eBay Fall Seller Update: More Changes

 

The changes just keep on coming over at eBay. A couple of days ago I looked in my eBay messages and found some new changes coming this fall. As usual some made sense others not so much and some were just unnecessary. Lets break down the new changes:

[caption id="attachment_210" align="aligncenter" width="150"] eBay's New Top Rated Seller Plus Badge[/caption]

 

1.  New Seller Protections. Now before a buyer opens a case against a seller they will be required to send a message through eBay's messaging system and give the seller three days to respond. I've always wondered why they didn't do this as most sellers already state in their descriptions to contact them before opening a case. It's surprising how many buyers will open a case as soon as they can without ever notifying the seller. Which brings us to the second welcomed change. Opened cases will no longer count against your seller record only cases that were decided in the buyers favor. This is great news sometimes the seller has done nothing wrong and may be following his clearly stated policies and the buyer still opens a case. Now those cases won't count against you as they did before.


2. New Top Rated Plus Seller Badge. The old Top Rated Seller badge is being retired and being replaced with a fairly similar Top Rated Plus badge. Why? Because the economy is bad and graphic designers need work. Seriously this is the kind of thing that no one really cares about.


3. Ebay Fast and Free Logo. This logo will appear next to listings that offer four day shipping options and 1-day handling time and free shipping. So more than likely you won't be seeing it pop up all that often. eBay does realize that as sellers we have to pay for shipping and in the end that cost is passed on to consumers. To offer this kind of service would mean raising prices which pretty much destroys sales on eBay.


4. New Fees For Ending Auctions Early.  Starting in the fall there will be a fee for ending auctions early. If you list an item and someone bids on the item and then you cancel that auction you will be charge a fee equivalent to the FVF of the bid price. Now I see why eBay wants to discourage sellers from ending an auction early. Sellers have abused the system by cancelling items without valid reason. They list items and if it looks like they aren't going to get the price they want they will cancel the auction. The problem though is that sometimes sellers have legitimate reasons for ending the auction early especially if they sell on multiple venues. Sellers will now have to be on top on their inventory to make sure they don't end up paying extra fees.