I started selling on Ebay back in 1998...yeah...10 years. In all that time, Ebay became a good solid part of my life. I listed with pleasure always looking for new things to put on auction and making sales was like hitting a win on the slot machines. It was fun and it was so exciting. I met other ebayers - most good people and many I still keep in contact with years later.
My old friend, Ebay, has been slipping for the past few years. A lot of the magic left and Ebay managed to stamp out a lot of it. We could all tell Ebay made some wrong turns and started to become...more and more intrusive. Sales started to slide...listings started to slide, fraud and scamming are rampant. We began to believe Ebay didn't care, they were raking in the money and so they looked the other way. Well, this year things abruptly changed. I can honestly say that since Jan., 2008 my old friend, Ebay, has turned into some kind of huge callous and unfeeling monster. Some sellers will tell you they're getting rid of us all...some sellers will tell you, no they're only getting rid of the bad sellers. Whatever in the world they're doing they sure are keeping it to themselves. Hardly anybody believes the rhetoric coming from management. Ebay has become the 800 lb bully because they say they want to "enhance a buyer's experience"...there are just too many con's to make this a valid reason. They have come out with one rule after another and those combined rules are pushing small sellers into a corner. One negative...one neutral can kill a small seller and ebay has made it known to the buyers. Even going so far as to put a banner up when a buyer gives a seller feedback - letting the buyer know that the seller cannot give them a negative and they should be honest in their feedback....yeah - like that's not a blatant invitation to make sure a buyer knows he can neg a seller with virtually no repercussions. Ebay's buyers will now be Ebay's sellers' executioners! Ebay has effectively driven a solid wedge between buyers and sellers.
On May 19, 2008 the most dreaded change took place. Sellers can now only give buyers positive feedback no matter what a buyer does to them. May 19th will go down as a bloodbath where buyers negged sellers all day long. Some even saying they waited for this day so that can do so without retaliation. The end result - bad buyers are in heaven - wielding that axe against sellers, many times with no good reason...GOOD buyers are appalled - and rightly so. Where does ebay stand in all this? They seem to be becoming the most hated company on the internet. I know of no other with ebay's reputation or their recent cruely to their customers (the sellers who pay them fees in order to list their wares).
Where will it end? What is YOUR opinion - give it here and lets discuss.
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