Has Ebay Finally Shot Itself In the Foot?

[SalusLibrorum]

It doesn't really matter quite so much on here what the nutters want to do..

If they go on an auction wrecking spree, it costs the seller nothing to relist, the wrecker gets banned (and they don't get to come back under another ID, it aint that easy) and things carry on as normal.

This isn't evilBay, unwarranted negs get removed, sellers don't get suspended for nothing, and bans are exactly that.

You saw how quickly the trolled threads got removed? Well I'm sure they'll all get bored when they realise that they're not going to disrupt anything much here.

[HapnJoysAuctions]

When anyone goes to Walmart or Target or Sears or any of a MILLION other web sites to make a purchase, is there such a thing as "feedback" to assure that your purchase is safe? And do feedbacks really assure safety? Of course not! There are no guarantees in life.

Now of course there is such a thing as EARNING a positive reputation through growth or word-of-mouth, one customer at a time. There are always going to be those who will purchase from you, simply because you've something they want or desire or need. They have a positive transaction with you, you've made a sale and they have what they want. They tell others about you. Sometimes they don't. Too, a LOT of what trust is garnered takes place at your store. People end up at your web store because tags have taken them there. They're looking for something you've got. They may have passed up others until they got to your site. Then they stopped and bought. Why is that? It's called "pre-selling." They don't buy your product because yours is superior to the others they've seen. They buy because of WORDS and how you put them together to convey competency and trust. Your wording, either on your store descriptions or on your "All About Me" site, these are the salesmen, not the notion that the buyer can burn the seller with a negative.

That's how I see it, for what it's worth . . .

Something else I've been pondering. What is this mystery of not knowing who the store owner(s) are? Why is there no personalization? What's wrong with a name or a photo, such as Bill or Joe or Mary or Sue? And what's wrong with a phone number? Brick and mortar stores list their numbers. Why not us? And incidentally, my name is Bill Ernstberger, Jr. and I live in Jessup, Maryland. Now that didn't hurt at all.

[evingartrading]

What's wrong with a name or a photo, such as Bill or Joe or Mary or Sue? And what's wrong with a phone number? Brick and mortar stores list their numbers. Why not us? And incidentally, my name is Bill Ernstberger, Jr. and I live in Jessup, Maryland. Now that didn't hurt at all.

I think it's a fear of the weidos out there that prevent 'phone numbers and physical addresses being circulated Bill.

Also, from my personal point of view I'm not that keen on 'phone contact- It's easy to set up spam filters (etc) on your email account. If your 'phone number gets "circulated" in the UK you could end up getting many calls per evening from the Indian sub continent annoying you. I circulate my address and 'phone number on my "thank you" slip to people who have bought from me, but releasing them onto an auction site is a step too far for me personally.

[johnwash1]

When anyone goes to Walmart or Target or Sears or any of a MILLION other web sites to make a purchase, is there such a thing as "feedback" to assure that your purchase is safe? And do feedbacks really assure safety? Of course not! There are no guarantees in life.

I don't know about the million others, but the first 3 you quote have a 'reputation' -- you know a whole bunch of people who've bought from them, you have a good idea whether they're reliable, how well they handle things when the goods are faulty, and so on.

You have no idea what a random person is like. Feedback helps to build that same reputation, though as you say there's no guarantees, and you have to be careful.

I'm quite sure even in the High Street or your local mall there are some places you have more confidence in than others.

[DanTheMan3]

All the High Street names have reputations, some good, some bad but we all know people that have bought from them on a regular basis and keep going back time after time.
They all have proper policies regarding faulty goods, returns etc.
Their feeback is word of mouth.

So if you want to buy something would you buy it from a newbie registered in Nigeria or someone in the UK with a bit of feedback?

[SalusLibrorum]

With the High Street there is also someone to go yell at personally if things don't go right, if there's a B&M shop, then they're fixed. (Unless you buy from one of those obviously 'temporary' bunches that take over shops for a couple of weeks and then vanish - which always seems dodgy to me except for very low value stuff).

Not that I do actually yell at people you understand...

[merlin]

i tried putting my picture on my me page and i had complaints that santa should not be seen before december so had to take it down
upset too many 35 year olds you see

[emacarron]

First of all, sorry for not reading the whole thread, 91 pages will take me a week!!

I come from spanish ebay. I have 100% positive feedback and 244 votes. Yersterday, while preparing my last listing I got terrified because eBay did not let me to use bank-transfer as a payment method, right now you can just use paypal. That means that ebay will get 5% from the sell and another 5% from the payment, a 10% is too much for me so I decided to give up ebay, and started to look for an alternative. Thus I get here.

People from some communities (like the spanish) are arranging strikes to force eBay to review their policies, but in my opinion that is useless. What we need is an alternative. So that I think the right moment is KEY for any site that aspires to became a serious competitor to ebay.

From my point of view, eBid will has almost no possibility to be used in spain as far as it is not translated to local language. I have seen on the vacation forum that translating work started on 2005 and gazza posted in Sep 2006 that the translation was in work.

I hope that work will finish soon because I think now is the right time to attrack discontent ebay sellers. And after sellers buyers will come...

[merlin]

hi
could you get in touch with gazza on this issue

support@ebid.tv

as this should have been set up by now

[emacarron]

Ah, ok merlin, I tried to send him a private but that he has restricted that option. Thanks for the info!