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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Re: eBay Rumors - Top Seller Meeting, Free Pictures

Hi Ina,
I love this: "Stephanie Tilenius, one of the eBay executives in charge of transforming the seller and the consumer experience at eBay, will lay out in detail where eBay is heading and how retailers large and small can take advantage of the new eBay."

She's going to do this in June?? Why didn't she and Donahoe convey all of this a year ago? Why have they kept their ultimate goal under wraps all this time? They may have this grand scheme, but I don't think they really have any idea where they're heading.

I'd love to see a draft of Tilenius' presentation. I wonder if she's written it yet.
A Loyal Reader,
Gail

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Hi Ina,
I have posted several messages in the past several months about dsr problems in the blogs and noticed several other sellers posting similar messages recently about there dsr results going down just before invoicing and shooting back up after billing .Again this month I have seen the same thing occur .I had 4.9 ratings last month and just before invoicing they dropped to the point where I got only a 5% discount rather than the 20% I should have received .They have crept up rather quickly in the last few days to 4.93 - 4.72 - 4.81 - 4.88 yesterday 2/5 .Today 2/6 they are 4.97 - 4.82 - 4.90 - 4.95 .Mind you I did not receive a single new feedback overnight . The latter Is my correct score I believe and has been reset to it's correct setting by ebay since invoicing is complete. I do not believe this is a " GLITCH" , it is quite clear they are manipulating the results in there favor .I wonder if you could post a blog about this subject to find out how widespread this problem is .Thank you again for providing unbiased auction coverage .
Ebay seller
PS : Please excuse me from not signing my name as I am a small seller and do not wish to receive a mysterious suspension from ebay for speaking my mind

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Good article but may I add my thoughts? Since eBay has had so many major changes I seldom look for anything there. The sellers are not the same because it seems that so many of my favorite sellers don't sell there anymore, my searches don't find what I am looking for, and there is so much gouging of shipping prices I don't even want to waste my time.

I read about eBay's current losses. I could have told anyone that. I bet the loss of sales has hurt the Post Office immensely.

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Dear Ms Steiner,
eBay have "enhanced" their discussion boards. The changes took effect about midnight last night. Yes, there were some minor problems before. Now, there are major problems all over the place. It is slow, cumbersome, difficult to read and it looks ugly. Posts are taking ages to show up, I can read a page of my novel before they even load and then it might take an hour for them to show. User ids have been truncated to show only 10 characters, leaving it open to others to create a new id similar, eg, an id of bloomingroses would show as bloomingro . Someone could create an id bloomingrosesandpansies, for example, and it would also appear as bloomingro.

There are several threads on the subject and countless other complaints and concerns. If you would like to have a look, I recommend the Soapbox discussion forum.

This is yet another er ... bloomer ... by eBay. We have watched the eBay Australia games culminating in the action in the ACCC, the effective stranglehold of PayPal only payments in Australia and the US, the constant "improvements" forced on all eBay users by an incompetent management who don't know, it appears, what they want, and they certainly don't know what their customers want. They have gone well beyond being "just a venue" and it is all very sad.

If the discussion boards are not fixed properly and soon, this change will see many users leaving ... as so many have done over the last 18 months.

I am hoping that you may be able to play a part in returning eBay to the marvelous site it has been.

Many thanks,
Cathy

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Hi Ina,
We had actually been having a fair to OK year on eBay this year...at least until the last two weeks. Granted the year is only slightly over 4-weeks old but suddenly we have seen a significant drop not only in buying activity but also ending prices for items in our categories have nose dived in just a short 10-14 day period.

It might be post election euphoria has worn off, but I suspect one significant factor is right here in California. See, the state is not sending out tax refund checks. Something to the tune of nearly $3-billion of people's money is being held back for no reason. Well, no reason other than the state's failure to properly do their own "withholding" of the tax funds pre-paid by tax payers each year. They spent everything, and then some to say the least, w/o holding their own estimated refund amount in reserve. They are guilty of doing exactly what California's extremely draconian tax laws penalize people for failing to do ourselves. What's good for the goose is...well you know the rest.

Anyway, here is an interesting article discussing this issue in California from the LA Times.

If you search a bit there are more but they all tell essentially the same story. The state took people's money, and spent it all the while knowing that money is owed back to the tax payer. Just try that logic by not overpaying your taxes and owing money, then fail to have the funds to pay those taxes and see what kind of understanding the state has in your situation. None of course. By the way, California is one of a very few states that have no statute of limitations on personal tax debt. Even the IRS has a seven year statute from the date a person/business was notified the taxes were owed. I might have the numbers slightly wrong, but the point is California is way in the tank and I see no way that the state can avoid going bankrupt. Then see what happens to our online sales all around.

Sorry, wandering a bit away from how this directly affects the ecommerce market including eBay sales, but in a nutshell, our own sales usually see a big increase in purchases from California during Q1 each year.

While increasing the number of listings we usually have running in January, we have had just one winning bidder from California this year. Ironically that lone "winner" was a Best Offer who is on a "sport bidding" spree of epic proportions. eBay is, of course, dragging their feet in addressing the issue but that eventually will be fixed. Anyway that is not my real point. My real point for emailing was the above linked article showing the failure of the California government finances, as well as the state's almost double digit unemployment, will have far reaching effects for sellers on eBay. Especially for us smaller sellers who fill those niche markets.

I realize every time sales slow down it is the nature of we sellers to find somewhere/someone to point a finger toward. Just this time I have to say it's not even 50% eBay's fault. Yeesss, I made that number up or this go 'round the Californian "Powers that Be" have a significant part in the slow down for ALL eBay sellers as well as ecommerce in general. California represents a large portion of the nation's economy.

It is going to be interesting to see what happens over the next 4-6 weeks, if we all can hold on even that long.

Keep up the wonderful coverage of the whole market, it is very appreciated. Oh, btw, if you watched the Super Bowl this year, notice anything missing? Yup, not a single eBay ad during the game or before it for that matter.

Makes a person wonder what eBay is really thinking in these down times...oh, yeah, I remember how it goes now...sellers can loose a little on each sale but we can definitely make it up on sales volume, I simply must keep chanting that mantra.

Sign Me,
Just some Guy on the Internet.

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Hello there, I am a regular reader of your site, keep up the great work. I just wanted to bring to peoples attention what ebay is doing to me. For fear of reprisal from ebay I do not wish to have my name or my userid disclosed.

I have been selling for about a year on ebay, I sell low value items, unfortunately about half my auctions end in non paying bidders, until recently I haven't had any problem with this, but this week ebay sent me this email, please keep in mind I do not file any unpaid items for items paid for, I ONLY file and close them for deadbeat buyers.

Your eBay account was involved in activity that violated the eBay Fee Avoidance policy by manipulation of eBay's Final Value Fee credit system. Your account has claimed Final Value Fee credits in excess of what the eBay policies allow. For more information on Final Value Fee credits and Unpaid Item Abuse, please go to link

We are reversing all Final Value Fee credits made to your account in the last 90 days. If future excessive Final Value Fee claims are made, your account will be suspended indefinitely according to eBay policies. For information on advanced selling strategies and how to reduce the need to claim Final Value Fee credits, please go to link

I sent ebay an email back asking how I'm abusing a policy by filing unpaid item disputes for auctions NOT PAID FOR, this is the response I got (cut and pasting the relevent paragraph) "Please be assured that there is no limit on how many transactions you can file Unpaid Item dispute for. "

Upon asking them what the notice was about, I received this:

In regard to opening many UPI disputes, there technically isn't a limit. However, we can take action on the account for abusing the UPI process. There are some examples within the following page on eBay explaining how this can be a violation: link

Another thing to note, if the percentage of UPI disputes is over a certain number compared to your actual listings, we may also take action on an account under this same policy. I apologize but I cannot provide specific numbers to you regarding that last statement as that is internal information. It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing eBay.

I still have no idea what I did wrong, it seems to me they are saying they want to keep the final value fees for auctions not paid for and if I do not agree, I will have all my final value fees reversed for the last 90 days and risk possible action against my account.

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I enjoy your newsletter it is very valuable to running my eBay business.

I thought I would let you know that Pay Pal is having a problem with printing UPS shipping labels. Starting Monday, I was not able to print UPS labels. I got an error message that said that my UPS account data and Pay Pal data did not match and that I needed to change them to match. After talking with UPS, they referred me to Pay Pal. The Pay Pal rep said that they were having a software glitch and a fix is still being worked and there is no ETA.

Thanks again for your valuable service.
Craig