10-03-2014 05:41 PM
I'm trying to change shipping policies but would have to do each item individually.
They say, via the link below, that you can try it and opt out at anytime but I'm afraid it may mess things up since it's not rolled out yet. Has anyone tried it? Not sure why they wouldn't leave what was there until the new one is ready....
http://www.bizpolicy.ebay.ca/businesspolicy/policyoptin
Thanks!
10-03-2014 06:09 PM
Well, I have never heard of this. Basically, it makes no sense. eBay tells me I take Paypal. eBay tells me I ship in a day. eBay tells me I take returns. I need a written policy that tells them that I am doing as they say? Policies that customers never read? Any deviation from eBay's policies are not allowed? Policies that are non-enforceable anyway?
It tells me I have a large number of policies. Sure I do, the ones they told me I have.
10-03-2014 06:34 PM
Actually, I think business policies work well, but they're not available to everyone yet. For awhile I was able to use them, but it was a mess. That was revoked and now I'm told "someday soon" I can opt back in. One of the big advantages I see is shipping charges. I'm sure CP will increase rates in January and I might want to adjust my shipping charges. I've got almost 4,000 listings (many are lurking in my unsold folder until the next promotion) and changing every listing is daunting at least. With business policies I can change all at once if I need to. I can only hope I'll be able to opt back in by the end of the year.
10-03-2014 06:52 PM
I get all of that Photo, but shipping charges for me will not change, most likely. I use flat rate, and with the approx 16% decline in the Cdn $ in the last two years, I am ahead on shipping after FVF. I set my flat rates three years ago and see no need to change them this year.
That will be four years running with the same rates.
10-03-2014 07:46 PM
10-03-2014 07:59 PM
10-04-2014 12:11 AM - edited 10-04-2014 12:13 AM
I agree with what Mr. Elmwood has said (all of it).
With the possible exception of the convenience of being able to adjust shipping rates en masse, I don't see the point in giving sellers a feature to set out policies that are already mandatory.
Maybe they rolled it out so fast that nobody stopped to think about its redundancy vis-a-vis their own policies! It wouldn't be the first time eBay has put the cart before the horse. Maybe that's why they've pulled it now. Apparently there was also a lot of complaining about how poorly it functioned in general and how awkward it was to use.
As far as shipping rates go, as long as the $Cdn remains below the $US, I'll be leaving my flat rate shipping charges as they are.
Can you use bulk edit to make across-the-board changes to shipping amounts? I realize it's not ideal, but at least it isn't as slow as manually opening and changing each listing.
Perhaps eBay will wake up and realize that an automated editor for shipping charges, along the concept of the business policies, would be more helpful to sellers. For example, being able to specify that particular items get rate "A" when the listings are first set up, and being able to change rate "A" in one quick step for all such listings whenever necessary. Oh, right, that would be logical.
10-04-2014 12:22 AM
@photosalp wrote:
Second story for Mr E. Since I'm lucky enough to be selling in the stamps category I can use flat rate shipping for all of my orders. My normal shipping rate to the US, where most of my sales are, is $2.50. Somewhere, somehow, I made an error in the SYI page and it carried over to several listings. A lot of my US customers are being charged $3.30 for shipping, my international rate. I refund them the excess when I catch it, but what's interesting is that my US sales haven't dropped off with the higher shipping rate some are being charged. I come off as a hero when I refund the difference, but it also tells me that if I have to increase my shipping rate in the new year it will be tolerated. As far as the difference in the US and CDN dollars; that's a bonus we can enjoy today. Next year it might be different and it'll be a lose we have to absorb.
I know your story was intended for Mr. E., but I found it interesting. I've always suspected that there's flexibility in perception of shipping rates below a certain threshold, but exactly what that magic number is, I haven't yet figured out. It's probably somewhere around $8 or $9 for most items under about $30 in value.
In other words, I think any shipping rate that seems fair in relation to the item value has some elbow room for increase as long as it doesn't go above an "uncomfortable" point. If, as a buyer, you're interested enough in something to buy it for $15 or $20, then you're probably going to be willing to pay any reasonable shipping charge below a certain point to get it. The key thing as a seller is not to push too close to that point I suppose.
The other side of the argument is this: if a seller is only charging $2.50 for shipping, wouldn't it be worth just offering free shipping? Would that $2.50 difference be made up in extra sales? I'm always teetering on one side of the fence or the other on that question.
10-04-2014 12:29 AM
Business policies have nothing to do with ebay policies. It lets the seller set their police(s) for shipping, payment and returns. If you have different policies for different items, eg not offering overseas shipping on large items you set up different ones and pick what one you want when you list a new item. So its just one click to have the rates, method and location ready. No idea why they rolled it out to some ids and not others, it works fine
10-04-2014 01:20 AM
Hi Rose. I have to keep a shipping charge in place for my low priced stamps. Everything $25 or more is free shipping, but collectors can be a funny lot. When they really want that 99 cent stamp (even when it's only worth 50 cents, but eBay's minimum listing is 99) they'll pay the $2.50 or $3.30 shipping to get it. I started listing on another site a month ago that's devoted just to stamp collectors and has no minimum listing price. It's been slow so far, but that's at least in part due to I'm too busy on eBay to put a lot of time into listing there. If that site works out for me I'll eventually move all of my lower priced stuff there and make all of my listings on eBay free shipping. Or at least that's the plan.........
10-04-2014 11:08 AM
Business policies sounds like having templates for different categories of items on Turbolister.
I used to have templates for categories such as art glass, pottery, sheet music.... music books, and then books by weight in relation to postage.
Today I have templates for books in relation to weight range as defined by Canada Post.
Once the books are listed on eBay... they are coded based on a flat rate cost for shipping.
When shipping rates change... Bulk edit is used with listings arranged lowest to highest for shipping...
That sounds very much like business policies...
Business policies are there for someone new to eBay....
Those of us who have been here for years... have already established our own policies in relation to what each of us sells.
It would be nice to code each listing... and then edit flat rate shipping based on that code...
10-04-2014 11:22 AM
10-04-2014 11:39 AM - edited 10-04-2014 11:42 AM
@photosalp wrote:Actually, I think business policies work well, but they're not available to everyone yet. For awhile I was able to use them, but it was a mess. That was revoked and now I'm told "someday soon" I can opt back in. One of the big advantages I see is shipping charges. I'm sure CP will increase rates in January and I might want to adjust my shipping charges. I've got almost 4,000 listings (many are lurking in my unsold folder until the next promotion) and changing every listing is daunting at least. With business policies I can change all at once if I need to. I can only hope I'll be able to opt back in by the end of the year.
This is also the reason why I like business polices - so that I can change things all at once rather than having to open every listing to do so....
For example, right now I would like to change the number of days for a return item from 7 to say 14 days, I would have to open every listing to do that.
10-04-2014 11:56 AM
@toby**bleep**zu wrote:Business policies have nothing to do with ebay policies. It lets the seller set their police(s) for shipping, payment and returns.
While it may be true that you can set any policies (i.e. terms of business) that you like, in the end eBay will determine, through defects, cases, etc. what is acceptable and what is not, i.e. through applying its rules and policies to sellers.
To my mind, it's an unnecessary (or at best, poorly conceived) add-on, and in fact perhaps even a little misleading for newer sellers who think that if they set up a "business policy" they're covered in a situation of disagreement between buyer and seller. No, I think eBay got over-excited and the front-end programmers/designers forgot to consult the back-end policemen.
I've realized over the years, as 'cumos' mentioned, and 'Mr. Elmwood' alluded to, that setting out business policies in listings (with the possible exception of shipping charges and exclusions) is pretty much redundant.
10-04-2014 11:59 AM
@greenmangoes wrote:This is also the reason why I like business polices - so that I can change things all at once rather than having to open every listing to do so....
For example, right now I would like to change the number of days for a return item from 7 to say 14 days, I would have to open every listing to do that.
You should be able to use the "Bulk Edit" feature to do that. It's at least faster than opening every listing.
10-04-2014 12:54 PM
Again the new feature called "business policies" has nothing whatsover to do with any rule ebay has. its a way to make submitting and changing listings easier. Primarily the shipping section. its one of the better things they've done to make listing easier for sellers
I set one for items that go letter at flat rate and ship to all countries. Another for those items that don't work overseas. Another for large items I sell once in awhile with calculated shipping. No more selecting countries and rates, just pick one I've named in a drop down box and its all filled out. Its MY policies. With one change I can change every listing which used that policy, much much easier then the bulk revision or firing up turbolister
10-04-2014 01:02 PM
@toby**bleep**zu wrote:Again the new feature called "business policies" has nothing whatsover to do with any rule ebay has. its a way to make submitting and changing listings easier. Primarily the shipping section. its one of the better things they've done to make listing easier for sellers
I set one for items that go letter at flat rate and ship to all countries. Another for those items that don't work overseas. Another for large items I sell once in awhile with calculated shipping. No more selecting countries and rates, just pick one I've named in a drop down box and its all filled out. Its MY policies. With one change I can change every listing which used that policy, much much easier then the bulk revision or firing up turbolister
Interesting comments. I wanted to try Business Policies out of curiosity but only read bad comments on this in the forums. Most comments sounded like the user was inexperienced but I also read you could not opt out easily once opted in. I just did not know if Business Policies was just another poorly thought out and poorly implemented change. I thought I would get stuck with problems that I could not get fixed.
10-04-2014 01:17 PM
No idea why they rolled it out to some ids and not others, it works fine
Obviously the name is confusing some people but I think what made it really confusing was the way that they went about it. For example, one day when I went to relist something and wanted to change a shipping price I suddenly had business policies in for my listings. Of course they weren't organized and I didn't have time right then to figure out which business policy went with which type of item so I just opted out.
Also, it seems that quite a few people had already set up everything using business policies and then suddenly couldn't use them...I have no idea why. Of course that makes it frustrating and gives it a bad name.
10-04-2014 05:24 PM - edited 10-04-2014 05:25 PM
It looks like I do not have the option for Business Policies on this ID. I do not remember if I had them and opted out when they came out. I checked out the help files where to find Business Policies but I can't find them.
I also do not ever get the 3 free relists option.
Whatever. Maybe it is better to not have more improvements = changes = glitches , lol.