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: "New Hampshire May Exempt eBay Consignment Sellers from Regulation"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m02/i28/s01

Hello Ina -
I am writing about the issue of online eBay sellers falling under the regulation applying to auctioneers. I think there are two separate concerns. If the regulation is intended to have the eBay consignment stores regulated for purposes of licensing and bonding, and having them answerable to the state, then I think that could be legislated without having the eBay store being required to have an auctioneer's license. Requiring the consignment stores to have an auctioneer's license would entail (I am assuming) the eBay store learning a lot of regulations that don't apply to them. Auctioneers are in control of what happens in the course of their auctions, while the eBay store is subject to the eBay platform.

Perhaps a compromise bill that would require the consignment stores to be bonded, and show proper accountability would be sufficient, without the necessity to become fully licensed auctioneers.
Thank you,
Carol

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Re: "eBay Charges Sellers for Typos, Says Search Works"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m02/i26/s01

Ina,
All of this would be corrected if eBay had spell check..... This is a much needed tool ALL EBAYERS need.
Phyllis

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Re: "eBay Charges Sellers for Typos, Says Search Works"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m02/i26/s01

Ina,
in the article you just did, it says that eBay search filters prevent words like "shit" from showing in searches. Durzy says that search isn't broken as well. Did you ask him to explain why there are currently 5 items in the search containing the word "shit" in the descriptions? Or why (expletive deleted by editor) doesn't seem to be an inappropriate word....search eBay for it.

Durzy may be right, but his comments keep sounding like a lot of BS. You know as well as I do that there have been many complaints about search problems recently, and they all aren't because of profanity filters. (Profanity filters that obviously do not work if you search eBay for profanity).

Next time you talk to him, could you ask him a question? Ask why many obvious scam listings (from brand new users even) are showing up in searches within minutes of being listed, yet legitimate sellers are waiting hours and sometimes days for their listings to show up. If he gives you the line about scheduled listings appear when desired, ask him how the scam listings are making it through eBay's "security measures" that they claim to use prior to uploading listings (including those that are scheduled).
Thanks
Josh

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Re: "eBay Charges Sellers for Typos, Says Search Works"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m02/i26/s01

Ina,
With all due respect - maybe people should take advantage of SPELL CHECK! The epidemic of DUMB on the site is really overwhelming. Typing "shit" for "ship" and blaming Ebay is something that even I can't support! For entertainment, Ina - type in the word "bowel" for a search, and look at all the crystal, Orrefors, Depression glass, wooden, as well as Super Bowel souvenirs... Boggles the mind. Sometimes, you just have to take responsibility for your actions!!
Caryl

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Re: "eBay Charges Sellers for Typos, Says Search Works"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m02/i26/s01

Hi Ina -
Regarding the above - I read the article and quite frankly, the fault lies entirely on the seller for not proofreading his ad or using spellcheck. I'm really getting tired of hearing about whining eBay sellers. His problems could have been non-existent had he simply read his ad before he launched it. How simple is that?

I'm also getting tired of eBay sellers NEVER contacting a buyer after the auction is completed. This has happened to me in the last 3 auctions I won. Sellers want the money but don't want to do the work. I had to REMIND a seller to ship my item to me (9 days had passed), had to REMIND a seller to acknowledge that I had paid already, had to REMIND a seller to BE A SELLER! They all want the money without doing the follow-up to actually contact the buyer, thank them for their purchase, advise them when their item is shipping, take the time to enter the tracking info into Paypal (which automatically generates an email to the buyer). In other words, WHERE'S THE SELLER FOLLOW-UP??

I've been buying and selling on eBay for just shy of 7 years, a Powerseller (big whoop!), and it is embarrassing, annoying and irritating to me to be completely ignored by a seller after they've received my payment. And then I'm left to guess when, where, how, and if it was shipped out!
Mindy

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Re: "eBayers Give Feedback 2.0 Their Feedback"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m02/i20/s02

Ina:
Most eBay sellers quote a flat rate or offer a shipping calculator in their auctions. There is no reason to rate this as the total delivered price is what is important and whether that price is "fair" or not is determined by the market. What a shipping price rating would be helpful on is the very few auctions where the shipping price is unknown to the buyer before the auction closes. If the seller states in the description he will ship at cost but then ships for $2 after after charging $9.50 the buyer can reflect his concern in the overall rating AND his rating of the description.
Carl

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A PowerSeller wrote me about a search problem: "The sort feature, when you sort by price, is not functioning correctly." I'm summarizing his outline of the problem below.

To duplicate the problem, search on a popular item, such as Epson r300 (a popular printer model). Next, sort the auctions by price, "Price: lowest first."

When you do a search on Ebay the default should be by ending soonest.

When you sort by price a tie-breaker is needed. If 10 sellers list the same item for sale at a penny, who gets the #1 position? In the past ebay would give the #1 position to seller with the lowest price, and auction ending soonest.

If you do the search above you will see that this is not happening. You will find on the search above that the one seller will always be the first seller - always.

My question to Ebay, how do I show up first for this search result? The fact is it is impossible.

First I would need to have the lowest price. $0.01, there is no price on ebay lower than a penny. Second I would have to have the lowest auction # since that is what ebay currently sorts on when a tie occurs. This is also impossible since the auction item numbers have been assigned some how to a user ID.

I would say that this search/sort problem no longer constitutes a level playing field on ebay.

Editor: When I sorted by lowest price, it did indeed group same-priced items into buckets by seller. But when I customized the display to show "time ending," it displayed same-priced items by time ending soonest. It does seem that the latter display would be a better buying experience, and I'm not sure why it's not the default. I'm sure most people wouldn't think it necessary to click on "Customize Display" and add the "Time Left" column when doing this kind of search.

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Hi Ina,
If you could please feature this important issue on behalf of UK sellers I would be most grateful:

Thanks for mentioning the chorus of complaints over search, but you may have overlooked something that is currently devastating to many UK sellers, the problem is that in many cases listings from UK sellers are no longer appearing in the default search results on eBay USA, please see:
http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=1200085039

As you probably know, when creating a listing you can choose the click the "worldwide" option, allowing the item to be viewed in the default (ie: without the buyer having to do any special search to view items outside the home country) search results.

Now however the "worldwide" option in listings is doing zilch, my items are currently only visible only to sellers in the UK and as a result my sales to the USA are severely down.

This seems to be a random issue, other UK sellers items are working fine and appearing in the default search on eBay USA but mine are not, giving them an unfair advantage. My listings are now effectively invisible to potential US customers because only a small percentage of them will ever go into advanced search and run a specific search of worldwide sites.

This is one very worrying response on the issue from eBay on the thread:
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200702261711402.html

If true, it will effectively put me and thousands of other sellers out of business because listing separately on International sites instead of being able to use the "worldwide" option with multiply all of the listing fees - at present I pay around GBP £400 per month in eBay fees - so this "enhancement" will mean that I will have to pay double just to continue to be visible to my US customers.

The same as you reported in the article on complaints over search - many sellers are not aware of the issue because of two reasons:

1) it is random - some listings are appearing worldwide and others are not - no way for the seller to control it.

2) without running a test on both sites the seller will never know his listings are invisible and will just expect it to be working if he has clicked the "worldwide" option when creating the listing.

This problem for sellers is not just ebay USA, it is also on other international eBay sites - just selecting that "worldwide" option is not working any more.

It would be great if you could please feature this most important issue (without including my name, example links or username - this was just for you), my business depends on it and so do thousands of other UK sellers who do not realise why their sales to US customers are so bad at the moment.
Best Regards

Editor's Note: See "eBay Changes UK Listings Exposure on eBay.com"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m02/i19/s02

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Re: "Postal Commission Favors Selling Stamp That Locks In Current Rate" (Washington Post)
http://digbig.com/4rrpf

Hi Ina, I want to comment in general on your recent article: "Postal Commission Favors Selling Stamp That Locks In Current Rate"

I have been using the post office to ship parcels for the last 6 years. On a positive note they do a very commendable job of getting my shipments delivered to my USA customers in a timely fashion. It impresses me really, that it works as well as it does?

Notwithstanding this service level I am disturbed at the chronic upward spike in postal rates over the last 6 years. As ebay often say's....."it's only a small increase" ...only a penny, only a nickel, only a 5%... yadaa yadda.

The problem for the post office is the falling letter volume, as people resort more and more to sending email, online banking, etc. Yet the post office is soaking the parcel shippers for the faultering stamp letter business which the post office was originally founded to deliver, which was stamp mailed letters.

I remember only 6 years ago (6 lousey years ago) the USPS cost for a 2 pound package was $2.20 (2 lbs. not a 1 lb. box) to anywhere in the country, including Alaska and Hawaii. Now the cost to mail a 2 lb box varies up to a high of $6.75 but this May, 2007 that isn't going to be enough, so it's going up another 8.5% to $7.35

That is a 3X (3.34) fold increase to the cost of the same parcel only a short 6 years ago. Were does it end? It's only a little? It's only a little increase is BALONEY! A stamped letter is a small percentage, but if you take a flat rate box @ the current rate of $8.10 and you increase the rate by 8.5% (that is 70 cents - the post office rounds the number up you know?) The new rate in may this year will be $8.80 and a 70 cent increase year over year is a BIG increase!

I've seen all prices for consumers across the board go up in the last few years. I've seen the big fish drop these costs of business raises onto the general public, yet not one article have I seen, of any layman getting a cost of living pay raise?

I have shipped from 3 different post office's over the past years, as I have moved a few times. But the one constant I keep running into is, I get a hard time (pressured) to get my $150.00 in "premarked postage" (takes me only 5 minutes to drop it off) to the post office by 3 pm in the afternoon (2 hours before they close) while a customer takes 15 minutes in line buying a 40 cent stamp only 5 minutes before closing time and he's a hero with white gloves treatment??

That burns me up somewhat, as I am paying his bleepin' paycheck and he's more worried about what time he eats his dinner! They are not customer service oriented, they are government employee oriented. A few months ago I took my packages to the post office on a Tuesday I believe it was, and the door was locked shut! I was like, what holiday did I miss this time? Oh, it was no holiday....Ex president Gerald Ford passed away, so they all took the freakin' day off.!!...It must be nice to raise rates?

They came out with this pickup service in the last year, so being brilliant as I am?? ...I decided, yea that sounds like a great idea?

I'll have my postal lady pick up my mail for me in the AM, all 75 pounds of it, 3x a week....NOT! No I'm dealing with a government employee, I gave her an airmail letter and she must of (accidently of course) lost it in the back of her pickup for 4 weeks before it showed up delivered, of course I had already sent the customer a replacement parcel. (that cured me of that idea)

I felt the $2.20 rates were cheap back then, and they were underpriced. I guess the post office wanted to break into the parcel business to make up for the slowing letter business? But gosh almighty, now that you've got the fish on the hook, how hard are they going to jerk me out o' the water?

I read the title of this article and thought wow, they are going to freeze current rates?? No, I'm just an idiot being sold a bottle of snake oil. I am such an idiot, I don't know how to read. I don't know what a geat thing they are selling me? I must be really stupid or something? They want me to finance their bank account so the postmaster can live in his ghost town cave, called the post office and pressure me to hurry up and not waist his freakin' time doing basically nothing!

Hey all you lucky price gouger's with the big sticks, stop sugar coating my 40 licks! (cut me quick) If you're going to wack me, just wack me and stop giving me a bucket of pig slop mixed in with the baloney!
Your Hero,
Dennis

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Dear Ina Steiner,
Thank you for adding my name to the subscription lists for the newletter and for the Update.

I was amazed to learn that you had been publishing since 1999. Please do let me know if there is any way I can access your archives - I have a lot of catching up to do!
Regards,
Pat

Note from the Editor: We keep all daily Newsflash articles on the site, but you have to use the search box (at the top of the page) to search for stories by topic.

4) Scroll down, and you'll see an index to each year - click on a year and you can see a list of the 24 issues from that year.