Ebay is killing the golden goose (self inflicted wound)
metalmike
Posts: 2,152 ✭✭
As of this week ALL bidders will be hidden, which will encourage more shill bidding. This is pathetic and in many ways worse than the new feedback system. PATHETIC!
USN 1977-1987 * ALL cards are commons unless auto'd. Buying Britneycards. NWO for life.
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eBay Boycott: Sellers Sound Off, Buyers Too
By Vangie Beal
February 20, 2008
Today eBay's new fee changes go into effect, but it's not the pricing structure that has members revolting — it's the new feedback policy. Half-way through the week-long boycott, eBayers are still sounding off on what they say are unfair changes to the vaunted feedback system at the auction site.
EBay announced that in the future for any transaction, the seller may only leave positive feedback for any buyer. There is more to it of course; positive, repeat feedback will now count, feedback older than 12 months won't, and negative and neutral feedback left by the buyer will be removed for transactions in which a buyer doesn't respond to the Unpaid Item (UPI) protocol or if the member gets suspended.
And while much has been said about how sellers feel (For more sellers' views you can read "eBay Strikers Say Scope, Solidarity Unprecedented."), one reader told Ecommerce-Guide.com that there are other consequences of the new feedback changes that are missing in much of the boycott coverage, namely the perspective of sellers who are also big buyers.
"Many sellers are also heavy buyers…All of the online articles about the boycott have missed the fact that eBay is poised to anger its biggest buyers with the upcoming feedback change. (Most buyers are unaware of the coming change unless they also happen to be sellers.) Longtime loyal buyers like me have racked up thousands of feedbacks and we're proud of our high numbers," she said.
"Under eBay's new rules, all those high numbers will be removed, totally obliterated, leaving only current year numbers. Worse yet, those numbers will now be meaningless, because now only positive feedback can be left. I'm extremely upset about losing my numbers. I'm nearly to 10,000 and I spent more than $150,000 on eBay over nine years to achieve those high numbers.
"I also opened an eBay store last year and was building a business on eBay, which is now endangered by all the anger created by the eBay changes. I am joining this week's boycott as BOTH a heavy buyer and Power Seller. I'm also investigating all the other online selling sites and am starting to experiment with listings on a few of them. GoogleCheckout is particularly attractive after all the years of abuse from PayPal."
IMHO: Feedback Favors Buyers at Expense of Honest Sellers
In my opinion, I realize that, yes, we all know that some sellers are dishonest sometimes. We also know that some sellers do use feedback in a threatening way (e.g. sellers tell buyers if they leave negative feedback, they will do the same in return). EBay management says the changes are designed to prevent this from happening. The problem is that not all sellers work in this way, so many honest sellers are unfairly punished under this new system. The other issue is that there are also dishonest buyers on eBay and these new policies do not really address this group unless they get a UPI or lose their eBay account.
It seems to me that this new feedback policy favors the buyer. They are important, and in fact, most eBay alternative sites don't take off or will fail because they have not gained a large enough number of buyers. A marketplace with only sellers is a marketplace sellers don't want to be at. So, to keep buyers appeased, eBay will shift more power (and yes feedback is power on this site) to the buyer in future transactions, leaving sellers will little to no recourse except filing complaints. Unfortunately filing a complaint can be a time consuming process, and sellers with low-value items usually forgo doing this because they lose even more money in time with the lengthy process.
EBay seller Charles T. in Missouri (Chazzt on the site) mainly deals in baseball cards as both a buyer and seller. Chazzt says he supports the eBay strike. Chazzt told Ecommerce-Guide.com that he is participating in the boycott because the changes eBay is making are simply not fair to sellers, especially the feedback changes.
"My biggest problem with this is that I check on bidders who have low feedback ratings to make sure I'm not getting deadbeats. If they have what looks to be justified negatives, then I cancel their bids to avoid dealing with them. If eBay makes it so sellers cannot leave valid negative feedback, as a seller I have no way of checking them out as a potential good buyer."
Chazzt also voiced concern about buyers who will file negative comments because the shipping time didn't meet their expectations. Currently, when a buyer leaves an unjustified feedback because they aren't happy with shipping, sellers can reply to that comment letting other potential buyers know the specifics. Under the new feedback system, many sellers are expecting to get unjustified negative feedback due to such issues, and are not sure that they will have any recourse under the new policy to address these situations.
Vangie Beal is a seasoned eBay seller, frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com and managing editor of Webopedia.com.