Animal Farm Redux

For years life on eBay as a Seller was a re-creation of George Orwell's classic book, Animal Farm. Anyone who has read the book will remember that classic quote "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others".

We, the less equal, passively accepted that the big boys, high volume Power Sellers got executive perks the rest of us did not. After all they were busy, and important (and we were not) they had no time to waste; so they got Personal assistance, special groups, selling tools and hotline telephone contacts. We others, just bumbled along, networking amongst ourselves and telling wry jokes about Live Helpless, eBay's real live bot driven customer 'service'. That was the way IT was.

I am somewhat amused to hear cries of distress from the plus end of the "more equal than others" end of the eBay seller scale this morning when the first full cycle of 'decreased and adjusted' billing dropped into mailboxes.

WOT A SURPRISE!

"eBay invoices show DSR Discount discrepancies?" says highly respected Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com. Sellers are discovering all sorts of new unwritten rules. "If you have less than 10 DSR's in the last 30 days you don't get SQUAT even if ALL your DSR's are standing at 5.0" says one seller who meets the monthly sales value (GSV) requirement to maintain PS status. ". . the rep told me that not enough of my buyers left a DSR. Although my DSR has never been below a 4.6" says another.

It was just far out and fine when the Mom & Pop sellers found, by counting on their fingers and toes (because they are just so UN-businesslike & PRIMitive) they couldn't afford to remain on eBay and boycotted for the week of February 18th - 25th. How many times did we read comments like this one from eBay guru Skip McGrath "I am selling up a storm while you are boycotting"

My question to you Dahlink, how does it feel? Is your rosy red butt just a little raw?

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