I would really like to know how the employees themselves are handling the myriad of problems facing eBay sellers today, especially since the problems continue to increase at an alarming pace.

An increase in the average feedback per eBay employee is good news. But are eBay employees’ feedback scores increasing because they are buying more or because they are selling more? I would guess that it is due to buying activity almost exclusively.

How many eBay employees actually sell on eBay? I would think if eBay had some impressive numbers to share that they would already have done so. And every indicator I am aware of points to there being few eBay employee “sellers” who actually sell more than a few items a year. For example, every time I speak with an eBay or Paypal employee on the phone, I ask the question whether they sell on eBay and I can tell you that almost every time the answer is No. Sometimes, though, the person will let me know that they used to sell on eBay a year or two ago.

The changes being made by eBay are being made from the perspective of a “buyer”. eBay has said that their goal is to improve the buyer experience and that is pretty much their only focus this year. Having eBay “buying experience”, whether by buying a few items or many items, still only gives one perspective. It is painfully obvious that the decision-makers and the vast majority of eBay employees on the front lines (ie those who are dealing directly with eBay sellers) have little or no selling experience.

I could be wrong. It would be great if eBay could inform us about some of their employees who successfully sell on eBay and it would be nice to hear how those folks are dealing with the vast number of issues currently facing eBay sellers.

As an ex eBay employee I used to monitor and track feedback gained by the staff in the eBay UK offices, in London.

I did this with the MD’s consent because, to some of your point, it was a great way to measure just how much interaction staff were having with the platform. I was, and am still, a great believer in employees knowing just how their product works, whether that is eBay’s UPI process or the complexities of adding a new address in PayPal.

Over my 7 years there I’m pleased to say that I saw a strong gradual rise in feedback score per head and that was in part to eBay being not only a great venue for buying and selling but also the encouragement I was given to push and prod people towards using the site more. Like you, I’d like it to be more, but wouldn’t we all?

Two little gems to leave you with:

1. I just crossed 1,000 feedback myself, of whioch around 985 was earned when at eBay. I was gutted that I never made it to a 1,000 myself so that I could get a signed certificate from Meg!

2. For a while in the San Jose post room they used to plaster “You can buy this on eBay” stickers on all incoming Amazon branded boxes. I liked that!

“Is there a decline in sellers? Absolutely. I’m one of them. Under this system as it is currently set up, I have such limited visibility and so many new requirements foisted on me that it is no longer cost effective to list here.”

Every now and then I come back and put a couple auctions on just to see what they will do. I presently have 4 that have been running for 4 days and collected only 79 views among them – actually only 2 views in ALL of yesterday. I have 100 percent feedback and DSR’s of 5.0 and used to have 25 to 50 auctions running constantly – so does Ebay expect to keep me with this kind of shoddy service? NO – they NO LONGER bring buyers and sellers together!!! I don’t care who they blame – bottom line is they have left nothing on Ebay to attract me or sellers like me to sell OR to buy on their site. I presently support etsy both buying and selling there along with ioffer, ecrater, onlineauctions, artbyus and my own website. This is not rare – Ebay, this is now the NORM among your “used to be sellers!” Get real, come down to earth before its too late (I kind of think its already too late). One day you’re going to issue yet another wacky policy and there will be nobody there to jump thru the hoops anymore!

Right now, I plan to just sit back and watch the disaster that is bound to be Q3!

Mr. Donahoe’s comment about assuming everything was a cause and effect due to a decline in sellers tells me 1)he still doesn’t get the whole picture and I hope he stops blaming the sellers for everything someday soon. Sheesh.

Is there a decline in sellers? Absolutely. I’m one of them. Under this system as it is currently set up, I have such limited visibility and so many new requirements foisted on me that it is no longer cost effective to list here.

What Mr Donahoe doesn’t seem to understand is that I am a buyer too and my experience as a seller has colored my view of eBay to the point where I just don’t want to shop here either.

The buyer vs seller, not to mention seller vs seller, atmosphere that has been created here has just pulled the air right out of the room. It’s no longer welcoming as either a buyer or a seller and it’s no longer a fun or efficent experience. My shopping dollars are being spent elsewhere and I certainly am not finding those places coming to eBay and doing a click through.

I keep checking back in the hopes that I’ll see a little bit of what I used to love about this place come back and eventually, I’ll probably stop doing that too.

At times, like right this minute, when I have the house to myself and peace and quiet, I long for the days when I could scroll through listings that I chose for myself (as opposed to eBay determining what they think I want based on their own criteria)for hours looking for and buying the perfect things. eBay made it so easy to do.

~~~sigh~~~

Not only would it be better Henrietta, it would actually display some ethics. Taking money from people and deliberately giving them an inferior service is not the actions a company with a good customer service output should be looking to do, it’s really poor form.

As for the ebay desktop application, it always concerns me when an application is ahead of the curve, you need to actively encourage the average user to feedback to you. I know that that’s what you’d like but the guy or girl who isn’t impressed by bells and whistles can provide some fantastic observations on usability.

“Christa Quarles – Thomas Weisel Partners

One question on the marketing side; it seems as if, given the fact that if I go to the page, for example, the only monetization that’s happening above the fold is an ad from Yahoo!, and I was just curious if that’s indicative of its ability to better monetize relative to what you think your listings can monetize, and/or if you think that ultimately improves the buyer experience? Thanks.

John J. Donahoe

Christa, yes, the bottom line is we think our listings, especially as we improve search, are the best way to monetize that above-the-fold real estate. So we do have the graphical display ad from Yahoo! at the top of the page but listings are still monetized most effectively and are consistent with the real core focus on the transaction marketplace.

We’re finding where the text ads really monetize best are on null search results, where in those rare cases we don’t have inventory, or on complementary items that are made to fold down at the bottom, and so overall both text ads and graphical advertising, as Bob said, is growing. We continually test that to make sure what placements optimize our advertising but by and large, above-the-fold listings monetize better.

Christa Quarles – Thomas Weisel Partners

So you think that you can continue to see high double-digit growth, even in this environment, given what’s going on in the display marketplace?”

John J. Donahoe

Prior to best march I had never experienced a “null” search return. I have since found myself wondering where the heck all the products are since best match and had assumed it was due to the decline in sellers – and their merchandise. However, now I am reconsidering my assumptions.

I have always recognized that Best Match served only to increase conversion rates for eBay’s fee collection (display those items under conditions with the highest frequency of conversion). It never crossed my mind that they were manipulating search to increase revenue from CTR. That is pretty freaking low!!

As a potential buyer I find (maybe I should say I don’t find) it very hard to see the items I want. I know that they are there because I have been around long enough to know that there is more than one way to skin a cat. Your average bored ‘maybe I will go cruise eBay’ buyer gives up.

Yesterday I searched violet cup. Then I excluded chimera, wax, soy, scented, and still weird stuff came up. Why would a gazillion wax pillar candles come up in a search for a cup? Neither word was in the title or description. African violets I understand. Is a two word search ‘either of’? It did not used to be.

Eventually, after a couple of HOURS I found three items that were by the maker and in the pattern I was looking for. Three. One was priced five times the normal, it had free parcel post shipping (4 – 6 weeks transit) but why would I want to pay $50 for a fairly common vintage item that normally sells for between $5 – $7 and ships Priority for $5?

I find best match to be frustrating to say the least. Why should I as a buyer be prevented from finding an item I want because the seller of that item does not meet some eBay algorithm requirement? Would it not be better to simply decline to accept that sellers listing and tell him to go away?

RBH said “He also pointed out that the interaction on Desktop vs. eBay.com is philosophically different with the former being more personal and the latter being more open and social.”

Desktop is an application I could download, which would improve my buyer experience, correct?
The reference to eBay.com is where I go in my preferred browser if I want to go to eBay?
‘the former being more personal’ = I would tailor the app to my preferences

How is eBay.com open and social? Am I being especially dim today? This is a distinct possibility.

It has been my experience in the past that downloading desktop apps has slowed my CPU. Vast amounts of information are funneled to whichever entity owns the app. and while not exactly malware they are closely related to spyware.

How does this apply to eBay desktop, or does it apply?