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).

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Dear Ina,
In case I get real busy just before Christmas want to wish you and yours a very Merry and Happy Christmas and thank you for all the information you have given us over the years-still hanging in there and hope to have my own web site up in the new year.
Regards,
Shirley

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To keep posting the number of 100% feedback sellers being removed from eBay is now tearing at my soul..

If Walmart discharges just 500 workers then it becomes front page news, but these workers do get the benefit of at least un-employment insurance .. Since the shake up at eBay with the CEO's new disruptive innovation theory, tens of thousands of decent hard working sellers are now finding them selves out of their job with no benefit of anything ..

When is this going to see the light of day so these people put out of their business can be heard in the public forum? There are hundreds of thousands of single mothers, grand parents, students, families, veterans and disabled Americans that earn most or all their families income from this site who have helped to build the site to what it was at its peak!! For their patriotage they are now finding them selves on the out side looking in for deeds that are outside their control!! As much as we cannot control the weather, nor can we control the time that USPS, UPS, FEDEX or any other out side delivery source will deliver our packages but yet the seller below on this page whose profiles & blog can be seen on the enclosed links .. also, we all would like our parcels to be delivered free where ever possible, But yet the cost is mostly outside the control of the vendor for that service .. But if you use the eBay shipping cost calculator YOU WILL BE BOOTED OFF eBay for excessive shipping cost for charging the actual shipping cost !!!

WHEN IS SOMEBODY GOING TO COME FORWARD AND CHAMPION FOR THESE DISPLACED SELLERS??

THE EBAY SELLERS NEED A HERO & THEY NEED IT NOW!!! Children are going with out eating, our senior sellers are now going with out medicines that they use the sellers profit to pay for, students are dropping out of school because they no longer have their eBay income to help with their educational cost..

My thought is that most people in todays business environment look at these sellers like numbers or widgets on a big business board someplace because they are termed sellers instead of workers! But each individual seller is a live warm breathing person who goes through all the same hardships or more when they are displaced from their selling role for factors outside their control if not more because there is no un-employment relief for these persons or families!!

For Gods sake, the economy is in a tumble, it's Christmas time isn't it time for somebody to put this out where it can be heard for what it is!!
Thank You!!
PK

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I put six items on Ebay but the shipping cost did not show up in the listing (2 were FREE and 4 were "Book Rate"). I emailed Ebay twice and got back canned worthless responses. Two days before the auction ended the shipping costs showed up. Six days after the auctions closed I got an email saying "I have reviewed your account and I see that the shipping cost is clearly shown for all six of your items. If I can be of further service please don't hesitate to contact me". The glitch hurt the first five days of my auction, and there's a lag time in "Customer Service" at Ebay. It just gets more funny every day.

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In response to Julia Wilkinson's article in the December 7th issue, Boosting Holiday Sales by Getting on the Coupon Bandwagon

Hi Julia,
I recently read your article on Auctionbytes.com "Boosting Holiday Sales by Getting on the Coupon Bandwagon" and I thought it was very good. Please consider including Coupon Cactus in your next online coupon or cash back shopping article. We will be adding product comparison in the next week which will include the cash back rate and any applicable coupons in the final lowest price.

Right now people really need to make their money go farther and you are helping them obtain that objective. Keep up the good work!
All the best,
Scott Fitterman
http://www.couponcactus.com

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Hi Ina,
I just contacted eBay. I had a problem. I have had my store on vacation. No new activity has gone through. No new sales, no customer, no feedback left. I had all 5s on my DSR. I just got a notice from DSRwatch that my stars went down.

I logged into eBay and they were right. My Communication, Shipping time and Shipping and handling charges all went down to 4.9. Now I understand that this per say is no big deal, but if this kept happening, how can I be guaranteed over time I will not end up a 2?

I had a live chat with Gavin C in Stores Support and Bethany in Trust and Safety. Here is the conversation with Bethany. Gavin's was done and transferred so fast I could not copy it.

Help please. Thank you (and love the newsletter).
Janet

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Re: eBay's Jim Griffith Talks about Changes Impacting Sellers

Hello Ina, I just read your interview with Griff....I was disappointed. I understand that it revolved around new changes they are implemented after the new year but felt that they should have answered problems created from the previous set of changes before moving on to new changes....The list of problems will continue to get bigger and their sellers will continue to get smaller....Nothing personal but sorry I felt your interview fell way short. I posted my comment in your comment section for that interview....Have a nice day, John

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A friend and I - both eBay sellers - noticed that in the last few days when we wrote to eBay with questions about selling - we got email answers back that actually answered the questions we asked. Previously, we would get responses that seemed canned and didn't address what we asked; then we'd reply to that message, and that time, or later in the email chain, we'd finally hit someone who read our question and answered it. Perhaps this is something you could investigate. That is, did eBay change its staffing around to put real humans with knowledge into the Help Desk slots - so that real sellers could actually get help?
Sue

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I am considered a skilled and experienced ad copy writer that knows and appreciates the value of good ad placement. It is common practice for most ad venues to charge more for premium placement. When you pay for such service, you should expect your ad to be seen in the spot placed.

I am a full-time eBay Powerseller and often write and place ads for my own business as well as others, mostly free for friends and relatives. Lately I have noticed the my Featured Plus ads are not showing up on the Featured Plus page using Best Match search of title keywords. I have asked my Powerseller rep to look into this but here is what I did first. While on the phone together, I asked him to look for one of my popular selling items using most of the key words in my title. He did find my item, on page six. I then told him that this was a Featured Plus! listing. He almost did not believe me until he verified for himself that my listing was indeed a Featured First! listing.

Over the last couple of weeks, the only solution my eBay rep has come up with is for me to use a newer, more expensive upgrade called Featured First. At the end of Featured Listings, there is a small line of verbiage: "Optimize your selling success! Find out how to promote your items"

Using the promote your items link take you the following page:
"Promote Your Item: Add Listing Upgrades" On the page it very plainly states:
"Featured Plus! Boost bids by featuring your item at the top of search and listings results."

I would like other sellers to see if they have noticed the same occurrence. If you have a Featured Plus! ad, log onto eBay as another user or guest and search for your listing.

There is a way for my Feature First! listing to always be seen by me on the first page. Changing search from Best Match to Distance: nearest first. To bad I cannot buy my own items!

Fellow eBay sellers, there are now way more eBay ads being offered to a decreasing qualified buyer market. With that said, let me stray with some parting tips.

There are free things that every seller should do to increase visibility such as filling in all the item specifics and specifing the shipping method. It is also important to keep your DSRs high and one way to do so is to ask every buyer to leave you 5 stars. Finally, play with your titles. I find the sometimes short titles pop up ahead of long, spammy titles.

If you chose to pay for promotion, make sure to check that you got what you paid for.

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Perhaps you should consider a more in depth look at Amazon's policies for sellers. Many of us have been thrown off, blackballed because we did not maintain their feedback rate. Here is an example. I sold 400 books in a year. That is 400 separate orders in 365 days. However I only had 73 people with orders decide to leave feedback. That leaves over 300 without comment or complaint. Of the 73 who left feedback I had a rating of 89 percent positive, 7 percent negative and 4 percent neutral. If you are above 5 percent in feedback for any length of time they throw you off. The fact that 300 of the orders had no feedback is irrelevant to them. The toss sellers off with no regard. Do a little research and you will see there are many of us black balled sellers who are booted with no reason and given no recourse.

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Here is another story for you that you may want to post.

eBay double billed me 2 cycles ago & never credited my ebay account for the extra billing.

I have been questioning it for 6 weeks with no resolve. Ebay CS responses were basically ignorant as they sent canned answers or didn't read the emails. Currently I am pushing 15 incoherent replies from ebay. Finally I asked my credit card company to look into it. Ebay took this as a charge back and suspended my account.

In the end, my listings were cancelled & account suspended. I am doing damage control with my customers.... All because ebay double billed me and I "looked into it". Being suspended for the wrong reasons just seems to be adding to the stereotype. If only someone at ebay CS actually read my emails, none of this would of happened.

I appreciate your web site and what it is doing for the community.
Tina

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Hello Ina.
I am writing as I have seen an interesting phenomena in the last 3 days. Every time I send a "suspected" phishing email to spoof at ebay or paypal they come back as undeliverable. Has ebay and paypal given up on hunting phishers?

This is very shortsighted of ebay and paypal - what else is new?
Thanks for the great newsletter ina.
All the best.
Ben