New seller trying to navigate this site

[johnwash1]

...

I get the feeling that the majority of people don’t want communication, they prefer want the sales to be distant and anonymous unless something goes wrong with the order.

Well that's just sad. Will humanity end up with everyone in little Japanese-style capsule hotel rooms? All isolated while our AI-powered robot overlords communicate with one another and we play Angry Birds on our tablets 24x7. How bleak.

Maybe we need to do some statistical testing. Sending different messages to buyers and seeing which result in best engagement. Such experiments need large numbers of course... ah, need more sales!

I did make a sale today on the other side, only a couple of quid after postage, but it all helps with the clearout. @BittyBoy, don't be proud, it's worth listing both places, and the flyer you include with any sale will mention here, so it can all help. But I avoid making duplicate listings, it's too much hassle and risk remembering to delete obsolete listings, and you need different titles on such duplicates or search engines mark you down. Allegedly.

[SCcoins]

It is the bad actors who have ruined it I think. So many people have been stung online they probably think it’s better to be cautious and not reply. That happens often and then I get nice feedback once the item arrives so it restores my faith in humanity a bit 😅.

I’ve tried lots of different ways of messaging over the years. The briefer the better unfortunately. A family member of mine who sells online as well says I over communicate just by messaging to say when I am posting. They think there is no need to do it at all, that I should just post the item and move on.

I share the caution over AI. One recently tried blackmail to avoid being shut off haha.

[Bittyboy101]

It's now obvious eBay still seems to be working better than here (eBid) in delivering regular sales only because they are so well known and do a lot of heavy advertising constantly promoting their platform.

I really do not like eBay Simple Delivery with only 2 poor courier options of EVRi or Royal Mail Tracked 48, Does anyone know if it is possible to bypass this stupid restrictive Simple Delivery nonsense and just offer Free Delivery and then send with Royal Mail Special Delivery at my cost ?

Does eBay still have the drop down box where you can manually enter the tracking number on a sold item ?

So sorry eBid but I've been here for many months now but your platform doesn't seem to be working for me and the niche items I normally sell with great success on eBay are not selling on here.

Self promotion is hard and I don't have a clue how to manually promote myself as I am used to having this done for me without needing to do anything after submitting my listing until it sells !

[SCcoins]

Creating business policies still seems to work. I don’t use my private account but I could override SD if I wanted to. I’m sure they will close the loophole soon.

Other users are just ignoring the SD label and then sending items their own way. Again, it may work but eBay aren’t going like it, it isn’t a long term solution.

Honestly, I would just use simple delivery. Let the buyer choose Evri or RM, you’re covered. There is no need to cost yourself £10+ in postage when your buyer can just pay around £3 or so. If a parcel goes missing or gets damaged, you and buyer are fully covered. I can understand people not liking it who send large items, breakables etc, but with your items it is so risk free I think you need to take the handbrake off with the postage side of things and not worry about it.

[Bittyboy101]

Cheer SP.

I'll bare this in mind.

I've heard that eBay are no longer allowing the removal of neg feedback, Is this true in a case where the seller has been forced to use Simple Delivery and something has gone wrong like where the courier failed to deliver the item on time to the buyer or they lost/stole it and the buyer left neg feedback because they were unhappy/disappointed ? Would eBay remove such bad feedback under their seller protection policy stated they give when a seller uses their Simple Delivery to send the item off to their buyer ?

If no to any of these, then either I will make another dummy account to sell on eBay with or I'll just forget it as I have had my original eBay account since November 2004 with no negative or neutral feedback after 6106 transactions and no problems with sellers or buyers to date. I really don't want to lose this just because eBay have now made daft changes of making Simple Delivery compulsory for me against my wishes.

[SCcoins]

If you speak to the right eBay CS agent I would expect to get it removed. It all depends how the buyer words it.

Ok so hypothetically, if you get negative feedback for late delivery and eBay won’t remove it. All you do is reply and point out the obvious, you used the courier label that the buyer chose and dispatched on time. Any sensible person would realise the buyer is unreasonable and disregard it.

The problem with these what if’s is yes things can go wrong but the only way to avoid problems is be not selling anything at all. You can’t have it all your own way unfortunately, it’s their platform they make the rules.

[SCcoins]

Just to add, I have a generic postage policy of ‘other 48 courier’ on the other site. Buyers don’t know who I’m going to use because I don’t know sometimes until I know how much they paid and where their location is. I offer extra options for Royal Mail Tracked 24 and Special Delivery. 1 person has paid the upgrade ever, that’s it.

In over 1000 sales of that policy, one person moaned that I used Evri and then backed down on it when I explained my reasoning. The item arrived undamaged. Never had a negative feedback for it. I have never had a negative for a late delivery when the buyer can see I did everything I could to send on time and it was out of my hands.

I am terrible for procrastination and seeing risks in everything. I also know it is even worse to let those dictate what you do and be frozen into inactivity.

[leadhillsonline]

Well that's just sad. Will humanity end up with everyone in little Japanese-style capsule hotel rooms? All isolated while our AI-powered robot overlords communicate with one another and we play Angry Birds on our tablets 24x7. How bleak.

Maybe we need to do some statistical testing. Sending different messages to buyers and seeing which result in best engagement. Such experiments need large numbers of course... ah, need more sales!

I did make a sale today on the other side, only a couple of quid after postage, but it all helps with the clearout. @BittyBoy, don't be proud, it's worth listing both places, and the flyer you include with any sale will mention here, so it can all help. But I avoid making duplicate listings, it's too much hassle and risk remembering to delete obsolete listings, and you need different titles on such duplicates or search engines mark you down. Allegedly.

I'm a recluse, prefer silence and hated being in a hospital room with 3 other patients and escaped as soon as I could.

Not interested in messages from sellers or buyers that is why I became an online seller in the first place.

[Bittyboy101]

@ SCcoins

Thanks so much for your detailed reply and for the valid points which I shall consider if I am to get anything sold on eBay once again.

Yes, I've noticed that if you phone up eBay and get a male Irish or Scottish customer service agent they are always very helpful and make a genuine effort to go out of their way to try and resolve the issue.

It's really sad though as I really wanted eBid to work for me because I hate eBay for all the unnecessary awful changes they have now made which has now ruined my enjoyment and selling experience on there... I really feel very strongly about this and the last thing I wanted to do was to admit defeat and come back crawling to eBay for them to dictate and rule my life again !

...but with no other online selling platform half as good as eBay... It doesn't look like I have much choice.

Hopefully the 24 hour payments would be of great help to me as I always need the money urgently to keep my low bank balance from going into the red overdrawn status.

I still want to know if there is a way round bypassing this awful Simple Delivery thing on eBay... If anyone has sold anything on there recently do they still give the option for the seller to add the tracking number manually to the sold item for it to update eBay and the buyer with the tracking number ?

The reason why I want to know this is because if eBay still allow private sellers to use the "Add tracking" option in the drop down menu for a sold item, I could do "free postage" and then just post at the Post Office counter as normal and then update eBay with the tracking number from the receipt for Royal Mail Special Delivery so that I also have full protection as a seller without having to rely on eBay and their dodgy delivery services to protect me if the worst was to happen...

Thanks for any info !

[Bittyboy101]

I'm a recluse, prefer silence and hated being in a hospital room with 3 other patients and escaped as soon as I could.

Not interested in messages from sellers or buyers that is why I became an online seller in the first place.

As a matter of fact, I always send my buyer(s) a courtesy message thanking them for their sale(s) and informing them when I will be posting their item(s) and asking if this will be alright with them ? so they know what's going on and when they should expect their item(s) to be delivered.

About 3 out of 5 buyers appreciate my reassuring communication letting them know in a short friendly message what is happening and they do reply with "That's fine" or "Perfect !" Whilst there are some buyers who are very reserved and prefer not to engage in "small talk" with a seller they do not know. That's fine if they do not wish to reply, I respect this and will never hold it against them in anyway. I am just grateful that they chose my item to purchase and trusted me as a seller, so these buyers can't do anything wrong in my eyes and when they get the item and see how good it is, well they then communicate by leaving glowing positive feedback to say thanks !