Archive for the ‘E-commerce’ Category

eBay (EBAY) sellers cast accusations suggesting eBay padding auction listings

Posted by Michael on March 5th, 2008

ebayAs we looked at last week, disgruntled eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) users decided to get together and boycott eBay in reaction to a couple of key changes that were made on the site.

These changes were (in summary):

  1. Increased final selling fees
  2. Allowing PayPal to hold certain payments up to 21 days
  3. Removing the option for for sellers to leave negative feedback on sellers

The eBay boycott was supposed to last a week, but was extended to last 2 weeks, and the impacts of the strike are still up for debate. While eBay is denying that the strike had any impact on its business, sellers are furious and accusing the site of padding it’s listings in order to create the false allusion that the strike was of little or no success.

There have been several posts on the eBay forum with users posting what they consider to be viable proof of eBay’s shady practices, and one user has gone so far as to post a video on YouTube illustrating what he considers to be the fraudulent listings.

For now, eBay is claiming that it had a bug in its system which resulted in some fake item listings, but has denied any intentional wrong doing.

You can be sure that we have not heard the end of this saga!

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Disgruntled eBay (EBAY) sellers extend current selling strike

Posted by Michael on February 25th, 2008

ebayE-commerce giant eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) has been dealing with a lot of user feedback, that has been coming in the form of a “sellers strike” being launched by its large sellers over the past week. But, as some users will argue… eBay has not been dealing with any thing at all.

The current strike stems from disapproval over a couple of new changes being made by eBay management. There are three main concerns that eBay sellers are upset about:

  1. While the site did lower its initial listing fees for selling items, it significantly raised its final transaction fees. This move has been seen by eBay power sellers as a move that is aimed directly at the more successful eBay users.
  2. A second change that has upset sellers is the decision by eBay to stop allowing sellers to post feedback on sellers. This decision has frustrated sellers who argue that this is a valuable tool for weeding out bids from buyers that are unlikely to follow through on their purchase.
  3. Finally, another decision that is backfiring in eBay’s face is the decision that it will being to hold certain PayPal payments by up to 21 days in an attempt to combat fraud on the site.

All changes combined were just too much for many eBay users, and have led to a widespread boycott of the site that took place all last week, and has resulted in a decrease of roughly 13% in the number of items that are listed for sale on the site.

While the boycott has definitely been impacting the number of items listed, it is still not clear if eBay is going to take action to reduce the level of animosity within its community. Sensing that eBay is not taking notice, the community has decided to extend its boycott by another week, with the extension pushing the strike all the way out to March 3.

What about you guys? Do we have any eBay users out there? Are you participating in the current boycott, and if so, what other options have you been exploring during your hiatus from eBay?

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Posted in Competite Strategy, Competitive Strategy, Consumer Experience, E-commerce, Technology 4 Comments »