Question
You should let your representative of the shipping courier you use know about your unhappiness with ebay telling your buyers the carrier's "delivery" times-when they themselves do not guarantee anything for the most part.
Here's a link to email USPS
http://hdusps.esecurecare.net/cgi-bi...nduser/ask.php
Here's the letter I wrote them.
I just wanted to let you know that ebay has added transit times for USPS in alot of the auction pages. Basically, it's almost like they are guaranteeing your delivery times. Sellers are up in arms and protesting, but evidently the customers of ebay don't matter to them. I'm hoping that as a bigger entity than us that maybe you can do something about this. I sell a little on ebay and if I get complaints I plan on giving the buyer ebay's contact info and yours as well since you are "co-branded" with ebay so both of you can take the fall-out from this.
This is a really really really stupid move on ebay's part as it is going to do nothing but foster ill-will towards the sellers, towards ebay, and towards YOU. And sellers will make sure they tell their buyers where the blame lies and it is NOT with them.
I certainly hope that ebay reconsiders this or at the very least you can make ebay reconsider this. Bad move for everyone.
Thanks,
Angelique
Answer
I'm not sure that any of them can regulate what ebay does or claims. But, it's worth a try and Thanks.
Ebay is getting so expensive now that I'm reconsidering other avenues on our web site instead. Maybe our own auction service or simply a text price list etc.
Pre New Year thoughts.
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Empires I decided about 3 years ago that Ebay was too expensive. That includes all the other problems that comes with the Ebay package. When I ceased using Ebay full time my gross dropped but my profit increased. Granted it takes a long time to get a successful website but well worth the effort. Since Thanksgiving our little 2 person operation has struggled to keep up with orders. I really don't put a lot of effort into it because it is sorta a hobby thing. If I had more product I would guess my sales would double. So my advice to you is start working on that website. By next Christmas season you should be getting decent sales. Meanwhile just keep reducing your Ebay items.
Mike
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Granted it takes a long time to get a successful website but well worth the effort. Since Thanksgiving our little 2 person operation has struggled to keep up with orders.
Mike I have no choice. The margins on ebay are terrible. We've been working on our ranking so far. BUT, really need to get a cart on there, the paypal or bidpay logos and then our products.
I stink at HTML (only because I don't know it yet). But, since I really don't see any need to pay ebay the money, I'd be better off spending it on a web site. And, yes I would imagine a drop off in sales but, I could also focus on the B & M at the same time. I have no shortage of product. I just lack ability to put all this product up. (A few hundred thousand items) literally.
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I use Mal's cart on one of my sites and it works well. The cart I use on my other sites I pay for but it really is not any better than Mal's free one. A little secret I learned when I started was to use the "view source" on other peoples websites to copy the html I needed. This is how I learned what little I know.
As for prices when you start adding products forget Ebay prices. You can just about double those. I can buy product on Ebay then double the price on my websites. The people that have gotten on Ebay and started dumping product have almost ruined it for everyone.
Mike
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I'd make a website but I don't know how to even begin. I've done geocities before, but that seems so different. Like how does one make a website where you click on an item and have it go into a cart? I haven't got a clue. It makes no sense to me. I know how to make a webpage out of word and insert pictures and write a description and upload it to geocities, but I don't have a clue how to make it so someone can click on the picture or what have ya and buy it. And if you get a webhost, how do you turn it into a website? Is there a file manager like geocities?
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Whoops, wrong website. But my thoughts still are the same lol.
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mysteriouscutie its not as hard as you think. As for getting a host I use Godaddy. You create your pages in "word" and upload them to Godaddy on a Ftp (free and easy to use). As for a cart you can use Mal's (free) and they use Paypal for credit cards or they send you a email for checks and money orders. To add the cart it's just a little html code that you add to each product.Here is a site created just as described above. http://www.wadeyeakle.com/Index.htm
Mike
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I went and looked because I really hadn't noticed these transit times. I sell. I buy. I don't see the big deal about it. When I'm mailing out a package, or I give the buyer a choice, I usually ALWAYS give the estimated delivery time. The only thing that I see is funky is the ETA for first class mail. I saw one that said 1-3 days. But the other times that I saw for priority, UPS, etc... those seem pretty accurate (except during peak times which most people know but buyers should be reminded of anyhow).
IMO, much ado about nothing