Oh well done Dan.

“are you really as staggeringly brilliant as you believe yourself to be? Might it possibly be, imagine, that the buyers are right? Are you really as good as your best customers deserve you to be?

I was a little disappointed with my DSRs when they came out – especially the P&P DSR. In truth there was plenty of room to trim postage costs which has been done and my P&P DSR has been moving in the right direction over the course of the last year.

I am as staggeringly brilliant as I believe myself to be… I was just taking the wee just a little and had to respond to my buyers ratings

I agree with everything you say. Though on a personal level I find it hard to be quite so philosophical about feedback, because as a low volume seller, it would take so little to see me banned. I am already working on my own website and looking into Amazon. After being made redundant by an employer who considered it too much to pay miniumum wage to loyal UK workers and sent our work to India, I am determined never to be dependant on one source of income again.

In common with most large organisations eBay commits some terrible PR blunders. Announcing that negatives and neutrals were being taken out of SNP, Richard Ambrose’s callous crack about dolphins in nets, etc, help fan the flames among the discontented. But to put it into perspective I have had to complain twice to E.O.N. this year and the responses were little better than eBay’s automated offering.

Very very good posting. My sentiments too. Just expressed much better.

Also think the new blog design is also very good.

I think this is also why I’ll stop commenting mostly on eBay blogs, as you can’t have a debate really about the issues any more. It’s all very yelly and shouty.

Probably the best comments and advice on the trials and tribulations of anyone being in love with eBay.
Sound sense from someone who knows more than most of us about how the heart of eBay beats (and breaks ours!)
Thanks Dan

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[...] when we’ve all finished complaining, Dan has some home truths for eBay sellers: eBay has never loved you … If you’re staying out of some sense of misplaced loyalty, [...]

Are the feedback policies of Ebay destroying its online marketplace? This is a factual question to which there is a factual answer. When people start blovating about attitude instead, you have to question where the misplaced loyalties really lie.

I AM BARKING HOWLING CRAZY
I dont have a web site, never had a web site I dont sell anywhere online other than Ebay,
and I bet I sell a dammed sight more ,and for more money than most though,

I would suggest that any Seller who does not concentrate on ebay as their first option when selling online is delusionary

Great post, Dan, but the reason why I’m no longer selling on eBay is none of the above. I’m so sick of the constant changes to eBay policy, search, categories, allowed postage charges etc, etc …. and resultant editing and revisions of my listings that I’ve decided to put my time and money to better use – my own website.

Thanks for all the comments.

@ himself alone: no. But when people start blovating essentially anonymously without a link to their site, you have to question what they’re hiding.

@ Chris (comment #3)

I take your point and should have been clearer. Whilst Feedback is only fFeedback, it’s actually never been more important and some bad reviews can now affect sales and positions in Search more than ever before.

I suppose what I wanted to say is something rather more about sellers taking a proportional response: one bad transaction with a buyer is still just that and to some extent inevitable every now and again.

I’m concerned about sellers I call ‘ostriches’ (rather than dolphins). They’re aggreived by the Feedback changes, they have been adversely affected and they’re angry. It’s obvious to me that actually a great many sellers are really prospering too. The ostriches haven’t taken this fact onboard: ebay doesn’t think they’re the best sellers out there.

They can rail against it, or work on improving the DSRs. Ostriches need to get their heads out of the sand and start smartening up. It is, perhaps sadly, as simple as that.

What do you know. Someone who can talk about eBay without pitching a fit. These kinds of comments are few and far between these days. It’s nice to see some common sense rational discussion instead of a whine-fest.

I’ve been saying for a while that eBay is a business, not your BFF. Some sellers seem to want the homey little shop where they can chat and make friends, but online businesses simply don’t work that way. If eBay isn’t giving a seller what he wants, then he should go elsewhere. For me, eBay is still working fine as a venue. Sure, they’ve made some changes I don’t like, but it’s their sandbox and they get to make the rules.

Personally, I think the whole feedback thing is overblown. Rating buyers is not a good way to encourage business, so I don’t mind not having buyer feedback. As a customer, are you going to shop somewhere where they can tell the whole world that you stink? The buyers who really are scammers aren’t going to care about feedback because they’ll just set up another account. Most other ecommerce sites don’t rate buyers, so this is more in line with customer expectations. I think a lot of the issue is that feedback has always been a certain way and now people have to adjust how they do business. Hey, change happens. Adapt or die

I do think eBay is overemphasizing the value of feedback and making it a bigger stick than it needs to be, but like I said, they get to make the rules.

What a Fantastic Post…

The main responsibility eBay has is to it’s shareholders, & only to make a profit. Not to sellers. No one is forced to use EBay and in many ways it forces us to make better business decisions by adopting its policies from time to time.

Very well put Dan!

The numbers at the bottom of Ebay headed paper are COMPANY registration number – not CHARITY registration number.

Ebay is a business, not a democracy!

Dead wrong, Sharon!
You missed the fact, that it is all Ebay stockholders own fault that the ebay stocks are hitting bottom more and more, don’t you think?

BUSINESS doesnt mean: Manchester-capitalism! Introducing as the big humanist (seems you havent experienced Ebay in the old days, then read their remains of human kindness on their homeside), hooking people over years by providing good business conditions, then whipping them when business gets lower, torturing them with a stupid and immature payment system a.s.o. Im far from whining and know at best, everybody is his own luck’s blacksmith but: Ebay is not worth a dime anymore. Their crisis speaks for itself, because tenthousands “disgruntled, disaffected eBay sellers” cant be wrong.
I hate being right…..

“Their crisis speaks for itself, because tenthousands “disgruntled, disaffected eBay sellers” cant be wrong.”

Well, alas I think they can be wrong. Maybe not wrong, but I think that eBay is quite happy to lose a significant proportion of the ‘least good’ sellers and replace their sales with enterprise level retailers.

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