Ebay Horror Story: Another reason to dump them entirely?

First off, let me remind that I have a few years experience in an online customer support environment. And in every job I've ever held, AND as a small time hobbyist, trading and buying used books etc, I've always prided myself on providing high quality customer service and support.

Which is why I am doubly- nay, triply frustrated and disgusted w/ my experience on the morning of Wednesday December 8th as I entered the Dark Zone of eBay's customer support chat.

My issue: eBay from time to time will offer to a seller an oppoprtunity to get discounts on their fees for listing items for sale/auction. Nice. However, they sometimes base your eligilibility for the discount on your Detailed Sellers Rating (DSR), which is determined by the feedback your buyers provide on their transactions with you. So far so good; I have an overall positive feedback rating of 503 and 100% customer satisfaction over the last 2 years. Very nice indeed, right? I think so too.

BUT: one of the criteria in the DSR measures satisfaction w/ the cost for shipping/handling. And since Canada Post controls those costs, why am I being rated for it?

Some buyers (particularly and almost exclusively Americans - I'm sorry, but facts is facts) don't understand that this is out of my control and when rating the DSR give a lower mark - which has now left me ineligible for some of the discounted listing fee promos. I am being punished for something I can't control.

So I entered eBay's support chat at 8:55 a.m. to discuss this quandary and try to get some advice on how to handle this. I entered queue at #22 with an expected wait time of 13 minutes. So, 9:08 a.m., right?...

At 9:27 a.m. I get connected w/ a Customer Service Agent CSA. I carefully explain the situation, she asks for my patience while she refers to my account and some reference files. When she returns she states that she understands the situation and my frustration (standard lines) and that as a general service support agent she is unable to affect any changes in that policy BUT she will be happy to transfer me to a specialist agent who deals w/ feedback and DSRs. Sounds like a good start?

Upon transfer I am #17 in a new queue with an expected wait time of 17 minutes...

After 27 minutes I'm connected. The new CSA greets me and asks for my patience while he reads the previous chat so I don't have to start again.

After which he starts throwing canned responses at me which have little or no bearing on my issue and in some cases are patently detrimental to my situation.

"Increase your DSR by offering free shipping" So I sell a book for $5 and pay $8 shipping out of pocket? How long can I afford to keep doing that?

"State your S/H costs in the listing" thanks to Canada Post, S/H varies with destination; I can't quote an unknown variable ahead of time. I DO warn all browsers and shoppers that S/H is determined by Canada Post and varies w/ destination; please confirm before making payment.

So customers get a close-of-item notice from eBay that does not include S/H costs and they expect free shipping. When I invoice for the S/H they downgrade me in that section of the DSR when posting feedback. As a result I am unable to use the listing fee discount.

After running in circles w/ this CSA for a 1/2 hour he apologizes and says that as a general support agent he can't make policy changes and offers a link where I can submit some input.

Waitaminute. I was told I was being transferred to a specialist in DSR/Feedback. "Supervisor, please. Immediately"

While waiting for a supervisor I check his link. It sends me to a policy info page concerning privacy and NOWHERE is there any place to submit info etc.

When the supervisor checks in I'm asked for patience while she refers to previous chat blah blah

Her first suggestion upon returning is that I add the S/H cost to the item price in the listing and offer free basic shipping.

Uh huh. if a book is not selling for $2 because eBayers want to buy stuff for 1 cent, then it's really gonna sell if I list for $10, right? right....

After another go-round with the supervisor she apologizes that she is not authorized to make policy changes and offers me a link to where I can submit my request and ask for help.

This link sets up a form that needs to specify an ACTIVE transaction to request that feedback be removed...?

Now, feedback gets placed after the transaction is closed, and if I don't have any items active...

By this time I have expressed my dismay (in unfailingly polite but firm verbiage) and the chat session has been terminated by the supervisor. "Is there anything else I can do for you today?" ( to myself: Yes a little more than the nothing I've received so far...) It is now 12:15 p.m.

Elapsed time is 3 hours and 20 minutes to accomplish NOTHING whatsoever. My entire morning shot to hell and gone.

You'd think an outfit as large as eBay would not have to resort to this circular non-support BS

I'd already closed my eBay Store a few months back because their store fee prices skyrocketed beyond what a small time hobbyist can hope to afford. (oh yes; their suggestion on how to increase sales in order to afford the new, higher fees? Take a guess:..."offer free shipping and sales will increase as buyers come back and spread the word"...)

So I'm jammed. P-O'd Quite disgruntled, and no real hope of getting re-gruntled in this regard.

Geeze I like Ecrater.com and Blujay.com more and more all the time.

And it gets worse at eBay for the smaller operator; until recently the commission that they charged the seller was based on a percentage of the final sale price of the item. NOW they've changed that: they include the shipping cost as part of the final sale value.
Okay then. Ebay charges 11% of the final sale value if you list an item for a fixed price sale.
Shipping a normal size paperback from here in Canada to the USA is about $10. (Yeah, thanks Canada Post Awful - or is it Offal?) Ebay gets $1.10 right off the bat.
If I buy a paperback for $1 at a sale somewhere and list it/sell for $2, Ebay gets $1.32 in commission and I get a whopping 68 cents. Since the book cost $1 to start with I've already lost 32 cents on the deal. So I need to sell , oh, 4 books like this in order to go back and buy ONE book at that sale and the envelope to mail it in...taxes and such included...

Okay sell it for $3...ebay gets $1.43, I get $1.57. Sell 2 of these in order to go back and buy ONE book at that sale and the envelope to mail it in...
But peeps browsing the wares on eBay don't want to pay that much for a book 'cause, well, we're cheap, and we're browsing the world's biggest dollar store...an obvious case of diminishing returns...
The answer? Only list 'specials'; signed editions, collectors' items, at a slightly higher price. The commission to ebay is only 9% for an auction item...
So, sell a trilogy for $10. Shipping/handling is about $12 to $15 depending on the size & weight of the books.  Stick w/ $15. Total is $25, Ebay grabs $2.25. So I get $7.75. In effect Ebay has grabbed 22.5% of my sale because the s/h fees zero out.
Sales have been so slow lately that I may have to bite the bullet and set up a batch of listings for a while and hope I get some action from some collectors.


Thanks for "listening".

BearHugs to all!
John "The Bear" Speelman

Jack of All Trades, Master of...well, a few...

Quantumvis cursum longum fessumque moratur sol,
Sacro tandem carmine vesper adest.
No matter how the sun may linger on its long and weary journey,
at length evening comes, with its sacred song

Winnipeg's annual science fiction/fantasy Con; Keycon

Since it's inception in 1984 I've attended every year at Winnipeg's annual science fiction/fantasy convention, Keycon. Interested folks should check out www.keycon.org
Since 1990 I've been actively involved in helping run the convention itself, from general grunt labour volunteering to being a CoChair of the 'con, running Operations, and sitting on the Board of Directors.
This year I'm taking a "break" and setting up a sales table in the dealers room. To that end I've scoured my stock for all the SF/F related stuff; books, etc. I'll have a 6' table and a couple of standing bookshelves unit to fill, and I've gathered enough to do so-and then some. I'm also working ahead of time ensuring a healthy stock of books by our guest authors to go through the autograph line. These will be listed as collector's items online after signing.
What with the majority of the stock at $2 ea. and some nice collectors' items at anywhere from $3 to $10 I should be able to easily recoup my table 'rental' for the weekend. There will be maybe one other used bookseller there and my prices are better. Most of the convention attendees know me well, many are friends and out of the 400-500 expected attendance I'm confident to generate some sales.
I'm also bringing a couple of boxes of stock that I either have not yet had time to list online or don't want to list them due to a slightly deteriorated condition. These I'm labelling as "Loony Bin" sale boxes under the table. Why "Loony Bin"? Because I'd have to be crazy to sell them for a Loony each! (Loony being the nickname for the CDN dollar of course)
The May long weekend will be a nice change of pace for me. Instead of working my tuchis off all wknd long with minimal chance to socialize or sit in on the nightly music jams, I'll have the set hours for the dealers room to work, then spend the evenings socializing.

John "The Bear" Speelman, Book Collector/Hobbyist
Jack of All Trades, Master of...well, a few...

johnthebearsden@gmail.com

http://johnthebear.blujay.com

eBay sales: username 'johnthebearsden'

Meet the Bear behind 'The Bear's Den' Book Hobby Page'

In 1968 at the ripe age of 12 I bought a paper bag of paperbacks for 50 cents at a local fundraiser. the first book out of the bag was "Tunnel in the Sky" by Robert A. Heinlein. The second was "The Swords of Lankhmar" by Fritz Leiber. That was it, I was hooked on science fiction and fantasy and have read and collected voraciously ever since.
In 1974 I started teaching myself guitar and eventually became known as a performer who found a nice sound balance with my tenor voice and guitar. In the '80's I helped found a local folk band "Dandelion Wine" and by the mid-'90's we cut 2 CDs and played at the Winnipeg Folk Festival - one of the best and largest festivals in North America.

John the Bear @ 1994 Winnipeg Folk Festival

Through various jobs over the years my big not-so-secret dream has always been: to run my own bookstore.
In the past few years I discovered that I was unable to hold a job because I was needing too much time off to deal with family health issues and such. So in 2008, with the help and loving support of my dear wife Laurie "Lady Bear" Helgason, I opened Turned Pages: Used Books and More as an online hobby enterprise. I weeded thru my own collection for inventory and my mother gave me access to hers as well. in January 2009 I bought the remaining stock from a bookstore whose owners were retiring, closing the shop. I'd worked part time for them while attending a business college and they remembered me fondly to offer a deal I could not refuse. This floated along for awhile until finances and recent Dire Circunstances dictated a recent change of focus and a name change as well (more on that in a later posting).
So here I am, running the listings from my desktop 'puter, my inventory stacked in boxes in a storage locker downtown. Each week I try to yank a box, and label the box so I can find it again when it goes back in the locker. But! It's still a hobby; nowadays it's ridiculous hard to actually make a living from this. The rewards aren't financial, I get huge satisfaction from helping people find what they have found to be so elusive.

Why "The Bear"? In college I was the guy in the school mascot costume, a polar bear. I sat on student council with several other Johns and they hung the moniker on me so they'd know which John they referred to. (No, not that John, or that one! John, the Bear, y'know?) The name fits; I'm 6'6", 230 lbs, shaggy, cuddly and gentle.