First problem: After having my About Me page set up for two years as a way to drive eBay traffic to my online store, someone at eBay decided to pull it for links violations.  When I first set it up, I made sure I stayed within the links guidelines and even asked people on the About Me discussion boards to search it for violations.  Everyone who replied said they could not find any violations.  So it was surprising when it got pulled this week.

     My main reason for selling on eBay these days is to get people to go from my auctions to my About Me page, where they are tempted to go directly to my online store.  The $5-10 I make on eBay every week certainly isn't keeping me in business; I see eBay as a form of advertising.  Without my About Me page, I am just some schmuck selling a few bags of beads for a couple-three dollars.  (Indeed, since my page was pulled, sales have dropped.)  It makes no sense to list at this point, knowing that I have little to no way of driving eBay traffic to my main store, so I am seriously considering not even bothering this week.

 

      Second Problem: Despite a promise earlier this year that they would NOT implement any new "enhancements" near the holiday season, eBay still decided to introduce a new feature this month.  This is the absolutely good-for-buyers-but-horrifying-for-sellers "Get It Fast" campaign, whereby a seller can choose Express Shipping as one of her shipping options, and ask to be included in the "Get It Fast" search engine.  Buyers who search through this particular engine will find ONLY listings that offer Buy-It-Now and express shipping.  The "enhancement" is completely optional, but it still presents a host of problems for all sellers.

     First off, most new "enhancements" rolled out by eBay come with assorted glitches.  This feature hasn't been out for more than a week, and already people are seeing strange things happening to their listings, even when they opt out of the program.  Having assorted bugs right at the time of year when many sellers hope to make their highest sales is NOT a good thing, but despite a world of negative protests about this, eBay still insists on rolling it out at this sensitive time.

     For another thing, the very idea that you can now "Get It Fast" on eBay can mean trouble for anyone who does NOT use this system.  All it takes if for Jane Doe to tell her friends, "Hey, did you know eBay is offering immediate shipping now?  They say you can get your package in two days!"  Then all of Jane's friends will go to eBay, see their exciting new logo, and just bid on anything, not realizing that they have to access a special group of items.  Jane's friend sees some of my auctions, bids, pays, and then gets furious when her package does NOT arrive two days later!  Despite eBay's insistence that this is OPTIONAL, it still is going to invariably cause a ton of hassles among buyers who aren't as informed as they should be.  And any seller knows, that can sometimes be a lot.

 

     Third Problem: Finally, eBay has taken the liberty of adding "Service Transit Time" in the shipping details area on ALL auctions.  If you take a look at any of my past auctions (even the ones that closed weeks and months BEFORE they introduced this new plan!), you will find that ridiculously unrealistic time tables have been assigned to my shipping details area.  They are telling my customers that choosing Priority Mail will get their item to them in 2-3 days.  I usually don't even ship until a day or two after payment.  And the mail is getting later all the time as the holidays draw near.  A timetable of 2-3 days is absolutely insane.  No sellers are going to manage to keep this schedule.  And despite my saying in my About Me page (at least before they removed it) that I ship all International packages on Wednesdays (my only day available for running errands), eBay still tells my International customers that they can expect to get their items within 4-6 business days.  As per my policies, if you pay on Thursday, I will ship your package out the following Wednesday--nearly a week later.  How on earth are you going to get your package in the UK or Australia or Canada in a mere few days?  Not to mention that often Customs holds the package for a week or more.  (I have particular difficulty getting packages to Canada in a timely manner due to Customs inspections.)  To override my Terms of Sale by putting these completely unrealistic shipping estimates in MY auctions really boils my blood.  eBay officially gives us 30 days to ship, yet they tell our buyers that they can expect their item within a few days?  This so-called "venue," which is supposed to be merely a place where people meet to exchange stuff for money, has taken the liberty of amending my Terms of Sale without my consent.

     I temporarily remedied this problem by choosing "Standard Flat Rate Shipping" instead of anything specific.  eBay does not give a time frame for these, so I am safe for the time being, but I just discovered that they added the Transit Times to all of my OLD listings--even the completed ones from months in the past.  They effectively changed my Terms of Sale without my consent.

     I have sent suggestions to eBay regarding these new issues, and I hope that all interested parties out there will do the same.  These new "enhancements" are likely to annoy both sellers and buyers, and will no doubt result in more negative feedback from buyers who assume they are going to get their item days or weeks before it actually arrives, and will think this is the seller's fault for not following the Terms of Sale.  If you would like to ask that these features be removed, here is the link to ask them to change it: