eBay Boycott Feb. 18th-25th
The_Non
5,691 Posts
For those that care, eBay boycott 18th-25th. I love eBay, but this feedback change shit needs to see the curb. Holleur
Comments
Do the work this week for em, then list after the boycott?
Slower traffic in the store? Stingier custies?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Exactly why these time-stamped boycotts don't work.
If he does all his business a week earlier, how does that change anything for eBay? He'd still do the same amount of business; he'd just do it in a different time frame. The net loss is nothing. The only way boycotts work is if the commitment to them is open-ended. It's not enough for people to just shift their habits to a different day; they have to curtail their participation altogether.
I have no stake in this fight, I'm just saying....
I think there's some truth to that, but a one-week boycott with tens of thousands of people (buyers and sellers) participating would send a very powerful message to ebay, I would hope. The goal isn't to bankrupt ebay but to register disapproval on a level that is a step up from just sending an angry email or whatever.
Can I get a Rick Ross graemlin that says "I need 10 million a year just to function"??
I'm with you on this one JP. I just got stiffed big time by the bay on some stupid refund crap. But the economy is what keeps me doing business with them.
It could have an effect. Ebay is already trying to do damage control by rolling out those media listing fee changes a couple days ago. I sense some vulnerability.
Don't forget the recent fee sale as well, which would place ending auctions in the boycott period.
Even with the changes ebay is the best outlet to sell vinyl.
The overhead is minimal, the exposure is amazing.
Whenever I get mad at ebay I just think this....
On the average I get 50 people looking at each item over a weeks time.
How long would it take for 50 people to look at the same item if I owned a store?
These new changes don't bother me at all.
Things are gonna change a lot in 2008.
Have fun with zeroes you don't know are zeroes, and dudes who have burned others already but you don't know cuz there's no feedback. Don't get me wrong, I heart eBay's abilities to do good things, but these changes are unnecessary. That's the worst part, they are unnecessarily messing things up.
Saying. We're about to enter a world of pain. Malicious bidding and chargebacks are going to skyrocket.
Look, I'm not all that hung up on feedback one way or the other
myself, but you must recognize the folly of eBay removing one of
the few meager weapons a seller has against fraudulent buyers?
It's almost as if they're so desperate to find new users that they
are inviting people to abuse the site, and too bad for the sellers.
I'll be shook as hell when I list some reggae later this month!
Ebay is SUCH a good deal that I can't hate on any of these changes.
I'll do everything I can to protect myself and if my "rip-offs" double or even triple, it's still all good.
And if these changes are the unmitigated disaster you all assume they will be, I'll deal with it then.
And so will they.
other sellers, even though you feel mostly unaffected?
Would that be too socialist for you?
Just curious, not poking.
I realize this may be stretching a little, but I couldn't help but notice some parallels between the recent Wachovia scandal (NY Times article) and ebay's fraud-enabling ways. For a personal illustration, I recently had a bidder win a 45 for $710. Now look at the winning bidder's recent bidding history here.
Obviously I was not born yesterday and realized this was a hijacked account. I phoned ebay and sent them two emails to alert them to this clear-cut fact and they refused to take any action or respond to my emails. The ebay person I spoke to on the phone agreed with my observation and assured me something would be done but nothing ever was. The only reason I can think they allow this account to stay active is they hope that some of the final value fees end up sticking.
Sure...want me to send a letter......sign a petition....make a phone call...I'll be happy to do it.
Boycotting as a seller is the proverbial cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Every single time I have reported a buyer not coming through with payment I have had my fees refunded.
And this is as a 'regular" seller as I have refused to become a "Power Seller" even though I have been invited to be one many times.
Yes, this is the reality of consumer culture in 2008.
Insured transactions mean that corporations can invite
fraud and claim all transactions as profit, regardless
of what percentage of the transactions are disputed.
Only once the cost of dispute settlement is greater than
the profit, or if the Feds step in, or as you hope but
less likely to have an impact, if the suppliers of product
(you) strike/boycott/take their business elsewhere, will
they change this approach.
That's not really the point though. The point is that a clear-cut pattern of fraud, totalling many tens of thousands of dollars over a one-week period, was pointed out to them by me and I'm sure many of the other affected sellers. And they willfully chose to do nothing about it. The only possible reason I can think they would do that is they calculate some of the sellers will not initiate the unpaid item process (through fear of receiving a negative or lack of knowledge about how the process works) and ebay will get to pocket the fees. Now I'm supposed to accept on faith that their changes are going to better protect sellers from fraud (as they assert, with a revealing lack of details)? I'll believe it when I see it.
Also, it's not just about having to go out of your way to get your fees back. There's the little matter of the lost three figure sale.
And remember, when we talk eBay, we talk Paypal.
The majority of fraud involves Paypal, so eBay's
policies enabling buyer fraud on their site also
bring about the profits from the Paypal side of it,
which of course is owned by them as well.
I had an item sell for a ridiculous amount of money....3x what it usually goes for. As soon as the auction ended ebay contacted me, told me the winner was a hacked account, they took the auction off the site so I couldn't even contact the second highest bidder.
I assume this is the kind of fraud you experienced too.
They did refund all my fees and I relisted the item and it sold for a much lower price.
So what did I lose??
Every store on the planet accepts bad checks, counterfeit bills, stolen credit cards, etc. and when it's all said and done they are out the money AND the merchandise.
Honestly, this is the cost of doing business and ebay is a lot better than ANY alternative.
I agree with a lot of that and I'm going to be on ebay for the long haul because at the end of the day it does work for me. One alternative that you seem to be overlooking (or don't think is possible) is an ebay with better mechanisms for preventing fraud, rather than changes that make fraud easier, which is the direction we find ourselves hurtling toward.
I hear ya.....I'm just going to wait and see how it goes.....I may be the one leading the boycott a year from now?