Chelle9

2008: The Year eBay Lost Its Mojo

@ DDUCK025

Please provide the facts with the proof so we all know the truth

2008: The Year eBay Lost Its Mojo

Two problems with your using the listing increase from medved to demonstrate eBay's growth

1) most of those listings were already on eBay just not counted in core they are store listings

2) do a rough calculation based on the conversion rate pre fixed 30 like August to November comparison of listing counts of the rate of conversion. You will see there has been an [absolute] decline in conversion. With nearly twice as many listings in November than August it is stunning that the actual, not relative percentage, but the actual rate of conversion was lower in Nov then in August

You can see eBay's fall to Amazon here
www.nielsen-online.com...

And you state "as well as others" referring to other auction count sites - care to share those other sites with us?

"The study asked 6,486 adult-aged U.S. consumers which companies they thought were most trustworthy and which did the best job safeguarding personal information. A total of 706 companies were named by consumers; 211 made the final list of most trusted companies.
(truste.org/about/press...)"

This credible source you are quoting is based on the users perception, and is not a testament of reality it is only how the users trusts the company. Does not mean the user has any idea what is happening to their information ? No, it means they are just another eBay sucker

Here are some real sources for you- straight from the ......

bits.blogs.nytimes.com.../

Read the bottom of this page
(labs.ebay.com/raghavgu...)

And the 1st spot you should have looked before trying to create a rally for eBay

eBay's very own privacy policy
pages.ebay.com/help/po...

enjoy the read:)



Its late and i am tired so I'll come back in the next couple days to help you understand what is happening

2008: The Year eBay Lost Its Mojo

"What does everyone think about eBay sharing members personal information, which includes financials, with every company they own & service provides whose identify remains a secret because it is not posted? "

eBay began sharing information in February - if not before - but that is when they began using user info to apply the 21 day holds. They did not update the user agreement until August 13th. eBay not only shares our private information with its various subsidiaries it is also shared with any company that they might use/buy/or sell something to before any agreement has been made. Donahoe also intends to sell our personal data to third parties.

Here is the really scary part. Along with your identifying information eBay is sharing your user behavior attached to your identifying information. Why does this matter? It is used to spam your internet experience with ads that Donahoe believes will give you the best possible online experience. What else can eBay do? By sharing your transaction history between all of its subsidiaries eBay can track all the purchases you make online if you used PayPal- eBay Inc. shopped what you bought and how much your paid for it. If you buy tickets from stub hub than they know where you were on July 10th at 8pm 2008. If you use Bill Me Later eBay will acquire your credit history, part of your SSN, and if you make a purchase on Amazon they'll know, if you make a purchase from Toys R US they'll know - what you bought & how much you paid. If you use Rent.com eBay will know you need a home & how much you can afford to pay. If you use stumble-upon eBay will know every site you visit on its service.

An interesting discovery concerning Skype a few months ago

In April 2006, Skype publicly disclosed that TOM operated a text filter that blocked certain words in chat messages, and it also said that if the message is found unsuitable for displaying, it is simply discarded and not displayed or transmitted anywhere. It was our understanding that it was not TOM's protocol to upload and store chat messages with certain keywords, and we are now inquiring with TOM to find out why the protocol changed.

We also learned yesterday about the existence of a security breach that made it possible for people to gain access to those stored messages on TOM's servers. We were very concerned to learn about both issues and after we urgently addressed this situation with TOM, they fixed the security breach. In addition, we are currently addressing the wider issue of the uploading and storage of certain messages with TOM.

share.skype.com/sites/...

My question is - does Skype service in the US do the same thing, but they haven't yet to be caught? Look at what they are doing with the behavioral data they are collecting without our knowledge I'm not sure I trust this company enough to even give them the benefit of the doubt that they are not doing the same here.

www.youtube.com/watch?...

Is eBay's Strategy Working?

eBay +++

"All the scenarios you described could have been avoided with proper communication."

The listings clearly indicate the cost of postage and the length of time you should expect your package. What other communications do you require to understand - there isn't any room for confusion it is all very straight forward.

I buy on eBay all the time and my experiences have not changed at all. The reason, because I am careful who I buy from. I note how long it will take to be delivered and if it's longer than I like I don't buy. I look at the cost of shipping and if I feel it is out of line I don't buy. If I email a seller with a question and they don't respond I don't buy from them. WTH is so hard about this. You want to make careless purchases and then blame someone else for your immature negligent decisions. It is your fault, you own it, and you should have to live with it. You are out of line and reckless with the lives of people who gave you all the information and/or because you failed to acquire information important to you.

You need to grow up and take responsibility for your actions. If you can't manage to shop in the big world of adults than maybe you need to stay out of the market.

Is eBay's Strategy Working?

eBay has deliberately tied its subsidiary PayPal's payment service to the marketplace service. eBay has pretended to allow other payment method options - specifically ProPay - however Propay does not provide service to any seller who is not at least a silver level powerseller or above. The large majority of sellers are Bronze powersellers or less and have been left without any options, as a result they are forced to use the PayPal service if they use the eBay marketplace. If a seller
already uses the ProPay service on their own website Propay requires
a separate account for the service if used in the marketplace. The
Propay service has an annual fee so the incentive to open a separate
account to use in the marketplace compounded by Propay's lack of brand awareness in the marketplace deters sellers who can offer the
service from doing so.

eBay has used couponing to raise the demand of the use of the PayPal
service and as a result of both the couponing and the fear tactic eBay employs, even those mid size sellers who have a "choice" must
offer the PayPal service to do business on eBay if they intend to be
optimally productive. eBay Inc. established a collaboration with its various subsidiaries to share account information of all eBay and/or the users of eBay Inc.'s various subsidiary's and is using this information to target consumers of the eBay marketplace who did not use the PayPal service, but instead had paid with cashier's check or money orders, with the seduction of discounts through these coupons to encourage the use of PayPal. The coupons are only good if the purchase is paid for through the PayPal service. This activity is a fact that eBay itself has readily admitted. Their doing so effectively coerces the marketplace users to use eBay Inc.'s subsidiary PayPal's payment service.

eBay deliberately discourages the use of other payment methods in
its checkout by issuing a warning that the buyer does not have
protection if they use a service other than PayPal when the buyer
chooses an option that is not PayPal. This message is absent when
PayPal is the chosen payment method. Of course to tell anyone who
backs up their purchase with their credit or debit card as a credit
card they have no protection is false, because they can do a
chargeback with their credit service if something should go wrong.
In January eBay will implement the banning of 3rd party checkout
services forcing the sellers who do offer credit card payments to
use the eBay checkout increasing the eyes of marketplace buyer to
this warning discouraging the use of the other payment services.

With the integration of merchant services used by marketplace
sellers they are limiting the sellers service options by only
allowing the use of eBay approved credit card payment services.
When eBay's marketplace customers have inquired if the merchant service they already use will be allowed eBay is demanding the seller turn over the seller's contract and terms of the credit card service prior to any consideration of allowing a service to integrate in the eBay
marketplace checkout. Not only is eBay forcing the use of eBay
checkout they are forcing the use of PayPal's gateway service Pay
flow, which limits the choices a seller can offer if their service
will not integrate and use the pay flow gateway. This results in higher
costs for consumers not only due to the cost of the service, but
also the extraordinary liabilities the marketplace seller assumes when using the PayPal service. Such as holding payments made to the seller for 21 days or more at the sole discretion of PayPal, the increased risk of unrecoverable loss if their PayPal account is compromised not only
exhausting their PayPal balance but also their recorded bank
accounts and credit cards on file and associated with their PayPal
account, and the increased vulnerability of marketplace sellers to
fraud relative to other payment services.

eBay purchases its competition, such as bill me later, which is a
service that competed with eBay's subsidiary PayPal's service pay
later. Clearly, the acquisition of the bill me later has
limited consumers choice of payment services not owned by eBay Inc... Bill me Later is also a service offered by the Amazon marketplace and its acquisition allows eBay leverage to pressure its competitor Amazon.

eBay has deliberately and plainly stated they will not allow Google
Checkout or Amazon payments in the marketplace, because those
products/services compete with eBay on too many levels. However,
these services do not compete with the marketplace, because the
marketplace is not a payment service it is a selling platform only.
Forcing the use of its subsidiary PayPal onto the large majority of
the eBay marketplace's customers is exclusive dealing and harms the
consumers both on and off of eBay by forcing its customers to pay
higher fees than they would with the Google Checkout service, and
increasing the demand of PayPal outside of the eBay marketplace
while oppressing/suppressing the Google Checkout service limiting
consumer choice and increasing prices consumers must pay. Merchants will recover PayPal's service fee by raising the price of the item causing consumers to pay higher prices than they would otherwise.

eBay is using predatory pricing to attract businesses such as
Buy.com, smartbargains, and shoplet, which also use the Amazon Marketplace, by allowing these large retailers to use the service with substantially reduced prices relative to eBay's other customers. This activity is also price discrimination, because they are discounting on the front end service fee, which means they are receiving preferential pricing prior to productivity. A back end discount might justify the reduced fees. eBay's reduced fees for these large retailers has disadvantaged its customers that must pay the full fees for the use of the marketplace's service, because they are not able to compete with a competitor that can list products for sale without limit due to their preferential pricing.

Also, eBay's implementation of the "best match" search result sort
where placement is determined by the total item cost + shipping,
the seller's score on their Detailed Seller Ratings a 5 star
feedback tool. The ratings are based on the buyers subjective
experience, knowledge or lack of the cost of postage, and eBay's
admitted mixed message in their guidance of the meaning of the star
and their application of the score. Such as, 4 stars for scoring
shipping is defined as reasonable to the seller's customer while
eBay will discontinue service to any seller who has a 30 day average
in any of the 4 criteria of 4.1%. Due to the reality that shipping
fee is the lowest DSR score for all sellers the small and midsized
sellers are pressured to assume the cost of postage in part or all.
However, small sellers do not benefit from shipping discounts so
this is causing substantial harm when coupled with eBay determining
the search placement based on the total cost including shipping
compounded by reducing the cost of of the services for Buy and
similar. This has resulted in small sellers being pushed off of
eBay, because they do not have the resources to compete.

eBay has also flat-out stated that they are disadvantaging items
priced higher than eBay believes the item should be priced by limiting their exposure in search. Again, this results in sellers who pay full price to use the service to reduce their prices so low the services is no longer advantageous to the seller. Unfortunately, many of these sellers have tens of thousands of dollars invested in inventory that they cannot sell effectively outside of the marketplace, thus they are stuck using the service even if they are effectively working for nothing. The degraded
economy added to the mix further pressures sellers to reduce their
prices to MAYBE get exposure in categories impacted by the enormous
quantity of listings Buy and similar are able to list without limit
due to their preferential pricing, so they can essentially move
their merchandise to convert to cash of any amount to pay the
mortgage and feed their children.

I read heart wrenching writings of the effects of eBay's activity everyday.
Please remember or know that many - 1.5 million - eBay has stated - people depend on the marketplace for their supplemental income. That means we are talking about senior citizens, disabled individuals, single parents, stay at home parents, and couples who both work full time but need the income they earn from selling their merchandise on eBay to survive. 750,000 US citizens rely on their business on the eBay marketplace as their primary or secondary income (again reported by eBay), and many of the relatively large sized businesses have employees who are by extension dependant on their employer's
success in the eBay marketplace. The effects of eBay's actions are not
inconsequential. The consumers both purchasing services from eBay and those who purchase from eBay's customers are hugely important to our economy. eBay's activity will ultimately result in consumers paying
higher prices after the small sellers who were able to offer reduced pricing are driven off leaving the door wide open for consumers to pay higher prices to purchase from these large retailers who are extinguishing the very competition that made the marketplace successful. Without competition there will be no incentive for Buy and similar to offer reduced pricing. eBay's preferential pricing has begun and will continue to ruin the quality of life for possibly 225 million US citizens and any associated employees.

Let us be clear John Donahoe's actions are not driven by any concern for my customer's. His purpose is to re-align eBay Inc.'s core business as the payment service. This is a fact and his anti-competitive activity will harm every e-commerce consumer.

Mr. Wingo you may view your observation as a sign of hope, but in reality it is an example of John Donahoe's anti-competitive activity, and the method he has implemented to acquire as many new PayPal users as possible, while essentially forcing eBay's smaller customers to bank roll the discounts given to the large retailers such as buy.com. I find your lack of insight to be disturbing given the service you provide. Wake up!


I am not eBay's seller I am eBay's customer

Paying for a service and expecting to receive that service is not even close to asking for charity- get a grip. If you are eBay's customer please inform me of what you have bought from eBay?

eBay in the Basement - But Not for Long

Really? So, are you so confidant that you have put all you have in this sure thing?

Maybe you should look at the the sources of that revenue coming from outside the marketplace before you make such baseless comments. Nothing eBay has is independent of the marketplace nothing. All of those other revenue producers that are not marketplace directly are advertised all of eBay.com- why is that? Simple it is the only place eBay can acquire traffic to those other sites. Have you ever done comparisons of traffic of those sites relative to eBay.com? It is pathetic!

PayPal TPV declined 1% in the Q3- did you miss that? This decline occurred as PayPal is increasing its presence in off eBay e-commerce. eBay is pinning PayPal's success on its increased penetration of eBay.com. Let me write that again - eBay is relying on further penetration of PayPal in eBay.com to increase growth in PayPal- eBay is increasing PayPal's dependence on eBay.com believing this will increase PayPal's success. What happens as more sellers leave the marketplace? Sure there will be a spike due to eBay's new paypal only policy, but that will be a short run growth and will plunge as we leave.

I refuse to use PayPal on any other off eBay purchases. I have begun writing to all of the businesses I purchase goods and/or services from to inform them that I will not use their service or buy their products as long as they are partnered with the vicious eBay Inc. in any capacity if they do not offer Google Checkout a superior and by far safer service. I will also not buy from any ex-sellers from the marketplace on other sites that offer only paypal and a merchant service as a payment option. I want the convenience without the unethical criminal PayPal traits and that means I want Google Checkout.

You clearly either do not know of the absolute hatred sellers on eBay have for PayPal or you underestimate that sentiment.

eBay Inc. has not only betrayed us they have and are abusing their customers and that is not a winning business practice. However, I encourage you to invest your money in this disaster and then I'll enjoy reading your stories of losing your A** on this sure thing you are pitching. LOL, it so amusing to read the assessments of people who have no clue!

eBay Looking to Sell StumbleUpon

435 eBay sellers have filled out the eBay 2008 changes how do they effect you survey - Make sure you do too

There is a new survey concerning eBay & PayPal user agreements as well

Fill them out and pass the link to every seller you know

eBay Is a Losing Bid - Barron's

The new search is an absolute nightmare and has already had a very costly 2 week glitch. Analysts who don't recommend running from eBay are doing a gross disservice to consumers who have purchased eBay stock it will only go lower. I am appalled at the eBay board of Directors they are severely failing in their fiduciary duties to the corporation = shareholders it is criminal.

Most powersellers are small sellers. The large very large majority are only bronze and silver (1000 a month for bronze 3000 for silver) eBay doesn't give any priority to any one other than the diamond powerseller Buy.com and one other real eBay seller. No one else matters there is nothing special about powersellers. The only benefit and is only a result of the new change is the discount, which I believe all sellers should have the opportunity, and many people have expressed this on the eBay Ink blog. You should go to the blog and express your feelings too the more people maybe the more likely they make changes but I wouldn't bet on that.

Aside from that fill out my survey
[url]spreadsheets.google.co...[/url]

here are some links that you can use to file complaints with government institutions and authorities and I encourage all sellers to do so. I know it sounds crazy but officials don't actually spend their time monitoring eBay activity and unless a lot of people make it clear these policies are unacceptable and causing severe negative consequences nothing will change and that is an absolute reality.

Fill out the survey and pass it along to any other sellers you know. It is to support my arguments in a complaint I have been writing. I know the questions appear redundant but there is a reason why I ask the questions the way I do, so please just bare with it.



[url]docs.google.com/Doc?id...[/url]


On Sep 15 11:20 AM fedup Ebayer wrote:

> "Search" is to find true information, not censored or manipulated
> data as ebay is trying to do. All buyers will be frustrated and
> feel cheated with so-called "new search" platform on ebay. Can't
> believe that anyone at ebay will even think about doing it! Dump
> ebay stock NOW!

eBay Is a Losing Bid - Barron's

eBay sellers please fill out this survey - I do not work for eBay

tinyurl.com/6zgyk4

eBay May Switch to New 'Item Page' Before Holidays

tiny.cc/gykQm

A survey concerning eBay's 2008 changes sellers please fill out

no I am not from eBay