You Will NOT Like the New requirements :-(

[pierrelebel]

Just came in from eBay -

Summer seller update: More efficient listing, new seller standard, and more

Dear pierrelebel:

As a valued seller, you play a key role in keeping eBay a thriving marketplace. We're making updates this summer and fall to help increase your profitability by helping you sell more efficiently and increase buyer satisfaction. As promised, we're continuing to consolidate changes that impact you into two or three releases per year with lead time to adapt. This is the second release for 2010.

New seller standard: Buyer Protection cases counted along with low DSRs. You're on the right track!

Opening a case with the eBay or PayPal Buyer Protection program is a clear indication of buyer dissatisfaction, especially when the buyer tries and is unable to resolve an issue directly with the seller. That's why, starting in September, "item not received" and "item not as described" cases will be considered along with low DSRs to evaluate and reward seller performance.

The good news for you: Congratulations! You're right on track to meet this requirement. You can monitor your status toward this new requirement--and track any cases--on your Seller Dashboard.

Faster ways to edit listings

To help you stay on top in an increasingly dynamic marketplace, we're introducing new functionality and tools to make it faster and easier to edit, list, and relist multiple items--up to 5,000 listings at once--plus bulk edit multi-variation listings and listings in eBay Motors Parts & Accessories with parts compatibility information.

Other updates include:
• New detailed item conditions in some categories; item condition required in most of these categories starting July 27
• Changes to Payment and Leave Feedback email reminders
• Anonymous email addresses to keep member-to-member communications secure. If you have your own customer relationship management system to manage contacts with your customers, we suggest you run a test in advance of the new member-to-member communication enhancements. Find out how.
• New rewards for sharing your pictures to enhance the eBay catalog
• Featured First discontinued to surface the most relevant listings from sellers offering the best value and service
• Category and Item Specific changes included with other updates
For more insight, you're also invited to:
• Take part in the upcoming webinar on Thursday, April 29
• Join me and other leaders from eBay and PayPal in a Town Hall meeting on Wednesday, April 28. Check the Announcement Board for more details coming soon
• Talk with members of my staff during the next two days on a special discussion board we've set up for this purpose.
As always, thank you for partnering to make eBay a thriving, successful marketplace.

[jakeeangel]

Yeah, I just read that email. I stand by what I said on the Seller board. I think they really are trying to weed people out under the pretense of having every single seller give the exact same standards of service to buyers.

They can't suddenly email you and say 'get out' so they create and recreate all the seller standards which will ultimately do it for them or some will get so fed up they'll quit.

I agree that it is problematic that one buyer buys from 10 sellers and often has 10 different experiences. That shouldn't be the case and eBay seems to be working towards the one great experience. I've been noticing that for the last few years now.

We shall see......

[pierrelebel]

What will eBay do when a buyer sends a letter such as this one received yesterday:

"Merci pour les timbres recus aujourd'hui....
Mais je suis un peu désapointé car 12 de ces timbres ne sont pas bons pour la collection.... ils n'ont pas leurs bords en scies.....
Merci tout de même. Peut-être que je n'avais pas vu comme il se devait la photo sur EBAY...."

The buyer is basically telling me he is unhappy with the 12 stamps received and they are "no good" for his collection.

I took a quick look at his recent invoice and could not find any 12 stamp set. Asked him which stamps were unsatisfactory and received a quick reply explaining he had made a mistake and meant to write to another seller!

How will eBay handle similar situations when a buyer files a claim in error? It does happen from time to time.

[dipmicro]

I mentioned same thing in previous thread "Item not received" just a few minutes before this post showed up. Glad I am not the only one who noticed.

This is a classic method of manipulation - give something away and then threaten to take it.

I was selling here before DSR and before discounts. Along came DSR based discounts and buyers is always right attitude. Then came March 2010 changes and most folks switched to Premium Stores and happily pays eBay for "privilege" of listing slow-moving items for 5c.

Now eBay says, do not bow to the buyers, we will take discount and we will take Premium Store.

eBay has a stench, eBay sellers are second class when approaching manufacturers and frowned upon by customs officers. It's a place to get cheap or free stuff attracting certain class of audience - "Hey dude, I got this free widget, just go to eBay and say you did not get it ..."

[jakeeangel]

It will be interesting. Or if you sell a DVD movie and they got it quickly, as described, great communication - but they don't like the movie!! I've had that happen a couple of times. I didn't make the stupid thing, I only sold it. Sheesh

WTH????

It will be interesting that's for sure.

Is this to stop sellers from making the buyer return the item with tracking at their expense as per eBay and PayPal rules? I wonder.

[nan*55]

Ebay has become very confussing.
Had a lady over on the weekend who has some great items to sell.Wanted me to help her set her auctions up.
By the time she was done ready all ebays rules & regs.
She said not a chance and is having a yardsale 😞

[coxengines]

Personally, I am not too worried about the "claim" part as we have less than 3 or 4 per year and I'm sure that will be well within eBay's tolerances.

What gets me is:

Anonymous email addresses to keep member-to-member communications secure

Does that mean we will never see the buyer's email address?

I sure love the part where we send them our shipping confirmation that contains a link to our other store 🙂

Bernie

[pierrelebel]

"Does that mean we will never see the buyer's email address?"

It appears on PayPal payments! 🙂

[momoftwingles2]

I'm not worried about the claim part either as in almost 10 years I've never had a claim against me.

Regarding e-mail addresses....Blackthorne Pro provides it so that we can send out e-mails. I wonder if they are going to change that?

It will be interesting.

You know...in Melfort there are three drugstores...well four if you can't the one in Extra Foods. So we have that one, Shoppers Drugmart, Pharmasave and then Rexall (I think). Rexall is super small, over crowded, no personality and workers to match. Pharmasave is much larger, is crowded, offers a little bit better customer service IF you can find a clerk. Extra Foods pharmacy area...no help whatsoever.

But...Shoppers...WOW...it's got that down home country feeling and when you walk in there it's like going into CHEERS where everybody knows your name and even if they don't you're made to feel welcome. The service is great! The store is great and there's nothing special about it...it's an aging building. But it's the PEOPLE that make it great!

What I'm trying to say is that EVERY seller on eBay is an individual and unique and there's no way that eBay or anyone can ever expect to get the same customer service from every seller. It's virtually impossible!

So what is eBay trying to do?

Susan

[craftycatsattic]

Ebay has become very confussing.
Had a lady over on the weekend who has some great items to sell.Wanted me to help her set her auctions up.
By the time she was done ready all ebays rules & regs.
She said not a chance and is having a yardsale 😞

I source most of my more valuable items on eBay and have noticed a huge decline in the amount of suitable resale finds. The best finds are from the small sellers looking to sell off their own collection. These people are leaving eBay.

Short term, it's very good for me because I've accumulated a huge stock over the years and now have less competition driving up my closing prices. Long term it's going to hurt and collector's are not going to make eBay their first stop if they can no longer find the good stuff on here.

[craftycatsattic]

"Opening a case with the eBay or PayPal Buyer Protection program is a clear indication of buyer dissatisfaction, especially when the buyer tries and is unable to resolve an issue directly with the seller."

I wonder too what details they will consider with regards to charge-backs. If I recall correctly, I've had at least two filed against me. In both cases, it was the buyer's financial institution that initiated the charge-back. I was told that the accounts were hacked into and that they did a blanket charge-back...even though my transactions had nothing to do with the hacking.

Also, it hasn't happened to me yet, but a lot of you have been posting about charge-backs where the buyer never even bothered to email first.

[coxengines]

Ok, I don't think the email addresses are going to an issue as one should still get them with the Paypal payments. here is a link with more info:

http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/memberemailanonomity.html

However, I can see more issues, sample here:

Expired item title or number: You cannot send a response if the item you are discussing has expired.

Exceeded your daily limit: In order to help stop spam, each user has a limit of how many emails that they can send per day. If you meet your limit for the day, you will need to wait until the following day to respond. You can always respond to a new question; however, there are limits as to how many times you can respond to the same email.

So much for free customer interaction.

Bernie

[momoftwingles2]

I know you can't see it....but I'm just shaking my head!

Susan
momoftwingles2

[surplusdealdude]

I sure love the part where we send them our shipping confirmation that contains a link to our other store

I think ebay mentioned that they're going to be monitoring the emails as well, so putting links in emails may not be good idea.

The old "brochure in the box" sounds like it's still the way to go.

[momoftwingles2]

I'll mention Blackthorne once again!

In BT you may set up your system to send out whatever kind of e-mail you would like and it GOES THROUGH YOUR OWN SERVER....not eBay's.

So, it's very possible to put in the e-mail anything that you may like...including links to every where under the sun.

I honestly can't imagine that they are going to end this product or take away the capabilities of e-mailing within that program as they would have a lot of subscribers looking elsewhere for a new product not owned by eBay.

Just my 3 cents worth for the night!

Susan
momoftwingles2

[pjcdn2005]

Expired item title or number: You cannot send a response if the item you are discussing has expired.

shakes my head and rolls my eyes

That's just dumb. I get at least one question a week about a listing that has ended because it is sold out. Usually they want to know if I'm getting more or have something else similar. I guess ebay would rather they go to another site to buy that item.

[dipmicro]

This email proxies have nothing to do with security of communication, it's a censorship to protect buyers stay on eBay.

And email proxies will work just like any email address, except eBay will decide what to forward. This technology is not so hard to implement and I already seen some proxy emails from users that click "Hide my email address".

Btw. big brother owns PayPal, so we can expect email proxies in PayPal invoices.

Perhaps next change they will start proxying shipments to make sure sellers did not leave business card or brochures with goods, and will charge handling for the "service".

Surplusdealsdude, the sun came up and I am not so bothered by that doughnut from yesterday, but the venue is still looking bleak. I keep wondering what kind of marketing can we get for 12-15% of our gross sales elsewhere

I experimented with another selling ID, populated it last day before changes with 1500 store listings that went into core next day and terminated most of them yesterday. That ID has reached PowerSeller and TRS status during that month. Nice experiment - but not cheap. During last 2 years I spent 500-1000 hours on software utilities to manage this sales channel. You can tell I am pretty invested in the venue, but it's getting tiring. You develop strategy, then eBay changes something and throws you back unless you are diamond seller.

[coxengines]

Surplus,

Including a link to a store is fully acceptable under eBay rules as long as it is done when a customer has already purchased and it is not done through the eBay system.

That is actually expected and the norm for sellers.

When we receive the Paypal payment confirmation we use that email to reply with our shipping confirmation that includes a link to our store.

What you can't do is try to entice a buyer, who asks a question about your product, to buy from your store instead of eBay.

Bernie

[jakeeangel]

I'll mention Blackthorne once again!

Yep! Gotta love Blackthorne and have since I started on eBay in 1998 when it was called Auction Assistant. I wouldn't have the slightest clue what I would do if that product was killed off. I really wouldn't.

[femmefan1946]

The best finds are from the small sellers looking to sell off their own collection. These people are leaving eBay.

That makes me think the new places to buy will be The Ranch, The Moon, iO, etc. Lots of eBay sellers moving to them and no sales to speak of....

Does Blackthorne work with Macs?