These Boots Are Made For Stompin

Often at the moment when things are happening we are so busy reacting, doing damage control or simply trying to understand, that it becomes very difficult to look up and see what is ahead so we can be pro-active.

We know we need a plan. Success does not come to those who do not plan. Most of you reading this had a plan which involved eBay. eBay, which likes to keep plans secret, has announced so many major changes recently; implemented with their normal lack of forethought (or maybe not, who knows?) that any pre-existing plans we had are worthless. Sometimes I feel as if management is busy fiddling while eBay burns, Donohoe as Nero.

My plan was to 'duck and cover'. I certainly suffered from 'unease and paranoia' for a while there! I pulled my listings and joined the boycott. I have come out of this with my reputation intact which was my goal. Now it is time to look forward and make new plans; so let us take a step back together in order to try & see more clearly what lies ahead.

I just finished re-reading John Lawson's (President of 3rdPowerOutlet) funny and very informative three guest blogs on Scott Pooler's Trading Assistant Journal. Please go read John's takes 1, 2 and 3 on the Pesa/ECMTA Summit in New Orleans April 23rd 2008, be sure to read the comments on Part 3, and then come back.

For me, a very small ex-eBay seller it is interesting to read what the 'big boys' worry about. To summarize, in order, Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) and feedback, eBay's desire to see free shipping, and DSRs. In the comments he mentions being unsettled about the secrecy surrounding the Buy.com deal. SNAP! Exact match. These are what would prevent me from returning to eBay in the forseeable future.

In many ways I agree with John on the question of feedback. I would agree totally if the whole feedback/DSR scheme weren't so loaded and so tied to finding. If I had more belief that eBay would step up to their responsibilities, which they never have, I might be able to swallow it. eBay's whole historical modus operandi has been to strap on the bovver boots and start stomping first, then look at the dead seller on the floor and go 'Ooopsie, a glitch'.

Just about a month after implementation of feedback changes there are a lot of damage reports on the boards both in the UK and Australia. I admit I don't check the US boards, it is a disassociation thing and I will not apologize.

To summarize, we have sellers being suspended or restricted. Sellers who have not been TOLD WHY they are suspended or restricted, or how long they are suspended for; because eBay does not know, it is an automated process with no appeal. Sellers who have no access to their dashboards so they can complete their contractual obligations to buyers of listings ended prior to suspension. A venue which obliterates those listings in the suspension process so sellers loose all the data, and that my friends, is pure spiteful pettiness.

What do you think? What direction does your new plan take you?

Y'all come back

Trouble at eBay,? No Sh*t Sherlock!

This is one of the better reasoned and most accurate articles I have read on eBay in a long long time. Congratulations.

Although the 'decrease in Insertion Fees & adjustment in Final Value Fees' (quoting John Donohoe) resulted in a net fee increase of 65% in the tranche of the majority of sales (and most small sellers sales), that was not the main cause of the one week seller boycott from Feb 18th through Feb 25th; followed by a total boycott by many sellers from May 1st.

John Donohoe and his wonder boys messed with feedback. Most small sellers have spent literally years building and maintaining perfect feedback. Feedback is your online reputation, it is the only thing a buyer has to judge the seller by. Internet sales are based on trust.

eBay has declared war on its customers, the sellers. Yes there are some rotten apples in the seller barrel, there always have been, there probably always will be. But why is eBay treating their good sellers as though they are criminals? It is to a point that buyers, who are constantly being told that eBay is cleaning house to protect them from bad sellers, are so nervous they don't want to buy on eBay.

Brian Burke decided that neutral feedback should be scored as a negative 'because it is not positive'. This is retroactive. If a buyer left a neutral 6 months ago, today it is scored as if they left a negative. Why? If the buyer had wanted to leave a negative they could have but they chose to give a neutral. eBay is selectively rewriting history. This hits the lower volume seller hardest expressed as a percentage of sales and has resulted in account limitation, suspension, or closure.

eBay prohibited digital download sales as of the end of March. This is their right. eBay is now retroactively removing feedback from buyers and sellers of digital and other low cost items, items that were sold at a time the product was permitted. These were legitimate sales on which IF, FVF and PayPal fees were paid. Sales in which buyers bought, sellers sold and feedback was made. Lowering feedback totals makes those sellers more vulnerable to 'demotion' (eBay's word and what a strange way to talk about your customers).

The neutral and negative feedback options are still available to buyers, they may give a neutral not realizing it is equivalent to a negative. Every time a buyer goes to leave feedback they are bombarded with pop-up after pop-up encouraging them to leave negative feedback. Why?

A buyer who bids and does not pay, (Business 101 tells us there is no contract without consideration) may leave a negative feedback which will directly affect a sellers search placement and may result in account limitation, suspension, or closure. Why? Who broke the rules? Who is getting punished?

If a buyer pays and claims a package is not received, even if the seller provides tracking information & proof of delivery as required by eBay, chances are very good that PayPal will refund anyway, leaving the seller with no goods, no payment and a bunch of selling fees. Why?

eBay has no customer service. Any email query is answered by bots. Most responses have no bearing on the question asked. Unless you are a high volume seller, (PowerSeller) you will never speak to or communicate with a human being. If your account is limited or suspended in error you may never know why or be able to communicate with someone to straighten it out. There is no appeal procedure. Does this sound insane? It gets worse, PayPal is known to make errors resulting in freezing of accounts for 180 days. Money goes in but you can't withdraw. They have no customer service either.

The Detailed Seller Ratings rolled out last year are slanted & poorly phrased. On a scale of 1 - 5 eBay tells buyers 4 is good. DSRs of 4 will have your listings moved to the back of the line in a dynamic search, and may result in account limitation, suspension, or closure. How does this equate to 'good'? There are provable instances of sellers with free shipping being given DSRs of 4 on shipping cost!

Best Match has been a disaster from the get-go. It is dynamic (things move) so if a seller is being penalized by those 'good' ratings of 4 the listing will remain at the end of the line. Even if a buyer goes from the first to the last page the listing will not be there. You will see listings you clicked on pages ago, listings that are promoted in search come up again and again. Demoted listings are not seen, YET eBay continues to take IF for listings that will not get visibility. Featured Listings which pay an extra $20 fee for increased visibility suffer the same fate if a seller is not promoted in search. In my opinion eBay is skating perilously close to bait and switch on this one.

eBay is flailing, spinning around and hitting out without any discernable plan, causing unbelievable damage to their paying customers. If they have an ultimate vision they are not sharing it. Ominous phrases like "You ain't seen nothing yet" from Lorrie Norrington are not business friendly. Policy changes are rolled out weekly and are often so poorly framed that nobody knows how to implement them or what they mean. An example of this:

Removal of the Multiple Listings Limit Policy

Starting early June, the Multiple Listings Limit Policy, which limits sellers to 15 identical listings at any one time, will be removed. Soon sellers will be allowed an unlimited number of identical listings.

To prevent buyers from being overwhelmed by identical listings, advancements in Finding will limit the display of duplicates from the same seller. The listing displayed will be determined by the sort option that the buyer chooses, such as Time Ending Soonest, Newly Listed, Total Cost, and Best Match.

Also, the number of listings from any one seller will be limited to ten per page, unless the only available listings that remain are from the same seller. This change ensures that buyers will have a variety of sellers to choose from.

There are direct contradictions in this policy issued May 19th. There has been no clarification.

The boycotting sellers who were disparaged as 'noise' and 'would be routed off eBay' were the smart ones who escaped with feedback and reputation intact. Many other sellers are unfortunately discovering that they left it too late.

Trouble at eBay? Yes. Does management think so? No.
Time will tell.

Y'all come back and PLEASE be sure to click VICTORIOUSLY on any interesting advertising links in the sidebar!

Pierre Speaks

Today Richard Brewer-Hays posted three clips from an employee video of Pierre Omidyar being 'interviewed' by eBay CEO John Donohoe on his eBayINK Blog.

I am personally extremely appreciative of this. You could not pay me enough to do his job. RBH is clearly trying to shine a light on the internal workings of eBay. In doing so he illuminates yet more instances of the curious disconnect between eBay upper management and the rest of the eBay world.

I would like to ask my fellow commentators to eBayINK why in the world they think Pierre would offer his new CEO disrespect? Not his way back then, why should it be his way now? You don't keep a dog and bark yourself. John Donohoe is the dog and he has been hired to bark so Pierre doesn't have to. The portion of the argument Pierre visited in the first clip is not unreasonable. Bad sellers should be penalized.

It would be nice to think Mr Donohoe will follow Pierre's advice in the third clip to be respectful. I like to think about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy too.

I do wonder just how much of this latest drama Pierre has followed because the GMC deal would appear to be diametrically at odds with his statement about special privileges. Of course the way small sellers are currently discounted, or dismissed as meaningless, does not fit with the man we knew either. People change, maybe he has changed too?


Regardless, many of us have made the choice to move on, regretfully for the most part. Those of you who are remaining will need to adapt to the new realities, risks and uncertainties that come with riding on the back of a tiger. Caveat Vendor!

For myself, from a strictly numbers point of view, eBay has priced itself out of my business. I can't ask my buyers to pay that kind of overhead and I will not work for nothing. From an emotional standpoint, of course I am sad. So far as my online trading reputation is concerned it will sit, intact, because I will not risk nine years of effort in the negative bloodbath to come. If that sounds like hyperbole go read in the answer center, the trolls are gathering.

I will continue to visit eBay, for price research and to join in the educational opportunities eBay has always offered, but beyond that, its all over bar the shouting. If you have put as many years into a community ethos as I have it is hard to turn passively into a mushroom overnight; so expect to hear from me on the subject often.

Next post . . . Censored! Y'all come back and be sure to click VICTORIOUSLY on any interesting links in the sidebar!