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eBay Down Further as Morgan Stanley Downgrades

Then: In its heyday Ebay used to tout three things: 1) That a winning bid is a CONTRACT between buyer and seller that BOTH had to honor. 2) Whenever there was an issue or a challenge, Ebay would say “we are only a venue” and have no control over the transaction between buyer and seller. 3) That the Ebay site was a “level playing field” between buyers and sellers and between Mom/Pop small sellers and behemoth corporate sellers. All played by the same rules.

Now: A winning bid is a contract that ONLY THE SELLER has to honor. The buyers can demand [and get] any number of concessions from the seller by threatening to leave bad DSR’s…all they have to do is call the seller so there is no MY MESSAGES or email record. Ebay will do nothing. We sellers cannot tell the truth [through feedback] about bidders who don't pay, pay MUCH later than auction terms state, who bounce checks, or who cheat the seller through bogus claims and return empty packages for full refunds that Paypal will award them in a heartbeat. In addition, these same bidders can knock a good seller off Ebay for 30 days by annihilating them in DSRs which they can leave even though they do not pay. We get rated on "communication" even though there is no requirement for the bidder to have a correct email address. There may be a different email address attached to the Ebay account but the current email address is attached to the Paypal account. So even if you contact them through MY MESSAGES they won't receive it unless they log onto Ebay...but can bash a seller in DSRs because the seller didn't communicate!

Bidders can "award" a failing grade [anything under a "4" out of "5" is failing according to Ebay] for rules that aren't even part of Ebay's policies like "failing to leave feedback first". Ebay doesn't make a differentiation to bidders that "Shipping time" is NOT "delivery time" as sellers who ship the same day have no control over when that package is actually DELIVERED. So bidders fail sellers when the USPS or UPS or Customs delays a shipment even though that seller shipped the SAME DAY payment was received.

The “we are only a venue” thing…HA! Ebay now controls HOW something is listed, HOW it can be paid for, WHERE the items show up in search, HOW MANY items can be listed [regardless of how many are paid for to be listed} etc. Think of it this way…WHAT LANDLORD of a bricks and mortar retailer tells a retailer what credit cards to accept, what items to sell, and that customers have been complaining so a retailer HAS to allow all students coming in to shop to carry backpacks without being searched. And tells the retailer how much they can charge for shipping and handling. How long before that bricks and mortar retailer moves to a more resonable site…or goes out of business.

In essence, this is what Ebay is doing as a landlord to sellers with these changes.

It is no longer a level playing field: a) Buyers can leave negative and neutral feedback for sellers but sellers cannot inform other sellers by feedback when a buyer cheats them or doesn’t honor their committment to the “ebay contract” when making the purchase. Buyers can leave subjective and anonymous DSRs about sellers with impunity sometimes causing sellers to NOT BE ABLE TO LIST FOR 30 DAYS and the buyers can just MAKE UP A REASON to do so. [Ebay gives buyers no parameters [or ultra weak ones] for what the DSR levels mean and how to rate sellers. Getting slammed unfairly by buyers can also make listings unfindable by other buyers through BEST MATCH EVEN THOUGH sellers PAY THE SAME FEES to list their items. b) Small sellers now have different rules and fees from corporate sellers…so the corporate sellers can undercut the Mom and Pops because their fee structure is “enhanced”.

So the Mom & Pops sellers can no longer compete and are getting slammed by unscrupulous buyers in DSRs so they are leaving…taking with them the unique cutesy items that made Ebay a fun place to shop for buyers. Without the unique cutesy items, the good buyers are leaving too.

Sellers will leave and won’t buy either. As they go and the Ebay broken and draconian search engine keeps the buyers left from finding their unique treasures…I hope the new management can sleep at night with their handiwork.

And yet Ebay, who cannot field a decent customer service department that CARES that could rid the site of bad sellers AND buyers, spends tons of money changing ITEM pages and MY EBAY 4-5 times a year WHEN IT DOES NOT NEED TO BE CHANGED. BTW when is the last time Amazon changed its pages? Putting lipstick on a pig with these superficial changes doesn’t change the fact that it’s a pig.


You think LAST YEAR’S Ebay Live, which used to be a cult-like positive cheerleading event, was a disaster…wait until THIS YEAR! Ebay may have to PAY sellers to show up to a venue that people were once treating like a Yankees/Red Sox World Series event.

And with all of the above “enhancements” sellers are asked to pay fee increases up to 43% and are now required to use Paypal only…thus eliminating the 20% of buyers who ONLY pay by money order or check. Oh! and as punishment for Ebay’s not accepting Google Checkout, EBAY’S searches have been lowered in GOOGLE’S BEST MATCH further hurting sellers AND buyers! Hah!

Ebay will implode.