EBay Promoted Listings Checker

[thespitefulchant]

Hi all, big issue I'm starting to encounter over the years now with promoted listings. I have several listings that can't rank in the top 4 boxes because of sponsored listings. I gradually increase % rates every 15 mins and refresh them so I can get updated results. Currently have 2 listings promoted at a 25% rate (which is sickening) and still I'm at half page.

My question is :
Is there any tools to be able to check competitors percentage rates?

The average sale price of these units are around $30-35. As the percentage rates go up fighting for top 4 boxes. It's completely destroying profits. I don't understand even at 25% I don't rank top because the competitors are higher, but I have more longevity in listing time because its over a year old.

It's just mind boggling to me because theres no way this person can be eating good off of a 30%+ promoted rate AND the item being so cheap.
I've tried reporting the listings, calling ebay and have stopped myself from Dm'ing this prick and telling him he's ruining the market for this.

Out of options, and ideas will be helpful!


<3 love you all

[degsey69]

I do not think the percentage rate for promotions is going to rank you higher than a good performing top rated seller, their promoted listings will trump yours for higher place, when you state 25% is that what is recommended, have you increased your percentage steadily over the recommended rate to try to get to the top?

[vettefever17]

Originally Posted by thespitefulchant

Hi all, big issue I'm starting to encounter over the years now with promoted listings. I have several listings that can't rank in the top 4 boxes because of sponsored listings. I gradually increase % rates every 15 mins and refresh them so I can get updated results. Currently have 2 listings promoted at a 25% rate (which is sickening) and still I'm at half page.

My question is :
Is there any tools to be able to check competitors percentage rates?

The average sale price of these units are around $30-35. As the percentage rates go up fighting for top 4 boxes. It's completely destroying profits. I don't understand even at 25% I don't rank top because the competitors are higher, but I have more longevity in listing time because its over a year old.

It's just mind boggling to me because theres no way this person can be eating good off of a 30%+ promoted rate AND the item being so cheap.
I've tried reporting the listings, calling ebay and have stopped myself from Dm'ing this prick and telling him he's ruining the market for this.

Out of options, and ideas will be helpful!


<3 love you all

I've noticed they shift the listing every few days. Look at your sales graph and correlate it to when you go over the suggested percentage. I've found loose patterns like this.

Second, those live suggestions seem to be highly accurate with what your competition is doing. I am currently in a category with 15-20 percent levels. My main competition: The Chinese. The exact ones that I am buying the items from. So, of course, they have 30-70 percent more margin on top of their free government shipping.

Don't get me started on how much is eaten just by shipping anything 1-3 pounds and under 100 bucks.

[Hank]

Originally Posted by thespitefulchant

I've tried reporting the listings, calling ebay and have stopped myself from Dm'ing this prick and telling him he's ruining the market for this.

What a weird comment, made me laugh anyway.

Ebay are laughing too, they've realised how they can make more money from promoting and placement than listing final valuation fees.

[vettefever17]

Originally Posted by Hank

What a weird comment, made me laugh anyway.

Ebay are laughing too, they've realised how they can make more money from promoting and placement than listing final valuation fees.

Speaking of that section of the comment, this may be tinfoil hat time, but no way in hell would I want ebay to come scour listings I'm involved in for a bot to find a reason to bring my listing down alongside my competitors.

[thespitefulchant]

Originally Posted by Hank

What a weird comment, made me laugh anyway.

Ebay are laughing too, they've realised how they can make more money from promoting and placement than listing final valuation fees.

you're totally right, this guy i'm up against totally guts the price on this unit, and even at 30% rate I made a sale which killed my profit, BUT it still didn't rank me in top 4, i'm top rated, the account is 8 years old. Been top rated for 4.

[thespitefulchant]

Originally Posted by degsey69

I do not think the percentage rate for promotions is going to rank you higher than a good performing top rated seller, their promoted listings will trump yours for higher place, when you state 25% is that what is recommended, have you increased your percentage steadily over the recommended rate to try to get to the top?

I have been top rated for awhile now, and I was top ranking since this guy stepped in, I have almost 10k lifetime sales on this account, and this guy has ~500 which is ridiculous. He makes duplicated listings all with minor different titles and different color backgrounds for the display photos.

[thespitefulchant]

Originally Posted by vettefever17

I've noticed they shift the listing every few days. Look at your sales graph and correlate it to when you go over the suggested percentage. I've found loose patterns like this.

Second, those live suggestions seem to be highly accurate with what your competition is doing. I am currently in a category with 15-20 percent levels. My main competition: The Chinese. The exact ones that I am buying the items from. So, of course, they have 30-70 percent more margin on top of their free government shipping.

Don't get me started on how much is eaten just by shipping anything 1-3 pounds and under 100 bucks.

luckily, this guy isn't in china, hes USA, with his photo being him. It's crossed my mind introducing some old black hat ebay tactics that we used to run with back in the day before ebay was super regulated but methods are still around today. I don't want to ruin the guy but, it's a dog eat dog world on ebay and i've been around long enough to understand this.

[thespitefulchant]

@all currently on ebay customer service phone call, got transferred to a specific department and currently speaking with an AMERICAN woman who completely, understands the situation and has agreed that this seller IN FACT is violating ebay seller policies.

[thespitefulchant]

Ebay to member department, when you call, request this department.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by thespitefulchant

@all currently on ebay customer service phone call, got transferred to a specific department and currently speaking with an AMERICAN woman who completely, understands the situation and has agreed that this seller IN FACT is violating ebay seller policies.

interesting so far - getting somewhere

[thespitefulchant]

Originally Posted by rsot

interesting so far - getting somewhere

we're going to give it a bit of time because i'm sure there are plenty of reports, mine will head more towards the top because it was direct from a rep but i'll keep this thread updated.

[degsey69]

Looking forward to see how it goes for you.

[rsot]

always be weary of what an eb agent says though - i wouldnt trust them well enough to get a spotlight on my account

[thespitefulchant]

Originally Posted by rsot

always be weary of what an eb agent says though - i wouldnt trust them well enough to get a spotlight on my account

I don't mind the spotlight on the account, it's a real stealth, CPN verified, and legal business documentation. I'm taking into consideration that eb itself doesn't care about anything but money but, this may be a new road for them in my eyes if action is taken. If no results, then it's off to the black hats

[Hank]

Okay, I get it that they may be breaching duplicate listing policies (don't we all ) but if you are successful in making a mess of his business do you think there's a chance he will know who's behind it? What if he has the same mindset as you?

[thespitefulchant]

Originally Posted by Hank

Okay, I get it that they may be breaching duplicate listing policies (don't we all ) but if you are successful in making a mess of his business do you think there's a chance he will know who's behind it? What if he has the same mindset as you?

right well that makes sense but, the same way that when I mentioned calling was a JOKE, he may think the same and just take it on the chin and keep it moving. It's a risk I'm willing to take, why not, it's just business. I haven't made it personal yet.

[thespitefulchant]

@all

okay so, we have some good news, and some bad news. GOOD NEWS: the listings that were mentioned in the report had been taken down, and I did like 40 sales in 1 day, not even promoted so I ate real good off that. A day goes by and i'm in the clear and BOOM.

BAD NEWS: This prick re-lists different products and literally does the same thing with other items as well. The current ones that were reported are gone but, he went with other products I also stock and created like mega listings and just basically rinse and repeat.

I get the "oops we looked everywhere" error whenever searching for the item numbers we had reported so that ensures they've been removed. However this monkey is re-doing the same thing with different products in the same categories.

So this method does work, but he didn't get a listing/selling suspension, it was just removed pages, so he went and did another few more listings. I'm going to keep working this till either there's a ban or he plays fair.

[degsey69]

Keep working with eBay about him and get more violations, the account may be timed out for a few days, then a week, a month then suspension.

When that happens he will pop up on here moaning about being treated unfairly and any help to get his suspension lifted

[thespitefulchant]

Originally Posted by degsey69

Keep working with eBay about him and get more violations, the account may be timed out for a few days, then a week, a month then suspension.

When that happens he will pop up on here moaning about being treated unfairly and any help to get his suspension lifted

I hope he comes on over here and he reads all these threads. eBay is a dog eat dog world, and I been doing this long enough to understand that.

Looking forward to the next listing removals, i'll keep this thread updated.

[thespitefulchant]

So.. We're back again to report on this issue. As of 10 mins ago, the listings are back, but now in multiples of 4. The odd thing about it this time around is that the second I updated my quantities, these listings came available in search after refreshing, which is very odd and makes me thing that these listings are almost botted.

Called eBay rep and honestly put a b in her place. This lady answers the phone, American accent, and off the top has a condescending attitude and starts giving me the run around. "Go ahead and report the buyer" and I said you can check my previous phone log because it was the last time I called and she was like I don't have access to that information, which is BS. She took the power ego over the supportive one today and felt like I was getting over on her, when in reality she has power. She wouldn't even let me get a word in, and when I did she would respond with, "uh huh, yeah I get that, I understand sir." This really got me over the top and I said to her, "I wouldn't expect you to understand because this is a business and you're a minimum wage employee, so you have no qualifications to even speak on how it would feel to be in my position." Call goes silent, and she admits I am right and proceeds to apologize but still holds her ground on me reporting the buyer on my own.

Long story short, she said she's going to submit this to "leadership," whatever the f that means, and I should still go and report the buyer myself. Obviously this isn't an acceptable answer because there are bills on the line and I'm not going to just roll over and take it like a good boy. From this last phone call I learned some VERY important game dealing with CS and I'll list things below here in a second. Everything in regards to eBay calls is all based on that person's energy and willingness to help when they answer the phone.

----------------------
Things to know before calling/calling back:

-Take timestamps of every call answered or routed (ex: Answered at 8:13PM on September 6th, 2023 By Anna)
-Express to the CS rep that you've been instructed to call and seek help because you have a personal issue that needs immediate attention.
-Keep Asking the Rep to repeat their name/department they are in/where they are located.
-They play a game whenever you call, so be ready to act clueless while absorbing whatever they put out.

Keep in mind, they have a checklist whenever you call in their hands at all times, and will go down the list in the form of questions to get whatever needed in regards to help with the reasoning you selected when requesting a callback, so make sure you know what you want & have all the exact things needed to make sure the call is routed to someone who passed 3rd grade.

[thespitefulchant]

I'm too good at this, just called back and got ANOTHER REP who pulled up the original report case I filed LAST WEEK & CONFIRMED THE BUYER is breaking the rules, and even pulled up my call log and everything. Don't believe the **** these CS reps tell you. It's all a sham, people are lazy af.

Submitted FIVE reports in regards to 20 diff listings, AND this mf is adding a "EBAY TOP RATED SELLER" badge in his listing photos which is AGAINST THE EBAY POLICIES AND MISLEADING, and is a BAMNABLE OFFENCE.

I'm onto this guy now, I can't let this slide, I'm going to make it my mission to eliminate this guy.