Letters to the Editor
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November 19, 2009
eBay Looks Different to Google Shoppers
By: Ina Steiner
Thu Nov 19 2009 12:23:56
To the Editor: Love your stuff! I was in Google shopping today, looking for a particular item. One showed up on the list and it was in Ebay. I clicked on it. I got the normal looking top 1/3 of the listing, but the description area is covered with a list of other "similar" pieces. The line between says "if you want to see the description, click here...otherwise here are some other nice items."
Is this part of their new cross promotion? If so, it stinks. No wonder people are leaving Ebay. Here's the example. Thanks, Gail
Note from Editor: eBay knows when visitors are coming from search engines and presents listings differently, this does not appear to be the same cross-merchandising feature as launched this week.
eBay Seller Unable to Opt-out of Cross Merchandising
By: Ina Steiner
Wed Nov 18 2009 14:00:55
To the Editor: In spite of the fact that I have ALWAYS opted out of cross-promotions on my ebay listings, deceptive ebay still cross-promotes to my buyers (but hides from me) my competitor's similar items on the bottom of MY listings that I am paying for!
They show 5 competing item links with photos, titled "Check out the most watched" while hiding that fact from me if I am signed in and viewing my own listing pages! (Because they know when it's me doing the viewing.)
However, if I sign out, erase all my ebay cookies, (or use another browser version that has no ebay cookies yet), then they don't know it's me that's looking . . . so if I do an ebay search for my same item while anonymous . . . they will then display 5 of my competitor's items on the bottom of my listing.
The only thing that puzzles me is that they cross-promote my competitors on only about 80% of my listings. I can't figure out any pattern that determines when they will or won't do it. (Maybe it's a random thing.)
I've tested and verified this extensively using IE, Firefox, Safari, and Opera browsers, and there can be no mistake that this deception to sellers is intentionally going on.
Any seller can verify whether this fraud is also going on in their listings, by performing the following steps:
1. Using any browser, erase all cookies so ebay won't know it's you. (ebay uses multiple cookie names, so merely erasing your browser's ebay.com cookie might not be sufficient to hide your identity from them.) If this is inconvenient . . . because it will also wipe out other saved passwords, etc., then use a different browser version that you don't normally use.
2. Now, not logged in, stealthly disguised as a random anonymous ebay shopper, do an ebay search for your items on ebay.com until you find one with a competitor's cross-promotions displayed on the bottom of your listing.
3. Copy that ebay listing item number onto your clipboard.
4. Sign in to ebay using any browser, (even the one you are already using), then paste your saved ebay item number into the ebay search box and bring up that item again after you are signed in. The cross-promoted items at the bottom of your page won't appear, because now you are signed in and they know it's you that's looking!
This is willful deception of the sellers who are paying them for listings!
I am contemplating whether to go to a major news organization with this. I wonder if Matt Drudge would be interested in this sort of thing.(?)
If you decide to publish this, I would be interested in reading comments from your readers, before I go any further with this. (name withheld on request)
To the Editor: I was wondering if you might address "Miscategorized Items" on ebay in an article. Not sure if you are aware of this horrifically growing problem that ebay refuses to address. It's rapid and out of control.
Many many sellers have already reached their maximum capacity for tolerating this problem and just continue to leave ebay rather than try to compete with ebay's new Diamond favorite rule breakers. In my item specific category of store seller Fashion Jewelry - Pins - there is one seller who has over 1,000 sterling silver rings listed as pins.
I have myself repeatedly reported this seller to no avail. I've spoken to many other sellers who have tried to clean up their own categories and ebay does nothing. So how is that a good shopping experience for their coveted "Buyers"? I'd love to read an article where you explore this horrible situation.
Thanks for your anticipated look into this problem. (name withheld)
eBay's Best Match - Metrics More Important than Sales
By: Ina Steiner
Sun Nov 15 2009 16:13:54
To the Editor: Sitting in on the Best Match Webinar (November 4), I was struck by the constant theme reiterated throughout the broadcast, even in direct responses to Top Rated Sellers whose businesses had taken dramatic downturns in recent weeks as a result of the BM2: Metrics are now more important than Sales.
It was stated that unlike last year, where an item that a Fixed Price listing that sold many items would be advantaged in search, now the more important metric is the number of sales relative to the number of page impressions a listing is receiving.
So eBay is saying Metrics are now more important than actual Sales. We have seen this first hand over the last few weeks with what were top performing (i.e. generating sales) listings that are now buried behind competitors listings that are not selling. We had one listing that sold 80+ items compared to less than 20 of a competitor and ours has free shipping and we are a TRS but ours is consistently behind our competitors, even though we continue to outsell them!
Not sure how many more under performing Quarters eBay can have and perhaps some recent executive changes and the new search for a small business liason are part of a realization of how bad things have become. but I really have to wonder in what business class these guys are learning that a Metric is more important than a Sale?
Listen in about 50 minutes into that Webinar when a frustrated 10 year seller is telling the eBay execs over and over there is something wrong and how the eBay guys keep talking in circles about impressions and page views. It really is frightening.
To the Editor: I want to bring to your attention a disturbing piece of information I received from Ebay Support.
After tracking my items in the new visibility tool, I noticed that I consistently have more watchers and bids, than unique click-throughs. That did not seem right, since to place a bid or to put the item on the watch list, the user would need to do a unique click through. Unique click throughs are used to determine seller's position in search, and mine were low even on item with lots of watches and bids.
The Ebay reply (complete reply attached below) was that the tool does not display results in real time. It can take a day or two for the numbers to be updated.
This really worries me for two reasons, the first is that the tool is not very useful. The second and more significant, if the same algorithm is used for the Best Match search ranking, the sellers are being ranked with the old data that according to my tracking never catches up during the 7 day run of an auction. This could be an explanation of why most people say Best Match does not work and brings bad results.
I hope you can investigate how this works and the impact is on the sellers.
To the Editor: Last Friday, November 6th, A rep from PayPal's "RISK MANAGEMENT" office in Arizona called me with a shocking announcement. She identified herself as Ms. Stacey Stewart of Paypal risk management and informed me that Paypal was now going to withhold 15% of our gross sales for an unbelievable half a year effective immediately!
She went on to say you have an "outstanding account and track record" with Paypal and this is just our new policy for people who are selling China imports. Mind you, we have been selling cellphones on eBay for quite sometime with no problem but apparently our "outstanding track record" is of no consequence with Paypal's new policy.
Since we are high volume Top-Rated ebay seller under Ameristyles and also maintain a webstore at www.ameristyles.com we were surprised on how brash and dictatorial Ms. Stewart was, in opposite to our account managers in PayPal -Nebraska who are always friendly and professional. Even our eBay account manager, Ms. Kerry Thompson was taken back when I told her about PayPal's new 15% policy. We also posted a blog on our website on PayPal's new policy you may wish to view.
According to Ms. Stewart PayPal will be instituting this new policy with hundreds of eBay sellers due to possible chargebacks and potential risk. After "I was told" of my "new status" she terminated the conversation.
Her position was that this is "non-negotiable". My Senior account manager at PayPal, Mr. Doug Golden, was listening in, as this was a 3 way conference call and even he was shocked at her attitude and inflexibility.
We immediately discontinued accepting PayPal at our website and switched to Google checkout. We are also in the process of setting up PAYFLOW to process credit cards directly on eBay. In short, we have no choice but to phase out PayPal. It is impossible to maintain a business in the highly competitive electronics arena where our net profits are around 12% but our Paypal GROSS withholding is 15%.
This would produce a huge negative cash flow for a half year! We will still offer Paypal on eBay but in a very unique way. We will run two identical ads. Once where only a buyer can use a credit card. The other only where the buyer can use PayPal. The BUY IT NOW price on the PayPal ad will be 15% higher than the other ad. Current eBay policy forbids us from posting anything negative about PayPal, but it doesn't stop us from saying, "You can purchase this identical item for 15% lower in our other eBay ad so please check out SELLERS OTHER ITEMS," People will be emailing us demanding why they have to pay 15% more using the PayPal ad, so it should interesting.
Our obvious solution to this problem is to pass on the 15% 6 month withholding to the customer and clearly the FREE BUYER PROTECTION PayPal offers is no longer free at all since PayPal will be withholding 15-20% of thousands of their customers for a half a year in the future.
It will be interesting to see how many eBayers follow our lead in this matter. I would really like to hear your feedback on this one even if you don't post this letter to AuctionBytes. Thanks, Toni Kirchner
To the Editor: A new low. Evidently buyers can now file "deferred" PayPal Disputes against ebay sellers after the 45 day time limit has passed.
Buyer bought an item from me, Said he wanted to return it. I said OK. He didn't return it. 30 days later he said he was returning it and was delayed due to a "family emergency". (When I checked his ebay history, he was very active during the "family emergency".) He emails that he mailed back item. Item doesn't arrive. I ask for information, when sent, tracking number, etc. He doesn't respond. Buyer evidently tried to file a SNAD or INR with PayPal but filed after PayPal's 45 day deadline for filing.
BUT WAIT!
I get the stunning email below from PayPal alerting me that I have some sort of black mark for a "Deferred Dispute". ("Although this dispute is not eligible for negotiation in the Resolution Center, we have noted that the buyer was dissatisfied with this transaction.")
The "Help" link referred to in the email takes you to PayPal's full monte "Help" page which has nothing about something called "Deferred Dispute".
