Skip to main content

The eBay Buyer's FAQ.

Ebay Marketing - The eBay Buyer's FAQ



Ebay Marketing - So you have a question? Has something gone very wrong and you don't know what to do? Well, fair enough. Here are the questions that I hear all the time from buyers.

Does eBay have a Customer Service Department I Can Phone?
eBay are notoriously hard to contact, should you ever need to - it sometimes seems like they expect the site to run itself. You can email them, as long as you don't have your heart set on a coherent response: go to http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_us/_base/index.html. You might have better luck in a 'live help' webchat here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/n-livehelp.html.

Ebay Marketing


Only eBay Power Sellers (sellers with a very high feedback rating) get to phone customer service. If you really want to try your luck, type 'ebay [your country] phone number' into a search engine and you'll probably find something. Unfortunately, the chances are you'll have gone to all that trouble for the privilege of leaving an answerphone message.

It might seem cruel, but imagine the number of people who would call eBay every day with the silliest questions if they gave out their phone number everywhere. Its Wild West nature is, in a way, part of its charm.

eBay Sent Me an Email Saying They're Going to Close My Account. What Should I Do?

This email asks for your password, right? It's a scam, an attempt to frighten you, make you give up your details and then steal your account. eBay will never ask for your password or any other account details by email. eBay say that you should only ever enter your password on pages that whose addresses start with http://signin.ebay.com/. They even offer a special 'Account Guard' as part of their toolbar, which lets you check that you're not giving your password to a dodgy fake site. You can read more here: http://pages.ebay.com/toolbar/accountguard_1.html.

It Seems Too Good to be True. How Does eBay Make Money?

For you, the buyer, eBay is free. Sellers, though, pay all sorts of fees: a listing fee for each item they list, a final value fee (a percentage of what the item sold for). They can they pay optional fees for extra services, including Buy it Now, extra pictures, reserve prices, highlighting the auction, putting it in bold, listing it first in search results or even putting it on the front page. You can see a full list of fees at http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html.

It's obviously worth it to the sellers, though, or they wouldn't carry on using eBay. The system is quite efficient, and basically forces both eBay and the sellers to keep their profit margins as low as possible - otherwise prices will simply go too high and the buyers will stop buying.

How Safe is eBay?

Well, as it happens, that's the subject of our next email! All of eBay's safety services for buyers and sellers are in one place, called 'SafeHarbor'. SafeHarbor handles fraud prevention and investigation, helps with dispute resolution and keeps rule-breakers in check. Read all about it next time, and be safe.

Labels:

Most Popular Posts

Your Ultimate Secret Weapon: Having the Best Products to Sell on EBay

Ebay Marketing - Ultimate Secret Weapon of eBay Ebay Marketing - Planning to become an eBay seller ? Do you know that your secret weapon on making more money in the eBay business depends on what items to put up for sale? Yes, indeed! Knowing how to have the best products to sell on eBay may be the edge you need to profit more.   Ebay Marketing There are several things to consider in order for you to get the best products to sell on eBay . You may have a particular product line already focused on or are still wondering about what items you can sell. Here are several tips and ideas to perk up your mind and help you arrive at a decision.
Read more

eBay Title Writing Tips

Ebay Marketing - Title Writing Tips Ebay Marketing - Trying to be help your buyers find your auctions can be a truly daunting task. Most people only search eBay by title, not by description, and that means that you only have those 55 characters of the title to cover all the possible search terms. That's not easy. In this email , I'll give you a few pointers. Don't bother with eBay clichés : There are plenty of eBay auction titles that say things like "Super rare camera wow look low price" . These are stupid things to put in your title, as no-one is going to search for them.
Read more

You Won that eBay Auction! Now What Do You Do?

Ebay Marketing - Won the eBay Auction Ebay Marketing - It's a heady feeling when you win your first eBay auction: a mixture of happiness and perhaps just a little fear. After all, there seems to be so much to do before you can actually get your item. What do you do next? Ebay Marketing The simple answer is: you send payment to the seller, as quickly as possible. The quicker you pay, the more your seller will like you, and the sooner your item will arrive. But how you go about it? That all depends on how you plan to pay.
Read more

When and How to Withdraw Your eBay Bid (and Why You Might Not Want To).

Ebay Marketing - Withdraw Your eBay Bid Ebay Marketing - eBay are a little strict about letting you withdraw your bid . They call it a 'bid retraction', and have a stringent set of conditions that you must meet before you are allowed to do it. Here are eBay's three acceptable reasons for withdrawing a bid. You made a typographical error: This means that you accidentally typed the wrong amount into the bid box, bidding a far higher price than you meant to. This can be scary: imagine bidding $100 and accidentally adding an extra '0'! You are entirely allowed to withdraw your bid in this situation, and bid again if you want to.
Read more

Auto Responder Marketing Techniques

The Internet offers many means of affordable marketing with auto responders. Here are a couple of popular ways of using them. DIRECTORY Some webmasters set up link or article directories on their sites. They create a directory on a specific industry topic, placing their own ad or banner along the top. Then they invite others to add their website links via a link exchange program, listing themselves in your directory. Or they invite articles to be submitted that include a resource box at the bottom of each with a link to the author’s website. This results on increased traffic as sites link up across the World Wide Web. Enter “link exchange software” or “article directory software” into a favorite search engine for help with each.
Read more

eBay Auction Buyer's Tips and Tricks.

Ebay Marketing - eBay Auction Buyer's Tips and Tricks Ebay Marketing - eBay isn't just an auction and a marketplace: often it can feel quite a lot like a game. Like any game, you can get ahead if you think strategically, using your head to outwit the other buyers and get the best price. Here are a few things you can try. Shop in the Summer. This is simple, but effective. Summer is the quiet season on eBay - almost everything sells for less. While everyone else is out enjoying the sun, invest a little time to find some real bargains.
Read more

Easy Profits Using PPC In Your Affiliate Marketing Business

Affiliate Marketing With PPC Affiliate Marketing - PPC is one of the four basic types of Search Engines. PPC is also one of the most cost-effective ways of targeted internet advertising. According to Forbes magazine, PPC or Pay Per Click, accounts to 2 billion dollars a year and is expected to increase to around 8 billion dollars by the year 2008. Let us take a quick look at how PPC Search Engines work. These engines create listings and rate them based on a bid amount the website owner is willing to pay for each click from that search engine. Advertisers bid against each other to receive higher ranking for a specific keyword or phrase.
Read more

When to "Buy Now" and When to Bid.

Ebay Marketing - Time to Bid Ebay Marketing - You will often find yourself facing the choice of whether to pay a fixed price or keep on bidding. This choice might be presented to you in a single auction , or you might be choosing between different auctions of the different types. So should you use that 'Buy it Now' button or keep on trying to outbid everyone else? It's all a question of weighing up the advantages and disadvantages.
Read more

5 Simple Steps to Posting Your First eBay Auction

Ebay Marketing - First eBay Auction Ebay Marketing - It's surprisingly simple to get started posting your very first auction on eBay . Here's what you need to do. Step 1: Open an eBay seller's account. If you've bought things on eBay , then you already have an account - just log in with it and click 'Sell' in the toolbar at the top of the page, then click 'Create a seller's account '. If you've never used eBay before, then you'll need to open an account first using the 'register' link underneath the toolbar, and then click 'Sell' and 'Create a seller's account'. The eBay site will then guide you through the process. For security, this may involve giving card details and bank information.
Read more