Changes at Ebay: New Fees, Free Gallery...Positive feedback for Buyers only
 

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200801....08-01-29054823

Seller Update: Fees, Rewards & Standards
eBay buyers want value and selection from sellers they can trust--and good sellers deserve rewards for delivering great customer service. That's why we're making a number of important changes that may affect you:

1. Reduced Listing Fees
You asked, we listened. We're reducing Insertion Fees and adjusting Final Value Fees to lower your up-front cost to sell on eBay. You wanted free Gallery, now you've got it--plus more feature discounts.
* Lower Insertion Fees
* Making Gallery free
* Lower fees for Gallery Plus, Picture Pack, and Feature Plus

2. Rewards for great sellers
There will be discounts and incentives for those who satisfy customers best. Who decides who gets rewarded? Customers do, by giving sellers high Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs).
* More search exposure through Best Match
* Fee discounts for PowerSellers
* Increased protection for PowerSellers

3. 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.

For more details on how these changes may affect you, attend a special Seller Webinar at 10:00 a.m. this Friday, February 1. You may also see announcements from eBay executives on the Announcement Board.

Buyers can't get negative feedback?

Well, that make things a lot more craptastic now that everyone can place fake bids without repercussion.

That's a good call, I didn't think of that. Well, they can still be suspended for a NPB violations.

Now, this really holds sellers over the coal for feedback. It's either all or nothing.

I don't mind the hold on PP fees since it doesn't affect established good sellers.

LOL! What kind of bullshit change is that? Buyer's can get negative feedback! Great.

This is obviously intended as a fix to the situation where buyers were reluctant to leave negative seller feedback in fear of retaliation. I'm not sure if it's the best solution, but I can't think of a better idea.

Exactly. Even if the buyer gets suspended for NPB, still you lose time and potential serious buyers along the way.

It also makes it easy for sellers to create multiple accounts and shill their own auction prices.

Really, the sellers are the ones being screwed over this.

Also announced a 21 day hold for Paypal payments!!! Of course, there are exceptions and ways of shortening the time....but WTF!

Ebay can suck it...not worth the hassle anymore

I would like to eliminate bidders on my auctions that have left more than 2% negative feedbacks to their sellers. If they are that sensitive I would rather not want them to bid on my item.

.

Exactly correct.

I am all but done with EBAY after a recent experience with a vindictive, arrogant seller. I cannot leave factual negative feedback about my experience because I will get a negative in return. This seller makes it a practice to then negotiate to have the negatives mutually removed. That is not accurate feedback, that is blackmail.

From EBAY's website (via the link at the top)

Bingo and when the person is a Powerseller, a buyer has no recourse whatsoever except to stop doing business with EBAY.

Seriously now, read the new policies. You have greatly exaggerated it.

Despite Ebay's claim in a "small number of cases" its not...so please don't quote Ebay propanganda as proof

I don't like change.*

E

*I kid, I kid.

I'd like to know your justification for this statement. Mine is the actual eBay release:

"Also, for a small number of these transactions paid with PayPal, when eBay suspects the transaction may result in a dissatisfied customer, PayPal will delay release of the payment funds to the seller until the buyer has left a positive feedback or 21 days have passed without a dispute."

THAT is when they will initiate a PP hold.

You are stating that there is a global hold. At least that is what your post inferred.

But at least you need to justify what ebay's "propoganda" is and why the actual release says something different than you.

here is the policy to decide whether this is small or not. to me that is not a small number of sellers. I have been on there for long enough and have enough feedback to meet ALL the requirements as needed, but I'm guessing a lot of casual sellers don't. Take a good luck at the "risky" categories, for even more requirements

oh and you don't get interest during this 21 days either - unless of course you decide to bank with Paypal, which any sane person would not do.

What can I do to avoid having eBay item holds?
Your payments WILL BE NOT HELD if you meet all the following requirements:

* eBay Tenure: Greater than 6-months
* Total Feedback score: More than 100
* Dissatisfied Buyers %: Less than 5%

Or if you meet all the following requirements:

* Detailed Seller Rating: Greater than 4.5
* Total Detailed Seller Ratings Recieved: More than 20 in the last 12-months

31. How can I minimize the chances of having my payments held?

* Improve your DSR feedback ratings, and
* Implement best practices to reduce buyer disputes, claims and chargebacks and if they do occur-resolve them quickly and to your buyer's satisfaction.

32. Why is the payment being held for up to 21 days?
eBay and PayPal are working together to help increase buyer satisfaction which, in turn, can mean more sales for you. We have found that after 21 days the chance of a buyer dispute or claim significantly decreases.
33. Will my payments be held if I have excellent buyer satisfaction, but sell in risky categories?
If you sell in the categories of gift certificates, video games, cell phones, computers or consumer electronics, your listings for those items must offer either PayPal or merchant credit card as an accepted form of payment. However, your payments WILL BE NOT HELD if you meet all the following measures:

* eBay Tenure: Greater than 6-months
* Total Feedback score: More than 100
* Dissatisfied Buyers %: Less than 5%
* Detailed Seller Rating: Greater than 4.5
* Total Detailed Seller Ratings Recieved: More than 20 in the last 12-months

34. What should I do if a payment is subject to an eBay item hold?
PayPal will release the hold when the earliest of the following occurs:

* the buyer leaves positive feedback
* 3 days after confirmed item delivery*
* 21 days without a dispute, claim, chargeback or reversal filed on that transaction.

Once the buyer has paid for the item, ship it. Funds are released as soon as a buyer leaves positive feedback. The faster you get their purchase to the buyer, the faster they can leave you feedback.

*Funds are also released within 3 days of confirmed item delivery. This applies to US domestic transactions that are shipped by USPS or FedEx and either (i) use PayPal shipping labels to ship items or (ii) upload tracking information to PayPal via the transaction details page. So fast shipping helps you here too.

For selling I only use Half.com, does anyone know if the same rules will be applying there?

oh and the fvf for items is going UP A LOT...especially for items less than $25. I think this hurts a lot of people selling used dvds, games, etc.

How am I supposed to deal with people like this if I can't leave the appropriate feedback?


Here is the feedback I received (neutral)
"game unable to play on slim PS2 no fault of seller" for a Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII game I sold on Half.com. Work perfectly on my PS2 so I'm supposed to know it won't work on his? He never contacted me about it so I plan on leaving either neutral or negative feedback as he is overly sensitive

So which is it? I'm fine with all of these except that last one, since I don't constantly sell throughout the year and most buyers don't leave feedback.

He even admits it's not your fault, so why would he not give you positive feedback? Ugh.

Chanster, I think that is the point of all of this - to give (at least the illusion) that you are buying from established good sellers and to encourage buyers to pay even new sellers a chance by escrowing funds.

Much like the FAA requirements, it's all about the illusion of safety.

Final value fees for items selling under $25 are going up 66% to 8.75%. I like how they say fees are going down, in reality it looks like Im going to be paying more in fees.

The feedback change sounds stupid. I hate change.

Wow that's high. I better list some stuff tonight before these changes go into effect.

It didn't take them very long from when the CEO left to fuck everything up

from 5.25% to 8.75% on stuff under $25, Im going to save so much money with these "lower fees".

Because you know I always list stuff that doesnt sell and when I occasionally list something that noone is interested in or I overpriced it I really blame the site for my marketing philosophy and get angry at the 50 cents I get charged. Maybe I'll list a bag of trash just to clutter up the site since there will be no fee when it doesnt sell and their reasoning is there has been a decrease in items for sale on the site