eBay Reduces Workforce by 10%

KPAOn October 6, 2008 at 5:32 am Said:

How sad to see people lose their jobs, especially right now with the economy on shaky ground. My heart goes out to those folks who are reaping the repercussions of change in that company.

I hope this isn’t another ill conceived change by Donahoe to put lipstick on the pig he calls site improvements. Is it just me that sees a decline since he took the helm or am I missing something in the big picture that has actually improved eBay.com over the last 9 months?

Ed (BuildaSkill)On October 6, 2008 at 7:17 am Said:

Quote of the year -

“We are making aggressive moves to strengthen our leadership positions in e-commerce and payments”

which will be why 10% of the staff are being laid off immediately after appointing another two board room members?

Yup, fewer indians, more chiefs = a swing in the strength of the leadership.

Hohum, keep going like this and it’ll be the chiefs who have to man the front line support positions, because there’ll more chiefs than indians, and the indians will be too busy with real work to take care of the customers… Oh forgot, Griff’s been doing that for years anyway.

… and where was the stock price today?

Ed

Joyce Tudor-HughesOn October 6, 2008 at 8:33 am Said:

“While never an easy decision to make, these reductions will help improve our operations and strengthen our ability to continue investing in growth.”

Your words – ‘improving efficiency’ and ‘investing in growth’ are euphemisms and PC for laying off staff.

Big BillOn October 6, 2008 at 8:52 am Said:

Unfortunate. Now some of those employees know what it’s like for the tens of thousands sellers who have had to leave eBay due to the ridiculous changes, fees and horrible insecurity about being forced to use Paypal. Hopefully Grif was the first to go this morning.

1939noelOn October 6, 2008 at 10:00 am Said:

Where have we heard this before – Ebay is on the slippery slope.

tammyOn October 6, 2008 at 10:32 am Said:

If you think Paypal fees are expensive try selling something at an auction house and then paying anything between 15% and 25% overall charges, AND THEN having to wait between four to six weeks for your cheque,which takes another week to clear.
AND the same charges apply for BUYING through an auction house

URKLESPANOn October 6, 2008 at 10:51 am Said:

There does seem to be a tendency to change the ebay site for no good reason on a frequent basis.
Perhaps they actually do have too many coders and web site designers and nothing for them to do?

Fed Up BobOn October 6, 2008 at 11:07 am Said:

It’s a crying shame that it’s not the arrogant management being laid off.

The top floor phrase “grossly ineffectual” just about sums them up.

There can’t be many companies world wide that abuse their customers and still wonder where it’s going wrong.

KevinOn October 6, 2008 at 11:20 am Said:

Why didn’t eBay lend the US government $700 billion dollars? Or run a special auction to win the debt?
It would have so much easier for everyone. Then they could announce they’d bought the entire USA because it fitted their business plan.
eBay are certainly acquisitive – but any company, however big , is not above being taken over themselves.
But they’re certainly eating the competion alive at the moment…..
Lastly, what on earth does inward facing staff mean? Do they sit with their backs to the window?

anjaahli khamalOn October 6, 2008 at 11:23 am Said:

Buyers don’t use ebay because it is full of counterfeit, and sellers don’t use ebay because ebay forces them off with unrealistic DSR targets. Then this is what happens, ebay business starts to fail.

Keith EOn October 6, 2008 at 11:48 am Said:

I feel for those people who are being made redundant, especially as it’s only just under 3 months till Christmas.

I am not surprised eBay is in trouble.

It just isn’t fun being on here anymore.

This was once a great website, it was an enjoyable experience selling and buying on here. Since 2008 rolled in, eBay has turned it into the most unpleasant dictatorial trading venue on earth.

God bless all those workers being sacked, I hope you find new jobs soon. Hopefully someone who has worked in eBay could use their knowledge to give them some decent competition one day.

This might reduce their arrogance

lebenningtonOn October 6, 2008 at 12:21 pm Said:

Cheers,

Richard, I think concerning the layoff news your article was based on today, that ‘Cheers’ was the wrong sign-off to use. Also, there are also some media sites that are saying 1600 people were laid off and not 1000. Which is it?

CNBC just called Ebay the biggest loser of the day. Cheers!

Pondering ...On October 6, 2008 at 12:40 pm Said:

It’s high time for Ebay shed a lot more than 10% of the people who sit on their backsides and do nothing yet take home a very fat salary i.e the management.

SHEMMYBOYOn October 6, 2008 at 12:41 pm Said:

SAD!!!! FOR THE PEOPLE WHO ARE LOSING THEIR JOBS BUT HAVE YOU NOTICED LATELY THE NUMBER OF SELLERS/BUYERS. IS IT ANY WONDER WHEN EBAY CHARGES 0.40P FOR LISTING FEE AND THEN TAKE 9.9% WHEN YOU SELL YOUR ITEM – OR BUY A SHOP AT STUPID PRICES!!!!

coppersharksOn October 6, 2008 at 1:56 pm Said:

I think eBay has been going downhill for a while. I don’t sell anymore as charges are prohibitive particularly if you use paypal. Security is another issue!
Buying is no better as seller have to inflate prices to cover fees. It’s certainly lost its appeal for me

ex-Ebay SellerOn October 6, 2008 at 2:37 pm Said:

And the cheerleaders on the boards said that our boycotts had no effect on eBay. 1000’s of sellers left due to disruptive innovation changes and took their customers and hundreds of thousands in monthly eBay fees with them. No effect eh?
One also has to wonder about the character of a corporation that says they don’t have the money to pay the salaries of 1000+ people yet at the same time spends
$1210000000 in CASH to buy two more companies. Couldn’t Donohoe figure out a way to divert a few million from this acquisition warchest to keep these 1000 souls on the payroll at least until after the holidays? Companies that act this way should have any and all US Tax credits revoked for the year.

TonyOn October 6, 2008 at 2:50 pm Said:

would be more useful if they streamlined the time lag for paying in money to paypal accounts, 10 days is unacceptable for cash to clear and be usable.

Fran MackOn October 6, 2008 at 3:14 pm Said:

This Forbes article sums it up beautifully:

http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/06/ebay-donahoe-whitman-tech-enter-cz_vb_1006ebay.html

Abandon a successful business model, drive buyers and sellers away, and look what happens. EBay ought to be doing really well in a financial crisis: heck, the car boot sale market in the UK is growing like the proverbial. Best Match and the so-called improved search experience are a disaster. I spent an hour yesterday looking for one simple thing.

GollyOn October 6, 2008 at 3:41 pm Said:

I hope those poor folk don no intend to try and make a living selling on Ebay, the actions to there lower level staff and customers is scandelous.

Shame on you Ebay.

Booktower-BlodwynOn October 6, 2008 at 3:56 pm Said:

i have used ebay as a seller for 5 years, but since january of 2008 my sales are falling, and the fees keep rising. Add to this the ridiculous search software, changes to the feedback system, and the rise of the stroppy, dishonest customer and it really is becoming hard work for a small seller like myself to make a weekly wage. Amazon and other auction sites are looking more and more viable.

as for the lay-offs; 10% of the workforce cant have been sitting around twiddling their thumbs all this time, those employees were obviously needed to run the org., and more freeloading boardmembers are not required.

[Sentence edited -- see comment policy]

Aamir SaghirOn October 6, 2008 at 4:36 pm Said:

e bay was once considered to be a very Good site but due to its stupid policies its going down day by day.I as a power seller left ebay just because i cannot fool innocent buyers of charging extra shipping on each individual purchase.Ebay doesnt even allow the seller to mention it on listings that this stupid rule of extra shipping charging is cuz ebay deducts almosts 20 % final value fees including Paypal.Gone are the days when there was no Auction site.A good seller is like a Queen bee.He can drive his buyers to any website & make it a success.

rocking georgeOn October 6, 2008 at 9:58 pm Said:

ebay is a prime example of how a good thing is messed with by management that has to change for the sake of change. every single “innovation” and “improvement” over the last 14 months or so has been a change for the worst. site is now unwieldy, illogical and buyers and sellers are increasingly ill-served. what should be a tremendous growth in the face of global economic turmoil is fast becoming a monument to the kind of mickey mouse management that got the world into the mess it now is. good luck to the sinking ship ebay and all who go down with her, you busted a damned good thing guys….

Simon ROn October 6, 2008 at 10:54 pm Said:

This is part of the natural closing of the window which eBay has occupied. eBay has had it easy for too long, with little competition, but now competition is increasing, as is resistance to some of the terrible experiences eBay offers, therefore far too many customers and sellers are more than happy to use other services instead of eBay or give up altogether.

And please dont tell me that “the eBay Experience is always improving” – nonsense. It’s been consistently and measurably bad, the WAY in which it has been bad has simply altered as the complexity has increased and as eBay as an organisation has changed.

Ann1On October 6, 2008 at 10:54 pm Said:

I read these posts and all of them say basically the same thing. I read comments on articles about Ebay – more of the same thing. In the past three months I have read hundreds and hundreds of posts all saying basically the same thing! Does Ebay even read this stuff? Why bother having a place where people can post their opinions if its simply ignored. Ebay now has such a bad reputation – not only for its frauds and fakes but also for its treatment of sellers this past year and what people are calling Ebay’s attitude: arrogant. This spreads by word of mouth and could be yet another reason why traffic is down on the site along with the fact that many sellers left and don’t buy on Ebay anymore either. I feel this is all being ignored and yet – its all so vital! :-(

MichaelOn October 7, 2008 at 1:16 am Said:

eBay has kept me busy constantly revising my listings to comply with new policy changes. Then AOL dumps a biggie with closing their FTP space on Oct. 31. I’m a Power Seller closing my store too and going elsewhere.
Customer service is lousy, but when you consider who made it to the top, it’s no wonder. They’re just following in his footsteps.

allan_stainesOn October 7, 2008 at 2:10 am Said:

Comparing eBay to an auction house is fatuous. An auctioneer puts his/her professional reputation on the line when cataloguing an item – eBay allows any old lie to appear in descriptions and has no intention of ever building the necessary expertise. eBay/Paypal’s total seller fees are now 10p + 9% + 20p +3.5%. My local auctioneer sells worldwide, knows his stuff and charges 15%.
The most galling thing about recent changes is that eBay now declares that, though avowedly ignorant, it knows more than the searcher/buyer. “Best Match” is an unmitigated disaster, eBay knows this but prefers to tell the searcher what they want to see instread of what thery specifically asked to see. I hope the designers of this new search are among the redundant!

Louise RobertsOn October 7, 2008 at 2:40 am Said:

I would just like to say thank you to ebay for all the recent changes – as a small business they benefit me – my fees should actually drop by around £100 a month – until I re-invest that money into our business and they increase again – but then of course not only will we benefit, so will ebay.

As for the job losses – ebay is still a relatively new and evolving company, technology improves and job losses are inevitable, but as ebay expands even more, doubtless jobs will be created again in the future – it is only temporary.

baconsdozenOn October 7, 2008 at 2:59 am Said:

A shame to see job losses especially with Christmas coming up.Ebay seems to be forsaking the auctions that made it such a success and is losing both its customers and its reputation as the place for a bargain at the same time.
A shame.

Anthony ChambersOn October 7, 2008 at 3:41 am Said:

Well i sorry to see ebay loose 18 members,
hope they find new jobs soon, it is indead a sad day.

Ebay should fix the site.but it has its own adjender.

I unfortuante that ebay is reducing the number of family it feeds.

Good luck and hope you get jobs soon, Tommory they are signing up for social security so at least they can pay the rent ant buy some food.

david attridgeOn October 7, 2008 at 3:42 am Said:

i have been with ebay for over 6 years with the same account. i have %100 feedback and i do mean 100 not that new thing that clears it up each year. ebay have got better in helping people but they are losing sellers all the time because of all the changers to the way the site looks. and the new search is a joke. and i don’t think the costs are a real problem as ebay if you remember was started just to help you sell all your old junk out of the loft. but now it has turned into a shop for new items. and from what i have seen many sellers of new items are trying to cheat the UK out of money. one last thing (STOP ALL THE CHANGERS)

KaraokeOn October 7, 2008 at 3:57 am Said:

I have been a long-time frequent seller and since 2008 the changes in ebay was so irritating and hurting that I have spent less time in selling and spent more time in writing on the discussion board. I wrote about their arrogant policies that further rip off sellers (e.g. forcing sellers to accept only paypal in Australia) and the so called paypal protection policy that protects no one except ebay itself (I just lost money on another paypal dispute today because the buyer claimed she did not received the item, which is inexpensive and it made no sense to provide tracking option on such item). And the new user interface & search engine is a lot worse than before and I have to opt out the trials immediately. I think I have wrote enough about these issues before and I have given up on ebay completely – simply for the fact that they don’t listen to objections. Ebay’s arrogance and refusal to listen to the humble sellers (like myself) have ensured a lost-lost situation. So any negative news on ebay make no surprise to me, just read through the feedback on this blog and you will find the insight to the cause of their problems, every one (except ebay management) who left a message here know what went wrong on ebay but sadly their voices are not being heard.

Ron YoungOn October 7, 2008 at 4:50 am Said:

Sound like ebay & PayPal will save enough money to make their websites better.
I must be one of the great unwashed that are well browned off by delays on getting through and staying logged on to Ebay PayPal sites
If the sites improve many customers would start enjoying the experience instead of trying to find working alternatives.
The one not so obvious point could be PayPal is now so big and Bank Like That May Be the directors and investors can now get rich by loosing all its business
May be there is a plan for the biggest ever Bailout just round the corner, Bush must be searching for somewhere to burn more taxpayers money.

Ian MitchellOn October 7, 2008 at 7:53 am Said:

I’m sorry for those losing their jobs but am not the least surprised that ebay is in deep trouble. An earlier poster said it just wasn’t any fun anymore, and, certainly for a buyer, every recent change has been for the worst. I still use it, reluctantly, but only for lack of competition.Get rid of the generals not the foot soldiers.

Dianne PrestonOn October 7, 2008 at 8:21 am Said:

Pity they don’t put as much effort into making PayPal (UK) more user-friendly. It is almost impossible to get a problem resolved. If you are lucky-enough to actually speak to a human being they invariably have insufficient command of the English language to know what you’re talking about. And more-often-than-not they are difficult, if not impossible, to understand. After exchanging over 24 e-mails and making several premium-rate ‘phone calls my account of six years standing is still in-operative. PayPal blame my bank, the NatWest, the NatWest in turn insist that PayPal have been quoting the wrong ‘reference’ and the fault lies entirely with them. Would I take out a Credit Card with this lot….What do you think!!

StephenOn October 7, 2008 at 8:24 am Said:

The reason sellers are reporting reduced sales is because everyone has less spare cash. Good opportunity for some bargains out there?

URKLESPANOn October 7, 2008 at 8:49 am Said:

I wish to add my voice to the protest about buyers being able to claim for non-delivery when most of the time it has actually been delivered.
On low value items it is not worth sending via parcelforce or recorded-the items sell because they are cheap and postage is low.
There is now no recourse for sellers at all.
You can’t even leave neg when you know full well you’ve been ripped off.
Can’t ebay design and implement some mechanism to plug this obvious hole?
Perhaps by accepting proof of postage on items less than a tenner?

michael tulleyOn October 7, 2008 at 9:24 am Said:

I am a new ebay seller (July2008). I have found a few problems with the system in general and usually not a quick way of resolving these problems! I totally sympathise with anyone losing their jobs, especially just before xmas! But if the likes of myself are having problems, a reduction in staff will not help the situation in resolving those problems! FOR EXAMPLE today I have 145 items “unsold” when in fact I DONT!! for some reason nearly all my items for sale have “moved” into my unsold list??? Now they want me to supply item Nos.!!! That would take forever! I ahve suggested THEY look at the lists as it is obvious which are the duplicated items!! I await their reply!!

muddywelliesOn October 7, 2008 at 11:02 am Said:

Who did not see this coming? I feel horrible for the ones laid off, but they had to seen this coming? They would have been the poor people actually dealing with all of us unhappy sellers. They would have been the poor souls who had defy common sense and good business practices only to spout eBay and PayPal policy. They would have to have known with so many sellers leaving that the business would suffer. Things have gone from bad, to worse, to where it is now which to me is almost unusable. How the site looks, the new ways of searching, sellers not being able to leave HONEST feedback, the outrageous fees, the unjust lack of coverage for items sent just because they don’t have a tracking number. Seriously, I have been ripped off eight times by buyers and not once have I ever been covered or helped by eBay or PayPal. They are all about grabbing as much money as they can out of other people’s pockets. Sadly, this time it’s from their own employees. And these silly fees now imposed must be passed on to the buyer which means that as buyers we’re not finding bargains anymore. Ebay is making it’s own self pointless.

ebay slaveOn October 7, 2008 at 11:15 am Said:

Ebay do not listen.

After a recent buyer ripped me off I asked ebay for help.
28 emails later from 28 different ebay staff we go round in circles. I’m not going to give up. When it gets to 100 emails I will provide the BBC with this sham. My dispute also invloves PAYPAL who behave like back street gangster bankers. WHAT SELLER PROTECTION?
Time to look into the paypal monopoly.

Paypal do not listen.

diggerkilroyOn October 7, 2008 at 11:50 am Said:

why dont ebay team up with the post office/royal mail,or any other countries mail service for that matter,and have a traceable number,that is given when posting any item sold on ebay,say a small fee say of 5p,(optional of course)it would generate more money for ebay and the post office,(and me in royalties for comming up with the idea) and give sellers a little peace of mind,and could be used in disputes with post companies etc!

inlandrevenuOn October 7, 2008 at 1:06 pm Said:

The messaage is consistent we can empathise with those laid off ( hopefully they were the ones with the lazy responses to Help requests, you know the ones that cant read too well) That said sellers very unhappy buyers also unhappy ( why ? its a buyers market , if you are a buyer cheer yourself up go bully a seller threaten bad feedback if they dont do what you ask ). with buyers and sellers deserting Ebay in their thousands if I were a Ebay stockholder I would be selling up . These fancy cosmetic changes are not going to kid anyone in the business world. Who are the stock holders ? they should be bearing down on the CEO to calm the market. To date Ebay has managed to bully its customers , when is a seller going to emerge that will lead the technology solution for buyers and sellers to speak out and connect with the shareholders. I wish I had the know how harness the collective power of the unhappy seller voices through the power of the web. We are all users and yet we seem not to be able marshal our concerns and make them known to those that matter. I would go so far as to say that Governments need to take a closer interest than they do , I suspect that they underestimate the social fallout that would follow from a collapse of Ebay. One final word “Competition”.. where is that Richard Branson when you really need him. Golden opportunity Dicky to take on Ebay and win millions of friends in the process.

Bob HerbertOn October 7, 2008 at 1:36 pm Said:

I agree with the sellers who are complaining about the new inflated fees. Also forcing sellers to only leave positive feedback even when a buyer can leave bad and abusive feedback.

poppy pantsOn October 7, 2008 at 3:11 pm Said:

I wouldn’t be surprised if the last bullet in the foot that Ebay fired with the new best match search they have recently introduced doesn’t end up in even more cut backs. I know it has grossly affected my sales on Ebay so I guess many other sellers are struggling. Less sales means less overall profits and money available for Ebay too. They don’t seem to have worked out that you have to look after the sellers too and not just the buyers.

inlandrevenuOn October 7, 2008 at 3:50 pm Said:

Can anyone tell me what the point of leaving feedback for a buyer if it cant be negative? Positive feedback for buyers counts for nothing ( and yet buyers are so keen to receive it ?) Our Ebay shops now leave positive feedback with ( where appropriate) negative comments where we feel we owe it to the seller community to share negative aspects even if it means placing it alongside positive score. Crazy!

Rupert the BearOn October 7, 2008 at 6:13 pm Said:

Ebay have lost the plot and deserve to be replaced. The paypal disaster in Australia, the horrible new search system with ‘best match’, the awful presentation of listed items with the mutlipe tabs, the new improved ‘my ebay’ that is equally terrible all shows a company in terminal decline.

This is the bit I really dislike

“We are the global leader in classifieds with top positions in Canada, Australia, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, and sites in more than 1,000 cities across 20 countries”

One of the least useful improvments has been the addition of other classifieds to ebay, now you cannot search for just ebay items or the other classifides it is all mixed together, usless just usless, i mean what is the point looking on the newspaper classifieds for cars, searching by price and being inundated by ebay auction lisitings..

Fight the PowerOn October 8, 2008 at 1:33 am Said:

There are probably more complaints on various internet sites concerning EBAY
than any other company I know.
Their customer service is non existant. Redress and complaints are impossible and ignored.
The site map is not set out to help people with problems of any kind and they
continually fail to answer written complaints
They have been accused of breaching the data protection act.
When the police are informed of fraud on the site,
the complaint from the customer will be directed to eBay’s online
dispute resolution process, so passing the buck making it easy for ebay to hide responsibility!
They continually reply with the same glib comments and standard emails without admitting responsibility or apologising
for inconvenience to the customer. Many belive their negativity to be deliberate.
And they insist on seller accepting paypal. This is a monopoly also and allied to ebay profits. This
must be an unfair practice.
MD McCallum claims we are “all valued
customers” that should “continue to use and enjoy ebay for many years to come” .
And also state o”verzealous enforcement of restrictive sales practices are anti-competitive… we will not
accept outdated attempts to restrict the Internet to the detriment of our community.” Has anyone
ever heard such?!
If eBay profits from the sales of illegal goods then it should be held liable.
It is the beleif of many that ebay will go the way of microsoft and be buried
in lawsuits.
The sooner the company goes under the better.

RichMOn October 8, 2008 at 2:53 am Said:

The trouble with all new industries is that the newcomers start with a “taking on the big fish/going to smash the establishment” attitude but, in reality, they aspire to be bigger if not badder than the establishment (qv. Google).

Unfortunately the very nature of the competitive system means that companies will not stop obsessing about being aggressive, driving the competition out of business and other unwholesome corporate dogmas.

Big JohnOn October 8, 2008 at 5:09 am Said:

I feel sympathetical to the people losing their jobs as I’ve been there myself twice and it’s not good.

But- it’s about time that someone made a stand against ebays dicatorial regime, and put their money where their mouths are and STOP USING IT!

If people feel the fees are exorbitant, (which to be honest they are- as it is an internet based business it should have low enough overheads to make buying and selling a lot cheaper than it does) then let your feet do the talking!

It’s not just the fees though. The buyer protection offered by Paypal is a load of rubbish, and not worth the words that are written on it (I know to my cost). It’s just one huge money-making affair I’m afraid- they don’t give a stuff for anyone who uses it- it’s all about ££££££££’s and $$$$$$$’s.

Never mind though- moan over now- the sun is out again and I’m getting off my PC!

bid2winauOn October 8, 2008 at 5:27 am Said:

Absolutely shameful! There are other sites.

GJBOn October 8, 2008 at 6:28 am Said:

Well what to say, must consider now to stop Ebay sales totally, to much fees are going to Ebay itself en Paypal, this fees should give big provid for Ebay, but no it gives big looses for all sellers, and now 1000 employees are sacked why? Is there any reason for? Any item you place on Ebay cost money, if the item is sold cost money, if item is paid with Paypal it cost money….. Al this money is too much and cannot stand forever…..