In every issue, readers soundoff about issues important to them. From feedback to payment services, from fees to posting policies, AuctionBytes Soundoff gives you a chance to air your views.
Send your letter to the editor by emailing ina@auctionbytes.com with "Letters to the Editor Blog" in the subject line. (Remember to include your name as you would like it to appear.)
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Good morning Ina.
A year ago, eBay developed a problem with the "See all matching eBay Stores" link. It no longer showed the stores for the specific category, but instead random links to mostly tech stores. I contact them and was thanked and told the "bug" would be corrected. Yeah right. Now they are also no longer showing the 4 or 5 store with the most listings on the left hand side.
Why are no sellers (but me) on them? I'm seeing many stores close.
Best regards,
Alicia
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I was shocked and dismayed to see that eBay is promoting other sellers items at the bottom of my LIVE LISTINGS, even though I have opted out of the cross promotions. This is a blatant abuse of my fees that I pay for exposure on eBay. I don't think should be paying to showcase competitors listings even though I have correctly set my preference NOT TO SHOW THEM.
This is unethical, and is harming my business.
Regards,
Leslie
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Re: "Amazon Adds Premium Shipping for Marketplace Media Categories - link
Hi Ina,
Just for chuckles and grins i went and priced out a 2lb package from chicago to atlanta...
Two-day, amazon pays seller $11.98
UPS $16.64
USPS $24.65
One-day, amazon pays seller $17.98
UPS $39.01
USPS (couldn't find a 1 day option)
So any seller of hardcover books would be insane to offer this option, and a 1lb package doesn't fare much better, nor is chicago to atlanta a worst case scenario pricewise.
International hasn't been practical on amazon for years.
Robert
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Hi Ina,
I’ve just recently noticed that a particular bidder I happened to be watching has had a change of alias unaccompanied by any notice from eBay of such a change, such notice which eBay in the past (at least prior to their devious masking of bidding IDs) used to give to warn other users of such a happening.
I guess eBay has now decided that it is not in eBay’s interests that we users should be able to keep track of even those anonymous bidding aliases that we might suspect of shill bidding activity. One more deception on the consumer by eBay: apparently, shill bidders can now periodically rename their bidding IDs and we simple consumers will be none the wiser . . .
Regards,
Philip
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Dear Ina,
I am aware that you did your story on ebay cross merchandising but I have a request. Please keep this going, this is very important to the sellers that are on ebay. The cross merchandising is clearly a tool that ebay is using to help hand picked sellers and the hand picked sellers that were in my ads are a huge retailer.
It is true that ebay is hiding this from the sellers it is happening to because when you are signed with ebay's cookie in your system the ads are not there but when signed in as a guest with cookies cleared the ads show.
That in itself is deception by ebay and it is disturbing. Ebay is on a mission to destroy anybody that gets in its way in favor of large retailers it appears, they are tryng to eliminate the competition. The fact that many of the small businesses on ebay have a fraction of the overhead that a large business has, made ebay a haven small business to compete with the giants, now ebay is clearly trying to force us out. The facts do not lie, the one sided ill controversial programs, low sales, and the exodus of sellers that were buyers too. seems to not be disturbing John Donahoe. It is not disturbing to him because it is his plan to get rid of us.
However this cross merchandising progrm is illegal and deceptive. Please keep this going we need to urge your readers to file complaint, please inform your readers that a complaint about ebay policies can be made to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office they will not take personal complaints but they will take a general complaint against ebay policy and this program is worthy of that.
Thank you.
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Ina,
ebay DRSs cannot possibly be correct.
Don't sell much on ebay anymore so I only get good feedback every now and then. As a result I know what my DSR rating is before the feedback is left and what it does after the feedback is left. I am seeing my DSR rating gradually go down but when I contact the buyers it's always the same. "I left 5 stars across the board"
Since so much hangs in the balance. Next time you speak to someone at ebay ask them how a seller can verify the accuracy of their DSR rating and what assurances a seller has that ebay is not manipulating the ratings to get you to list more or avoid having to give you discounts.
If you go to ebay and look around you can find sellers that have received lots of great feedback recently with 100% feedback score but their DSRs have dropped. They would have to be getting so many 1 and 2 ratings for this to work out right that the only explanation I can see is ebay is not calculating the DSRs right nor calculating all sellers DSRs the same.
Someone needs to ask ebay about this and push them for a straight answer.
Marvin
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Re: "eBay Promotes TigerDirect with Special Buyer Coupons" - link
Beware of ebays $5 tiger coupon it's costly! Products with free shipping on tiger directs web site have shipping added to them on ebay!!!! As the attached screen captures show.
On ebay an extra shipping charge not added when you purchase from tiger has inflated the ebay cost by $16.06 over tigers current total selling price of $249.99 to $266.05 (your cost on ebay). You are then given a $5 discount coupon making your total cost on ebay $261.05. This is still $11.06 more than buying directly from tiger. Plus a specific type of payment is required, i.e., paypal.
Here is what the attached screen captures show:
Tigers ebay listing.
This shows tigers ebay listing for a Tripp Lite 8 port KVM. Price is $249.99 plus $16.06 shipping
Tigers ebay description
If you click on the above ebay description it will provide you with a manufactures part number B007-008
Tigers product description.
If you go to tigers site and search for the part number B007-008 the same product listed on ebay will show up on tigers site but $16.06 cheaper because shipping is free!!!
Tigers site listing.
If you go to checkout on this product it will show free shipping is available on this item. Total cost from tiger is $249.99 vs $266.05 on ebay without discount or $261.05 after the discount.
What I have sent you shows only one example. You can find hundreds more just like it.
Go to tigers ebay store and bring up products over $100. Then go to tigers website and find the same product. You can find item after item, after item where the price on ebay has been increased by 300% or more over the value of their coupon:
In this case the price has been inflate by 321.3% over the value of the coupon. $5 X 321.3% = $16.065
The key question is who is adding the extra shipping. Ebay or Tiger?
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Also visit the Letters to the Editor Blog, here are links to letters published from November 15 to present:
Is Recession Affecting eBay Sellers' Inventory Decisions? (December 3, 2009) - Link to letter
eBay Sends Relist Reminders to Auction Sellers (December 1, 2009) - Link to letter
Seller Cites Problems with eBay Feedback (November 27, 2009) - Link to letter
Merchants Impacted by Google Marketplace Feed Issues (November 25, 2009) - Link to letter
Etsy Policy Discourages Sellers from Accepting Returns (November 23, 2009) - Link to letter
eBay Cancels Auction Promotion (November 23, 2009) - Link to letter
eBay Cross Promotion Settings Do Work (November 22, 2009) - Link to letter
eBay Looks Different to Google Shoppers (November 19, 2009) - Link to letter
eBay Seller Unable to Opt-out of Cross Merchandising (November 18, 2009) - Link to letter
Problem of Miscategorized Items on eBay (November 17, 2009) - Link to letter
eBay's Best Match - Metrics More Important than Sales (November 15, 2009) - Link to letter
