In every issue, readers soundoff about issues important to them. From feedback to payment services, from increased fees to posting policies, AuctionBytes Soundoff gives you a chance to air your views.
Re: eBay Changes Enforcement Procedure for Safe Payments Policy
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m02/i07/s03
Hi Ina,
I have been following the poor and ever-changing enforcement of eBay's policies. This morning I read your article concerning the change in the enforcement of the "Safe Payments" policy and thought that it was interesting that the large seller in question was still posting BRAND NEW LISTINGS as of 12 hours ago. These listings are clearly in violation of the policy and eBay and the seller obviously know it! According to your article, these listings should have been blocked, but I guess when you have 200,000+ feedback you get a different set of rules.
When it comes to Trust & Safety - who can you trust???
Mike
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"I know, let's make a new rule today."
That seems to be the Ebay opening statement each morning at the coffee bar in the Trust and Safety department. We are a small dealer that has lasted almost 6 years with eBay. However, I am so disgusted with their constant additions to and changes of rules I can barely stand it.
They have no finesse when it comes to even writing these rules, and less courtesy in publishing them with sufficient warning. I suspect that they never consider asking the sellers about this or that rule under consideration.
The buyers seem far more important to both eBay and PayPal than do the sellers. I have watched over decades as large companies took this attitude, and also watched as they eventually failed. Where is IBM in the PC world? Where is Texas Instruments in the electronics world? Where are the American car companies? All of these companies seemed to favor the end buyer before the dealer or seller.
You cannot treat your base as a second class citizen and survive forever. One day someone will rise up out of all these new auction sites, and a real competitor will enter the scene.
Larry
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Hi Ina,
Just in case you are taking a poll, we believe that eBay's FORCING sellers to take the word "CASH" out of listings as an accepted form of payment is ludicrous. We can understand them not wanting a seller to demand cash as the only form of accepted payment because it can be dangerous. We discourage our buyers from sending cash, but we also do a large amount of international sales and that is the only way some of these buyers can pay us. We believe that this edict is moving eBay away from being "only a selling venue" to an entity that is making policy and procedures decisions for our businesses.
Thanks,
Martha
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Re: From the Editor, 2/5/06 (regarding eBay's enforcement of the Safe Payments Policy)
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y206/m02/abu0160/s01
Greetings,
The only "Level Playing Field" eBay is interested in is if it makes them any money or not.
If this is quoted, please do not use my name or user information. As Big Brother eBay could retaliate.
Have a great year and we really appreciate your newsletters.
Regards.
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Re: AuctionBytes Releases Results of Online Payment Survey
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y206/m02/abu0160/s02
I think the reason most people put down PayPal for a preferred payment is because eBay and PayPal have a monopoly and have everyone brainwashed to go through PayPal, which they own. I literally despise PayPal, but it still remains the best way to get your money because they set it up that way.
Thank you,
George
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Re: eBay's PayPal Gearing up to Fight Google's GBuy Payment Service
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m02/i06/s01
Ina,
Great article and good news for all of us abused and used by PayPal and PayPal-Only exclusive auctions. It's time for the e-commerce nightmare called PayPal to face the dawn of a better way. Any monopoly is bad.
Ciao!
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Greetings,
Found you in a thread on the ebay power seller message board.
Of greatest concern to me as a non-paypal seller is the advent of a new horse in the online settlement race. viz gbuy. I and likely many other ebay sellers will watch closely how this game plays out. No doubt ebay will contrive specious reasons to deny access, prohibit reference to in auction item descriptions, any competitor to paypal.
Thanks for the service.
D.
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Hi, Ina -
I think it would be a service to your readers (many, many of whom have no prior retail experience and, thus, no experience with merchant credit card accounts) to point out that Paypal's seller protection is unique in the credit card industry AND AN ENORMOUS BENEFIT FOR SELLERS WHO MAKE THE EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND AND FOLLOW PAYPAL'S RULES.
When dealing with a regular merchant account, the seller has zero protection against chargebacks. If a customer disputes a charge (whether due to use of a stolen credit card or because the customer forgot about a purchase that he made), the credit card processor typically gives the merchant 3 days to produce the signed charge slip backing up the sale. If the merchant can't produce the slip or the customer alleges misrepresentation, the customer almost always "wins" even if the charge was 100% legitimate. The processor never in my experience backs the merchant. If there is the slightest doubt, the decision goes in favor of the customer. It is extremely difficult for merchants to communicate with the credit card processor with very long waits on hold the norm and no written rules to follow to avoid chargebacks.
Paypal's handling of chargebacks is far from perfect, but it is light-years better than the normal merchant credit card account. One of my fears is that whining sellers will eventually cause Paypal/ebay to end it (as I'm sure they have a perfect legal right to do).
Selling on the internet to customers who do not sign a credit card slip and may or may not be who they purport to be is quite risky for the merchant. Paypal's seller protection program is a huge benefit to sellers that every seller should understand and appreciate.
Carol
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Hi Ina,
I was wondering about this new ebay credit card. How can that work when ebay will not stand behind a bad sale. For example if a sale on ebay is not paid for by the bidder they still charge for final fees. If you go to try to straighten out the problem ebay acknowledges the non payment but refuses to reimburse the charge. They give the management work to the seller. Using a dispute form that in most cases frustrates the seller. People give up trying to get their money back when it takes more time than the payment is worth.
Can you imagine buying something with a credit card and the card company doesn't stand behind you. My bill this month was 24.95 and $9.56 was for a unpaid item charge. That means 40% of my bill is a fraudulent charge. They are thieves and shouldn't be allowed to have a credit card with their name on it.
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Re: "Top eBay Seller Disappears from Site"
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m02/i06/s03
Hi Ina,
We continue to see daily outages in My Messages as well as delays in messages showing up. We usually receive message in our Outlook hours before they show up in My Messages and sometimes it is days. How can eBay expect excellent customer service when we are practically required to communicate through an obviously faulty email system? I now use the eBay Toolbar when answering email to make sure that they are not spoofs, but it requires additional work and substantially lowers my safety level by doing so.
Also, as a high-volume seller (2,000+ transactions per month), I have to wonder if GlacierBayDVD had similar issues with communication. I was also shocked to see eBay's number one feedback seller buy into the BuySafe bonding company. To me, this is not much better then a protection racket - especially where Overstock.com is concerned (Trusted Merchant indeed!). In a very tightly squeezed media category, BuySafe's 1% commission could really bite into a company's profit. It seems that some sellers simply do not realize that 1% of GROSS sales can equal >5-10% of total profits! And for what? GlacierBay already had over 250,000 feedback when they signed on to BuySafe - what kind of credibility could this possibly add? It burns me that eBay still lets BuySafe and SquareTrade hassle sellers and manipulate & water down their own feedback rating system while implementing "stricter policies" on other seals of approval. Why isn't eBay protecting sellers by making these companies back-up their claims of higher revenues per sale? How can you possibly have higher revenues if you sell all your listings at a buy-it-now anyway? - DUH!
I also do not understand eBay's lack of enforcement on their own shipping and handling polices in the media category. Some sellers consistently charge $9.99 to ship a single DVD - sometimes with a $0.01 buy-it-now! This has been a known problem for years, but eBay seems to look the other way - especially at larger sellers when it comes to fee circumvention. How could GlacierBayDVD continue to compete when eBay seems to be incapable of enforcing some of its own policies and protecting sellers from so-called endorsement services that do nothing but suck the profits right out of a thriving business...
Sincerely,
Anonymous & Disappointed
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Re: Letters from Readers, 2/5/06
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y206/m02/abu0160/s06
Ina,
I have just enjoyed your recent issue of Auctionbytes. I have been a member of the Ebay community for 8 years now, and I look forward to your newsletters.
In you most recent issue, a reader named Max gave some suggestions for Ebay to impose on sellers and I would like to comment on these.
1) All Ebay items must be photographed fully - front and back. All problem areas must be shown via photographs (IN DETAIL)
2)All heralds, markings and signatures must be photographed IN CLOSE-UP (so anyone could easily read them). If supporting markings don't exist? Certain claims can not be made in an auction description.
If a photo of the item you wish to bid on is not as you would like it, you could request another photo via email. Also request a close up photo of whatever portion of the item you wish. Requiring photos front and back of all items is ridiculous.
5) Testing of metals and other construction surfaces should be made mandatory. No one has the right to sell a brass piece as bronze. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE!
SOME items should have this requirement. On others, this is silly.
7) Provenance: every Ebay dealer should be forced to tell exactly WHERE he obtained each item - and under what circumstances. Finding a Picasso in a trunk in Massachusetts does not - ipso facto - make the piece a Picasso. If a dealer makes claims upon an item? He should be able to back-up those claims up with hard facts.
9) Items without appropriate provenance or proof MUST be reported as such. "I found this drawing signed Van Gogh in my mother's house in Pittsburgh." Just because the item is signed Van Gogh doesn't mean that it IS a Van Gogh! Careful pains should be made by any/all dealers to verify the true and to honestly admit the improbable.
Where an item is obtained is no one's business, unless the seller chooses to reveal it. If you want to know where an item came from, ask. But they should not be required to tell.
10) How do you keep dealers reputable? Just like in any store? If an item sold at Ebay arrives and it is not to the buyer's expectations? The buyer should have the right to immediately return the item to the seller for a complete refund (including postage) - NO QUESTIONS ASKED!!!
What if it is just a case of buyer's remorse? What if the shipper breaks it? Some people would use this excuse to cover themselves.
FRAUD IS BEING PERPETRATED BY A FORTUNE 500 COMPANY!
Personally, I think "perpetrated" is a bad choice of words, but do other Fortune 500 companies cheat in some way? It doesn't make it right, but it happens.
Max says that he has been "burned 100's of times" but claims to be an expert. I have not made the 2500 purchases that he has and I am no expert, but I have been burned very few times. You must be wary of items with claims that have not been substantiated. And collectible items are the easiest to make claims about. Max does offer some good suggestions, but most of what he says would drive honest sellers right off of Ebay. The things he suggests would make it more time consuming than it would be worth. Is Ebay perfect? Far from it. I believe they need to take more and more effective action against those with repeat offenses against their policies, and against those whom have been reported for fraud.
Max, thanks for the suggestions. Some were a good idea, some were not.
Thanks very much for the opportunity to share my feelings,
Jeff
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Dear Ina,
As founder of eBay drop off store Drop n' Sell - and the first one to sell itself on eBay, by the way - I can relate to Andy Balbus' problem. And I don't think it's just Andy's problem, but a problem with the entire concept of eBay drop-off stores.
We opened our store in Austin, Texas in January of 2004. By April of 2004 it became obvious that a key problem was going to be getting enough merchandise to sell. We felt that we needed to get about 300 items a month just to break even. That's with an average selling price of about $100-$120 an item, and an average sell-through of 80%. That's about 12 items per day, every day you are open. That just did not happen.
We were constantly having to advertise and canvas areas to get enough items, and eventually we realized that it was not a sustainable business model. The problem, in short, is that the eBay drop-off business depends on an unreliable and unpredictable supply chain: area consumers and businesses. You just can't build a sustainable business with that kind of supply chain. In fact, our walk-in trade would confuse themselves with our "customers." In fact, our "customers" were the buyers on eBay. The people that walked in the door were our "suppliers." And you constantly had to find new "suppliers."
The fact that many of the franchise eBay drop-off stores are selling franchises makes us laugh at their future. Sure, they're making money now. But that's only because they are selling franchises. The franchisee is not making money, nor will they. It is just not a sustainable business model.
When we saw the tactic that AuctionDrop pursued, we knew that the writing was on the wall. We had to close the store, and did so in July of 2004. A similar business in Austin, Snap Auctions, closed a few months later. We subsequently sold our name, logo, and Web site on eBay in September, 2004. That version of Drop n' Sell is still in business.
It was our considered business opinion that a pure eBay drop-off retail business is not a sustainable business idea because of the supply chain problem, and will ultimately fail. We look with envy at the franchisors that are making money now, for they will be rich. But in the long run, they will all find out what Andy Bulbus realized. I feel for Andy Bulbus, and I feel for those people buying those franchises. What sounded good on paper just didn't work in reality.
Regards,
Alan
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Editor's Note: This letter explains some of the challenges sellers go through when selling branded items on eBay as they try to get up to speed on the VeRO program and try to get answers from eBay customer support. (The seller's account was ultimately restored.)
Hello Ina,
I was hoping to get your advice with a Trust and Safety issue on ebay. We've been buying on ebay for years, but selling for only the last few months.
One week ago ebay suspended our account indefinitely because of an intellectual property rights violation (using a large company's product photo). We had contacted the company and ebay several times before running the listing about what content needed to be changed (they had taken down a previous listing of the same item a week before). We did not receive any information back. We were told by an ebay store support representative that what we were doing sounded reasonable, but that we should check with Trust and Safety just to make sure (which we had already tried to do).
We then decided to write a note to the rights holder and to ebay explaining what we were changing in the listing (we had to guess about the source of the violation) and advising them that we would abide by any relevant rules. Since we heard nothing, we launched the new listing without the original photo. About three days later, our account was suddenly indefinitely suspended without warning. No specific reason was provided.
At that time we again contacted the rights owner, and this time were able to communicate about the situation. Within 24 hours, the rights owner had withdrawn their complaint in writing and asked ebay to remove any associated penalties. We also followed all ebay instructions for reinstatement, including faxing the necessary documents, etc.
That was last week. There's still been no real response (other than a few standard boilerplate emails). One email said that if we did not hear back in two weeks, it may be because our fax was not legible, so we should try to send it again (and plan to wait another two weeks). The note also advised that phone communication was not available. (If I remember correctly, in other cases, ebay strongly encourages phone communication, such as when disputes arise between buyer and seller.)
It's easy to imagine that many small sellers could easily go out of business with this poor level of customer service. A few weeks with no sales can seriously damage a small start up. All ebay operations must be indefinitely on hold. Ebay provides no information on when a decision will be made, the criteria or procedures used in making the decision, the ability to present evidence or communicate directly with someone about the decision.
If you have any advice on how to break through the ebay bureaucracy, we'd be very appreciative.
Based on this situation, we are also wondering if there's anything more ebay could do to help prevent this type of violation. It seems that ebay could create a database, where registered intellectual property owners could post their policies with respect to the use of images, descriptive text, etc, along with (possibly) an intellectual property contact at the company. We realize many companies have this information on their "about me" pages or elsewhere, but it can be difficult for new users to find and assimilate this information, since it is organized and presented in very different ways. The plain reality is there are corporate images and text used all over ebay every day, and ebay does not seem terribly worried about it unless some larger corporate interest complains.
Ebay could be significantly more helpful than simply saying "don't use copyrighted information - you are responsible if you do." Different companies can have very different policies with respect to the use of photos, text, logos, etc. Surprisingly, ebay has no reference to VeRO or Trust and Safety on their sitemap or on "seller central." Moreover, a small seller can't access anyone at ebay (via phone, chat, or email) to provide any substantive information about intellectual property issues. Do you think rights owners would support ebay's compiling an online database where policies could be easily accessed and understood? It could lead to a more efficient marketplace - by reducing uncertainty about what the rules are. It could also result in a lot fewer violations.
In our case, since the rights owner has already withdrawn their complaint (and we have a copy of the email they sent to VeRO), do you have a suggestion about how to communicate with ebay to resolve this situation?
Thanks for your help.
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Hello Steiners,
Thought you might be interested in this site since I read in your newsletter that the FBI was requesting records from the TN BBB about Storm pay. It is: www.badbusinessbureau.com This site is an outlet for people that have become victims of fraud and can advise others to beware.
Great newsletters guys,
Al
