News From Soapbox, Unhappy Sellers

[eurotin]

Here's a message posted on an international Meccano discussion group where ebay is often discussed and where members often perform the "good citizen" activities on which ebay depends. (Noting fake listings, etc.)The sharp and unjustified fee increases are the beginning of very ugly times in what used to be called a community.

Just some eBay info, according to my better half that is a longtime member
of the "Soapbox" (an eBay discussion board).
1. Bill Cobb's gotten over 17000 emails, just in the first day after he
published his email address. He's not responding to them individually,
(course IF as he stated: "I promise I'll read every e-mail." then he would
have to read 1 every 3 seconds, working a 12 hour day with no breaks
whatsoever.)
His "team responses" to the fee increase have left much to be desired. 2. There is planned an eBay boycott Feb. 18-25 (participants would do no
listings or no buying...heck that's easy for me, I had a life before eBay
:-) in protest of the latest fee increase. (Latest fee increase ranged
across the board from 20-300%. (Seems alittle excessive in a business that's
been growing well just by numbers of users!!!). They do this yearly, but not
to this extent before.
3. The media's even been giviing eBay much negative attention, over the
anger of the sellers about this latest fee increases.
4. EBay's been trying to do many things, to distract the users from the fee
increases, or otherwise derail the boycott. On the discussion boards they've
just changed the format to something that is absolutely abysmal such as:
tiny fonts, altermating strips (that have caused many to complain about
migranes and motion sickness, super crowded pages, very bad color schemes,
and extreme difficulty navigating) This is according to longtime users of
the discussion boards and happened just about a week ago. There was the 5
cent listing day, announced one day before it happened, that they are hopping will carry bidding into the boycott period. (Feb. 14th)
Also, they reduced one "listing" fee, (after all this attention) for
aucitons that start between 1 cent and 99 cents & have no reserve, by a
nickel. Course many online auction house have no "listing fee" anyway. 5. Bill Cobb didn't come forward until there was a ton of negative media
attention about the public's anger over the latest fee increases. 6. Many sellers have switched to other online auction houses, such as
bidville (who had so many new listers the day after the fee increases were
announced that the servers went down). Also, info from users of bidville
tell of MUCH greater customer service and overall concern for their users.
(Which would make total sense if you were trying to take a byte out of eBay
:-)
7. eBay's stock has gone from over $100 per share to between $75-82 now. But
bidville's has increased from 40 cents to $1.60 but has since dropped, but
still is well over doubled. The eBay stock drop started after the fee
increase was announced.
8. If some want more information best place to gather it is on the eBay US
discussion boards, particulaly the Soapbox. My other half is on there
(she warns not to complain about "snipers", inflated shipping,
or feedback "hostage"; as these are some "pet" flame issues, and have been
beat to death there!)
Sounds like not much should be expected from the latest "front man" of eBay.
Kinda like some famous words of the past; "Let em' eat cake" (Maybe the
response should be as appropriate 🙂

[onecrazycanuck]

I have checked into Bidville. It is new and has some cool idea's. Most peopls accept Paypal which is great now but if the site starts to grow to big then my guess is that Paypal won't be an option for to long!

[shoplineca]

PayPal will always be an option as it is a revenue generating venue for eBay. Even if eBay's revenues, slump. PayPal's will increase.

Corporations dont hold grudges, they make money.

Malcolm

[systemagic]

Well, it's 2:51 PST and I've just gotten my Toshiba Notebook back with a new motherboard (Haven't even fully activated the new MAC address yet.) Man do I have a lot on my plate! It's more like bombs going off. As you might imagine, after almost 2 weeks, I have a TON of email to answer including, it seems, one from the GM of eBay Canada who wants to touch base regarding my posts here. I have a couple of new publications to look into as career alternatives and somebody actually wants assistance in starting a new US national publication. Even an old plan to manufacture electric cars, I'm told, may be back on the drawing board as of this morning. Ironically there's someone in China who's expressed interest in sourcing product for me and, if I stay with eBay, I may need to develop the first distributorship that I've been offered.

Eurotin:
I need to contact an old editor acquaintance in one of the local media chains re. returning to publishing and thought that I'd use the opportunity to convey my thoughts about eBay. May I use your above post, with or without your name, as good background information regarding the rate increase? This is time sensitive but Iprobably won't contact her prior to Friday morning.