eBay boycott results in mixed feedback
A++++ protest! Highly recommended! Would boycott again!
Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery
Today marks the end of a week-long boycott of eBay from a semi-organized group of "power sellers" who feel shortchanged over recent pricing changes.
eBay announced late last month it would charge auctioneers between 25 and 50 per cent less to list their items on the site — but then take a larger slice of fees when the item actually sells. The company indignantly insists the move will benefit its sellers overall, but many of those with a high sales rate on their auctions are unhappy. eBay is also killing the ability for sellers to submit negative feedback on their customers.
For the moment, the results of the protest are unclear and of course, disputed. Online auction trackers such as PowerSellersUnite and Medved indicate eBay's total auction listings dropped as much as 13 per cent over the week — but sellers claiming victory may be jumping the gun.
eBay's listing figures tend to fluctuate widely from week to week even at the best of times. The site's listing drop to just under 13 million auctions could be a result of the protest. Or it could also just be a return to normalcy. Just the week before on February 13, eBay ran a one-day discount listing promotion that pushed listings up to about 15.9 million listings from numbers hovering around just 12.5 million.
At one end of the argument, boycott organizers say their temporary exodus worked. Some are even pushing to extend their absence from eBay until March 9th to hit the company's pocketbooks harder.
Meanwhile, dean of eBay Education Jim Griffith told USA Today that the site's internal statistics showed the boycott "has had no impact" on the site's listings. Conveniently the company does not release those figures publicly.
eBay remains largely unmoved by the protest. The company said it will not consider postponing or changing the new list fee pricing despite the evident outrage. ®
COMMENTS
I am all for leaving eBay...
But there are SO MANY alternative sites....over 20 that I've noticed....and if I want to search for something (in my case vintage karaoke tapes) I don't have the time to browse multiple sites. There should be a program or site, if possible, that allows you to do a search for an item and give results from different auction sites.
We’ve seen a huge surge in business at http://hosted4.us as a result of ebay raising their fees.
A lot of merchants seem to have decided that it’s more cost effective to pay a flat monthly fee and run their own website without someone taking a cut of their profit margins. We have sold more of our prepackaged ecommerce solutions http://qcs.hosted4.us in the past week than in the past few months.
Thanks eBay!
"eBay remains largely unmoved"
As it always has.
The more I hear of Ebay, the less I feel like checking it out.
And Paypal doesn't make me feel better about the whole deal.
Now, sellers can't criticize scam buyers any more, and small-time sellers are being pushed out.
Once upon a time, Ebay held some interest in that it was a place for Joe Anybody to buy and sell stuff from other Joes. Now Ebay is just another white-collar Wallmart outlet. No interest here, people, move along.
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