eBay UK - Unneccesary seller bashing - again” />With their typical aggravating timing, eBay UK have dropped another “Friday Bombshell” on their seller community.
This morning (UK time) they threw a new policy into the mix, forcing business registered sellers to accept customer returns for any reason the customer chooses, for up to 14 days after delivery. The announcement claims this policy is to force business sellers to comply with existing UK legislation, but typically ignores those sellers outside of the EU, leaving them in limbo as to whether the policy applies to them or not.
This unilateral declaration by the UK management is not echoed on other EU sites (yet) and fails to provide the caveats present on the US site.
US buyers are warned when goods are located in another country, and reminded that different laws may apply from that country, in respect of purchases and shipments made from there, and to shipping insurance and effects on statutory rights.
Given the excessive whipping that eBay UK has been giving it’s sellers for the last 12 months, I now emphatically recommend all sellers wishing to continue using eBay, to move your account registration off the UK site, to one that attempts to take less control of its sellers’ businesses.
There is a world of difference between a company that refuses to assist sellers by declaring itself as “only a venue” (when it suits them), and one which directly interferes with all sellers business management by introducing disadvantaging policies in the name of law enforcement. I fully expect eBay’s most fee-expensive site (the UK) to follow eBay Australia in introducing the “PayPal + COD only” policy within the next few months, and also expect such a move to be the end of eBay UK as the kingdom’s largest online auction site.
UK law states that under the Distance Selling Regulations (real-DSRs), a buyer has seven days to have a change of mind and return an item for refund. eBay UK have introduced in their policy that buyers have fourteen days to do so. I know what they’re up to here, and it is exceptionally underhanded.
By posting this policy on a friday (on the announcements board), it will allow time for the inevitable furore to erupt, be debated, and then subside upon the community decision to force eBay to back down and amend the policy down to seven days in accordance with the law. This is exactly what happened the last time eBay UK forced a new policy through and tried to use UK law to justify it.
Yup, very devious eBay, by doing it in this manner, you distract seller anger from the very fact of a totally unneccesary policy echoing and extending existing legislation, and give them the focus of a hollow victory by making you back down on the extra seven days, much like you did with the compulsory display of business addresses in all listings…. of course, if you weren’t so paranoid, you could have completely avoided the need for that addressing policy, by allowing business sellers to link to the “About us & contact info” pages on their own websites.
For registration purposes, I recommend British sellers now use eBay Singapore if you are not EU based- all sales into sites giving DSR-based invoice discounts also qualify for all Singapore based PowerSellers listing directly onto them.
Move your account registration onto the USA site if you’re European resident. Your fees invoice will thank you for it, especially if you use eBay shops/stores heavily (insertion fee of 2 - 5 cents and gallery free, with no price tranching due to multiple item listings - individual item price sets the fee - just like it used to be on eBay UK).
Selling on the US has, in terms of cost to market size, become not only the cheapest of the fee-charging sites, but also the most cost effective in terms of expectable return on listing investment, and that’s despite their collapsing economy. Remember also that the US site has the International Visibility Fee system if you want to absolutely ensure your items remain visible in the UK or Eire.
Over the last 15 months, I’ve seen a steady growth in sales into the US and Canada, due to listing on the US site, and an initial trickle has grown into a steady flow of sales to all parts of the EU, because of the American listings. That combined USA & non-UK European GMV, this year, has been greater than that from the UK on two of the three full months so far, and by year end (even without moving accounts) I’d expect that to be a constant, based on current data.
If this new policy is the straw upon the camel’s back for you, then please remember what I keep repeating about competitive dilution. Depending on where you’re located, if you’re going to move off eBay altogether, then go where the greatest momentum is concentrated. In the UK that means go to eBid, in the US it probably means to OnlineAuctions (OLA), and if you’re in Australia then go to OZtion. Other than that, shift over to Amazon or another non-subsidiary of eBay.
During the next few months, I’ll be moving all my inventory to a combination of eBid, my own websites (yup - plural), and will be dabbling on Amazon to learn more about how to use it. I’ll also be looking for some niche auction sites to clear certain areas of the warehouse. Apart from that, all my eBay UK accounts are now intended to be closed down or transferred to other eBay sites outside of the EU.
Despite nothing in, or linked to from, eBay UK’s real-DSRs Returns Policy announcement being anything other than a reinforcement of the current laws within the UK, I do feel that eBay have gone too far this time, and there can no longer be tolerance or forgiveness for their interference in my business. Even though I already comply with, and exceed, the requirements of the laws in question, I do so through my choice to be a law-abiding trader. I certainly don’t want the just-a-venue-of-its-own-convenience ramming those laws down either my throat, or my customers’ throats - it removes the essential natural trust that pre-existed before eBay decided that sellers were vermin to be exterminated or turned into brainless drones servicing the corporate hive.
So that’s it eBay UK, it’s bye bye from us, and will probably be bye bye from yet another huge tranche of other sellers. Have you got any feet left to shoot in Richmond?
Ed
The July newsletter from UK-managed auction & stores network eBid is in, and the achievements are impressive.
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Starting at the end of June, all listings on 
. At least I’ll still be able to offer the UK an alternative to Amazon & 
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