Sales are terrible.

[musicyouneed]

Last year for the month of October 2018 I sold 65 CD's, this year 25.  At this rate, I will be closing up shop soon.  I am also trying different venues to see if I can drum up some sales.  I know I am not the only one that is in this boat.  Once the sellers start leaving the buyers will go elsewhere too and ebay will just disappear.

[silverpinups]

Sales are terrible... I get lots of views and watchers but not many sales... Many of my past customers have disappeared.

I've had two new followers in the last six months. My website gets 5-10 new users every two weeks so the lack of new followers on eBay speaks volumes to me.  

eBay is trouble, their consumer base is shrinking and their restraining selling polices and fee gouging  are driving "quality" sellers away. eBay's lack of advertising, problematic search engine and the implementation of US sales tax isn't helping matters.

The big one will be the complete implementation of their Managed Payments System. This will be a huge disaster as many sellers will leave.... I know I will be leaving once Managed Payments becomes mandatory for eBay.ca sellers.

I still enjoy selling on eBay and my overall experience has been mostly a positive one but the direction eBay is moving towards doesn't inspire my personal confidence.   

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I agree sales are terrible. Lots of watchers on my items but very little sales. Sent offers to many of the watchers & sold a few items.  But that just proves that most watchers are not buyers. I took a break from selling for a few months & closed my store because 2 close family members had passed away.  I decided to open my store again to see if things would pick up over the holiday time.  So far not great.  Also if you look at the percentage of fees eBay charges compared to your sales, you may be shocked.  When I checked the months from the beginning of this year,  I averaged 19 - 33% in fees. This month it jumped to 68% in fees & only 32% in sales. That is very depressing.

[kawartha-ephemera]

Generally speaking, I find non promoted GTC listings (OOAK) older than 2 or 3 months are attracting very, very few impressions and sales. 

The release of the GTC mandate in conjunction with the expansion of Promoted listings eligibility has greatly reduced the visibility and sales of non-promoted listings.

Being as Promoted listings are now occupying all of the "Similiar" and "Related" listings space as well as other cross-promotion spaces, the non-promoted now mostly rely on search and off-ebay links for traffic. Auctions also suffer from lack of cross-promotion ... since the beginning of September or thereabouts I've suspected the average auction has been placing lower in search results too, something has changed there.

[silverpinups]

"Generally speaking, I find non promoted GTC listings (OOAK) older than 2 or 3 months are attracting very, very few impressions and sales. 

The release of the GTC mandate in conjunction with the expansion of Promoted listings eligibility has greatly reduced the visibility and sales of non-promoted listings.

Being as Promoted listings are now occupying all of the "Similiar" and "Related" listings space as well as other cross-promotion spaces, the non-promoted now mostly rely on search and off-ebay links for traffic. Auctions also suffer from lack of cross-promotion ... since the beginning of September or thereabouts I've suspected the average auction has been placing lower in search results too, something has changed there".

@kawartha-ephemera 

I disagree that there is reduced visibility with OOAK listings without Promoted Listings... I don't use promoted listings because I sell movie memoriliblia that no one else has and my items get lots of views and watchers. The only thing I'm lacking is actual sales which I attribute to a shrinking consumer base,  eBay's lack of advertising and the implementation of US internet sales tax (as mentioned above).

For example I just sold three items to a new customer in Italy that have been listed for over 2 years. Older listings sell all the time.

[femmefan1946]

I'm not enamoured of auctions at the best of times, thinking that they are a relic of the early days of the intertubes, when nobody was sure of what they were doing, or of values of items.

A quarter-century later things have settled down. Buyers have a better idea of how to qualify decent sellers, sellers know how to research selling prices.

I suspect, and allow for my prejudices, that Auctions are lower in Best Match at least, because they get fewer hits, that they are less likely to be opened, and that they attract lower prices than "similar" items. 

Quotes on "similar" because auctions are still popular with OOAK sellers. 

the non-promoted now mostly rely on search and off-ebay links for traffic.

Which is pretty well how GTC was advertised. That it would put eBay back on google third party browsers.

Not sure how that's working yet.

I get a lot more Views with my Promoted items. But I'm not paying much in fees for sales on them, so there's that.

[femmefan1946]

I believe it will take about a year for the impact of the internet sales tax to shake out.

How many Canadian consumers still complain about the GST?

It will be interesting to see if it comes up in the US elections next year. Wasn't it confirmed by a Trump-appointee dominated Supreme Court?

I buy very little online.  How do other online venues handle this?

[silverpinups]

"I believe it will take about a year for the impact of the internet sales tax to shake out".

I fully agree, the US internet sales tax is a biggy and it's going to take Americans a long time to adjust....

I'm getting more sales from the UK, France, Germany and Italy lately then I am from the good old USA.

[minpinmamma]

I can say honestly, i work in a union of over 9000 municipal workers. In talking with them I was surprised they all realized the same thing as me. The Canadian customs changed their way, they only charge fees on items over 75.00 can funds. Now this global shipping charges everybody taxes and fees on items that are not even charged. THEN...they get this Law office Pitblado to do the organization of the customs papers that the post office would do for free. THEN..WHAT SELLERS dONT KNOW.....they go ahead and charge our credit card without our authorization about 50-75.00 to bring this item over!! Example 175.00 hair extensions that I returned. I was charged 55.00 by Pitblado, and 46.00 shipping 15 taxes and import. Then of course shipping back! Lol. So sellers, most Canadians now are going on other sites! Unfortunately....eBay is trying to scam all by apparently setting this as default feature! Most sellers have no clue it’s on! So if you wonder why you have lost customers...this is huge. Anyone I know will never ever shop a seller who has this feature turned on. But mostly, because eBay reduced themselves to this low scam type of of procedure, I really don’t trust them! Then, the whole idea of asking people for a copy of their police report along with officers signature..etc, is another scam! I know for fact that all an officer gives is a card with incident number and cop number. You will never ever ever get copy of the full report, it takes 90 days! This is my job, and eBay is just a sham! They asked me for one and I laughed, and just never responded! Why bother! Then PayPal says they have buyers protection, but everyone know, it’s not true, they do not require sellers to get signature except on items over 850.00 us funds. Well this is not protecting the buyer! I for one am looking for 100 percent safe buying and not these fake policies. Copy of police report.....lol...this is too much.

[reallynicestamps]

Interesting.

We all know that the duty-free allowance for shipped items is $20Cdn.

But that CBSA has for decades been ignoring that because it costs more to assess and collect the small amounts of duty (if any) and 5-15% Sales Taxes on low value packages.

As a result, many Canadians have been unaware that the import fees are not the same as they would be for cross-border shopping, which are substantially higher.

Now this global shipping charges everybody taxes and fees on items that are not even charged.

Yes.

As a private courier, PitneyBowes which runs the GSP, must charge applicable duty (usually none) plus sales taxes on all imports over $20Cdn (~$15US).

Sales taxes are still charged on imports even if there is no duty.

They are allowed to add a service charge to this. The charge is ~$5US (it's never actually been stated). That's less than Canada Post, btw.

So they are following the law.

they get this Law office Pitblado to do the organization of the customs papers that the post office would do for free.

This sounds very strange.  The only Manitoba seller I know who might have run into this is @momcqueen , who I believe imports some of her stock. Any thoughts, Maureen?

The post office doesn't collect import fees "for free". Their service charge is $9.95Cdn. nearly double the GSP charge.

There may be some confusion because GSP usually passes shipments to Canada Post for delivery, but Canada Post does not have to collect anything, since that was paid before the seller even shipped.

I'm confused about what a local law firm would be doing in all this.

It's not a very big firm, fewer than 50 lawyers on staff.

[reallynicestamps]

Example 175.00 hair extensions that I returned. I was charged 55.00 by Pitblado, and 46.00 shipping 15 taxes and import. Then of course shipping back!

Trying to work this out.

You bought hair extensions for $175US.

Was the order supposed to be shipped by the GSP?

You would have paid import fees (duty, sales tax, service charge) BEFORE the seller shipped.

The purchases then goes to Erlanger KY, and the GSP plant, then on to Canada.

Usually the shipment is delivered by Canada Post, but there have been complaints about poor delivery service from FedEx and CanPar for GSP shipments. More recently, GSP ended their contract with something called Apple Delivery because there were so many complaints.

And the carrier hands you your purchase, no further charges.

So.

Did all that happen?

The purchase was unacceptable.

Did you open a Dispute in the Resolution Centre at the bottom of this page?

Did your seller send you return postage?

When you returned the purchase, did you mark the package "returned merchandise"?  (That's mostly polite. Otherwise she pays import fees herself.)

Mostly look at the tracking from the seller to you.

The involvement of a law firm is weird.

[reallynicestamps]

If the extensions were NOT handled by the GSP, the import fees are paid on the doorstep.

I wonder, given the high costs, if your seller shipped using a courier like UPS or FedEx?

Those companies do charge on the doorstep, and their "customs brokerage fee"  starts around $25Cdn.

FedEx is sneaky. They will deliver, no doorstep charges, but when you sign for your package, you are contracting to pay their fees for importation. Which is billed later.

And that, I suspect, is where your law firm comes in. They are collecting for the shipping company.

@minpinmamma 

[teenytrinkets]

I agree the US sales tax does have an impact. I think Americans used to buy from Canadians (vs a US seller or at the store) to save the tax. Now they're probably just buying from a store or Craigslist/Marketplace, or a US high-volume seller that charges tax anyway.

I also think search changes in Ebay have adversely affected my sales. I see buyers buying items I have listed cheaper. I often go back to my listings to tweak categories after seeing this. I try to experiment with different search words to see what Ebay's default category filter will be. That's extremely time consuming. Not happy about this wasted time.

I also think the online "marketplace" expands every year. Ebay gets more competition, and therefore, sales go down.

I still have more of my house to declutter. A lot more to sell...but I feel like Ebay may not be thr place to do it anymore... 😞

[minpinmamma]

Hi, no, it was part of the global shipping program.  Actualy, since this program has started not one single time have I only paid the one original fee!  Not once!  I always get a fee from Pitblado after! its shocking!  Especially when fees are not supposed to be paid!  Why would EBay do this?  Because they are obviously making more money off this, and I am actually reporting this as fraud to the government.  It’s fraud to me.  They are fully aware of which items require duty and taxes, and yet, they are charges duty and taxes on all!  This sounds like a good story for CTV news!  As business fraud?  I will also mention the fact of eBay and PayPal no longer are safe, I do not know how they get say it guaranteed, because they do not require signatures unless it’s over 900.00...well, I can tell you I am not happy still not receiving my Dyson, and EBay would not even receive any of my proof, my videos, my affidavit, nothing!  It said prove my case, but they would not accept!  Why bother?  Let the press CTV or Global go after them.  But the worst thing on eBay is how they say it’s guaranteed safe....well this is not true at all.  I tried to provide my security videos of the day that they said mail was delivered, as it showed front and back no delivery, plus a affidavit from my neighbor who was rebuilding his shed all day and said no one came to my door.  But of course all eBay wanted was something that was impossible to get as per privacy regulation policy.  Noonecan get copy of their price report.  Not one single person.  It takes at least 30 days.  So What a true joke this whole case resolution. i have gone to every complaint website, making utube videos, making sure everyone knows how eBay is no longer safe, and PayPal no longer requires signatures for anything unless over 900.00 usd.  So if post looses or delivers to neighbour or if some kid picks it up like last year over 10,000 in my small city alone went missing in a month....so do not go with sellers who do not provide tracking....its trust!  WHAT TZhE HECK DID EBAY DO?  WHY SCEW WHEN SOMETHING WORKED.  No you got greedy screwed sellers and not wanted to protect your buyers!

[femmefan1946]

Hi, no, it was part of the global shipping program.
Tracking showed the purchase was sent to Erlanger KY by the seller?
This is very very important.
Because some sellers will send directly to the buyer, not understanding how freight forwarding works.

 Actualy, since this program has started not one single time have I only paid the one original fee!  

I always get a fee from Pitblado after!

What carrier is delivering your purchase(s)?
Canada Post? FedEx? Another company?

Especially when fees are not supposed to be paid!
Well actually.
You did pay the GSP a sum to cover applicable duty, sales taxes (again, even if there is no duty) and a small service fee.

 Why would EBay do this?  Because they are obviously making more money off this, and I am actually reporting this as fraud to the government.  It’s fraud to me.
We are not sure if eBay is paid by the GSP (PitneyBowes runs the program) or if eBay pays Pitney Bowes to run the program for it.
GSP uses the money you paid to pay the Canadian government, the provincial government, their subcontracted shippers, and of course their shareholders.

 They are fully aware of which items require duty and taxes, and yet, they are charges duty and taxes on all!
Again the duty is paid on imports valued over $20Cdn. And it’s my impression that most extensions are made either in India or China, neither of which has a free trade agreement with Canada.
It’s place of manufacture, not where you happened to buy.

because they do not require signatures unless it’s over 900.00...
Actually, $750Cdn. and that’s only if the Seller wants protection against false claims of non-delivery.

well, I can tell you I am not happy still not receiving my Dyson, and EBay would not even receive any of my proof, my videos, my affidavit, nothing!  It said prove my case, but they would not accept!
So this is another transaction?
You bought a Dyson machine, and I know they are expensive (although my Dyson vacuum was cheaper than the Kenmore I was replacing, go figure).
It was shipped via GSP.
If you opened a Dispute in the Resolution Centre, the Seller has to prove delivery.
If the item is valued over $750(Cdn about $565US) the Seller needs to have used Signature Confirmed delivery.
If he cannot provide proof of delivery, he is required to refund you. If he refuses eBay will refund you and go after him for their money.

 I tried to provide my security videos of the day that they said mail was delivered, as it showed front and back no delivery, plus a affidavit from my neighbor who was rebuilding his shed all day and said no one came to my door.
No they need electronic proof of delivery. And again a Signature.
What proof was provided that the Dyson was delivered?

 Noonecan get copy of their price report.
Huh?
What’s a price report? Do you mean you reported this as stolen from your porch and were asked to provide a POLICE report?
 So if post looses or delivers to neighbour or if some kid picks it up like last year over 10,000 in my small city alone went missing in a month....

Okay, are you now saying the Dyson was delivered?
But it was "stolen from your porch"?

so do not go with sellers who do not provide tracking....its trust!
We agree on that.
But from a different end. If the seller does not use tracking, he is hoping that the buyer will not open a false non-delivery report.
If the item is high value, and he does not use Signature Confirmation, he is hoping that the buyer will not open a false non-delivery report.

Tracking is a SELLER Protection.

Neither the seller nor eBay can be held responsible for a local gang stealing from porches.
• If the carrier (who was supposed to be the carrier again?) does not get a Signature, when the seller (and GSP ) paid for a Signature, it is the carrier who is responsible, not the seller and not eBay.

So to repeat.
You purchases two items from eBay which were shipped via GSP.

They were both tracked and tracking shows them passing through Erlanger KY where the GSP plant is located.

In both cases you were billed for import fees by a law firm called Pitblado, although all import fees are paid in advance of shipping when the GSP is used.
The hair extensions were returned, and for some reason you were required to pay for return shipping.

Did you use eBay’s Resolution Centre for this? Or did you phone Customer Service, which did not tell you to use the Resolution Centre?
The Dyson machine was delivered. But it was stolen from your porch?
The seller, eBay and GSP have satisfactory proof of delivery and deny responsibility. You have reported it to the police.
Have you also reported it to the carrier? And filed a claim with your household insurance?

Sorry this is long. But because you are naturally upset, you are leaving out a lot of important parts of the story.

Tyler- who has been notified of your problems is an eBay employee (posters are members like you) and has been helpful with many complicated problems.