<VV> More on the eBay bum NO CORVAIR

[Alan and Clare Wesson]

Interesting - thanks Hank. I am glad I am not alone in becoming increasingly 
angry at the way I am being treated.

Here is the article from the Economist, which might be a Brit mag (it has a 
US publishing arm as well, actually), but is a highly-respected one:

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11580247&CFID=36131263&CFTOKEN=16289894

What interested me was the graph showing eBay's operating margin plummeting, 
and the text saying that their customers were disenchanted (too right) and 
their volume collapsing.

In my opinion this is because if you offer people terrible customer service, 
rising prices for a worse deal, and worsening trading conditions, they 
eventually become disenchanted and desert you, even if there is no 
alternative. I think the single most annoying thing about them is the 
incredibly arrogant way that if you infringe one of their 2 zillion silly 
little small print regulations, they delete the auction for ever so that it 
can never be viewed again (so you can't correct the error!), and they don't 
tell you they have done it until afterwards.

This makes you look like a total crook and makes the buyers suspicious that 
you are a fraud, whereas the kinds of things you get the auction deleted for 
are very often silly little infringements like putting something in the 
wrong category - a thing which is very easy to do by mistake, because I save 
the last auction as a template for the next, and sometimes forget to change 
the category (and I have had several auctions deleted on exactly these 
grounds).

Now, I might be a bit innocent, but I can't for the life of me see why they 
couldn't suspend the auction temporarily and/or send an email giving you, 
say, 12 hours to correct the error. Actually, yes I can see why they don't 
do this. It would cost them money, and that would never do...

I have bought the URL www.oldcaraccessories.com, and I am in the process of 
setting that up to sell my classic car accessories, rather than using eBay. 
It will take a long time (I have over 50 categories alone, and about 10000 
items to put in them), but it will cost me less, I won't be hemmed in by 
silly, pettifogging regulations, and I won't have to keep redoing my 
descriptions over and over again!

Cheers

Alan




----- Original Message ----- 
From: <kaczmarek at charter.net>
To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 3:12 PM
Subject: Re: <VV> More on the eBay bum


> Friends
> Since I handle the eBay online store for Steele Rubber, process the orders 
> and handle all the questions and problems that occur, allow me to 
> interject a few observations for the overall general welfare of the group.
>
> I project that by the middle of next year, my company will no longer have 
> an eBay online store. Going into eBay was an experiment that started not 
> long after I came to work for Steele, and we didn't know how it would work 
> out.  At best I figured we'd make some money, and get another presence on 
> the Web.
>
> Just like the .com bubble, the housing bubble, and the auto auction 
> bubble, the eBay bubble is broken and we're on the downslope.  Never done 
> better than 4000.00 in sales on eBay, and that was the best month in 3 
> years.  In comparison, I sold 2,972.30 in parts just yesterday, Monday of 
> Christmas week in a depressed economy.  Total eBay sales for dec to date 
> is around 1700.00, and I'll probably do that before lunch today.
>
> It's just not working out.
>
> The whole PayPal thing is a PITA too.  And the comments that Alan has 
> related are by no means the exception.  Everybody's getting hosed, sellers 
> especially.
>
> All good things must come to an end, and eBay will likely be one of them. 
> It's not about cleaning out your basement or trading in collectibles 
> anymore....and it's not nearly the fun that it once was.
>
> Just a .02 from someone who deals with eBay every day.
>
> Hank
>
>
>
>
>
>
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