Sellers that list and then don't come back

[FBNeNotes]

My My.... calm down. Food for thought is always good.. knowledge is King.
Penalize? I think not. The WEB is huge, good to know whats going on.

[deltadelta48]

Hmmm interesting discussion

I consider myself to be a "good" and "genuine" seller (although the dark side think otherwise and have given me a holiday based on the actions of 3 buyers last month) yet I rarely log in to eBid.

Simply reason I am rarely here is that without sales, (A) I ain't adding more inventory and (B) I have no admin to do.

In fact, I'm actuall thinking about removing all unique items to my own website and just leaving our "continuous supply" items running on here, with run till sold or relistx10x10-day, which would then mean I only need to visit every three and a half months, allowing me to do the serious re-coding on all my websites.

If questions or sales occur, I respond same day, but without them, there's no need for me to be using half my day trawling the forums and gossiping - I have other tasks that are pressing and urgent, and therefore forum participation is a rare play-time for me.

Yes, if the site made a requirement that sellers must log in every 30 days, I would do it - triggered from an auto-reminder set up off Outlook Calendar or similar, but it would be purely to fulfill the need to log in, and not to cause me to do some cuddling and tummy rubbing in the forums. If I feel the need to do that, I'll do it off my own initiative, not because there's a bot telling me to do so.

As for the list and run argument about good till Sold - are those really any different than the old style eNay shop listings? They don't clog up the front end of search and browse results, and they're not competing with auction rotation. Can't see the reason for griping on those.

Gaz

I see your point. You are busy, you are a seller here and elsewhere and time is valuable. Time is money. After you paid your fees and listed, no one said anything about checking in daily, signing in, having a clock recording when you last checked in etc. You know how to use your time wisely and are doing it.

Just because someone has to check in does NOT mean they will man their stores, answer questions promptly etc. As humans we are constantly looking at "getting around" rules. If there is a rule to check in once a week, they will check in, and leave. You will continue to have the same problem of unattended stores. A clock, a checkin, etc, will do nothing.

What sellers will listen to is closing down the items. Store is open for business, no one around, no one answering questions, no one sending out items when purchased, etc, so make the basic inquiries, emails, etc, and then just close it down. Simple.

And unless people start to report these unattended stores/listings, they will remain. There is a mechanism for closing these listings, report them. They will be closed in short order.

It is next to impossible to demand that ebid check all listings to make sure they are active, to make sure all sellers are active, to instantly close listings that seem inactive. That is a big job and mistakes will be made, time wasted, and good sellers will get mad. It probably will have to be done automatically, and just like on feebay, the robots often got it wrong and did stuff they were not supposed to do. Again and again, no one could explain why the mistakes were done and no one was given the job of reinstating or investigating what went wrong. A mess. Do we want that kind of mess here?

[johnwash1]

It's a problem that ebid themselves have to face up to. I daresay they are worried about a drop in the number of listings, but it seems a little pointless chasing worthless numbers if it is detracting from the site. I suggest they write to dormant sellers and institute the required regular login that everyone has suggested.

Everyone? Everyone???

Well, certainly I haven't suggested it, and I would be very strongly opposed to it. I've been handling email for 16 years, I still do it promptly, I believe. And I hope to continue doing so until such time as ill-health or insanity prevents me!

Even on the rare occasions when I'm travelling, there are few parts of the world where it's impossible to find an internet cafe.

So what's wrong with the present system, notifying me by email when I get a question or make a sale? If there's a problem with incompetent sellers, don't seek to fix it by loading work onto good sellers.

I agree strongly with the comments Gazlannathai has made.

[astral276]

How long do you give a seller to sell? What do you consider is a reasonable time to allow for a seller to supply an invoice after a sale? I have bought n item off eBid and don't really see why I should have to wait days or weeks before the seller deigns to contact me or that I should have to chase around trying to get them to communicate.

[oaktreesports]

How long do you give a seller to sell? What do you consider is a reasonable time to allow for a seller to supply an invoice after a sale? I have bought n item off eBid and don't really see why I should have to wait days or weeks before the seller deigns to contact me or that I should have to chase around trying to get them to communicate.

I may be unrealistic, but I expect a seller to contact me within 24 hours unless it's a weekend.

If I'm not going to be available for a few days I will put a notice up saying just that. If a seller doesn't want to check their auctions daily, then they should let the buyer know how often they do check. Notices are very easy to do.

[oaktreesports]

I see your point. You are busy, you are a seller here and elsewhere and time is valuable. Time is money. After you paid your fees and listed, no one said anything about checking in daily, signing in, having a clock recording when you last checked in etc. You know how to use your time wisely and are doing it.

Just because someone has to check in does NOT mean they will man their stores, answer questions promptly etc. As humans we are constantly looking at "getting around" rules. If there is a rule to check in once a week, they will check in, and leave. You will continue to have the same problem of unattended stores. A clock, a checkin, etc, will do nothing.

What sellers will listen to is closing down the items. Store is open for business, no one around, no one answering questions, no one sending out items when purchased, etc, so make the basic inquiries, emails, etc, and then just close it down. Simple.

And unless people start to report these unattended stores/listings, they will remain. There is a mechanism for closing these listings, report them. They will be closed in short order.

It is next to impossible to demand that ebid check all listings to make sure they are active, to make sure all sellers are active, to instantly close listings that seem inactive. That is a big job and mistakes will be made, time wasted, and good sellers will get mad. It probably will have to be done automatically, and just like on feebay, the robots often got it wrong and did stuff they were not supposed to do. Again and again, no one could explain why the mistakes were done and no one was given the job of reinstating or investigating what went wrong. A mess. Do we want that kind of mess here?

Even if a seller had to check in weekly, will the buyer be satisfied to wait a week?

I think sellers just need to be educated to check their email regularly.

It should be fairly easy for Ebid to send auto emails to all sellers asking them to click on a link to show that they are still active. No response to 3 emails and their account could be put on hold until the seller responds.

I really like Ebid's policy of free listings and auto-relist and would hate to lose it.

[buckhysen]

The way I see it, the simple fact is.... If you are a seller and you receive All emails (i.e. No problems from site sending you emails) from a site like Ebid, or Eb*y for that matter, then there is NO excuse for not answering questions promptly. At the very most 2/3 days if you are away or very busy. The only exception I see to this is if you are on holiday and keep your shop open (Which I know some do) but even then the common sense thing to do is have a notice to inform customers of this.

Seller's who regularly don't reply to reasonable questions, whether they log in regularly or not will soon see their business fail and shouldn't be selling IMO.

[JaBek1]

I must admit that I like get things paid for as soon as possible after the close of an auction when I'm buying so it is annoying to have to wait for a seller to invoice. Most of the time I'll just use the checkout and pay without an invoice. (Probably not really a good practice on my part.) But I think the seller should invoice by the end of the next business day.

Of course, in today's world what constitutes the end of a business day is a bit blurred so let's just say 5pm M-F (excluding Holidays) in the sellers time zone. That I would consider a reasonable time to expect the seller to invoice.

Regarding depending on email for notification, I'm afraid I don't have that much faith in email providers and the security provided by them. While it's nice to get notifications, there is too much of a chance for things to go awry relying on email alone. That's just my opinion of course.

Regardless of how you think the situation should be handled, eBid needs to address the issue before too many potential members decide that it isn't worth their effort to visit the site if the sellers themselves don't.

Dennis

[astral276]

After a bit more checking (which I maybe should have done before buying) the seller hasn't logged in since May and were last seen on eB@y in February and are now a NRU there. I'll give them 7 days and send a 3rd. invoice request, though I am not hopeful, if no response in 24hrs. I will then consider the transaction void, neg them and report to admin.

[FBNeNotes]

After a bit more checking (which I maybe should have done before buying) the seller hasn't logged in since May and were last seen on eB@y in February and are now a NRU there. I'll give them 7 days and send a 3rd. invoice request, though I am not hopeful, if no response in 24hrs. I will then consider the transaction void, neg them and report to admin.

Yikes... you still want to buy from a seller like that, ouch.