President Norrington considered Scot Wingo wise enough to quote him in her PESA E-Commerce presentation in New Orleans in April 2008 as reported here on eBayINK.

Norrington said,

“Scot Wingo, at the ChannelAdvisor Conference earlier this month suggested that eBay remains the single best place to quickly convert your inventory into cash”

I wonder if President Norrington is still following the wisdom of Scot Wingo. I wonder if she is aware of how right he is again concerning the urgent need for eBay to snap out of it; to urgent need to fix the disastrous “enhancements” implemented in May of 2008. Stat.

As Scot so wisely wrote:

“I’ve been part of the eBay world since 1997 or earlier – first as a buyer and then as an entrepreneur in the eBay ecosystem with two companies. For us ‘old timers’, we know that eBay had something special going and now its painful to watch it fall apart, slipping through everyone’s hands like sand. Some folks in the press have drawn the comparison of the relationship between complaining sellers and eBay to be like that of an abusive relationship. That may be a fair criticism, but the way I look at it is if you had some ideas to turn this thing around and it was important to you that eBay not crash and burn, you should do something about it. I’m as frustrated as everyone else, because I believe the strategy outlined here has been in front of them for 5 yrs and they just don’t seem to either get it or be able to execute (or both). eBay was something special, and can be again.”

There must be a more diplomatic, and non-exclusive way to treat ALL of the people who are selling.
There also should be a way to have some kind of due process prior to restrictions or suspensions. The way it happens now is very disruptive to the lives of sellers. In some cases it may have been needed but there are so many times it has forced financial hardship on honest people.
The changes that are made should never be disruptive. In need of adjustment, maybe.

I believe that eBay does not care what 99.99999% of their customers (sellers) want. It seems to me that they see all of those as sheep to be fleeced so that someone pays for the concessions they give to the top 50 sellers.

What a joke that is.

Can you outline for us, regarding your quote on partnerships being a give and take, exactly what ebay sees as having given to its seller base? I’m confused, as I’ve seen only “take.” With this in mind, I assume you are really saying that you do not want your seller partnerships to be good. If such, your desires are being realized. The horde of discontented small sellers/buyers you’ve unleashed is giving you much more publicity than you could ever overcome with a marketing program. You need to fix this, as the public perception of your marketplace is more important than enything else.

Please don’t send Ms. Norrington here again to tell us how valuable we are, and consider that a “give.”

As a small seller of items that sell under $25 and a good STR, I’ve seen ebay increase their fees 67 percent in 2008. I’ve seen some of my fraud protection tools disappear. I’ve been punished by a DSR system that has no objectivity. What else? A small seller would be foolish to try to expand in this marketplace anymore. Any seller starting in ebay flees at the first experience with a Paypal 21 day hold and joins the discontented hordes that you hear every day in line at the post office.

My “give” to your effort is to incent everyone at ebay based on their individual participation and success in your own marketplace. You’d instantly get more market intelligence than any group of sellers would ever give you. Get some individual skin in the game.

One last thing–who would go to battle to define the future of ecommerce with a comrade who is known to stab you in the back once or twice a year to claim a bigger share of the booty?

I hope you take to heart what is being posted here by “your” customers, eBay sellers.

Your responsibilities encompass the entire eBay “Seller Experience” and from what I see posted all over the web, be it this Blog, eBay discussion boards and other sites like AuctionBytes.com, Sellers are not happy with their eBay experience and leaving in droves.

As a Seller still on this shrinking marketplace that concerns me greatly becuase even though our sales are growing, the marketplace as a whole is becoming less vibrant. And your action to hold secret meetings with on a select few of eBay’s largest Sellers and restrict any information what so ever from coming out of those meetings with a required NDA is COUNTER PRODUCTIVE.

Far too many of the steps eBay has taken to “Reinvigorate” this marketplace the past couple of years has had the opposite effect. While some have had positive effects “Secret” meetings like this with Diamond PowerSellers is NOT doing anything to improve the “Selling Experience” of the 99.99999999% of sellers shut out and excluded from any aspect of the meeting what so ever.

Your responsibility is to ALL Sellers, and if you want to earn their respect and build a “Partnership” with the selling community so as to turn eBay around, it is time the “Give and Take” start going both ways. Please release ALL of the information covered in the Long Beach Top Seller meeting to the entire Selling community and hold all future meetings in open regard even if not all Sellers can be accommodated in person with their attendance. We ALL have the right to know what eBay is planning and doing, as eBay is so fond of proclaiming there are over 1 MILLION families that rely on eBay as all or part of their income, not just a hand full of selected Top Sellers. This is an eBay “Partnership” with ALL Sellers, right? Not just between eBay and the top few Sellers I would hope.

Thank you,

Doctor Deals