America, Home of the Brave

“Americans” aren’t a particularly smart bunch.  Our offspring are among the stupidest worldwide.  It’s pretty easy to trick us.  We’re too busy to read the fine print.  We would rather pay less now, no matter how much it will cost later.  Credit card debt, Columbia House, and the Ab Rocker are a testament to that fact.  EBay has figured this out and takes advantage of our collective inability to reason and process calculations in our brains every chance it gets.  EBay isn’t alone.  All publicly traded companies are out to extract as much revenue as possible.   Today’s “Lowest Fees Ever” announcement is just another example of eBay cleverly masking fee increases and complicated changes with propaganda and slick headlines.

The Five Free Insertion Fee Scam

Several months ago, eBay came out with their most successful “fee decrease that’s actually an increase” yet.  The way you can tell if an eBay “sale” is a good one is by how much time they give you to prepare for it and how long it lasts.  This is true of most stores.  “Black Friday” ads, for example, come out on Thanksgiving Day and the best deals usually only last a few hours on Friday.  Prices found on page nine of the weekly Best Buy Ad in August are rarely as good.  When eBay announces a one day sale, often times less than 24 hours before it starts, there’s a good chance there might actually be some savings.  I still don’t recommend listing during eBay promotions, because they’re usually run during the slowest times of the year and eBay is usually flooded with crap, but at least there’s a decent opportunity to list some items with potential savings.  The way we know the “Five Free Insertion Fee” promotion is a sour deal for sellers is because it’s lasted for almost a year.  EBay is not in the business of losing money and there is an ulterior motive behind every listing promotion and policy change.

Although the “up front” cost of these “free listings” is zero, the final value fee of 8.75% almost always makes these listings more expensive than had the seller simply paid the regular insertion and final value fees.  Ask yourself this question.  Would I rather pay 3.5% in taxes or 8.75% in taxes?  Unless you really love supporting public education, the answer is 3.5%.  On eBay’s “five free listings” you’re paying the 8.75% rate on those listings when you could be paying 3.5% instead.  Read all about the particulars if you’re interested at EBay’s Five Free Listings Promotion Costs Sellers More Money.  Oddly enough, probably 97% of people listing on eBay think that the “free insertion fee promotion” is one of the best deals on the internet.

Changes to Auction Pricing

EBay is touting its new fee structure for auctions as “easy” because final value fees are 9% no matter the closing price.  This is different than the current structure, where final value fees decrease as auction price increases.  For example, if your item sold for $50, the final value fee on the amount from $0-$25 is 8.75%, or $2.19 and the final value fee on the amount from $25.01 to $50 is 3.5%, or 88 cents.  Confusing, I know.  Although the current variable rate structure is certainly more complicated than a flat rate, it is also much cheaper than a flat rate, as 3.5% is obviously much less than 8.75%.  I would rather be confused and pay less than be enlightened and pay more.  There’s also plenty of fee calculators out there that will tell you exactly how much your PayPal and eBay fees will be in any possible scenario.  Here’s a chart I stole from eBay User exclusively_red_tag showing the new final value fees compared with the current fees.

As we can see, the new final value fees are as much as 141% higher than the old fees.  If you sold say, 100 items a month for an average of $50, your new final value fees would add up to $450, or 9% of your $5000 revenue.  If you sold the same amount of items under current conditions, your final value fees would add up to $306, or 6.12%.  There is no way to make up this $144 difference in insertion fee savings.  Multiply that $144 a month by 12 months in a year and you have a fee increase of $1728 annually.  No vacation in 2010.

I guess I should mention that sellers without an “eBay Store” will have the insertion fee waived on up to 100 listings that start at 99 cents or less.  Listings that start at 99 cents or less cost a whopping 10 to 15 cents each at current prices. The total potential savings on insertion fees for a seller that lists all 100 “free” items at 99 cents or less is $15.  Based on the chart above, it’s not particularly difficult to rack up an extra $15 in final value fees on just a single item.  This would negate any potential savings instantaneously.

But There Is Another Fee Structure Too

If the new fee structure is “easy” then that means the old fee structure, used for the last decade plus, was uneasy.  Luckily, eBay will let us continue to use the more complicated, uneasy fee structure.  For a price.  EBay store subscribers have a separate final value fee structure for auctions that looks conspicuously similar to the old structure.  Of course, these fees have also gone up, but not nearly as much.  Does it seem like this is starting to get a little complicated to anyone else?  Multiple fee structures?  “Free” listings for some, but not for others?  Paying money for a store subscription merely for the chance at saving money in fees?  Things are starting to get a bit more interesting.

This is what auction final value fees will look like for store subscribers come April:

Let’s compare that with the current chart.

EBay is being even trickier than usual with this little picture.  If you look closely, eBay has expanded the 8.75% final value fee level from $25 all the way up to $50.  This means that instead of paying the current 3.5% on the price from $25.01-$50, you’ll be paying the full 8.75% fee.  Remember our $50 item example from earlier, where the first $25 cost $2.19 in fees, but the second $25 only cost 88 cents?  In April, each $25 increment will cost $2.19, for a total fee of $4.38, instead of the current $3.06.  The final value fee is also going up one half percent to 4% over $50 and 2% over $1000.

Let’s look at the stolen chart to see how this affects listings beginning in April.

At least there aren’t any numbers in the triple digits.  Unfortunately, the percentage increase is the highest on auctions ending between $25 and $50.  Many of the items I sell fall into this range, as I have found it’s a sweet spot for many buyers who aren’t willing to spend any more on a site full of fraud and counterfeits.  EBay is a bit like gambling; never buy something for more than you’re willing to throw away.

When Opening An EBay Store Make Sense

It seems that subscribing to an eBay store is going to make a lot of sense here pretty soon.  I will go over the benefits of the store subscription along with the potential fee savings and costs in the next couple of days.

Conclusion

I think this is the greatest fee hike I’ve ever seen.  What’s annoying is that somehow eBay plays it off like their fees are getting lower – and people believe them.  When is the last time Starbucks raised prices 141% and somehow managed to convince people the prices were their lowest ever?  I’m not a big whiner, but I don’t like being treated as though I’m as stupid as my aptitude tests say I am.

We know eBay’s “fee decrease” is really an increase.  We know nothing eBay ever does is in our best interest.  But you’ve got to give them credit.  The “royal we” seems to be getting smaller and smaller.

Until next time, sell some stuff before it’s really gonna cost you.

Introduction and Previous Correspondence (We Have Been Through This Already)

My second favorite PayPal policy is the 21 Day Payment Hold (referred to as 21DPH when I’m feeling lazy).  It might seem odd that I have a list of my favorite PayPal policies taped over the pictures of my three least favorite grandchildren (just kidding Isabella, Madison, and Olivia although I do really wish you were boys), but when I say I live, breathe, and die PayPal I’m not kidding.  If you’re unfamiliar with the 21 Day Hold, I have covered the topic in unnecessary length at PayPal 21 Day Payment Hold – What It Is And How To Deal With It.  In short, when the 21DPH is activated, PayPal holds most or all of a seller’s payments for up to 21 days.  While the payment is “on hold” the seller is unable to withdraw the funds or use them to send payments, pay for shipping, etc.  As we can all imagine, this is quite upsetting to just about everyone who is hit with the hold.

Why, Why, Oh Why???????????????

PayPal processes well over 60 billion dollars a year from almost 200 million different accounts.  Although the great majority of PayPal users are legitimate humans with legitimate addresses, bank accounts, and credit cards, there are also many accounts created by users wanting nothing more than to defraud and steal from as many people as possible.  The defrauding of others often costs PayPal a great deal of money.  By my last count, there are 3,913 different ways of defrauding eBay buyers using PayPal.  When a seller has withdrawn all of their funds to their bank account and closed the bank account, PayPal has no immediate way of accessing the seller’s funds.  PayPal may choose to refund buyers who are defrauded, even when PayPal can’t recover the funds from the seller.  I have on good authority that this process is called the “Pot Of Gold Refund Ceremony.”  Although I do have camera phone footage of this ceremony taking place, I am unfortunately sworn to secrecy and cannot provide the footage at this time.  By holding a seller’s payments until PayPal can verify the buyer has either received the item or is happy with it, PayPal is in much less danger of having to refund buyers from their own pocket because the money is available in the seller’s account.

The general consensus is that PayPal holds payments in order to collect interest.  It is true that PayPal has access to more than three billion dollars at any given time and payment holds will only increase that amount.  However, I believe the real reason that PayPal is expanding the 21DPH (21 Day Payment Hold) is because eBay has recently moved dispute resolution from PayPal to eBay.  Previously, with PayPal disputes, PayPal would usually hold the buyer’s payment once a dispute was initiated.  This guaranteed that PayPal would have access to the seller’s funds and was not in any danger of performing the “Pot Of Gold Refund Ceremony.”  With eBay Dispute Resolution, PayPal does not hold the funds of a specific transaction that is being disputed by the buyer.  This gives the seller time to withdraw all of their money from PayPal.  EBay will still refund the buyer if they win the dispute, even if eBay is not able to recover the funds from the seller’s PayPal account.  Thus, PayPal is holding on to more sellers’ payments in order to lessen the chances that a seller will drain their account and not reimburse eBay and PayPal for the cost of the dispute.

Not Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!??11!

Yes, you.  The rumor is that all sellers will be subjected to the hold policy soon.  Many sellers, some of whom have 100% positive feedback numbering in the thousands, have been complaining that their accounts have been hit with payment holds over the last few days.  Before December 2009, most sellers that had 21DPH were either new or low volume sellers or had low Detailed Seller Ratings.

According to Paypal, they hold payments for sellers who meet any of the following conditions:

• You have been an eBay member for less than 6 months, and you sell an item for more than $100, or
• You have an eBay feedback score of less than 100, and you sell an item for more than $100, or
• You have a Buyer dissatisfaction percentage^** 5% or greater than 5%, or
• You have an average Detailed Seller Rating (DSR) of less than 4.5, or
• You have received fewer than 20 Detailed Seller Ratings in the last 12 months, or
• You are listing your item in a high-risk category such as gift certificates, video games, cell phones, computers or consumer electronics.

Paypal will stop holding payments if you meet these criteria:

• You have been an eBay member for 6-months or more, and
• Your total Feedback score is 100 or greater, and
• Your Buyer dissatisfaction percentage^** is less than 5%.

Or

• Your average DSR is 4.5 or greater and
• Your have received 20 or more DSRs in the last 12-months
• Your buyer dissatisfaction percentage is less than 5%

PayPal doesn’t know you (unless you’re Buy.com), they don’t know your business, they don’t know how you operate, and they don’t know whether or not you’re plotting to screw(definition 22, thanks Henrietta) them.  Unfortunately, past behavior is not necessarily indicative of future behavior.  Many “good” sellers have gone “bad” over the years and PayPal and eBay have no idea who’s on first, let alone which sellers will snap at some point.  You’re not going to be able to convince them that you’re a nice Christian woman either.

On top of that, it really doesn’t take much to owe PayPal money and one does not necessarily have to set out to defraud others to be put in a position where “screwing” PayPal seems like the most logical solution.  Neither eBay nor PayPal Dispute Resolution is “fair.”  In fact, I think it would be fair to characterize them as decidedly “unfair” because buyers “win” just about every single dispute, no matter what the merits of the dispute may be.  There may be 3,913 ways to scam buyers, but there are more than 15,412 ways to scam sellers.  It is not uncommon for eBay to force a seller to refund a buyer’s payment in full even though the buyer has received the item or has not yet returned the item.  If eBay refunded $250 to the buyer for an item they did not return, would you then willingly reimburse PayPal $250, even though you were completely screwed out of both the item and the payment?  The answer is sometimes “No.”  PayPal does not want to put itself in a position where the seller has any choice in the matter, which is why they are expanding 21 Day Holds, possibly to every single eBay seller.

Whining

The most common argument against the hold is that once my item sells and my payment is received it becomes “my money.”  Technically, this is both true and not true whether the payment is held by PayPal or not.  The payment is not really yours until the buyer decides they aren’t going to open an item not received or item not as described dispute or otherwise wants to return the item.  At any time, for any reason, a buyer can open a dispute on any eBay purchase.  It doesn’t matter what the return policy is on the listing, or how accurate the listing is, or anything else.  All (unless you’re Buy.com) eBay sellers are at the mercy of the buyer.  This is true whether or not a seller’s account has payment holds activated.  Just because you are able to withdraw the money into the “safety” of your bank account does not mean Paypal will not remove the funds from your bank account if they deem it appropriate.  You agree to let them do this when you add your bank account to your PayPal account.  For this reason, all PayPal payment s are “on hold” until the buyer allows the seller to keep the payment issued.  Dealing with the 21DPH may be an unsettling hassle at first glance, but as I will explain later, it is relatively easy to get 95%+ of your payments released within 7 days of receiving them.

Misunderstanding

The biggest problem surrounding the 21DPH is that many sellers simply don’t understand it and certainly aren’t expecting it.  PayPal has never been particularly good at explaining policies and it is in their best interest to keep policies such as this “hush hush” so people aren’t aware they exist.  Imagine if there was a gigantic warning screen on the eBay home page that said, “PayPal will deny access to any funds collected on every single item sold on eBay for up to 21 days.  Any shipping costs will come out of your own pocket.  You may not withdraw funds or use them for any purpose until PayPal decides to release them.”  This is the Hold in a nutshell, but PayPal doesn’t want anyone to know that’s how it works.  Unfortunately, like any other secret, it only makes finding out about it that much worse down the line.

PayPal has changed the wording of the email sellers receive when a payment is on hold several times.  For one reason or another, each version gets more and more cryptic and the details become more and more unclear.  The email reads as follows:

You received a payment from eGovernator, Meg Whitman

This money is being temporarily held in your pending balance. It will be held for up to 21 days. While it’s being held, it won’t be available for withdrawal.

We’ll move the money to your available balance after 21 days as long as your buyer hasn’t reported a problem. It may be available sooner if we can confirm that the item was delivered or, if this is an eBay item, your buyer leaves positive feedback.

To get access to this money more quickly, please process this order right away and communicate with your customers early and often.

As you can see, PayPal does not explain the reasoning behind the hold or what specifically the seller can do to get their funds released sooner.  On top of that, there is also a nice dose of misinformation added for good measure.  Communicating with the buyer “early and often” will do nothing to get “access to the money more quickly,” unless the buyer leaves positive feedback.  Processing the order quickly may speed up the process, but as I explain in the next section, unless the seller prints their label directly with PayPal the funds may not be accessible until day 22 either.  PayPal has no idea when buyers “report a problem” to the seller directly.  PayPal will only continue to hold the funds if the buyer files a dispute with PayPal, which they would do regardless of whether or not the funds were originally on hold.

How To Turn the 21 Day Hold Into The 7 Day Hold By Just Doing It Right

The easiest way to get a payment hold released is by proving that the item has been delivered to the buyer.  Simply print shipping labels with PayPal and PayPal will automatically release 95% of payment holds two days after the Delivery Confirmation or tracking number shows that the item was delivered.  PayPal does not automatically release holds if the tracking or delivery information is manually added to PayPal or eBay.  This means that if you go to the Post Office to pay and ship packages and then come home to enter the tracking information, PayPal will not  release the hold because their system cannot track these packages automatically.  You can call PayPal and request them to release the hold on those payments, but I always recommend printing and paying for labels online with PayPal because it’s cheaper than the Post Office and easier to keep track of all the shipping information in one place.  Since shipping Priority Mail usually takes four days or less, you should be able to get most payments released within seven days of receiving payment if you diligently ship packages as payments are received.

PayPal will also release payments if the buyer leaves positive feedback.  First of all, do not require buyers to leave premature positive feedback before shipping an item or wait 21 days to ship the item so the payment will be released prior to shipping.  Many uneducated sellers try to do this and it will only lead to negative feedback and probably a quick eBay suspension or limited PayPal account.  I do not recommend hounding buyers to leave positive feedback either.  Although it is the quickest way to get a payment hold released, many buyers find emails from sellers requesting feedback annoying and few people who were not going to leave feedback will leave it after receiving a message begging them to.  Your feedback may also suffer, as an email might remind a buyer how much they hated the item and decide to leave negative feedback instead.  As I explain in my previous guide, the best way to ask a buyer to leave feedback is by sending them an email asking if they are satisfied with the item (without mentioning feedback).  This reminds buyers about the transaction and they are likely to leave positive feedback.  Plus, it shows that you care about the buyer so your Detailed Seller Ratings should improve as well.  Still, don’t expect a lot of responses because buyers who leave feedback generally do so quickly anyway, and those who do not leave feedback will not leave it, even if you threaten the lives of their children (been there – done that – do not recommend).

PayPal holds are also based on each eBay account, rather than the PayPal account as a whole.  For example, you are allowed to open as many eBay accounts as you want.  If you have been selling on one account and have 1,000 feedback and perfect DSR ratings and open a second eBay account to sell with, it is likely that the payments received on that second eBay account will be held as though you are a new seller.  This does not mean that you will receive holds on all of your eBay accounts; it simply means that PayPal doesn’t realize that the payments are coming from a trusted account.

Conclusion

The Twenty One Day Payment Hold looks like it’s a policy that will only expand to more sellers in 2010.  The policy is most upsetting because PayPal does not explain why the policy is in place or specifically how sellers can get their funds released as quickly as possible.  The bottom line is that PayPal does not want sellers to get their funds released any sooner than the full 21 days.  Sometimes I don’t think PayPal fully appreciates the implications of its policies.  Sure, PayPal might gain 1% interest on a few more dollars, but that pales in comparison to the hardship caused by holding excess funds from families that have to pay 35% interest on a credit card bill because PayPal arbitrarily decided to start holding payments for three weeks.  Their indifference is as absurd as it is appalling.

I have been a staunch advocate for the United States Postal Service ever since I was born in 1985.  My parents lament every Chanukah that my first sentence wasn’t “I love you, Mom and Dad,” but, “If it fits, it ships.”  In my opinion, the mail system can give the Great Wall of China, the Grand Canyon, or Dippin’ Dots a run for their money as the eighth Wonder of the World.  On what other planet can I put a four pound pair of shoes in a box, print out a label online with the weight mismarked as one pound so I pay less than $5, throw the box outside, tell the postman (or woman) vaguely where to find it, and have it delivered two days later to pretty much anywhere in the United States?  Not more than three I bet.  Plus, USPS loses like 10 billion dollars a year so I know I’m getting a great deal.

Unfortunatley, October has been a particularly tumultuous month for the Postal Service as they wrestle with whose lives will be ruined and whose lives will just be slightly inconvenienced by the closure of various Post Office stations and branches around the country (Please keep Factoria Mall open, thanks).  For those of us who don’t necessarily care who gets fired, the Great October USPS Track and Confirm Debacle (copyright pending) has been an even bigger inconvenience.

As first reported here on October 8th , domestic USPS Priority Mail labels printed at USPS.com were returning the incorrect Delivery Confirmation number on every single label for every single customer for three weeks (hi sonic).  On top of that, USPS.com was down in its entirety for half of Sunday October 18^th and USPS Track and Confirm was down intermittently for more than 48 hours between October 18^th and 20^th.  Let me just repeat this so I know we’re on the same page.  Every single label printed at USPS.com for three weeks listed the wrong Delivery Confirmation number after checkout.  For those of you who would like to remind me that there are hungry kids in China or I should be more concerned with the declining furry lemur population, let me just tell you that this month’s problems with USPS Delivery Confirmation rivals the civil unrest in Madagascar in my book.

People on eBay go nuts for ‘tracking numbers’.  Over the last three weeks, many professional and casual eBay sellers alike have been giving their buyers the wrong “tracking number” because USPS in turn gave them the wrong number.  As many of you are aware, “shipping time” and “communication” ratings on eBay greatly and directly affect a seller’s ability not only to list and sell items, but also the amount paid to eBay in seller fees.  This month’s problems with USPS Track and Confirm could potentially cost sellers millions of dollars in additional fees and huge losses in sales if just one or two of a seller’s buyers are confused by their “tracking number” saying that “There is no record of your item.”  You can’t blame buyers for being confused either, as the Delivery Confirmation number clearly states its bogus on the USPS.com website.  Every single Delivery Confirmation number on every single domestic Priority label printed at USPS.com appeared to be bogus for three entire weeks, confusing countless thousands of people.  Does this seem like a debacle yet?

On top of problems with buyers, I have to prove to PayPal that I deliver what I’m selling or PayPal will refund the buyer if they say they “didn’t receive the item.”  At the same time, if a buyer returns an item to me, they also have to prove to PayPal that I received it back.  All of this was completely impossible when USPS was returning the wrong Delivery Confirmation number.  I had several buyers input the Delivery Confirmation number that they received from USPS.com only to be denied refunds by PayPal because the number returned nothing but “There is no record of this item.”  I won’t be complaining about that since I was able to afford beer this week because of it, but I think you get the idea that this problem cost lots of people a lot of money.  I will whine about the dozens of buyers who were pestering me for the “right tracking number” or accusing me of “not shipping the item” though.  It was annoying.

I know what you’re thinking though; “Josh, this really is a fantastic website, but debacle is a little harsh and this rant is unnecessarily wrong.”  Well naysayer, USPS grossly mishandled this from the start.  First of all, the problem and its solution were obvious from the first minute of the first day.  USPS changed their algorithm from a 20 digit Delivery Confirmation number to a 22 digit Delivery Confirmation number.  No big deal, except no one decided to update the “system” with that information for three freaking weeks.  I failed Computer Science in high school which is why I sell crap on eBay in the first place, but this couldn’t be a difficult problem to fix.  Since we figured out that the numbers “94″ were missing from the beginning of every Delivery Confirmation number, why not program Track and Confirm to automatically add those numbers in front of any number that starts with 0505 or whatever other numbers were identified as having this problem?  Why not add a warning screen with this information when someone prints a domestic label with Delivery Confirmation or when a user logs in?  Why not announce it on the USPS “blog” or the USPS.com website?  The only thing I can figure out is that those in charge of the Postal Service didn’t realize how big of a problem this was, simply didn’t care, or actually are as incompetent as so many purport them to be.

Like many people, on October 7^th I emailed USPS at their desired address and inquired about the problem.  They assured me my problem was important and I should receive a response within 48 hours.  I received no response until this morning, approximately 384 hours later.  ECustomerCare National (ECCADUSER@usps.gov) sent me the following:

Dear Unfortunate Postal Service Customer Whom We Care “Very” Little About,

Thank you for contacting the United States Postal Service.  I understand that you have not been able to track your Priority Mail Delivery Confirmation items, since 9/30/2009.

I do apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.  When using Click-N-Ship tracking number, use usps.com to track the item, please add two digits “94″ to the beginning of the label ID. This workaround will provide tracking information on the label.

Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience this matter may have caused you.

REALLY USPS??!!!  REALLY??????

As one of the Post Office’s best customers (or worst I guess since they lose more money on me than most people????????)? I expect a more properly, better worded punctuation and, sentence structure with words and, punctuation.  In addition to this babble, I received the following email to my account registered with USPS (with editorial comments of what was going through my head while I read it):

Dear Customer We Still Don’t Care Much About(YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN),

Due to a technical issue (YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN), you may (I DID IDIOT CHECK THE 100K I’VE SPENT ON POSTAGE THIS YEAR) have experienced difficulty receiving Track & Confirm data for Click-N-Ship domestic Priority Mail labels printed between Thursday, October 1st, 2009 and Tuesday, October 20th, 2009(ACTUALLY I DIDN’T HAVE ANY PROBLEM RECEIVING IT JUST WHAT I RECEIVED WAS COMPLETELY WRONG FOR LIKE A !@#$ing MONTH MORONS MORONS MORONS).

If (AGAIN I DID) you generated a domestic Priority Mail label on Click-N-Ship within the indicated timeframe and have had difficulty with obtaining Track & Confirm data from USPS.com, we apologize for the inconvenience (I DON’T FEEL LIKE THIS IS A SINCERE APOLOGY). If you would still like to obtain Track & Confirm data for a domestic Priority Mail label printed between the dates indicated above, please follow the instructions below:

In the Track & Confirm field on usps.com, please add two (2) additional digits, “94″, to the left most position of the twenty (20) digit tracking/label number. For example, if the tracking/label # is 0550 1699 3200 0006 9161, the tracking/label # necessary to receive tracking data would be 940550 1699 3200 0006 9161 (IF YOU HAD SIMPLY VISITED THE #37 MOST POPULAR ONLINE WORDPRESS BLOG WITH AUCTION IN THE URL THEN YOU WOULD HAVE KNOWN THIS WEEKS AGO).

Additionally, your domestic Priority Mail tracking number(s) for labels printed within the date range above will be automatically corrected Thursday, October 22nd, 2009, and available in your Shipping History. Please feel free to visit www.usps.com/clicknship (OHHHHHHHHH REEEEEEAAAALLLLY).

Once again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, and we sincerely appreciate your business(OK NOW IT’S SINCERE FINALLY).

Thank you,

USPS Click-N-Ship Team

OVER THREE WEEKS TO COME UP WITH THIS LITTLE GEM?

The Postal Service’s failure to fix this problem in a reasonable amount of time is inexcusable.  Even more inexcusable than their inability to fix the problem is their lack of communication about it.  USPS’s problems this month cost me and a whole lot of other people a whole lot of money.  I can’t tell you how much because eBay still won’t tell me what ratings buyers are leaving (lol) or why they feel that way, but I’m sure ratings declined, fee discounts were erased, and listings were bured in search.   Even now, if the originally returned Delivery Confirmation number is inputted into Track and Confirm, it will still return “There is no record of this item.”  USPS may now return the correct Delivery Confirmation number, but it doesn’t make up for all the wrong that’s occured due to their inability to act or communicate.

That concludes my coverage of the Great October USPS Track and Confirm Debacle (copyright pending).  Good luck editing all those Delivery Confirmation numbers in PayPal and trying to convince your customers with an IQ of one that they need to put a “94″ before the number they previously received to make it work.

Until next time, Josh

One of the more amusing problems people have on eBay revolves around eBay’s use of anonymous emails from buyers.  Prior to purchase, a buyer may send a question to a seller about anything.  When the buyer sends the question they have the option to keep their email address private.  If the buyer selects this option and the seller tries to email the buyer back directly from the email they receive from eBay, they will see that the buyer’s email address is UseTheYellowButton@ebay.com.  This means that the seller has to click the yellow “Respond” button within the email if they want the buyer to receive a response.  A response emailed to UseTheYellowButton@ebay.com of course will not be received by anyone.  This is confusing to most new sellers.  A couple of years ago I caught my girlfriend responding to an email at UseTheYellowButton@ebay.com.  I asked her what she thought she was doing.  After I explained her mistake she said that it made a lot of sense because it seemed like none of her emails had been received by her buyers.  For more than three years eBay has tried to devise a system that will allow sellers to email the buyer directly while still keeping the buyer’s actual email address anonymous.  It seems like eBay has finally implemented such a system, although I have been drinking all weekend so it’s possible that I am confused, so don’t hold me to this one,ok?

On Friday evening I noticed that when I went to reply to a buyer’s email that their email address was s00-cnqabcgp8a@members.ebay.com.  This leads me to believe that eBay is trying to implement their anonymous email forwarding system as part of the October update.  EBay first tried to implement such a system in October of 2006.  Like most things eBay, it of course didn’t work and eBay nixed the entire program the following month.  It seems like they haven’t quite figured the system out in 2009 either, because after replying to the buyer’s question I received an email from failurenotice@members.ebay.com stating:

Your recent message to megwhitman was not sent because that member’s mailbox is not accepting messages. This could be for several reasons, including:

• The email address is no longer valid
• The member’s mailbox is full
• The member’s email server is not working
• The member’s email provider is blocking messages

You can still send the member a message through eBay. Here’s how:

1. Click on the member’s user ID anywhere it appears on the site.
2. You will see the member’s Feedback page. Click “Contact member”.
3. Enter your message in the form and click “Send”.

For assistance, please contact eBay Customer Support at: http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_us/_base/index_selection.html

Thanks,

eBay

Interestingly, none of the reasons mentioned for failure were “EBAY IS RETARDED SO SRRY TRY AMAZON OR SOMEFING.”  It’s possible they’re still tweaking the failure email as well.

If eBay can actually figure out the anonymous email system it would be a step in the right direction.  I’m sure eBay gets really annoyed with the six million daily emails they get from confused eBayers at UseTheYellowButton@ebay.com.  One might assume eBay would want to limit the failures they’ll be experiencing over the next few weeks with all of the October changes coming, but it appears that they don’t think there’s much of a difference between 1,000 failures and 1,001 failures.  I suppose I am inclined to agree.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my seven loyal readers for making September the most visited month ever for AuctionCope Auction Blog.  It looks like we’ll be over 2,500 unique visitors for the month.  Until next time, Josh

You’ll have to excuse the following rant.  I know I promised not to do this, but it’s just so fun I can’t always help myself.  I intended to write about how to return an eBay item and that is my next planned article, but I think the following will form a solid foundation for exactly what I’ll be talking about.

The biggest problem with eBay is inherent in its construction.  It has always existed.  It will always exist. The problem isn’t Paypal, it isn’t CEO John Donahoe, it isn’t Ex-CEO-Never-Gonna-Happen-For-Governor Meg Whitman, and it isn’t whatever new policy is currently being touted as “the worst ever.”  The problem with eBay is that it’s impossible to trust whoever it is that you’re conducting business with.  When I say “impossible,” what I mean is that you shouldn’t trust whoever it is you’re dealing with on eBay.  I’ve had the following conversation with people at least five or six times:

josh@auctioncope.com: “My suggestion is to never buy anything on eBay.”

Person 2: “Why?  Isn’t that what you do?”

josh@auctioncope.com: “Imagine the person you trust least in this world.  Now imagine you don’t know them, they live 1,500 miles away, and you just sent them $700 with a service you can’t even begin to understand.  That’s eBay in a nutshell.”

I think eBay is beginning to realize that people don’t trust eBay.  I don’t mean sellers can’t trust eBay or eBay is an evil company.  What I mean is that people don’t believe eBay.com is a safe place to go to spend their money.  This is why eBay has been bringing in Buy.com, General Motors, and offering those “Daily Deals” every non-featured seller hates so much.  EBay is trying to boost confidence and regain people’s trust by offering products from companies and sellers that it knows will deliver the item as advertised.

To further my point about trust, two weeks ago eBay tried a new stunt.  They put a huge “flash sale” banner on the eBay homepage and an icon on the navigation bar with a link to an eBay store run by “ideeli,” who only had 22 feedback at the time.  Many sellers were up in arms over what they considered to be gross preferential treatment and hypocrisy.  After all, how could a seller with 25 transactions be featured on the eBay homepage while sellers with 50,000 feedback are buried in “Best Match” search?  Read the full story at Auctionbytes . The bottom line is that eBay checked out and trusted ideeli to follow through with their promise to supply buyers with low prices, offer free shipping, and provide great customer service.   In fact, I’m sure there was a lengthy contract signed by ideeli that this is exactly the service they would provide.   This is, after all, precisely how eBay wants every seller to behave.  The unfortunate reality is that low prices, free shipping, and great customer service are rarely achieved in any business environment, let alone a relatively anonymous auction website.

EBay’s answer to the “trust problem” has been an increase in eBay suspensions and Paypal limitations.  If anything, these suspensions and limitations cause sellers to go “underground,” registering with fake information and resorting to shadier selling practices.  Once a seller loses their account and is forced to reregister under an alias or family member’s name, there is much less at stake for the seller.  With relatively little to lose, the motivation for doing a good job decreases as sellers become less interested in providing services they once were proud of.  Furthermore, many sellers (and buyers) on eBay operate numerous UserIDs.  It is not uncommon for a seller to operate a dozen or more accounts at the same time.  I recommend registering multiple IDs in a number of my guides because if something happens to one account – like a negative feedback or unauthorized listing removal – it is easy to switch to another account without those problems.  Although this might be good for the seller in the short term, it certainly doesn’t make the eBay marketplace any safer.  Imagine if Enron could have just switched their name and continued going about doing business in the same exact fashion without anyone knowing they were the same company.  In essence, this is exactly what eBay is allowing sellers to do every day of the week.

How Can eBay Regain the Trust of Buyers and Sellers?

Luckily, this isn’t my problem and it would be a waste of time to go on about all the changes I think eBay should make.  Plus, being negative all the time is a lot more fun than trying to help people or provide any answers to problems.

Until next time,

Josh