some sellers came to that conclusion years ago when the seller updates kept getting harder and harder to comply with and stay in good standing.

[pocomocomputing]

---

@mjwl2006 wrote:

I think this tracking thing was, in part, a move to placate the big US sellers and wipe-out the crummy ones from overseas... and we Canadians are caught in the crossfire. 

---

While we are not overseas, we are international sellers in the USA market so why expect better treatment.

Over the years reading this forum, I keep getting the feeling that Canadian sellers seem to think they have a stronger right to sell in the USA market than other international sellers. We may be closer and share the same language (English Canada) and culture (some) but we are still an international seller in a foreign country. Constantly asking for better treatment must be annoying to eBay.com management. It is not their problem we have a postal service with no tracking and high rates (not so high if you consider it is international shipping).

I do not like the current changes more because they are significant changes AGAIN to evaluating sellers in less than a couple of years. I just wish eBay would stop the huge changes each year (or twice a year) so sellers and poor buyers can have a stable consistent platform to buy and sell on. 

[rose-dee]

---

@pocomocomputing wrote:

I do not like the current changes more because they are significant changes AGAIN to evaluating sellers in less than a couple of years. I just wish eBay would stop the huge changes each year (or twice a year) so sellers and poor buyers can have a stable consistent platform to buy and sell on. 

---

Yes, indeed, wouldn't it be incredibly nice to have an entire year without any significant changes!  It's particularly hard to adjust to major changes at this time of year, which is the busiest for a lot of us. 

Of course, the previous set of massive changes (defect system especially) was brought in by the old guard for specific purposes.  Now the new management has to make its mark to reflect their specific direction.  Maybe what we need is more stability at the top. 

Just think -- a year-long moratorium on policy changes -- they could then keep all those eager young programmers busy on making everything actually work properly most of the time.  

BTW, I know it's still only evening for you out in B.C.  So carry on, I have to check out after this rather tumultuous day, as it's after 1:30 a.m. here in Atlantic Time.  Regroup and plan tomorrow...

[Anonymous]

I understand your logistics, but that is not good enough for many sellers.  All buyers are "human" -..... humans, including myself have selective memory and when I get the question posed to me as a buyer when leaving feedback, I honestly do not remember the "delivery date", I just remember if the seller is nice or not and if I had a "thing" or not with the wait time - I am easygoing (and busy!) so most times I am not a postal/mail box stalker  -- many are, and many remember if their parcel arrived "fast" or not - a good portion of US buyers think I am from the US and are not happy about the delivery time, until I actually tell them I am from CANADA.  I acutally have a (US) buyer who I am babying through a day-by-day process on delivery for makeup (thankfully on Bonanza so no defect or problem) --- they exist.  Not to mention the ones who had a problem with any other aspect of the sale or service and so can leave a defiant "NO", no it certainly did not arrive on time!".  You have been selling for a while, you know their are loose crazies out there who range from the nasty & angry to the downright criminal --- these "peaches" are what will decide our fate. 

Just be lucky you are a seller that ships mostly Expedied Post (I see a good portion of your items are heavy and must ship this way) - for us "Light Packet/Parcel-ers" is is terrifiying.  It is scary for us.

[Anonymous]

---

@femmefan1946 wrote:

Going by your S&H charges you are mostly using Letter /Light Packet for mailing. Me too.

Sellers of bulkier items would be using parcel rates and those are automatically tracked by Canada Post within North America. So the change has a positive not a negative effect for them.

One thought.

The drop in the loonie has meant that I am now offering Free Shipping on all items I can ship by Letter/LightPacket. My purchase costs and my shipping costs dropped by 25% since I am buying in Canadian dollars and selling is US dollars, making this affordable.

But I mostly source at thrifts and rummage sales. Your items are new and your costs may have risen.

However, look into using Free Shipping to offset the problems with this new policy.

Remember that FS means that the cost of shipping is included in the asking price for the item. I made a quick look at your Sonia Kashuk Blush. Your $8 asking is $2-$5 below your US competitors at a glance. So there may be room to add in postage without pricing yourself out of the market.

And buyers looooove 'free' shipping.

But you know your business better than I do.

---

Hi!! Thanks for looking out for me!! But now,  due to this new Ebay seller policy thing, I want to move this light packet Air Lettermail (good ole fashioned stamps!) makeup as fast as possible, which means free shipping or not, the cheapest price moves my product asap.  I purchased this makeup for pennies from the Canadian wide Target Store close outs (80-90% off) so can afford to move this at the lowest competitive price.  I actually am hoping by the time the new policies are in place, I will no longer have the higher risk products and will have to look towards different products.

I have found over the past years that the most impatient buyers (for me and my products of choice) are cosmetics and video games --- these seem to be the sticklers that file most as INR or get antsy (young, and want their makeup/vid game fix pronto) --- and the most patient and understanding to be of any product in the Vintage or Antique category ---SO I think my best bet is to move some products over to Amazon, some to Etsy and maybe keep some vintage on Ebay - if the taste in my mouth is still tolerable after whatever treatment and experice I have after the new policies come into affect.  😞

[Anonymous]

---

@rose-dee wrote:

---

@mr.elmwood wrote:

There is a back-up for when tracking is not a viable option for the seller. eBay will email the buyer and ask "Did you get it by the date?". They have been testing this and have found the buyers to be very honest.

eBay is very aware that tracking is not cost effective for a lot of sellers. They are very aware that it is not viable for Cdn sellers.

---

Buyers may be honest, but they may also be careless, mistaken, or forgetful, all of which will easily impact a smaller seller like me.  

Beyond the actual buyer responses, Raphael confirmed today that the allowable percentage will be based on the number of buyers responding to "The Question", not on a seller's total number of transactions in an evaluation period. 

What this means to smaller sellers like me is that the fewer buyers leave FB, the more impact there is going to be on my allowable "late rate" from the ones who do.  When FB gets down around 30% or less, I'm skunked with just one piece of bad luck in the mails in an entire year.  

This is not going to be pretty for us smaller Canadian sellers.  In fact, they will lose the best of us.  If you have a chance, please tell them so at the party. 

---

I agree, here is a scary quote that I found when googling "how many sellers are on ebay" - when looking for Canadian stats (never did find any Can stats) - this dude's comment made my blood run cold (fear) and then hot (anger) almost simultaneously - note this was in 2014 before the last update :

Richard Vernadeau, founder of Former Ebay Sellers Facebook groups

1.3k Views

Small sellers have been systematically whittled down by CEO (soon to be "former" CEO) John Donahoe's implementation of policies and actions that are adverse to small sellers while favoring big box retailers. Therefore it is difficult to assess an accurate number because even after thousands of small sellers are "purged" (suspended from selling on eBay), eBay still keeps them on the books as users to keep their numbers inflated for Wall Street.

Here is the page link -->

http://www.quora.com/How-many-sellers-are-on-eBay

[momcqueen]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@rose-dee wrote:

---

@mr.elmwood wrote:

There is a back-up for when tracking is not a viable option for the seller. eBay will email the buyer and ask "Did you get it by the date?". They have been testing this and have found the buyers to be very honest.

eBay is very aware that tracking is not cost effective for a lot of sellers. They are very aware that it is not viable for Cdn sellers.

---

Buyers may be honest, but they may also be careless, mistaken, or forgetful, all of which will easily impact a smaller seller like me.  

Beyond the actual buyer responses, Raphael confirmed today that the allowable percentage will be based on the number of buyers responding to "The Question", not on a seller's total number of transactions in an evaluation period. 

What this means to smaller sellers like me is that the fewer buyers leave FB, the more impact there is going to be on my allowable "late rate" from the ones who do.  When FB gets down around 30% or less, I'm skunked with just one piece of bad luck in the mails in an entire year.  

This is not going to be pretty for us smaller Canadian sellers.  In fact, they will lose the best of us.  If you have a chance, please tell them so at the party. 

---

I agree, here is a scary quote that I found when googling "how many sellers are on ebay" - when looking for Canadian stats (never did find any Can stats) - this dude's comment made my blood run cold (fear) and then hot (anger) almost simultaneously - note this was in 2014 before the last update :

Richard Vernadeau, founder of Former Ebay Sellers Facebook groups

1.3k Views

Small sellers have been systematically whittled down by CEO (soon to be "former" CEO) John Donahoe's implementation of policies and actions that are adverse to small sellers while favoring big box retailers. Therefore it is difficult to assess an accurate number because even after thousands of small sellers are "purged" (suspended from selling on eBay), eBay still keeps them on the books as users to keep their numbers inflated for Wall Street.

Here is the page link -->

http://www.quora.com/How-many-sellers-are-on-eBay

---

Big box retailers bring the most money, fast to ebay's coffers. They are also antimatter to ebay's brand. Therein lays the rub.

Small sellers and auctions are what made ebay what it is.

Small sellers are also the most work for ebay because Gramps boxes his used coffee-pot without bubblewrap for international shipment. Small sellers need a lot of hand-holding. We are not good value for time invested on ebay's part. 

As I see it, this update, is really brilliant for ebay's bottom-line: it will allow the really huge, really sloppy retailers to keep selling with impunity. Without any defect penalty BUT with a reduction to whatever Top Rated Seller discount they might have gained.

Not that the large volume sellers pay what we do (TRS or otherwise) for Final Value Fees. They have their own deals. 

It makes all the sense in the world. I see what ebay was trying to accomplish with this. Make bigger sellers even happier, tighten the screws on smaller sellers but still make Americans happy. Happy happy sellers, except not in Canada.

Defects were the only thing keeping unethical sellers in line. Without them, my fear is that ebay will become a great big seething mass of rip-off artist sellers and that those ripped-off buyers will take their frustrations out wherever they can. 

[momcqueen]

---

@pocomocomputing wrote:

---

@mjwl2006 wrote:

I think this tracking thing was, in part, a move to placate the big US sellers and wipe-out the crummy ones from overseas... and we Canadians are caught in the crossfire. 

---

While we are not overseas, we are international sellers in the USA market so why expect better treatment.

Over the years reading this forum, I keep getting the feeling that Canadian sellers seem to think they have a stronger right to sell in the USA market than other international sellers. We may be closer and share the same language (English Canada) and culture (some) but we are still an international seller in a foreign country. Constantly asking for better treatment must be annoying to eBay.com management. It is not their problem we have a postal service with no tracking and high rates (not so high if you consider it is international shipping).

I do not like the current changes more because they are significant changes AGAIN to evaluating sellers in less than a couple of years. I just wish eBay would stop the huge changes each year (or twice a year) so sellers and poor buyers can have a stable consistent platform to buy and sell on. 

---

It's not the USA or other international market that I care about specifically regarding these tracking-less defect changes. It's domestic oversize lettermail which I use (as do many other Canadian sellers) for about half of my domestic orders. In Canada, we do not have a USPS-style domestic First Class Mail or Media Mail category with tracking for three bucks. That is my complaint. 

There is no level playing field. Canadians selling within Canada cannot be held to the same standards as Americans selling to Americans. Lump Canadians with Chinese sellers as far as selling on ebay.com, fine, I don't care about that, but to expect Canadians on ebay.ca to hit the same standards as Americans selling to Americans on ebay.com with none of the same tools....? That is outrageous. 

[femmefan1946]

Sellers of bulkier items would be using parcel rates and those are automatically tracked by Canada Post within North America. So the change has a positive not a negative effect for them. ---femmefan1946

I would guess that most Cdn sellers shipping bulkier items are relying on Small Packet, which has no tracking.  Upgrading to Expedited or Xpresspost is a lot more costly.----- rose-dee

Not necessarily.

I've been selling a lot of postage lately and those bulky parcels required parcels rates.

I have been surprised to learn that Regular Packet is often more expensive than Expedited.

Which is of course, domestic shipments.

Internationally, I am lucky that my customers tend to be people who read and follow instructions, so I am comfortable without paying for tracking, substituting Cookie Jar Insurance to cover claims of loss. And in my categories those are few and far between.

But I can see if I were selling makeup or games or DVDs, that I would not be so complaisant.

I'm also fond of smoke and mirrors.

Parcels may or may not be tracked, but they carry a bar code and an invoice number. That's enough to persuade sketchey buyers that a false claim would not succeed.

I'm not sure if that makes me an optimist or deeply deeply cynical.