Why Is eBay Pushing Away Small Sellers?

Murderface on 25/11/2020 - 22:45

Background: I’m an eBay plus member who has sold just under $5000 on eBay over the last 6 years with no negative feedback from buyers. I’ve had 18 positive feedback from items that I bought in the last month alone, I'd like to think that I'm very active on the platform and know how it works

Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed eBay preferring drop shippers and cheap rubbish from overseas. With the recent 7/11 $1 parcel deal I thought I’d give eBay another go and list a couple of items to sell. Mainly my old Xbox games, as they're cheap to ship and sell well.

I was quite surprised to find out that my account has a selling limit of 1 item or $10. Thinking this was a mistake I attempted to increase my limit automatically within eBay unsuccessfully. I then contacted eBay plus support, which promises priority support to eBay plus members only to find out that there is no such thing and I was redirected to the usual eBay support.

I attempted to go back and forth with eBay support, but after 8 emails I realised this was pointless as they were quite firm that this is no mistake and my limit is indeed 1 item or $10 and they cant change the system. I also received the same questionnaire on what I wanted to sell twice and I'm not convinced they actually investigated the problem, but I got absolutely nowhere when I asked them to escalate it as I was convinced there was a problem.

I'm afraid that we won't be able to increase your limits at this time and kindly try to list an item within your limits as we need to be sure that you would still be able to manage sales on your account. If you want to pursue this further, you can contact your local trading standards.

Obviously, it’ll be next to impossible to sell an item for under $10 and I'm not interested in using eBay moving forward as I found eBay plus a waste of money and faster shipping from competitors. The support I received tonight was the last straw and it looks like it's time to move on from one of my old favorites.

Have I had incredibly bad luck or is eBay now only meant for large sellers and no longer for the average person trying to get rid of unneeded items?

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Comments

  • bloom on 25/11/2020 - 23:04

    Create a new account and you can probably just as much as you want

  • brendanm on 25/11/2020 - 23:08

    eBay sucks now. You made me go check my sales though, apparently $102k US. Is that actually accurate?

    • Murderface on 26/11/2020 - 07:36

      I was surprised to see that I sold close to $5000 myself, but it looks like it's accurate as I went through a couple of my old listings.

  • SnoozeAndLose on 25/11/2020 - 23:26

    They try to pull all the small seller and leave the big seller.

    I am not sure how eBay going to get profit from 10% 20% discount from the big seller but this is the way eBay pushing.

    At the result, the price of all item increased a lot and small seller with high positive feedback is getting less and less.

    • Murderface on 26/11/2020 - 08:12
      +1

      I think eBay has an identity crisis.

      Are they trying to be Aliexpress?
      I've opted to use eBay over Aliexpress a couple of times paying more when I needed something urgently. Only to find out the item wasn't actually in Hobart, Australia as the listing claimed but posted from outside the country. I've started avoiding every listing when it states Hobart, as drop shippers seem to use that location to hide the increased shipping times.

      Amazon?
      With the introduction of eBay plus it looked like they might be trying to replicate the success of Amazon Prime. Unfortunately, they offer absolutely no benefits for being an eBay plus member, other than the limited stock sales which are unattainable to most, or the promise of express shipping which is now taking just as long as regular shipping as sellers are using cheaper shipping methods. Looking at you, Sendle.

      I thought the old eBay was great and it was good for what it was - a marketplace to sell mainly used items.

      • bpop99 on 26/11/2020 - 18:08

        I think this answers the real question. Ebay is at a crossroad - yes, selling second hand junk is how it got here but the golden child is Amazon and everybody wants to be like it.

        I received a request from Ebay to complete a survey about Ebay Plus (having been a member for almost a year). That survey felt like they were trying to guage customer preference / views on Ebay Plus compared to Amazon Prime and Catch's similar scheme.

        I don't necessarily think that (profanity) over small sellers is the direct aim. After all 50% of sales in Amazon is via third party sellers. But I think its trying to shake its reputation as a flea market, get bigger retailers onboard and at the same time trying to get a bigger cut of the pie.

        Usually when companies are at this phase, the small sellers get shunted. Of course, there are also horror stories of small sellers getting shunted on Amazon or issues with Etsy, so this is not necessarily just an Ebay problem.

        edits: changes for brevity

  • [Deactivated] on 25/11/2020 - 23:34

    Been personal on ebay for years, limit of 400 items/ $60k a month

    There support is fine, system is hard to break, call centre in Philippines.

    Yes ebay is swamped with 'asian entrepreneurs' selling cheap crap that never turns a profit, not ebays fault

    • Murderface on 26/11/2020 - 07:46

      The support is fine, but only if it's a very simple issue or the solution can be copied and pasted.

      It's clear that something isn't quite right with my account and the support has been atrocious. They've now tried to close my ticket 3 times while it's still unresolved and asked me to fill in the same survey twice with regards to what and why I want to sell. The replies have been copied and pasted and I doubt they've looked into the issue.

      I've gone through considerable effort to resolve the issue, but I keep hitting a brick wall with support. They give the impression that they can't change the 'system' and this is intentional to push me away from the platform.

  • Axelstrife on 25/11/2020 - 23:44

    Strangely low limit, just list and sell things and you can up your limit after your sell a few things.
    My account started at 40 items and now i can list 4500 items or $230000 worth.

    • Murderface on 26/11/2020 - 07:55

      Yeah, the limit is incredibly low for an unknown reason.

      I have had no negative reviews whatsoever, haven't returned an item nor have had one of my items returned. The account is a long-standing account, with high usage and great feedback from both buyers and sellers. I have sold 63 items before, so this isn't my first rodeo.

      I can obviously try to sell an item at a loss for $10, wait 30 days and try again in the hopes that they'll increase my limit. The $10/1 item limit is just too low to 'prove' myself as a seller and it just gives the idea that they do not want me to sell on the platform as support seems to have no idea why the limit is that low and unwilling to escalate or help me resolve it.

      Ebay seems to have become incredibly unfriendly to small sellers over the last couple of years.

      After having the experience I've had yesterday I'm more inclined just to move on and stop supporting eBay altogether.

  • screensaver on 25/11/2020 - 23:48
    -1

    Theres a deal with gumfree ads, free ads on ebay, no commission, but other than that, Ebay has turned into a protection racket. They took down my listing, but are allowing about 10 others to sell the same item

    • Murderface on 26/11/2020 - 07:59

      I told a mate about the issue I was having yesterday and my plan to just sell the items on Facebook marketplace or Gumtree and avoid eBay moving forward.

      Looks like eBay also owns Gumtree, so that leaves me with just Facebook marketplace which I'm not a big fan of.

      Any other platforms to sell items that I'm missing?

      • screensaver on 26/11/2020 - 08:23

        yes, local community groups on facebook, I sold something first day

  • ykickamoocow on 28/11/2020 - 08:21

    to snooze 10% and 20% are not paid by ebay it comes from the sellers so ebay still make there fees

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