What's going on with eBay?

Mr Badger

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I've not listed anything on eBay (who I'd previously found to be very effective) for a couple of years but I decided to sell a camera. I'd been meaning to list it for a while but finally got the incentive to do so when I got one of those 'no sellers fees' special offer emails from them last week. After struggling through their new (to me) seller interface (which didn't seem to give me the option to change postage to Royal Mail Special Delivery or to block overseas bidders) I eventually got my camera listed as a 'Buy it now' sale.

That was last week, today I get the following email from them:

"Hi *******,
Buyers can now make offers on your listing.

Listings that accept offers from buyers have a higher chance of selling because they provide more opportunities to attract buyers and make a deal. If you haven’t already, be sure to download our app, so you don’t let any offers pass by. Every offer is an opportunity.

If you don’t want to receive offers, go to Manage offer settings to update your preferences."


If I'd wanted an 'accept offers' option I'd have asked for it (or rather I wouldn't have actively unchecked the default option box and deselected the option!). So I had to log in to my account to revise the listing and delete the 'make an offer' option. If that wasn't enough, I was then faced with the following pop-up message after pressing save changes:

"Make sure your item gets sold
Starting 10 days after listing, we'll lower the price (5% every 5 days) until your item sells or gets to £51.00. We'll notify buyers who showed interest each time the price drops. Turn it off at any time by going to your listing."


So I had to opt out of that as well (and I'll be keeping a watch on it to make sure it doesn't re-select itself!). Is this how eBay now conducts itself, or am I only getting this mither because I signed up to a 'no sellers fees' special offer? If this is now going to be eBay policy then I think they're going to shoot themselves in the foot with tricks like that. If I want to give my stuff away I'll pass it on to a mate, not let some random stanger get it for well under the going rate by default just to give eBay a sale!

Has anyone else experienced this sort of thing?
 
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I stopped using eBay to sell things years ago because they changed the goal posts to often.

Ebay don’t give a s*** about sellers and haven’t done for years.
 
Strange, I have a listing on ebay and had no such messages from them now or ever.

And I can change delivery method and exclude countries, PO boxes and such things.

I will keep a look out for this nonsense, they have been changing things a lot over the last year or two for the worst and I often have a hard time navigating now and found it easier previously
 
Strange, I have a listing on ebay and had no such messages from them now or ever.

And I can change delivery method and exclude countries, PO boxes and such things.

Same here, I have a live ad and a recently completed (photographic item) ad earlier this week.

I've never seen those terms, can set my own offer levels, including auto accept and auto decline and always block overseas bidders.

Seems a strange thing to happen...
 
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Thanks chaps. I'm wondering if it's due to the special offer for no seller's fees then? As I said, I've not listed anything for a couple of years, so didn't know if this was standard practice these days or just something to do with the offer. It'll be interesting to see if anyone else has had a similar experience?
 
Sold an item for £200. Got my monthly bill for £19. What a joke. Oh and I used PayPal and there was a fee of around £6. Even a bigger joke.

Let's just say I won't be using FleaBay much.

It used to be good but there's too many shops on it and I think it's killed the site.
 
Thanks chaps. I'm wondering if it's due to the special offer for no seller's fees then? As I said, I've not listed anything for a couple of years, so didn't know if this was standard practice these days or just something to do with the offer. It'll be interesting to see if anyone else has had a similar experience?
Shouldn't be that either mate. I've sold loads recently with the no fees or £3 max fees condition and never had anything like that.
 
Thanks chaps. I'm wondering if it's due to the special offer for no seller's fees then? As I said, I've not listed anything for a couple of years, so didn't know if this was standard practice these days or just something to do with the offer. It'll be interesting to see if anyone else has had a similar experience?

No, I also used the offer, also had the sell for £1 offer.
 
Sold an item for £200. Got my monthly bill for £19. What a joke. Oh and I used PayPal and there was a fee of around £6. Even a bigger joke.

Let's just say I won't be using FleaBay much.

It used to be good but there's too many shops on it and I think it's killed the site.

:oops: :$ Sorry to say, sold a £250 item this week, eBay fees were £1, sold a £100 item a couple of weeks ago, eBay fee £3 and I've got a current ad running that will have a £1 eBay fee when it sells.

Always worth waiting for eBay to offer the £1 or £3 fee offer that gets sent out every few weeks or so.
 
:oops: :$ Sorry to say, sold a £250 item this week, eBay fees were £1, sold a £100 item a couple of weeks ago, eBay fee £3 and I've got a current ad running that will have a £1 eBay fee when it sells.

Always worth waiting for eBay to offer the £1 or £3 fee offer that gets sent out every few weeks or so.

Yup that's what I do now, I put 10 things up last week on their £1 offer, all sold quickly.
 
Don't know what all the agonising's about - I use eBay fairly often to buy and sell. To sell you can often avoid listing fees and thereafter they take a sales commission of 10% - peanuts in my book, what would it cost you to sell if you had a shop on the high street?

I'm talking about stuff that's above car-boot level. I've tried Gumtree a couple of times with a good heart, but nobody calls and the structure's lacking. eBay works! Not for everything, but mostly.

And you can choose the options that you want, or if the system doesn't suit you, not bother - there's no compulsion. Sell good stuff and hopefully you get good buyers. The auction format is the most lively.
 
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Same here never had those messages ,I’m also signed up to there global shipping program ,where you simply send it to one of there midland depots and they then courier it on worldwide ,as the pound is now so low it’s good business sense ,it also takes all the hassle and expense out of selling abroad and includes live tracking updates .so no risk to the seller .
 
Same here never had those messages ,I’m also signed up to there global shipping program ,where you simply send it to one of there midland depots and they then courier it on worldwide ,as the pound is now so low it’s good business sense ,it also takes all the hassle and expense out of selling abroad and includes live tracking updates .so no risk to the seller .

By default your listings use the GSP. I’ve had nothing but problems with it. Always with the buyers never the system. Latest was a French buyer complaining about the item having an English plug. I’m glad it’s good for you though.
 
I wonder what's going on then? Another change I've noticed this last week is with the Completed Items listings, now when you click on them to see what something sold for and what condition it was in, the link takes you to eBay's idea of 'a similar item' that's a current live listing. To view the original completed item you have to click on the tiny little blue link words in the text. I've found that annoying too!
 
It has changed. The listing interface isn't as good/clear as it was! You used to be able to select the listing length & set start time in advance too both of which I couldn't find the other day.....?
 
It has changed. The listing interface isn't as good/clear as it was! You used to be able to select the listing length & set start time in advance too both of which I couldn't find the other day.....?

Sometimes it seems people blame eBay for user error :rolleyes:

First page of listing an item...

309_AF19_A-_FB71-41_C6-8_B67-5_A42_D2386_ABA.jpg
 
I certainly didn't get that user interface, that seems similar to the one I was used to, not the one I had to fill in the other day, which seemed to have quite limited options. :confused:
 
I certainly didn't get that user interface, that seems similar to the one I was used to, not the one I had to fill in the other day, which seemed to have quite limited options. :confused:

There is a simple interface as well, you're probably using it. Have a look for a simple/advanced interface button. Just to click to change to the advanced tool.


5_BE32_DF3-02_F3-444_A-885_D-4_FB92_FF60_CF0.jpg
 
Thanks for that Dave, I'll remember to look for that if I use eBay again to sell something. Doesn't explain their apparent 'default' and rather insistent attempts to reduce the price of my camera though; unless that's what you get for using the 'simpler' interface as they think people who use that will be less astute?
 
Sometimes it seems people blame eBay for user error :rolleyes:

No blaming from me. I even added "......?" at the end of my post turning it into a question so someone could correct me if I was wrong.

That was how it was set up. It must now auto default to the more simple/basic interface.

Thanks though ;)
 
I've not listed anything on eBay (who I'd previously found to be very effective) for a couple of years but I decided to sell a camera. I'd been meaning to list it for a while but finally got the incentive to do so when I got one of those 'no sellers fees' special offer emails from them last week. After struggling through their new (to me) seller interface (which didn't seem to give me the option to change postage to Royal Mail Special Delivery or to block overseas bidders) I eventually got my camera listed as a 'Buy it now' sale.

That was last week, today I get the following email from them:

"Hi *******,
Buyers can now make offers on your listing.

Listings that accept offers from buyers have a higher chance of selling because they provide more opportunities to attract buyers and make a deal. If you haven’t already, be sure to download our app, so you don’t let any offers pass by. Every offer is an opportunity.

If you don’t want to receive offers, go to Manage offer settings to update your preferences."


If I'd wanted an 'accept offers' option I'd have asked for it (or rather I wouldn't have actively unchecked the default option box and deselected the option!). So I had to log in to my account to revise the listing and delete the 'make an offer' option. If that wasn't enough, I was then faced with the following pop-up message after pressing save changes:

"Make sure your item gets sold
Starting 10 days after listing, we'll lower the price (5% every 5 days) until your item sells or gets to £51.00. We'll notify buyers who showed interest each time the price drops. Turn it off at any time by going to your listing."


So I had to opt out of that as well (and I'll be keeping a watch on it to make sure it doesn't re-select itself!). Is this how eBay now conducts itself, or am I only getting this mither because I signed up to a 'no sellers fees' special offer? If this is now going to be eBay policy then I think they're going to shoot themselves in the foot with tricks like that. If I want to give my stuff away I'll pass it on to a mate, not let some random stanger get it for well under the going rate by default just to give eBay a sale!

Has anyone else experienced this sort of thing?

I personally don’t use them anymore, stick with classifieds or gumtree now myself...
 
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