We found a cheaper option: XXXXXXX

[westernstargifts]

I put an item I was interested in purchasing on my Watch list last night.  Today I received the following email from eBay.

We found a cheaper option: xx(Item Titlexx)

eBay

What they failed to take into consideration was the fact that the item I am watching has free shipping while the item they showed me has a $7.99 USD shipping charge.  It would actually cost me $5.69 USD more to buy the one they deemed as "cheaper" than the one I was watching....which, incidentally, I found doing a "lowest price + shipping" search.

As a seller I am not happy that they do this when I am paying them to list on eBay.  On the other hand maybe they will be doing me a favour if my prices happen to be lower than the competition.  Of course, the buyer would have to compare the shipping costs and I don't think they would always do so.

[momcqueen]

This has been happening for awhile. I agree with you, it's not ideal from many points of view but good from others.

As a buyer, I very carefully decide which items to Watch and price is usually NOT my top priority. I have been around long enough to look at seller location and reputation before price because I learned the hard way that a great 'deal' often leads to a huge pain in the neck for every reason other than what I might have paid up front. 

More worrisome is the instance where a member buys something that he or she thinks was something else entirely and expectations are not met because he made a purchase only vaguely related to what he thought he was buying. Very few people have the time or will to read every fine detail on a listing once, never mind a second time, and if they think the item they were watching just miraculously went on sale.... well.... 

[westernstargifts]

I agree that a seller's reputation is paramount when it comes to buying on eBay.  I have paid more myself for items to avoid sellers that have poor feedback, especially those that also leave scathing comments about their customers.

It is interesting that eBay has the technology to filter search results for price + shipping but they don't use that same technology to find "cheaper" duplicates for the buyers.

How happy would a buyer be if he purchased the item eBay brought to his attention and then later, after he had paid for it, he discovered that the original item was less.  Who would he be likely to take it out on?  Most likely the unfortunate seller from whom he made the purchase.  I think if they are going to do this then they should get it right.

[momcqueen]

That's the problem: there have already been a few accounts that come to mind on the board whereby sellers are left perplexed as to the reason a buyer is stark, raving mad about not having received something they didn't actually buy. Would I be able to cite those examples now? Probably not. They were the sort of thing mentioned in a passing comment on a thread that may or may not have been related to something else at the time. But the possibility is real, especially if a buyer rushes to grab that 'great deal' mentioned in the email before someone else does. 

For me, a lot of those messages from ebay are sitting in my mailbox when I awake. I read them with one eye open and then might hit 'buy' in a hurry before even a third of my brain cells have started firing. 

[rose-dee]

I agree with your concerns, and would go even further.   I think this is a really bad idea.  What it smacks of is desperation on eBay's part.  

It would be bad enough if eBay sent emails suggesting "similar" items to something a buyer is watching.  However, stating the item is cheaper, when it may not actually be so, or when cheaper may not necessarily be a better deal all around for a buyer, or represent the quality the buyer is looking for, is stupid.  

I imagine many buyers not only choose what to put on their "Watch" list because of price, taking shipping into account, but also because they trust or have dealt with the seller, or because the item is of better quality in some way.  

There is, moreover, the pester factor -- how many potential buyers want to be bombarded by eBay with emails telling them what eBay says are better buys?  There is something just a little insulting in this.  In a way this is an extension of the already rather annoying gallery of "similar items" that now appear near the top of many listings.  

This gimmick is going to backfire on sellers and ultimately on eBay.  If what they want is a site where item price is the only consideration, they may end up with a whole lot of unhappy buyers. 

Another demonstration that bots can't apply the same meaningful judgment as human beings. 

[ricarmic]

Mj, I may have mentioned one of the wrong items. I've had two examples like that, one was the buyer bought/received a different one of my items than they expected, but the other one (which was stuff I didn't have for sale) could conceivably have come from this type of thing if it was misidentified as being the same cheaper thing, as it would be cheaper than the thing they thought they would be getting. Who knows, there is an awful lot of weird stuff happening these days, see my other thread about shipping dings!

Rose, I totally agree, I'm regularly getting emails from eBay of two streams, one is for stuff I have viewed, asking me if I think nows the time to buy it,  the other much more frustrating are one for MY OWN stuff that is on sale! (I browsed the items at some point and it seems botland thinks I am interested in buying my own stuff now). I'm getting notices about my own on sale stuff regularly, I'd say every couple days, probably not that often but it sure is annoying!

[momcqueen]

I think I was thinking of your example, yes.

Regarding your 'shipping dings' post, is it possible your buyer used a mobile device to leave feedback for you? It automatically defaults to the feedback left for the previous transaction and if one isn't careful or suave, it's easy to leave untended DSRs and text. Very easy. I had a buyer who loved, loved her item and my service, sent me a lovely unsolicited message saying so but then her positive text said the opposite and it was EXACTLY the same as the feedback she had left for a previous seller with whose service she was not that happy. I spoke to her about it and she was horrified this had happened, she really was happy with me, and when she followed up with the Feedback Specialists, she said they told her there was nothing they could do about it. 

[rose-dee]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:

I spoke to her about it and she was horrified this had happened, she really was happy with me, and when she followed up with the Feedback Specialists, she said they told her there was nothing they could do about it. 

---

A buyer should be able to revise their own FB.  Of course, it does have to be done within the allowable window for leaving FB.  I'm surprised your buyer was told this wasn't possible. (No, then again, come to think of it, this is eBay isn't it. )

[pjcdn2005]

A buyer can't revise their own positive feedback.  I have heard of customer service removing a low DSR on positive feedback (or they might have to remove the feedback totally) if the seller can show them that the buyer had made a mistake when they left it however, you probably have to get the right csr which is silly.  When a buyer phones in and asks to have the DSR corrected in the sellers favour, cs should do it without a hassle, but I haven't ever heard of them doing that.

[westernstargifts]

Strangely enough I received a few emails this past year where eBay said they had removed a low DSR rating from my feedback.  I have no idea what DSR it was for or which customer as I had received no negative feedback.  I could also not tell from the comments left in the feedback who might be an unhappy buyer.

And I did not ask for a revision.  But I will certainly take it!

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

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@ricarmic wrote:

Rose, I totally agree, I'm regularly getting emails from eBay of two streams, one is for stuff I have viewed, asking me if I think nows the time to buy it,  the other much more frustrating are one for MY OWN stuff that is on sale! (I browsed the items at some point and it seems botland thinks I am interested in buying my own stuff now). I'm getting notices about my own on sale stuff regularly, I'd say every couple days, probably not that often but it sure is annoying!

---

I got a store account for November (it's closed now) with the free one-month store promo and I used the mark down manager to put my own stuff on sale for about 10 days. I browsed some listings to make sure they are shown correctly, and then during this 10 days period I received about 5 e-mails telling me related items (from my store) are on sale......

[musicyouneed]

This is one of the reasons that I am getting away from free shipping.  My price looks to be more but when you do a search for price and shipping mine is lower.  But of course buyers don't spend as much time as I do searching and researching.  

When ebay advertises on a page where a listing has ended, ebay shows the cost of the CD not taking into consideration shipping is not included.  Mine if it did show up would be way higher and a buyer would never click on that listing.

So slowly I am getting away from free shipping,   I am not finding that sales with free shipping were flying out the door. 

Now the advertising and emails.  I'm not totally against it.  Buyers are getting these emails too and if they buy as a result of them great, especially if they buy from me.   

[westernstargifts]

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@musicyouneed wrote:

This is one of the reasons that I am getting away from free shipping.  My price looks to be more but when you do a search for price and shipping mine is lower.  But of course buyers don't spend as much time as I do searching and researching.  

When ebay advertises on a page where a listing has ended, ebay shows the cost of the CD not taking into consideration shipping is not included.  Mine if it did show up would be way higher and a buyer would never click on that listing.

So slowly I am getting away from free shipping,   I am not finding that sales with free shipping were flying out the door. 

Now the advertising and emails.  I'm not totally against it.  Buyers are getting these emails too and if they buy as a result of them great, especially if they buy from me.   

---

I was thinking along the same lines earlier.  First eBay urges sellers to offer free shipping which actually means shipping included in the price.  They told us that free shipping is what buyers want.  And now they penalize the sellers who offer free shipping by promoting lower priced items, with a shipping charge, in search and in emails to those buyers.

Offering free s/h was initially supposed to give us a boost in search. The only plus is not having to pay FVF on shipping to other countries.

[greenmangoes]

Oh that sucks 😞

I have almost everything listed with free shipping as they had said that is what buyers want.  No wonder sellers ignore what they suggest to us now.

[femmefan1946]

There are buyers and there are buyers.

Some want Free Shipping for the simplicity.

Some want Free Shipping for the 'free'.

Some want separate prices so they can pay the least for the item, and ignore the added shipping cost.

Some... well, there are over 7 billion people on the planet.

[jimz_007]

Do you know how to 'turn off' this annoying email  ?   We found a cheaper option:    eBay support does not acknowledge this specific exists...

[westernstargifts]

I deleted many of the things I was watching so eBay would stop sending me the emails.  That was quite awhile ago and they are still sending me emails for those same things.  I don't even open them, I just hit delete.

[hlmacdon]

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@musicyouneed wrote:

This is one of the reasons that I am getting away from free shipping.  My price looks to be more but when you do a search for price and shipping mine is lower.  But of course buyers don't spend as much time as I do searching and researching.  

When ebay advertises on a page where a listing has ended, ebay shows the cost of the CD not taking into consideration shipping is not included.  Mine if it did show up would be way higher and a buyer would never click on that listing.

So slowly I am getting away from free shipping,   I am not finding that sales with free shipping were flying out the door. 

Now the advertising and emails.  I'm not totally against it.  Buyers are getting these emails too and if they buy as a result of them great, especially if they buy from me.   

---

I experimented for a while with free shipping on a number of items for my US customers and have found the same as you. It made little impact to sales and makes multi-item purchases uncompetitive. It's nice to know the cheaper option featured described here actually works in my favor. I still use it with some larger items but I'll have to give that a rethink with this feature. If it triggers a few sales great. If I "lose" a sale to another sale, no big deal either since I failed to convert that buyer earlier anyways.

[pjcdn2005]

I've never received an email about anything on my watch list. You might want to try turning off your watch list notifications and see if that stops them.

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