Comments on John LaRouche's articles RSS Syndication from SeekingAlpha.com http://seekingalpha.com/author/john-larouche/articles http://seekingalpha.com/article/121717-ebay-windsor-lawsuit-barrels-ahead?source=feed#comment-398494 398494 Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:43:34 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/121717-ebay-windsor-lawsuit-barrels-ahead?source=feed#comment-397427 397427 Sat, 21 Feb 2009 02:02:41 -0500
TWO HUNDRED!!! In TWO WEEKS!!!

From 917 to 713! Just a few weeks before THAT, Etsy was in the 1100's.

Yesterday, on Etsy, two of my purchases were from buyers who had just signed up that very day, and started shopping and buying.

Way to go, Etsy!]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/121717-ebay-windsor-lawsuit-barrels-ahead?source=feed#comment-397236 397236 I just quit ebay last week because of their unfair feedback policy. > After being a Powerseller for years with no negatives, I get my first > negative on Feb. 13th from a buyer that I opened an Unpaid Item Dispute > on. THE BUYER NEVER PAID AFTER 2 WEEKS! UN Friggin Believable! > After ebay informing that the neg is going to stand, I told them > I shut down my listings and moved over to etsy. I'm so sick of ebay's > BS...]]> Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:52:39 -0500
eBay's current feedback policy makes absolutely no sense at all. I mean...just try and imagine...How on earth can any reasonable policy sanction or suspend sellers for receiving negatives from non-paying bidders. Why is a non-paying bidder allowed to leave feedback of any kind? I'm afraid that the one who made up such a policy has far more than just a few marbles missing.

Nonetheless, I find it not at all surprising that there will be no eBay Live this year. Of course there will still be the annual shareholders' meeting to contend with, at which time Donahoe will have to try and convince what he no doubt hopes to be a very gullible audience, that everything is going just fine according to plan, despite so much evidence to the contrary. Of course if they still own eBay shares, they may very well fit that description.

On Feb 20 04:27 PM User 361172 wrote:

> I just quit ebay last week because of their unfair feedback policy.
> After being a Powerseller for years with no negatives, I get my first
> negative on Feb. 13th from a buyer that I opened an Unpaid Item Dispute
> on. THE BUYER NEVER PAID AFTER 2 WEEKS! UN Friggin Believable!
> After ebay informing that the neg is going to stand, I told them
> I shut down my listings and moved over to etsy. I'm so sick of ebay's
> BS...]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/121717-ebay-windsor-lawsuit-barrels-ahead?source=feed#comment-397107 397107 Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:27:44 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/121717-ebay-windsor-lawsuit-barrels-ahead?source=feed#comment-396703 396703 Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:53:59 -0500
Same ol', same ol'.

And on, and on, and on.

Ebay is panning out to be one of THE MOST corrupt companies to date.
]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/121717-ebay-windsor-lawsuit-barrels-ahead?source=feed#comment-396510 396510 Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:36:09 -0500 This lawsuit is nothing new. eBay makes up there own laws like any other giant corporation in America. They buy their way through our laws and just pay the fines and walk away - after they drag their case/victim through years if not decades of wasted time in court.

In addition, the sellers have been trying to convey this "gaming" practice to deaf ears for years now. It seems to many of our elected officials can be bought with hush money or be given a "financial donation" to turn a blind eye and ignore this method of corporate behavior.

JMO]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/121717-ebay-windsor-lawsuit-barrels-ahead?source=feed#comment-396425 396425 Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:03:47 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/68994-ebay-lawsuit-aimed-at-antitrust-unfair-competition-laws?source=feed#comment-357146 357146 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:53:07 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/68994-ebay-lawsuit-aimed-at-antitrust-unfair-competition-laws?source=feed#comment-354114 354114 Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:51:19 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/69162-more-on-windsor-auctions-lawsuit-against-ebay?source=feed#comment-252416 252416 Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:38:34 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/72704-ebay-live-auctions-successor-able-auctions?source=feed#comment-214926 214926 Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:20:08 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-200255 200255 Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:15:28 -0400
eBay totally sucks now & anybody still selling there is a total moron! A new auction site GoZBay is the place to go people, just check it out & you will see what I mean.

The CEO of eBay should spend some time behind bars IMHO, because what he is doing is surely criminal, and if he hadn`t most likely paid up a ton of crooked politicians, he would be on his way there now!

Good luck to those still selling on eBay! Enjoy your negs!]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-198802 198802 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 02:09:31 -0400 Many of the new decisions made appear to be made on the fly, without any real testing or research. So, as in all uneducated ebay style, they use the sellers as guinea pigs. The new game is called "lets lock up many small mom and pop sellers into a useless selling interface page/link called "MY EBAY BETA" and see what they do! They won't be able to sell effectively, and they will be frustrated enough to leave! Along with the sellers who the buyers will just have fun eliminating, by default poor feedbacks!

Gee this will be easy! And then we can listen to the "noise"... get paid some stock options, and then go log onto facebook when ebay acquires it. Sounds like a job made in heaven! Especially if it is being prepped to be sold or maybe the auction portion will be sold off.

None of this suprises me, but I WAS surprised to be bullied into a non opt out interface page when I had just decided to sell a few things..in effect, a few really NICE things that ebay could have taken a few final value fees from...so...why would they jeopardize their ability to make money from a seller?

maybe because they are ready to give up this form of making money?]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/72704-ebay-live-auctions-successor-able-auctions?source=feed#comment-198116 198116 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:38:07 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-190586 190586 Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:31:58 -0400
STOP looking to deeply into this.

Its just that - incompetence on the part of Donahoe and eBay management.

Its everywhere - look around - they dont make people like they used to.

Movies, music, television, big business, and of course politics......morons at the controls.

I hope eBay (And Donahoe) dies a miserable death. They earned it.


]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-188196 188196 Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:09:36 -0400
The changes are idiotic. Sellers can no longer leave negative or neutral feedback, even if a buyer bids, wins your item, ingores your emails and doesn't pay. What right do they have to leave any feedback, if no transaction has taken place? We have sellers, bidding on competitors items and ruining their feedback, just to get a boost, on their own items.

Ebay went in and retroactively turned all neutrals, to negatives. Neutral, means just that, how can ebay call neitral, negative? They swtarted giving new discounts to people with good ratings, but they knock them down first, with the neutral change, so that many can't even meet the requirements, for the discount.

That is not the worst of it. We have thousands and thousands of sellers, who have closed their stores and we KNOW that the listing count should be going down. But, we have uncovered the source of the raised listing counts and I can't see it being anything, but fraud.

The seller BUY or Buy.com was taken on by ebay, right at the time ebay KNEW they were going to lose sellers. They are using buy.com, to pad the listings, to make it look like the count is up, when it really isn't. We have found thousands upon thousands of fake listings, that have no description and you can't even buy them. I found them ending tens of thousands of listings early, saying they are no longer available for sale and then immediately relisting them. Most likely to keep the sell through rate up and then relisting them again, to up the listing count 2 fold. They don't even pay any fees, being owned by ebay, so all the listings that they are padding, aren't even bringing in revenue???? Something isn't right here!

Isn't this making the stockholders think that listings are up, when they really aren't? We have all the proof documented. I even have it documented of when I was talking to Ebay Live Help and asking them about all the ads, being ended early and it immediately stopped, when they found out that we knew about it.

Please help us in exposing them, for what they are trying to pull. The boycotters should have a fair chance, to show what is really going on, behind the scenes.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-188167 188167 Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:27:50 -0400
When I am asked no begged back, hell no- I will not go.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-188076 188076 Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:47:52 -0400
But thanks to the latest changes, I now don't sell on eBay at all, and I have auctioned on my own site emovieposter.com for the past nine weeks, averaging $50,000 a week (just what I did on eBay without my special event auctions).

BUT, I now no longer pay eBay $120,000 a year in fees (which would have risen to $180,000 this year), and I can spend that money giving free gifts to my buyers, lower shipping, and spending some dollars on google and yahoo adwords, and still have plenty left over.

And I don't have some crazed micro-managers breathing down my back every second, especially galling since they have never sold an item to speak of, and they choose to dictate exactly how I should run my business, and they make 180 degree policy changes with regularity.

Meanwhile the crooks run rampant at eBay, and none of their changes have made a dent in that, but they have succeeded in harassing myself and countless other sellers into leaving eBay, thus diminishing the selection of interesting items even further, while pumping up their numbers with endless quantities of the same newly made items.

I get told a lot that it is a shame I have left eBay. I always reply that it is eBay who "left" me, by massively raising rates while delivering fewer and fewer buyers, and by attempting to constantly "fix" my business with endless rules, when it is not "broken" in the slightest.

I am a 99 cent no reserve seller who sells 1,000 to 1,500 items a week, and who has sold 330,000 items with 100% positive feedback, and I received one undeserved negative feedback in the last 60,000, unheard of among high volume sellers. I am exactly the kind of seller who made eBay what it was, who helped it grow from a tiny website to a multi-billion dollar household name.

One might think they would find it valuable to maintain relationships with sellers like myself (I am not suggesting any sort of loyalty, just that they would not casually cast off a three million dollar a year seller with perfect feedback).

But there is no room for a seller like me in the eBay of 2008, and I can not for the life of me figure out why (unless it is that they needed to get rid of sellers like myself because they are completely quitting the auction business).

Even if that is their plan, I still don't understand why they didn't simply "spin off" the auction side of eBay (a la eBay Motors) and keep a very lucrative part of eBay alive and well.

From the outside, it looks like there is little rhyme or reason to what they are doing, but I can't imagine that is the case. I sure hope they have some wonderful master plan that they are keeping close to their vest, and that once they unveil it, all will become clear!

Bruce Hershenson
President
eMoviePoster.com]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-188075 188075 Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:46:54 -0400
But thanks to the latest changes, I now don't sell on eBay at all, and I have auctioned on my own site emovieposter.com for the past nine weeks, averaging $50,000 a week (just what I did on eBay without my special event auctions).

BUT, I now no longer pay eBay $120,000 a year in fees (which would have risen to $180,000 this year), and I can spend that money giving free gifts to my buyers, lower shipping, and spending some dollars on google and yahoo adwords, and still have plenty left over.

And I don't have some crazed micro-managers breathing down my back every second, especially galling since they have never sold an item to speak of, and they choose to dictate exactly how I should run my business, and they make 180 degree policy changes with regularity.

Meanwhile the crooks run rampant at eBay, and none of their changes have made a dent in that, but they have succeeded in harassing myself and countless other sellers into leaving eBay, thus diminishing the selection of interesting items even further, while pumping up their numbers with endless quantities of the same newly made items.

I get told a lot that it is a shame I have left eBay. I always reply that it is eBay who "left" me, by massively raising rates while delivering fewer and fewer buyers, and by attempting to constantly "fix" my business with endless rules, when it is not "broken" in the slightest.

I am a 99 cent no reserve seller who sells 1,000 to 1,500 items a week, and who has sold 330,000 items with 100% positive feedback, and I received one undeserved negative feedback in the last 60,000, unheard of among high volume sellers. I am exactly the kind of seller who made eBay what it was, who helped it grow from a tiny website to a multi-billion dollar household name.

One might think they would find it valuable to maintain relationships with sellers like myself (I am not suggesting any sort of loyalty, just that they would not casually cast off a three million dollar a year seller with perfect feedback).

But there is no room for a seller like me in the eBay of 2008, and I can not for the life of me figure out why (unless it is that they needed to get rid of sellers like myself because they are completely quitting the auction business).

Even if that is their plan, I still don't understand why they didn't simply "spin off" the auction side of eBay (a la eBay Motors) and keep a very lucrative part of eBay alive and well.

From the outside, it looks like there is little rhyme or reason to what they are doing, but I can't imagine that is the case. I sure hope they have some wonderful master plan that they are keeping close to their vest, and that once they unveil it, all will become clear!

Bruce Hershenson
President
eMoviePoster.com]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-184825 184825 Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:04:18 -0400
eBay doesn't care about treating its customers well. Amazon, here the merchants come!]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-183980 183980 Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:25:29 -0400
forums.ebay.com/db2/th...

Check out this link to seller's central! ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-183596 183596 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:09:18 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-183528 183528 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:55:37 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-183246 183246 lower revenue>lower stock value. And if you exclude 'ebay live auctions', there are no true auctions on ebay; it is a tendering process, not an auction. Tenders have pre-determined time limits, whereas auctions continue until the bidding stops. ]]> Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:44:49 -0400 lower revenue>lower stock value. And if you exclude 'ebay live auctions', there are no true auctions on ebay; it is a tendering process, not an auction. Tenders have pre-determined time limits, whereas auctions continue until the bidding stops.
]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-183127 183127 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:50:17 -0400
Now - even though my feedback is perfect, my five star rating is not. My ship time rating continues to decline, even though I ship every 24 hours. I made one, count them, ONE listing error and listed something that was a violiation. I accept it was my error, but to have a dashboard rating of POOR and RISK SUSPENSION because I made one mistake??

Its too bad - I've been an eBay customer for over 8 eight years - I sell under two ID's (different products) and I buy under both. I may be seeking an alternate venue for my business if eBay continues to "weed" us out. I had an eBay store, fixed price and it was a total failure - my items did better on auction - and eBay made more money off of me that way too - so I just don't get it.

The little guy doesn't matter anymore - but in the long run, it's us little guys that make any business.

How do we get eBay to listen?? Write to stock holders??]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-182434 182434 Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:47:58 -0400
I am definitely being culled. My feedback was 1,693 (out of 2.014) positive feedback & one neutral in Jan. My feedback score dropped from 100% to 99.2%, then I got another positive feedback - and my score dropped to 99.1!!! I just bought 3 items - and I'm afraid that my score will drop even lower if they leave me feedback.

And those DSRs - don't ask. Since 98% of what I sell is either media mail or parcel post (mainly media mail as I sell a lot of books) - I have a 4.54 star rating on shipping time - because those two ways to mail are slow!! And I get blamed, not the post office. A couple of people have said I charge too much for shipping (DSR - 4.86) - I charge the exact postage and no handling charge.

Oh! I am so frustrated. I am woman hear me rant!!!

There has to be something else out there!!
]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-182309 182309 Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:20:40 -0400
I am in the process of opening a shop on Etsy.

And in a way I do have to thank Ebay. There has been such an upsurge of information since the policy change was announced.

I have found that what impresses me most with Etsy is their admirable sense of morality and ethics!
When I have written customer support I get real answers to my questions, not the canned bot response of Ebay.

The Etsy sellers are in 3 catagories:

Handcrated
Vintage
Supplies

If you buy from Etsy you are also truly helping a small business to become established.

:) What the hey, gimme a couple more weeks. I can be found operating under;

www.uknowuneedanother....

I have also done a sisde by side study of Ebay and Amazon. When a bit more established I'll be looking into Amazon , too.

It is possible to run a professional business.

Ruby Lane has been established for 10 years and I have found that they appear to be very well run.

]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-182175 182175 Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:09:51 -0400
Pssssst. Amazon's established.

]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-182173 182173 Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:54:34 -0400
And by the way - I am a niche higher end vendor - selling a unique wedding related product with 100% rating for 5 straight years...

Ebay has chased away those of us who built the model for them - and if you think you are still making money - wait till you get your new year end profit reports from your accountant - your hourly wages may not be worth it any longer...

On a last note - moved to Amazon with my items.. my volume is back to Ebay levels already - with half the costs - as I said - no stone unturned in supporting my family.

The decision to close my ebay store was easy - when the feedback rules changed - my NPB went sky high - they bid mutliple items of mine and then only paid for the lowest price one they won - driving my costs up - making me wait weeks for a refund of fees - costing me sales to other bidders they outbid - and losing me listing fees - so the answer was list less - in fact - list one of each item ... a drop of 42 average listings - you can do the math... otherwise my costs far outweigh my profit - or I can raise my price and sell nothing (we did try that over the years) ...

So please - paint with a smaller brush here... some of us are not as stupid as you make us out .. we do the math the old fashioned way ... no fuzzy math - dollars in - dollars out - whats left is profit divided by hours spent = is it worth it?]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80142-ebay-culling-the-herd?source=feed#comment-182127 182127 Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:26:55 -0400