Ebay adding Shipping Times??

[xppman]

Yep you got that right and I remember that as well.
That was also restated again last year when the fee increase hit, if I recall correctly.

We also have the famous for the "vibrancy" quote as well.

Sadly for some sellers they refused to fold up their tents chairs and tables and go home.

No wonder at every turn ebay keeps TURNING IT UP A NOTCH OR THREE.

I started noticing the whole "shake out" way back when as well.

So glad I NEVER put all my eggs in one basket.

[bargainbloodhound]

Thank you for your email to Bill Cobb. My name is Sylvia and Bill has requested that I respond on his behalf.

In reviewing your correspondence I understand you have some questions regarding Service Transit Time you would like addressed.

#1-Is this change one that IMPROVES customer relations?

This change is one that can improve customer relations. Service Transit Time helps makes the transaction process once the auction has ended more transparent to the buyer of the item. This will occur even before they have made the purchase. We have shown that Sellers who are clearer about their shipping terms, have more successful auctions. We know that sometimes these Service Transit Times might not actually reflect a Sellers own shipping process time, and in those cases we encourage those Sellers to further clarify their shipping processing time within their item description.

#2-Is this change one that will significantly improve the BOTTOM LINE of the company?

The direct benefit of Service Transit Time is to our Buyers and Sellers. As stated above, this change can assist Sellers in having more successful auctions and allow Buyers to to have a clearer understanding of the shipping process. I hope you can see our motivation is driven by our member's success. We are currently monitoring the degree of success this product is having.

#3-Is this change one that is honest?

The days reflected for the Service Transit Times are business days. So when it states 2 - 3 days, this is 2 - 3 business days. If an auction ended on Friday this would not mean the item would be received by Monday but rather by Wednesday of the following week.

As you have mentioned, these time frames are not to be considered accurate pin point dates of arrival. They were never intended to be guarantees to your Buyers and we make that clear in every listing. You can consider them general time frames of when how long shipping services usually take. It should be understood there are also handling times in additional to Service Transit Times. This again can be explained in your item description.

#4-Is this change one that will be easily understood?

Like any change on the site it can take some time for Buyers and Sellers to become accustom to it and fully understand the concept. Ultimately what we wanted to do with this service is educate Buyers, especially new Buyers on eBay, on shipping conventions. Making sure your Buyers understand this is only for informational purposes is something we encourage our Sellers to do.

#5-Is this a change that will improve the buying experience and encourage repeat business?

If the Service Transit Time is used according to the advice provided above, we believe this will improve the buying experience for our Buyers and stimulate repeat business.

I have also forwarded a copy of this email to Leigh Goldstein who is the Senior Manager in charge of Shipping Product Marketing and her team as I am sure she would be interested in reviewing your concerns.

I hope that you can see that Service Transit Time was created for the benefit of our members. Please be assured we do not frivolously create features for our members. When new features are created and presented to our members, it is with their best interest in mind.

I appreciated the opportunity to assist you today. Thank you for being a valued member of the eBay Community and for your time.

Sincerely,

Sylvia F. on behalf of Bill Cobb

President eBay North America

[xppman]

If the Service Transit Time is used according to the advice provided above, we believe this will improve the buying experience for our Buyers and stimulate repeat business.

There IT is again. They refer to the buyers now as "their buyers".

I have seen both in PRINT and verbally by top officials at ebay stating things like "our sellers" and "our buyers". Time and time again. 

Don't anyone GET IT yet?

They think WE WORK for THEM.
We are (in their minds) "their" SELLERS.

And
Now also, (in their minds) that OUR buyers are "their" buyers.

Hmm I guess as encouraged by ebay WE should ALL further clarify our shipping processing times on feebay.

How about this:


PLEASE EMAIL US AT (youremail address.com) BEFORE BIDDING ON THIS ITEM SO
WE CAN FURTHER EXPLAIN OUR SHIPPING PROCESSING TIMES.

What a wonderful way to have "ebays" potential BUYERS contact US direct.

Then we can let them know HOW to get that widget from US at OUR
websites for less, and with-out all the ebay aggravation and confusion.

[bargainbloodhound]

There IT is again. They refer to the buyers now as "their buyers".

You noticed that too? 

During last year's Item Not Received "discussion" (which was just as pointless as the current shipping debate because then like now eBay's mind was already made up), eBay's Colin Rule said both the buyers and sellers are eBay's customers. 

eBay's tendency to think of buyers on its site as ITs buyers is one of the reasons I have a hard time understanding why people devote so much time and money to their eBay stores (hiring graphics designers for their templates and stores, etc) instead of devoting the energy and money to developing a web site store that they would actually own (sorry but eBay store "owners" do not own their stores they merely rent them--eBay owns/controls them and can take them away from store "owners" without notice as they often do.  eBay also puts its own name on Froogle listings and omits the store "owner's" name when it uploads items to Froogle).

[bargainbloodhound]

[quote author=Powerbuyer link=topic=1531.msg5818#msg5818 date=1134060568]

Why at every turn do I get the feeling ebay really don't want any medium to small sellers anymore.

Because that has been their goal for several years now, its documented back in 2002:

EBay Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Dutta said the price increase was intended partly to ``reduce clutter'' from what he termed ``marginal sellers.''[/quote]

I'll agree with that but I think the part about unwanted "small sellers" should be clarified.  I don't think eBay really cares if the small seller types (like the ones who post on the eBay stores board) and are primarily sellers stay on the site as sellers, but I do think eBay cares (and wants) the small sellers who are primarily buyers but sell once in a while when they need to clean out their garage to remain on the site because eBay needs this group to buy from the larger merchants it is trying to attract.  Selling activities by the primarily buyer/sometimes seller group is a form of "sticky" (just like the eBay community boards) that keeps this group anchored to the site instead of wandering off to buy from other venues.

Back to the eBay shipping times thread: 936 posts now

[xppman]

I still think the whole "larger merchants" deal is a BIG double cross
by many of those larger merchants who are still on the bay.

Remember folks ebay's sellers were taking a BIG chunk of the
larger merchants  market share not to long ago.

IMO the larger merchants have seemed to regain much of that market share
but I don't think they will stay at ebay much longer as their sales
continue to rise at their stand alone sites.

I think any larger merchants would be more than happy to NOT sell on ebay at all
and have their customers come straight to their web sites to buy.
Just like us smaller merchants would.

The larger merchants have been real busy re BRANDING themselves and getting
buyers to come BACK or to go straight to them to buy.

Cut out the middle man and increase the bottom line.

Business 101 here people.

[iron_chick]

For those who don't read the stores board, I just got a neutral for slow shipping because a book sent media mail wasn't there in two weeks. 

Of course, that was two weeks after she purchased it and only a week after she PAID but I think she must have gotten confused about that part. 

She left a whole slew of negs and neutrals to booksellers tonight who didn't meet that two week deadline. 

(Now, some of these sellers don't heve the best feedback, but I mailed the book the same freakin' day she paid!)

[bargainbloodhound]

She was busy: 8 neutrals and a negative left today for victims of ebay"s shipping times enhancement.  Perfect feedbck ratings will probably soon become a distant memory for most ebay sellers--especially sellers who ship media mail or first class (1-3 days delivery time according to ebay)

some of these sellers don't heve the best feedback

The half seller with 3600 negs and a 95.6% rating definitely doesn't.

[iron_chick]

The half seller with 3600 negs and a 95.6% rating definitely doesn't.

I know.  But even they don't deserve bad feedback for slow shipping after only 2 weeks for media mail.

This buyer just plucked my last nerve because I had to send a payment reminder to get her to pay at 8 days.  She apologized and thanked me for my patience - she *thought* she'd paid when she purchased.

And then I never heard from her again, until the feedback.

I do expect more, though. :-(  I have a LOT of packagages still out there.

[xppman]

iron_chick
Did you give this buyer a neutral for SLOW PAY?

I don't know about the rest of you but I"m SO TIRED of ebay and have
developed a true hatred for the company and it's miss management.
IT is NOT healthy to actually HATE a company but that is how I feel.

I would really love to see some of them suffer as others have due to their blunders
and as for some of their LieWorld contractors.
Well you don't want to know what I would like do to some of them if with-in range.  :blinkie:

A far as ebay's stupid transit times BS

I'm glad I only had a few things up and it was easy to get rid of it altogether by just changing my ship info to. Standard

The times then just disappeared for me.