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.

………………………………………….

tis now 05.03.2008!

*yawn*

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

See, wasn’t so hard was it?

Cheers!

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.

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.

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!