Topic: Ebay's stupid new rules

[Pugnate]

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=10508

EBay today announced changes to its auction fee structure and is introducing new feedback rules to try to make its system friendlier to both buyers and sellers.  The company is cutting the listing fee by up to 50% and compensating by increasing its commissions on sold items.

The biggest shakeup will occur for sellers of low-priced items.  For items under $25, eBay is raising the commission from 5.25% to 8.25%.  This threatens the relatively strong market for used video games and music CDs.

I don't know why eBay keep changing crap around. This is extremely stupid. So anything I sell for $25, I pay $2.25 to eBay and $2.25 to Paypal? What's the point if I am paying $5 on a $25 item?

Significantly, a major change in the feedback system was also announced.  Sellers can now only give buyers positive feedback.  Whether this will hurt sellers remains to be seen.  In the past buyers tended to gripe less due to fear of a retaliatory negative feedback -- a sort of "I'll scratch your back, if you scratch mine" setup.  The shakeup may lead to more honesty on the part of buyers of their customer experience, but it may also allow some less well-mannered buyers to have an easier time throwing a tantrum over issues outside sellers' control.

This is just horrible. Sellers will have it really bad now. A lot of buyers are just jerks, and this will definitely cut them loose. Buyers also love to manipulate sellers into getting free products even after they've gotten their items. Now that they can leave feedback without consequence, they will be really happy.

[scottws]

As far as the listing fees, it's just a money-grab for eBay.  There are a ton of low-priced items sold on eBay and they are tired of someone posting the auction at $0.99, getting hardly any listing fees, and then getting a low commission.  Now they are saying screw it we'll give them the low listing fees but we're taking a bigger cut.

Yeah, that's ridiculous.  I see what they're saying about buyers not giving negative feedback for fear of retaliatory negative feedback, but it's sellers that are the ones harmed by negative feedback, not buyers.

[Pugnate]

Yea the listing fees thing isn't too bad. But the feedback thing is crazy. How will sellers block a buyer with a bad reputation? I have to mention that out of every 100 customers, 10 are freeloading jerkoffs looking to manipulate you into getting something free, and will try ANYTHING. Absolutely ANYTHING...

This is just bullshit.

Here:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000635247&tstart=0&mod=1201633745763

[idolminds]

Wow, that sounds really dumb.

[Pugnate]

Here look at this:

1.   Feedback Changes
Significant changes coming soon will increase buyer confidence and showcase good sellers.
•   Buyers will only be able to receive positive Feedback.
•   Positive repeat customer Feedback will count and Feedback more than 12 months old won't.
•   Negative and neutral Feedback left by the buyer will be removed for transactions in which a buyer doesn't respond to the Unpaid Item (UPI) or if the member is suspended.

Doesn't that sound like an April Fool's joke.

Let this sink in... any feedback a year old will automatically expire...

Does that make ANY sense whatsoever? What's the point of building a good reputation??? haha, it is insane.

[scottws]

I read something else about it.  It's not gone, it's just that the feedback percentage will just calculate based on the previous 12 months.  No feedback is deleted.

[Pugnate]

That's a bit better, but isn't that still strange? Someone could be a model seller for 10 years and then have a bad year due to whatever while another seller with one OK year will look better even if he has a horrible record?

[Quemaqua]

I don't pay enough attention to any of that stuff, but it does sound like it's shafting certain segments.  As a seller, I imagine I'd be pretty pissed off.  I wonder what this is going to mean for the frequency of lower-budget items.  Ebay is my bread and butter for finding a lot of that stuff (used games, harder to find import stuff, out-of-the-way game and music items of higher quality than what you generally find in shops or on Amazon.com)... if the market in those areas evaporates, then so too does my use of ebay.

[scottws]

Does this change affect Paypal somehow?  Everyone is saying they are going to stop offering Paypal and only offer money order as payment.

[gpw11]

I don't pay enough attention to any of that stuff, but it does sound like it's shafting certain segments.  As a seller, I imagine I'd be pretty pissed off.  I wonder what this is going to mean for the frequency of lower-budget items.  Ebay is my bread and butter for finding a lot of that stuff (used games, harder to find import stuff, out-of-the-way game and music items of higher quality than what you generally find in shops or on Amazon.com)... if the market in those areas evaporates, then so too does my use of ebay.

I seriously doubt that will be the case, that's still where most of the high-volume sellers probably make their money.  If anything it'll probably just mean S&H will be marked up accordingly.
But what the fuck is Ebay thinking with the feedback?  It actually makes zero sense.  The negative aspect of the current system they point out is pretty much actually the best thing about it - people may actually work to resolve problems rather then jumping the gun and just leaving bad feedback.  Like, what the fuck is the point of even having buyer feedback now?

[Pugnate]

Exactly. There is no motivation to work a problem out anymore.

[scottws]

See, what I don't get is that they are saying buyers are scared to leave negative feedback for fear of receiving negative feedback.  But feedback scores are far more important to sellers.  Even though I've only sold a few things on eBay, I had to leave negative feedback for one buyer and I was terrified to do so in case they gave me negative feedback in return, which would have ruined my feedback score as a seller.

Negative feedback scores for buyers don't even matter really, since if a person with lots of negative feedback wins your auction, per eBay rules it's a contract and you have to attempt to complete the transaction.  It just lets you know you're in for a ride.

[Pugnate]

Even though I've only sold a few things on eBay, I had to leave negative feedback for one buyer and I was terrified to do so in case they gave me negative feedback in return, which would have ruined my feedback score as a seller.

Exactly.

I'll be honest. I have about 20 auctions a week on eBay for my leather stuff. Out of 50 customers, I swear there are always at least two who will try whatever they can to manipulate you into getting something for free.

Like if they pay for regular shipping, and then it is delayed, they will try to blame you, even if you shipped on time. People are just assholes, and this allows them to crawl out of the woodwork.

[Cobra951]

Why is it this can happen, then?  From what you say, the new rule about buyer feedback is completely unacceptable, not only to you, but to any serious seller.  So how can that go ahead without a massive challenge?

[Pugnate]

Here:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=113

Everyone is perplexed.

edit:

Holy Shit, read this:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/31/smbusiness/ebay_fee_hike.fsb/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote

Look, at one point eBay will have to settle for the money it makes every year. It can't just keep growing past a certain point, without trying this unfair final value bullshit. Check the CNN link above to see how pissed people are.

(FORTUNE Small Business) -- If eBay's fee changes were meant to shore up market share at a time when sellers are increasingly migrating to competitors such as Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500), initial response suggests it may do the opposite: eBay's veteran sellers are furious, with some forecasting ruin for their businesses.

"Ouch!" said Laura Ricciotti, a seller from Windsor, Ontario, about Tuesday's announcement of a new fee structure for the online auction giant.

Ricciotti said the new fees, set to go into effect Feb. 20, will pinch her already tiny margins selling children's books through her eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) store, Read With Me Books, which began in 2000 with posts for a few auctions for baby clothes and other finds.

"Sellers need to remain competitive in their pricing to do well in eBay's global marketplace, and it will be very difficult to continue to do so and still see a profit," she said, under the new scenario.

And that was one of the gentler reactions

Sellers on eBay's normally rancorous message boards were apoplectic, using phrases like "extortion" to describe the news. On Wednesday several began calling for a general strike, under which sellers would withhold listings for a week.

Ebay's complex new rules affect sellers in almost every part of a transaction.

It reduces upfront costs such as listing fees, which will drop from a starting price of $0.20 to $0.15 for traditional auction listings, and makes gallery photos free. However, eBay is adding more costs to the back end for many sellers with higher final-value fees, the commission eBay takes after a sale. Top sellers will be rewarded with greater visibility and protections, but - in perhaps the most controversial aspect of the shake-up - sellers will no longer be able to leave negative feedback for buyers.

"I gotta confess I didn't see this particular way of handling it coming," said longtime eBayer and author Julia Wilkinson of the changes in treating feedback against buyers. "I had to read it twice."

[Ace_O_Spades]

does this open the door for a not-so-fucked-up online auction service to gain market share?

Like, their whole ad campaign could be, "Does E-Bay's dick in your ass hurt? Come use our site, we use lube, and we take it slow... awwww yeahhhh"

[Pugnate]

Prisonbitch.com?