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eBay is really starting to annoy me! I know I am not alone either. Business week just wrote an article on eBay’s declining sales. It was a great article, and the write hit the nail on the head by attributing much of the problems to eBay’s new “hotshot” CEO.
Ever since Mr. Donahue (eBay’s new CEO) has taken over, eBay has went from a great “free fleamarket” we all loved, to a crappy version of Amazon.com. While Amazon’s sales continue to grow (despite a recession), eBay’s continue to decline.
I have posted before about how tired I am getting of eBay. They took away digital delivery. They took away feedback for bad buyers. They took away paper payments (not that I used them that much-but still). They added DSR’s. They totally messed up the search. They have changed so many things for the worse! But now, this is even more frustrating, they have limits on how many items you can list for a particular keyword or category.
eBay’s Seller Restrictions for Certain Categories & Keywords
Just last night I was trying to create a new listing and list it for sale. Everything went well, until on the first sales page (you know, where it allows you to enter the details). Then I clicked to the next page to review the listing and submit. There was just one problem. I had a big warning from eBay that said the following:
“You can not submit your listing due to the following problems
Attention Seller
Thank you for choosing eBay.
In order to help maintain a safe trading environment, selling limits are occasionally placed on listings. At this time, you are limited in the number of certain items you may list and/or revise in a 30 day period.
Sellers who have built a long-standing and consistent positive history of selling items may be eligible to have their selling limits raised. If you believe that you would qualify, please click here for more information.
We sincerely value you as a member of our trading Community and look forward to a continued successful relationship with you.
Click here for a window with more information on eBay’s listing guidelines.”
This was really frustrating since I had just spent time creating a listing, adding a title, etc. They provided a link and said eBay can review your account and possibly raise this limit. So I thought to myself, “okay, I better just email them to fix this little issue.” So I shot off an email telling them about the restriction, saved the listing for later, and went to bed.
I thought I would wake up and everything would be resolved. Boy was I wrong! I had an email reply from eBay when I woke up (I know, shocking that it didn’t take them a week). This is basically what is said (just a summary):
“Thanks for choosing eBay, blah blah,
We reviewed your account, and unfortunately we cannot raise this selling restriction limit at this time. We consider many factors when choosing whether or not to raise the limit. You may try to request this again in 90 days. Thanks, blah blah”
Needless to say, I was in complete shock that they would not “raise” my limits of the items I can sell. Here is why.
Why eBay Should Not Have Restricted My Selling Activity:
1. I am a Silver PowerSeller (business-the point is to sell as much as possible and make money)
2. I have no policy violations AT ALL in the past year (ZERO).
3. I always pay my fees on time (ALWAYS).
4. I always maintain at least 99.9% positive feedback (sometimes 100%). Plus I have thousands of feedbacks.
5. All of my DSR’s are above 4.7, usually 4.8 or above.
6. I have been on there for nearly 8 years (2 years on this account alone).
7. All of the items I sell are 100% authentic, and comply with all eBay policies.
8. They shouldn’t have done it, simply because it inspired me to write this post (negative publicity), and I am already getting plans together to starting my own site to market my inventory, and also taking advantage of other online selling sites. I hope to eventually phase eBay out completely, unless they repent and fire this terrible management.
Can you believe it! All of that, and they still are limiting the number of items I can list in certain categories! GET REAL EBAY!!!
Eventually, I just changed the category but kept everything else the same. It worked and I was able to list my item (but not in the category I originally chose). So it all worked out in the end anyways. The point is, eBay is really going crazy with all the restrictions. It is nothing but a hassle. It is a hassle dealing with the occasional pain-in-the-you-know-what customers I get from time to time. It is pain dealing with feedback. It is a pain shipping. It is a pain dealing with all the new policies they come up with weekly. And now it is even a pain to list an item!
Gee, I wonder why poor eBay keeps going down in traffic, listings, and revenue? Poor eBay. Not.
The truth is, it has terrible management right now. If a proven Silver PowerSeller who obeys all the “rules” can’t list an item because I have “too many similar items in a category”, when they are a business, who in the world can? Sheesh!
Anyways, just thought I would share. I am going to work on spreading my inventory across several selling sites. eBay is just getting worse and worse, and they don’t even realize the problems!
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Posted under Making Money, Policies, eBay
This post was written by Ben on April 29, 2009
