If you had auctions ending during the outage

[surplusdealdude]

ebay has a policy for crediting the listing fee;

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/everyone-outage.html

As with all ebay policies, read it carefully and use any links inside the policy to claim for credit.

[dipmicro]

Listing fees losses (considering 40% out of approx 50 auctions would sell) - are $8 ~ $10. If eBay refunds all of them, $20~$25 will be refunded.

If those listings were searched like usual, it would result in approx $150 ~ $200 sales from auctions alone plus at least that much for store items sold to people who found them through auctions. With 30~40% profit margin real loss from is around $90~$140.

These are just example numbers and approximations to put things in perspective.

The real loosers are those who wanted to sell new luxury vehicle in quick 1-day auction starting at $0.99.

[surplusdealdude]

I don't think ebay is going to compensate for lost profits.

And anybody that starts a car at 99 cents deserves what he gets, IMO.:-D

[dipmicro]

And anybody that starts a car at 99 cents deserves what he gets, IMO

Let's wait what the judge says. Me being a diamond seller loosing $100k per day by this, I'd already have 2-3 lawyers working on this.

[dipmicro]

Surplus you don't know how this ends. This is HUGE.

[surplusdealdude]

This has happened before, micro ( I just can't bring myself to call anybody "dip":-D).

Ebay, the River, all of them have outage problems.

Right now, U-bid's sellers are worried about the site going under - apparently they have a big debt payment they're scrambling to find money for ( see the auctionbytes blog for that).

For all we know, this could have been a denial-of-service attack, not done for the reason ebay stated.

I agree that I don't know how this ends. Nobody does.

A Court could make the determination that this is a force majeur breach, in which ebay would be held blameless.

No doubt the lawyers will be busy for a while with this one.

[dipmicro]

I just can't bring myself to call anybody "dip"

In my case, it means something else than what you think 🙂

No doubt the lawyers will be busy for a while with this one.

Yup. Btw. "Force majeur" would be if volcano erupted under eBay server room, employee incompetence/negligence does not count. This reminds me a Day when Google Stopped Working, which turned out to be a "fat finger" or some similar issue.

[surplusdealdude]

I know it means something else, micro.:^O

But I still can't bring myself to do it.

BTW, ebay has now made a statement that sellers will be compensated;

http://auctionbytes.com/cab/cab/abn/y09/m11/i21/s02

[ameroindustries]

I lost 600.00 On saturday .. and thats not even taking in consideration the lost sales I sold a Lousy 123 items normally im 165-175 on Saturday .

Regardless on the 123 items i did sell im out no less than 600.00 Some stuff sold for peanuts Thankfully return dealers picked up most of it so i dont feel so bad .. But regardless ebay need's to cough up some money on this glitch .

[surplusdealdude]

Ahhhh, I wouldn't hold your breath on ebay doing anything but crediting for listing fees of auctions that ended during the outage.

And I doubt they can be successfully sued on this, since it's always advised that sellers start auctions at the lowest prices they're willing to accept.

Courts will not award damages for potential profits lost, because you still have the items and can still sell them, therefore you have no loss.

If you can't prove a loss, you don't have a claim under English Common Law.

[bcbeautiful]

Got the following letter from eBay!!


Dear bcbeautiful:

By now you might be aware that between 9:45am and midnight PST on Saturday, November 21, eBay search was down with searches returning limited or no results.

We know this is a very serious disruption, especially as you are ramping up your sales for the holiday season. Because you had listings ending during or within an hour after the outage, I wanted to let you know, personally, what we will be doing to support your business and protect your eBay reputation.

First of all, this outage will not negatively impact your feedback or detailed seller ratings (DSRs) in any way. All auction-style listings completed during this time will be protected from negative and neutral feedback as well as DSRs below a five star rating.

In addition, we will not expect you to fulfill Auction-style orders completed during this time if you feel the search outage prevented you from realizing the full expected price from your auction-style listings that closed during the outage or within an hour after the outage. It's up to you whether you want to fulfill the item in the interest of good relations with your buyer or cancel the transaction.

If you do plan to cancel a transaction, we ask that you contact your buyer within the next 48 hours (by end of day Tuesday, Nov 24). For your convenience, we've drafted some language below that you can use in your emails to inform the buyer of your intention and let them know this cancellation was due entirely to an eBay issue and not you as a seller.

If you had Fixed Price listings completed during this time period, you would of course be expected to fulfill sold items as usual.

Second, in keeping with eBay's outage policy and doing what's right for sellers and buyers, we are taking the following actions for listings that ended during or within an hour after the outage (9:45am Saturday - 1:00am Sunday PST):
We will refund all associated fees for Auction-style listings and refund pro-rated fees for all active Fixed Price listings during the outage. This refund should be reflected in your next eBay invoice.
We will remove negative/neutral Feedback and detailed seller ratings (DSRs) lower than 5 stars given by buyers for affected Auction-style listings.
We will alert the eBay and PayPal resolutions team in the event that a claim of item not received is filed for an affected listing.
We will be sending a 10% coupon up to $100 off to buyers who won Auction-style listings during the outage for any inconvenience.
We fully understand the impact of an outage of this scope on you, our valued partners. We sincerely apologize for the disruption to your business. I want you to know that we are continuing to focus our teams and resources to ensure a smooth and rewarding holiday selling season for you.

Sincerely,

Lorrie Norrington
President, eBay
___________________________________

Suggested email for notifying your buyer of cancelled Auction-style transactions:
Dear Buyer:

As you may know, for a period of time from Saturday, November 21 to Sunday, November 22, eBay search was returning limited or no results. See the official eBay report. Unfortunately, the item you purchased from me on [date] was offered through an auction-style listing affected by this technical disruption.

I wanted you to know that as a result of this issue, I am cancelling this transaction and any payment you made will be fully refunded. In addition, eBay will be sending you a 10% coupon up to $100 off for the inconvenience. Now that eBay search is fully restored, I will be relisting this auction [today]. I sincerely hope you will bid again-and win!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact eBay via the "Contact us" link at the top of the eBay homepage. Thank you for your understanding. I look forward to your future business.

Sincerely,

[coxengines]

Hey, hats off!

I think this is a very good and proactive response and addresses the issue of damage control.

Bernie

[surplusdealdude]

Yup, whoever thought that up should be promoted.