Boycotting Sellers Dent eBay's Business
Auction site eBay has been suffering at the hands of an online protest over a change in how it charges sellers for listing and selling goods. The change has resulted in a substantial increase in costs for sellers.
The changes lowered the initial fees for sellers to list items on eBay, but increased the commission charged on completed sales. Additionally, the feedback system was altered to eliminate the negative feedback on buyers option, making it tougher to weed out sneaky or dishonest buyers.
eBay has faced boycotts before, but none approaching the scale of the current one. Thanks to protest related activities on sites such as MySpace and Facebook, eBay sellers have been able to better organize and encourage each other to stick with the boycott.
Since the boycott started on February 18,, listings on eBay have dropped 13 percent to about 13 million items. Nancy Baughman, an eBay retailer taking part in the strike, says if she and the other activists can get the number of listings down to 12 million, then they will have made a very significant dent in the online auction house's business.
From USA Today
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
americansportsme @ Feb 25th 2008 7:33PM
As a ebay power seller for years I made them lots of money. Now I am over it and will never go back. Ebay does not look out for their sellers and to charge them more is absurd. I hope they go under. Good Luck ripping off everyone else. You can have your Paypal too. I will use neither...
Steve Purdy @ Feb 25th 2008 7:56PM
My eBay account got hacked (by intrusion, I think into a server that did not have the proper protection) and I had bills over $600 before I realized the account was being used. I hadn't been doing anything on eBay for quite a while. eBay DID close out the bogus orders, but refused to tell me how it happened!
Jim @ Feb 25th 2008 9:37PM
Thank you for being one of the first to see that the exbay story is not over!!!!
There are still hundreds of thousands of very angry sellers. Some of them have gone on to open e-stores on other auction sites.
Some are still in the process of finding a new online auction venue.
Some can't afford to stop listing and selling They are helpless, but they are looking around.
Some haven't gotten the word yet.
I firmly believe that the eBay that was, will never be the same. The seller community has lost too many talented, motivated, competent, and honest sellers.
Those sellers, who are usually also buyers, AND their buyers, will find new homes. Ebay is the biggest loser.
"IT" has left the building!
Michael Pechacek @ Feb 25th 2008 11:08PM
Ebay is making Millions of Dollars , But hey why not be greedy , and make more ! With no one caring about sellers or any honest reply to any problems , and a leftist Poltical Agenda ( its not OK to sell WWII German Military , But Stalin is a OK Guy ! ) and No protection if YOU get Screwed ( but they protect themselves, even to your Disadvantage ! )And cutting freedom of both information and speach , only to their advantage . Well what do you expect in the internet as controlled by Corporations??
Rich @ Feb 25th 2008 11:56PM
I'm sorry but how many sellers on there say they will give negitive feedback if the buyer gives them bad feedback? And most of the time when they threaten that, they are terrible sellers. I've had one seller take 2 weeks to ship and then lie about it. another misrepensented the item which was a mp4 player 4gb and when i got it, was a 1gb claiming to b 4gb. and when i contacted the seller they wanted to do nothing about it but made threats against me if I left bad feed back. Unfortunatly for them I forwarded the email to ebay with my complaint. So in my opinion the sellers deserve the feed back change as most of them were abusing it anyway. hopefully now the buyers can give honest feedback without fear of reprisal
afontana @ Feb 26th 2008 12:35AM
Ebay sucks. I ran jeans sales with them, and never had a problem until one buyer filed a complaint of non receipt. All sales were with optional insurance, which buyer did not take advantage of. Well, negative feedback and an attempt to reverse my funds on paypal! I sold 100's of pairs at great pricing with not one complaint. I fought back and kept my money. I've not been back since. They grew to big, sell lots of crap, and deserve a competor eat them for breakfast. GOOD EBY!
karin r @ Feb 26th 2008 1:41AM
I have extended the boycott already by leaving the site permenantly for ecrater.com http://theeclecticcollector.ecrater.com/
I was mainly a buyer and occasional seller on ebay (venturecrew145) with 100% positive feedback as both. But what sane person would continue to do business with a company that treats us the way ebay does?
I spent the week of the boycott looking for a new home and defining the reasons it is no longer viable for me to continue a business relationship with ebay.
1- Mr Donahoe stated he wants to rid the site of the embarassing sellers of "flea market" items- otherwise known to buyers as unique vintage items and what a great many of us searched ebay for- in favor of large powersellers who drop ship their items (JUNK) from China.
2- If I wished to continue to sell my items on ebay, I would be required to pay a 66% increase in fees.
3- If I did sell an item I would be required to use paypal, ebay's own bank, to receive the money from the sale and pay them a fee as well.
4- Paypal will also now be holding for 21 days with no intrest, the money paid to the small seller, while ebay still requires that I ship the item as soon as paypal receives the funds, meaning that I have to ship an item using MY money to cover shipping! And if the buyer ends up deciding they want my item for free, and initiates a charge back with paypal, I can bet they get their money back, leaving me out the following- Money lost on listing fee paid to ebay, money lost to ebay on Final valuation fee when the item was "sold" errr "Stolen", Money I had to pay to ship the item, MY item which I will never get back, Fees to paypal for money I NEVER received AND........
5 To add insult to injury, I will only be allowed to leave this wonderful buyer POSITIVE feedback, while I receive Negative feedback for being robbed!
6- BUT.....it does not end there. Additionally, for the pleasure of paying 66% more in fees to list my item, ebay has created a new DEFAULT search matrix, called "Best Match" which will give the powersellers selling the same items as me TOP placement in the search results, meaning my item, because I am a small seller, will never be seen, therefore never purchased :)
WOW! What a deal ebay is! No wonder buyers and sellers alike are leaving in droves!
Bob @ Feb 26th 2008 5:47AM
I have been an avid ebayer for quite sometime, buying only. I could never figure out why, after I had completed my part of the transaction, I hadn't received any type of feedback until I had left feedback for the seller. Ebay should make it mandatory that the seller leave feedback before the transaction is completed. I personally have never had a reason to leave negative feedback.
As far as seller fees,a lot of sellers are cleaning out their attics and really aren't making much on the sale by the time you take out the seller fees and paypal fees. As with everything else,greed takes over and the little guy is squashed!!!!!
Mel @ Feb 26th 2008 7:30AM
Ebay is just wrong to over charge like they do! Big deal that they came down on the listing prices. They went up on the final fee and this is a lot more than someone like me can handle. It is bad business to be greedy Ebay and you know it! They actually think that they are better than God, Who gets 10% of our pay each week! How dare you Ebay! Your final listing fees are stupid and just wrong. You should realize that the more people you have listing that the more you will make. Stop being greedy and get a real life!
Alice @ Feb 26th 2008 7:41AM
I used ebay for the most part quite nicely. Small seller. Then I put back up a computer my daughter had bought three months before on ebay, but with upgrades on drives as she wanted to trade up. Well just before the deadline for complaints on an item was up, I received a complaint from the buyer. I responded as they claimed there were viruses and the frame was cracked. It wasn't either. I asked for pictures to compare with the ones I had taken to verify damage and received none, said their computer was down. When I finally received them I found that they had damaged the computer keyboard-they admitted they had moved since getting the item. I said I would only reimburse for virus protection, though I had the computer professional cleaned before shipping. They had damaged the item themselves as they made no claim when the item shipped. Waiting weeks to even complain. I didn't hear from them. On the last day of the dispute deadline they posted negative on my account despite having contact by private e-mail and phone; I couldn't post back as I didn't read it till the next day. Despite contacting ebay with proof of discussions and verified timeline, they did nothing. Not even allow me to answer the negative.
Patti @ Feb 26th 2008 9:09AM
Ebay is losing more sellers and buyers each day as the word gets out about the boycott. I have seen posters, blogs, news reports,etc. about the boycott. I don't think the powers that be on Ebay ever thought the protest would go this far. But I am sure sites like onlineauction.com, ecrater, epier, nonloch and others are very happy to have the Ebay refuges.
Judy @ Feb 26th 2008 9:09AM
Now, if we would only band together and boycott the gas stations for 2 or 3 days, we might convince the oil companies to begin reducing their rediculously record profits. This is something ebay boycotters should band together to do NOW.
TIM @ Feb 26th 2008 9:50AM
During the month of Dec. i listed over 200 items on ebay, the last 60 day i have listed none. If your not aware you can go to godaddy and set up a small eccommerce web site for $10.00 a month which is cheaper than a ebay store and also not have to pay all the listing fees. Also ebay is the larger seller of illegal items in the world and the government is giving them a free ride for a few campaign dollars.
Carl Tapp @ Feb 26th 2008 10:40AM
IF YOU STOP SELLING ON eBay - WHERE CAN YOU GO TO
SELL THINGS ?
dsouth @ Feb 26th 2008 11:29AM
Instead of boycotts ebay sellers should just start paying their ebay balance DAILY via a credit card other than paypal.
Keep in mint that discover Card and Amex have some of the highest fees involved and will cut into ebay's bottom line.
Stop feeding the bull
http://ebaykickbacks.com
cary @ Feb 26th 2008 8:24PM
Stopped using several months ago,because of someone else using my account.No customer service to handle problems.Paypal a JOKE.Company has to much revenue coming in to CARE.Something else will replace EBAYs Auction Flawed System.
James @ Feb 27th 2008 9:17PM
I've slowed down my listings a fair amount but I can't afford to stop 100% since my family relies on me to pay the bills. I have a 10 month old child. I do agree the new fee's are ridiclous. I'm going to open my own website.
John @ Feb 28th 2008 12:13PM
Why don't ebay adopt a "blind" feedback system?
ie. once sale is complete both parties can leave feedback and comments, but they can' be seen until both have left feedback, said that they won't leave feedback, or , say, 45 days has elapsed after which feedback can't be left.
Ebay should also make it's dispute resolution better so that you can get negative feedback removed if you can disprove comments left by the other party.
With the current system, the feedback will become worthless, as most 100% sellers will have 70-80% scores and it will be impossible to know if a negative feedback is genuine or malicious. how exactly will that help buyers?
Also, yes, the fees, paypal rules and best match are now just plain daft.
Bob @ Feb 28th 2008 1:38PM
Tired of FEEBAY?
Visit http://www.coinday.com for all your coin needs! Free listings! No FEES! FREE Classifieds! Free Registration and no credit card required.
Many Feebay members have already switched over and are no longer selling on Feebay.
mike @ Feb 28th 2008 5:52PM
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!