Watching the Wheels

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59 Comments

    • Tue Jun 10th 07:20 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay Culling the Herd?
      Et tu Brute,

      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.

      View article »
    • Sun Jun 8th 08:25 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay Culling the Herd?
      I can understand that there are times when it IS imperative to make changes within a company.

      Unfortunately the top brass of Ebay does slop work. PayPal reps have only managed to maintain a 50% accuracy rate concerning callin questios that I had. If you travel the Ebay site, suggestion, visit the Feedback Answer Center. The antiquated feedback methods are still in a locked position at the top of Ebay's preferred means of addressing questions.

      I'm curious. What would take precedent, the new policies or the posting at the very beginning of the Feedback answer center. It does strike me as a tad odd. The answer centers were put into place by staff. Doesn't anybody keep track or monitor the site?

      How many other inccuracies are present site wise. Call me silly,but how does one agree to any sort of contractual terms and have it be deemed valid when there is ongoing conflicts within the information being presented to perspective users? How would said contract hold up legally? Which information, if you manage to find it within the site would be seen as current?

      Is there anyone POed enough and with a certain expertise with contracts that would be interested in running an audit within the site's endless contradictions? Has any precedent been set based upon rulings within the financial sector regarding information being written inclear English that could be applied here?

      My one last wish. it would be nice if I were doing post graduate studies in business. Ebay's antics would be a pure gold mine towards any post graduate papers being written. Students are probably becomed a bit bored reading about Enron.
      View article »
    • Thu Jun 5th 15:35 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay Culling the Herd?
      Donahoe is a past CEO. it is only logical to assume that the newly acquired position that he holds was part of the original job offering.

      Pierre hired Meg. I fail to understand the users who feel that he was somehow bamboozled by Mr. Donahoe.

      P.T. Barnum had a quote about suckers being born ...


      If you are unwilling to think for yourself who really is to blame. The users are unfortunately Ebay's enablers.

      Et tu Brute!, I agree with your political assessment.

      Ebay was found guilty by the French of fraud. Does this set legal precedent?
      View article »
    • Thu Jun 5th 07:01 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay Culling the Herd?
      The executive level of Ebay enacted policy change in less than a forthright manner. There was no rallying of the troops. There was attempt made to honorably address the issues and problems within Ebay.

      How can anybody trult trust a company that acts in this manner. Their actions towards the sellers showed me the potentials of dishonesty that can continue to be expected from the top tiers of Ebay.

      I don't trust cowards.
      View article »
    • Wed Apr 16th 18:16 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay Earnings Preview: Will the Loose Ends Tie Up?
      Ckeck out Ebay Ink the companies new official blog. It has basically created yet another oportunity to air Ebay's dirty linens.

      I have to seriously wonder about a company with so much negative commentary being voiced. I just don't get it. Don't get me wrong I was one of them.

      I'm going through "rehab" now and detoxing. I realised that all of my research was an incredible waste of my time. Any company worthy of my time will have no problems answering me directly.

      Let me take this time to thank Ebay for compelling me to do extensivs research. I discovered alternatives that I didn't know existed.
      View article »
    • Tue Apr 8th 15:15 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Jim Cramer's Mad Money Lightning Round, 4/7/08: No Way, Ebay
      Loved your oppinion of Ebay!!!

      It's nice to see that there are people who notice the chaos. if you have the time read thru the latest smokescreen Ebay Ink.
      View article »
    • Mon Apr 7th 15:59 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay: Where's Oprah When You Need Her?
      Can Tippi let the rest of us know where ALL THESE PROMINANT phone numbers are located?

      View article »
    • Mon Apr 7th 08:15 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay: Where's Oprah When You Need Her?
      Loved the article! You hit the nail on the head.

      Oprah can't fix this ... Ebay needs Dr. Phil.

      I had registared with Ebay in Nov. '07 with the goal of becoming a seller. With the policy change announcement my plans were put on hold. This was a good thing; it would give me time to teach myself how to be a good seller.

      But, it quckly became apparant that Ebay is psycholgically dysfunctual. Neither side is willing to entertain any ideas that differ from what is in their head now.

      I have posted in the Answer Center. This is the only viable customer service to be found within Ebay. It is strictly volunteer. You can ask a question and members will try to supply an answer. Ebay has phone support for the Power Sellers and what are termed the best buyers. Eveybody else is left to fend for themselves.

      When I first started posting I tried to look at the changes with an open mind. I still don't see anything horrible with what is being done. How Ebay went about the changes WAS WRONG!!!! I don't think that they purposely meant to insult and alienate everybody. This was the end result.

      I have gone over the web site to the best of my ability and alot of the problems that the policy changes were meant to address could have been better served by the following:

      1. Instill standards of professional behavior within feedback. The only restrictions are no cursing, no ethnic slurs, no naming names.

      Ebay!! GET REAL!! I have researched the top brass. How did you manage to completely drop the ball here?

      2. Customer Service!? Where is it? There is an email version. It is very apparant that it is an automated feature. The posters in the AC say the same about live help.

      3. Stop with the G.D. groups already. The constant groups, workshops, and now the blogs are in reality only serving to air Ebay's dirty laundry.

      If a workshop (training opportunites) are going to be sponsered by the company,they would have alot more credibility if the sponsering Ebay employee had more than single digit feedback showing next to their name. The computer is NOT an efficient means of conveying information if a reader has to continually bounce back and forth trying to match question with response.

      4. The Ask Griff live radio call in is in need of some tweaking also. I have been disconnected every time I have called. Glitch? Done on purpose? I don't know, but noticed? YES. There is also too much air time being used for paid advertising so it's supposed purpose of educating the community gets lost.

      Only the top 200 sellers were involved in the process. How many people sell on Ebay? But even here if you go to 'About Ebay' and then to 'Media' you can find a webcast of the question and answer session follow-up that was given to the Power Sellers. By watching the facial expressions of the top brass it is evident that the changes ARE NOT OPEN TO DISCUSSION. There was a Part 2 of the Q&A. I can find no record of it.

      Being an executive is more than getting listed within a company website. This is not a traditional business with varying strata of management. If there is any form of intermediary that can interface with the buyers and sellers, can someone please tell me what it is?

      Lastly, in my quest to make sence of this quagmire, I looked up Bain & Company. I wanted insight into John Donahoe. As a test, I sent an Email inquiring about potentially hiring them. I wasn't expecting a response. I received a very courteous and profeesion decline within 24 hours. I was impressed.

      When I returned to the Bain site I learned that the company ranks # 45 in Fortune's Best companies to work for. I learned that Bain believes very strongly in training their employees.
      Well, the Ebay sellers may not be employees in the traditional sense, but they are generating income for the company and doing this without the benifit of medical or any company sponsered help in terms of retirement plans.

      Bain also said that it believed in telling management what they needed to here as opposed to sucking up. This also impressed me. Mr. Donahoe, did 3 years reverse 20?

      Lastly I was impressed with Bain's concept of the 1% possibility.
      By only involving 200 people in the 2008 policy change engine how many 1%s got away?

      P.S.

      I am also one of those 1% and I KNOW IT!

      View article »
    • Tue Mar 25th 21:43 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Leaving eBay: Not as Easy as It Sounds
      I have just returned from Ebay's answer center. I had attempted to leave a link to alert users to this article and more importantly to alert users to the first comment posted.

      My Ebay post was interfered with. MY...
      ...MY

      Hopefully people will find it. Mr. Edwards I'm sure there are members who would be very interested by what they might be able to learn from you. Please keep listing your info whereever possible
      View article »
    • Tue Mar 25th 21:12 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Who Wins in eBay's New Shipping Cost Requirements?
      Ebay sounds more like a franchise operation than venue
      View article »
    • Sun Mar 23rd 13:46 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Learning Your Way Around eBay's New Seller Dashboard
      I understand the ranking rationale. I have been looking through best match and checking the sellers. The best product might not be presented to the buyer in a given catagory because sellers can have a wide array within their own individual listings. This aspect of positioning favors the seller and not the buyer.
      View article »
    • Sat Mar 8th 08:20 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay Tales of Surveys and Sellers
      A few suggestions:

      1. Customer Service is virtually non existant. In order to receive answers to questions all users are essentially forced to utilize the community answer centers. This area is "manned" by members. There are members that devote alot of time trying to help other members. The downside of this approach though is that the answers are not "official" rulings. The user may be referred to a link within Ebay where policy can be found but another potential downside is that the advisors can develope an elevated sense of their own importance. If Bain & Company has been retained, here's a hint.... AMAZON also has a phone line accessable for users.

      2. Venue/Scmenue. Ebay is too large of an entity to allow everyone to function as they see fit. There are too many divergent skill levels and personality types present. Someone needs to be willing to audit the entirety of the Ebay website and be willing to take the time and introduce some professional standards and some VERY CLEAR standards of behavior and ettiquete that are to be maintained by EVERYONE involved.
      I have never seen a more disorganized mess in my life!

      To the person that feels that Ebay doesn't listen to sellers, I didn't find that they listened to me as a buyer either. Venue is beginning to appear as a truly conveniant way to be able to shift policy on nothing more than a whim.

      3. The wording of most of the policies that I have read leave too much wiggle room in how the policy could wind up being interpreted. RE.: Feedback, Is the buyer going to have carte blanche in language as long as the seller is not named or cursed at?
      Why does Ebay not see a need to improve this area? If checked against corporate governance, Ebay seems to realize that complete freedom of speech has a very real potential of creating dischord between employees.
      There also needs to be quantative means to qauge customer seller interactions. Ebay appears to be trying to improve this area, but without having clearly spelled out standards that apply to both seeler and buyer in terms of quality,shipping rates,return policies and any area that I have missed, the problems are going to continue.

      4. With the current policy shifts Ebay HAS essentially removed some of the controlls from the seller's hands and left them more vulnerable to fraud. By attempting to protect the buyer, which is noble, the seller has been compromised. On a personal level I have questions concerning the legitimacy of the "venue" platform. Maybe Ebay should consider being a Franchisor as opposed to a venue.

      5. Too much of what I read within the Ebay site is phrased in subjective terms. This also needs to be cleaned up! However any one wants to define all of this, one fact still remains.

      THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE BUSINESS!!!!!!

      Personal oppinions have no place in any of this. The entity if Ebay needs to be studied to find all the potential flaws. The flaws need to be corrected.

      Lastly, I read about an official blogger being brought on board. I find that Ebay's philosophy of freedom of speech is an area that needs to be reined in.


      View article »
    • Fri Mar 7th 08:37 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay Tales of Surveys and Sellers
      CUSTOMER SERVICE???
      CUSTOMER SERVICE?????
      CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      View article »
    • Sun Mar 2nd 16:18 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      eBay Bares Its Ugly New Face
      It would be ALOT more understandable if Ebay has good rationales for these changes if Ebay staff would come out of hiding and show themselves as a very visible presense. The lack of official Ebay follow-up is only succeeding in making people more suspicious of the changes to be. I have not noticed updates within their website anouncing that changes are in the works. Why not? When will the updates be added? Is this part of a planned chaos? If so why? If not, then where is the company's leadership? People have concerns. Announcing the changes ,with we believe they are good, but omitting channels for communication in areas of questions or additional clarification makes no sense to me. The most accessable sources that I can find are by tracking news items and ensuing forums or by utilizing the Answer Center within Ebay. Neither of these sources are comprised of the policy makers. I am becoming educated. But is the information that I am receiving accurate? I have no way of knowing this because I lack a means to discuss my concerns with the policy makers. This lack has been and continues to be one of the criteria that I am being forced to look upon very seriously as I continue to access Ebay.
      View article »
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