EBay changing its rules...

[stugster]

Ebay are changing the way they charge for different kinds of sales. The idea is based on encouraging more Buy It Now (fixed price) sales rather than the auction and bidding type sale (which actually made Ebay so popular).

eBay UK Press Office

For those who use ebay, it might also be worth checking out the updated fees listing, here: eBay UK - Legal notice and fee changes

What do we all think about this latest move? Is it going to benefit you as a small business? Is it going to make things even worse?

Could this be the start of a downward spiral for ebay?

[Third Sector Forums]

As an ex-powerseller I have to say eBay's constant changes smack of desperation. The world of ecommerce has changed and eBay has failed to catch up.

[TFGtv.com]

I'm mainly a buyer. And for me, once Ebay was once an easy place to source and exchange some of the more obscure bits and pieces connected with my hobbies and business. And indeed connect with online retailers in a relatively safe way.

What's killed ebay is their failure to properly and sensibly apply their own rules. Complaints and concerns are routinely handled by inappropriate robotic replies. People ARE treated unfairly. Both Ebay and PayPal are virtually un-contactable. And the stated protection policies are no more than spin and gloss designed to deceive people. We've now reached the stage where they are fooling almost no-one. And much as 30-odd years ago my Granny warned me about places like the Barras and Paddy's Market I now find myself warning both my own daughter and my students against dealing with ebay.

All that has exhausted the patience of and discouraged many 'traditional' private sellers. Likewise one of the knock-on effects of this is that ebay has become a not-credible 'place of business' for e-tailers. Sure it's fine to have an ebay presence; to perhaps use it for loss leaders. But the dubious attitudes and practices of ebay management have renedered it cowboy country.

The new policies may encourage B.I.N. etc.. But they'll do nothing to change the fact that Ebay isn't a safe or credible place to do business. And that Ebay itself is basically dishonest in the way it treats people...

Thanks to their Barnumesque way of doing business anything bought off ebay is 'suspect'; guilty 'till proven otherwise and as Barnum himself suggested you can only fool some of the people all of the time....

[Brian McIntosh]

It's all down to credibility. I used to sell a few things on ebay but I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole now. I haven't bought anything on ebay for ages either. In my opinion, there are just too many chav's on it out to make a quick buck and, if the worst does come to the worst, if something goes wrong, you won't get any help from them. There must be some reasoning behind the restructuring but, for me, it won't make a blind bit of difference.

[Third Sector Forums]

They do have a real issue with policing the site, sellers get their knuckles wrapped for minor infringements of the rules while there are others selling blatantly counterfeit goods who go on to become powersellers.

[TFGtv.com]

Originally Posted by ThirdSectorForums

They do have a real issue with policing the site, sellers get their knuckles wrapped for minor infringements of the rules while there are others selling blatantly counterfeit goods who go on to become powersellers.

Quite so.... I have personal experience of MY account and auctions being unduly interfered with by Ebay BECAUSE I was reporting counterfeit goods. And in most cases reports of counterfeit items go unheeded.

But I think the main thing that's sounding the death knell is their policy of giving complainants the run-around rather than actually dealing with the issues. They're basically dishonest in my opinion; and people have limited tolerance for spivs....