posted on November 23, 2002 10:06:09 AM new
ebaY - A Solution NOW!!!
ebaY A Workable Solution
Revised 9 Nov 2002
24 Jan 2002
Petitions and Boycotts are frequently mentioned as methods to get ebaY to pay attention to some problem. Unfortunately, petitions do less than nothing, and it would take millions of signatures before the media would even look at it as being interesting enough for them to do a story on. Boycotts are even less effective.
So what can folks do? How can the problems users have with ebaY, get enough of ebaY's attention so that they are willing to really address them? TAG feels the only solution is to break the ebaY monopoly and develop some real competition. There are lots of reasons why we think this is the way to go, but that will take another editorial.
So what can we all do NOW to get ebaY to fix their problems - the unstable glitchey site, the very poor customer service, the excessive fees in the face of poor service, a poor economy and dropping prices to sellers?
Here is a plan....
Go list 10 items on another site, such as sellyouritem.com or ioffer.com or any site you are happy with. Get two of your auction buddies to do the same, and then each of those people should get two others to do the same and so on and so on. If everyone did this, you could move millions of auctions in about two weeks. In two weeks!!! Think how fast ebaY, and ALL the online sites would become user friendly and responsive if this happened.
All it takes is 120,000 sellers to list 25 items each on other auction sites and in a few days watch the ebaY fees drop like a rock, the site instability problems get solved immediately and intelligent support back on the site! That is the only kind of action ebaY will understand and the only kind of action guaranteed to work. Make it ten items each and it will take a few days more !!! An easy simple and elegant solution that would work NOW. Talk to two auction buddies and get started today!
Anyone reading this can start it. Email your former buyers and tell them you are going to be listing 10 or 25 of your auctions on sellyouritem.com or ioffer.com, or some other site . Give them an incentive to come bid on your items there. Email every seller you have done business with, including those who you got started on ebaY. Ask them to list 10-25 items on sellyouritem.com or ioffer.com. Ask them to ask two of the sellers they know to do the same. Can you see how fast this would spread?
There are plenty of good sites who would be thrilled to see their listings grow. Many of them have no listing fees, and even provide easy to use utilities to import your auctions from ebaY, so this switch can be done VERY easily. Even if you don't want to move auctions, at least think about doing your relists on another site. You can leave the relist on the alternate site for a couple of weeks and if it doesn't sell move it back to ebaY within the 30 day relist period. MAKE AN EFFORT - the sellers can change the industry almost overnight - because the buyers follow the sellers.
We really can do this, working in small groups and just influencing two people each to move 10 auctions each. No need for a boycott, keep listing on ebaY if you must, but work together to take the online auction and trading industry back into the hands of the users! -TAG
Update 27 Jan -
Some folks have construed what we have said as meaning we want folks to run back to ebaY once ebaY has received the incentive to make a correction in the exploitive direction they have headed in . This is NOT where TAG is going with this idea. We want to see several viable auction and trading sites available to the users of the OAI/OTI. Competition amongst the service providers is healthy - for them and for the users. Once the monopoly is broken, the mindset of the using community will also change, and sellers will more easily sell on various sites, and buyers will follow their interests. Tools for navigating this more fragmented, and therefore more usable industry are already in place, (meta search engines, management and marketing tools that work across multiple sites) and they will just get better. With the breaking of the ebaY monopoly, the power to influence the decisions the service providers make will be back in the hands of the users. If the user is unhappy with the service provided, they will have options to move their business elsewhere. The result will be better for everyone involved in person to person trading.
If you found this information useful or interesting, consider signing up for TAGnotes. TAGnotes is our free newsletter published on an erratic basis one or more times a week. ebaY, Yahoo and the main stream media all subscribe to TAGnotes. Don't you think you should know what they are finding out about in TAGnotes?
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posted on November 23, 2002 10:32:41 AM new
looks like some spam action to me. Problem is. Ebay fees are great try running any other business with just those fees. Cant be done and you get a lot bigger audience with e-bay. Customer Service has been fast and of great help with any problem I have ever had. My prices have not dropped if anything they are better but if you list crap it probably won't sell well right now. Quality service and quality product will continue to sell well.
posted on November 23, 2002 10:49:02 AM new
I would also consider this spam. I have dealt with hundreds of buyers and I'm not about to e-mail them with this. I have also dealt with hundreds of sellers and I wouldn't want my inbox full of all this crap because as a buyer I'm not planning to run to another site.
Experience has taught me that the secondary sites attract items that sellers have trouble getting rid of on ebay. What seller is going to list something good at another site if they can get top dollar on ebay where all the buyers are?
Yeah, I know... ebay won't get better if we don't take action and give them competition. But I also know that many of us are busting our azzes trying to make money doing other things besides auctions and don't have time for all these protests or time to list on more secondary sites and keep track of everything.
Besides that, ebay has always worked okay for me and I haven't had a problem with their customer service.
None of the websites mentioned had anything to do with its input. But is not the purpose and intention of forums to put forth different points of view. I have in the last
two weeks carefully gone through this entire forum read all posts and felt that this even though not up to everyones liking especially tooltimes and blairwitch was a excellent subject which can be thrown around, discussed
and used to better the sitiuation of the users. If Ebay has been good to you I applaud you, in my case it has been nothing but a bitter experience and waste of time and money, and obviously I do not share these views alone by the comments and input into these forums. But has it reached a point where you cannot express a point of view held by many. I hope not.
posted on November 23, 2002 12:02:05 PM new
ebay is the only site that makes the cash to pay the bills. I have not seen any 3rd tier site worth a hill of beans.
posted on November 23, 2002 12:08:48 PM new
toolman989, I didn't mean that your posted topic here is spam. You are welcome to state your opinion here just like anyone else does.
What I meant was that I consider it spam to e-mail all my former buyers to tell them that I am listing on another auction site. If sellers did that to me I would consider it spam in my e-mail.
posted on November 23, 2002 04:55:18 PM new
PLEASE!! Get a life!! Ebay works great, providing you simply look at what you are doing, do it corrcetly, and handle yourself (and your business) as a business, not a part-time, sell your junk site. Feedback is hard to accumualte, at least good feedback, and it usually says the truth. Ebay's fees are miniscule compared to a concrete store of ANY kind. Ebay has always ben attentive, and fast to return with a correct solution, no, I don't agree with everyone of them, but that is what you deal with, when you go onto another persons site and use their facilities. You complain about fees, and you complain that there is no customer service, how can you have one without the other?
posted on November 23, 2002 05:37:17 PM new
Yea I am in full agreement with kiara. And if you are not capable of running a business don't toss it all on e-bay take a good look in the mirror. I Have found that most of those who complain try running illegal auction or auction off Gimmick and cheap wholesale products and then want to blame e-bay when there autions shut down or there "crapeware" does not sell. You are also right about being able to share your opinions here, I have read yours and you just heard mine
posted on November 24, 2002 10:49:44 AM new
Trai I appreciate what you are saying and the facts are that I came here two weeks ago and spent that time going thru each and every thread, found most users of this forum to be intelligent and articulate with some good old fashioned ribbing thrown in. These boards were used by most to ask for and receive help or express a opinion, but in general all had some positive input. But as I perused the boards the biased, self serving, defamatory posts by these two(maybe you are so used to them you have become calloused to their content - I don't know) was just two much. And knowing that I wasn't going to be around much longer I wanted to make it obvious to all exactly what their agenda was and hoped
by shaming them they would either get lost or grow-up. They did exactly as I thought they would, they showed their true colors - unable to debate or defend their position, but instead resorted to personal attacks and childish input. I do not know or have never met Bryan(radarlove) or Jamie(canvid13) or any of the others they belittle, but the continue barrage of new threads attacking legitimate individuals only trying to tell this forums users what they offer is in direct violation of:
d) be defamatory, trade libelous, unlawfully threatening, unlawfully harassing, or invasive of a person's privacy;
and I was amazed that AW had allowed this to continue as long as they have.
As to my expecting any of the AW users to jump ship I am more of a realist than that, and really only bothered posting in the Ebay Forum to further antagonize these two and show them that it is easy to play their little game.(yeah I know childish, but sometimes you do have to stoop to their level) Tiara I was fully aware that this was old news and again it was used to make a point, though maybe not to everyones liking.
Anyways I am amazed my posting privleges still work as my account expired yesterday.
These will be my last posts I am sure, so to all Goodbye.
posted on November 24, 2002 11:27:45 AM newTiara I was fully aware that this was old news
Tiara?? Tee hee.
Frank, I think you can post on the boards here as long as you wish and your account won't expire for that.
I wish you success with your auction site and I also suggest you hang around here to learn more about what buyers and sellers want and it may be helpful to you.
The other auction sites will have difficulty competing with ebay but they may gain ground as time goes on. Also remember that there is negativity on all the boards, no matter where you go and it's the same in real life.
We're a strange group here at times but you'll get used to us.
posted on November 24, 2002 04:30:19 PM new
While the goals of this post are somewhat admirable in terms of taking action to get eBay to address the concerns of their customers.
It is COMPLETELY LACKING IN BUSINESS SENSE!
Why do I say this?
Because if you've tried to run a business, tried to market it, advertise it and get your products in front of as many people as possible, you know that it's a great deal more expensive then listing on eBay.
People love to whine about fees but no one is talking about their ROI or return on investment from those feess. For instance, I know that I generate about $4.43 in profit for every dollar I spend on eBay. If I were to build a web site and spend money on advertising for it, I know damn well I wouldn't be making $4.43 in profit for every dollar I spent on it.
In addition to that, think of all the traffic, users, media attention and advertising eBay is engaged in, do these so called other "solutions" have TV commercials during the highest rated programs on television?
SO, if someone is going to present me with a so called solution to my "problems" with eBay, you'd better be telling me how my product is going to be front of a similar amount of people, how my ROI is going to be higher and how I'm going to make more money.
And No, telling me that the new site is more attuned to my needs or has cheaper listing fees won't cut it. I come from the corporate world as a consultant -- and when I presented a project plan to an executive(s) discussing a particular initiative/project --I had to "show them the money" and show them how this product had value, which meant giving them a detailed analysis and the numbers supporting it.
Simply saying: "Solution X is bad, solution Y is better didn't cut it"
Of course, someone is going to claim I work for eBay, happened before a few months back with another poster who was pushing their own auction site. So I'll just say this:
I'm in this to make money, my company is a "For Large Profits" organization -- whatever site is making me money, well that's the one I'm going work with/sell my products on. Period.
eBay is making me money, the end.
I like the ROI I get on eBay, sure I would like it to be higher, sure I have issues with eBay (Most of them with amateurish sellers) but I'm not going to throw away a 5 figure/week revenue stream just because I don't feel I'm being catered to enough.
Because that would be lacking in Business Sense and contrary to being a "profit making organization"
As for "prices going down" or sell through rates decreasing. How is that eBay's fault? I think that people should stop selling junk or better yet, LEARN HOW TO SELL! I hear people talk about pricing issues and it sounds like bad business sense to me.
For instance: I hear people say that Fixed Price Listings are driving down overall prices. Well isn't that the fault of the seller who puts things in a FP for lower then what he normally sells the item for? My FP prices are higher then my auction's minimum bid and they do well.
Hmm *scratches head* there has go to be a lesson in that somewhere.
Look -- the way I see it, the problems people have with eBay with respect to sales going down are going to happen/are happening on all sites. Fee issues should be looked at within the prism of ROI -- as long as it's cheaper then other venues -- get over it. Customer Service Issues --- I haven't had any, can be addressed by other methods -- but I'm not just going to leave and throw money away.
All that being said, I wish eBay did have a serious competitor where I could list and make as much or near as much money as I do on eBay.
Why?
So I can list my products there AND on eBay and double my profits!
See, even with a major competitor -- call me greedy, but I'm not throwing away money.
