John Donahoe Interviews Pierre Omidyar

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FEATURED POSTRichard Brewer-Hay / Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

John Donahoe Interviews Pierre Omidyar

Earlier this month, I referenced a conversation between John and Pierre that was webcast live to all eBay Inc employees during the first week of April. I have included three clips from their conversation below*.

The following clip shows Pierre addressing some of the recent changes in the Marketplace. He also addresses what he means by “a level playing field” and how it relates to the eBay experience…

In the following clip, John asks Pierre about interacting with the eBay community and gets his input on working with the buyers and sellers of eBay…

Finally, the following clip emphasizes the company’s focus on the Marketplace that has been echoed in recent interviews with John and on earnings calls. In it, Pierre stresses the focus on the eBay buyer experience…

*This is my first time incorporating video into eBay Ink so the pessimist in me apologizes in advance for any potential technical issues.
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JJH / April 29th, 2008 at 10:24 am

Is there some reason we cannot see the entire interview?

I haven’t watched it yet, Youtube is blocked at work (but the ebay blog isn’t, go figure).

TheBrewsNews / April 29th, 2008 at 10:39 am

I have the utmost respect for Pierre both as a businessman and as a person. I have no doubt that he is a many of great integrity and sincerity. However, after watching the videos I also have no doubt that he is also a man who is clearly out of touch with the eBay community of 2008.

For example: in the first video Pierre states (and I quote):

“What I meant by level playing field is that everyone should be given an equal opportunity….. I didn’t want to have sort of artificial barriers placed on newcomers and to have people by virtue of their stature outside of the eBay community somehow be treated better — special deals behind the scenes because they’re a big retailer and we want to get them to come on eBay, that kind of stuff. That would have been – is – a disaster. That is what I meant by level playing field.”

Perhaps no one has told Pierre but… on Friday Feb 8th reported on msnbc.com:

General Motors said Friday that 3,900 auto dealers who sell GM’s Certified Used Cars will list their entire inventories on eBay Motors, according to industry publication Automotive News.

The listings will be free for dealers, the report said, and could radically alter the used-car business.

Mechelle / April 29th, 2008 at 10:46 am

yes, why not the entire interview? I can’t help but feel when I am only shown segments of a video, partial quotes and like practices that I am being manipulated and deceived with a biased dishonest representation of the story.

Patricia 1 / April 29th, 2008 at 10:53 am

Only a fool would allow buyers to totally run rampant over their customers (the sellers). By attaching such stringent penalties to buyer ratings ebay is doing just that. It stems from a mentality that sellers are still a dime a dozen and so are thereby expendable. Ebay is oblivious to their current reputation and the word of mouth being spread by the sellers they are kicking around. This doesn’t go unnoticed to future potential sellers. If we treated our customers the same way ebay treats theirs…there simply would be NO ebay!

Old codger that I am I’ve lived a long time and seen the nuances of a lot of people. I see this interview as a definite indication that sellers have made themselves heard to the point of inflicting pain and concern! Ebay pig-headedly staggers on in the hopes that things will turn around. Unfortunately, I see things only starting to get bad – they still have a long way to fall. I say unfortunately because ebay has been my friend, my supplement, my fun, my excitement for the past 10 years and now I see that coming to an end. Most sellers will tell you the same thing and many buyers will too. My one glowing hope right now is that Mr. Donahoe is offered a position elsewhere that is of such monumental importance to him that he will leave ebay and then perhaps we can set about to heal and get on a track that is profitable from them and us too.

TheBrewsNews / April 29th, 2008 at 11:09 am

Richard, your efforts to share the information are VERY much appreciated and I also appreciate you editing the information to only that which you think is most relevant. Most of us full-time eBay sellers already work too many hours and so having you pull out the “relevant” parts of the entire interview are helpful.

I am really disturbed, though, after watching the clips. I am now even more convinced that eBay management is completely out of touch with the eBay community, especially its sellers. I have more comments about the videos …. but only after I really digest the information and, of course, after all my customers’ postal and FedEx packages make their way out the door today (priority number one).

Misty / April 29th, 2008 at 11:25 am

How is my wanting to remain a low volume seller to give my customers the best buyer experience possible to then have a NPB slap me with a neg for filing a UPI to recoup my FVF which in turn reduces my visibility and other penalty’s 21 day hold, suspension etc. on my business a level playing field for me just because I do not sell enough high volume to absorb the few bad seller experiences I may have? How is that a level playing field?

You say this change is to improve good buyer experience. If I am doing that as a small volume seller now, why are you placing restrictions on me that lowers my ability to provide good buyer experience solely to try and force me to become a high volume seller? To me this says it is meant to increase your bottom line not mine and has nothing to do with good buyer experience at all.

In essence your trying to get me to do something I am all ready doing as a small volume seller but you want me to list more (high volume) which will lower my ability as far as I see it.

I sure hope I am making sense to someone here.

Misty / April 29th, 2008 at 11:51 am

UPI = UID

cajo / April 29th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

Interesting that the videos are hosted on you tube but comments have been blocked there. What a disappointment.
According to Pierre I’m too believe that ebay knows whats best for me. I guess we dont have to ask anymore where is Pierre and how does he feel. I already knew the answer but again, disappointing.

Formerly Known As MarikaBooks / April 29th, 2008 at 2:43 pm

There you have it, folks. Pierre backs his boy JD 100%.

Way to talk down to sellers as if they were naughty, ignorant children rather than intelligent business people who helped make you rich, Pierre! Some sellers ask for things which don’t make sense and are not good for them? Puh-leeeez.

If y’all thought Pierre would do things differently than JD, I guess you know better now. If you don’t, listen again.

Randy Smythe / April 29th, 2008 at 3:40 pm

RBH,

Thanks for the clips. Keep your chin up!

RKS

JJH / April 29th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

What a joke.

“No special deals for certain players, that’s what I meant by ‘level playing field’.”

Shrug. Can you say “powerseller discounts”?

That’s certainly a level playing field for “newcomers”, isn’t it? Certainly not “level” for long term sellers who in many cases have BETTER feedback and DSR scores than the Powersellers. Yes, MYSELF included.

“If nobody spoke up, boy, that would be a disaster. We should be thrilled that people are engaged enough to be be speaking out. That’s great”.

It’s also easy to ignore them. Or, maybe you’re not ignoring them, but your sure MAKE IT LOOK THAT WAY. Why don’t you COMMUNICATE BETTER?

“you have to take that input from the whole ecosystem, sort it out, respect it, but in the end, do the right thing.”

People don’t feel the ‘right things’ are being done. Is that respect? Communicate better. This blog is a “step in the right direction”, but it’s NOT enough.

Folks, I think we’re blaming the wrong person for all this. I don’t think it’s Mr. D. who is responsible for all these changes, I think they clearly come from Pierre himself. Well, it’s his company ultimately. He’s the chairman.

It will ultimately succeed or fail or his say so. I guess we’ll see in a year.

Mike Ralph / April 29th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

Firstly thank you for the clips and for the willingness to share this information with us, a step in the right direction in my opinion..

Must admit a few of the recent changes have made me raise an eyebrow from time to time but I think this has come from a lack of communication as to the full extent of why a change was required, then gradually as other related (and linked) changes came into play they seem to fall into place.

Not saying I fully agree with every change that has been made but in the end I CHOOSE to use the Ebay selling venue and therefore need to respect the owners way of doing business.

Now what I don’t believe in is “the put up or shut up mentality” and believe that this blog should help go some way to start to bring down the barriers that seem to have risen recently between Ebay and those that provide it with “life” the sellers and buyers.

Will be watching as the blog develops.

Regards,

Mike

Henrietta / April 29th, 2008 at 4:23 pm

Thank you Richard for sharing, it was lovely to see Pierre again and the videos worked perfectly.

CrunchyPostingGoodness / April 29th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

In the first interview Pierre stated:

“…go back to the core principles, the founding principles and understand and interpret them given the current enviroment and given the current state, the current year..”

Okay, lets do that. Let’s review the core principles and see how they relate to the most recent eBay changes….

“We believe people are basically good”
1. In the current enviroment, eBay is portraying all sellers as being out to scam their buyers, since PayPal is advertised as the only safe way to pay.

2. Sellers can no longer leave negative feedback, because eBay believes the harm they are doing to buyers, whether those buyers are scammers or not, hurts eBay more than the dishonest claims made by these buyers in feedback. Which, by the way, can no longer be held accountable for by sellers, and certainly won’t be held accountable by eBay. The inability to leave negative feedback only hurts the sellers – not eBay.

3. Sellers want to charge reasonable shipping to cover their expenses, but buyers want “free shipping”. Therefore, eBay will punish sellers charging shipping by allowing buyers to mark them down on their stars, even though shipping and handling charges are a normal cost for buyers on any other selling venue.

4. eBay believes this of all buyers (basically good), since it refuses to close the long existing loopholes within the eBay and PayPal system. As far as ebay is concerned, the percentage of scamming buyers, they erroneous believe, is so small that such losses should be acceptable to anyone who chooses to sell on their site. However, eBay and PayPal find losing any of their own corporate money to be unacceptable, so they will not reimburse sellers who are victims of these scammers that eBay has encouraged and allowed on their site.

5. eBay reserves the right to hold PayPal payment for 21 days, because it believes that this is the only way to make sure that sellers will actually ship the item and try and work out problems with the buyer.

So much for the belief that people are basically good. I suppose, given the current state, the current year, only buyers are considered basically good.

“We believe everyone has something to contribute.”

1. Yet eBay fails to listen to small sellers, while catering to Power Sellers and those who pay to attend special conferences.

2. eBay will listen, but will dismiss anything which does not fall in line with their preconceived notions of how eBay believes things should be. Also, regardless of how other successful online venues operate.

3. eBay believes, for the time being at least, the only point of view which is of any value is that of buyers, or I should say, those who bid on an item. Actually paying for the item, or performing a charge back after receiving the item, doesn’t diminish the wants of these scammers – I mean buyers – in eBay’s opinion.

eBay believes the only people with something to contribute are large sellers and, what I’ll loosely term, buyers.

“We believe that an honest, open enviroment can bring out the best in people.”

1. Of course, eBay only applies to buyers, as sellers are not able to honestly and openly express their dissatisfaction with a buyer in the form of negative feedback.

2. eBay also believe that buyers should not be accountable for anything hurtful or dishonest that they write in feedback. Nor do they require honest and open communication on the part of the buyer, before said buyer leaves negative feedback for a seller.

3. eBay believes that such standards (honest, open enviroment) are not required of its corporation as they reserve the right to continue spreading false information. For example, telling buyers 3 and 4 stars are good, while punishing and penalizing sellers who receive 3 and 4 stars.

4. They also reserve the right to use semantics likes “there are no plans” to equate to “there is no set time line, but yes, we plan on making that change too.” Example: making all listings PayPal required.

Similar to “do as I say and not how I do”.

“We recognize and respect everyone as a unique individual”

1. However, eBay expects that all sellers perform as professional sellers – including communication time, shipping charges, and shipping time. They do not care if you have a personal life, that you only do this part-time, or that the buyer’s expectations are unrealistic.

2. They will in essence make the punishments more severe for small sellers and allow for buyers to easily scam these sellers with the threat of negative feedback, seller reports, restrictions, and suspensions. Smaller sellers have less volume, and therefor will be unable to absorb negatives as easily as large sellers.

Uniqueness and Individuality are impossible in an enviroment which forces a cookie-cutter mentality of looking at different levels of sellers.

“We encourage you to treat others the way you want to be treated”

1. Of course that only applies to sellers, as buyers can treat the sellers any way they want with eBay’s and PayPal’s blessings. All punishments and force are directed solely at sellers. Buyers are not held accountable in any way.

2. eBay will continue to allow buyers to create multiple ids to constantly circumvent the blocks sellers have put in place to protect their business.

Another statement from Pierre, in the first interview segment:

“…clearly the level playing field, you know, I never meant level playing field to mean that everyone, regardless of the quality of service they provided, regardless of their experience on the site, regardless of their feedback rating, everyone should be treated exactly the same way… that wouldn’t make any sense”

Yet eBay wants all sellers to operate the same way, as professional sellers only, regardless of their experience, feedback rating, or ability. This is a direct contradiction to what Pierre is stating. eBay is doing exactly what Pierre has stated, “wouldn’t make any sense”.

“…everyone should be given equal opportunity”

The opportunity is not equal when Best Match favors professional sellers over smaller ones. It is not equal when eBay wants to dictate what is reasonable shipping from the cost point of professional sellers only. It it not equal when eBay is setting the standard to professional sellers – instead of recognizing the individuality of the sellers within the eBay community.

Also, the opportunity is not equal when eBay is constantly changing the rules of what is acceptable to list and in what format. Example: digital delivery items can only be in classified ads now.

Pierre also said, “… individuals, people, use their opportunities differently and if you can use that opportunity differently, and advance more, and find more service to customers, if your a seller, and so forth, then you should be rewarded for that.”

True, but that isn’t what eBay is doing. It is using the DSRs as a form of punishment – not incentive. If your stars fall to a certain rating, you can become restricted and/or suspended. If they drop, even as the result of scamming buyers, you will lose your Power Seller status and discount.

The psychology behind the reward system is that a person is rewarded only when they do something good. If they do not do something good, then nothing happens – not even punishment. For instance, a parent can reward their child for performing a chore by an allowance. If the child does the chore, then they get the money. If they don’t do the chore, then they don’t get the money. That is an example of the reward system.

What eBay is doing is a punishment system. The punishment system works on the principle that something bad will happen if you don’t do something. For instance, a child will be grounded (if that is still the current phrase) if they don’t do a chore. The difference between the two systems is that in one, the reward system, the status quo remains the same, and only offers the opportunity to improve. The other system, punishment, there is no status quo, only punishment for not achieve a goal. The punishment systems offers no opportunity for improvement – only survival.

“… artificial barriers placed on newcomers…”

Yet, new sellers have to offer PayPal and they can not offer “Buy It Now” listings.

*** I won’t even deal with the “special deals behind the scenes”, as I believe other posters have already done a good job of pointing that out.

Dave_White / April 29th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

RBH

Thanks so much for providing an insiders look at an event that was staged for eBay employees. I as many others probably noted also, saw many familiar faces in the crowd shots.

Formerly Known As MarikaBooks / April 29th, 2008 at 4:56 pm

CrunchyPostingGoodness, you said it all. Very inciteful and accurate post!

Patricia 1 / April 29th, 2008 at 5:00 pm

Richard – first I want to thank you for posting that video – it speaks volumes in what is said between the lines. Please remember that some of us may get a bit hot under the collar but its not directed at you – just at the frustrating situation we are in. This blog is one of the best ideas ebay has had in a long long time. I do hope they weill read it and weigh what we’re saying here.

@ Crunchy:

Hmmmm….I see it more simplistically….

Ebay works for ebay….period. They may wrap it up in ebay-speak but nothing gets done that does not ultimately benefit ebay. That’s only good business…except where their treatment of their customers (the sellers) comes into play. They may try to make you feel they’re listening and doing what’s best for you….but they are not listening and doing just what’s best for their immediate needs.

The 21 day hold on Paypal funds – translates to me as a way of holding and collecting interest on a huge amount of money. Lowering listing fees while putting a huge raise on FVF’s – is another “benefit” they tried to make you believe…was due to them “listening.” Stopping sellers from leaving negative feedback is just another way of saying….deal with it and don’t bother me. Nobody, but nobody believes they will protect a seller from a scammer in any way, shape or form. If they wanted to enhance a buyer’s experience then long ago they should have rolled up their sleeves and dumped the bad sellers that stick out like sore thumbs. Anyone who has bothered to report fraudulent sellers knows just what I’m saying here. I’m speaking honestly and with no malice…just laying it out coldly in black and white as I see it. I see no community – that’s just more ebay-speak…I see no level playing field…and absolutely no respect for sellers. In fact, ebay stands ready to kick us off the site if we dare treat buyers the way ebay has been treating us! Sometimes the truth is hard to hear…it falls on deaf ears because they are focused on their needs alone….still, it has to be said for one reason only – to prove to ebay we aren’t as dumb as they think we are!

nancybusinraleigh / April 29th, 2008 at 5:03 pm

The time was taken to edit an interview that was originally intended for employees only and I then shared it with you

Mr. Hays, obviously we’re “employees” of ebay in every sense of the word as sellers but I guess letting us in on any and all information and plans is counterproductive to ebay’s plans. Ebay feels they know better than their customers, so that must make us employees.

We have come to realize that as sellers, we’re only good for revenue, not to be considered worthy of real communication as to the vision of ebay.

We’re piecing it together bit by bit, quote by quote and what we’re seeing is no longer even close to the original ebay nor is it beneficial to most.

We got the message, even that portion which was not included.

thirdworld1968 / April 29th, 2008 at 6:01 pm

Who is Ebay’s customers? The buyers or the SELLERS? Once we figure that out then and only THEN can we figure out what is needed in 2008

CrunchyPostingGoodness / April 29th, 2008 at 6:03 pm

@ Patricia

I see the situation rather simply too. Very simply eBay is making several mistakes, all of which have been pointed out time and time again on this blog, eBay forums, and other media outlets.

I was mainly trying to point out the inconsistencies and in fact, blatant destruction of the eBay core principles which is the direct result of all these changes.

The clip seems to indicate that Pierre and Donahoe believe that these new changes are perfectly inline with the core principles of eBay. I think when one takes the time to compare and evaluate the effects of the changes, nothing could be further from the truth.

Every change and resulting effects are direct violations of the eBay core principles.

The Colonel / April 29th, 2008 at 6:13 pm

Wow…I haven’t heard so much double speak since I read 1984 years ago.

The interview was staged very nicely. Did the players in this charade memorize their parts or was there someone off camera with cue cards?

This whole thing is nothing more than a well massaged message designed to placate a legion of angry small sellers, many of whom are bolting.

But the part I loved the best was the mention that sellers will often ask for things “which are against their long term interest”.

You are so right Pierre and JonDon, I want to be subjected to a system where I can be abused by feedback without recourse, I want to be rated on shipping charges by a public that has no clue over the costs actually involved, I want to have my listings given inferior placement by design should I choose to stick to my guns and ship at cost (true cost), I want a carrot dangled infront of me in the form of discounts, which the average small seller will never qualify for without subsidizing shipping costs, I want to have my money held for 21 days interest free, and I WANT TO PAY FOR THIS PRIVILEGE!!!

Pierre and JonDon missed something here.

Sellers know darn well what is good for them. That is why they are leaving.

CrunchyPostingGoodness / April 29th, 2008 at 7:04 pm

Comments on the second clip:

Donahoe states, “We hear more from those who don’t like them [changes].”

Now here’s the question, is it possible that the reason they hear more from those who don’t like the changes is because there are more people that dislike the changes? Honestly, if the majority of the feedback eBay receives on a change is negative, then how can it say that the changes are good? If the majority liked the changes then eBay would hear tons of praise. It is for the exact reason that these changes are bad that they are receiving negative responses.

Is he implying that they only time they hear from the community is when something is wrong, or something that the community doesn’t like? No, it can’t be that because he said, “the great thing about our community is that they aren’t quite about anything.” So, that seems to support the fact that if the vast majority of users liked the changes, then eBay would have heard about it, right?

Pierre states, “The important thing is, um, as eBay, as the managers of this marketplace, the payment platform, all of our services, you know we have to be able to take all that input, respectfully, and empathize with the people providing that input, but then put that in the context of the whole thing, and understand that not every voice is speaking up… you don’t want to design it by consensus.. if you do that then you end up with a thousand features that no one really understands how they all fit together, and so forth. You don’t end up with a nice clean experience, so the magic, expertise, is required as a manager, is to be able to take all that input empathize with it, understand where it is coming from and then design a product, a solution, a strategy that actually makes sense for the whole ecosystem. “

I think the vast majority of users can agree that they do not feel that their input has been obtained at all, nor that what small amount of input has been collected, has been treated respectfully or with empathy.

1. Surveys are not sent to the vast majority of users.

2. Users receive canned email responses and uneducated, uninformed, and often time, erroneous information from eBay Live Help.

3. There are a ton of loopholes which exist in eBay and PayPal, which have exsisted for quite some time, and no effort has been made to eliminate them.

4. There is no empathy when the sellers are the only ones who risk anything on eBay. Even when a seller follows all of the rules for PayPal Seller Protection, they are at the mercy of charge backs, while eBay and PayPal stand by and collect their fees.

As to a “nice, clean experience”, perhaps eBay should look at its own short comings before putting the blame on sellers. For instance, did sellers ask for eBay Express, or was that simply eBay’s failed experiment to try out a “more retail like experience”. Was it the sellers who wanted scamming buyers on the site, or was it eBay’s desire to attract as much traffic as possible, that it didn’t care about the quality of the buyers it attracted?

Lastly, “design a product, a solution, a strategy that actually makes sense for the whole ecosystem”. Well, I think eBay has failed at that too. It doesn’t make sense to open up a site even wider for scammers, when you don’t even have the ability to monitor the site correctly in the first place. You can’t promise to be able to take a more active role, when you don’t have the experience, technology, man-power, or desire to do so.

Pierre states, “Buyers vs Sellers. You know its really easy to pay too much attention to the sellers, but quite often, and I learned this right in the beginning, sellers were asking me for features which were clearly disadvantageous to buyers. Okay? Um, and absolutely and clearly reduce the price transparency, reduce the levels of discounts buyers would get, would be a really bad idea for buyers, in the very beginning. And I said, okay I understand why you are asking for this but this doesn’t make any sense because if the buyers stop coming, then you’re going to go away. So you have to understand that your community will sometimes, some segments of the community, will sometimes ask for things which are against their own interest, and that is what’s really kind of funky about this, people will often ask for things which are against their long -term interest and you have to really put the designer hat on, the manager hat on, and take all that input, treat it respectfully, but then just do the right thing, from the whole ecosystem perspective.”

1. When the largest, most reputable sellers are leaving eBay for other venues which are safer, less maintenance, less risk, and more profitable, then I think sellers are already going away from eBay. They are leaving, not due to their mistakes, but due to eBay’s mismanagement.

2. Is is just some segments, or the vast majority of the sellers, that are asking for things which go against their own interest? I think the people posting here are rather intelligent, and obviously successful business owners. They are relating the exact same beliefs, that other smaller sellers are, mainly, these changes are bad. These changes will hurt their long-term interest.

3. In order to be a successful designer and manager, you have to understand the product. One can not understand the product simply by reading about what you “think” it should be, but actually using it, and see it for what it is. Donahoe, does not have the practical experience as a seller on eBay in order to understand his product from that point of view.

4. When designing a product, you must test it in some form of BETA, before sending it live and allowing it to reek havoc on the entire site. Ebay has not done this. It is using the actual site, and actual users’ businesses as its BETA test.

5. Need I reiterate the whole, “treat it respectfully [input]“, or lack there of, again?

6. I would love to see a list of all of these “features which were clearly disadvantageous to buyers”, that Pierre received from sellers.

7. It would seem to mean that if sellers are capable of asking for features which will hurt the entire ecosystem, then it is entirely plausible that eBay is capable of it too. So what makes eBay infallible? The main difference is that when a business owner makes a bad decision – it only affects that owner’s business, but when eBay makes its mistakes, every business on the site suffers.

Kathy / April 29th, 2008 at 7:36 pm

I definately feel this was a Public Relations presentation by ebay. Of course, Odimar was prepped, and he was very careful with his choice of words and interpretations.

The whole interview looked staged and I feel that Odimar is between a rock and a hard place.

CPJ / April 29th, 2008 at 7:45 pm

In Pierre’s little world of billionaires, everything is black and white.

DSR’s keep people honest he believes somehow, but the manipulation of those ratings is simple and have and will be devastating to many sellers.

Focusing on the “buyer’s experience” is all well and good. But if there are cancers in the community, excise them, don’t “level the playing field.” Stop pandering to Power Sellers who rip off buyers. Start rewarding sellers who are actually a credit to the eBay community. Use real identification so that bad buyers can’t re-register once they’ve been NARU’d.

The ivory tower concept may be hackneyed, but Pierre and John shot a video from there, complete with zombies in the audience.

Mechelle / April 29th, 2008 at 7:55 pm

” Are you kidding? What story? It’s an interview between two leaders of the company. No more, no less.

No- it is SEGMENTS of an interview between two leaders of the company- and there is more, but you gave us less.

My use of the term story wasn’t to suggest the interview was a staged play- but rather a record of an event. The complete interview being the event- the segmented portions – not telling the whole story- record- account or whatever you want to call it of the interview.

When you read periodicals for research- or I guess for fun depending on the publication- the citations actually serve 2 functions- most obvious and considered being- giving credit to the originator of the information – second to have the ability for the reader to seek out the cited work for evaluation of the credibility of the information being cited. Also, to ensure that the author is not biasing or manipulating other’s work that is being used to support the argument.

I know it’s not a professional journal- never the less the credibility (the question of information excluded that might have a significant impact on the viewers perception) is undermined by the reality that you have chopped out – who knows what other than you- and there is not a trail that will lead the viewers to the original source to verify the credibility of the information you have presented.

Naturally, I question what I did not hear- you state that it is because you picked out parts that have been brought up within this blog. Fine, but I am curious what other topics that have been brought up on the blog that you chose to leave out of your chosen segments. Maybe none, but that’s the problem I don’t know and given the culture of eBay execs and their approach to policy changes- well, with their customers at all I can’t help but feel as though I am missing vital information.

Paranoid? Maybe, but justifiably.

Harold / April 29th, 2008 at 9:08 pm

I will make this simple. Others have said it before. Ebays customer are the sellers……..Why? Because if the sellers leave there will be no marketplace for buyers to buy from. Is that so difficult to understand? I have been in retail for over 25 years. Pierre’s vision of controlling the buyer’s experience through tough love tactics on its sellers is flawed and doomed to fail.

CrunchyPostingGoodness / April 29th, 2008 at 9:11 pm

Comments on third clip:

Pierre stated, “For instance the recent thing with increasing standards and increasing visibility of sellers with higher, you know, customer service ratings, basically DSRs, um, it annoyed people, but, and so you can say here is an example of sellers advocating against their best interest, because they’re saying ‘we should not be discounted for having lower customer service’, you know, lower rated service to buyers, which will ultimately lead to buyers having a bad experience, and going away, and ultimately lead them to losing business. Right? So they are advocating somehow, they were advocating somehow against their best interest. So you have to be really careful that you don’t take that and say, ‘oh my God, they’re right, it’s hurting their business because they’re disadvantaged, and all that, you have to, you really have to focus on the buyers, uh, and in terms of mechanisms, you know, how it get ingrained in the company, you know, the culture”

Personally, I think “annoyed people” in an understatement, but lets go on with the rest…

1. Sellers are upset at being “discounted for having lower customer service” because the vast majority of sellers on eBay do not sell full-time. This is not their job or their livelihood. eBay created that environment by advertising eBay as a place where normal people could sell their collectibles and extras. In fact, Pierre created eBay so that his girlfriend could sell her Pez dispenser collection. Smaller sellers should NOT have to or be expected to operate at the same level as professional sellers. By eBay expecting this, it is only setting up more sellers for failure, frustration, and poor experiences for buyers who have been encouraged, by eBay, to have unrealistic expectations.

2. Data proving that buyers have left eBay due solely to the fault of sellers has yet to be provided and verified. Making decisions on such unreliable data is irresponsible.

3. No, sellers who want to be rated according to their abilities are not “advocating, somehow, against their best interest”. Expecting all sellers, small and large, to operate the same way and at the same level is against the seller’s best interest and eBay’s. That is why eBay needs to cater to all types of sellers by creating different tiers based on customer service ability. Smaller sellers should NOT be punished, because they are not able to offer the same shipping, or immediate communication and shipping time that professional sellers can.

4. The seller’s are right, the DSRs are hurting their businesses and they are disadvantaged, because eBay is setting up all buyers for a poor experience, by allowing them to have unrealistic expectations of all sellers. What eBay needs to do is set realistic expectations, for different levels of sellers, so that buyers can have more choices and be more realistic about their buying experience on eBay.

What eBay is doing is focusing on the buyers, at the expense of sellers. That will never work because sellers will only become, and have already become, unfriendly, hostile, and concerned with regards to selling to zero feedback buyers and unconfirmed addresses. It will not work, because instead of focusing on customer service, sellers will need to focus more on protecting their business.

If eBay makes the sellers happy, then sellers will make sure that the buyers are happy. It is a chain reaction, which starts with eBay. If eBay makes it unpleasant for sellers, then it will become unpleasant for the buyers too. The buyers already have, and will continue to lose the selection and special items which once made eBay so popular.

bidder3 / April 29th, 2008 at 10:10 pm

Donahoe has stated that he only intends to stay for about a year or so to use EBay as a spring to get a better job — and build himself the reputation as the problem solver guy who changes the company.

He’s getting that reputation, but unfortunately in a bad way. I hope other companies will pay notice and make sure his next turn around happens in the unemployment line.

There is NO leadership at Ebay. None invested in the users of the site, and there was none when Meg was there cashing out and ignoring the business. Now because of the overwhelming bad press and bad reputation the site has rightfully earned, Donahoe is going to make all sellers, even the good ones who have built the site, pay the price for managements reckless disregard to the serious problems.

Ebay will one day be a parked advertisement site, nothing more. Sellers and buyers have left in droves, and it’s only the beginning of the exodus.

It will be a textbook example (in the future) of corporate greed, reckless management and personal profit of the management over the needs of the customer of the site, and destroying something truly innovative and successful.

TheBrewsNews / April 29th, 2008 at 10:21 pm

I’ve had some time to sit and reflect on the clips. When I watched the clips the first time through I admit that I was extremely annoyed to hear Pierre say eBay sellers don’t know what is good for their own business. But in watching the clips again, I realized that Pierre is a scientist and an engineer and he speaks with the terminology and mannerisms one would expect a scientist and an engineer to use when talking about business.

Pierre is the founding father, the inventor, of eBay and if my only experience as an online seller were through the eBay system I would be very confused right now because I would really want to believe that Pierre knows best about the ecosystem he created. But, unfortunately for Pierre, my experience is not limited to eBay. As a business owner who has experience selling face-to-face retail, through my own ecommerce websites, through eBay, and through Amazon and other online venues, I have many other experiences to which I can compare my eBay selling experience.

And having sourced my product through liquidators, through distributors, from manufacturers, and even directly from Chinese factories (after having secured multiple U.S. licensing agreements for the product), I have also battled and won against the eBay VERO system.

So when I hear Pierre tell me that he knows more about what is right for my business than I do, I must respectfully disagree.

Make no mistake — I absolutely positively love the majority of my buyers. I have some of the best buyers in the world, including those who buy from me on eBay, that I could ever hope for. There is the nice lady from Lubbock, Texas who called at 10:30 pm at night just to tell me that her breakable item arrived in one piece and she wanted to thank me for the care that we took to package it well. And then there is the gentleman from New Jersey who called on his lunch break to say that he had never received an online purchase so quickly. One of my favorites is a Canadian buyer who emails each and every time he buys from us (about 2 to 3 times a month) to tell us that his package arrived safe and sound and that he so looks forward to our shipments.

Pierre, I know how to treat my buyers. Can you say the same about your treatment of eBay sellers? Can you honestly say that you provide excellent customer service to those who represent you on your site as sellers? What do think your feedback percentage and your DSR ratings would be from those of us who use your services?

Pierre, your ecosystem is polluted. It is polluted with bad sellers AND bad buyers. Action is being taken by you to cleanse the ecosystem of the bad sellers but absolutely nothing is being done to rid the eBay system of bad buyers.

And just like there are some sellers that eBay doesn’t want to do business with, there are some buyers I don’t want to do business with. If you are not going to turn away the bad buyers and you are not going to allow me to do so either then you are leaving me with no choice but to continue to take the good buyers from eBay with me to the other venues where I sell. Contrary to what you believe, I DO know what is good for MY business.

Lisa sparkklejar / April 29th, 2008 at 10:32 pm

unfortunately, donahoe has placed the buyer in charge of a level playing field. The buyer does not always understand the proper use of feedback & often misuses the DSR system whether it be intentional or uninteniol. The buyer is now in total control of the transaction. The buyer now dictates your eBay future as a seller, including how you are listed as a powerseller, best match search and those stars that may cause a big red blotch on the listing page (YOU pay for as a seller) pointing out your weakest DSR attribute, which is shipping/handling for most of us as somehow buyers think that star goes directly to the usps complaint department.

The focus of this interview was on buyer satisfaction. eBay somehoe has forgotton, sellers ARE THEIR buyers.

I have left ebay as a seller due to inflated fees for ridiculous new terms and no new services. The new policies for buyers are stifling and create an unfair hostile environment between buyers and sellers.

I had a 95% sell through rate

over 60% regular repeat customers

never once late paying my fees

almost perfect feedback with an excellent DSR ratings

Obviously not good enough for ebay’s criteria, and I have successfully moved my selling ventures elsewhere and will not return to eBay if these new policies continue.

Lisa sparkklejar / April 29th, 2008 at 10:38 pm

sorry for all the spelling errors, it’s late.

but one more thing

I sell glass

I buy glass

over 2,000 glass transactions ive sold and have had ZERO breakage.

Ive bought glass, and about 50% actually arrives intact.

So, why am i being penalized again?

qqqqq / April 30th, 2008 at 12:21 am

Do you have a direct url to youtube?
I can’t get your youtube videos to play on ebay.

Billy Budd / April 30th, 2008 at 1:00 am

What I see happening to Bay is what’s common with a lot of big companies in that a large disconnect develops between those at the top and the actual producers at the bottom.

Some of the big picture changes ~ new concepts have some merit, IE., trying to discourage bad selling practices while encouraging good selling practices.

But the devil is in the details.

What makes (made) eBay unique is that it’s made up many small and larger sellers, part timers, full timers, pros, mom and pops. Something to appeal to everybody, both buyers and sellers alike.

Like an above poster mentioned, small volume sellers are going to have a tougher time with the DSR’s. People who sell large and hard to ship items are going to have hard time as well.

eBay is trying to standardize it’s commerce atmosphere by making all sellers jump though the eye of the same needle. While weeding out the bad guys they are in danger of weeding out what makes eBay unique and appealing.

Good concepts, but as is usual per eBay, poor implementation with very little understanding of the everyday experiences of their bread and butter soldiers operating on the battle ground.

Nobody at the top seems to have a handle on the nitty gritty or the nuances of the situations they create. The big picture is made up of many pieces. They can spew out philosophical concepts all day long but sooner or later the reality of the small details are what matters in the end.

IMO, while raising the standards for sellers, it would be in eBay’s best interesting to raise its own standards of support for such. It would certainly go along way towards developing some goodwill. There seems to be a growing adversarial relationship between sellers and eBay.

I personally feel coerced and unfairly manipulated. I’ve been a seller since 99. 6500 feedbacks, no negs. Now I need to be graded by ill informed ~ high expectation buyers using some strange subjective confusing algorithmic criteria.

Seller tech support is awful (clear your cache). System glitches go unfixed for long periods and worst yet, most of the time they go unannounced. Phone help seldom has a clue.

We get treated like children. The way the changes are “sold” to us is insulting (fee reductions – ha ha). The power seller discount is a basic behavior modification technique. However, it’s so basic that it doesn’t take one long to figure our you lose more on shipping vying for the discount than you’ll ever recoup in fees.

The way ebay’s views it’s sellers can be summed up as follows..

“Congratualions, you’ve earned a purple star! You’re awesome! Print out your purple star certificate and display it proudly.”

Hey eBay, keep the star certificates. I still have some from 3rd grade. I can hang those up. How about announcing and fixing the glitches, improving seller support, rolling out improvements when they are actually ready. And most importantly, start treating us like adults and can the artificially cheery but oh so phony manipulative propaganda.

If you want us to build you a strong house, give us some decent hammers. If you want us to act like adults, treat us like adults.

CAM / April 30th, 2008 at 3:54 am

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. ((with sheets))
5. No animal shall drink alcohol. ((to excess))
6. No animal shall kill any other animal. ((without cause))
7. All animals are equal. ((but some animals are more equal than others))

**************************************************

1. We beleive people are basically good ((but do need a LOT rules and buyers are better than sellers))

2. We are only a venue, not involved in the transaction ((but you cannot use google checkout, email your buyer, sell outside eBay, must use paypal, can’t be found in search unless you use free shipping, and 100 other things that clearly indicate we ARE a involved in the transaction, but shhhh..don’t tell anyone cause it would really mess with us legally)).

and now, my last shattered illusion….

1. eBay is a level playing field. ((unless you are a powerseller, special friend, don’t offer free shipping, have low DSRs or want to have your items appear in search and so on……))

Going to go cry now..

CAM

Martin / April 30th, 2008 at 4:41 am

I have a different view on all this stuff. First of all regarding the clips, its pretty much what I had heard Pierre did , which was to support the general nature of the changes currently being made.

My thoughts are that in a nutshell the company is spending way too much time on DSRs, seller punishments, a near break neck speed of change that noone can keep up with and less focusing on things (even if concurrently) that are new and exciting and will energize the user base and stop the near collapse of active user growth.

Lets just look at some of the last few years… And what was the “direction” of eBay..

Bill Cobb announces he is excited about “cores in store search” in Jan of 2006. Three months later its yanked saying it didnt work, buyers were confused, some items were clutter etc. This is stage one of seller discontent.

In the fall of 2006 Store fees were raised dramatically. This resulted in the loss of 20 million store items from the site.

By 2007 “IT” was all about “winning” and returning to the auction roots, when most people knew fixed price was where the market was heading and had been heading.

Now Fixed price is the direction. In response to the traction other sites received from the loss of Ebayers moving when they raised store fees, Ebay now reduced store insertion fees to levels they were at before the exodus.

Now as to the DSRs, and feedback changes and “buyer experience”. I have no doubt that the intentions are all good in this area. Overall I always feel that Ebay is trying to do the best thing , and gets active input most of the time from the community.

The problem is the effects of changes are never accurately measured and all the things the site really needs to be doing have been buried under the sheer volume of changes coming forward in one area.

Here are some big things that need to be addressed.

1- The highest growth on the internet right now is for the so called “shop online – pickup in person” model. Walmart.com has 40% growth and fully 1/3 of the sales picking up in the stores to save shipping charges. Other retailers are taking the same model . Ebay announced a local initiative at Ebay Live in Boston but as of yet has not made any progress.

2- Foreign currencies have soared in relation to the US dollar. Based on my analysis this has masked Ebays true performance as converted into dollars 50% of eBays revenues looked higher than it would be if the dollar didnt collapse. Even so, U.S. items are generally not seen on foreign sites unless a buyer changes their default view to “See worldwide listings”. Some do, most do not. So in essence its not a global marketplace for items just at the time it should be to take advantage of foreigners feeling US items are cheaper.

3- Paypal still cannot print First Class Intl postage labels. This is the cheapest form of Intl shipping that there is. Other services offer this.

4- Ebay has lost touch with its community due to the velocity of change. Active user growth which was a net 3.5 million users during stores in core search in 2006 is barely 1/10 that now, and actually went negative in a recent quarter. Just like stores that stop opening new stores in the retail sales world cant grow as fast, not keeping people interested and staying here is going to hurt growth.

I do not think it is too late to really make this site the place to be, but we might be one or two major changes away from a meltdown.

I try to share my thoughts with anyone that will listen at Ebay and there are some great people there.
My experience (and that of my wife) with Ebay is documented here on my blog at http://www.worldofebay.blogspot.com and I have info on Ebay stores at http://squidoo.com/growyourebaystoresales

We are powersellers, store owners, Trading Assistants, my wife is an Educational Specialist and I am member of Ebays focus group.

We are involved in pretty much everything eBay does and my goal is keeping people ON the site as opposed ot migrating off the site.

Id love to talk to anyone that will listen LOL

Marty

Karen / April 30th, 2008 at 5:07 am

THANKS for sharing Richard! Do you ever feel like an Oreo cookie with two dark sides closing in on you to sqwash you flat? Angry sellers on one side pushing hard for their concerns to be heard, an a determined and bone-headed eBay management on the other pushing even harder against them.

The only thing that came to mind when I watched the clips was Donahoe attempting some good ole CYA to support his policies in spite of all this “noise” out here in the seller community. Many of the changes we ask for are easy to make… as in simply ID verify buyers so they can’t have multiple user IDs to screw sellers out of money or merchandise. Yet eBay has this complex and overly complicated system which really doesn’t protect anyone but themselves.

I am still left with the feeling that eBay cares ONLY about the buyer and is willing to sacrifice ALL sellers for their profits.

EBAY REFUGEE!! / April 30th, 2008 at 6:19 am

The fact is this new feebay will NOT work. It is all smoke and mirrors designed for 1 thing only. MORE revenue! Ebay realizes they are NOT the only game in town and they are trying to squeeze every last penny out of the system before Donahoe does what his previous jobs were entailed to do and that is to breakdown major companies and sell them off in pieces!

Ebay’s numbers plummet every time they have a new “sale” and then they have to design some new “sale/scam” to get those numbers back in a hurry! Their numbers have fallen yet again after this last “powersellers only” sale (level playing field huh?) and with the huge international boycott 1 day away, it’s now time for ebay to take drastic measures again to fool their stockholders into believeing that they are running an honest business.

I see nowhere mentioned, the fake auction listings from the last boycott (of which there is TONS of proof) and no mention of plummeting numbers (hence all of the “sales already promoted this year along with the ridiculous “complainer coupons”) and no mention of the deleted or hidden ACTIVE boycott threads as well as the hidden forum page on the Australian site!

“The time was taken to edit an interview that was originally intended for employees only and I then shared it with you. That is why I started this blog. To share things with you that you wouldn’t have previously had access too”

Richard Brewer-Hay…my response this this ridiculous statement of yours is do you really think the population of ebay is really this ignorant? This video was a meeting that was FILMED with MULTIPLE cameras and you want us to believe that you are doing US a favor by posting this thinking this was an ebay employee meeting only? DO NOT INSULT OUR INTELLIGENCE. It shows you are already adopting ebays skewed views and that discredits you as an “unbiased blogger”.

Pierre Omidyar says that ebay “loves to hear from it’s “members”. Really? I have read thousands and thousands of posts of GREAT ideas as to how to help them solve their current fiascos. Not a single one of them has even been considered or discussed by any of the moderators.

The forum moderators do nothing….but ban posters (I for one am proof of this) and delete threads and censor serious concerns and comments and abuse their powers as a moderator. Yet they let the “ebay cheerleaders” run free and let them get with anything and any brutal antics they like!

Pierre also says that “sometimes members ask for things that are against their long-term goals”. Interesting that ebay is doing that to themselves as we speak.

Ebay is now sueing Craigslist for taking steps that are hurting poor little ebay’s profit margin from it’s stock shares in Craigslist. Intersting, ebay is crying foul for something when in fact they have done the same exact thing to MILLIONS OF SELLERS! Can you say HYPOCRITES??!!

Ebay there is a reason why there are tens of thousands of sellers and buyers alike fleeing from your site and for good reason may I say. It’s because your customer service is ranked among one of the all time worst in any major company in HISTORY!

John Donahoe……have you EVER bought ANYTHING on ebay? Have you ever tried to SELL anything on ebay? No you have NOT. So you have NO IDEA WHAT IS BEST FOR THE COMMUNITY! That’s like telling a football player what the next play should be when you have no idea how the game of football or the rules work!

This MAY 1st boycott WILL affect ebay much worse than they are downplaying it. And the reason is it’s your fault it has come to this ebay. When you KNOW about fraudulent sellers selling fake items, or sellers ripping off buyers, you do nothing…cuz you make money off those sales. When the non-paying and fraudulent bidders wreak havoc on sellers and a sellers honest reputation, once again you do nothing…and once again, because YOU STILL MAKE MONEY OFF THESE FRAUDULENT MEMBERS!

You have now given fraudulent buyers the ability to run about completely unchecked in this new system with NO recourse for the honest sellers that will become victim.

R.I.P. Ebay, your days are numbered and you know it. You have nobody to blame but yourself!

I have dedicated myself to educating people about this new ebay. And educating them on all of it’s new flaws. And to educating people on this May 1st boycott. I will not rest until this company falls. Thankfully, they helped this along tremendously with the steps they are taking. And for that and only that I thank you ebay…..for making my job of showing how fraudulent and one-sided and untrustworthy you are that much easier!!

P.S. I am sure that the manager of this blog post will not allow this post, just as he has blocked dozens of posts from me in the past. But this post WILL be copied and pasted to many forums.

Tiggypoo / April 30th, 2008 at 7:49 am

Good sellers – Bad sellers

My take is that the DSRs are getting rid of good sellers – Not the bad. I have not seen this addressed before. The April 21st issue of AntiqueNews had a very interesting write-up on the selling of stolen military items on eBay which eBay apparently was not seeing, possibly not deliberately but probably because it was bringing in a huge amount of money. The items being sold were and are very detrimental to the troops serving in Iraq. These items that would protect our soldiers are now helping kill them. The sellers doing this are the BAD sellers. I’ll bet the stars of these sellers were not getting dinged! So, eBay ignored this illegal situation! I encourage everyone – including all eBay personell – to read this article. If you don’t have a copy you can pick one up for free at most any antiques mall. You can also wrie to Antique News for a back issue.

Michael / April 30th, 2008 at 8:19 am

Wow, eBay really does need to wake up. Everything they do and everything they say should really match up better if they expect sellers OR buyers to buy into their eBay-Speak.

But first off, I’d really like to hear an end to people complaining about PowerSeller favoritism. Folks, I’ve been a PowerSeller for many years (was even a Platinum PowerSeller for a while), and nothing could be further from the truth re: favoritism. In fact, there SHOULD be some recognition for established sellers. If you’ve been selling for years and have many hundreds or thousands of satisfied customers, why shouldn’t you get some amount of higher visibility over newbies who have yet to prove they can run a business or service their customers? If eBay wants a FAIR level playing field, then the issue should be time as a user, not volume of sales.

This entire DSR system has hurt long established PowerSellers every bit as much as small sellers. As an example, if just 1 of your DSR’s falls below a 4.6, your listings are moved to the back of the pack in Best Match listings. We have DSR’s of 4.8, 4.8, 4.7, and 4.5. That 1 single 4.5 has caused our business to drop by more than half over a period of about 1 month!!! And with thousands of feedbacks and DSR’s already logged, it will take MANY dozens of 5 star ratings to bring up this average.

On other fronts, another proof for eBay favoring buyers to the detriment of their sellers AND the site as a whole is their complete and utter failure to police their listings. For every item that they tell you you’re not allowed to sell, you’ll find 20 other sellers selling that exact same item…even months after the fact!!! This only hurts sellers (since they lose sales to the sellers still selling that which the were told they couldn’t sell)…but it’s great for eBay since they still make profit from these sales which shouldn’t even exist by their own rules.

Another joke is the sheer amount of counterfeit items on eBay. It’s nearly impossible to buy a legitimate brand-name fashion brand…for every seller of these goods they kick off, there are dozens still doing it. Pirated software is another issue, but they haven’t been able to nip that in the bud, either. So they’ll nail sellers, but they won’t do anything to police their own service.

As a result, I haven’t purchased anything on eBay in many, MANY years. I buy from Amazon or individual stores, NOT eBay. Sorry, but they get enough of my money!

Shaking My Head / April 30th, 2008 at 9:58 am

Interesting interview. I agree with Michelle that I tend to dismiss anything that I can’t see in entirety.
From the videos I better understand today’s Ebay. This does explain all the poor decisions that have come down since 2006. Apex management at Ebay makes one big mistake- their belief they understand their marketplace better than their users. In their determination to manipulate and drive their own site they lost the battle. The rest of the marketplace is telling Ebay (declining new user base, declining page views, declining traffic etc). and today’s Ebay arrogantly ignores that advice.
Ebay’s job is to make this site easy to surf, safe, and an enjoyable experience. It is NOT Ebay’s job to dictate what gets to be shown, how I grade my transactions, or how I use the site. Ebay didn’t learn that lesson when I left as a seller so I am about to show them again as a buyer.

Patricia1 / April 30th, 2008 at 10:24 am

“But first off, I’d really like to hear an end to people complaining about PowerSeller favoritism. Folks, I’ve been a PowerSeller for many years (was even a Platinum PowerSeller for a while), and nothing could be further from the truth re: favoritism. In fact, there SHOULD be some recognition for established sellers. If you’ve been selling for years and have many hundreds or thousands of satisfied customers, why shouldn’t you get some amount of higher visibility over newbies who have yet to prove they can run a business or service their customers? If eBay wants a FAIR level playing field, then the issue should be time as a user, not volume of sales.”

HuH? I’m not a powerseller but I’ve been selling 10 years on ebay with several thousand feedbacks at 100 percent, DSR’s 5.0, 5.0, 5.0, 4.9. I wasn’t offered the recent reduced fee sale, I wasn’t offered the 5 or 15 percent discount for keeping up my rating, I wasn’t told that I could ship to any unconfirmed address and still have paypal protection. Just the opposite, I’m being treated like a criminal and told that if my rating drops because some nutcase buyer is having a bad day I’ll be buried in the listings! That’s all I’m getting for 10 years of constant selling here – its what a LOT of small sellers are getting for being good sellers. There is no difference between us and the newby who started yesterday!

I do agree with you on time spent selling on ebay – seniority should count as it does in every other job in this country and, yes, we should be noticed for time spent selling because if you added up what I spent on ebay fees for 10 years I outspent many many powersellers!

Oh….I have one more thing to say about Pierre and this youtube interview. 10 years ago he didn’t know what to do with Ebay and couldn’t handle its success – which is why he took Whitman on board. What makes everyone think he knows what’s best now? Everyone respects Pierre for starting ebay – but that really should be as far as it goes.

Patricia1 / April 30th, 2008 at 10:40 am

@ Marty – great post and shows how successful we all could be if ebay stopped trying to put fees on everything (such as international exposure) instead of simply taking its FVF’s. We could sell so much more if they’d just go back to being a venue – BUT also supply us with the quality service we pay for!

By the way, I noticed they are down some 3 million listings and falling. Time for another “gimmick” to pick up listings.

themadmuskrat / April 30th, 2008 at 11:08 am

Thanks to so many for posting intelligent, spot-on assessments of the current situation at eBAy. I agree there are many problems inherent in the DSR ratings, as well as most of the changes eBay has made in these last 2-3 years.

The problem lies in what to do about it. How many sellers are actually going to stop selling – or exposing their items to the millions of buyers – on eBay because of this? Unfortunately, it’s simple economics…there are always a supply of new sellers willing to try their hand at ebay to make a little extra cash. By the time these and other, more established sellers grow frustrated and unhappy, there are more new sellers who are already taking their place. Maybe not the same quality, but, nevertheless, they are there.

For all the reasons so aptly stated in the responses, I have long since looked at eBAy as more of an advertising tool rather than a marketplace. You can believe any customers I have are going to be transferred over to my own ecommerce site, and I will continue to list only that number of items necessary to give me some exposure.

Most of my buyers here on Ebay are great people – I’ve been blessed with very few problems. However, with the changes being made, particularly in the latest feedback mess, like many other sellers, I can see the writing on the wall! I’ve already had one buyer email me saying “I was getting ready to leave you positive feedback, but I saw you hadn’t left me any. When I receive positive feedback from you, I will leave feedback for you.” It just so happens that this buyer was wonderful, we were a tad bit behind in our feedback (like, a week!) and would not have given her anything BUT positive feedback. However, with the new “positive feedback only” deal in place…this whole situation could have been very very different, and we all know it!

No thanks, Ebay!

Misty / April 30th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

QUOTE “The items being sold were and are very detrimental to the troops serving in Iraq. These items that would protect our soldiers are now helping kill them.”

AND I AM THE MOTHER OF ONE OF THOSE SOLDIERS WHO HAS BEEN AND VERY SOON TO BE REDEPLOYED OVER THERE FIGHTING.

kimbers / April 30th, 2008 at 1:39 pm

Muskrat, you said:

Unfortunately, it’s simple economics…there are always a supply of new sellers willing to try their hand at ebay to make a little extra cash. By the time these and other, more established sellers grow frustrated and unhappy, there are more new sellers who are already taking their place. Maybe not the same quality, but, nevertheless, they are there.

While what you say is true, I think you have forgotten a piece of the picture.

All those sellers who leave eBay whether it’s now or in the future are in some way are going to let people know why. They don’t even have to bad mouth eBay either.

I am (well, right now was) a small but steady seller here who has been here since the start. I provided exactly the kind of service eBay claims to be striving for. My DSR’s are 4.9,5.0,5.0,5.0. (Yep, an actual 5.0 for shipping!).

I was proud not only of what I was doing but for a long time I was proud to be doing it here.

I was an eBay ‘cheerleader’, I promoted the site constantly, recommending it as the place to look first if you wanted to buy anything as well as teaching several others the ins and outs of being a good seller.

Last night, I went out to dinner with a friend I haven’t seen for a while. As the evening progressed, she finally mentioned that she was shocked we had been talking for 2 hours and I hadn’t mentioned eBay once.

At that moment, I realized that I didn’t even care enough to explain how I feel about the changes eBay has made. I just said that I was changing my business plan and was still sorting out the details.

She responded by telling me that she had heard a few things about various changes at eBay that weren’t really positive but that my silence while deafening was very telling.

permacrisis / April 30th, 2008 at 3:03 pm

Like most hostages, Pierre must speak in code when interviewed: “That would have been – is – a disaster.” :-)

I’m sure inside he is really very sad about all this. He may even want to start a new, pure ebay but cannot (due to noncompete agreements- just look what ebay is doing to Craigslist).

I’m willing to believe that ebay can’t give ALL the reasons for changing things, because they don’t want to give crooks new ideas. But it bugs me that each change makes them more money.

At least in the short term.

Misty / April 30th, 2008 at 4:17 pm

Well it seems your spins have caused quite the uproar in the community discussion boards with BOTH sellers and buyers.

JJH / April 30th, 2008 at 4:52 pm

@Perma,

I’m sure inside he is really very sad about all this.

As cynical as this sounds, I’m sure he couldn’t give two hoots. When you’re that rich, who cares? That money is never going to run out.

As someone mentioned earlier Oh….I have one more thing to say about Pierre and this youtube interview. 10 years ago he didn’t know what to do with Ebay and couldn’t handle its success – which is why he took Whitman on board. What makes everyone think he knows what’s best now? Everyone respects Pierre for starting ebay – but that really should be as far as it goes.

CrunchyPostingGoodness / April 30th, 2008 at 7:29 pm

@ Martin

“We are involved in pretty much everything eBay does and my goal is keeping people ON the site as opposed ot migrating off the site.”

I think it is the goal of all those posting here to point out the flaws in Ebay’s system and recent changes so that they can return to the site as successful sellers.

I used to own an eBay store, but when eBay stopped having store listings show up in the search results and raised store fees, I closed my eBay store. Luckily I was invited to sell on a different site, where I have had nothing but success. In fact, more success than I ever did on eBay. I also have a website supported by this other venue.

I still attempted to sell sporadically on eBay, only those items which I knew would fetch a good price on that venue, but when the new feedback and fee changes were announced I stopped selling there all together. eBay has simply become too unstable and volatile. It simply isn’t worth the effort necessary to constantly adjust. Not to mention the fact that I can sell my items for more money and with great ease on my other venue than eBay. So why would any seller, with my options, stick around to sell on eBay?

Perhaps, if eBay finally realizes these changes are for the worst and rescind them, then I may return to sell there. I figure that eBay will come to this realization, but it will not be until many other sellers are destroyed along the way. Those of us that choose to protect our reputations, by not selling on eBay right now, will be in better shape to return to eBay when these changes are rescinded. For now, anyone who continues to sell on eBay is simply a participate in eBay’s BETA testing on a Live site. Those sellers are guinea pigs in eBay’s experiments. It doesn’t matter if the guinea pigs are destroyed in the process. All that matters to eBay is the results of these experiments.

CrunchyPostingGoodness / April 30th, 2008 at 7:38 pm

@ Ebay Refugee

Although many are upset about the changes, Richard is the only person I’ve seen at eBay who is actually trying to get information for us. He is asking the questions we want, although the people answering these questions like to tap dance around the issue. He is trying to provide us with information that we would not have had access to or known anything about.

I think it is wonderful that he is doing this and he does not deserve the venom that your post has directed at him.

Even with the clips being edited, there are plenty of statements made by Pierre in them, which clearly shows that the recent changes are a direct violation of eBay’s core principles. It also gives us an insight into the type of propaganda the eBay executives are providing to their employees. These clips only serve to give us more insight into why eBay is so out of touch with its users.

I, for one, am grateful for any information that Richard can bring to light, and I sincerely hope that he continues to do so.