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.

You can also read the AuctionBytes blog, which has a place for reader comments under every posting (http://blog.auctionbytes.com).

Hi Ina,
Yesterday, I was searching using the term "Dorothy Thorpe" (no quotation marks). I hadn't opted out of the new search yet.

I got 22 items. Nothing particularly interesting.

Today I opted out of the new search. I repeated the search using only the name Dorothy Thorpe. The results were doubled, 48 items among which was an extremely - and when I say extremely I mean one of a kind - piece that ended in an hour with no bids.

How on earth could a Best Match search miss 26 items using the key words Dorothy Thorpe as the search; title only?

This item should have sold for hundreds. It sold for under $50 to the only bidder.

How can this be better for buyers? Unless they opt out, they won't find items like this. It certainly didn't benefit the seller who missed out on a lot of money. I have no doubt that if eBay hadn't changed it's search, this would have sold for a substantially higher price to several competing collectors.

I don't sell on eBay anymore, but this only cements my belief that it would be stupid to list. If not even half the items are showing up, whether eBay is punishing a seller with low DSRs, or favoring powersellers, the end result is the same; the buyer is the loser for not being able to find the item, and the seller loses by not selling it to a competitive audience.
Just FYI.
Lisa

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Subject: ina-did ebay really pink-slip all the Pinks??

Ina,
Is it true-they pink slipped all the pinks??

I never thought I'd miss Meg but she was a genius next to the current mgmt idjits.
Holy cow.
Marilyn

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Hi Ina,
I just wanted to comment on the new PayPal only policy for small time sellers/buyers like myself. I have seen a lot of commentary on how this policy affects sellers. But, don't you think that it affects buyers too? As a buyer I am forced to have and a PayPal account. This means that I am have to provide personal information to PayPal whether I want to or not. It's another potential source of identity theft.

And for both sellers and buyers, it is another way my privacy is compromised.

So many things can go bad on line - what happens if PayPal goes "south", or what if PayPal changes their policies or creates new ones that that are bad for buyers (new fees, or ?). I put nothing past EBay and therefore PayPal.

Thanks for your articles,
Howard

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Hi Ina,
Looks like eBay / PayPal once again messed up an announcement, funny how these things never get caught before being sent when the mistake makes eBay / Paypal LOOK better!!! Basically PayPal sent an email that said under the NEW policy eBay sellers were COVERED against items-significantly-not-as-described AND items-not-received.

But what they MEANT was covered against unauthorized payments and items-not-received. http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=520040887

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Hi Ina. Wanted to give you some info I just received and thought many of your readers may find useful. Seems that ebay merchants who have taken their store inventory and moved to core have caused a sharp rise in the number of account suspensions. As many ebay sellers know, the core listings are monitored much more closely than the store format inventory. Just spoke with one of their reps and he informed us that there had been s "huge" jump in suspensions because of this migration. Interestingly he also mentioned that this had been expected. Finally, it's come to our attention that the prohibited listings are all tagged near when they are about to end and not when they are listed.

We were suspended for seven days for a small infringement - would hate to see what happens to someone who had a biggy. Regardless, this is one more example of ebay poorly managing it's relations with their sellers. If they could foresee this why couldn't they not have been more proactive and informed their sellers of this potential problem.
Hope all is well.

PS: Please don't put any identifiers though as the other thing we have discovered is that ebay has sophisticated ways they investigate sellers - we would not be surprised if they trolled your site.
Keep up the great work!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1a43GHwdhw

You know, ebay sellers could change this election if you wrote a really big article about those 1.3 million sellers who make a living here! Let's make history Ina and get ebay sellers recognized by Obama!!!!

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Hi Ina,
EBay announced two more changes today. http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200810281156252.html

First they are finally rolling out seller identification / verification when a seller lists an item using a different computer from the one they normally use. Makes sense and have no issue with this one.

Second, as you know for a while they anomyized bidders on listings with a bidder number [ie Bidder1] due to trouble with fraudulent 2nd chance offers, spam, etc. Enough people complained about the inability to determine if Shill Bidding was taken place, so eBay instead went to mixed up version of the bidders user id [ie x***i], which helped people identifiy Shill bidders. Either than or shortly thereafter, eBay started displaying the FULL user id of the winning bidder at the end of the auction. NOW they are going to start anomyizing that info again, so we will probably start getting a small spike in shill bidders again. If these fake Second Chance Offers, etc are such an issue, why doesn't eBay just change how they MANAGE them, rather than hidding all the info, but never fixing the problem, ie if someone is trying to send a SCO, why doesn't eBay verify that the SENDER is the actual seller????
K

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Fox & Friends' Clayton Morris really dished eBay on 10/25 after the story about the feedback lawsuit in the UK was aired on the news. He has apparently has some really bad experience(s) with eBay & Paypal. Maybe you can find out the cause for his hatred.
Mary Ann

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Dear Ina:
I don't think I will be the first or the last to tell you this, but.... Looks like eBay has decided to ONLY update DSRs at night.

I guess they got their fingers caught in the "cookie jar" last month when they DIDDLED with alot of people's DSR numbers right at discount-time.

I TOOK SCREEN SHOTS. So there's NO WAY they can deny who did what, and then I wrote to the buyer. AND I saved the buyer's responses.

Because I am getting really sick of them playing with these numbers.

I KNEW that a customer who said "Great experience, best I've had on eBay" did NOT give a 4.0. I also sent a note to the Attorney's who are suing them already for various things, to give them the "heads up" that this stuff is happening. This DIRECTLY affects what we pay to them, and they have been screwing around with these numbers for a while now, I'm not the only seller who sees them suddenly go WAY down right at discount time. The last couple months they left me alone, but now that my invoice is getting up there, they whammied me. Day after day I had 4.82, 4.83, and then right the instant they figured the discount, it mysteriously went to 4.79. And then right back up, oh what a surprise!!

I had a feeling it was coming, so I started taking screen shots, and dumping them into Word.

So now I guess they are not only going to be anonymous, but they want to be certain we cannot identify who it is that cost us 200 bucks???

There's NOTHING stopping the sellers from writing to the buyer in question to ask, right? I think they need to get it together, because I can almost guarantee they are gonna get the pants sued off of them. I will take DAILY screen shots now, and I am gonna make SURE that every customer knows to TELL ME if there is any problem at all.

This DSR stuff has NOTHING to do with customer experience, it has to do with their ability to take discounts away at WILL. If it were about customer service, then why NOT let us know who was dissatisfied, like the "river" they so want to be?

How are we supposed to know what went wrong if we don't know who didn't like us?? Especially since we can't leave a mutual negative feedback anymore, so what other reason can there be?
Nancy

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Re: With Etsy's Success Comes Growing Pains

Etsy, contrary to the public face shown, already has sellers on board outside of the handcrafted area. The site has allowed vintage goods to be sold and also offers supplies. If you were to visit the site and utilize the drop down search feature, you would find a diverse product line already in place.

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Ina,
I write on-line sellers with questions most every day and starting today there is a new tag line that will be in every one - regardless of where their item is listed.

I'd like to suggest every other AuctionBytes reader join in: on-line Sellers and Buyers both need quality and timely information from a reliable source - and that's AuctionBytes.

So below is my tag line suggestion: let's make a contest of it - who has the best, most readable tag line? On the honor system, who sent the most in a week? A month?
Charles

ps: I've found a great resource to keep me up to date on eBay and on-line markets; best of all, it's free - check out auctionbytes dot com.

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Re: eBay Shipping & Handling Survey Results Are In

HI INA, well two things come to mind with your latest Auction Bytes..

#1 eBay going to make UK to offer FREE Shipping. Well who is Ebay to tell me I have to give away the profits.. or I would have to raise the rates to cover them.. Ebay sure likes to push the buttons, making themselves look good by having FREE SHIPPING, yeah right.

#2. Nice of Pay Pal to offer us a discount on low cost items.. They would do us all a favor if they would quit charging us a percentage on the Shippiing fees paid to us.. That is USPS monies when the goods are shipped not ours, so we are paying twice for the FVF, once by Ebay, and Once by Pay Pal.. To me that is thievery..

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Wish we could put pressure on them to eliminate the % on Shipping fees..
Rochelle

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Hi Ina, Included in today's announcement from Dinesh Lathi is a release which indicates that eBay now realizes their DSR system has issues:

Seller Standards: new policy requires minimum DSRs to list on eBay
I also want to remind you that the new Seller Standards policy is going into effect on November 3. We will begin enforcement of this policy as follows: Sellers with one or more Detailed Seller Rating (DSR) below 4.1 will be restricted from listing. Sellers with a DSR between 4.1 and 4.3 will be allowed to list, but their listings may be subject to further demotion in search results. See best practices for improving your DSRs.

These policies will go a long way to help all eBay members buy and sell with confidence, and we thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Dinesh Lathi
Vice President, Seller Experience

The change in the policy which is effective 11/03 indicates that eBay realizes there are problems with the DSR system, however, this revision does not go as far as it should to address all of the improprieties inherent in the system.

Apparently eBay has come to the realization that they set the bar too high which has resulted in seller suspensions in greater numbers than they anticipated. This does not reflect on sellers as much as it does on the system itself which fails to accurately define ratings at the 4 star level.

The ratings as presented to buyers are still inaccurate in that the descriptions of a 4 star rating are Accurate, Satisfied, Quickly, and Reasonable, all of which are interpreted by buyers as being better than average, yet too many 4 star ratings will still result in suspension of seller privileges for small sellers.

Suspensions of seller accounts should be as a result of below average ratings, not average or above average ratings. This policy revision thus does very little to address the root of the problems in the DSR system. The DSR system was reported to be a tool which was intended to help sellers improve their performance, yet the system falls far short of being that tool, as it remains an anonymous. An invisible weapon does not help a seller improve performance, it is merely a tool which is wielded as punishment.

EBay has yet to publicly address the process by which a seller is supposed to be able to improve their performance when their ability to perform as a seller is prohibited for any period of time as a result of suspensions or now, reduced visibility.

It is clear that the DSR rating system will remain a punitive measure by which sellers are punished, and not provided with tools to enable improvement. Clearly, this revision has been drafted by eBay to slow the bleeding as sellers faced with suspensions use their 30 day time out to migrate to other venues.
Best regards,
Ric

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Hi Ina, Please take a look at this thread, threads like this are popping up more and more on a daily basis, the best part is the seller will be suspended and eBay will not remove the FB, click on the OPs FB and read what the buyer wrote along with the Neg they left, eBay is making it impossible to survive as a small seller,this really deserves some exposure.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=520036343&tstart=0&mod=1224695947026

Here's another, even with proof of FB extortion on buyers end, eBay is doing nothing to remove the Negs.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=520036465&tstart=0&mod=1224696389452

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Subject: Ebay no checks/M.O.'s

I call it Restraint of Trade and complained to the FTC. No answer.
Has anyone else tried this?
regards
dave
fb 14000+

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Hi Ina,
I'm an Ebay seller. I rarely report issues but you might want to check the ebay paypal comm board to see this issue. There is a glitch with echecks now having to be claimed once cleared and there is no link to claim your funds! I had this happen to me today. I was notified it cleared by Paypal but I can't get my funds. When I contacted Paypal by phone the rep said 3 to 5 days for a fix when I asked for a supervisor they hung up!!

Here is a link to the comm board post...

I've been on Ebay 7 years and have never seen so many idiotic changes and glitches!!!! Regards

PS: Please don't use my user name in any way I'm afraid of retaliation from Ebay

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Hi Ina,
Ebay feedback appears to have yet another glitch which is causing buyers to unjustly ding seller DSR ratings.

Apparently, in more than a few cases, when buyers go to leave feedback they are given a pop up box that reminds them that they received free shipping for the item.

The problem is that this is happening even when seller did not offer free shipping. As a result, the seller is receiving lowered DSR scores because of eBay's erroneous pop up, and the buyer believes they paid for shipping and should not have.

eBay is fast becoming the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. The pop up has good intentions, but when it appears for listings incorrectly due to eBay's error, it is causing sellers to suffer for errors beyond their control.
Best regards,
Ric

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Dear Ina,
Did you know that many sellers have reported when they click on the feedback revision link, they get the following:

Sorry, we encountered a problem. Please see the details below.
Input Error
* We did not successfully receive all the required information from the page. Please go back and ensure that all the fields are filled in.

Ebay has been unable to fix this for over a week, since it started. This means that many opportunities for feedback revision are going to be excluded as they limit you to 30 days.

They admit the problem, but have not fixed it. Just thought you might like to know that for your next newsletter.

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Ina,
I just got off of live help and they admitted to the following bug with no time line for repairs.

I have a current listing that is a BIN listing that has had sales. I went to revise the listing and was not allowed to. I received the following message:

Please provide the correct information in the highlighted fields.

• Additional return policy details - Please enter a valid value.

My additional Return Policy Details are filled out with a valid message that say the following: "Returns are done on a 1 to 1 basis. Please contact me for all return requests. Thanks"

When I spoke to live help on eBay about this issue I was told that it is a known bug and they were "working on it"

I asked about a repair time line and got this: "We don't have an expected time yet given but it is being worked to be resolved as fast as the technical team could for many are affected."

I don't' know if you were aware if this system bug or not so I figured I would pass it along.
Love your site by the way. It is one of my daily stops in the morning.

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Dear Ina, Just a quick note has anyone ever brought up the fact that E-Bay should divide the collectibles dealers from the new product dealers and let us collectible dealers run to fairer rules? THANK YOU, Ralph

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http://forums.ebay.com/db1/forum.jspa?forumID=6

Check out the first 5 threads on the checkout board. ebay's home page advertised a ten percent discount, also showing up on the signin page to myebay. After people bought thinking they would get a discount a checkout, it didn't work. "Invitation only" they said afterwards.

The fine print said only if you get an email or an announcement on your myebay page.

Several buyers posted screen captures of their myebay pages but were still denied the discount. The blundering idiots won't even admit they made a mistake by publically announcing a discount and actually publishing the CODE to use, they just deleted the ad from their home page yesterday that was supposed to end on the 30th.

Even the one's that said they actually received an e-mail, the code didn't work either tired of chasing the sellers away, now they're pissing off the buyers as well.

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Hello Ina,
I have over 800 store items currently listed with the majority having had a sale all "good till canceled". I can not edit out the "paper payment" on these as I would have to end them and relist them (what a pain). secondly, being that eBay is a loose cannon of sorts I do not feel this would be time well spent (maybe I should list on other sites). With that said could you do a blog or poll asking other sellers if they are editing all of their items to be in compliance with eBay come January?
Best regards,
Keith

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Etsy is NOT a place to buy/sell just handmade. Etsy has a wonderful, and vast, community of Supply sellers, and Vintage sellers.

The supply sellers can supply artisans with just about anything they could possible need in their creating venue. I sell Vintage Supplies and destash supplies, but I am only 1 of many great suppliers. Most supplies can be bought at ETSY cheaper than in a B&M store, including the shipping price. A lot of the vintage supplies can not even be found in a B&M store.

The vintage sellers offer a wide range of vintage and antique items that are rare and hard to find treasures, from great vintage clothing, to household items, to rare collectables.

Supplies and Vintage have supported, and been supported by ETSY, from day one, and are a BIG part of ETSY's "income". I'm not sure if ETSY could sustain on Handmade alone, if they seperate Vintage and Supplies from the current site. They has all but hidden V & S from buyers, by not including us on the Front Page of ETSY.

I don't know how many people read your great articles, but it would be greatly appreciated if you did an article, giving Supplies and Vintage, on ETSY a "shout out".

Supplies and Vintage are a big part of the ETSY "pie". All 3 "catagories" compliment each other. It would be a sad mistake if ETSY seperated the 3 "catagories".
Thank you,
Jean, an Etsy supply seller