ebay rules are just stupid yesterday i got a message from someone in UK asking about shipping and i told him sorry i don't ship out side of the US so what did the idiot do? he did a buy it now after being told i will not ship not to mention that it will cost $111.28 plus customs fees. i wont pay that nor will i ask anyone else to pay that it's just not worth the hassle. that's is how i lost my 100% feed back score because someone in canada cried about customs fees even though he agreed that it was his responsibility then tried to do feed back black mail to have me pay and ebay let it happen. the point of this story is that now ebay says that i need to open a case and beg the idiot to cancel the sale even thought i clearly state that i ship to US only! now i can't relist my item for a week and it had watchers who were interested in it. i have since set my options to block non US bidders but if people read and used common sense i would not have to. i'm tired of this screw the seller attitude around here i have made ebay lots of money over the years and just get treated like crap ( final value fee/paypal fee/ shipping fee excreta excreta ) wake up ebay!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree, the Buyer has protection but the seller has NONE!

I have been trying to get payment for an item that I SENT from a person who has 5 HAS NOT PAID feedback, got burned, do not deal and she still has a 100% positive feedback listing. I dont get it.

Why cant we leave a negative feedback for someone who HAS NOT PAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is still buying on ebay burning more people!

With the advent of the major changes over the last few years, I have essentially lost my ability to sell anything unique on eBay, as I am completely unprotected and all a buyer has to do is say, "item not as described", even when they only just don't like it.

eBay no longer wants us to sell unique and used items, they just want to be able to compete against Amazon and the like with new electronics and supersize stores.  It will work for a while, but the uniqueness of the original concept is truely what was the draw to eBay.

If you do not have sourcing you will NOT be successful here on eBay, nor will you be able to stay in buisness unless you are able to eat a large amount of returns and losses due to buyers remorse.

There is a difference here that is alarming, yet eBay doesn't seem to recognize it.  It you go in to WorstBuy and buy something, it has to either be defective of you have only so many days to bring it back in for a refund.  Wally-world, well, you can return almost anything there even without a receipt, but you only get store credit.  Most retailers, however, other than blantent problems with a product, once you buy, you bought.  You con't get to come back and say, oh, I don't like it, take it back, or, oh, there's a tiney scratch here on the back and it's not what I thought I was buying. 

There is such a thing as consumer responsibility and eBay is opening pandora's box, even if they don't know it.

The thing about all those store above, is that hey have SUCH a large volume of sales that returns and exchanges (which are ok with me) are built into their budget, but for a small mom and pop store, those are killers, and that is why the majority of small buisnesses go under. 

eBay is allowing the consumer to run rampant through the online community making drive buy fraudulent shootings willy nilly and they simply dont' care as long as they get a cut of the blood money.

If you are not selling new items, with sourcing, have at least a one comma store, but really a two comma one (100,000,000 feedback) and you aren't selling what eBay wants you to sell, my advice to anyone one is, don't try.

I did everything eBay ever asked to make my customers happy, gave it a two+ year shot, and my store is now bankrupt.

Word of mouth is a killer for buisnesses, they should realize this.  Just in my one little small tiney town, we took out a small RX/grocery gas station because one person didn't like the service they were getting.  So that one person took their buisness elsewhere and told others to do the same.  It didn't happen overnight, but now, a year later, they are loosing employee's and have almost no buisness.  Rumor is, they are near bankrupt now as well.  One person startated that and is in fact, a very true story.

I will never recommend eBay again to anyone.  As a buyer, or especially as a seller.  Everybody hangs on to way to much stuff, and they always say, no, I better keep that because I want to sell it on eBay.    No, you won't.  You are better off taking most of the stuff to the trash, donating the other portion to the needy and keeping a few items for your family.  Otherwise,

Don't buy online through a company that has no interest in helping the economy and is only interested in the amount of money they can suck from the hard working grunts (sellers) that try to make, and did make, this company a giant success.

Companies like eBay and Amazon and others are what is gong to untimately get the internet fully taxed and change many other things that will ultimately hurt each and every one of us, but not them.

Corporations, as much as I know we need them to succeed, ultimately are not people and when the money well has dried up, they simply shut down and open up the next well.  You can't hurt a corporation, but a corporation can hurt people.

Thanks eBay. 

I had my post deleted because it contained two curse words. One was intentional, the other was a typo. I have cleaned up the offending language and reposted. Interesting, given the prfanity in the title of this thread....

And no personal attacks here. Just personal observations about the changes at eBay.

My apologies to anyone who may have been offended. My points are still valid.

=========================================

Sit down a brew a cup of coffee. This is a long post.

First, the positive. I will say, that in the time I have eBay'ed, that it is easier to get folks from both PayPal and eBay on the phone. And, by and large, the few experiences I've had have been pleasant, with someone who understands the language, and can have a conversation. That's the good part.

I was an eBay seller for 10 years, from 1999 through 2009 when I sold my business. I had a successful online eCommerce store which I designed, coded, owned and operated from scratch, during that time. The bulk of my revenues came from my own eCommerce store, which googled at the time, in the top 10 on everything I sold. I understand and know the proper way to do Search Engine Optimization. It is not rocket science, but it is science. But, I never replied on eBay for my income, only as a spin-off store.

I should mention at the time that eBay's ink policies allowed me to provide links in my auctions, back to my own website's return policies. At the time, eBay's links policy allowed only that direct link.

The idea of a stand-alone store which supports, and fed, an eBay presence, and vice-versa, was a good thing, not a negative. I'll come back to this point in a moment.

So, flash forward a few years. From 2009 until a few months ago I was away from eBay. Not even on my mind. But, the idea of re-establishing an internet selling presence has been on my mind for a while. Recently, a family member asked for my help in liquidating a personal collection of collectible household items, so naturally eBay came to mind as the most logical venue to go with. Large audience, targeted selling, etc.

That's when I first encountered a very, very different eBay. In three years, it has changed quite a bit. I will go in to some details, but overall, it became apparent very quickly to me, that the new eBay is all about buying, not about selling. My initial gut intuition is that sellers like me, small one-up sellers, are not wanted. My intuition seems to be validated through these thousands of posts to this thread. Wow.

The first roadblocks I ran into is the hold on funds, whereby PayPal and eBay hold funds for three weeks until I prove myself to them. Clearly they are applying a metric, a measurement, that they devised. Whatever, the bottom line is, here they hold billions of dollars for weeks at a time. Great for them. Not so great for me as a seller. Must go out of pocket to ship, buy boxes, materials are not free to me.

Then, almost immediately, I hit the ceiling of selling. Although I had already had communications with eBay staff and that customer rep, on the spot, raised my selling limit to $5,000 per month based on my past eBay experience which I described to her, still, I hit the ceiling in the first 40 listings I placed. I have about 250 items to sell. Essentially, this policy put a glass ceiling of selling over my head. I was stopped in my tracks at listing. Nope, can't list anymore until next month, various metrics, etc. Ok, I got it.

So as my first auctions go off list, I watch in one day, eBay seller dashboard telling me my available selling limit is $80, then it's $1400, then it's $800 then it's whatever it is the next second. I had not done one thing. This was during the few hours on a day when listings were expiring, and so forth. eBay's automated limit algorithm was going bonkers. Good going eBay. Finally those numbers settled down a day later. Whatever.

After shipping the first few items and getting the bill, I learn, the hard way, about eBay's Final Valuation Fees on shipping. So I call eBay and ask.

So for the first few weeks, my money is tied up, I am at a ceiling on listings and cannot list anything more until the metrics reset next cycle (month) and there ya go.

In my conversation with eBay staff about the valuation fee on shipping, I was told the eBay rhetoric about those sellers who would sell low and then make it up on shipping, and that line of reasoning. While it sounds nice as an explanation, it's hogwash and a red herring.

There has been nothing to stop eBay from devising measurements to find out who does that type of practice. Again, it's not rocket science. For years eBay has provided internal measurement, mostly all automated, that decide and tell you, if you are charging too much for shipping, place limits on what you can charge for shipping, various other analysis of your listings. All us sellers with any history with selling on eBay have experience at some time with eBay's automated emails that warn us about one thing or another....  So, to devise a blanket policy because of "those sellers" who pulled such stunts, and we all now suffer the consequences, makes no sense if you apply a basic level of common sense to the situation. The explanation and the reasons given by eBay, while based in truth and can be supported by example, does not negate the truth that eBay could have easily reeled in those practices in a targeted, surgical way, if it chose to do so. Instead, it is used as a reason to be give to change overall policy. Well, so what is being dispensed by eBay as truth is really, at best, a half-truth. But hey, at least they're not lying, right?

The push to get sellers to offer Free Shipping is pretty clearly designed to attract buyers. The reasons given by all the eBay staff I have spoken with is that "buyers love free shipping." Well duh. Sometimes it makes sense to offer it, sometimes it does not. A blanket one-size fits all policy is not beneficial to sellers, it is beneficial to eBay.

eBay offers to me as a seller, the ability to enter actual box weight and measurements in my listings, and to let eBay's online shipping calculator do the work. I choose to do that for a variety of reasons, the primary reason being is I WILL NOT OFFER FREE SHIPPING. Shipping is quite expense and I REFUSE to play games with shipping. eBay states that the reasons for some of its policy changes are to stop sellers from kiting fees or whatever, yet, those sellers who are forced to play the free shipping game, play a game too.

I also use eBay's shipping calculator so that buyers will know exactly what the ship charges are, without question, before they hit the bid button. I lose money on shipping as it is. To properly pack an item is something I take quite seriously, having owned an eCommerce business I shipped about 24,000 packages in the time I owned my store. So I have a lot of personal, first-hand experience in packing, shipping, and trying to get a handle on costs. In all those years, I only had two claims of damage. None for loss. So I know what I am doing, I would like to think.

So now I see an effort by eBay and PayPal to grab a piece of the shipping pie. They are pushing sellers to use their labeling system, which essentially is USPS and UPS anyway. I already had a UPS account, but hey, a discount is a discount, right? I tried on my own to set-up the link to my UPS account in PayPal, hey there's the form to do it, right? Not os easy. Every attempt I tried to link the accounts, failed without any reason given on screen. So I called PayPal, only to learn that I can't use my existing UPS account which was already established. I had to set-up a new account through PayPal. So I did. Even then, I have not been able to use the system it simply does not work. I'm on a Macintosh computer, so the ActiveX control panels needed by the computer's browsers oftentimes don't work on Macs. So, my attempts to play by PayPal's and eBay's new rules have failed. The heck with it I'll just use my existing UPS account until they order me not too, which seems to be a day coming on eBay....?

So, what my gut told me when I returned and ran into these goofy new things here on eBay, was that eBay has decided that its brand, "eBay" has great value, and that all should conform to its branding wishes. I agree with that to a point. The way it has been thought through and is being rolled out, it not well thought through. But, the intended consequence of these policy shifts, to homogenize sellers into an eBay identity, is all that matters, so that will work for eBay. That's what all this is about.

But, it does not square with eBay's own promotions I have been receiving from them. After going through all this, I get promotional emails, and see on eBay pages, promos to "clean out your attic" and basement, to sell on eBay.  I asked an eBay rep, in one of my calls, how on earth does this outreach to try to get small sellers, square with the clear push to get sellers to offer free shipping? It makes no sense at all (again, if you apply common sense) to suggest that a novice seller sell household items, one-up, on eBay, and offer free shipping. So, I have come to the conclusion that that promo effort is a red herring, an attempt to cast an illusion that eBay still has its root principles at heart. Excuse my while I apply common sense and basic logic to the situation, and don't buy into that line.

So I am also coming to the conclusion that eBay's (and to some degree, PayPal's) increased access to friendly, knowledgeable customer service reps (hey, I can actually get someone from eBay on the phone) is to placate its users, nothing more. The new policy rollouts and shifts are already a done deal. I feel like I'm being steamrolled by eBay -- but they're being NICE about it. Good for them. I guess if you're going to roll out unpopular policies and steamroll sellers in the process, no reason not to be nice. You already won.

Hey, I have not forgotten eBay's roots, when they started out as, well, essentially a bunch of new age hippies in East Bay, San Francisco, thus the name "eBay." I haven't forgotten how it was a cool new place that brought buyers and sellers together, a virtual flea market of sorts, an auction house. I haven't forgotten, but eBay has.

Recently I bought two tuners (I am a musician too) off eBay from a seller in Utah. Having been in the music business myself, and knowing the owner of a local music store where I live now, I knew that this seller was selling these tuners at below dealer cost. And, with free shipping to boot. Hey, I'm a buyer too, so I bought two of them. But I knew that the seller lost money on that sale.

Large sellers can sell some items below cost because they make it up on other items. It's like what grocery stores do sometime, sell eggs below cost, pull people into the store, where they buy other stuff. So it's made up on volume.

Which is great if you're large. If you're small, you can't sell at a loss and stay in business.

I pointed out to an eBay rep the example of that purchase I made. eBay is perfectly fine with that dealer losing money. That dealer is a great seller, offered free shipping, shipped quickly, all great in their book, and mine too, as a buyer. eBay got its fees, PayPal got its fees, the wholesaler who sold the tuners to that store in Utah got its asking price, the shipping company (USPS) got its money. The music store lost money on the sale. Who care. I got my product I'm happy, and it was cheaper than the local music store could sell it for. eBay got its fees, it's happy. I bought it off eBay, not some seller in Utah, right?

Think a little deeper about these scenarios and the outcome begins to look a little different.

So, back to the collection I'm selling. These are one-up collectible items. Some of the items once boxed, cost $60 PER BOX to ship to California, via UPS. That's just shipping cost, not including the cost of the box and packing materials, or my labor to pack the box. Once you get into realms of dimension weight, it can be expensive. So I choose not to play games with shipping, it is what it is, I use eBay's tools offered to buyers, and then I pay a final valuation fee for doing all that. I find that offensive. eBay is all too happy to profit from my loss.

I don't want to turn this political but I cannot help but draw a clear analogy here, which I will do now. Currently there is popular rhetoric that business is what creates jobs, it's business that is the job creators, etc, and that workers should be grateful for the job creators. This is truth, but a half-truth. The other half of this truth, the truth not being told, is that it is the workers who create the wealth for the businesses. It is a mutually symbiotic relationship. Without one, you cannot have the other.

In a similar fashion, eBay has crafted its own reality to be that it is buyers who are the center of the eBay universe. On one level, that is true of course. It is the buyers who bring the money in the door, after all. That's truth. But, it is a half-truth. The other clear and obvious part of that equation is, sellers offering stuff for sale, is what attracts buyers. Here, too, it is a mutually symbiotic relationship. It's pretty clear to me -- and apparently a lot of other folks too -- that eBay things buyers are what it's all about. Well, half-true, yes. That's a self-deception that may take time to catch up to itself, but sometimes pendulums take a while to swing back the other way. But it will.

So again, back to my collection, When I hit that artificial glass ceiling selling limit of $5,000, it hit me that I had the opportunity to develop another eCommerce website. Since eBay was PREVENTING me from listing with them based an this arbitrary ceiling, then I could list on my website, as they are filtered through eBay until they sell. After all, these are items only a handful or dedicated collectors will be interested in anyway. A niche of sorts.

That's when I learned about eBay's new policy of NOT allowing links from my eBay listings to any other site, even to return policies. I'm glad I asked before I did that. So, eBay wants to be the sole seller of items. I got it. So I asked an eBay rep about whey I can no longer link to even my own return policy, and was basically told that that would siphon traffic away from eBay, basically, that some sellers were using eBay as a way to beef up their own websites. And the problem with that is....?

When I pointed out that it is to EVERYONE's benefit to have mutual links, I was basically given that line again. It all condenses down, again, to those evil sellers who were doing bad things, in eBay's worldview. So, I pointed out that eBay USED TO SPECIFICALLY ALLOW that so to try to run a line by me about the evils of sellers just won't fly. What is going on here is eBay simple does not want outbound links. It view that as competition to it's own selling. Hmmmm.

Sooner or later, the light will go off in eBay's head, you would think that sellers are an equal, coequal, part of the equation. Without sellers, there are no buyers. Without buyers, there are no sellers. All selling is not the same. A car seller has different requirements and needs that does a seller of antiques, or a seller of commercial product that is unlimited in quantity. Unfortunately, I agree with what I have read here, with eBay's decision to become the Amazon lite or whatever. eBay is far from its roots, it is, in my opinion, far overreaching into my business when it has no right to place to do dictate to me, so I am reconsidering how much I actually need eBay. Right now, truth be told, I do need eBay. But that does not mean there aren't other alternatives for me as a seller.

When I had my eCommerce store it was a niche store that googled very very high. The reason it did is because I was honest about it. I did not pull SEO tricks. When I ran my idea by an eBay rep about my site I am setting up to link to and drive eBay sales, I was basically told that's nice, but eBay is not interested. Kinda small thinking it seems to me. All big business started small. Even eBay.

So they can go ahead and placate me as much as they can, it works to a point. I am seriously looking at other selling alternatives and leaving eBay forever. They never made much off me anyway, they don't need me r folks like me, they have made that perfectly clear to me, my gut told me this, now I see this forum, and it's kinda sad really. But hey, they're being NICE about it....

I had my first live experience (in my REAL store) with a long time seller on Ebay (9 years) who is quitting because of the policies she said were "oppressive" and "unfair" and the fact that it has become expensive to sell....I have been reading the complaints on this board, but it was interesting to have a conversation on the topic outside of Ebay...

After posting my previous comment I had to laugh when I saw the statements at the bottom of the page. "Welcome New Members Additional Reference Links" and "Learn how to use Ebay". ie Welcom to HELL", and "Learn how to get screwed"

I just had my first experience with a horrible buyer (who needs to learn how to read) and just want to say I completely agree that eBay and Paypal have NO seller protection WHATSOEVER! It's ridiculous. Once the buyer lodges a claim, it's completely game over for the seller!

I'm over this. I am so ready to jump ship if a competitor site opens up. I don't care that a refund will be issued, but I am beyond pissed that the buyer is so well protected while the sellers lose out every time. It's about fairness more than lost money.

I know sellers have been complaining about this issue for a LONG time but I needed to vent. eBay needs to realise that they wouldn't exist without their sellers and start treating them better. Instead, sellers seem to be getting treated worse and worse over time! Sooner or later, people are going to realise it's not worth the pain, especially considering the fees we have to pay to them and Paypal. They just keep screwing us over.

I just started trying Yardsellr and so far I had a great experience with selling. No fees for sellers at all!

Ebay "says" I'm a top seller, a power seller, excellent marks on everything. Bla Bla Bla... They really like to blow smoke up your a*# (so you'll keep selling and make them money) until some a-hole buyer decides that he doesn't like what he just bought from you, or maybe he's bored of the game he just bought, but whatever the reason, the buyer demands his money back citing some asinine reason and since I did NOTHING WRONG when I posted the listing and put the item on Ebay for sale, I say "No I'm not giving you a refund and I have a "no return" policy on my items". Then the seller gives me negative  feedback, then escalates it with Ebay, and now I get a notice from Ebay that the seller is returning the item to me, and I must refund his money. "WTF?" If I'm such a "star" with Ebay, why did they throw me under the bus side with this rude creep of a buyer (who is brand new to Ebay with a rating of 4)???   I did nothing wrong, the listing was accurate, and just because I'm selling and not buying the item. I"m the "Bad Guy" the one who has to take it on the chin? Why is that Ebay? (Can't wait for Google or another Company to become a rival to Ebay. I'll drop them like the bad habit that they are).

Well I feel real stupid, sent an item to Israel via USPS at buyers request only to have them come back a two weeks later and whine to Ebay without ever contacting me.  Ebay then sucks the money right out of my account since I couldn't provide a tracking number.  Well USPS does not provide overseas tracking numbers so I just got screwed by Israel who got my item shipped to them for free, and Ebay and Pay Pal who facilitated it and then charges me a fee after a good screwing.   

Well written. It is too bad that a few disgruntled buyers are ruining your score...that is one reason i will never be a power seller. It leaves the relatively small sellers wide open for abuse... And then no support. This site has become too big, and yes, the bias is towards buyers...I list on a couple of other sites that i cannot mention because i have been reprimanded by support (this board is monitored). BUT Ebay has the eyeballs so I will stay slow but steady....for a while...

Pleas someone make a new auction service that likes sellers as was as buyers. As a buyer there is no better place to buy get your item complain about it get your money back and keep the item perfect. As a seller this is a unfair and hard to deal with company. Remeber Myspace? That is hopefully where ebay ends up when a new auction site is started.