Welcome…

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FEATURED POSTRichard Brewer-Hay / Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

Welcome…

… to yet another corporate blog.

Last month an interview ran on FORTUNE Small Business online that captured a discussion I had with beat reporter Brandi Stewart regarding the launch of the new eBay corporate blog you are now reading. In it, I emphasized my goal to be as honest and open as possible – and to be upfront about my experience (or the lack thereof depending on the topic). Obviously, sometimes this honesty will generate cries of “What the…?” on both sides of the office windows. So no matter what your opinion of me – or eBay overall for that matter - it’s going to be a wild ride from here on out.

But lets put things in perspective before I open the floodgates of discussion. First off – this is nothing new to many of the company’s key business units. eBay has been involved in social media/blogging as an organization for a number of years now. Starting with the eBay Developer blog back in 2004 and through today, you’ll find multiple, existing official blogs in our blog roll at the bottom right of eBay Ink’s homepage covering key aspects of our business, community and technologies. We’ve also created a section to the left of the blog roll called “we say…” that captures the most recent posts made on all of those blogs to keep you abreast of what other official eBay bloggers are talking about, as they post in real-time.

There are a number of external discussions going on in the blogosphere that I want to highlight here too. From eBay Strategies and AuctionBytes.com to OnlyeBay and TameBay we’ve created a “you say…” section at the bottom left of the eBay Ink homepage that captures some of the great discussions going on there. These modules, combined with posts from me and the guest authors of eBay Ink, create a one-stop repository of online conversation and dialogue for everyone; by everyone.

Comments are turned on so please tune in. If you have a topic you’d like me to tackle, an eBay employee you’d like me to interview, tell me what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong, please shoot me an email. I am 100% committed to this blog and therefore will do my best to respond to every email in a timely manner.

So, welcome to yet another corporate blog. A blog where comments are encouraged, feedback welcome, opinions wished for, external blogs highlighted and where yours truly will be found wearing a flak jacket as he types.

Game on.
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GrannyFT / April 8th, 2008 at 1:02 am

Here is a screen capture that I took, to show you what I am talking about.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t98/grannyftoes/whatzup.jpg

GrannyFT / April 8th, 2008 at 1:05 am

Here is a thread with a screen capture of what I am talking about.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000548985&tstart=0&mod=1207641505269

IonU / April 8th, 2008 at 9:33 am

So far, I’m not hearing anything new. Even if most of the comments are spot-on, what good does it do to keep repeating our complaints? I want to hear that ebay is actually listening, and cares. But does Richard have any pull or power? So what is the point of his blogging? And aren’t blogs supposed to have a new post every day? No post since last week… I’d think there would have been a much stronger start to this much bally-hooed blog. I’ll keep checking back to see if this evolves into something informative or useful.

DigitalScrap / April 8th, 2008 at 11:33 am

There are thousands of ebayer’s that have been left without a business with one weeks notice since the banning of digital delivery items on march 31st. The notice was only announced 1 week prior to the policy went into effect. Many of these sellers include the homebound, elderly, disabled, mothers, who sold digital crafting items, auction templates, digital scrapbooking, digital crochet patterns & more.
The policy is cruel and backwords thinking. This would be a great topic to tackle.
Thank you for your attention.

enterprisingwolf / April 8th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

I sold on Ebay for over 9 years, had 100% pos. feedback, 4.9 4.9 4.9 4.9 4.7 on the 5 stars system, sold most items in the $10. to $200. range with items up to $6000. a time or two. I HAVE NOT SOLD A SINGLE ITEM ON EBAY SENSE THE PRICE INCREASE! Do you think I was one of the sellers that Ebay wanted to get rid of? If so, it worked!

Davey / April 8th, 2008 at 9:38 pm

Hey, Richard, besides my cross-border interests, there is one other thing I’d really like to get a feeling for, relating to the Customer Service and Trust and Safety departments.

Is there a pervasive “Us versus Them” attitude there? This where an organization is convinced that outsiders, namely their customers, are always out to cheat them out of something, so they quit serving them and build a fortress for protection. As an outsider, you should be able to pick this atmosphere up easily if it exists. It would sure explain a lot regarding how they respond.

Thanks!

Cajo / April 9th, 2008 at 11:34 am

Richard my first question had nothing to do with sellers, buyers dont have DSR’s. I wanted to know why buyers are not required to prove who they are? As in be confirmed by a credit card or drivers license. As for my DSR’s. My dsr’s are 4.9, 4.9, 4.9, 4.7.. Best match wont hurt me at all even if I had bad dsr’s. I’m one of a very limited few who sell what I do. Well used to sell. I’m on hold for a month or two.

As to my second question. I had never heard that answer before, well or any answer. So I have a point to ponder. How many buyers watch more than 100 auctions at a time and is allowing unlimited buying accounts causing more problems over all in other areas, like fraud. Of course then you’d have to change how buyers are recognized on the site by making them be confirmed and link all id’s for accounts.

thanks for your answers.

Just a Buyer / April 11th, 2008 at 5:24 am

I’ve come back … and what do I find?

More furious sellers; more common sense solutions … and NO official replies :-(

It’s begining to look more and more like ebay forum boards.

Richard, I’m sure we all appreciate that you are busy and cannot respond to each and every poster … but couldn’t you log in and post a *yes, I’m still here and taking notice* note once in a while … rather than leave people feeling ignored and impotent?

I LOVE ebay … as it was, but I’m joining the boycott (I’m already doing my own boycott! You can check; my email address is linked to my main ebay account) until Mr Donohue and his board room partners start listening to the people who KNOW ebay best; it’s sellers and buyers!

I hope you, Richard, can help the board room see it from OUR side and implement the changes that are so drastically needed to reverse Mr Donohues killing knife and the almost guaranteed demise of ebay.

Just a Buyer / April 11th, 2008 at 6:49 pm

:-)

See, wasn’t so hard was it?

Cheers!

JUST A BUYER / April 17th, 2008 at 4:25 am

Dear Richard;

It is with a heavy heart that I write today, finally realising that Mr Donohue is hell bent on his future vision/plans/makeover of ebay, and that this blog is, like ebay forums, just somewhere for us lesser mortals to vent their impotent anger and frustration.

Nothing will change Mr Donohues’ mind, his plans are being implemented, regardless.

Quotes from the link below …

“Instead of listing auctions in the order which they end, the company is now favoring sellers with better ratings, lower shipping fees and cheaper prices.”

” … they are doing a lot of things they never did before, like treating their biggest sellers like their customers and giving more things to their better customers.”

“Mr. Donahoe says it is not the company’s intent to discriminate against small sellers. But, he said, “where large and small sellers are trying to cut corners and not provide a good buying experience, we are making less room for them in the marketplace.”

For all the above *Double speak”, read, “Ebay prefers PowerSellers and to hell with the rest of you.”

What a sad day.

Ultimately ebay, and Mr Donohue, will fail as the secret to ebays’ success has always been the small seller and buyer; the unique experience; the mom & pop culture that Mr Donohue is *making less room for*

Is this corporate, well thought out, suicide?

Oh yeah, you bet.

We’ve all been taken as Patsys.

Bye ebay, it was good while it lasted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/technology/17ebay.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

JUST A BUYER / May 2nd, 2008 at 7:51 pm

Richard Brewer-Hay On 04.11.2008 at 8:57 am Said:

………………………………………….

tis now 05.03.2008!

*yawn*

PhilipCohen / July 6th, 2008 at 4:12 am

In Australia, the UK, Ireland and the Philippines, eBay has now obscured auction bidding to the point that genuine bidders have got absolutely no chance of detecting and thereby protecting themselves from “shill” bidding (a criminal offence in most civilised countries) by unethical vendors. Notwithstanding eBay’s statements to the contrary, this application of absolute anonymity by eBay on these sites serves no purpose other than to deceive consumers; and the same criticism has always applied to eBay’s other shill bidders’ facility, “User ID kept private”. Again, notwithstanding eBay’s various pronouncements about shill bidding being banned on eBay, eBay is now knowingly “aiding and abetting” such shill bidders, at the expense of consumers …

Philip Cohen / July 20th, 2008 at 9:47 pm

In Australia, the UK, Ireland and the Philippines, eBay has obscured auction bidding to the point that genuine bidders have got absolutely no chance of detecting and thereby protecting themselves from “shill” bidding (a criminal offence in most civilized countries) by unethical vendors.

Notwithstanding eBay’s statements to the contrary, this application of absolute anonymity (ie, Bidder 1, Bidder 2, etc) by eBay on these sites serves absolutely no purpose other than to deceive consumers by making even any otherwise blatantly obvious shill bidding undetectable; and the same criticism has always been applicable to eBay’s other shill bidders’ facility, “User ID kept private”.

My concern then is not so much with the effectively bidder-specific anonymity (“a***b (n)”) now in use in the US and elsewhere (and which still allows genuine bidders some opportunity to watch for suspicious patterns of bidding on a seller’s other auctions) but with the absolute anonymity (“Bidder N”) in use in Australia, the UK, Ireland and the Philippines.

Again, notwithstanding eBay’s various pronouncements about shill bidding being banned on eBay, eBay is now, on these sites, effectively (and now knowingly) “aiding and abetting” such shill bidders to defraud consumers. …

For those of you with a longer attention span, a lengthy critical analysis of this matter appears at:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=6498345#6498345
I apologise in advance for the length of this linked “rant”. Needless to say eBay would not tolerate it on their discussion forums and I have spent time on eBay’s “naughty chair” for posting links to it.

If you are an unethical shill-bidding seller or a buyer who is not concerned that on the above-mentioned national sites eBay is effectively “aiding and abetting” such shill-bidding sellers to cheat you, read no further.