The irony is that it was a service designed to make communication between eBay buyers and sellers smoother. But when JaJah pitched its service to sellers, the company got static from eBay, and in a very public way.

Earlier this week, JaJah pitched a service to eBay sellers that allowed them to embed a click-to-call button in their auction listings to let buyers call them, while keeping the sellers' phone numbers private. JaJah was later forced to issue a User Advisory in the form of a press release after eBay began shutting down auctions that included JaJah buttons, telling users the buttons went against eBay policy.

For general news outlets and blogs, it appeared eBay was overly sensitive to its just-announced management shake up at Skype (which offers click-to-call buttons) and its decision to write down its Skype investment on its books. And the ValleyWag blog seemed to suggest Skype hadn't been able to integrate click-to-call on eBay (http://tinyurl.com/2762rl).

But in fact, eBay allows Skype on its platform, but it limits sellers to using Skype links in certain categories, depending on the international site. eBay began allowing sellers to include Skype buttons on the US site in June 2006 and has since expanded the number of categories allowed (http://pages.ebay.com/buyandsell/skype-viewitem/index.html).

eBay's ambivalence toward Skype integration on its marketplace is primarily due to its concern about off-eBay transactions (which it calls "fee avoidance"). eBay prohibits sellers from including URLs, hyperlinks, and links to live-chat windows from listings. Last year, we checked with eBay to see exactly what contact information it allowed sellers to include in listings and were told the following were allowed:

• Telephone numbers
• Email addresses
• Text references to Skype names (but not links to Skype connections)
• SkypeMe buttons limited to categories spelled out in eBay's policy

eBay has another reason to worry about shopper-seller contact: fraud. For example, many scammers post listings on eBay with offers of free shipping that require shoppers to contact the seller through an email address included in the listing. The scammers can then con shoppers into sending them payment via wire transfer services like Western Union. In those cases, shoppers who fall for the scam have no recourse, since the transactions took place off of eBay (not to mention that eBay now only offers buyer protection when buyers use its PayPal online payment service).

JaJah's initial message to reporters this week seemed to imply it had eBay's blessing: "Tomorrow JAJAH will be announcing it’s integration of voice in the eBay marketplace, connecting sellers and prospective buyers phone-to-phone" and "custom eBay click-to-call Button can now be easily embedded in listings. In fact, a few sellers have already started using it."

One BusinessWeek reporter certainly seemed to believe it when she wrote on the magazine's blog on Tuesday, "One other announcement caught my eye, and it makes me wonder if eBay remains committed to Skype: Yesterday, eBay began allowing sellers to embed Jajah buttons into its site" (http://tinyurl.com/2p8wge).

AuctionBytes asked JaJah on Wednesday evening if it had discussed its service with eBay, and if not, why it issued the press release. On Thursday afternoon, JaJah got back to us with the following response:

The JAJAH Buttons product was built for use on all social networks, including eBay using our open platform. You can find them on mySpace, and other open platform networks. We were not anticipating the removal of our buttons which is why we issued the release. In fact it was only by chance that the shake up at Skype's management team occurred the same day eBay pulled off the button from the auctions. Jajah Buttons is not a service designed for eBay, it is an web 2.0 application that fits perfectly the Internet users needs.

JaJah is urging users to join its campaign to "FREE YOUR VOICE" by placing the JaJah buttons on websites, blogs and emails. "This is about making a difference and making the web a forum for voice communication - join us in that mission."

While it may make a great public relations campaign, JaJah's hope to get the support of eBay customers may be misguided. In an article last year in AuctionBytes Newsflash, DC Cullinane said eBay click-to-call is not a growth market, in part because eBay sellers "are not about talking to the customer." Cullinane is the CEO of ThinkingVoice, a service that at the time had 45,000 businesses using its click-to-call buttons in online ads, auction listings, newsletters and email signatures. "I would be surprised, even if they jam it down their throats, if even 5 percent of the eBay community used (Skype buttons)," he said.

eBay told AuctionBytes it had not entered into a deal with JaJah. eBay spokesperson Catherine England said Wednesday that eBay is not allowing sellers to embed JaJah click-to-call buttons in listings. "These embedded buttons are considered a violation of our links policy. As you know, it does take us time to review listings and we don't catch everything all of the time. We work hard to enforce our policies and we encourage our community to report listings that may be in violation using the "report this item" link located at the bottom of every listing on the site."

It would appear communications between JaJah and eBay are anything but smooth.

http://www.jajah.com

eBay's Links policy
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-links.html

AuctionBytes November 2006 article, "Click-to-Call Programs for eBay Sellers"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m11/i27/s02