A depressing trend being followed by ebay

[santapagla]

I have been a ebay user even before ebay came to india, though under another userid. I have sold and bought household and hobby items on ebay from 1997 while in the US and have followed all the changes in it's auction process since then.

For example, the user's e-mail id was openly posted on ebay at that time but later they have changed it to the closed-loop messaging system that's now in practice. I am sure it was introduced for a good reason.

But what is saddening to see is the trend ebay, especially it's Indian counterpart, has been following:

1.
Ebay has changed it's approach to be a "bazaar" instead of an auction house. Though it has kept it's outer shell to resemble an auction in a desperate attempt to sell thrill to the users, one can rarely find ANY item on it's entire list which does not have it's price preset either in the item's price or in it's ridiculously high "shipping charge". There are other dubious things practiced too, but as you are well aware about proxy-bidding et al, I better not get into it.

2.
Ebay is abandoning it's buyers by concentrating almost it's entire energy to the sellers only. For example, you already know about the almost infinite ways that you can filter and sort any list on ebay. But try this - "show only the sellers who have a feedback rating of 98% or above". You can't get it because ebay has somehow "missed" to give you that option. Try another one. Can you, as a buyer, earmark that foul-mouthed seller as an "un-favorite" one in My Ebay just as you can do for your "favorite" seller? Well, you just can't!

I have clamored for these but have faced only blankness. "Why?", you ask? Well, presumably they wouldn't lift a finger for anything that helps the buyers and not the sellers, even if they are the ones whose quality of service is questionable.

So calling all other buyers - Why don't you give it a try? Maybe they'll relent when they see a majority of the people, from whose pocket their fat profit is being sourced from, have started clamoring for these together...

[snrama]

Hi,

eBay has doing for buyers also. Refer the recent annoncement, you will notice some changes: http://www2.ebay.com/aw/in/200702201243212.html ---------------
With Regards,
Navaneeth (snrama) 😉

[runalaila_in1]

A Very Nice Post And I Find No Hesitation To Mark This Post As A General Echo Of All Genuine Buyers ... And I Also Have The Inkling That Ebay Also Finds A Lot Of Things That You Clamour For As Worth A Rethink And We Sure Are Expecting Some Concrete Changes From Ebay For Sure.
BTW Here I Would ALso Like To Add That You Will Still Find Many Sellers Offering Real Auctions And Not Building Any High Shipping Charges And At The Same Time .. Not Indulging in Proxy Bidding And Ebay Is Promoting Them ... So We Allready Find Ebay Supporting Fair Sellers

[veedeedirect]

Hello,

Just have a look at the following auction :

http://offer.ebay.in/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=150079603998

30 pcs auction - sold at a loss of Rs.150/- per peice, still every paying bidder got his product in record time.

We do so many auctions and loose money on some of them but still sale to all winning bidders.

_____

VeeDee Direct

[amitava123gems]

Hi,
What you say is depressing.I sometimes sell at Rs.01 stating price with 0 shipping.I dont shill bid or invite buyers to bid.And anyways ,that ,if not anything, helps to increase FB score.
What you say is a real problem.But T&S is working to reduce that.
I think,matters have improved somewhat.
Thanx,
Truly,
Amitava

[snrama]

Hi VeeDee Direct,

Its pleasure for eBay to have good sellers like you... Hope you gain profits in other items and recover the costs. ---------------
With Regards,
Navaneeth (snrama) 😉

[sapana@ebay.com]

Hi santapagla,

here are my two cents on the topic:

You may find the following link useful to locate auctions with no shipping charges - http://shopping.ebay.in/files/view_all_page_gallery.php?lpid=63&slid=1

Show only the sellers who have a feedback rating of 98% or above - Sort functionality - Customised Display - Tick on 'Display Feedback Information'. This will display the sellers rating and feedabck percentage on the listing page itself. On India site, this is a default option and is viewed by all buyer.
Also, the Homepage has a link which says - Buy from PowerSellers. You may wish to checkout the link for more.

Hope the above helps!

Regards,
Sapana

[santapagla]

Hello Sapana

It's great to have one of eBay's ears (not literally though!) at last. That in itself is somewhat encouraging, irrespective of however faint in nature the response is.

As for the first of the replies that you have provided, I must say that you have misunderstood my intention. I'll say two things here:
1.
I am not looking for listings which offer "free shipping", and
2.
you already know that the area you have provided the link for is the worst affected one by shill bids.

My intention was to point out that some of the so-called "auction" listings, in an attempt to disguise the pre-set nature of the price, resort to a "Re.1" price and a "Rs.350" shipping, say, for a pen! What would you call it - an honest "auction" listing or a disguised "sales" listing?

I know eBay has noticed these disparate charges - but till now has done nothing on their part - probably fearing a seller backlash. As a buyer, I want an honest attempt from eBay to curb these practices by introducing, say, the following rule:
1.
eBay to maintain a database of national parcel charges - it should be a piece of cake for a goliath like eBay where so many david courier companies maintain it
2.
Seller, when creating the listing, has to input the size & weight of the package to be consigned
3.
Now eBay, not the seller, becomes the fixer of the shipping charge, which will become consistent across ALL it's listings.

The second part of your response is a desperate try to convince a buyer how he/she should toil and huff and puff only to wring out an inexistent feature from the otherwise lucid interface of eBay. Thank you - your comment proves my allegetion twice over:
1.
That the feature is not there, and
2.
eBay has no intention to introduce such a feature.

Hmmm... I wonder why? Is it incompetency? No? Is it afraid of something? Maybe you can explain...

But actually, it isn't that hard for eBay to do, say, any of the following:
1.
In your Search Option (left panel), add another item of a "Feedback" checkbox and an input field/drop-down range selector for numbers.
2.
For any listing row, take out "(Feedback)" and make it a column similar to "PaisaPay", "Price Bids", "Shipping..", "Time Left" and "Distance..", so that the buyer can at least sort on the feedback rating of the sellers within that group.

I am an analyst as well as a DBA in the IT field for more than 20 years and have done my part by offering my advise to eBay free of cost!

Now tell me, is eBay ready to implement any of these to show us that they care about it's buyers?

[mushtaqz007]

Hi santapagla

i see your concern,but

you need to consider a few facts

1. There are just around 150 powersellers on ebay India. Isnt that too less as compared to ebay US.

2. The maturity level of an average buyer is low backed with low popularity of Online markets. (again as compared to ebay.com)


Now i beleive eBay is giving time to sellers and buyers to grow together. Not being too tough on the sellers by giving that particular search option to look for 98% feedback. and at the same time understanding that many buyers in India leave feedback unnecessarily and do not communicate much after transaction is over.

For the auctions part again there isnt much demand either. I have seen a Sony Vaio Docking station valued at 150$ - 200$ , sell for Re 1 in an auction. (not just enough traffic)

However the example you have given is indeed a concern 'proxy-bidding n ridiculously high shipping charge'.

Another functionalitiy missing is "immediate payment required"... but again as i said the changes has to come with time.

And lets hope the market does get better with time.

Rgds

O-G

[photobug_in1]

hello,
after reading all the messages, i have been a seller and a buyer ( an succesful one at that), i feel that they are a lot of grey sellers which ebay which crub, they should insist on tax registration no. recently i sent a message to a power sellar, asking about its avaiabilty there was no response, ebay should insist that all power sellars shouly reply to queries, and all queries posted by the buyers should be shown in the listing, it saves time for the buyer and sellar, as the buyer will go through the list of questions posted by other buyers before before asking the sellar, all this amounts a lot of transperancy and trust between buyers and sellars
photobug