The Yak Shack Forum

Check this out -- both messages dated January 29:

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200801.shtml#2008-01-29054823

eBay can word it any way they want, but the net affect is that fees will increase in February.  On top of that, there will be some huge changes to feedback, including that sellers will no longer be able to leave negatives for buyers! >:()  I don't do it often, but when I do, there's a damn good reason for it.

I'm pretty peeved that I won't be able to leave negatives for buyers.  98% of the time it's positives, so when I give negative or neutral it's for a reason.

I'm not wild about the raised fees either.  Ebay costs me enough to sell as it is...

And damn - reserve fees will no longer be refundable if the item sells....

Reserve
The optional feature fee for items with a reserve price will be changed per the table below
Reserve Fees:   
 Reserve Price                  Current Fee                                                Fee (effective 02/20/2008)
$0.01 - $49.99                 $1.00                                                        $2.00 
$50.00 - $199.99              $2.00                                                        $2.00
$200.00 and above           1% of Reserve Price (maximum of $50.00)        1% of Reserve Price (maximum of $50.00)
Reserve Fee Refund Policy  Fully-refundable if item sells                          Non-refundable

I've already sent a complaint to eBay about the feedback changes.  I hate the fee increase, but I can kind of live with that.  I can't accept that a bad buyer can't get negative feedback.  I was reading through the eBay discussion boards, and all ready there are buyers who are thrilled that they will be able to leave any feedback they want.  This opens the whole feedback system to major abuse.

I also read that some sellers are calling for a boycott of all buyer feedback until eBay changes its policy. 

What a load of crap >:()  That really PMO.  I like how they say that ebayers have asked for these things and they have made the changes for the users.  Why have feedback if it can only be left for buyers if its positive.  I would agree that why leave feedback for anyone if it can only be positive, but yet you could leave a negative or neutral for a seller.  I have had a few people complain about my shipping costs in some of my auctions lately.  One person said the $28 for shipping for her 10 boxes of HP GOFU seemed way to high.  Well buyers need to realize how much shipping costs have gone up.  The cost was $30 for priority mail, insured.  I was nice and lowered it to $20 so I end up eating $8.  That sucks.  I am worried that people will leave you nuetral or neg feedback for anything and everything they don't like.

The problem is ebay is a publicly traded company and they need to make more profits for there stock to go up, which I think it has taken some hits lately, so they just keep taking more money in fees.  When you pay listing fees, selling value fees and paypal fees it gets really excessive.  I thought I heard rumors google was going to start an auction site.  I hope so I would switch in a heartbeat.

I wouldn't have lowered the shipping price.  I would have told her the weight of the item and provided a link to the "calculate postage" section of the USPS site.  I've been wondering if it's better to increase the starting bid or BIN price and state that postage is free.  Then people can't complain about the postage price or ding me in the star rating.

The problem with eBay is that it has no real competition.  Amazon put a lot of work into an auction site which fizzled.  There's UBid, but I don't think it's very good.  Until there's another place where we can run auctions that people will actually see, we're stuck with eBay.

The actual "final" press release said:


Huh? Either this means that a seller can leave negative feedback if they opt to, or it means that (pretty much) they are eliminating feedback for buyers completely.

I think it means that sellers have two options: leave positive feedback or no feedback at all.

I found this article on MSN Money.  It seems we're not the only ones who are mad about Ebay increasing their fees.



EBay sellers not happy about fee changes
January 30, 2008 6:55 AM ET
 
All Associated Press newsSAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Vendors who sell their goods on eBay are scratching their heads after the company unveiled a new fee structure in effort to boost listings and maintain its share of the online auction market it helped start a decade ago.

While eBay Inc. says more than 60 percent of its sellers will save money with the new plan, several sellers have crunched their numbers and consider the rejigging a fee hike.

"We call it eBay math, it's a different math than most other people's math," said Randy Smythe, who used to sell music and movies on eBay from Southern California.

Under the old rules, for example, selling a purse at auction for $25 would have cost the seller $1.91, including 60 cents for listing the item plus eBay's commission of $1.31. Under the new structure, the seller would pay $2.74, including 55 cents to list the item plus a higher commission of $2.19.

Carol Hearn, who sells antiques on eBay from Washington state, said the fees are modest compared with the cost of selling items in person.

"It looks like what they are trying to do with the fees is make it more difficult and expensive to sell low-end items. The people that are selling low-end items are going to feel this fee increase the most," Hearn said.

EBay's commissions will rise on items auctioned for less than $1,000 or sold at fixed prices lower than $100, while eBay's cut on more expensive auction items will remain 1.5 percent. It will take less off the top of higher-end fixed-price sales -- 2 percent or 4 percent, rather than 3 percent or 5 percent.

One of its main rivals in fixed-price sales, Amazon.com Inc., charges no fee at all to list an item, though it charges a commission as high as 15 percent.

EBay said the changes were designed to boost listings, which have stagnated in recent years. The company is accustomed to a "vocal" and "passionate" seller community, company spokesman Usher Lieberman said.

Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with Global Crown Capital, said eBay's rising fees have in the past caused sellers to look elsewhere for places to practice the online skills they perfected at eBay, whether it's their own Web sites, Amazon, or other shopping sites.

"The more savvy sellers look at a multitude

of options," Pyykkonen said. "It's not like Amazon is taking market share from eBay in a big chunk, it's more of a gradual shift.

"This commission going up will be a telling point over the next months to see what kind of reactions it gets," he said.

Lieberman said the company's internal pricing experiments and number-crunching show listings overall will rise in response to the changes, which come as longtime Chief Executive Meg Whitman announced she would retire at the end of March.

EBay most wants to encourage growth in fixed-price sales, the area where it sees the most potential for growth.

"It's too little too late," said Steve Grossberg, one of eBay's top 100 sellers and the founder and president of the Internet Merchants Association.

Grossberg, a Florida-based vendor of video games, spoke by phone from a conference of 200 of North America's top eBay sellers in Washington, D.C., where incoming CEO John Donahoe announced the fee changes Tuesday. EBay makes 80 percent of its revenue from the top 20 percent of its sellers.

"I think you are going to see a listing decrease, you are going to see some sellers leave the site or pull back quite a bit and think of other ways to make revenue, and it's going to backfire," Grossberg said.

Listings on eBay's various sites rose 4 percent in the fourth quarter, reversing two straight quarters of declines, the company reported last week. The number of people actively using the site has stagnated, rising just 2 percent from a year ago, while revenues have risen modestly.

"EBay does sincerely want to compete. They are reacting to the competitive threat of Amazon," said Ina Steiner, editor of AuctionBytes.com, a trade publication for online sellers.

Amazon already has "cherry-picked" a lot of eBay's high-volume sellers, Steiner said.

Well phooey!!

I am reading this right aren't I when I come to the conclusion that the price hikes could increase the price of single card sales!!!   :'(

As a collector who cannot afford to buy one case let alone more, I have to be lucky in my bidding to fill in what blanks I can and now it looks like my occasional *Wow what a great buy* experience could be a thing of the past.  I can count on two fingers the times I have paid over $100 for a card   :-[

And cutting out negative comments.   SHEESH!!  I have never yet given a negative report but I sure as heck take notice of them when I am searching eBay for purchases   >:()

I cannot believe there has been a strong public request for the current feedback system to be changed....  and if there has  I reckon it would have to be from those who consistantly get poor feedback because who else would care!!

I heard about this from someone on DA... it's ridiculous. The part I'm most angry about is that (according to the DA artist) if your rating as a seller drops below a certain percentage (easily done by a jerkwad of a buyer who buys several things and leaves negative feedback for each) their items won't show up on the search pages. :S  This seems horribly wrong, and perhaps they misunderstood and I'm misquoting due to that, but it seems like a screwy way to do things...

And not being able to leave feedback for a buyer? I agree with kbmum... it leaves a lot of room for abuse from nitpicky (or just plain 'bad') buyers.

*boycotting*

The items will still show up on a search.  However, eBay started something called "Best Match."  When you search, the default will be this so-called Best Match that goes by the search criteria.  The buyer can then change the sort to time ending soonest, lowest price, or a few other options.

Problematic sellers will find that their items appear lower on the search list with Best Match, but the auctions will still be on the list.  The items will also appear in the correct place for all of the other options for sorting.

Personally, I think there should be something done to affect sellers with many negatives.  eBay should just suspend them, but the company doesn't want to lose the income some of those sellers generate.  However, some of the changes that eBay has initiated over the past few months have made a difference.  Look at the feedback profile for this seller:

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=jrssportscards&ftab=AllFeedback

I had the great misfortune of BINning some of the seller's items a few years ago, which I never received.  A PayPal claim refunded my money and I left the seller three negatives.  I was furious that even though he has so many positives, the number of negatives he received every month (all for non-receipt of items) should have prompted eBay to take action.  Well, the changes that eBay has made obviously "helped" this seller to provide better service, as you can see from the number of negatives over the past 12-month, 6-month, and 1-month periods.

I agree that the e-bayer you linked should have been booted from e-bay a long time ago... looks like bad business. And while I also agree that something should be done to stop bad sellers (E-bay admittedly moved far too slowly to remove members with repetitive bad feedback, especially once it got so big) to improve the e-bay community, the new system is deeply flawed. I guess what I'm saying is, e-bay had a good system (the difficult-to-enable booting policy aside), why change drastically what worked so well?

eBay doesn't have as many buyers as it used to, because many have had bad experiences with sellers.  It made the changes so that buyers will think it's a safer place to do business.

I hate the new "Best Match" that ebay forces me to look at when I make a search.  Usually it isn't the best match and sometimes it's stuff that doesn't match at all.  I think the no bad feedback for buyers is ridiculous.  What is the point for buyer feedback at all now?  They might as well just eliminate it.

I think this has more to do with buyers who complained that they were afraid to leave deserved negative feedback to a seller, in fear of received a negative feedback in return.  Too often a seller waits until after the buyer leaves feedback before they will leave it. 

I leave feedback every week or so. I don't wait until I have received it, just until I have time to devote myself to giving correct comments.  (communication and speed of payment or receipt of item.)

However, many times when I buy from someone, they ask me to leave them feedback, so they may return the favor.  This new policy may speed up the feedback process, so that either side doesn't feel they have to wait for the other to leave feedback.

Anyway, I disagree with Ebay that sellers *can't* leave negative feedback, but I understand why they put it into effect.  I think kbmum is correct in believing this is an attempt to make the buyers feel safer.  Unfortunately, it also leaves the sellers open to abuse.

I sold some cards overseas recently, and she gave me a positive feedback, but on shipping fees I received less than 5 stars.  I sent the package flat-rate Priority, and charged the exact fee.  How is it good business to be 'bullied' into taking a loss on shipping fees, for fear of less than a 5 star rating? 

I hate the star rating for shipping time.  eBay should specify that this category is the time it takes the seller to put the item in the mail, not the actual time it takes the post office, UPS, or any other carrier to deliver the item.  I ship out items within 24 hours of receiving payment (unless there's a holiday) and often the packages go out the same day I'm paid.  It's great when the post office delivers First Class mail within a few days, but I've had a few parcels take up to two weeks.  I certainly can't control the amount of time it takes for the post office to deliver the item, so I shouldn't have to take a hit in the star rating.  I've also found that I have to state that Media Mail and Parcel Post are the slowest USPS shipping options and can take a month or more for delivery, despite the delivery time stated by USPS.  I've been burned there, too, especially when a package leaves my home on the East Coast and heads to the West Coast.

I hate those star ratings. My shipping fee rating was down, and I managed to get it back to a 4.6.  I was charging almost exact shipping prices (maybe going over by $0.40 at the most) and still getting bad stars on it. I started to actually put the shipping cost on the labels now so people can see, as sometimes I even pay more than I charge. Finally, the rating started going up. I hate it because they know the shipping cost prior to bidding, but still get angry they have to pay shipping. I just don't like the star rating, but what can you do.

I think that sellers should still be able to leave negative feedback as well. I want to make sure that my buyer will cotnact me prior to leaving a negative if there is something wrong. I am more than willing to work with people and make the experience a good one. A buyer should not jump to leaving a negative without first trying to make things right. To me, that is all a part of it and they shuoldn't just jump to a negative. Also, if a buyer does not pay and you need to file a complaint, you mean to tell me I can't leave a negative that they never paid?  It just doesn't seem fair.

According to eBay, sellers have other options for dealing with bad buyers, including a non-payment claim.  When a buyer loses a certain number of the non-payment claims, they get suspended.  Of course, those buyers will just start a new eBay account. ::)

Ive had the same problem; out of all my star ratings, my postage one is the lowest. I usually only charge about 50c extra..I think the problem is that people forget, postage is not just the cost of the actual postage stamp, but the bubble envelope (which is about $1), and any packaging they get, like plastic sleeves, and toploaders which certainly arent free to us as sellers. If I took into account the cost of the packaging, Im most likely making a loss on postage, especially when you take into account the ebay and paypal fees which we pay.

Ive started stating the packaging details in my auctions, so that hopefully it makes a difference...

Exactly, and I have already been abused by this new rule. I had a user buy a card using Buy it Now for $49.99 and after 7 days of not paying I opened a non paying bidder strike dispute against them and told them they had 48 hours to complete the transaction or I would be forced to give them a strike and leave the proper feedback. The buyer wrote back about 24 hours later than I had 24 hours to agree to cancel the sale or they would leave ME negative feedback. Well, after feedback extortion was threatened upon me I closed the dispute, awarded them their strike and left them negative feedback. Within 5 minutes I had negative feedback from them as well. What pisses me off is that up until that point it had almost been an entire year without a transaction going bad, and I had no negatives for ALMOST an entire year. Also, after reviewing the buyers feedback profile, it wasn't the first time they bought something and then threatened negative feedback on the seller if the sale was not mutually canceled. They are suspended now, because I reported them for feedback extortion as well as the numerous messeges calling me a moron, an ass, and an idiot. Unfortunately ebays feedback system is so flawed that I will always have a recent negative feedback for selling an item, not being paid, and going through the proper channels to get my insertion fees back and warn future sellers about this person. Just sucks.

At this rate, ebay is going to lose the trust of a lot of sellers. I understand them wanting buyers to feel better protected, but it should not be at the expense of sellers...

Bryan, that sucks >:(

I agree that sellers will be less likely to sell if they start to feel threatened. I also feel that in Bryan's case, eBay should remove the negative. eBay should add a new rule that if a buyer does not pay, they should be unable to leave feedback at all.

That is going to happen once the new feedback rules go into effect, in May, I believe.  I complained about the feedback changes when they were announced in January and received this response from eBay:

Please note that if your buyer has failed to pay for an item, you should file an Unpaid Item (UPI) claim. If the buyer fails to respond to the UPI report, then any negative or neutral Feedback they have left for the particular transaction will be removed. If the buyer shows a pattern of such behavior and is suspended for UPI, all negative or neutral Feedback they left will be removed.

Sellers should only file a UPI claim when a buyer did not pay. Filing false UPI claims is a violation of eBay policy and may result in seller suspension.

If a buyer threatens negative Feedback to demand more than what was promised in the item description (for example, the person wants overnight delivery but only paid for standard delivery), the seller should immediately report the buyer to eBay. If there is clear evidence of extortion, eBay will take action. Buyers who show a pattern of such behavior will be suspended. If a buyer is suspended, any negative or neutral Feedback they left for others will be automatically removed.

Sellers should only file these complaints when a buyer asks for more than what is promised in the listing.  Filing a false claim is a violation of eBay policy and may result in seller suspension.

We believe that we will reduce any imbalance in the Feedback system with these changes. Buyers will be able to more accurately assess sellers, and sellers will be protected from buyers who violate our policies (through the Unpaid Item system and other reporting) without risking a reduction in good buyer activity.

That at least looks like some improvement of the system, in terms of protecting sellers. But not being able to leave negatives for buyers is just plain strange.

It appears that ebay is trying to make it's site a buyers market. which is not totally bad. without satisfied buyers there would be no need for sellers. some sellers i have dealt with left me hanging for weeks trying to get an item that i paid for immediately by paypal. due to the threat of negative feedback i have felt compelled to wait rather than complain. if this stops that abuse that is wonderful. after all most of us want better communication, and timely shipping of our items. on the other hand as a seller, i hate the fact that ebay continues to nickel and dime seller to death (strictly an American analogy). for without sellers there would be no fees for ebay to collect. perhaps the greatest shame is there are very few bargains on ebay anymore. it is sometimes cheaper to check amazon's or other price leader sites especially if shipping is included. the only real bargains i have found recently is overstock items and some buy-it-now auctions, if you can find them. Collectors present a different set of rules. The worth of something that someone collects is only as great as what it can be sold for. some will argue that true collecting has nothing to do with the dollar value but the joy the collector places on that item. unless you are totally wealthy, i think we all dream of finding a bargain that will only increase in value. perhaps ebay need to have a different setup for collectible items, since often times that is what drives the market. for otherwise it would seems strange to pay $100.00 for a piece of cardboard with a swatch of material in it.

eBay will be making another change this week with regard to masking user IDs for bidders.

Protecting buyer's identities as they bid on all auction-style listings
To protect the Community from this growing safety threat, we have made the decision to mask User IDs for bidders on all auction-style listings on eBay.com and Motors. This change will go into effect later this week. Even with all this history and need, we understand that masking User IDs on all auction-style listings is a significant change, and it this is not a step we are taking lightly. However, in light of today's environment - and the damage fake email offers pose to our members and to overall buyer trust in the marketplace – it's imperative we act now to make this change.  

Now this is a change I can get behind.  I've gotten SO many emails from "sellers" and "second chance offers" that are nothing more than trying to scam me.  Any legitimate offers will be in "My Messages" on "My Ebay" and none of these fakes ever are.  How they've gotten my email address (which isn't listed anywhere on the web), I don't know.  Of course then I won't be able to know which of my friends are bidding on the same item so that might cause a few issues.

I've never received a fake second chance offer, but I sometimes receive emails that look like the "contact seller" emails asking about items I've never offered for sale. 

I also wondered about accidentally bidding against friends.  I guess that if someone really wants an item, that person will have to contact their friends and let them know.

Why do you think the blocked bidders list won't work any longer.

eBay knows who is bidding, and the seller won't see the abbreviated names when they are logged in.

I'm betting that blocked bidders will work just like it always has.

Ed

The blocked bidders list will continue to work.  In fact, eBay will be allowing a greater number of names to be put on the lists.  Also, sellers will be able to see the full IDs of all of the bidders on their auctions.

I have got these emails in the past too, and it looks like someone decided to try and quickly take advantage of this before this change took place. I just found an email from March 2nd in my yahoo account that I must have missed. The subject of the email is:

Question from eBay member about Item number (160212016041)

However, this email was NOT sent through the eBay system. Instead, it came from the following email address:

ma9ard@gmail.com

The email says the following:

Hello dear eBay member!
 
   I am the seller of the item that you recently bid on it on ebay! The item is brand new in box and an international warranty of one year. My price for the item is US$150 and if you want 2 items the price will be 250$ shipping included. If you are interested just give me a fast reply on this email address. I want a safe deal only through ebay department!

 
    Thank you

Now, I looked the item up and it was for the 1st death eater auto puzzle card, which I was watching, and I think I even bid on it when it was still in its low price stage. I do not believe the seller of the auction sent this email at all, especially when this is a rare card that I highly doubt someone would have more than one, let alone three to sell. Whenever I get an email like this, it is always for a high priced item as well. I am just deleting and ignoring this email.

I forward the email to spoof@ebay.com each and every time and let me just say it's gotten to be MAJORLY annoying...

Here's the latest from eBay about feedback changes, which will go into effect the week of May 19:

Hello everyone...as we announced back in January, we're making some bold changes to how Feedback on eBay works. As we get closer to our launch, I wanted to review the changes we've discussed and provide some additional detail and updates.

As a recap, here's what we announced in January that is scheduled to launch the week of May 19th in North America (which includes eBay.com in the US, as well as eBay.ca and eBay.cafr in Canada):

    * Sellers may only leave positive feedback for buyers
    * We will remove negative and neutral Feedback if a member becomes suspended
    * Members can leave Feedback up to 60 days after a transaction (down from 90)
    * We will remove Feedback when a buyer fails to respond to the unpaid item process.
    * Members will receive credit for weekly repeat Feedback (going back to 1996)
    * We will base the Positive Feedback Percentage on the past 12 months of activity (and include neutral Feedback in the calculation)
    * The PowerSeller Program will use the same calculation method described above to determine eligibility for the PS Program for the Positive Feedback percentage requirement of 98% positive.

Next I'd like to share some additional detail beyond what we discussed in the original post:

    * In January we mentioned that we'd block buyers from leaving negative or neutral Feedback for 3 days for sellers "with a track record." Since January, we've made the decision to increase the wait period to 7 days and define "track record" as active PowerSellers who have been on eBay for at least 12 months.

      We studied the factors that increased risk to buyers the most and found there are three: a) a seller's Positive Feedback percentage and DSRs, b) the volume of a seller's Feedback – both in total and on an ongoing basis and c) length of time a seller has been on site.

      We selected PowerSellers who have been on eBay at least 12 months in order to minimize risk to buyers, because:

            a. PowerSellers have to meet quality thresholds for both conventional Feedback and, starting in July, for Detailed Seller Ratings
            b. PowerSellers have to meet volume requirements – both in total and on an ongoing basis
            c. One year on-site proved to be an important predictor of lower risk

      All three factors prove important to predicting the risk to buyers – removing any one of them would increase risk to a level we are not currently comfortable with at this time.

      We will watch all aspects of the new Feedback system very carefully, studying how the marketplace responds and we will make changes as we see appropriate.

    * We mentioned that we'd be aligning the Mutual Feedback Withdrawal process with the new system. After much consideration, we've made the decision to remove the Mutual Feedback Withdrawal process. The reason is that – under the new rules - it opens sellers up to extortion. As part of this decision, Mutual Agreement from third-party Feedback mediation services, such as SquareTrade, will also no longer be accepted.

Over the last several months, we've had many conversations with our customers – both buyers and sellers – and we've had the opportunity to consider ways we can address some of the top concerns we've heard. Based on the input we've received from you, I want to share some additional modifications we're making:

    * We are adding language in the leave Feedback flow for buyers who are in a cross-border transaction that reminds them that international transactions usually take longer to complete.

    * We've improved the interstitial page that all buyers see before leaving negative or neutral Feedback; the updated page offers a stronger message to buyers about the need to communicate with the seller, to allow enough time for the transaction to complete, and to keep Feedback factual.

    * And later this month...

          In addition to expanding the 3-day block to 7 days, we are introducing a new Buyer Requirement that will allow sellers to block buyers who have been reported by other sellers for eBay buying policy violations (such as Feedback abuse, or email threats).

          We're expanding the scope of the existing Buyer Requirement for unpaid items, so that it supports more comprehensive blocking of buyers who have a history of non-payment.

          We've improved the process that sellers use to report buyers for policy violations.

          Detailed Seller Ratings will be coming to Half in the next couple months. Watch for more information on this via email and on the Half discussion forum in the next couple of weeks.

As you can see, these changes represent a huge investment in transforming the way Feedback works, so that it better serves today's marketplace. Ultimately, the goal is to restore trust and transparency and improve the buying experience, while offering needed checks and balances that ensure our sellers who provide excellent service benefit.

Sincerely,

Brian Burke
Director, Global Feedback Policy

* Members will receive credit for weekly repeat Feedback (going back to 1996)

Does that mean any multiple buys will now be added to the sellers feedback count?  If so, my numbers are going to jump!!

Looks that way; about time too, as many of us have repeat buyers.

That's a good change, as is the ability to set a requirement to block buyers who have violated eBay buying policies.

I get credit for adding a couple of dozen to Kelly's numbers.  ;)

Though it's really the "repeat" buys that will count. The way I read it, multiple buys that are part of one transaction or are separated by less than a week at one time only count as one. (FX: voice of John Rhys-Davies) One positive per buyer/seller per week.