Inspiration

found in one of the auctions in the "ebay strike" search link. The other link is to the auction with this graphic. :rnI DID NOT WRITE THIS! But it was posted on another group I'm in! I absolutely had to share this. It is REALLY scary!rn rn rn rnThis post is a really serious topic about Ebay. I'm posting thisrneverywhere I know how to get the word out. If you're not in a good mood,rncome back to it later. rnrnI'm not sure if everyone is aware of this, but Ebay is making drasticrnchanges for people who sell and buy on Ebay. If one looks at it from thernsurface, the changes don't seem too bad. But if you look a littlerndeeper, they're really very scarey. rnrnMany sellers and buyers are going to be having a strike on February 18thrnthrough February 25 that includes no buying, no listing, no selling, nornauctions on those days. If possible, if you are an Ebay buyer andrnseller, I would really appreciate it if you could honor those dates, forrnnothing else, then on MY behalf because the changes have the possibilityrnto really hurt me as a seller. rnrnRight now, the Ebay marketing machine is billing these changes as "feernreductions" and that is what the media initally reported because theyrnway the changes were announced were quite deceptive. But, for those ofrnyou who aren't really super active on Ebay and are wondering what allrnthe changes entail, a summary of them follows. rnrnFirst, they are reducing the listing fee by 5 cents and making Galleryrnfree. On the surface this looks great and this is how they are marketingrnthe change - as a "fee reduction". However, if you read the fine printrnyou'll find that they are slyly raising Final Value Fees (The fee thernseller pays when the item sells at auction) by as much as 33% to 66% forrnsme sellers. The percentage of increase differs by seller because allrnsellers sell items with different values and the Final Value Fee isrnbased on the dollar amount of the item. So we save a nickel to list anrnitem, but pay 33% more after the auction is over. This first part of thernchanges, while quite disgusting, IS bearable. rnrnSecond, they are removing the ability for sellers to leave feedback forrnbuyers. Now, Ebay has always been successful on the basis of both buyerrnand seller being able to rate each other based on the success of arnsingle transaction. They are removing this for sellers. This is veryrnscarey for the seller population because as sellers, we already are heldrnhostage by what we call "Feedback Extortionist Buyers". These are thernbuyers that buy something in an auction and then send an email that saysrn"You send me the item free or I will leave you a negative and ruin yourrnEbay reputation!". While people like this are quite few and far between,rnthey do exist. I've got over 792 transactions nd I've come across 4rndifficult buyers who no matter what I couldn't please them. I managed tornscrape by without a negative because they were booted from Ebay, but thernpoint of the matter is that while most buyers are wonderful, thesernpsycho types of buyers DO exist. Now with this new feedback system, ONErnrogue buyer (and even my selling competition) could ruin my reputationrnvery easily. Even if I provided a 100% perfect transaction and the itemrnwas received the very same day and all was perfect with the world, thatrnone person could ruin me if they wanted to. All they would need to do isrnbuy 5 or 10 items from me and leave five feedbacks separately - becauserneach and every negative will count against the seller. This would meanrnthe end of my store and my business on Ebay over one rogue buyer. Why?rnRead the next section. rnrnThird, as if one and two weren't bad enough, if a seller has below a 95%rnsatisfaction rating on Ebay, Ebay will not display your auctions in thernsearch engine. For example, if I sell20 items one month and 1 of themrnhas a neutral or negative left for it by a buyer (deserved or not), Irncan no longer list auctions on Ebay and have them be seen in the searchrnengine. Yes, thats right. I can list, Ebay will take my money, but allrnof my auctions will be on page 857 of the listing and never be seen byrnany buyers. So once I get one negative, it is virtually impossible tornrecover from that by selling additional items becuase non of my itemsrnwill be seen to be purchased by another buyer later. Its a no winrnsituation for a seller. rnrnFourth, as if all of this wasn't the most horrific thing you've everrnheard, they're making changes to Pay Pal - which is the method mostrnpeople use to accept payment over Ebay. From now on, if you have lessrnthan 100 feedback and you sell an item Pay Pal will not give you yourrnmoney for 21 (TWENTY ONE DAYS!). Yes, you read that right. Say, Susiernsells a 50 dollar item and the buyer pays through Pay Pal. Susie is thenrnforced to ship the item FREE without any paymen. After 21 days hasrnpassed, THEN Pay Pal will forward Susie her money. This folks is justrnhorrible. Do you know anywhere else on the planet where you can demandrnthat someone selling you an item give you the item FREE and ship it tornyou FREE while you hold on to your money for 21 entire days? I surerndon't. On top of this "under 100 feedback" thing, again if I have lessrnthan a 95% rating or get one negative or get one neutral - again - PayrnPal will hold my money for 21 days. Imagine how must interest Pay Palrnand Ebay will accumulate on billions of dollars being held in 21 dayrnincriments - yet another disguesting way for them to squeeze MORE moneyrnout of the system. rnrnFifth, they instituted "Seller Rewards". Essentially, if you meetrncertain criteria as a seller you can earn 15% credit on your account.rnThe catch is that you have to sell 1,000 dollars or more on your accountrnevery month and have to have a 4.8 rating on all your "stars". I feelrnthat these guidelines are impossible to reach a

Description

Several users are striking ebay over fee increases. It was marketed as a fee REDUCTION because listing fees were reduced by 5 cents. Oh, by the way, we have increased the selling fee from 5.5% to 8.5% for some categories.

Inspiration Link

tinyurl.com/254qpt

Used Link

search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?fr