I hate ebay

[kengr]

They've updated their policies again and are getting a lot more aggressive about shipping charges. They are setting *maximum* allowable shipping charges on several categories (including magazines, which are what a lot of what I'm selling fall under)

Of course, they're ignoring the fact that (after checking a few listings) many of the "cheap rates" people are using are actually *illegal*. They are using media mail. And as I was told at the post office, magazines are *specifically* excluded from being sent that way. Even used or collectible ones.

And on top of that their answer in the FAQ to "my actual costs are higher than the maximum charge ebay allows" is to rill the charges into the starting bid on the item.

This sucks two ways. First off, the folks who have the higher costs are the folks selling small lots of stuff. Businesses generally have the volume to do shipping discounts or get lower prices.

Second, it means that if folks buy multiple items, they pay the shipping costs several times. When the "handling" costs were allowed to be included in the shipping costs, when I combined several purchases I could adjust the costs accordingly. But now, I won't be able to.

Yeah, I might make more money. More likely I'll get fewer bidders because I'll have to set higher starting bids.

Ebay definitely is against small sellers.

Comments

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

Complain to them.

[kengr]

You are assuming there's a link to complain...

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

There isn't? o_O

[netdancer.livejournal.com]

Live Help link is in the upper right on the main page. If you go to the 'Contact Us' page you can send an e-mail to them (second tab).

I can understand -why- they're doing this I think. See, I buy my videogames on e-bay a LOT...and a lot of dealers who really should know better charge amazingly large shipping prices for them. A GBA or DS game cart is a tiny thing...it won't cost 10$ to send to me, but sometimes that's the fee listed on the only available copy of something I desperately want.

So, say, Disgaea for PS2 (Rare, running around 30 bucks) would be listed as starting at 99 cents with a 12.00$ shipping fee... people are looking for this, it might well break the 50.00 mark and you'll get scalped on shipping.

[kengr]

Oh, I know, I got dinged with $210 shipping for an SD card that cost a dollar. They threw it loose into a padded envelope and the postage on the envelope was like a buck or so.

Thing is, they are setting the maximums way too low.

I had a bunch of auctions pulled a month ago for "excessive shipping". Yet I was charging *actual costs*.

The announcement lists fees that are unrealistically low *and* also says that anybody who scores below 4.2 on shipping feedback will get kicked off ebay.

Given that 4 is "satisfactory" or "reasonable" (I forget which) the sellers are up in arms.

They also set the limits using *buyer* feedback. Most buyers have no idea what actual postage and costs are.

Oh yeah, ebay's "solution" is that the seller should raise the starting price to cover things. That means that *if* it sells (which is less likely given the higher price) they get a bigger cut.

They've also raised the percentage of the selling price that they get from 8.75% to 12% on the lowest priced things.

Everybody can tell that they are trying to drive out the small sellers. But ebay won't admit to it.

I'm hoping that someday ebay and paypal get forced to follow rules that protection the buyers and sellers. Things like actually investigating fraud complaints on both sides. And being objective.