| November 18, 2009 |
 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)
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