MESSAGE TO ALL,( rachel konrad emailed me I am passing it on)received this email from rachel konrad on 02/07/05

Congrats -- today eBay announced it was lowering some of its
fees in response to irate sellers. Details are here:

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/marketing.shtml


I'd love to get a commment from you about how you feel about this
change. Do you think the fees are low enough? How do you personally feel
you contributed to this change of policy? How responsive is eBay to the
needs and concerns of its sellers?

Sorry for the short notice, but if you could respond ASAP by e-mail,
that would be great. Please include your full name, city of residence,
and what type of business you have on eBay (type of product sold, how
long you've been with eBay, etc.) I CANNOT use any information from
someone who does not want their name published with their comments. My
story is running Sunday afternoon. Feel free to forward this.

Rachel Konrad
Silicon Valley Correspondent
The Associated Press
rkonrad@ap.org
415-609-9243

Since becoming the President of eBay North America in December, I've spent a lot of time listening to you, our Community. There's a lot on your minds right now. I've been taking it all in and thinking hard about how we can make sure eBay remains a fun, safe place to trade, and a prosperous home for our many dedicated sellers.

One of the issues I've heard a lot about is our recent fee increases, particularly the increase in Store Inventory Format final value fees. I've also heard concerns about customer support, the amount of change we make to the site on a regular basis, and trust and safety. We're listening to everything you have to say.

eBay has become a hugely successful marketplace as a result of the innovation, enthusiasm and hard work of our Community. The site has also become more complex as it has grown to meet many of your needs. So our challenge is to keep pace with the Community's changing requirements, while preserving the things that make eBay so special. With that in mind, I'd like to give you a preview of some upcoming changes for the United States and Canada.

eBay has a fantastic Customer Support team, but Meg and I agree we haven't invested enough in giving our CS reps the flexibility and tools they need to really take care of you. So, to start, within the next 90 days, we'll shut down most of our automated email responses. Our users will get a "real" e-mail response to their questions – you'll hear from a human being who will try to help you with yo ...

Number of ebay stores as of 2/4/05 123,600 (went down)

News Updates
New Website Encourages Alternatives to Ebay We made the news

eBay Starts Charging Higher Fees for Stores: Update looks like eBay pulled a fast one on store owners. Anyone that is planning on closing your store on Feb 17th is already paying the new fee.

Basic Stores Fee Clarification from the eBay Stores Team

eBay merchants hurt by fee hikes Duh

Number of ebay stores as of 2/3/05 124,350 (went down)

I am sure that everyone recieved the "Fee Change Clarification" email. They must think that everyone is too stupid to understand their "proposed fee hike".

News Updates
eBay Competitor in China Launches Online Escrow System It looks similar to paypal

Google Shares Soar, Now Bigger Than eBay I wonder if Google has thought about getting into the auction business

eBay Starts Charging Higher Fees for Stores Has this happened to anybody here?

Number of ebay stores as of 2/2/05 124,700 (way down)

We have received lots of great feed back and support about this site. Lots of people have emailed me telling me that this site has a lot of potential but we need to market it more. We have gotten some decent traffic but we need to reach out to more people

We are not much of the marketing gurus so if anyone has any suggestions or can help please post them here.

Time for February's poll
Do you think Meg Whitman is doing a good job as CEO of eBay?

http://www.forbes.com/2003/05/01/cx_ceointernetpoll.html#mwhitman

As of Feb 2 Yes 70 votes (16%) No 370 votes (84%)
Last month as of Jan 26 3755 votes (95%) for NO

News Updates
Some eBay sellers are going, going, gone USA Today

Taking on eBay

Some eBay sellers mad

Number of ebay stores as of 2/1/05 127,800 (went up)

News Updates
eBay Believes Confusion Is Cause of Seller Complaints
Here are some comments I found on yahoo groups about this article:
"Ah, that must be it. Apparently we're all stupid and can't read OR do math. Sheesh."
"That is just insulting."

Higher fees drive some sellers away from eBay

New eBay fees might cause some sellers to look elsewhere

eBay Fee Hike Hits Small Operators: Report

Bidchaser Names Patric Jerge President and CEO