eBay

momoftwingles2 · ‎12-19-2009

Hi All,

I received an e-mail this evening from eBay.ca. In the e-mail it stated:

On Saturday November 21st, we experienced a temporary technical issue that resulted in searches returning either limited or no results.

Since we know this may have disrupted your business, we've issued a credit to your account for one day's worth of listing fees for each of your Fixed Price and Store Inventory listings that were active during the down-time. You may also receive a separate credit if you had Auction listings affected.

At first I thought this was quite generous on the part of eBay.ca to offer this. I went and looked at my December bill as I had 1423 active store listings on that day.

Needless to say....I received a whopping $1.53 credit! I called eBay and asked how this was calculated and the numbers don't add up. If I follow their method, the credit should have been only $1.42!

1423 listings x .03 = $42.69 and then divide by 30 days in November = $1.423.

I don't think the credit nearly makes up for the missed sales! It most certainly wasn't worth their bookkeeping and e-mailing efforts nor my time for finding out how they arrived at $1.53!

Susan

pierrelebel · ‎12-19-2009

Hi Susan.

Is it possible some of your store listings were above $25 ($0.05 listing fee instead of $0.03)?

surplusdealdude · ‎12-19-2009

I got that email as well - I am soooo glad I didn't read it.:^O

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. Carl Sagan

coxengines · ‎12-19-2009

A couple of weeks ago we got $9.12 credit.

We were not really expecting anything as an occasional outage is part of the risk of doing business, IMHO.

When the power goes out in our little town for hours (this seems to happen a few times each year) our server is down (hosting our other store) and that hurts.

Running a B & M store has more challenges than an on-line one. So, when eBay has a little glitch, we just take it with a grain of salt.

Our philosophy is that we cannot lose something we never had; hence a sale not not transacted is not actually lost.

Cheers
Bernie

surplusdealdude · ‎12-19-2009

You must save a small fortune on tranquilizers compared to some people here, Bernie.;-)

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. Carl Sagan

coxengines · ‎12-19-2009

LOL!

Living in a town of 12,000 has its merits.

Our office overlooks a frozen lake. All is white and peaceful out there.

Our customers are the greatest people in the world.

Every morning I check my ego at the office door. Our customers are the only reason for us having business.

As I have stated before, buying and selling is a simple matter. There are no stupid customers; only stupid sellers doing their best to screw up what should be an easy transaction. Without customers,one has no business.

Believe that all your customers are great and they will be. Let your buyers know that you do not trust them and they will prove you right.

As to the tranquilizer thing.... does wine count? 😉

I fear that we are off topic by now 🙂 I see the credit from eBay as a gift and not a right. Sure, they charge and charge and screw up and screw up. But then, don't we all in our business at some point?

To put the record straight: I am of the opinion that eBay is an overbloated company with almost non-existent customer service. Were it up to me, every customer service rep would have to actively sell on eBay for a year before they were allowed to offer support.

Having said that, it is entirely our choice to sell on this venue and one has to take the good with the bad.

The bottom line is still very palatable but it is human nature to focus on what we don't have as opposed to what we have.

Cheers
Bernie