Dinah Balk

eBay Watch: Poor 2008 Start for Internet Stocks, Overstock's Good Points

Why did this occur? In a word Donahoe, ebay Marketing Director.

Buyers - Did he really think millions of buyers wouldn't notice the bad cookies he downloaded into their computers that opted them into his insane guinea pig tests? Most had no idea why their searches wouldn't work until they discovered an obscure opt out link at bottom of a page, if there was one there at all.

Sellers - Donahoe has devasted sellers with many innovations that are part of his mission to improve "buyer experience" but none work. The sell your item form (syi) has ceased to function despite 3-4 renditions in the last year, markdown manager still doesn't work, shipping calculator can't work due to a design flaw, predetermined item specifics don't make sense, and i could go on and on.

Conversion rates - When this seller asked the pink, Marniesue (ebay moderator of the Finding 2.0 thread on the Search Discussion Board) specifics about how conversation rates were calculated she was suddenly "called away" from the board.

Newbies - New members to ebay aka newbies are dupped into adding features to listings that don't make sense such as shipping overseas which is cost prohibitive to buyers or adding other features to make their listing standout.

Best Match - Buyers used to be able to find IT within a few minutes but that was before Donahoe replaced KEYWORD SEARCHES with best match. Now buyers are expected to DRILL DOWN and go through multiple levels to find IT & when they can't they are forced to start their search over & over again.

While Meg is out trolliping around the country with Mitt, ebay is slowly dying due to Donahoe. He is aware of all the issues above as evidenced by millions of complaints by both buyers & sellers and yet he continues his plan of destruction. I strongly urge all buyers & sellers to either buy 1 share of voting stock & vote both of the above out or seek another venue.

Amazon will welcome you with open arms.