Not Seeing a 'Better & Safer' eBay 63 comments
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John Donahoe must have slept through SPIN 101 at Bain if he really expects buyers and sellers to believe that eBay (EBAY) is “better & safer” since he made PayPal mandatory for sellers that do not meet the following criteria:
1) The seller has higher than 5% buyer dissatisfaction rates (DSRs);
2) The seller has less than 100 feedback; or
3) The items are listed in categories with higher rates of buyer complaints.
And when John can’t find a reason to hold seller funds, PayPal will do it for him because they granted themselves absolute authority to hold sellers funds hostage for up to 21 days without having to give an explanation.
Feeling safe yet? Not me. John has yet to fix a serious security issue he was notified of 2 years ago by US-CERT that allows hackers to steal the following information without exerting any effort whatsoever:
1) Name, address, eBay User ID, email address
2) Last 4 bank account numbers and routing number
3) Last four credit card numbers and expiration date
4) Watched auctions, saved searches, favorite sellers
This begs the question of how can eBay be "better & safer"? It can’t. A member of John’s staff, Usher Lieberman, put a cute SPIN on the security flaw after it was demonstrated by Ina Steiner a few weeks ago.
He must have failed SPIN 101 too because “disabling script” doesn’t make sense. eBay is a script dependent site and the programmers seem to write nothing but bad script because nothing works right anymore.
This author surfed eBay for about an hour this morning and wished she hadn’t. Best match was a joke, site links were broken, listings wouldn’t load, page not responding errors were numerous, shipping calculator didn’t come close, checkout wouldn’t, live chat was dead, discussion boards were shut down, and then it got worse – eBay went completely offline (confirmed by my ISP) for the umpteenth time.
Is this the new “better & safer” buyer experience John has been touting? This author suspects it is, which helps explain why eBay is fast becoming the internet’s largest ghost town despite John’s apparent belief that sellers are working for him.
How else could the “stars” be explained? In reality, sellers work for themselves and John works for eBay. John has an “at will” contract which means he can be “invited” to leave at a moment’s notice without explanation and sellers have choices.
I suspect that on May 7 sellers will shout “Take this Job and Shove IT” because that’s the day PayPal will start “sharing” all eBay members' personal account information with John and the entire eBay corporate family.
Disclosure: Author is a long time eBay seller
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This article has 63 comments:
All the efforts at security, DSRs , feedback changes, punishments for sellers etc, have left the site a battlefield instead of a rich farmland that will grow the business in the coming years.
Announced improvements never seem to materialize, while the site emphasizes these areas to improve "the buyer experience".
Most sellers do not feel plastering ads all over the site is improving the buyer experience. Many large sellers didnt have great feedback but you know buyers kept buying from them anyway. Just as Walmart has that 70% or lower customer satisfaction rate yet keeps bringing in the buyers.
Too many changes of one kind and not enough excitement and new ideas coming forward. I can give many examples but Im all talked out on this subject. Like everyone else, just keeping up with the changes is a full time job.
Perhaps Ebay will finally finish this cycle of change and move on to better things. The site still inspires passionate comments both positive and negative and it will only be when everyone is silent that the opportunities will end.
Marty
It is refreshing to see that both you and Mr LaRouche have actually taken the time to do some REAL reporting on the issues involved with selling and buying on eBay now the new changes are coming into effect. The biggest changes, yet to be revealed, are the decline in both ACTIVE seller numbers, GENUINE numbers of listings, and buyers who actually buy rather than just look, ie. sell through rates, which remain at a dismal level below 50% and usually closer to 40%.
One slight correction, if I may, is that the eBay community (yes buyers AND sellers) renewed boycott is set to start on May 1st rather than May 7th. Of course, many have continued the February boycott and have no intention of returning to being active members until eBay once again becomes a place where they can once again get that feeling of "well being" while they conduct business at the so called "only a venue" which is rapidly turning into one of the most dictatorial places of business available. Unfortunately eBay's inability to manage it's own problems is leading to more and more restrictive measures to try to combat those problems instead of facing facts and actually cleansing their own practices first. What do I mean by this? Simply that eBay appear to take little or no action against fraudulent sellers and buyers because they are more interested in short term dollars than long term resolution and reputation.
Thank you & yes, I know the boycott goes into effect on May 1 because my finger is poised waiting to press the boycott button on my store, lol.
The new Paypal policy goes into effect May 7. Guess they failed SPIN 101 too because it's jibberish. Here is the new policy in it's entirely:
Amendment to the Paypal Privacy Policy
Effective Date: May 7, 2008
Beginning May 7, 2008 the PayPal Privacy Policy is being amended as to the purposes for which we share personal information with other companies in the eBay Inc. corporate family. These purposes are now as follows: to provide joint content and services (like registration, transactions and customer support), to help detect and prevent potentially illegal acts and violations of our policies, and to guide decisions about these related companies' products, services and communications.
Dinah
And the only think I could see that could be added to is that the 21 day hold on the sellers monies at the whim of paypal can be extended to whatever ammount of time that paypal deems fit... So the 21 day is just a window, but they did add the clause that they could extend that period...
Thankyou for showing the bare facts :)
Thank you for your reply, it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO refreshing to know that some authors do actually read the comments (not sure the kool-aid ones do, but maybe they are just thick skinned)
Thank you again for publishing such a great article.
Thank you! I've been a victim of the "Paypal window" myself. The only purpose it serves is to create a means by which Paypal can earn interest on our monies by "floating" it.
I have more respect for a thief!
Dinah
Just read this and I as well, wanted to add one more thing. There are MANY people that have continued boycotting since the Feb dates. There have been grievances drawn up, websites started, state leaders appointed, newsletters circulated, media contacted..and all this is still going on. We gain speed with each passing day so that when the May 1 Boycott comes around, this will be a much more forceful issue for Ebay than it ever was.
Thanks a million! You've given me a great idea - Dinah Balk should have her own website. I could post policy changes, boycott info, etc.
Dinah
eBay has underestimated the "mood" of the buyer. Buyer's build trust with specific sellers and if an eBay seller is being hurt by its venue (and conveys its story to its buyers) a percentage of their buyers will follow. eBay was built upon a community and as such, sellers and buyers have formed bonds over a period of months and years. It is for this reason that sellers can take a percentage buyers with them and move on.
There was a time when our towns boasted a corner store and five and dime store. As time goes by those stores have disappeared and have been replaced by large chain stores. When we drive by what used to be the five and dime (which is now WalMart), we have a sense of loss. We knew the mom and pop owner of the five and dime and in many cases knew their history within the community.
eBay had one thing going for it and that was its ONLINE community of sellers and buyers. Your eBay storefront was your five and dime (so to speak) and sellers established relationships with their buyers.
Again, the loss of one seller starts a domino effect and others will follow. The community begins to take on the "look and feel" of a large chain store focused on simply moving merchandise (through a portal) which no longer resembles a "community".
Sellers who don't fit the new and improved eBay model are left to fend for themselves and/or get exiled off of the site through no fault of their own.
John
Have you ever tried selling off-eBay? How was that experience? Its so easy to trash a company like eBay but if you're so frusturated why don't you stop selling there? Move on??
Jack
I didn't trash eBay because all I did was tell the truth. And I'm not a frustrated seller because I own a successful paralegal firm.
btw, you never told us YOUR qualifications.
Dinah
When any company can create a monopoly (online or off) it's bit a hard to ask that question. What some may not understand is that for those who have relied on ebay for their living were not expecting ratical changes, which affected the majority of sellers.
In fact, it's been stated that even more changes are on the way. As for trashing eBay, no one is trashing eBay in their articles, simply pointing out observations and stating opinion.
In Febuary 2008 Citibank estimated Paypal earns approximately $10M quarterly "floating" our monies. Other financial institutions estimate a little more & some a little less but all agree on one thing - floating is profitable! That's why eBay buries it in their quarterly's.
Dinah
I'd also be discouraged... The sellers have had it with this site and they are flocking to other sites to build their stores and auction listings back up... When sellers leave, you lose a huge population of buyers because the sellers are the one's who are the most faithful to the venue they sell on...
I used to spend abut 1000 dollars a month on ebay... But that was before the boycott... Now I wouldn't spend a dime on there... I am only one of thousands of boycotters who feel the same way... The sellers who are left there are feeling the sting of an empty mall and they're paying through the nose for it plus allowing ebay to set them up for failure with the new deceiptful star rating system they have implemented...
It amazes me that people will continue to allow this company to steal money from them, use them for a padded bank account, and still come out loving them... It's almost like the abused child syndrome...
Keep up the good work Dinah and I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOU HAVE A WEBSITE!! You have a wonderful way with words which are easy to understand and to the point...
BOYCOTT VICTORIOUSLY!!
1st quarter earnings are looking good! lol.
Disgruntled eBayer's are saying that eBay is going to go broke after May 7th? lol.lol.lol.lol.
Nothing could be further from the truth! I predict eBay will hit close to $40.00-$45.00 by Christmas!
eBay is getting it together. eBay will be a safe and fun place to shop after the new rules go into effect.
eBay is not all about auctions either, there is pay-pal. Most reputable businesses take pay-pal on the internet, and more are joining every day. People love pay-pal it is safe and secure.
All this rubbish about power sellers striking on eBay is nonsense. A few people are out to make names for themselves. Every seller that sells 100 items a month is a power seller, lol. Means nothing!
Instead of griping and moaning why don't these people just move on. Millions of people love eBay. They should all get a life! lol.
eBay must do what is best for all! They must protect their buyers to keep sellers. If you have no buyers, you don't need sellers. It's kind of like the chicken and the egg. Who came first? Buyers or sellers?
eBay needs both! eBay will also be keeping an eye on who leaves a negative. It's not all one sided. I believe they said that if a buyer leaves more than three negatives in a given time period they will investigate and there must be a good reason for it! If not the buyer will be kicked off the site!
Most of the time the seller and buyer work things out mutually. In some cases this cannot be done however, (fraud-deceit) and a negative must be left. Hopefully the fraud seller will change his ways after the first such negative.
Buyers who hassle or threaten the seller with a negative because they want the item for nothing, also need to be caucious. Three negatives and eBay will investigate their motives. eBay is not stupid!
I believe eBay will be fair to seller and buyer.
Current Share Price: Ebay = 32.75, AMAZON = 76.92
Revenues: Ebay = $7,672 mil, AMAZON = $14,835 mil
Net Earnings: Ebay = $348 mil, AMAZON = $476 mil
Price/Cash Flow: Ebay = 47.40, AMAZON = 75.30
Total Return (12-mos): Ebay = -2.9% (yes, this IS A NEGATIVE 2.9%), AMAZON = +25.3%
Total Return (3-yr): Ebay = 3.9%, AMAZON = 137.5%
Thanks a million! These figures speak for themselves.
Dinah
And ebay safer for the buyer and the seller... (((lol))) now I've heard it all...
I've never seen such a mess in the whole life time of ebay... I've never seen so many people damaged and small business' destroyed in a blink of an eye as I have on ebay this last couple months...
Wasn't it nice of them to put the digital sellers out of business with no notification what so ever, just pull their listings and have them wake up to an empty store? Not only to just take down the listings, but to delete them so that the hundreds of hours which they spent creating them was down the tube!! Now that's sure a safe venue to deal with don't ya think??
Makes me sick to think of the damage they've done to these people...
Padded listings, unequal selling ground, no genuine feedback, paypal holds, the new star system, the censorship, and it continues...
Yup, the blogger they hired has a tough job... I'd be embarrassed to defend the company... Couldn't pay me enough to sell my sould to the devil...
BOYCOTT VICTORIOUSLY!!
These postings are with such venom and misguided tripe. "In Febuary 2008 Citibank estimated Paypal earns approximately $10M quarterly "floating" our monies." I'm assuming that by this statement you mean to say that Citibank & these 'other financial institutions' who have absolutely no affiliation w/eBay or PayPal other than their bank accts/credit cards are allowed to be used on the sites, somehow committed some sort of espionage to gather this information? Bullocks!
'I own a successful paralegal firm.' -Perhaps you should read the policies front to back on both eBay and PayPal, make a few phone calls for further explanation if you still don't understand what it means...and by all means start your own website, but enough is enough.
That would explain why your postings are so easy to relate to for some of these other readers. Do the words ambulance chaser mean anything to you? I'm guessing if your paralegal firm was that successful you'd have sued eBay for ownership rights or a large sum of money and won.....No??? I wonder why that is. Perhaps you need a few more million sellers to sign up & feed in to your tripe, then take it to court and 'make a deal'.
As far as buyer's leaving to go with seller's....what makes you think this would happen? Considering all of the changes on the eBay site are directed towards making their buying experiences more pleasurable and safe. They will no longer have to worry about receiving a box w/the wrong product and not want to file a complaint for fear of a seller leaving them bad feedback. Also they won't have to worry about a BAD seller, yes a BAD seller taking their money and running, because they will HAVE to use PayPal--By all definition, yes those would be considered BAD sellers, because if they allowed those sellers to use any other form of payment, then the amount of bad buyer experiences on eBay would then be equal to that of other websites. The action they are taking right now is removing those bad sellers from the site. I presume more than 1 or 2 of them are posting messages here.
I love how all of the research in every posting from you guys has either completely INACCURATE information or false trumped up BS to get people into a panic.
Coincidentally what do you think will happen once all the bad seller's have moved on to other sites? Do you think that might increase the money that the legitimate seller's make? Do you think that might drive more buyer's to your listings, without having to worry about the fraudulent 1 penny listings getting in your way? Hmmmm...have you caught on to what I'm saying by now? Or is all of this falling on deaf ears?
But hey, some people still never read, listen &/or learn.
"eBay must do what is best for all! They must protect their buyers to keep sellers. If you have no buyers, you don't need sellers."
Wow! Even if there were no buyers, think of all the sellers paying eBay for their outrageous listing fees. Oh that's right, they lowered the listing fees by a nickel (less risk if the item doesn't sell) -Not to mention all the newbies coming along trying to live the lie of making a living on ebay, and they'll stick it out for a while paying and losing and so-on and so-on...
There's no problem with a company making a profit, that's why they're here, however, a fair marketplace does not exist on eBay anymore. It seems we're working for eBay without a pay check. Ebay calls their sellers "noise" (and hung the phone up on them during live radio!). When I hear noise, I stick my fingers in my ears... That's what eBay did to it's customers. The same customers who pay them.
toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/n...
LOL. I just looked at that site. It's interesting that you posted only the negative & neutral fdbk rec'd over the period of Jan. 2007 to Jan. 2008 from sellers only. Looking at the persons total fdbk I see he had 9190 positive/ 40 neutral/ 147 negative in the past 12 months. Total of 98.7% positive fdbk. That's 1.3% negative fdbk within that entire year. Do the math and look at these other wonderful sites/brick & mortar stores & see how much money they lose to fraud on a DAILY basis, not yearly. I'm willing to bet it's more than 5%. So while Amazon's numbers look good right now, I'm thinking to myself, how much money are they losing to fraud....oh wait, I don't think their losing that much because they prefer PayPal as a payment option, and a majority of the money they are paid is paid via PayPal. Who owns PayPal again??? Kind of goes hand in hand with the fact that most reputable businesses, not just eBay prefer to use PayPal due to way less fraud lost. So if you ask me, those stock prices and $ amts you provided are either not completely accurate, or if they are just go to show once again that eBay is way under what they should be in the stock market right now.
"1) The seller has higher than 5% buyer dissatisfaction rates (DSRs);
2) The seller has less than 100 feedback; or
3) The items are listed in categories with higher rates of buyer complaints. "
Those figures make absolutely perfect sense now that I've explained about over 5% loss to fraud in regular brick & mortar stores as well as other sites & under 2% loss via PayPal....By eliminating fraudulent sellers from being able to transact without using PayPal, people will lose less money...makes even more sense now doesn't it? Less than 100 fdbk means your still fairly unknown to the community (billions of other user's & no not in the McDonald's kind of way, those billions are still actively using eBay)
Gross Margin (TTM): ebay - 77%(!!!) amazon - 22.6% :=/
Revenue Growth (5 year avg): ebay - 44.6% amazon -30.4%
Cash in Mil: ebay - 4,221 amazon - 2,539
Forward Earnings: ebay - 5.75 amazon - 2.77
Morningstar Rating: ebay - 5 stars amazon - 1 star
From a personal perspective, ebay sucks. I'll be the first to admit it.
From an investor perspective, they rule.
Plus, don't forget paypal, skype, and loads and loads of cash on hand (almost double amazon). On top of that, the RULE the market internationally. The are the number one global e-commerce brand with a presence in 38 markets.
In my eyes, Amazon's stock can only go down, ebays stock can only go up.
But hey, I'm only a 27 year old single dad whose hand picked portfolio is up 8% YTD, while the markets are...where YTD?
eBay Inc., Exchange: NASD
This is a link to an aggregated search engine for displaced ebay sellers. Blujay and Ecrater stores have already been included as well as some independent websites. Please email me your link if you'd like to be included. There's also an option to place the search on your website.
Great article. Despite ebay, we'll work together and find a way.
You may have to copy & past the entire url above in your browser. The link doesn't seem to be taking here.
Scott Wingo who still has a sore ego from the spanking he got on eBay Workshops the other week.
You can drink deep of his wisdom, imparted with his own inimitatable style on HIS blog - ebaystrategies.blogs.c.../
You will see he has been doing a little stylish whining of his own, it appears eBay will not allow Channel Advisor to access Seller Dashboard via any API, he would like us all to call our TSAM's.
It will work because his readers are all such important people.
Four out of his last five posts have been ever so slightly negative about eBay but that is OK because it is on his own blog and he is an Expert (who makes a very nice living off sellers)
Gee, I guess you will just have to invite Donohoe for another coffee at Starbucks and give him more advice on how to run his company. You did so well last time.
Oh and Scott? Its thIEf, not theif.
The fact of the matter is I do have a very successful paralegal firm that specializes in bankruptcy. I don't post the name of my company on this forum because it's inappropriate. And instead of chasing ambulances I chase sleazy collection agencies away from my clients so they can have a life.
Sellers don't deserve to have their monies held for 21 days because this is no different than working a 9-5 job and then at the end of the boss comes up and says "We're holding your paycheck so we can earn interest on the money. Sorry about your luck."
And this is where the problem lies - Donahoe thinks sellers work for him now, OUR customers are now HIS customers, and OUR monies are HIS monies. The only thing he wants us to have is FEES.
Dinah
Please crawl back into your eBay cubicle, and stop spewing rubbish. The sellers have left the building. The buyers aren’t buying, because there’s nothing to buy. eBay’s site is tanking due to technical difficulties.
I’ve been advising anyone that I talk to, not to use eBay, but to research the numerous other auction sites out there before they either list or buy. I’ve learned of another fellow employee that I need to enlighten tomorrow.
Young.Single.Dad. – According to several financial and stock analysts the eBay stock is actually over-valued. If you don’t believe me, here’s a motley fool article for you to read!
Forget eBay -- Buy These 3 Stocks Now!
www.fool.com/investing...
or
Did Meg Whitman Hold eBay Back?
www.fool.com/investing...
Today’s stock prices for both eBay and Amazon from the NYSE Euronext site!
EBAY INC
Last Trade
Symbol 16:00 08 Apr Change Volume
EBAY $ 31.86 -0.57 (-1.76%) 13,165,678
Today's
Open High Low
32.25 32.30 31.35
52 Week
High Low
40.73 25.10
11 Oct 2007 17 Mar 2008
P/E Ratio 124.73
Earnings per Share 0.26
Shares Outstanding 1,327,947,000
AMAZON COM INC
Last Trade
Symbol 16:00 08 Apr Change Volume
AMZN $ 77.30 +0.40 (+0.52%) 4,968,416
Today's
Open High Low
76.40 77.61 75.50
52 Week
High Low
101.09 41.24
23 Oct 2007 11 Apr 2007
P/E Ratio 66.87
Earnings per Share 1.15
Shares Outstanding 416,818,000
Right now the Amazon stock has more than doubled in price from last year, while the eBay stock has lost value by half since last October, and is lower now than it was a year ago. With those statistics, how can you say that eBay is better off than Amazon?
Amazon has fewer shares outstanding, and a better P/E Ratio than eBay.
The shareholders have the means to end this madness anytime they want - all they need do is tell Donahoe to leave. It's that simple!
But I suspect that the shareholders will sit back & do nothing unless the value of their stock drops substantially. This could easily occur when sellers boycott victoriously on May 1.
I suspect some of the powersellers will support the boycott too because they were promised discounts only to discover they "suddenly" don't qualify - more Donahoe SPIN.
Those who did qualify recently discovered that their discount was ADDED to their monthly bill instead of SUBTRACTED from it. This is due to one of two things 1) eBay math or 2) more bad script.
And contrary to Lieberman's SPIN, SELLERS bring BUYERS to eBay and SELLERS DO NOT WORK FOR DONAHOE!
Thanks for the stock analysis!
Here’s what Jim Crammer wrote about eBay stock today: “That company is not run well enough for you to buy it up on a spike.”
Others stay simply because they don't know about the boycotts.
Those of us, who are boycotting, are getting the word out as fast and as far reaching as we can, but our resources are limited. Every day we reach more and more unsuspecting buyers and sellers who are active on eBay, and let them know about the boycott.
There are many discussion boards on eBay, which can be viewed at:
forums.ebay.com/db2/fo...
One of the ones you should be viewing is:
forums.ebay.com/db2/th...
There is a wealth of information available at:
www.accknowl.com/
forums.delphiforums.co.../
Just this morning, I let a co-worker know about the eBay boycott. She had just sold her first item on eBay, and the package is due to arrive within the next day or 2 at the buyers address. I told her to make sure she contacted the buyer, and ask them to notify her when the package arrives, and to only use the eBay contact, not regular e-mail.
She is also going to forward the information that I sent to her, on to her husband. He has an extensive list of family and friends who are currently using eBay heavily, and will let all of them know about the boycott.
We are trying to get the news out to the major network outlets, but we can only do so much in any given 24 hour period. The networks have not picked up on the topic and run with it, like they would have if it had been about Enron or Microsoft. Each day we are reaching more and more media outlets, as can be seen by all of the articles that are appearing on the internet.
John Donahoe the new CEO has considered the people who made eBay what it was until recently to be simply "NOISE" and "Flea Market" sellers.
Well that noise is simply getting louder and louder because of his policy changes announced in January.
We have had an effect on eBay's and PayPal's bottom line, we are a voice of thousands that should not be ignored.
The “Flea Market” sellers and buyers on eBay are making their “N.O.I.S.E.” and are being heard, but we need to turn up the volume even louder. Stock Prices are not stable, sell throughs are down, costs are up, blackmail and extortion are up, and eBay stock is over priced.
When are the shareholders going to sit up and take notice, that the management recently and currently in place have destroyed eBay, and their ship is sinking fast?
There are eBay trolls out on all of the various boards, threads, and articles published on the internet, trying to run interference, not let the truth out about what is really happening at eBay. eBay is a publically traded company, and as such, their minutes of their stock holder meetings must be published and available to the stockholders. Those shareholders need to request copies of all of the minutes of any meetings for the past 5 years, and find out exactly what eBay is up to, and what they have planned next.
Also of interest are all of the other companies that eBay has a stake in, including the following, which is by no means a complete list.
eBay owned or partially owned companies:
Afterbuy.com
Baazee.com
Butterfield & Butterfield
CARad.com
Craigslist
Deja.com
EachNet
GittiGidiyor
Gumtree
Half.com
iBazar,[36]
Internet Auction Co. (IAC)
Kruse International
Lokau
Loquo
Marktplaats.nl
Meetup.com
MercadoLibre
Opus Forum
PayPal
Rent.com
Shopping.com
Skype
StubHub
StumbleUpon
Tradera
Up4Sale.com
Verisign Merchant Gateway
VoIP
This is very definitely a situation of Buyer or Seller beware!
The numbers you mentioned are related to a stock's current price, and having nothing to do with the actual valuation of the company. They are purely related to the way Mr. Market currently values the stock. The way to make money in the stock market is to buy when others are selling, and sell when others are buying. Based solely on the actual financial data, ebay's share price is undervalued. Amazon's is overvalued. For anyone who actually wants to learn how to make money investing in companies, I highly recommend "Security Analysis" by Benjamin Graham. I'm sorry so many of you are unhappy with Ebay at the moment. But from a shareholder perspective things look good. The only question one might ask is if, based on these new changes, things will stay that way for long. I say yes, since, as I said once before, ebay.com is only one of 38 ebay.somethings, and as the poster above me pointed out, they own half much more than just a stupid auction site. This is a blip on the radar, and in 2 years you all will be wishing you bought shares at this bargain value.
Here in Australia have just heard about the PayPal Only rule that's being introduced in May. Have been with ebay for 8 years but have had enough of their increasing restrictions Tonight I ended all my auctions (even the ones with bids), emptied my PayPal account and have registered with another auction site. I think a lot of other sellers will be doing the same very soon.
<blockquote>Look... at the persons total fdbk I see he had 9190 positive/ 40 neutral/ 147 negative in the past 12 months. Total of 98.7% positive fdbk.</blockquote&g...
And having received over 10,000 feedback comments he/she had left for others a grand total of 125!
I read about Paypal being mandatory in Australia & it's insane.
Why would anyone want to accept Paypal? My best friend made 2 ebay purchases in the last 6 months & both times her Paypal account was hacked within 24 hours of her purchase.
Better & safer ebay? Not in this lifetime.
I have gone through numerous frustrating ebay listing and selling revisions "for the better".
The items I sell do not get many bidders (people don't buy parts that don't fit their car), but when my items do sell, I do well and ebay does well.
Because of the cost of listing and reserve fees I found that many times I was paying anywhere from $3 to $5 to list items that didn't sell.
So now I have only been listing when ebay periodically offers flat rate low cost (10 cent etc) listing days.
I get to list many items ecomically, and ebay and I both benefit.
Whenever ebay canvased their sellers for improvement suggestions, I repeatedly pleaded with them to give us a flat rate listing fee and pointed out that I would gladly pay the selling fee or commission but can't afford to keep paying high listing fees.
You can imagine my elation recently, when I read that "ebay had listened to it's sellers and was responding with lower listing fees".
As I went to read the announcement details, I was wishfully anticipating 20 cent or maybe even 10 cent listing fees.
You can imagine my shock and dismay when I read that listing fees had been reduced 5 cents - 5 lousy cents !
So now insted of paying $2 or $3 to list an item (that may not sell) it would only cost me $1.95 or $2.95.
I can not believe that someone could announce something like that with a straight face - John has a great career waiting for him in acting !
Well along with the great savings announcement we were also told that sellers would now be strong armed into paypal based on the conditions listed earlier (DSR less than 4.5, feedback less than 100, certain "high risk item categories).
All to protect the buyer (supposedly).
eBAY was already keeping sellers honest through the feedback system along with the threat of terminating seller accounts for unscrupulous practices.
So I don't understand how forcing us to offer paypal was going to protect buyers any better.
All I ever heard and read about were the myriad of problems and scams with paypal - so I chose not to offer or deal with paypal.
I try to keep my life simple - I don't need the added complication and concern about internet payment scams.
I only accept postal or bank money orders - they work perfect.
I receive and cash the MO and then mail off the goods - works perfect !
Well now under the "Better and Safer" edict, because I have less than 100 Feedback (transactions) I am deemed less trustworthy. Regardless of my demonstrated high level of customer satisfaction based on the ebay DSR rating system ( my DSR is 4.8, ideal is 5.0 )
I now am barred from selling unless I accept paypal.
I have about 25 sales per year with an average transaction price of $200.
Am I a less trustworthy seller than some trinket reseller who had one thousand $5 sales in the same time ?
Surely I am a more effective seller for ebay.
Ironically yesterday Ebay Canada had a low price listing day - I worked all day to prepare ~ 120 listings.
I was hoping to sell enough to push my feedback level up over the "100" trustworthy benchmark.
Alas you can understand my dismay when I went to list and received the message that unless I offered paypal, my listings would not be accepted.
Ironically on the same day by some (underhanded ?) coincidence ebay "central" decided to implement the mandatory paypal conditions.
Well ebay has made my May 1st boycott decision for me LOL !
BASSMANPETE please give me the name of the other auction site you just registered on - thank you.
And others interested:
Most already know but this site shows list levels but has the added bonus of a visual auction/selling sites that is available. It gives a comprehensive view of what's going on as well.
db.powersellersunite.c.../
I've no doubt that there are many more out there as well and wish all luck in their search! While sites are springing up all over, for peace of mind it helps to know that some have been operating for years and have the exprerience necessary for success.
One such is Onlineauctions started by Chris Fain years ago. A search will net you more on his history than I'll spare here but he sold highend vehicles on eBay but also opened his own site. Weary of the thousands in FVFs etc he closed his eBay shop I think in 2005.
Another site, that didn't make that list, is Etsy.com, a busy site for the cottage crafter that, according to Alexa, outstrips by far all the others in online traffic! It's not an auction site, it's specialized in that items must be custum crafted, but their growth is stampeding up the charts!
To all that have, and are, digging in for the long haul, Good luck and Good Fortune!
I have to admit that I've used PayPal for 8 years & never had a problem. They used to have an option whereby you could put money into a special account with all other participants. They'd use that money to play the money markets and all participants would share in the profits (or losses!) This option disappeared when ebay took over. I guess they just wanted all the money for themselves.
https://paypal.com/cgi-bin/web...
I found this to be interesting.
Wasn't the reasoning behind forcing paypal on sellers to make this a safer environment?
Etu brutus - I really appreciate the link - gives me hope that there are some viable alternative internet auction's- haven't looked into them yet.
ola-seller- I don't know if that key makes it "really safe" - seems like it's greatest feature (their words) is that "it's easy to use".
Can't figure how you use it though - stick it somewhere (up my butt) ??
I just don't like all the shenanigans it seems you have to go through to physically get your money with paypal - I live in Canada and like to be paid in US cash.
Seems like you have to get your credit card involved, which I wouldn't jeopardize with something like paypal.
The recent eBay price changes affected my business greatly. They will result in the fees I pay going up 40% annually! If I were to achieve the 5% discount eBay is offering a very select few, my fees would go up by approximately 27%. If I were to achieve the 15% discount, my fees would go up by approximately 13%.
I feel that the price increases are extremely misguided. Normally, companies only raise rates when THEIR costs increase, or when they are delivering better results to their customers. In THIS case, eBay's costs have not risen and they are not only NOT delivering better results, but they are actually delivering lesser results (lower sellthrough rates and lower ASPs). Any company that did not perceive themselves as a monopoly would never raise their rates under these circumstances, but, if you feel your customers have nowhere else to go, then you CAN raise their rates, to make up for the lower profits you are having due to the lesser results you are realizing.
eBay miscalculated in my case. I examined how much I pay eBay per year, and what I received in return for that money. I have concluded that I will do far better opening up my own auction on my own site. Unlike many other sellers, I had my own business for 10 years prior to starting on eBay, so I am now reversing the process I started in 2000! At that time, I moved my entire business ONTO eBay, and in 2008, I am moving my entire business OFF of eBay.
I really don't understand why eBay would drastically raise their rates on people like myself, who sell 100% of what they list, and have "fun" true auctions, where all the final prices are set by two or more actual bidders (the very kinds of auctions that made eBay so popular), and I have virtually perfect feedback (only 14 negatives in 300,000 transactions!).
What is equally difficult to understand is that eBay has slashed their rates to media sellers only, who sell very little of what they list, and who have generally mediocre feedback, and who often charge disproportionately high shipping, which eBay says is their number one concern! It also is odd that eBay chose these sellers to be the first recipients of their new "non-level playing field", for I can see no reason to single out these sellers as being especially important to eBay.
But it is not solely an issue of rates that is causing me to leave eBay. I believe their recent changes to feedback will have a disastrous effect on their company. I believe they made those changes because their research showed that buyers do not return to the site (either ever, or as often) because of dissatisfaction over high shipping, and because they get upset when a seller leaves negative feedback on them. So they made their recent changes (primarily trying to force sellers to lower shipping rates, and stop leaving "bad feedback") because they think that will improve sales.
I believe they are completely mistaken. In spite of what their research shows, I believe the number one reason buyers buy less often (or quit the site) is because they were cheated in some fashion. Similarly, I believe the number one reason sellers sell less (or quit selling altogether) is because they are tired of having buyers who never pay.
The solution to both these problems is to verify all other users on the site (both buyers and sellers). When a buyer or seller breaks the rules, eBay could then ban that PERSON, and not just that ID (which has no effect, because the person can get a new ID, under the current rules). If all users are verified, then a bad buyer or seller will be banned, and they can't easily get back on.
I believe eBay is aware of both these problems, but there are two things that prevent them from implementing my solution. One is that verifying all users would mean they would have to admit they would actually have something like 80 million users, instead of the 250 million users they claim (which counts all IDs as separate people, which everybody knows is complete fiction). The other thing is that eBay would have to have a REAL Trust and Safety department which would need to go after bad buyers and sellers, both with police and through the courts, and that would certainly be expensive, and would not bring eBay any additional income in the short term.
Under the current setup, eBay benefits greatly from the problems that beset the site. Many "bad sellers" are among the largest sellers, and pay eBay great amounts of fees. Many "bad buyers" cause items to have to be relisted a second time, and this generates a HUGE amount of revenue for eBay in listing fees they never refund (and surely many people never bother to get a refund of their final value fees, so that is an additional revenue source as well).
To sum up, eBay keeps raising the fees sellers pay, without delivering additional value of any kind, and in fact recent years have seen a deterioration of the value they have provided. They also continually micromanage their sellers, taking control of a greater and greater percentage of their businesses.
On April 10th, I started my first auctions on my own site, at auctions.emovieposter.... and sometime in the next month I will hold my last eBay auctions. I am currently in negotiations with other major sellers of collectibles and antiques, trying to help them leave eBay as well, and to help them set up similar auctions on their own sites. I have hope that, at some time in the future, I can help set up an auction site SOLELY for collectibles and antiques, so that all of the smaller sellers on eBay will have a place to sell on that is run by actual sellers, and which truly only does provide a platform for them to sell from. I believe such a site would be very welcomed by almost all sellers of collectibles and antiques.
Bruce Hershenson
President, eMoviePoster.com
Good morning! Love your new site! It's crisp, clean, easy to navigate, and loads fast as lightening (1 to 2 seconds).
We'll miss you at ebay but staying doesn't make sense. The site is one huge mass of bad script and fees are at an all time high. In the last 24 hours eBay discovered Scot Wingo's blog on how to hack Best Match & naturally they overreacted - changed search again - now God couldn't find IT.
A long time ago Seals & Crofts recorded a song titled The King of Nothing. I suspect in the not too distant future Donahoe will wake up one morning and discover he is also the King of Nothing.
However a huge backlash with many submissions heading to the ACCC Consumer affairs) will ensure that it will be closely scrutinized .
They had the audacity to announce it before applying for exemption to the trading laws .
Boycott Victoriously May 1st and beyond .