Admittedly, I've only sold a handful of things over the past 10 years or so on eBay, but recently I tried to unload a bunch of camera and computer gear on there and found the whole experience to be way too tedious and confusing. Getting the product listing itself up was fairly OK, but as soon as I started getting pinged with questions from other members about the items, it seemed like I had to go through hoops to drill down to where the messages were stored to reply, and even then when it came to trying to find their responses and read them too, I had even more trouble finding where to do that. Shouldn't they just have a simple "Inbox" link at the top of the page like most other websites do?! Then once the goods sold, I assumed the user would just enter their payment information, but instead I had to send them a request to make the payment - this is redundant, I had my listings set to "Buy Now" instead of the auction. When it came time to preparing the items to ship, the shipment options were even more confusing - how do I know if the shipping costs eBay came up with are what the shipping companies are going to actually charge me? What if I wanted to add insurance/delivery confirmation? Where was the option to include that in the total cost of the item? I get it that they have an agreement with the USPS, so they push that pretty heavily, but how do I use another carrier? Finally, they screwed up my Return Address and used some old address that I haven't lived at in years - why not fill in my most recent address? The option to select which return address was buried away in the lower left corner of the screen in small type - easy to miss, then it's too late and your shipping label is permanently screwed up. What a nightmare!
hmmm... I have a large expensive item I want to sell and so far, the only place I've found where I could sell it is on eBay. I can't even use their valet service because the item weighs more than 25 pounds. I hate hearing these stories about selling on eBay because I would be devastated if something went awry and I lost on out hundreds of dollars if my item sold. From the sounds of your story, eBay needs to get their act together.
I've been selling on eBay for a few years now, and I've never found the system cumbersome. It's easy enough to navigate, and there aren't that many difficulties. It's important to verify your information from time to time. Then you need to choose the shipping options that suit your needs best rather than relying upon eBay for that. There are tons of things that can be done to make this simple process even more simple.
I used to use ebay and it can be time consuming depending on the queries and the potential buyers. I switched to buy now or best offer as the auction requires constant monitoring and it isn't always worth it unless you do it for a living and have multiple items. Shipping is always a problem as you don't want to lose out and don't want to deter people either. A lot depends on the buyer as I have some crazy and rude people and some easy transactions. It does take up too much energy if they are low priced items though, so I would only do it again if I had nothing on and if the item would sell for a good price.
Tom, were you able to get everything processed? I understand the issue of the address, I went through that before, but it was a PayPal issue, not eBay issue, in my case. There's always a learning curve on each site. Thankfully, I have a friend who sells on eBay all the time, so I was able to pick her brain for my recent eBay sales. I usually process shipping through PayPal, then go plug the information in on the eBay listing. I use USPS, since I don't have an account with any other shipper, so it's just easier for me, and our mail lady is nice, so I enjoy dealing with her. There's a way to post questions that have been asked, and your answers, on the listing page, that way others can read them, and not ask the same questions. That can save a lot of time, so you don't have to re-answer the same queries over and over.
eBay has definitely changed for the worse over the past decade and I've stopped selling there completely. Their selling fees are exorbitant and whilst I understand that they give access to a global audience, they can take quite a chunk from your profits. Additionally, I think sellers are much more open to abuse now. I understand the need for buyer protection but this does seem to come at some cost to sellers.
I have sold on Ebay and true it is a learning curve like everything else the first time we use it. But once you have completed a few transactions it really is not that hard to do. I have heard that people have issues with returns and fake items but I have not experienced that type of problem.
Agreed, Sellers are definitely more open to abuse. Buyers don't even need proof to accuse a seller of selling an item not as described ,and then the buyer gets to keep the item and get their money back. In trying to be more like Amazon, they are hurting small individual sellers.
I was really concerned about this with the recent issue I had of the person who claimed the item I sold didn't fit her unit. I was afraid she would claim that I had misrepresented the product. I'd never had an issue like that up to that point, so, although I did take pictures of the box and the packed contents, it hadn't occurred to me that I should photograph each piece of the unit, which would have involved a lot more work. I thought for sure eBay wasn't going to stand behind me, nor to release the funds to me, but they did both, and either prevented her from leaving negative feedback, or removed it as soon as she left it, because it hasn't affected my standing on the site. What eBay told me when I spoke to them about the matter was that because I'd clearly stated the brand and model number, and had stated that I wouldn't accept returns, my terms were clear. I think it probably helped that I messaged the buyer immediately upon purchase, asking if she was aware of the item condition and for her to contact me prior to shipment, so I could confirm that fact, but she ignored my message. eBay strongly encourages quick shipment, so I ended up shipping it out anyway, even though she hadn't responded, and she still never bothered to respond, until days later, when she received the item. I believe she didn't pay attention, and bought it without fully reading the listing. I would have rescinded the sale if she'd just responded to my inquiry, but, because she ignored it, I wasn't about to eat the lost time and lost viewers (others had been watching, and could have potentially purchased the item, but if I'd relisted it a couple of weeks later, they might not have, because they might have thought I was scammy, or that something was wrong with the item) and shipping costs. I had been leery of selling on eBay for quite a while, but after that experience, as well as my other recent experience where I didn't receive an item I'd purchased, and eBay refunded the money to me, I'm giving them another shot.
In the past, I managed to sell some of my used books at eBay. I don't know when it started but the new system isn't friendly to first-time and unskilled users. Why is there a need to bid? The bidding system totally confuses me. Does it even work? I mean, I'd rather set my own price so that only interested buyers would dare to contact me. I think they have an option for that, but as I said, the current eBay isn't very good at showing the ropes.
I used to sell a lot on Ebay, but have stopped now because there fees are getting too much! It seems a lot just to sell your items, I mean, no one minds paying twenty pence to list it, but then they want an extra percentage of the sale too!! I think it can get very expensive, especially if your item does well, then they want more!
As a seller, I find the recent Sell Your Item page overly complicated. It used to take only one page to list your item. Now there are two pages of options ,all of which have additional fees. Listia, which is more of a swap site than an actual auction site, has a nice ,easy interface where you just list your item ,select duration and add a photo. That's how it should be. You don't need two pages of options. I wish eBay would streamline the listing process.
I haven't bought or sold anything on Ebay in quite a while and I found the experience tiresome as well, that wasn't why I stopped using the site – that was because of the amount of items I bought but never received because the sellers didn't offer recorded delivery.
I have only sold one thing on Ebay (an exercise machine) and I doubt that I will ever use them again. The buyer picked up the item instead of me shipping it it, so for some reason the payment did not become available to me until after three weeks after the item was sold! So frustrating dealing with Ebay and Paypal when selling things. I can understand holding payments for a few days at the most, but three weeks is just ridiculous. The whole point of selling something you have laying around is to get money fast, no?
I sold a few hundred dollars worth of stuff on there earlier this month, and was shocked when I got an invoice from them a couple days ago out of the blue saying I owed them like $50+ in sellers fees for those few items. It would really help if they were more up front about how much these fees are going to be when you are listing an item - had I known how much of a cut they were taking I wouldn't have even bothered to sell some of those items. Between the shipping costs and the sellers fees, I got kind of hosed on those sales. Why don't they just auto calculate their sellers fees up front and show you that prominently when you are pricing your item and making your listing?
@missfortune81 I agree with you on the waiting fee. When I first started selling on eBay again, I had to wait 21 days for the payments to be released, and that is a ridiculous amount of time for a company to be holding your money. It helps if you use their shipping function, or enter the tracking information into their system, and also helps when the buyer leaves positive feedback. That can speed up the time process for releasing your money. I believe it's once you've reached around 10 recent positive feedback sales that they will release your money sooner, although it didn't take quite that many for me, but I think that is the maximum number they specify. Dear God, I just sold something to someone on eBay with feedback of 1, and she's already messaged me asking when I'm going to ship the item. She just bought it last night or early morning. It's in the mail, but this doesn't bode well. Hopefully she's just anxious and excited about receiving it, and isn't going to be a PITA. I wish they would let sellers block buyers with less than a certain amount of feedback. I don't mind selling small items to them, but am not looking for hassles on larger items, and don't want another problem like I had with the woman who didn't read what she was buying, ignored my message prior to packing and shipping, and then tried to return, even though it specified no returns.
Well, the person with the 1 feedback left positive feedback, but left a somewhat questionable comment about a specific aspect of the product that I have/had no control over, which is stupid, but that's her prerogative. When I'm reading feedback to determine whether I want to deal with someone, I look for things like that and low feedback numbers and scores, because newbies often don't understand how the process works. At least there were no complications with the sale. I can't say the same for the next sale, because that guy purchased the item, but then wouldn't pay. He also had a low number of feedbacks, since he was apparently new to eBay, or else started a new account to counteract negative feedback on another account. I had to relist and lose the watchers I had on the first listing, and speak to customer service to try to correct the issues. I'm still waiting for eBay to credit me with the final value fees which they very quickly applied to my invoice.
I have sold quite a few things on ebay and I guess I'm just used to the process. I've only recently started selling, so I have no experience about whether it used to be easier or not. After you've sold a few things, they stop holding your money and also raise your selling limit. They run specials from time to time where you don't have to pay any fees. I keep my eye out for those. Also the mobile app makes the proces a lot easier.
The process is as complicated as you want to make it. You can calculate your own shipping price and add that. You don't need to request payment, that is optional. You enter your own address, and so it pays to keep it updated. You can just list and sell and that's it. The things is to not do everything they happen to suggest and don;t accept any automated process. Done systemically by hand it is a three step process and works very well for me. For commercial items like published books and movies that they already have photos and specs for, a two step process. Certainly easier than the old "want ad" process by miles.
Ah yes, the holding of the money. They've stopped doing that with me, which is very nice. I have a friend who has been selling, and they're still withholding for about a week, but that's still much better than the 21 days when I started out selling again. I'm still waiting for them to remove the double final value fees. I'm closing the case on the non-payer later today, once the 4 day period is up, because I've since sold it to another person. At that time, they should remove the duplicate final value fee from the non-paying transaction.
