Power Sellers Unite

FEDUP · Joined: 26 Jan 2005 Posts: 23 Location: SOUTHERN CA

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 your problem or question right off the bat. We will only use auto responses to acknowledge receipt of spam or policy violation reports.

We also think the time has come to expand phone support. Currently phone support is available only to Silver, Gold, Platinum and Titanium PowerSellers. Starting April 1, all eBay Stores owners also will have access to phone support. We'll provide details on the benefits of phone support to Stores owners soon.

We know pricing is a critical issue for our sellers. While we stand behind our decision to increase final value fees on Store Inventory Format listings – because they make sense for items that list with insertion fees of two cents – I know this increase has been difficult for some of our sellers. To reward our eBay Stores sellers, we'll be crediting $15.95 – a month's Basic Stores subscription – in May to all sellers who operated an eBay Store for the month of April. Stores owners will receive more details on this soon.

We also want to do something for the rest of our sellers. I'm happy to announce that effective at midnight tonight, eBay.com and eBay.ca will reduce minimum insertion fees for Auction-Style listings, Fixed Price, Motors Non-Vehicle and B&I non-Capital Equipment Categories from 30 cents to 25 cents (CA$0.35 to CA$0.30). eBay Germany has always used this pricing, and users there have benefited from higher conversion rates on items with lower starting bids.

One of the great things about eBay is the candor and passion of our Community. Your input keeps this company focused on what's right and important. Later this month, I'll be hosting an online meeting to hear more from you. You'll see more details on this Announcement Board soon. And I'll periodically post notes like this one to talk about issues of importance to all of us.

eBay has never stopped listening to our users and we never will. I know many of you already have Meg's e-mail address and frequently send her messages about things you care about. I hope you will do the same with me. My e-mail address is billcobb@ebay.com. I promise I'll read every e-mail. And most of all, I'll listen.

Sincerely,

Bill Cobb
President
eBay North America

ANYBODY HAVE ANY THOUGHTS ON THIS??? I'M SHOCKED!!

sapphiresdelight · Joined: 26 Jan 2005 Posts: 60 Location: Maple Ridge BC

Well it tells me they are hurting more then they expected for sure :D
Just a way of them trying to hide the increases in all the other items and make the market settle down on their shares.
But we still need to look at the overall costs.
Buy It Now's are still going up
10 Day Auctions are still going up
Gallery Pictures are still going up
Store Owners will still pay $14.62 averaged over the next 12 months
$15.95 X 11 / 12
Store Owners will still pay the new Final Value Fees
All in all this is a very small token if you ask me, does show though that they are scared and are trying to push their share prices up because the market is killing them, if they can downplay the fee hikes they hope the market down plays the boycott some.
I would just love to see how this plays out in the market, on the one hand we have the big stock players bragging how the increase is a good thing and how the increase is going to make millions for ebay over the next few quarters and now we have ebay lowering its listing fees, which equates to about $700,000 a month.
Well for those who plan on staying with ebay, if they don't use the BIN, 10 day auction or the Gallery pics, they will save quite a bit over a year.

I think it is a very bad move for the shares though in the long run.

jmo
Margaret

FEDUP · Joined: 26 Jan 2005 Posts: 23 Location: SOUTHERN CA

HERE IS MY RESPONSE TO BILL:

Bill,

I'm a power seller - not a store owner. I'm a little leery about your justifying the 60 to over 100% increase verses a 2 cent insertion fee. If the insertion fee was too low, then alter that. Don't alter the final value fee. Now this is just common sense, instead of contrived justification. And, in case you don't get it, it's not that eBay is raising fees that is infuriating sellers - it's the totally unreasonable size of the increase. I, like most sellers, know that the same kind of increase for regular auctions is not far behind.

Other examples of why people are so upset:

You double and 5x the charge for selling features, and then talk about these features increasing sales. Since those features have been there, anything you do to the price structure is just eBay greed. Now, if you wanted to raise fees from a nickel to 7 cents or from 20 cents to 22 cents or maybe even 25 cents, people would understand. Since eBay profits are greater than they have ever been, with the exception of greed, there is NO justification for fee increases.

You want to understand why people are so upset, just picture a situation where your business partner has been cheating you by selling products out the back door, or picture yourself finding out that your wife has been cheating on you with your best friend. Now, think about the feelings that you would experience. Those are the same feelings that we sellers have.

You have violated our trust and have shown extremely poor character. Ebay takes on the appearance of an Enron or a World Com, not for same specific reasons, but for the same lack of character. Enron was in the top 10 largest corporations in the world and yet, because of bad character, they are now gone. The same thing can happen to eBay. Your absurd price increases have done more for your competition than anything anyone could imagine.

All you have offered, relative to your offers in your message, is nothing more than what should have always existed!! Ebay holds the near monopoly on a billion dollar a year industry. If you ever get to only having 90% of that market, the snowball rolling down hill will go so fast, eBay will just be a memory.

As a power seller who gives you from $200.00 to $1000.00 a month, why would I continue to sell when other sites will charge me a total of $8.00 per month? At this point, they don't have enough buyers to make them very viable. But, if you think that sellers won't take an active roll at making buyers aware and shifting their attention to other sites, think again.

What your fee increase could be summarized as, is as follows: Pick up knife, hold the throat, move back and forth quickly.

Bill, not only do you have to take back the fee increase, you have to lower fees, and earn back our trust.

sapphiresdelight · Joined: 26 Jan 2005 Posts: 60 Location: Maple Ridge BC

Excellent :D

littlebitz · Joined: 01 Feb 2005 Posts: 96

I thought FedUp's response was great - The main thing that I really zoomed in on was the trust issue.

I was involved with a direct sales company (no names) x company worked for their sellers who then worked their back-halfs off for them - they grew in 3 short years of being in operation to one of the top direct sales companies out there. At that point is where I came in. I saw an opportunity, how they treated their sellers and knew I had to have a piece of the action. 2 years in - they changed the "rules" started charging the sellers extra fees for this and that, lied to us and our customers, and customer service for anything was to say the least, a mess. The extra fees were for things us sellers "needed" - yeah right! At that point I walked away as well as 100's possible 1000's of others. They are a struggling company now that has moral problems. They have even gone as far as sending their past sellers letters to "recruit" them back in - promising them the world. I have kept in contact with many of my "co-workers". None, including myself have or will go back. The trust was broken, we were lied to, deceived, and plain out ripped off and taken advantage of. We have moved on and are more then happy where we are at and with what we are now doing.

eBay is in the same boat here - they are trying to eat crow which I find amusing after living through the above experience and if we all stick to our guns will never work and will be their down-fall. They have done the damage....why go back??? Whose to say they won't do the same things 3/4/5 months from now?? or worse?? I mean this "small" increase will ONLY profit them 60 MILLION dollars....was not taking us for all they did before this last increase - enough??

I know for me.....I've moved on...My final 5 listings will end in 3ish days and the sense of relief I will and am already feeling is WONDERFUL. I am happy where I'm at (my new home at Overstock) and sales are great!

They can beg, plead, offer me the world....I'm through with them - done - finished.

littlebitz

putty_tat007 · Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 63 Location: California

:lol: Hahahaaa I never received that e-mail must be because I'm not a powerseller. But we deserve phone service too. We are no more or less important than powersellers. I'm even more offended NOW, talk about being pissed off! I did receive an e-mail stateing confusion about fee's on our part, but that was just eBay BS.
Thank goodness for http://www.feedbacksite.com/default.asp this way we will be able to use our eBay feedback so that will help a bunch. Good luck to all and I so agree with all your saying. :)

putty_tat007 · Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 63 Location: California

Ok gang I just received that stupid e-mail and here is my response. :) Can you say Ball's?
Well, thank you Mr Cobb for insulting the regular little tiny seller's like me. So only store owners are good enough to receive help as far as eBay is concerned! Yes I'm a small seller, thanks to eBay. I have thousands of things to sell. But I was paying way more in fee's than what I made in sales. Thus why I only put up a few things at a time. Then the fee increases and now this. I maybe a tiny little fish in a large ocean, but as the saying goes. The chicken fills it's gullet one grain at a time. What do I mean by that? Don't just worry about PowerSellers. We are truly your bread and butter and who made eBay what it ONCE WAS, past tense. I hope you have been saving up your money. I think you and Meg will need it in a short period of time. War's have started for much less than this. Your talking about peoples lively hood here not a hobby.
Thanks for nothing.
Silvia C. Montalvo .... gem23
PS. I'll be waiting for eBay retaliation.

putty_tat007 · Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 63 Location: California

FEDUP Fantastic e-mail just down to the point! Thank you from all of us.

psunite · Joined: 27 Jan 2005 Posts: 6213 Location: Columbus OH

The increase customer support described in Bill's email should have been implemented from the beginning. Ebay acts like they are doing us a favor.

They are defiantly feeling the press from both sides there share holders and there sellers. We have 12 more days till the fee increase I wonder what else they have to say.

littlebitz · Joined: 01 Feb 2005 Posts: 96

Next they will say...."Look at all we did for them....maybe they are still confused?" or "Look at all we did for them.....they are just a bunch of rebels" - They'll find some way to TRY and make themselves good - just like the way some people believe that the insertion fee reduction is a good thing - It's not.....it's only on .99 starting bids or LESS - there is no savings for anything started over $1.00 -

You know they REALLY really must think were dumb. Voice support for store sellers...hhhuuummm what about a small seller, someone just starting out, someone on the verge of Power Seller, or the buyer?? What about them?? Why was this service not implemented years ago?? eMails from real people? I'll believe it when I see it....(whoops! forgot - I'll be listing and selling at Overstock...I'll never get to see it 100 years from now...) - Or the 0.00 for 7 day listing that stands out like a HUGE red flag - FEE coming!!!

Naw...I'll stay where I'm at - Keep doing what I'm doing - eFee won't con me nor get another dime from me - they can tell their lies and rip off someone else.

littlebitz

merlin · Joined: 05 Feb 2005 Posts: 9 Location: Wisconsin

When we received this email from Bill, First we laughed and then we laughed. Can you say; "couldn't buy a clue on eBay"? This is the letter we sent to Bill. We'll keep you posted if we get a personal reply in less than a week to ten days or at all.

This is an !!UPDATE!!

Bill personally had someone else send us an answer ! Yippee! and here it is! By the way, the part I liked the best was the very last paragraph. Great way to end a nice friendly down home kind of letter , don't you think?

Hello Folks,

Thanks for responding to the message by Bill Cobb. Bill received
thousands of messages to his email and forwarded some to me for help in
answering them. Bill is paying personal attention to these messages, and
is even responding to as many as possible himself.

As eBay grows, we make business decisions that are in the best interest
of the marketplace that eBay has created. In the emails I have read over
the last few days, I have answered many in which the seller was grateful
for the 5 cent discount and the store owners were appreciative of the
statement being made with a $15.95 credit for their stores.

We have many sellers who do list items in the price range that saving
that 5 cents per listings can be very helpful. Some of those little guys
that use eBay to sell items that are not high priced have already
expressed thanks for that decrease in fee. Just as you said, some of
those little guys that are going to benefit from this change have been a
big part of what made eBay it is today.

As for the message from Meg explaining the confusion that was being
experienced, it was very real. Messages boards were full of people who
had completely misunderstood the fee change and even news articles were
written that got it wrong. Meg hoped to clear up the confusion that
those sellers had. She was trying to reach out and define what was
happening for sellers who did need that help.

I believe the need to hire 50 employees to make their living by selling
on eBay is not necessary because so many here already use eBay in
addition to their jobs here. We pay the same fees as you and are given
no special considerations. I myself sell on eBay every day and am well
aware of what it takes to be a successful seller on eBay. Just like you,
when we need help with our personal eBay accounts, we write in through
the webform or contact Live Chat.

eBay has addressed some areas for improvement and are implementing those
improvements. Adding the phone support for the eBay Store owners is a
prime example of eBay listening to our sellers, researching their
suggestion and investing the cost and time associated with implementing
that suggestion.

I hope you do change your mind about going to another service. Having
been here for four years, you are aware that eBay reaches a mass
audience that no other service can provide. Because of the nature of our
business, and due to our size, it takes time to address all emails and
respond to the customer but we are taking steps to try to improve
support in every direction.

I appreciate your comments, and I am going to forward on your suggestion
for the hiring of some people to sell full-time on eBay so they can
provide direct feedback about their experiences. Although I do believe
we already meet that suggestion because almost every person sitting
around me is an active seller on the site, I will allow others to review
that suggestion and come to their own conclusions.

Regards,

Benson M. L. on behalf of Bill Cobb
President
eBay North America

**Important Note**

If, despite our request, you send us an unsolicited suggestion,
idea, proposal\or other material, or at our request send us a
comment or suggestion to improve the eBay site or add a new
category (e.g., through our suggestion box, customer support
Webforms, discussion boards etc.) (collectively, the "Submission"),
eBay will consider the Submission to be non-confidential and
non-proprietary. eBay shall have no obligations concerning the
Submission, contractual or otherwise (including but not limited to
an obligation to keep the Submission confidential), and shall
not be liable for any use or disclosure of any Submission. eBay
shall be entitled to unrestricted use of the Submissions for any
purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, without compensation
to you.

Hello Bill, Thanks for the email!

We've been sellers for four years.

You guys are way out there though! eBay has no connection to the real eBay seller and really never has. I would be real surprised to find out that you personally, actually read this letter.

You think that just giving us 5 cents back on a listing is a big deal? One store credit? If you think this is going to make a difference to any of us who have worked so hard and are thinking of moving or have moved to Online Auction.com or etc. You have another thing coming.

eBay has not been there for their sellers nor have they listened to their sellers for so long that this measly little thing you are doing will actually infuriate most sellers, as did Meg's arrogant comment on our state of mind. We are definitely not confused. We understand all to well.

You guys have blurted out, with waving hands, huge smiles and rousing cheers, about your record profits for years now, while we try to scrape it together. You have stuck your noses so far up big money and big business's behinds that the little guy who made eBay and still makes eBay, is so sick and tired of this run-a-round and is just aching to go some where else where he REALLY will be listened to and appreciated and REAL help will be just an email away and not within the next three days. And they won't suck every last dime out of your pocket.

You don't like hearing it so therefore you don't listen. That is your biggest problem. You want head shakers or yes men/women; this will ultimately be your demise. If you really wanted to make a difference, you would do something big and you'd do it right now, across the board. To really be in touch with "us", the little guy, you need someone to counsel with who depends on eBay for a living, like we do. You’re not listening to the right people.

Try paying attention to someone who writes and lists a couple of hundred individual auctions a month. Someone who has to pay third party auction tool providers. Someone who has to package each package themselves. Someone who drives them down to the post office themselves. Someone who has to pay his or her rent or house payment from eBay. Your Board or rafts of corporate VP's could not buy a clue on eBay, as to how to treat your real gold. Us the seller.

One example the incredible disconnected nature of eBay is, we had listed quite a few auctions, we depend on these for our living, and the BidPay logo was a few pixels to large and ALL OF OUR AUCTIONS WERE CANCELED! This caused an incredible hardship for us but was the click or a button for eBay. No warning, no please don't do this next time. That was the turning point for us in looking on eBay as a fun place to do business.

If you can remember the last time someone was incredibly unfair to you, you may get the picture. eBay's trouble is not with this thing or that thing. It is a systemic disconnection from it's customer base.

Take those VP's and give them a thousand dollars each to go buy some "stuff" to sell on eBay and see if they can make their house payment and living expenses for the next six months off their profits from eBay. Then you'll hear some whining.

I have a lot more that I could say and have said before so I will not waste any more of my time here but I would leave you with this thought. We, the seller are eBay's customers. The buyer is my customer and since the beginning, eBay has had that all backwards.

Well, thanks Bill and good luck with your new job.

I just hope nobody cancels all of your auctions.

Best wishes,

P.S. You have record profits, right? How much would it cost you to hire fifty people to sell stuff on eBay to make their living, as a study? If I were you, I would have done this a long time ago. Those fifty average Joes and Janes, could then tell you what works and what doesn't and what they need so you could pass it on to us since nobody's listening to us.

littlebitz · Joined: 01 Feb 2005 Posts: 96

My response and letter to Mr. Cobb:

Dear Mr Cobb,

Thank you. Thank you so much for this wonderful compromise and for
hearing us – the sellers – your bread and butter.

We appreciate your 5 cent fee reduction only on listings that start
at .99 and under.

We appreciate the added voice and real response email customer
service that you say you will add, although you might want to stay on
top of things better. This probably should have been done in 1999
– but almost 6 years is a small time to wait. We appreciate your
efforts and intent.

Thank you for making all the site changes and upgrades. These are
and have been so wonderful that new buyers and even
"regulars" are now scared off due to it's complexity. I
have friends who refuse to come back…..but that's o.k. there
are otherauction sites. They can shop and buy there. Thank you for pushing our buyers away. We didn't need them anyways...

Oh and lets not forget billing – it really top-notch! I even had
to set up a seperate bank account just for my fees!! I keep it at a 0
balance unless it's billing time just so you don't double bill or
over-charge me.

Thank you for adding the $0.00 "notice" for 7 day auction
listings – we have officially been alerted to the fee that is
sure to come. Don't worry, when the time comes we'll suck it
up and take it in stride.

The 10 day listing increase to .40 was really great - I bet sellers
are just chomping at the bit to put up their 10 day listings. Are
you sure you'll have enough server space to handle all those new
listings that will go up?

Thank you allowing us to see the header to your email. We
appreciate the fact that you probably have hired someone from India
or Indonesia to read these letters.

Thank you for offering that generous store credit. It will still
cost a seller on the average of approx $4.00 more per month with the
credit – let alone the FVF's you have tacked on. We'll
save a ton!

We appreciate the 56% larger picture that will now be in the
gallery. 56% bigger – Wow! That's great! Isn't this
the size it used to be when eBay first opened it's doors? Your
giving back something you took away and charging more for it.
That's wonderful!!!

Thank you being concerned about our "confusion", as you can
see we must have been confused to misunderstand all these generous
things you are offering and have done for us. I now understand.
Hundreds of sellers are not confused anymore! What a fine job you
have done! Congratulations!!

Thank you for helping me see the honesty, integrity, and good will of
eBay. The concern for the people who made eBay what it is today is
amazing! You should be proud and pleased!

Lastly and most importantly. Thank you for giving me the open eyes
to look to another auction venue where I am and will be selling from
now on. Your competition, Overstock Auctions. THIS is the best
thing you could have done for me.

Thank you again for everything.

Have a wonderful day and say hi to the share-holders for me will you?

littlebitz

Past Power Seller
Past eBay Store Owner
Future Overstock Success Story!

shannon · Joined: 03 Feb 2005 Posts: 8

Mr. Cobb seems like a nice fellow, but let's be real here- Cobb's scrambling for the pond with his ass on fire. I can just see Meg screaming into her cell at him "DO SOMETHING BILLY, DO IT NOW!! WE JUST LOST $40 PER SHARE! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME I WAS AN IDIOT FOR INITIATING SUCH A GREEDY FEE HIKE!"

Sadly, Ebay is still going to keep raising fees on a regular basis. This recent hike was simply a Greed Strategy Plan A; the old "hit 'em hard and see how they take it" trick, which led to Plan B; the old "back-up a little and appologize" trick. They've still drastically raised our overall costs, and have been doing this like clockwork. This time it's a bunch too-much at one time and now they're saying "OK,OK, we tried to really hammer our best users, the Power Sellers, and they don't like it of course, so we'll give 'em a few little compensations to shut 'em up and GreedBay wins again". I especially enjoyed Cobbs' promise to read all emails we send him. Boy, wouldn't it be "true customer service" if he'd answer each? Anyway, my thoughts on Cobbs' announcement is that it's nothing different than I expected or predicted. A planned response to our response. This announcement was thought-out even before the fee hike was announced.

I'm building my sales on another online auction site and it's going great. My advice to others here is to appreciate individuals like Cobb, but understand he's only a mouthpiece and actor, so start and keep heading away from thE Bay. You'll do it sooner or later anyway, so why not now?

littlebitz · Joined: 01 Feb 2005 Posts: 96

shannon wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote") I especially enjoyed Cobbs' promise to read all emails we send him. Boy, wouldn't it be "true customer service" if he'd answer each?

Isn't that the truth.....I'm still waiting on my response. I bet I'll be old and grey before I'm even a thought LOL

littlebitz

FEDUP · Joined: 26 Jan 2005 Posts: 23 Location: SOUTHERN CA

WELL, I GOT AN EMAIL BACK FROM THEM, BUT IT WASN'T FROM BILL. IT WAS FROM A LEO S. ON "BEHALF OF BILL COBB". THIS IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF EMPTY PROMISES. DID WE REALLY THINK BILL WAS PERSONALLY GOING TO ANSWER EACH EMAIL? DID HE REALLY THINK HE COULD DO IT? THE RESPONSE WAS A BUNCH OF BS. THEY'RE FOOLING THEMSELVES AND US ONCE AGAIN!! I THINK THEY'RE A BUNCH OF IDIOTS AND THE QUESTION BECOMES, HOW DID A BUNCH OF IDIOTS WIND UP RUNNING A COMPANY A LARGE AS EBAY???? THAT THEY PROTEST, SORT OF LIKE RICHARD NIXON DID WHEN HE SAID "I AM NOT A CROOK", IS PRETTY PATHETIC!!