eBay to ban email communications from August
July 13, 2008
At the Developer’s Conference, held just prior to eBay Live!, Adam Trachtenberg announced that emails between sellers and buyers prior to a sale would be anonymised. The latest API notes for developers reveal that this change will roll out across eBay sites in late August.
This means that buyers and sellers will no longer have access to each other’s email addresses prior to a sale. Only once a bidder has won an item will the buyer and seller be able to email each other off eBay.
How this will work is that when an email is sent by a buyer using Ask Seller a Question it will still be delivered to your email inbox, as well as to your My Messages on eBay. When replying to the email it will no longer send it directly to the buyers inbox and you won’t be able to see their private email address. Each message will have a unique identifier and the reply will be sent to them via eBay, using the identifier to redirect the message to their real email address as well as placing a copy in their My Messages.
This is great news as it also means buyers will no longer have the choice of hiding their email address which currently results in the dreaded UseTheYellowButton@ebay.com reply to address. For sellers who routinely use email for replies, rather than clicking through to My Messages, it’s all too easy to hit reply without noticing the email is not the user’s address. Replying to the email gives no warning that the buyer will never actually receive it.
Once anonymised emails are introduced sellers will be able to reply from their normal email program, safe in the knowledge that their answer will end up in the buyer’s My Messages on eBay as well as in their inbox.
Once all eBay communications are via My Messages it’s been announced that sellers will have to remove email addresses from their listings. Where this leaves sellers in the UK who make use of Business Seller Information inserts, which automatically inserts their email address into listings, is unclear - currently the UK Contact Information policy specifically allows for the inclusion of email addresses in listings.
Overall I’ll welcome this change, buyers and sellers will have more reliable communications ensuring all emails are routed through My Messages. Also hopefully my personal quota of eBay spam mail will decline as fraudsters will find it increasingly difficult to obtain email addresses.
eBay UK’s new search loses SIF results?
July 3, 2008
Last week, eBay UK made rather a cryptic announcement about how shops’ listings will appear in search. Some of us were hopeful that Best Match might even mean that SIF listings could return to search results, but it seems our optimism was misplaced.
click picture to embiggen
The first problem I discovered is that it’s not actually possible to search BIN and SIF listings at the same time. If I want to buy something now, I don’t actually care what sort of listing it comes from, I just want to get it and pay for it, but eBay’s search filter is now forcing me to choose between BIN or SIF: if you choose one, the other is greyed out. The old system which gave those in the know the option to add SIFs into their BIN searches was bad enough: if a buyer specifies ‘buy it now’, SIF listings should be included by default. But telling buyers they need to choose between the two formats is just nonsensical; the average buyer has no idea what the difference is, and neither should they have to figure it out. This is exceedingly user-unfriendly.
Then I had an email from TameBay reader Miss Tequila, who’s been seeing some even odder search results. She told me she’d been looking for “raw 7 cashmere”, one of her favourite searches. On the left is the old search; on the right, the new:
The old search shows 25 items including SIF; the new, just one. As Miss T. says, “looks like they want shops gone”.
eBay’s original announcement suggests there is more than one new layout being tested, so Miss T’s version may not be what everyone’s seeing. If you’re one of those seeing the new search results, please let us know what you think: the more specific detail you can give us, the better 
Updated to add
I heard from eBay regarding Miss T’s search results; they point out that the old version searches worldwide, and the new one doesn’t, and that this is the reason for the discrepancy. It’s nice to have it explained, though I do wonder, if Miss T and me both missed it, how difficult this is going to be for buyers to get right too.
eBay UK make changes to Checkout, My eBay
July 2, 2008
eBay UK have announced some tweaks to Checkout and to My eBay.
All members will now be able to checkout and pay with PayPal without actually leaving the eBay site. I love this one: paying feels so much quicker and easier. I’ll be interested to see what “P&P promotions offered by sellers are handled better” means: hopefully that free P&P offers via Markdown Manager may become available for UK sellers, as they are in the US.
There are also some changes to My eBay which parallel those made in the US last month. Watch lists are increased to 200 items, and users can create their own lists within My eBay to organise items the way they want them. Only “a small group of UK members” will be seeing this new version, so if you’re one of the lucky ones, do leave us a comment and let us know what you think.
Stores shipping prices now editable even after sales
June 13, 2008
eBay.com have made a great change for Store owners: shipping details can now be edited on SIF listings which have already made sales.
Previously, neither shipping price nor shipping services could be edited on a multiple item SIF listing if an item had already been sold. If shipping prices changed or the seller switched shipping provider, the listing had to be ended and relisted. But not any longer: sellers can change shipping details relative to future purchases, though obviously the offered price and carrier will remain the same for purchases made prior to the change.
This should make Stores’ owners’ lives so much easier; lets hope it rolls out to other eBay sites very soon.
Meet the new feedback hub…
June 4, 2008
… same as the old feedback hub.
When eBay promised to implement “a dedicated hub for sellers to report malicious or unfair feedback from buyers”, I think many of us imagined something rather magnificent, a magical interface which would, by the power of eBay, protect us from buyers who want something for nothing or they’ll neg us out of business. We certainly imagined - or at least I did - that it wouldn’t be the same old report form going to the same old support people, with - presumably - the same rather patchy results.
But it is.
Pinkie James has just revealed on Q&A that the “report a problem form we spotted the other day is *it*, the long-awaited hub.
All snark aside, right now eBay need to be working to restore seller confidence in them. I’ve been shocked more than I can say over the last week or three, at the depth of calm anger that serious business people have expressed at eBay. The people threatening to leave now are not those who just sell the odd item they pick up in a car boot sale; these are people with employees and warehouses and serious businesses, and they cannot, they say, risk trading on eBay any more.
Promising something “dedicated”, and then that turning out to mean “email custard support as normal”, is not the way to counteract that. I can only hope that James has been misinformed and that something more robust and responsive is on its way soon.
Thanks to Denny for the heads-up.
Buyers with policy breach item specific
May 29, 2008
Last week when the Buyer Preference to block bidders went live the second promised new buyer requirement, buyers with policy breaches, was missing. It’s now live on the site.
Options are to block buyers with between 4 and 7 policy breaches within the last month or last 6 months. 4 policy breaches appears quite generous - there’s not a lot a buyer can do wrong apart from not pay, demand extras not included in the listing, or feedback extortion.
Although I’ve set this buyer requirement on my account at 4 reported policy in 6 months I’m not expecting it will block too many buyers. Quite honestly if a buyer has been reported more than 4 times I’d hope that they’d either modified their buying behaviour, or been kicked off the site.
Expanded Seller Dashboard goes live on eBay UK
May 28, 2008
The expanded Seller Dashboard has gone live on eBay UK, and it is the all singing all dancing version showing DSRs to 1/100ths.
Their only appear to be two differences to the US version - Search Standing is only “Standard” or “Lowered”, with no “Raised” (To get standard visibility your DSRs need to be all 4.4 or above, in the US it’s 4.6 on P&P for standard and 4.7 on all 4 DSRs for raised). The second difference is that there’s no Buyer Satisfaction rating on the UK version. Buyer Satisfaction is measured from your DSRs, your overall Feedback rating, and any buyer protection claims against your eBay account.
I’m not sure why Buyer Satisfaction ratings aren’t included in the UK dashboard, as the help pages state they are used to calculate whether you have earned Standard or Lowered Search standing. This part of the Seller Dashboard on eBay.com is blocked for UK registered users.
Overall the Dashboard is a great utility for measuring your eBay performance, and now it’s like on the UK site I’m guessing there will be a lot of users visiting the utility over the next day or two and a lot of threads on discussion boards
eBay.com seller dashboard now displays 1/100ths
May 27, 2008
Logging into the seller dashboard on eBay.com now reveals your DSR scores to the nearest 1/100th. It should now be clearer if your score is edging upwards or downwards over a shorter period of time.
For those who have seen their scores fluctuate between two decimal places you are likely to see your DSR score in the 1/100ths hovering around the x.x5 mark and being rounded up or down.
I would caution against giving your scores too much weight over a short period of time. Just one or two feedback DSR scores received could show large swings, especially over a 30 day period unless you receive vast amounts of feedback. However if you monitor the dashboard over an extended period of time you should be able to see if your scores are trending up or down.
The UK Seller Dashboard is expected to go live this week, and to display scores to 1/100ths by next week.
The new Seller Dashboard on eBay.com
May 23, 2008
The new expanded Seller Dashboard is live on eBay.com and I like it! Not only does it supply a lot more detailed information but it acts as a guide to the areas you need to improve in.
The dashboard covers five main areas - Search Standing, Discount Level, PowerSeller Status, Policy compliance and Account Status. For US users it also give an indication of Buyer Satisfaction not available if you log in with a UK account.
Detailed seller ratings now come with three viewing options: 12 month vs eBay 12 month average, 30 day vs eBay 30 day average, and 30 day vs your 12 month average.
Each rating has a hover over which tells you exactly what your rating is and how you’re performing, and if one of your ratings is slipping it’ll be highlighted in red.
Possibly the most useful part of the expanded DSR console is to be able to compare yourself with the eBay Average. You probably already know if your DSRs are slipping against a rolling 12 months, but if you’re above the eBay average you’re likely to be doing well in all areas including being advantaged in search.
Search Standing is calculated from a mix of Buyer Satisfaction and DSRs, if you have raised Search Standing your listings may receive higher placement in search when sorted by Best Match. Importantly there is a note “Even if you already have a raised search standing, continue to improve your detailed seller ratings to increase the visibility of your items.” so raised Search Standing isn’t a given, unless you have the highest DSRs on eBay.
Buyer Satisfation on my account is rated as “Good”, but that section of the Seller Dashboard isn’t available in detail to UK users.
The part of the expanded Seller Dashboard that deals with Seller Discounts will be most familiar to UK users. This was effectively the first part to be introduced to the UK and is currently the only part viewable from the UK site.
PowerSeller status has been included in the Seller Dashboard. Although this information is also available rom logging into the PowerSeller Portal it includes in addition a track of Policy Violations in the last 60 days and whether your account is in good standing.
The final two parts of the Seller Dashboard have already been covered above - Policy Violations indicates if you’re in danger of account restrictions and even if you’re rated as Good, it warns a violation could still result in your listings being removed. Account Status shows any over due amounts and if you’re account is past due, or on hold.
Overall the new Seller Dashboard appears well thought out, comprehensive with the ability to click into each section for much greater detail, and a useful addition to enable sellers to monitor themselves.
Until the expanded dashboard is available in the UK you can log into eBay.com to view it
eBay extend Buyer Requirements to block more non-paying bidders
May 21, 2008
eBay have been promising for a while now to enhance buyer management blocks to give sellers a little more control over who bids on or buys their items, and today, buyer requirements have finally been updated. Sign in to My eBay > My Account > Site Preferences > Buyer Requirements, and sellers can choose to block buyers with 2-5 unpaid item strikes over the last 1, 6 or 12 months.
I like that this has been extended beyond the old “2 Unpaid Item strikes in the last 30 days”, but at the same time, I don’t want to block too many buyers: I can think of reasons why buyers might legitimately have two unpaid item strikes over the course of a year. I’m going to steer a middle ground for now and choose 3 unpaid item strikes over 6 months. And I’ll be keeping an eye on my buyer requirements activity log to check if too many buyers are being stopped because of this requirement.
How about you?
Seller non-performance slashed from 90 to 30 days
May 20, 2008
It was only a couple of weeks ago that sellers were recieving emails from their Account Managers advising of unnanounced changes to the Seller Non-Performance Policy (SNP). Today we’ve discovered another significant change courtesy of Eddie from AuctionTrax
The emails sent out at the end of last month advised sellers “If you have any negative or neutral feedback in the last 90 days, I urge you to file a Mutual Feedback Withdrawal form” (My emphasis) as there is now no grace period with a warning if sellers fall foul of SNP.
Now in an unannounced change the time frame has reduced from 90 days, and sellers are assessed over the recent 30 day period. This should be good news for high volume sellers who may have the occaisional awkward customer as the previous two month period of feedback will no longer be counted, but for low volume sellers just one or two negative or neutral feedback could be one too many.
A seller’s Buyer Dissatisfaction Rate (BDR) is measured by negative/neutral feedback, low detailed seller ratings and/or Item Not Received complaints. If your BDR rises above 5% in the previous 30 day period it’s likely that you’ll face sanctions, which are likely to include a 30 day suspension.
eBay.com scrap choice and multiple listing policies
May 19, 2008
eBay.com have just announced that with immediate effect the choice policy is to be scrapped. This means sellers will be able to offer a choice of size, colour and configuration on a single listing.
This should result in significant cost savings for sellers who up until now have had to use multiple listings to offer choices to their buyers. It should be noted that if a choice is offered failure to supply will be considered a violation of the Seller Non-Performance Policy.
Also in June the multiple items listing policy will be relaxed to allow sellers to list an unlimited quantity of identical items, previously the limit was 15 identical items.
Although a seller can list larger numbers of identical listings eBay’s new Finding will limit the number of listings presented to buyers from a single seller. No more than 10 identical listings from a single seller will appear on a search page, however this is sure to please sellers who routinely list multiple listings so that their product always appears in Ending Soonest sort.
It’s not known when these two changes will become official UK policy so sellers this side of the pond should wait for an official announcement to avoid listing infringements. As Best Match hasn’t fully rolled out in the UK it may be some time before the policies are introduced.
In the same announcement Mystery Auctions are banned, a new Search & Browse Manipulation Policy is announced, and a new Links Policy is to come into force in July.
Finally the new expanded Seller Dashboard is to go live in the US next week and sellers with 4.7 and above on all 4 DSRs over the last 30 days will start to be advantaged in search. This will be tested in a few categories before being rolled out across the site.
eBay changes from a buyers perspective
May 17, 2008
It’s easy to forget recent changes on eBay other than the most visible - the feedback changes. There are several others though, that should be well received by buyers.
- Feedback: The main thrust is that buyers can now leave honest Feedback without fear of retaliation and of course can also rate sellers in greater detail than ever before. The real benefit from buyers however, is that in future they can see how fast you ship, how accurately you describe your items, how good your communications are and how fair your postage costs are. If that information gives buyers greater confidence in buying from you it’s great news. With more than 7 billion Feedback comments left on eBay in the future a great feedback reputation will be more meaningful than ever.
- Buyer Protection: From the 3rd June every sale on eBay will offer PayPal and for buyers that choose to pay with PayPal they’ll have free protection of up to £500.00 on every purchase they make. Again buyer confidence should be increased, with about £900.00 traded worldwide every second on eBay buyer confidence is key.
- Customer Service: eBay is rolling out customer support via telephone for UK members. In the past this has been just for sellers, but top buyers are also being given access for instant help with any issues using the site. Over a million eBay users now have access to phone support.
- Business Registration: Business users are required to identify their status and also have to comply with certain laws regarding service standards such as accepting returns. Buyers can shop with more confidence in the service they should expect and receive when trading with a business seller.
- Protection from Fraud: eBay is constantly a target for fraudsters and eBay employ over 2,000 trust and safety employees around the world as well as working with local law enforcement. It doesn’t just stop there though, eBay have masked buyers IDs so that bidding is anonymous, protecting buyers from fake emails and false second chance offers.
eBay have committed to improving the site for both buyers and sellers. Mark Lewis when speaking at Catalyst 2008 talked about having “A deal to strike” between eBay and sellers. In return for eBay bringing confident buyers and providing sellers the incentives and tools to list, sellers would need to provide a great selection of products at a great price with fantastic service.
The selection of products, competitive prices and fantastic service is what buyers not only want but demand of online merchants today. If the recent changes give buyers greater confidence leading to increased purchasing, then it’ll prove to have been the turning point in eBay’s history.
International Site Visibility launches 20th May
May 16, 2008
Back in March, eBay announced that UK sellers would be able to buy visibility on eBay.com and eBay.ca. The listing upgrade means that items listed on eBay UK will be visible in the default search results on eBay.com and eBay.ca. This option will be available for UK sellers from 20th May, priced thus:
| Start/BIN price | ISV fee |
|---|---|
| £0.01 - £4.99 | £0.05 |
| £5.00 - £29.99 | £0.10 |
| £30+ | £0.15 |
ISV is available for auction and Buy It Now items only, not for Shop Inventory.
There are of course some eligibility criteria: you must have more than 10 feedback, offer PayPal and list shipping available to the relevent countries (preferably but not compulsarily with the shipping rates listed). Some categories are excluded: Motors and Residential Property, unsurprisingly, and also DVDs and Video Games, presumably on the grounds of region compatibility. And the upgrade is only available from your home site: in other words, a UK seller can’t list on .com and use ISV to show up on .co.uk too.
Sales made using ISV will be eligible for volume seller discounts.
When this was announced, many sellers seemed cautiously enthusiastic, despite the exchange rate working massively in favour of US sellers listing on .co.uk. For those who sell one-offs and collectables particularly, I think it’s a great way to increase your potential buyers without having to split listings between two or three different national sites.
Will you be paying the extra next week, or are you sticking to your current listing strategy?
eBay UK sellers must offer PayPal from 3rd June
May 16, 2008
Last March, eBay announced that offering PayPal as a payment method would be made compulsory for all sellers on eBay UK. The actual implementation of the new policy was delayed from the end of April, and is now to be from June 3rd.
eBay state that 95% of listings on eBay.co.uk already offer PayPal as payment method. Those that do not do so are likely to be from private sellers who want to avoid PayPal’s fees, and sellers who for one reason or another do not have a PayPal account. The first group will need to start factoring in these extra costs when listing their items, but the second group face a stark choice: offer PayPal or quit selling on eBay.
The positive side of the change is that this should again add to buyer confidence using the site. eBay buyers are very well-educated that they are protected by PayPal, and seeing all listings on the site now offering buyer protection should make them feel more confident about shopping here.
So who did leave the last neg?
May 16, 2008
Somewhere out there some poor buyer today made history, they were the last person ever to receive a negative feedback on eBay UK.
Never again will a buyer receive negative or neutral feedback, a seller now only has the option to leave a positive or simply choose not to leave feedback at all.
Many sellers have indicated that from now on they’ll leave negative comments even though the rating for a buyer will be positive, in fact Toolhaus has a tool specifically to reveal these false positives.
Sellers should proceed with caution however, Brian Burke, Director of Global Feedback Policy, has stated “Negative statements which conflict with a positive rating will be considered Feedback Abuse” (slide 15).
So the end of the neg for a buyer, just two questions remains: As a seller did you leave a neg for a buyer today and who left the last neg?
So farewell then, 100% feedback
May 15, 2008
The new feedback scoring system has finally launched on eBay UK. Despite some Support staff telling sellers earlier this week that neutral feedbacks would not be “counted as negatives”, the formula being used is that announced earlier this year: total positive feedback, divided by total feedback received (positive + neutral + negative). In other words, a neutral will have the same effect on your percentage as a negative does.
Predictably, sellers are up in arms about this. Many - if not most - of us have lost 100% scores that we felt proud of, even if they didn’t exactly pay the bills. Others - “a few sellers”, according to Richard Ambrose - have lost their PowerSeller status due to the recalculation.
Perhaps even more predictably, there is confusion over exactly how the numbers work; here’s a shot of my feedback page this afternoon:
(click for the full version)
Here’s the reason for the discrepancy. The number shown on the feedback scorecard is all the positive feedback ever received: if a buyer bought ten things in one hit and left ten feedbacks, that counts ten.
But the number for the percentage calculation is the same as the number used to calculate your headline feedback score: if a buyer bought ten things in one hit and left ten feedbacks, that only counts for one. But if that same buyer comes back a week later and buys ten more things and leaves ten more feedbacks, that will count for another one.
For those who don’t trust eBay’s maths, Nick from iposters has provided eBay sellers with a couple of Excel calculators to check what your feedback percentage should be:
eBay Feedback Calculator for Office 2007
eBay Feedback Calculator for Office Pre 2007
And finally, if numbers make you happy, the promised lifetime feedback recalculation seems to be happening at long last, though obviously recalculating several billion feedback isn’t going to be done overnight. My own score jumped 5000 this afternoon, which doesn’t cover all the positives I’ve ever received, but might make me feel a little better about those two terrible neutrals dragging me down
How did it go for you today? Have you lost a cherished 100%, or an even more cherished PS discount? Leave us a comment.
My eBay Beta revealed
May 13, 2008
Click to see full page screenshot
The new My eBay Beta is being shown to selected users, currently with the choice to opt out to the original My eBay. Most noticeable is the use of tabs and the vastly reduced number of links on the page. This may be slightly frustrating for some, until they learn where the links are now hidden but should make it easier to navigate once users become accustomed to the new layout
Most of the links eBay users will need are available from dropdown menus similar to the dropdown menus at the top of every eBay page. If you’re looking at the My eBay Beta, you’ll need to use these to access many of the features previously available direct from the sidebar.
The Buying and Selling tabs in My eBay Beta now have the new yellow headers for each section. Thankfully everything now appears to fit onto a 1024×768 resolution screen without the need for horizontal scrolling.
I do like the buying suggestions offered on the summary page. Taking recent items looked at it displays a montage of products the buyer may be interested in. Hovering the mouse over a product enlarges the image and clicking brings up the product details to the left.
The new My eBay is going to take a while to get used to, but on the whole I like it. Best of all I’ve not spotted any of the obtrusive adverts that take so long to download. Hopefully with the new slimmed down sidebar they’re gone for good.
So what do you think? If you’re one of the chosen few to trial My eBay Beta do you like it? If you’ve not tried it what are your first impressions from the screenshots?
eBay Aus wakes up to new feedback
May 13, 2008
Australians are getting to grips with the new recalculated feedback and inability for sellers to leave non-positive feedback. As can be expected though not everyone is happy.
One buyer laments “My 100% changed to 98% because of one neutral“, asking “Does that mean that sellers will be able to leave neutrals, which will count in the percentage?”. The good news for the buyer is that it doesn’t as sellers are no longer able to leave neutrals.
The downside is that for any buyers (and sellers) who have received a negative or neutral in the past year it will affect their feedback percentage until it drops off after twelve months. The flip side is that any buyers who do leave neutrals will in future affect the feedback percentage of their seller.
Sellers are up in arms, over the new messaging that eBay gives when a buyer leaves feedback. A seller reports “I clicked the “positive” radio button… and up pops a screen that says ‘Buyers can’t get negative or neutral feedback… so be honest about the transaction‘ or words to that effect…”
In reality sellers who do a sterling job have little to worry about, I’ve left feedback on dispatch ever since I started selling on eBay and the number of non-positive feedback I’ve received in that time is tiny compared with the positives buyers have left.
For sellers who have in the past left reciprocal feedback it’s time to start leaving positives - there’s absolutely nothing to gain by waiting for the buyer to leave feedback first and everything to gain from reassuring buyers with a positive that you’re a great seller.
There’s just two days left before the feedback changes hit the UK. Buyers have just two days left to worry about receiving a negative feedback and sellers have two days to prepare for the change. I’d strongly recommend leaving feedback for all outstanding paid transactions, but would suggest it should all be positive.
Let us help you get through your dispute
May 12, 2008
Following the publication (by mistake) of an eBay support phone number last week, they are now actively emailing some top buyers who have opened a dispute offering telephone support to manage the dispute.
In addition to offering the telephone support the email provides some advice on how to handle the dispute including a link to obtain the sellers phone number and encouragement to communicate with them.
Dear [eBay buyer]
We’re really sorry to see that you’ve had to open a dispute because you didn’t receive your item or it wasn’t what was described in the listing (30021891xxxx). You’re one of our most active and loyal customers, so it’s important to us to help you resolve this issue.
We’ve asked the seller to respond to you in the Resolution Centre. Disputes can usually be resolved by direct communication between the buyer and the seller. A friendly conversation can help sort things out quickly - if you haven’t already, request the seller’s phone number and give them a call.
You’ll receive an email from the PayPal system at each step of the dispute process. Whatever the outcome, we encourage you to let us know how it went and to leave Feedback for the seller.
If your concerns are resolved - you can close the dispute at any time.
If you can’t reach an agreement with the seller - you can escalate the dispute to a PayPal Buyer Protection claim. As you probably know, all PayPal purchases are covered up to £150, and most are even covered up to £500.
Remember - if you don’t close or escalate the dispute within 20 days, it will be automatically closed. You can’t re-open a dispute once it’s closed.
We hope you’ll be able to resolve things with this seller and that you’ll continue to buy and sell on eBay for a long time to come. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions at all.
Regards,
eBay Customer Support
As a valued eBay customer, we want to make sure you get support when you need it. If there’s anything we can do to help, please give us a call: xxx xxxx xxxx
It’s great to see eBay starting to offer buyers as well as sellers telephone support. I can see a time in the future where all eBay users will be able to pick up the phone and talk to eBay when they have a problem - a huge change from just a couple of years ago when no one could talk to the company.
How identity confirmation will work
May 10, 2008
The secret to avoiding phone calls to confirm your identity when selling on eBay was revealed in the US workshop on Trusted Selling with Identity Confirmation. If you don’t want the hassle of phone calls then using the PayPal security key will avoid the need to confirm your identity when selling from a different (or new) computer.
The only problem is the key hasn’t been made available to UK sellers even though it was released over a year ago in the US. Sadly, if they use the same criteria in the UK as the US - cookies and flash objects - whenever users log on from a new PC they’ll have to confirm their identity, almost certainly by phone.
The one exception to identity confirmation with be when using tools (either eBay tools such as TurboLister or those by other companies), which use Third-party authorisations. Third party authorisations allow you to enter your user name and password on eBay and a token is generated to link your eBay account with the third party tool or application.
For those sellers that are required to confirm their identity the proceedure will be:
- Select a phone number on file or to specify a new phone number and also put in your Secret Answer.
- Select whether you want to receive the call Now or in 2 minutes.
- You will receive a PIN over the phone that you should jot down.
- You will be presented with a field on the page where you enter the PIN.
- Upon success, you will be redirected back to the listing flow.
It should be a fairly simple proceedure, but it’s worth realising that if you clear your cookies, don’t have flash installed, clear flash objects, or don’t have a PayPal security key, then you’ll have to confirm your identity every time you list an item on eBay.
Interstitial page to save your feedback
May 8, 2008
Feedback is changing, and although there is news of a hub for reporting malicious or unfair feedback from buyers the biggest complaint appears to be the removal of mutual feedback withdrawal.
This also heralds the end of services such as SquareTrade for whom the last day to file a feedback withdrawal case will be May 12. SquareTrade have done an admirable job of reinventing themselves from a third-party feedback mediation service to a supplier of warranties for products purchased on both eBay and retail websites.
Brian Burke explains mutual withdrawal is being discontinued as it opens sellers up to extortion. Whilst that may be possible it’s no more likely than it has been previously. If a buyer has left non-positive feedback (apart from cases involving retaliatory feedback from sellers), buyers have always been in a position to blackmail sellers with the promise of withdrawing their feedback. That situation won’t change, but when a buyer leaves feedback in haste and genuinely regrets it they should be able to withdraw or edit the comment and rating.
The one piece of good news to counterbalance the end of mutual withdrawn feedback and mediation services are changes to the interstitial feedback page. Whenever a buyer is about to leave non-positive feedback in the future, they will be presented with three check boxes to tick:
- Have you communicated with the seller?
- Have you allowed enough time?
- Have you kept the feedback factual?
In the past these questions have been displayed but the buyer could simply click ‘continue’ to leave the feedback. Now they will have to manually check the boxes to confirm the three criteria.
Whilst this will in no way deter buyers determined to leave a non-positive comment, it should at least act as a speed bump to buyers who are about to leave feedback in haste. Forcing them to confirm they’ve communicated, allowed sufficient time for delivery, and kept feedback factual should (along with the hotlinks to email the seller or request their contact details) reduce the incidence of avoidable non-positive feedback from decent buyers.
The biggest problem of course will be for sellers suspended under SNP (Seller Non-Performance). With sellers facing an instant 30 day suspension for falling below 95% positive feedback, without feedback withdrawal or mediation services ,they are left with no possible way to improve their feedback to avoid permanent suspension.
The level playing field tilts
May 5, 2008
Up until this week the “Level Playing Field” Pierre envisaged when he started eBay has been level. All sellers paid the same fees, and even with the introduction of volume discounts, and more recently €0.01 listings for Italian Premium Shops, the same opportunities were open to everyone.
That’s just changed with the news that Buy.com has been granted a deal to list their entire inventory on eBay.com, which has been described as “economically feasible for both parties”. This is the first time that a special deal has been done for a large retailer, and although no specific details have been released it probably won’t be the last, eBayInk adds “any partnerships will be assessed on a one-off basis with hand picked partners”.
Whilst Buy.com have a special pricing deal, they’ll be limited to one listing per product, will have to compete in Best Match to get their product in front of buyers and will be subject to the same feedback and DSR criteria as other eBay sellers.
eBay have stated that their “goal is to get to the point where there is no reason you wouldn’t put all of your inventory on eBay“, with the expectation that the price structure to do so would be in place on eBay.co.uk by Christmas 2008. It’s likely that eBay themselves will learn from the Buy.com deal which is likely to affect pricing structures for all sellers in the future.
The big question is of course does a deal with a large retailer to bring new-in-season merchandise to eBay add depth to the inventory available, or does it detract from the overall buyer experience?
via Randy
14 day returns policy sneaked onto auctions
May 2, 2008
From yesterday it became mandatory for all business sellers to specify a 14 day returns policy for fixed price listings on eBay. The eBay help pages specifically state “The UK Distance Selling Regulations do not apply to eBay auction format listings on eBay.co.uk” and the original announcement outlined the requirement to accept “returns for fixed price items”.
That was until TameBay reader Niel, of Snowdon Computers, spotted eBay automatically appending a 14 day returns policy to his auctions. The policy appears for auction style listings when:
- You list an auction style listing using the SYI form
- You change an auction to “no returns” and then use “sell similar item”, the new listing form has the 14 day returns policy ticked again
- If you open the listing to edit it the 14 day returns policy will be automatically ticked again
I can understand why eBay might do this for fixed price listings (BIN, SIF and SCO) as it is now mandatory, but not on auctions. If you’re a seller who chooses not to accept returns on auctions you’ll need to monitor listings closely to make sure eBay don’t sneak in a returns policy without you noticing.
Mutual Feedback Withdrawal is being withdrawn
May 1, 2008
A sharp-eyed reader of the eBay UK Business Seller Board spotted a comment on eBay Germany, saying that mutual feedback withdrawal will not be available after the end of May. eBay Pink Richard Ambrose responded:
All eBay countries will be phasing out the Mutual Feedback Withdrawal process as part of the forthcoming feedback changes - with only buyers able to leave negs, there is little point in continuing the process as it is. Sellers will be able to appeal malicious, defamatory or accidental negs to eBay.
Richard’s logic is of course impeccable, but eBay need to consider that often, feedback is not the end of the matter. Frequently it’s used by inexperienced buyers to communicate a problem; and eBay’s insistance that feedback somehow “protects” buyers is part of the cause of this.
If a buyer uses feedback to notify me that their item has been lost or damaged in the post, should I
- (a) contact that buyer myself and try to make things right, or
- (b) shrug it off, save myself the money and the hassle, and not even bother responding to them?
Option (a) obviously makes for a better buyer experience on eBay, but without some way for the buyer to remove, change or edit their feedback, I don’t have much incentive to do it as a seller.
I sincerely hope that Richard’s post is only half of the story, because otherwise sellers are going to be backed into a very nasty corner, and that can only be bad news for both buyers and eBay.
Recent Comments
- Whirly: #3 you don’t deserve one after having a 1p listing festival you jammy blighter.
- Chris Dawson: #1 I didn’t get a voucher either
If anyone has one and wants to spend it with me... - northumbrian: the only fault with that bling thing is if anything it makes the item look to good
- faculty-x: us techies are honoured at the mo from ebay or the ones that have dropped off ebay the most, us...
- faculty-x: bling looks excellent, must get a copy. been messing around with coral for years, should save ages. so...
- Whirly: No voucher for me which is a pain as I need some stuff I know a buyer who will get one, he likes...
- Whirly: #2 If you build the fee’s into your sale price I think it’s a justifiable expense, we regularly...
- Trish Connolly: I need to dissagree with part of your statement. You say, “I’ve met many buyers who are more...
- J R: if we sell something for £500 there is no way we would be willing to give ebay £50 plus Paypal fees, there...
- Whirly: lmao
