Ok Ebay, It’s Time to Confess! Is It Really The Sellers?
This past year many long time Ebay sellers moved the bulk of their business to Amazon, and became multi-channel sellers. During the testing of “best match”, and “finding 2.0″, there were many sellers with a huge drop in sell through rates that lasted for a week or more. The only way to continue to sell on Ebay was to find another avenue to make sales. The avenue of choice for many was Amazon.
As you can see from my last post, Amazon is now becoming the number one place for ecommerce shoppers. So, I have to ask if all the problems on Ebay are really the fault of the sellers? Because after last week, it seems they are blaming the Ebay sellers for the poor buying experience. But, since those same sellers are making Amazon a fortune, how can it be the sellers fault?
Most of the changes to the Ebay site over the last 2 years have not stopped phishing e-mails, or account highjackings, or fixed system glitches, but they have taken a toll on my time to sell on Ebay. Many Ebay initiatives force me to use my time for customer service. Such as the “unpaid item process” where I have to spend a lot of my time because the number of unpaid items keeps rising each month.
The point is that I spend an incredible amount of time taking care of my customers on Ebay. Most Ebay sellers are constantly afraid of making even the tiniest mistake. We have been told by Ebay so many times that we are the reason buyers don’t like to shop at Ebay anymore, that I think we’ve begun to believe it. It has become part of our psychic makeup.
And I want to know where a buyer is going to get the same level of customer service at a regular Brick & Mortar store. Wal-Mart? Best Buy? I don’t think so.
And the most terrible thing is that, if we are doing everything possible to be a perfect Ebay seller, and Ebay is still losing buyers, then it must be the other sellers on Ebay who are to blame. I don’t know how many times I have heard one Ebay seller blame the other “scam” Ebay sellers for all the wrongs on Ebay.
So I have to ask again, is it Ebay’s habit of passing the customer service buck to the sellers, their habit of not telling buyers about account takeovers, their habit of not fixing system glitches that cost buyers and sellers time, their messing with search until nobody can find anything, and most of all blaming the sellers for trying to stay profitable and secure that is actually causing all their problems?
After all, the very same sellers Ebay is blaming, are making Amazon a fortune.
Jennie
2 comments February 4th, 2008