I've been selling on ebay for 1 year now. I do it full time it is my only income. I'm not married I don't have another paycheck coming in. I didn't have time for forums and communities...just too busy. Then....

I started getting some neutrals from buyers that didn't pay. I got a negative from a guy who I gave a refund to....I said what the heck is going on with feedback so I went to the ebay community forum. Someone sent me a link here....and it has shifted my thinking AND then it shifted it again.

I didn't go to the forums when ebay raised fees....price of doing business everything is going up so I just accepted it. BUT my reputation and feedback meant the world to me. I cried the first time I got a negative feedback. So when bad things started to happen I started looking for answers.

I started getting scared and bitter when I started reading these threads and I started agreeing with everything I read but something else started happening about 1 month ago. Something with my customers. My selling prices were going way up, my items not sold dropped dramatically, my watchers and repeat buyers sky rocketed. June was my biggest selling month....already I can see July will be my Best month knocking out June from its number one spot. EVEN though I was getting slammed with negative feedback.

Those negative and neutral feedbacks...well they scared me. So what I started doing was bending over backwards for customers without trying to get hurt too badly. AND I started pampering and nurturing the returning customer.

Examples: Cheryl bought one item and then another....on her third item, a cute little bracelet, I packed it in a pretty little woven basket that didn't sell the week before....she wrote me a glowing email about how much she loved that cute little basket (cost me 50 cents) and left super feedback and has since bought over $500 in items.

Another example...Sent the wrong urn to a customer (I had 4 that all looked very similar) he dropped me an email to let me know so I sent him the right urn and included another little item that didn't sell but went with the oriental theme of the urn (cost me $2.50). He wrote me an email and said 'thanks you are one of the good ones' and he left glowing feedback. Hopefully he will shop again...I bet yes.

I have many more examples those were the two most recent. Another thing I did was write to everyone who I refunded money and asked them to please leave feedback--I told them in the email how I was getting slammed by neg feedback even after returning money....well they all went in and wrote feedback saying how prompt I was in resolving issues and refunding money.....all but one customer (you just can't please everyone). I believe all these things have help me grow my business despite the negative feedback.

My point is if we make it about the customer our business will grow. Brick and Mortar stores have shop lifters we have customers that want to rip us off too....price of doing business. Stores have ever increasing bills they have no control over and we have ebay. We need to find creative ways to deal with these people BUT we need to grow good feelings with customers on their very first purchase. In my listing I added just recently " I can't please everyone but I certainly do try". I think we can win the feed back war if we try. It will only make us stronger and better at what we do best--selling.

one more thing...I've checked the other sites even listed on ebid and ioffer but you know what ebay, bad as they are (and believe it I hate them more than I love them) is still miles ahead.....because of traffic....without it we die as a business. If the customers love ebay (and the numbers say they do) then we need to find a way to work out this love hate relationship.

Great post.

Ebay is only "miles" ahead right now. Check out the stats, they have dropped and they are never going back up. Only if we ALL band together and abandon Ebay for other sites (I am listing on iOffer and Gunbroker.com) can we have an impact. I am done with them and their 8% final value (plus Fraud-Pal's 2+%). They are taking over 10% of each sale. 10% is CRAZY!!!

Yeah the sellers are flocking to other venues but the buyers are not. The buyers like the safety and cuddling eBay gives them and that's why they are not flocking. It doesn't matter how many listings ebid or ioffer are up in the charts what matters is how many sales happen. The stats I'd like to see about these other sites is how many dollars in sales were made on the sale of how many items. I checked ebid out all last night looking at just two categories the ones I sell in antiques and collectibles. I didn't see quality items I saw mediocre items that most likely wouldn't have sold on ebay either...that won't bring customers. I'm not saying ebay is right and we are wrong I'm just saying they are Golieth and we are David and running away isn't going to solve our problem. We need to look at this problem from another angle. Flourishing businesses put a lot of money into customer satisfaction. Ebay is forcing us to focus on customer satisfaction and the buyers love it. Is that a bad thing maybe not if we look at it differently. I LOVE good customer service when I purchase services and products, don't you.

Hey laurajrO,

We are here to find alt's not cuddle up to E-*&^%$#. Take your thoughts and posts to their boards. They are Pro-E)**&^%$. Please don't try to get us back to that once was place. Go and figure how to jump through their hoops over there. Most of us here are not interested in how to make E-**&^% work for us. We just don't care. Happy Independence Day!!!!!!

dlrane wrote (View Post): › Hey laurajrO, We are here to find alt's not cuddle up to E-*&^%$#. Take your thoughts and posts to their boards. They are Pro-E)**&^%$. Please don't try to get us back to that once was place. Go and figure how to jump through their hoops over there. Most of us here are not interested in how to make E-**&^% work for us. We just don't care. Happy Independence Day!!!!!!

That's unfair to Laura. We are here to share selling experiences good and bad on all sites and to help each other out.

I dont think eBay is a totally lost cause in some areas and it is the best value out there when it comes to auctions.

As for items which do not sell in auction it wouldnt hurt to expand to a free storefront site such as BluJay or eCrater rather than try to put it in an eBay store (way overpriced) or relist it again in auction for more fees and possibly no sale.

Laura, many people here practice good customer service and if they make errors they try to make amends such as you did and you were fortunate to have good customers. That doesnt mean it will always work out in your favor and it wouldnt hurt to spread out a little.

Good luck
Ken

Thanks for the nice words. I thought this was a safe haven to speak our minds. When I posted my anger about feedback on ebay's board I really feared being suspended or being watched by the ebay police. When I came to this board I felt it was a safe place to say what I think and I didn't fear getting kicked off...but looks like dlrane wants me out of here. I'm not a big lover of ebay either. I think they turned into just what all big corporations turn into a big greedy monster. Remember when Walmart on sold items made in the USA. Remember when Dunkin Donuts made fresh donuts every 4 hrs.... the things they used to do until they turned into monsters.

"We are here to find alt's not cuddle up to E-*&^%$#. Take your thoughts and posts to their boards. They are Pro-E)**&^%$...Most of us here are not interested in how to make E-**&^% work for us. We just don't care. Happy Independence Day!!!!!!"

Not only do I find this a rude and totally inappropriate response for this forum, I would imagine that it's not very accurate.

The majority of people on this forum still use eBay; however, most try to use eBay to their advantage rather than to eBay's advantage. They use it to attract and lure buyers to other sites or their own venues; to maintain exposure to the currently largest buyers base available. In other words, they are milking eBay for all it's worth while they build their businesses up elsewhere and trying to minimize damage to themselves while doing so -- smart business.

Additionally, due to traffic flows in some categories, anybody who just walks away in a huff from eBay is hurting themselves more than eBay.

To attack someone for trying to share how to make the most of a bad situation on eBay is somewhat disingenuous, if not juvenile.

Hang in there, laurajrO, I appreciate reading positives and constructive ideas from people -- regardless of the venue you are selling on. I'm no great fan of eBay, but I'm still selling there while working on alternatives. Any ideas or experiences that will make the duration of my tenure on eBay easier to endure, I welcome.

laurajr0 wrote (View Post): › Remember when Dunkin Donuts made fresh donuts every 4 hrs.... the things they used to do until they turned into monsters.

They still have great, fresh coffee...

My bad laurajrO,

I did not mean to be rude and uncontructive in my post, and it is not my desire for you to leave this forum. I just want to heave everytime I hear or read about how to make customers happy on E-*&^%. I tried to give excellent customer service as you suggest, but there are too many scammers on that site now.

I was a Silver Powerseller with a 99.7 FB rating for 2 years. I sold 20 to 30 items per week and out of the last 30 auctions I got 4 NPB's, 3 neuts, and 3 negs. I bent over backwards to please these people, but most were extorters who wanted 50% refunds. I was such a bad seller one guy bought 4 items from me over a one month period, and he left me 2 neuts and 2 negs the 1st day of the FB change. When you run into a buyer like this you will understand why so many have a bad taste in their mouth when you say E*&^.

Thanks all for telling me like it is and my apologies to jrO. I wish you well in your ventures, wherever they may be. IMO it just makes good sense to be branching out to other venues, because the fact is: The Buyers are movng with the Sellers and E-*&^ is a Sinking Ship.

I also have had 2 neutrals from a buyer that didn't even go through with the purchase--ebay changed the definition of neutral I wonder if they told Webster or dictionary.com. A neg from someone I refunded the money and another neg from someone who never even told me there was an issue. I'm looking for other venues as well we all needed to diversify so when one venue messes up we have others we can depend on. And thanks dl for having the guts to apologize it says something very nice about your character.

Well, despite bending over backwards and getting good feedback eBay has been on me big time, collecting my money then pulling my items and now I think I am on temp suspension and I sure don't know why?? I am simply trying to sell the stuff I bought there and they also pulled something when I said check with me before using echecks?? I am confused and over it...they will get my last money owed (close to 500.00) and of that I had to refund almost that much for no good reason! I have been a model buyer/seller and suddenly I am being dumped all over by scammers and eBay! I am glad too, I kept hanging on hoping it would not happen to me but it did!
Watch your backs, and I was dumb enough to use eBay name at first....is only after that things went south! I will give my money to someone else!

I decided to not sell again at all, at greedbay. I'll just sit on my 100% fb. Got almost to 1000 so time to leave well enough alone as I seem to have escaped the latest blast of the "kill the sellers campaign".

What escapes me is all the sellers on ECrater who aren't bothered that they have the same one way feedback system that greedbay is now promoting??? Curious! Leaves sellers a sitting duck waiting for the few loonies out there to make mince meat of their ratings? Two way or NO way, that's my new motto. LOL

As strictly a buyer I decided to try another site other then Ebay because I don't like the changes going on there either. So I went to IOffer, and on the first (and only) purchase I made there I got ripped off for $141.00. IOffer is worthless when it comes to getting help, and Paypal just said "sorry". At least Ebay provides a little protection. I'll never go back to IOffer again!