eBay Fraud Scams exposed

Just a year ago the Wall Street sentiment projected deeply pessimistic outlook.

Today we hear so called ‘good news’ every where.

Last year:
Latest Retail sales figures are showing another decline. Retailers worried, deep discounting, consumers holding out…
This year:
Latest Retail sales figures areshowing another decline. But the declines are not as bad as projected…

You see the difference in attitude? Last year it was doom and gloom but this year, although the indicators are not encouraging, the media is spinning more positive outlook on economic situation at hand.

No doubt the pessimism in consumer outlook contributed to eBay sales declines past three quarters. But how do you explain this?

Net transaction revenues(1)

Dec 31 2008
EBAY Marketplaces Declined over same quarter year ago by ( -18% )
EBAY Overall Revenues Declined over same quarter year ago ( -7%)
AMZN overall Net sales INCREASED over the same quarter year ago by +18%

March 31 2009
EBAY Marketplaces Declined over same quarter year ago by ( -18% )
EBAY Overall Revenues Declined over same quarter year ago ( -8%)
AMZN Overall Net sales INCREASED over the same quarter year ago by +18%

June 30, 2009
EBAY Marketplaces Declined over same quarter year ago by ( -14% )
EBAY Overall Revenues Declined over same quarter year ago ( -4%)
AMZN Overall Net sales INCREASED over the same quarter year ago by +14%

The latest numbers from ComScore confirm what most eBay sellers predicted in March of this year.

eBay changes enacted this and last year will result in both Sellers and Buyers abandoning eBay for more competitive marketplaces.

Last year eBay removed the transparency and hid the bidder ID’s so a few months later all the statistics on eBay Auctions showed a major decline. There were articles published by most financial and market magazines and newspapers speculating why eBay auctions lost their luster. The answer is simple. Auctions are alive and well, just not on eBay. eBay hid bidder’s IDs so eBay customers lost confidence in the eBay auction process because they could not determine if they are bidding against a real bidder or against a shiller bidder.

Then eBay enacted slew of changes starting with increased final value fees on Auctions and Fixed price items, raising the percentage charged to the seller from 5.25% to 8.75% and later followed by yet another fee increase to 12.75% on fixed price items. Next eBay attempts to extract additional revenues from eBay sellers by forbiding them to offer checks and money orders as an allowed payment method for eBay sales. (( PayPal charges eBay seller 3.2% fee, getting paid by check/MO does not cost the seller anything.)) eBay then removed another layer of transparency in the market place by allowing buyers to leave negative feedback removing this priviledge from sellers, which in turn left sellers vulnerable to scammers or competition potentially destroying seller reputation. This in turn drove many sellers away from eBay to alternative ways of selling online. Many buyers followed the sellers to these alternative venues. One beneficiary of this seller exodus is Amazon.

The good news keeps piling up for Amazon.com today.

Internet research firm comScore says the number of unique visitors to Amazon sites from Dec. 1 to Dec. 24 — the height of the holiday shopping season — surged 7 percent from the corresponding period in 2007, to 76.2 million.

Amazon’s strong traffic numbers come at a time when overall holiday ecommerce spending was down 3 percent, according to comScore.

eBay remained the most visited retail site with 85.4 million visitors but saw a decline of 4 percent in visitors.

On 2 year comparison, Amazon traffic increased past two years in the row, while eBay traffic declined 10% from 2006 to 2007 Holiday Season and this year saw another 4% decline.

This clearly points to eBay management killing the goose that laid the golden egg, slowly but surely. They may blame the economy, recession or Uncle Bob, but the statistics on millions of users do not lie, eBay has alienated sellers, buyers, employees and stock holders alike.

32 % of eBay users report being scammed according to the latest survey commissioned by Consumer Reports WebWatch as part of its “Look Before You Click” campaign, supported by a CyberAwareness Grant from the New York State Office of Attorney General and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The survey represents one of the most comprehensive studies of New York state Internet users, their behavior and their problems with online fraud in a variety of environments: Online auctions, shopping, e-mail and spam, privacy and others. The whole survey is available today for the first time at :
http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/dynamic/fraud-reports-internetfraud.cfm

Online Auctions - Great Bargains, Possible Problems

For more than two years, online auction fraud has been the number one complaint of New York state residents to government organizations that keep track. The WebWatch survey shows that 27 percent of state residents who have ever used an online auction Web site, such as eBay or Amazon, have experienced a scam or deceptive practice - 32 percent of eBay users were scammed.

Eleven percent of online auction site users reported they never received the goods they bid on, the most common complaint. In addition, seven percent of survey respondents who received their goods said they were not in the condition they expected. Other common complaints included not being told a key detail about the item before it arrived (7 percent) and being sent an item of lesser value than the one they actually bid on and won (7 percent). Read details of our in-depth investigation of auction sites, including lessons learned by New York State residents:

http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/pdfs/casestudies.pdf

Beware : eBay PR wants you to belive you are safe shopping on eBay but independent research proves otherwise. You are better off shopping at other venues. eBay derives too much profit from scams and eBay management is notorious for closing both eyes over the customers being scammed if curbing scams cuts into eBay’s bottom line.

Browsing the news this morning, I noticed that an article of interest on PayPal was deleted from the original source at SeekingAlpha. Before it dissappears from CACHEd pages, I thought it was worth preserving. Although this is a free country, where freedom of speach is paramount pillar, some speech has more freedom than other, especially if you speak against a corporation with billions of dollars worth of influence over something as fragile as freedom of speech.

Here is an belated Christmas present for those who value this freedom.

Paypal Ruins Christmas for eBay Customers
by: Dinah Balk December 25, 2008 | about stocks: EBAY
Dinah Balk

This could happen to you. I recently read a very sad story posted on eBay’s (EBAY) Paypal discussion board. It’s about a fantastic mom (eBay id: seasonalstuff) who sold holiday decorations to earn Xmas money for her family. Unfortunately all her hard work was for nothing because the Paypal Grinch froze her account two weeks before Santa’s arrival.

What did this seller do wrong? She sold too many Xmas decorations. Then she was selected for an “account review” by the Paypal Grinch because her sales triggered Paypal’s built in false positives. She also refused to give Paypal her SSN and driver’s license number out of fear of identify theft on the advice of her attorney. I don’t blame her. I wouldn’t give Paypal my SSN or license number either because all members’ personal information is shared with eBay’s entire corporate structure, subcontractors, and God knows who else, which is really scary when you think about it .

Now multiply this situation by thousands of sellers whose funds have been held or charged back for ridiculous reasons such as: 1) false positives; 2) less than 100 feedback; 3) sold too many items; 4) etc. etc. etc. and a pattern begins to emerge.

I doubt if Donahoe ever asked himself the following questions before he added the mandatory use of Paypal to eBay’s user agreement.

What buyer will tolerate shipping delays due to a seller’s funds being held?
What seller wants their funds to be held for up to 180 days for no good reason?
What seller wants charge backs if they have a no refund policy or when a buyer experiences remorse or neglects to read an item description?
John’s mandatory Paypal policy is why Xmas Mom’s children may not have Xmas this year. Other sellers are reporting the same thing. I’m sure family members are helping out but it’s sad to think eBay’s new CEO could not have foreseen this occurring. Perhaps he didn’t care.

Here’s Xmas Mom’s story, in her own words:

Due to circumstances beyond my control I am going to have to cancel some orders and give full refunds and end all listings tonight. Paypal has decided that after over 300 completed transactions and NO problems, they need to freeze my account for a minimum of 21 days. Over the last few months I’ve sold here on eBay to save money for Christmas, times are tough as many of you know and this is a great way to earn some extra money.

The problem is they have frozen my shipping funds and all of my Christmas money. I don’t have much cash. I can’t pay for the remaining shipping out of pocket without completely ruining Christmas for my kids. I hope you can find it in your hearts to understand. I will be leaving eBay. After I get through this mess I’m moving my inventory over to Amazon (AMZN). Those of you who are sellers too…you may want to consider it too some day. I pray that it doesn’t take something like this. I wish everyone the best and I hope your Holidays are wonderful. My apologies again.

This article has 26 comments:

» eBay +++ 31 Comments Dec 25 04:56 AM This is a real beauty — “I don’t blame her. I wouldn’t give Paypal my SSN or license number either because all members’ personal information is shared with eBay’s entire corporate structure, subcontractors, and God knows who else, which is really scary when you think about it .”

Dinah Balk you have got to be kidding? To say something like this without knowing a anything about how eBay handles it’s information is deformation of character with no basis. Watch out you Donahoe may freeze everything you have. LOL

There is no better way to pay on the internet than Paypal. I had an Account since they were bought by eBay use it frequently and have never once had an issue. I use it off eBay whenever it’s offered. Can’t how many times I’ve found something that I wanted to purchase and saw that they didn’t offer Paypal and didn’t feel like getting up to search for my Credit Card and just thought I’d come back to it latter and never purchased it. With Paypal I just log in and I’m done, no long CC # to punch in, just too easy. If I were a Seller that conversion acceleration alone is worth the fee.

That 21 days is nothing, it’s keeping everybody safe including her. If her business can’t weather that than it’s time to find a new business…

Watching the Wheels 65 Comments Dec 25 05:45 AM Ebay+++, Don’t you think that it might be a bit wiser to withhold commentary UNTIL You sell on Ebay ?

You stated that you have a Paypal account, so it would be a fairly easy thing to click a few buttons and list an item or 2 on Ebay. It would be interesting to study how willing you would really be to ship an item to an unknown person without having the money in your hand.

You might want to read through the actual Paypal contractual segments before you attempt this so you can fully appreciate these wondrous protections.

I had planned to sell on Ebay because venues offer an incredibly low cost opportunity to start a business.After watching the sweeping policy shifts that began in January of 2008, I decided that there were NO PROTECTIONS in place for the seller.

I sell on a different venue and I do utilize Paypal because of the brand recognition and increase in sales that I will receive due to their service. Fortunately I have only encountered one minor problem. I did not appreciate attempting to resolve this problem via an outsourced call center because the phone rep didn’t understand a single thing that I was attempting to convey. I did not appreciate the amoount of time it took to track down the TOLL NUMBER to be able ot speak with a rep whose primary language was the same as mine. I don’t appreciate the cost of this phone call, but on the plus side, by being willing to incur said cost, I have also provide myself with better documentation.

During the time frame that I was dealing with a glitch I attempting all the online possible solutions and got nowhere. The supposed online help’s transcripts are comical.If you repost and leave your address, I’ll send you copies.

Have you reached your spending limit yet? Are you really comfortable giving Paypal access to a bank account?

I fail to see the sence of the 21 day hold. In order to sell, there has to be some sort of bank account attached to the Paypal in order to actually get your money. If there is the necessity of refunding money, Paypal can freeze said account making the 21 day hold completely unnecessary. I f Paypal or Ebay choose to extend credit to an individual, that’s fine. I choose not to.

Hirorir 1 Comment Dec 25 06:20 AM Sorry to hear about this, Paypal can be a real annoyance sometimes; it’s also real cruddy that you had to be hit down on Christmas season too.
I’d advise you to go hardcore on this and file complaints on them for holding your funds for these 21 days (with intention to use on Holiday Season) with improper reasoning (if possible lead to sue). Your SSN should NOT be asked by Paypal, regardless of the reviewer. I believe Paypal should have a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy? After all, they have all the information they’ll ever need right in their storage.

lucky lenny 33 Comments Dec 25 06:29 AM To combat fraud, to hold funds for a a month or so to make sure the seller isn’t a fraud, makes sense to me. I’m in agreement with Paypal on this one.

fairytrixy 5 Comments Dec 25 06:43 AM HoHoHo ebay+++

Next time you post it might be wise to do so prior to having a cocktail:)

Cheers!

eBuyer Feedback 3 Comments Dec 25 06:48 AM I had basically the same thing happen to me last year. I had a lot of listings going on (featured plus) with immediate PayPal payment required. eBay wouldn’t close the listings and refund my fees even though it was their fault my listings couldn’t sell. They told me it was my problem and I needed to contact PayPal. They even had the nerve to hang up on me in the middle of the conversation.

I had a customer from Russia that had paid the day before. I normally use Stamps.com and Endicia to do my postage but those wouldn’t work for their address. USPS Click-n-ship wouldn’t work either. That only left PayPal shipping. But since my account was limited I was expressly forbidden from printing postage through them.

PayPal took several days to clear up the block but by then my listings were all ruined and I lost several customers. I guess I trusted them with my personal information (that’s the only thing I trust eBay/PayPal with) and that is what led to the different outcome for me.

I was very lucky that I avoided a wave of negative feedback and chargebacks in the middle of that ordeal. I know how eBay users are and if they strongly suspect a scam they’ll rush their trading partner right out of business and then eBay uses those negs and chargebacks to justify kicking you off and holding your money indefinitely (which also leads to even more chargebacks).

Funny thing is one week they were congratulating me on becoming a gold powerseller. The next week they told me I was selling too much and almost trashed my 5 year old business.

Paul Price 176 Comments Dec 25 06:52 AM The vendor states she “had to give refunds” as her payments were being held up.

Why her account had been credited when the buyers paid. She could ship normally and her funds (if they were actually held up by PayPal) would have been released after 21 days.

We have no evidence that her story is even accurate. Anybody can say anything. Perhaps this whole episode was planted by someone short EBAY stock?

Regardless of that, I don’t see how cancelling transactions was necessary or what it accomplished. The buyers get the merchandise- the seller got paid.

If she didn’t like PayPal she could arrange for other forms of payment that she thinks are more acceptable to her.

Paul Price 176 Comments Dec 25 06:58 AM Every single article from this author’s name is a critical piece on EBAY.

She does not appear to have any intent here on Seeking Alpha other than to create ill-will towards EBAY and/or to hurt the stock.

Dinah Balk is not a stock analyst- she is working for the shorts on EBAY.

redbaron 169 Comments Dec 25 07:20 AM Paul, you need to try to sell on eBay first, before commenting on this situation. If you really have an interest here, why not go ahead and give it a try? You likely have some merchandise laying around, and the software is easy to use. Selling would for sure give you a different perspective on the situation, and would certainly add some credibility to your comments.

Without some personal experience, your thoughts have no substance or credibility. Ebay and PayPal are changing the rules to their advantage, during the holiday seasonal selling climax, and putting their customers (sellers are the only ones paying fees here) at risk of financial ruin. You are making assumptions here on a situation about which you know nothing.

You are correct about one thing, however, Dinah Balk is not a stock analyst, and that to me makes her very much more credible.

Dinah Balk 157 Comments Dec 25 08:37 AM Good morning everyone -

Got lots of Xmas stuff to do. Will be stopping by later when I have more time.

Merry Xmas!

arlin 18 Comments Dec 25 09:42 AM Dear Dinah
Manty thanks for your informative reports throughout the year.
Merry Christmas.

Paul Price 176 Comments Dec 25 11:03 AM redbaron,

I do sell through Ebay and use PayPal regularly with zero problems.

fatseal 5 Comments Dec 25 11:33 AM Do you not know that there is no other form of payment on ebay? It’s paypal or a merchant account.

Dinah Balk 157 Comments Dec 25 11:34 AM Here is Paypal’s Privacy Policy just in case anyone is interested.

You must log into your Paypal account. Go to the bottom of the home page and click on Legal Agreements. On the next page, underneath Agreements For All Users, click on Privacy Policy.

Please note that eBay’s corporate family is substantially larger than what was stated. My website has a complete listing of the entire corporate family.

How we share personal information with other parties

We may share your personal information with:

Members of the eBay Inc. corporate family — like eBay, Shopping.com or Skype — to provide joint content and services (like registration, transactions and customer support), to help detect and prevent potentially illegal acts and violations of our policies, and to guide decisions about their products, services and communications. Members of our corporate family will use this information to send you marketing communications only if you have requested their services.

Service providers under contract who help with parts of our business operations; (fraud prevention, bill collection, marketing, technology services). Our contracts dictate that these service providers only use your information in connection with the services they perform for us and not for their own benefit.

Financial institutions that we partner with to jointly create and offer a product such as the PayPal Plus credit card where we share information with GE Money Bank to determine whether you should receive pre-approved offers for the PayPal Plus credit card. These financial institutions may only use this information to market PayPal-related products, unless you have given consent for other uses.

Credit bureaus to report outstanding negative balance accounts, as allowed by law.
Companies that we plan to merge with or be acquired by. (Should such a combination occur, we will require that the new combined entity follow this privacy policy with respect to your personal information. If your personal information could be used contrary to this policy, you will receive prior notice.)

Law enforcement, government officials, or other third parties when
we are compelled to do so by a subpoena, court order or similar legal procedure
we need to do so to comply with law
we believe in good faith that the disclosure of personal information is necessary to prevent physical harm or financial loss, to report suspected illegal activity, or to investigate violations of our User Agreement.
Other third parties with your consent or direction to do so.

fatseal 5 Comments Dec 25 11:36 AM The seller got paid, but she left all her money in paypal( there is a very long thread on the boards about it) and all her paypal money ($1600) was frozen. She has no money to even pay for shipping. Glad you can take having $1600.00 frozen in your account. Most people can’t.

ezduzit 30 Comments Dec 25 12:05 PM any person who comments about a “short” attacking e-bay, on this site, is off the deep end in his (her) thinking. the stock price has its own mind.
as far as the other posted comments, when you can’t get in touch with customer service, without jumping through hoops, that’s a serious problem. it shows a lack of respect and consideration towards people who work for a living.

bigger companies than e-bay have bitten the bullet because of flawed company management and poor customer relations. Reply | Link to Comment +10 RicRoe 4 Comments Dec 25 12:22 PM eBay’s problems are self inflicted. The more eBay has done in the name of bringing business back to their site, the more they have alienated current users that were once infatuated with the market place as both buyers and sellers.

eBay started to seriously slide when John Donahoe as CEO came out in front of changes which gutted the core of the marketplace and referred to any member that spoke out against the changes as ‘noise’. His arrogant ‘noise’ label insulted the very customers he was trying to keep.

Led by an executive team that has barely used the marketplace, eBay is now headed for obscurity because they do not ‘get’ it anymore.

eBay, unlike Amazon, does not own inventory, and relies on sellers to provide merchandise to the site. This said, it is hard to understand why eBay executives have instituted so many anti seller policies over the past year.

Further proof of how out of sync eBay leadership is, they fail to understand that sellers are buyers as well. Alienating sellers diminishes their interest in purchasing from the site or doing business in any way with a company that is viewed as seller unfriendly.

eBay’s increased fees across the board and forcing sellers to accept PayPal to entitle them to an even larger slice of sellers profits, has not improved the company’s fortunes, but has motivated sellers to take their business elsewhere.

eBay has become a ship without a rudder, adrift in a marketplace they have lost control of.

eBay execs fail to understand that word of mouth is essential to the success of their marketplace. With sellers having nothing positive to say, buyers are going elsewhere.

Until eBay is led by a team of executives with vision and experience in what makes eBay tick, eBay is destined to become the next Internet bubble to burst.

Buyers and sellers alike have lost trust and confidence in current leadership over the series of poorly implemented policies, feedback changes, imposition of the failed DSR system, constant technical glitches, search that is horrible, forced PayPal etc…

eBay is now beyond reversing failed policy and system changes. eBay now has to replace the entire core of enthusiastic members which they have managed to chase in addition to changing the failed policies and defective systems.

The simplest solution would be for eBay to simply get out of being in the marketplace business since it is obvious they have no clue as to what it takes to make and keep a marketplace relevant and successful.

John Donahoe, Lorrie Norrington and company will go down in history as the executives that managed to screw up a free lunch.

They are not the team that will lead eBay out of the disaster they created, they are the team that turned a marketplace with millions of happy members into a poor imitation of its competition with customers who have nothing good to say about the new experience.

This is unlikely to change until the book smart MBA’s are removed, and replaced by a team of executives that know and understand what the eBay marketplace is.

The fix would be for Mr Omidyer to get back to work, and restore the core principles upon which eBay was founded. He had the right ideas and the company became a worldwide multi billion dollar success under those principles.

eBay’s only chance to restore itself to that level of success will be when the existing leadership is tossed and replaced with a team that ‘gets’ eBay.

steve577 9 Comments Dec 25 12:51 PM This article is SO typical of sellers with bad attitudes that enjoy criticizing
ebay for the wonderful changes that made it a better, safer place for
buyers. As to the specifics of this article, anybody that doesn’t trust
paypal doesn’t deserve PayPal’s trust.

o.c.d.collectibles 34 Comments Dec 25 01:12 PM I was banned from posting on the discussion boards after 10 years here, never has this EVER happened to me. I have the best documentation, because legally, I understand (from being a Nurse!!), which policies and procedures are, that place me at risk. To have me suppressed when I state my opinion in non-confrontative ways, is a form of suppressing freedom of speech on a public forum. I’ve been given a “7 day sanction” so that I can “spend more time” reading and digesting ebay’s board posting policies.

After 10 good 100% 4.9 rated years, I just disconnected my reports subscription and deactivated the credit card associated with my account.

Not only will I not allow ebay to treat me this way as a customer, but I will make it my business to let every stock and financial site that I can register on, know what is going on amongst ebay’s most loyal and longest law abiding citizens and their unscrupulous tactics in censorship.

Censoring the ability to mention the names of other sites to sell on is not advertising. If it WAS advertising, I would be making an income doing that. At this point in time, I have NOTHING posted to sell on any site AT ALL. I sell “live” in antique booths. I do not need online sales to make my life complete. I used to enjoy them, and the socialzation I had from ebay selling. Now that THAT is gone, I have nothing to lose letting the world know of ebay’s censorship rules amongst their discussion boards.

I will not let up until I see the desired effect, you guys can all count on it!
So far, I have already described the ridiculous changes and the re-design of the site, with all of it’s glitches, malfunctions, and breakages. Now I will be focusing on something else….abuse of it’s oldest and most loyal, “high grade” sellers, who simply voice their opinions.

riversniper 2 Comments Dec 25 01:23 PM Never get verified, If you do then open a separate bank account that is not connected to your personal banking or checking account. Trust me on this riversniper

o.c.d.collectibles 34 Comments Dec 25 01:43 PM I have no need to sell on a site that treats me with so much indignity. After all the income provided for them,over the many years I was there, and so many happy customers, they will not get another dime from me now.
My rating is excellent. I left the site SIMPLY because of the WAY they treat their honest sellers.

They are selectively “deaf, dumb and blind” to their registered racketeers who really ARE swindling the new buyers on their site with poor service. They manipulate the bad ratings of these large retailers who get a free ride, listing on their site, just to make the seller still look good. There have been detections of this practice going on, and it is highly fraught with favoritism not based on ebay’s own policies. Ebay is scamming every OTHER fee paying member/seller due to this issue, and it won’t be long before someone exposes this publicly.
Paypal only practices the exploitive practices on ebay. They would not be doing that on anyone else’s site

There is something really wrong on this site, they deserve a SEC investigation.

Dinah, thank you for posting invaluable information to the public. They deserve to read the truth about this company before they decide to invest.
I wouldn’t invest unless I knew the CEO team was being fired.

eBay +++ 31 Comments Dec 25 02:06 PM I have sold on eBay whenever it’s time to clean out the garage and I have only offered Paypal. They are linked to my Acccount, no problems, not once. Would not think of Selling any other way.

o.c.d.collectibles 34 Comments Dec 25 02:20 PM The cheerleaders are no more than investors in ebay stock who have lost their shirts after investing when the stock was in the 20’s and 30’s. Sorry guys, you made a big mistake buying stock in this company so late in the game, OR maybe too early! If the imbeciles who run this company, finally leave, THEN you should buy some more stock! Wait till it hits $5 a share. It will. Maybe by then, the Board of Directors will wake up and hire some qualified leaders.

Patricia013 62 Comments Dec 25 02:21 PM How very strange…..I’ve had a Paypal shopping cart on my own website for years now. Never had a chargeback, never had funds held and don’t forget there is no feedback or DSR’s to consider. I would like to know why Paypal turns into a different animal when an Ebay transaction is concerned? Then they hold funds and act like thiefs in plain english. I think we all know Ebay is making money off the float of all those held funds. They have found yet one more way to skin a seller! Ebay, you go far beyong “its only business” and into a realm of sleaziness the depths of which I have never seen before!!! If, as a seller, they held my funds then they would have one angry buyer on their hands. Nothing ever leaves here that isn’t paid for with the funds in my account where they belong! If that means gathering a neg…so be it. If that means having my account closed…so be it! That would be the final straw for me.

Philip Cohen 11 Comments Dec 25 02:45 PM eBay is knowingly facilitating fraud on buyers

Can anyone explain to me why users in Australia, the UK, Ireland and the Philippines, have the absolutely anonymous alias (”Bidder N”) while New Zealand (and the rest of the world) has the effectively bidder-specific alias (”a***b (N)”)?

The material difference between these two forms of anonymous alias is, in the case of the “a***b (N)” alias, at a given point in time when viewed in conjunction with the accompanying feedback count, it is effectively bidder-specific: experienced buyers can still check a seller’s other auctions to watch out for at least any instances of blatant shill bidding; and with the absolutely anonymous alias (”Bidder N”), buyers have got absolutely no chance of detecting even the most blatant of shill bidding by an unscrupulous seller.

And, please, don’t try to tell me that the new “Bidder History” page enables buyers to spot a shill bidder: that is simply one more blatantly nonsensical and disingenuous eBay claim. Nor does eBay have any “sophisticated software” for the detection of shill bidding: they still rely primarily on user reports: trouble is, users can no longer report, because users can no longer detect! And, eBay’s excuse for introducing such anonymous aliases, to stop fraudulent second chance offers, is pathetic and undoubtedly disingenuous.

Further, in the US, eBay initially introduced the absolutely anonymous alias (”Bidder N”) and then retreated therefrom to the effectively bidder-specific alias (”a***b (N)”). Strangely, the opposite has been the case in the UK where eBay went from “a***b (N)” to “Bidder N”! (Does anyone in this organisation actually know what is going on?)

The application of the absolutely anonymous alias, “Bidder N”, would appear to serve only one purpose and that is to obscure any blatant shill bidding, that would otherwise be obvious, so that buyers can’t detect it, can’t then report it, and eBay does not have to waste any of their valuable resources pretending to do anything about it.

Whether intentional or not, eBay’s application of the absolutely anonymous alias (”Bidder N”) is effectively an “aiding and abetting” of fraud on buyers. What is our governmental consumer affairs regulators doing about this reprehensible behaviour by eBay?

Lengthy, detailed comments on this matter commence at
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=6499794#6499794

User 325862 1 Comment Dec 25 03:09 PM I have been using eBay and PayPal. Once someone tried to cheat me on ebay and paypal helped me their buyer protection. this is true and it happened earlier this year. i am an occassional seller on eBay too.

there is so much anti-ebay and paypal being posted. maybe your stories are true, only god knows. I dont want to just antogonize someone, atleast on christmas day (for god’s sake). I see the same set of people posting junk about companies time and again in various forums.

I dont have any issues on ebay or paypal. if someone’s account is locked, either they have been alerted on fraud for anti-money laundering or some other genuine reason.

why would anyone just freeze anyone’s account, especially your customers? use commonsense.

eBay continues to spend all of it’s revenues on stock repurchases to prop it’s own shares. It’s all about make belief to shareholders. Meantime the rumors that eBay is cutting 10% of it’s work force have been confirmed by Wall Stree Journal this morning.

The employees may be better off elsewhere : according to the latest ratings where employees rate their own employer, eBay CEO rating dropped to 26% from over 30% in less than a month and there is a major discontent brewing inside company ranks.

Average ratings from all usersOverall Rating
2.9 CEO Approval

John J. Donahoe
President and CEO

26% “Approve”
1 - 10 of 143 Reviews for eBay

Sep 9, 2008

10 found helpful
“Why is management trying to kill the golden goose?…”
Software QA Engineer in San Jose, CA (United States)
Sep 8, 2008

10 found helpful
“One eBay insider’s point of view…”
Program Manager in San Jose, CA (United States)
Sep 21, 2008

8 found helpful
“Ebay needs to get back to what made it great, being a unique force in the online marketplace.…”
Independent in San Jose, CA (United States)
Sep 12, 2008

9 found helpful | 1 comment
“Nearly 5 years there - what was I thinking…”
Senior Staff Software Engineer in San Jose, CA (United States)
Sep 11, 2008

8 found helpful
“Horrible for engineers.…”
Senior Software Engineer in Campbell, CA (United States)
Aug 22, 2008

10 found helpful
“eBay attracts a lot of great people, then the company culture beats them down and they leave within a couple of years.…”
Senior Product Manager in San Jose, CA (United States)
Sep 19, 2008

7 found helpful
“Great company, great purpose, no leadership, no willingness to admit mistakes…”
Senior Manager in San Jose, CA (United States)
Sep 10, 2008

8 found helpful
“Used to be a good place to work….…”
Program Manager in San Jose, CA (United States)
Sep 27, 2008

5 found helpful
“Was a great place to work when it was eBay instead of Amazon Jr. or Walmart.com Lite…”
Project Manager in San Jose, CA (United States)
Sep 8, 2008

6 found helpful | 1 comment
“John J. Donahoe does NOT know how to run a company!…”
Software Engineer in San Jose, CA

Can this get any worse?

Yes it can and yes it will. There are many reasons why. One of the best summaries of lately was published today at Forbes Magazine : The Real Reason eBay Is Stuck

eBay shares keep plunging as more on more bad ebay news paired with financial markets turmoil - we now have a 5 year low and finance forums for eBay shares at Yahoo and Google message boards are buzzing with discontent.

How are all these recent changes a new CEO John Donahoe made since early 2008 working for everyone? We know that eBay Sellers are screaming bloody murder and abandoning the site for fairer pastures. We know that media hates eBay this year. Cramer keeps telling shareholders that eBay is in trouble. eBay employees give eBay very low ratings. But the eBay CEO continues on his path of self destruction maintaining “We may have some sellers that make some noise,” [eBay CEO John] Donahoe said, “but we’re absolutely confident of the direction we’re going.”

What do the buyers think?

The above graph clearly illustrates that over the past 13 months eBay has lost 9% of it’s visitors, while craigslist gained 61.9% new visitors and Amazon gained 17.1% new visitors over the past 13 month period.

This is not a new trend. New York Times blogger reported in January 2008:

• Now the latest audience figures from Nielsen Online confirm that the e-commerce traffic crown has changed heads. For the month of December, for the first time, more Americans clicked over to Amazon.com (59,624,000) than eBay (59,374,000).
• According to the Nielsen data, the number of visitors to eBay.com dropped 10 percent from December 2006 to December 2007.

The fact that eBay is losing buyers was again confirmed by the Internet Retailer report in February 2008 :
Unique traffic to eBay.com slipped 5% in February from February a year ago, to 56.6 million
The top 10 online shopping destinations in February, with unique visitors in millions this year and last and growth from prior year, according to Nielsen Online, were:

* eBay, 56.60, 59.42, -5%
* Amazon, 47.67, 40.76, 17%
* Target, 22.57, 20.14, 12%
* Wal-Mart Stores, 21.35, 20.11, 6%
* Shopzilla.com Network, 21.16, 16.86, 25%
* Shopping.com Network, 16.36, 17,82, -8%
* Yahoo! Shopping, 16.08, 11,46, 40%
* Dell, 16.06, 13,96, 15%
* Circuit City, 14.30, 9.39, 52%
* Best Buy, 13.45, 12.66, 6%

Did you notice that the only other online retailer experiencing slowdown in unique visitors is Shopping.com = also eBay owned company! eBay has a special knack for ruining any company they purchase. It all boils down to incompetent management running down everything they touch.

The credit for bringing this to our attention should go to this post on eBay Stock forum poster on Yahoo Finance Board: Wanto to see a scary eBay graph

Ebay has a sizeable shareholder approved stock repurchase plan.

Here are average share repurchase prices eBay made during past 9 months.
October 2007 $ 35.36
November 2007 $ 33.23
December 2007 $ 33.37

January 2008 $ 26.71
February 2008 $ 27.52
March 2008 $ 26.44

April 2008 $ 30.61
May 2008 $ 30.76
June 2008 $ 29.08

In the chart above, we have highlighted the most likely times that eBay purchased it’s own shares based on the price of eBay stock during that month.

It becomes obvious eBay usually initiates repurchase of it’s own shares following a major drop in price, effectively propping up it’s own share price. Is this legal? You betcha it is! It also appears to be a gold mine for those who are shorting eBay stock. Armed with this knowledge, one shorting eBay shares can predict when eBay will buy it’s own shares, usually following a relatively significant drop in eBay share price, thus this share buy back artificially inflaties the price (again). Next, the market takes over, the shares begin to drop again and those brave enough to short eBay shares continue making money.

eBay shares 52wk Range: $40.73 - $23.52

As sellers and buyers continue to defect from eBay due to it’s poor management decisions, more and more investors short this stock. Just take a look at the largest finance forum for eBay shares. It is full of upset eBay sellers and those who recently made pile of money shorting eBay stock.

A year ago, Amazon Shares soared while eBay shares struggled in an effort to retain value. Those of us watching eBay closely knew that Wall Street has become aware of eBay’s inept management who was unable to react to current internet trends and threats, lack of customer service and safety across eBay properties and other issues which prompted eBay customer and seller base to migrating away from eBay and the likely beneficiary of the dwindling eBay business would be AMAZON. Next we have seen eBay desperate efforts to AMAZONITE itself, which so far has proven a complete “feeasco” as eBay management does not appear to “GET IT”, IT being the essence of makes Amazon so much more attractive to shoppers: Customer Service, Integrity, Safety and Security, Stable Selling and Buying environment at a reasonable price. Ebay needed to grow margins, so they increased seller fees and tried to ram PayPal down the sellers throats. Ebay needed perception of higher safety on their site, so they reduced transparency on its site by hiding who bids on what and removing 2 way feedback so you can no longer identify shill bidding and fraudulent buyers. This resulted in even more pronounced seller exodus from eBay so eBay begins losing it’s “edge” of having many unique one of a kind items, one cannot find anywhere else.

Now one year later, we have the benefit of viewing Quarterly Reports of both ecommerce rivals to see who is successfully adapting to constantly changing economic and market conditions. Those who successfully adapt turn out to be winners leaving the ‘has beens’ to dwindle. As I write this, AOL comes to mind.

When a single company reports earnings for a quarter, it is healthy to relate those earnings to the one of it’s closest competitor as well as the market segment as a whole so we can get a true feel if the Company is doing well in the current economical conditions. I have waited for Amazon’s Q2 Report so we can compare eBay’s performance with Amazon numbers.

ACTIVE USER GROWTH

AMAZON = INCREASED TO 18%

The number of total active customer accounts also jumped, rising 18 percent to more than 81 million

EBAY = CONTINUES FLATLINING AT 1%

The number of total active user accounts rose only 1 % to 84.5 million compared to second quarter 2007

MERCHANDISE SALES GROWTH

AMAZON = 35% growth

North America segment sales, representing the company’s U.S. and Canadian sites, were up 35% from a year ago to $2.17 billion.

International sales, representing the company’s U.K., German, Japanese, French and Chinese sites, were up 47% to $1.89 billion.

Excluding the impact of foreign-exchange rates, international sales grew 34%. (Any company still growing US centric sales at pace with foreign sales - you have to tip your hat at least a little)

EBAY = only 13% growth

The Marketplaces business unit, which consists of eBay, Shopping.com, StubHub, Kijiji and other ecommerce sites, had a strong second quarter, generating $1.46 billion in revenue, equating to 13% year-over-year growth

Gross merchandise volume was $15.68 billion for the quarter, an increase of 8% over the second quarter of 2007.

IMPACT OF SLUMPING US ECONOMY

AMAZON : SAYS IT’S POSITIVE

Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said Amazon suspects increased fuel prices may give it a “relative advantage” over other retailers.

“Even just driving 10 miles these days is a few dollars worth of gasoline,” he said during a conference call with analysts. “And consumers, we suspect, are beginning to take that into account and try to do trip consolidation. So our free shipping offers and Amazon Prime are clearly of even more value to customers under that set of circumstances.”

Sales were strong in several sections of Amazon’s massive marketplace. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos also said Amazon’s Kindle digital book reader was gaining readers, while the number of independent sellers offering goods on Amazon’s site continued to grow.

EBAY: STATES IT’S NEGATIVE
Despite a gain in the number of items sold, the average selling price of goods on eBay declined 6%. That means items are selling, but at lower prices. Lower prices hurt sellers and are particularly painful to eBay under its new fee structure, which grabs the most revenue from percentage-based fees on the sale price of items.

Chief Financial Officer Bob Swan also attributed some of the declining growth in eBay’s core shopping business to a slowing U.S. economy. Growth was flat in eBay’s autos business, which brings in about 20% of the revenue for its shopping sites. Swan also said the softening economy was leading shoppers to buy cheaper items.

True, the economy is taking some toll on eBay’s business. But a bargain site like eBay could also have benefited from a weakening economy as increased volume from deal-oriented shoppers makes up for the decline in selling prices.

Moreover, eBay’s growth has long trailed growth in the overall e-commerce market. The U.S. e-commerce market is expected to grow 17% this year, according to Forrester Research (FORR). But revenue in eBay’s U.S. marketplace grew just 12% from a year earlier.

If you are an eBay seller, you may want to checkout AMAZON, it appears that AMZN is attracting buyers and sales on Amazon are increasing while eBay sales continue to shrink. Amazon is lot more stable, management wise so your business is SAFER on a professionally managed marketplace. On eBay, one day you are a star, next day a BOT will block you from selling and PayPal will freeze your assets, effectively ruining your business. If you are an eBay seller, it’s definitely worth testing the AMAZON waters, many many eBay sellers already are and YOU do not want to get left in the dust with the group of eBay sellers being slowly bled to hang “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS” sign on their eBay store. Check out this newsbyte Amazon says active seller accounts up 18 percent

If you are a shareholder, it’s nice to have a comparison of the two e-commerce rivals handy to assist you in recognizing how eBay management fares in adjusting to current economic trends and conditions.

Check out the eBay stock forum on Yahoo Finance.

This image was lifted from eBay Seller Central Forum, directly off eBay site. There are many hot topics discussed, not many pertain to actual selling on eBay, most voice outrage over new eBay policies and contempt for the new direction eBay management took since the beginning of this year.

After eBay posted the Q2 earnings, one of many topics appropriately titled “eBay stock soars today!” discussed why the shares fell so badly inspite of seemingly good looking quarterly report. It is a long thread, worth reading. I think this one post is worth saving and reprinting here, just in case the eBay censor accidentally deletes that topic also:
—————————————————————————
If we focus on improving velocity we know we’re going to monetize that in new and different ways. - John Donohoe

While I don’t like some of the changes ebay has made this year (and far too many at once, it’s like trying to bolt down junk food) I’ve never been a rabid antibayer.

But I am very doubtful that the new management at ebay is going to make anything positive happen.

My view is strictly subjective.

What, exactly, does the above sentence by CEO Donohoe MEAN?

Speaking in shorthand buzzwords means (to me) that you are either hiding something you don’t want out in the open, or to impart an impression of competence that is not necessarily there.

Many listening to this kind of talk will be intimidated by it - fearful of bringing the speaker up short by asking him to state clearly and in English precisely what he is saying. Specifics.

They would be afraid of being considered “out of it.”

So it serves to allow the CEO to get away with impressive-sounding verbiage, a demo that he is so “on top of it” that to question him, to pin him down, would make the interlocuter seem a backward-looking dullard.

Here’s another word that Mr D used in his interview with a stock analyst (posted here earlier): incentivize

Huh?

When puerile stuff like this passes for high-level management skills, Mr D is not to blame. The Ebay Board of Directors got hornswoggled by Sizzlemanship. (Imagine the short shrift a sizzler would get from a plain speaker like Warren Buffett)

Decades ago a super salesman named Wheeler penned a best-seller called Sizzlemanship. It told salespeople throughout the world “to sell the sizzle, not the steak.”

Buzz it up, paint words that sound good, even if they be so vague as to be meaningless.

It this is the kind of con that rises to the top in corporate America, if Mr D’s sizzlemanship is multiplied several thousandfold in the nation’s multinational corporations — it is time for either investor revolt or a people’s revolution.

Or we’ll all be headed into a sizzling black hole.
—————————————————————————

Check out the eBay Stock Forum on Yahoo! : it appears there are hardly any investors left with faith in this company. eBay shares plunged 15% after eBay announced their User growth continues to stagnate at 1% and GMV growth is now reduced to 9%.

There were times not so long ago that any time there were some negative news about eBay, the eBay PR department would issue some positive news fluff PR releases and effectively counter the negative news with positive.

Lately, there are so many negative news articles in just about all major media that it is simply impossible for eBay PR to cover up all that negative publicity.

As eBay gets negative billing on Major media, as opposed to few independent blogs, millions of readers become will suddenly have confirmation of their own “hunch” that ‘there is something rotten in the state of eBay’.

• Forbes : Reserve Not Met, Gurus Dump eBay advising investors to dump EBAY shares 02.25.08
• Forbes on eBay losing counterfeit lawsuit to Hermès in France 06-09-2008, summarizing other ongoing lawsuits by major design houses against eBay.

• Business Week Auctions on eBay: A Dying Breed on 6-3-2008: As consumers opt for fixed-price purchases, what happens to the company that perfected the art of online bidding—and the scores of e-auctioneers?
• Business Week eBay Auctions: Going, Going… on 6-19-2008 :
  The thrill of the hunt is fading for buyers, and longtime auctioneers aren’t happy with higher fees

• 
  Sunday Times UK Edition on 6-22-2008 : eBay’s small sellers rebel. This year’s conference took place in Chicago and was the most controversial in the seven-year history of eBay Live. The company had been expecting 10,000 people. It looked like half that number had turned up and the exhibitors’ hall seemed to have been reshuffled to hide the gaps.

• Australian News.Com.Au : My way or the highway, says eBay on 6-18-2008 : EBAY Australia has fired off a strongly worded letter to its 5 million customers, warning that failure to comply with its new PayPal ruling will result in an immediate removal of product listings. This is the strongest sign yet that nothing will stop plans to make PayPal, an eBay subsidiary, the only electronic payment mechanism available on the auction website. EBay’s directive comes despite a preliminary ruling last week by the competition watchdog that restricting transactions to PayPal would be anti-competitive.
• 
  NY Times EBay Tries to Buy a Little More Love From Sellers on 6-20-2008 : The key problem with eBay is that the value of what it offers has not kept up with the price it charges sellers. Between the fees to list items on eBay — essentially advertising — and the PayPal transaction fees, eBay often charges about 13 percent of each transaction. Sellers can pay a tad more, about 15 percent, to sell items through Amazon.com’s Marketplace service, where they get a little more protection against fraud and a site that arguably offers a better experience for their buyers. Or they can set up their own Web site and buy advertising and transaction services a la carte — an ever-more-effective option as people increasingly shop through search engines. These days, many consumers associate eBay with fraud and scams as much as they did with unique items and bargains a few years ago.

• 
  Wall Street Journal EBay Angers Sellers, Pleases Buyers on 6-24-2008 : EBay has operated a feedback system that let buyers rate their experience with sellers and vice versa. The company has now shifted to a system under which only buyers rate sellers. The sellers say that leaves them open to forms of blackmail and extortion by buyers, such as threatening to leave negative ratings if sellers won’t make such concessions as giving partial refunds to buyers who contend they pay too much.

• Wall Street Journal EBay Gets Little Love from Software Makers on 5-22-2008 : Software & Information Industry Association says many of those programs are pirated, and it hopes to publicly shame the e-commerce giant into cooperating with the software industry’s anti-piracy crusade. The software-industry trade group criticized eBay for being “totally non-responsive” to its efforts to eliminate fake or copied software from the auction site, says Keith Kupferschmid, the head of intellectual property at SIIA.

Check out the comments on the above articles. There are thousands of unsatisfied eBay sellers and buyers reacting to recent eBay changes.

eBay shares fell from $30.38 to $28.17 in past 30 days. Yahoo finance forum for EBAY stock is flooded with unhappy EBAY sellers and buyers who resourced to account for their negative experiences with eBay and PayPal there as more and more eBayers realize that eBay will not listen to any other voice of reason but it’s Shareholders and financial bloggers are also noticing the trend: Here is a lates article eBay Falls from Grace from Yahoo Tech Ticker Blog

Lots of eBay sellers are asking what are other places to sell online aside from eBay.

There are the usual good suggestions like
amazon.com
base.google.com
craigslist.com
ioffer.com
ecrater.com
rubylane.com
ubid.com
ola.com
ebid.net

Each seller presents a unique set in the type of items as well as sales preference format. I cannot say enough of good things about Google when it comes to eCommerce.

• Search Google for your product.
  A good example is a search for
  RCA Victor Phonograph
  then pay special attention what comes up

  I see:
  craigslist
  GoAntiques
  and independent websites on page 1 results of Google/Google Base results

  This will help you identifying sites you can list your products THAT COME UP ON GOOGLE search well

• If you have unique product that is not common you can build your own store under your own domain name and come up almost immediately on page 1 Google search

  Do a Google search for Mosaic Mailbox and you will see our site with custom mosaic mailboxes as #1 on Google search results. It’s only a spiffed up WordPress blog and it took about 60 days to get to#1 spot on Google natural search results.

• Did you know you can IMPORT your eBay store listings to homestead store hosted pages? You can create a homestead store and import your eBay listings with few clicks of a mouse into a homestead store front Your import options include:

  The ‘Build Catalog Using eBay Listings’ feature, which allows you to create products from your eBay listings and then select the products you would like to copy into your Homestead Storefront catalog. eBay listings include eBay Store and individual listings based on your eBay seller account. You’ll find the ‘Build Catalog Using eBay Listings’ option in the ‘eBay Tools’ area of Store Administration.

  The only drawback I see with Homestead hosting is their unstandard web addresses they assign to home page and product pages.
  If you check out the featured sites here you will notice that the catalog item pages have this “bok?” in the web address which makes it rather difficult to move your store to another web hosting provider. So you may want to consider using a standard web hosting company who offers osCommerce store web hosting and enter your items manually so if in the future you want to move your store, you would not be stuck with a proprietory platform.

• Remember to register your domain name so your ecomerce livelyhood will not depend on whims of a 3rd party. You can move your store to another web hosting company any time as long as you have your own domain name, remeber if your store is http://www.ebay.com/antiquetreasures or http://antiquetreasures.ecrater.com the moment you leave those websites, your store and your customers will go poof! So placing your store under your own domain name, such as www.antiquetreasures.com is critical to your long terms success.
  

The reports from eBay LIVE! are quite interesting.

First this YouTube video shows a ghost town in the conference room that should be full of eBay Power Sellers (Note: eBay does not allow video taping eBay live sessions, now you know why)

Then AuctionBytes transcripts some of the eBay LIVE! Q and A sessions,

Oooooops Griff, don’t you wish you kept your mouth shut? Remember eBay is all bunnies, daisies and lollypops!

where eBay spokesman Griff declares:

Griff: We had to make these changes because, without buyers, there will be no eBay in two years.

“Bullshit!” someone says.

“No bullshit,” he responds; “absolutely true. The rate of decline in the growth of buyers…it was ripe for buyers going other places, and if the momentum starts, eBay is over.“

EBAY shares opened at 28.85 and are down over 3% to
Real-time: 28.24 Down 0.93(3.19%) 3:21PM ET as I write this post today.

For those who don’t know, Leo Leporte has over 2 million listeners on his podcast TWiT, and his weekend radio show (KFI-AM) in Los Angeles which is also podcasted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Laporte

You can listen to this MP3 broadcast snipped from Leo’s show (4.6 Megs)
where Leo Raporte and Dick DeBartolo account how they were scammed on eBay. They both used PayPal to pay for transaction and lost their money because in reality, PayPal protection was non existent. Listen to the podcast, it’s about 10 minutes long and will open your eyes and hopefully raise your caution when considering buying on eBay :

Click here to listen to the PodCast by Leo Raporte and Dick DeBartolo

After getting burned twice, this time for $2,200:

“eBay doesn’t seem to do very much to prevent [scammers] or discourage [scammers].”

“We’re not protected…[regarding Paypal]“.

“I will never buy anything on eBay ever again….and I going to go on my radio show on a regular basis and tell everybody that.”

Source: See show 588, about 1/2 way down the podcast.
http://twit.tv/dgw588 (Our recording starts at 7th minute of the original PodCast)

Remember Bruce Hershenson of eMoviePoster.Com? Bruce was one of eBay Super Power Sellers who announced after eBay’s infamous site improvements that after he sold 300,000 items on eBay he is quitting eBay completely. Unfortunately he announced it on eBay Seller forums and eBay “accidentally” deleted that very busy thread, so it was preserved on our site as one of the original eBay censorship stories. Whal could be eBay’s motivation deleting Bruce’s post on eBay’s Seller Central, other than censorship?

Business Week just did a good interview with Bruce, titled Auctions on eBay: A Dying Breed As consumers opt for fixed-price purchases, what happens to the company that perfected the art of online bidding—and the scores of e-auctioneers?

Another article worth reading is Was eBay a fad? by RoughType:
June 03, 2008
We already know that the famously cute story of eBay’s origin - founder Pierre Omidyar launched the site to help his fiancee trade the PEZ dispensers she collected - was a lie cooked up by a PR operative. We also know that the company’s vaunted “reputation system” - the foundation of what has long been perceived as a radically new kind of self-organizing and self-policing commercial community - has been crumbling….

I had to bring that lipstick on a pig picture in again. eBay has just been exposed trying to hide / delete / censor the ugly fallout from it’s new feeback policy.

eBay is full of scammers. eBay has been full of scammers. eBay is a scammer paradise. eBay tries their damnest to deny this and hide the truth about scams on it’s own site, instead of working to eliminate those scams.

In the traditional spirit of trying to hide the scams and scam artists on eBay site, misleading unsuspecting users to that false feeling of eBay being safe, once again, eBay deleted evidence of the new eBay feedback policy changes being immediately adopted by eBay scammers to abuse eBay members.

While eBay focuses it’s efforts on covering up scams on eBay and PayPal sites EBAY shares dropped 2.33% in a single day down to $29.31 by close of market June 2, 2008.

If eBay censors YOU on eBay message Boards, I recommend you take a look at the Yahoo Message FORUM for eBAY stock, perhaps eBay censors can silence you on eBay forums, but you can still present your story to eBAY shareholders, so they are not kept in dark.
visit eBay FINANCE FORUM ON YAHOO We know eBay does not listen to it’s customers, BUT eBay does listen to it’s shareholders.

So what is this all about? Stay with me for a minute.

eBay feedback changes: eBay no longer allows eBay sellers to leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers. eBay sellers are screaming bloody murder because they know eBay is full of con artists or nutso buyers who will abuse this and try to extort financial gain from the sellers threatening unjustified negative feedback, leaving just plain crazy malicious eBay feedback, destroying business reputations on a whim.

Yesterday AuctionBytes brought published article on eBay’s new feedback policy being abused by scam artist to extort money from eBay sellers. A link to the eBay seller discussion forum is provided from the AuctionBytes article.

Sure enough, eBay deleted the whole discussion. If you try to reach the link pointed to by AuctionBytes Article Sopranos Meets eBay in Feedback Extortion Scheme
The other case involves a feedback extortion ring that looks like an eBay version of the Sopranos. An eBay seller posting on the eBay discussion boards published correspondence he said he received from the winner of one of his auctions. The buyer reportedly said he and four other eBay users “are in the business of selling Positive Feedbacks to eBay Sellers for $20 each, totaling $100 for 5 Positive Feedbacks. If you purchase the 5 Positive Feedbacks for $100, you not only get to sell your items, you also receive 5 Positive Feedbacks. As you well know, Feedback is EVERYTHING to an eBay seller on whether they are successful or not. I’m sure that you want to remain successful in your eBay business. Plus, along with the 5 Positive Feedbacks, we will also Guarantee Never to contact you again and we take you off of our list.”

This article links to:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000711130&tstart=0&mod=1212267983950 and if you click on that link…. YOU GUESSED IT! IT WAS DELETED BY EBAY
Instead of that eBay discussion, you will see a message:
This discussion thread has been removed for one of the following reasons:
-the initial post in the thread was in violation of our Board Usage Policy.
-the member that started the thread has requested that it be removed.
-the thread expired due to inactivity

eBay routinely censors “uncomfortable” truths from it’s forums. Thus we even have a specific section here, ebay censorship, dedicated to what never existed on eBay… or at least what eBay claims never existed or was removed by a glitch, mistake or an oooopsie!

Now let’s see, we know the member did not ask for their message board thread to be removed. So that’s out. Next: we could not find anything in the initial post to be against eBay Board Usage Policy - and the thread certainly did not expire due to inactivity… the comments kept pouring in, there were over 400 when eBay censor decided to pull the plug. So what was it?

Again, it must be accidental, as the current eBay spokesperson put it describing previous eBay Discussion Board deletions:

…suggested that forum posts critical of eBay’s policies had been deleted. EBay denied that any forum deletions were intentional. If any posts were taken down “it was accidental,” the spokesman said. “We’re not afraid of hearing from our community and allowing them to post and discuss things and be angry on our boards”

Here is a page one of the DELETED EBAY DISCUSSION, certainly no rule breaking there, IT’S JUST YOUR USUAL COVER UP BY EBAY, TRYING TO HIDE SCAMS AND PROTECT SCAM ARTISTS ON IT’S SITE:

Discussion Post a reply | Print
Sellers, I just got the following email:
in**anaftw (9 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:01 PDT
Listen very carefully. I am the winner of this item. I have 4 other eBay Users in place either bidding on or have won items from you plus myself totaling 5. We are prepared to leave you 5 Positive Feedbacks or 5 Negative Feedbacks depending on your actions. In a nutshell, we are in the business of selling Positive Feedbacks to eBay Sellers for $20 each, totaling $100 for 5 Positive Feedbacks. If you purchase the 5 Positive Feedbacks for $100, you not only get to sell your items, you also receive 5 Positive Feedbacks. As you well know, Feedback is EVERYTHING to an eBay seller on whether they are successful or not. I’m sure that you want to remain successful in your eBay business. Plus, along with the 5 Positive Feedbacks, we will also Guarantee Never to contact you again and we take you off of our list. You’ll even get a receipt for your purchase. Now, here’s the important part. If you refuse to purchase the 5 Positive Feedbacks, we will leave you 5 Negative Feedbacks for starters. We have 100’s & 100’s of eBay Users in place that we can use to leave feedbacks. In fact, we have enough to consistently leave you Negative Feedbacks for months resulting in you having to shut down your business. The absolute worst thing that you can do at this point is to try and contact eBay at any time about this or refuse to cooperate; we Will start leaving you Negative Feedbacks and shut your business down. Make no mistake, we’ve been doing this for years and have the power & resources to continually leave you Negative Feedbacks resulting in the closing of your business. Think about this, if you try to report us to eBay and they try and suspend our account or something like that, it will not stop us whatsoever. Remember, I said we have 100’s if not 1,000’s of eBay Users in place that we can use to leave you Negative Feedbacks over & over again until you are forced to shut your business down that you worked so hard to build up. Even if eBay were to keep suspending our user accounts, we have plenty more that we can use to keep leaving you Negative Feedbacks and there’s No way that eBay can keep up and stop us. They have tried & failed miserably. They also know about what we do. So the best and smartest thing that you can do is protect your business and just purchase the 5 Positive Feedbacks from us. That way, it’s done and over with and you can successfully continue to run your business without ever hearing from us again. We will give you up to 72 hours from now, to reply. The sooner, the better of course. Just send us an email stating that you want to purchase the 5 Positive Feedbacks from us and let us know your main email that you use so we can contact you. If we don’t hear from you by the end of the 72 hours, we will assume that you are refusing to cooperate and we will start leaving you Negative Feedbacks. So don’t do anything stupid. The smartest thing that you can do is take this seriously, we know what we’re doing. After we hear your reply to this email, we will contact you with further instructions.

The buyer is in fact the person who won my auction.

So… what would you do?
Previous 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 … 11 Next See last post
421 replies Date posted Reply #

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tr**arn (44 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:03 PDT 1 of 421
Report the email and send it to Ebay for FB extortion.
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19**jenn (15 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:03 PDT 2 of 421
Did this come through “my messages?” Yikes! I’d forward it to ebay.
Folks, hang onto your dashboards.
Here comes another speedbump!
—

tr**arn (44 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:03 PDT 3 of 421
What is the buyer’s ID so we can block them?
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in**anaftw (9 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:04 PDT 4 of 421
A little more about me and the auction:
Sold for just over $100
I used featured plus (will I get that $9.95 back?)
I am a lowly bronze power seller with sales just under $2,000/month, so nothing that outstanding, but it’s a good chunk of my income.

The buyer has 3 feedback, all over 1 year old and from NARUs.
The name and email address that it came from match the name and email on the account that won the auction, so this doesn’t seem to be a hidden scam from someone who isn’t an ebay user.
I currently have 100% positive and a little over 500 total feedback in the past year.
I’ve been told to call PS support on Monday about this and have forwarded the email to ebay.
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ch**t49 (91 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:06 PDT 5 of 421
so you have thier address? drive to thier house and burn it to the ground
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ci**girlhardware (378 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:06 PDT 6 of 421
This sounds like it might be criminal.
http://www.ic3.gov/
from the site:
“The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).”
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pl**sedtameetcha (12 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:07 PDT 7 of 421
Scary.
LR
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lo**postid (0 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:14 PDT 8 of 421
sounds like a “business protection” fee to me LOL.

I would love to get this email!
Have it tracked to the hometown, and have them arested for extortion.
Sure, the cops don’t care about feedback, but:
The absolute worst thing that you can do at this point is to try and contact eBay at any time about this or refuse to cooperate; we Will start leaving you Negative Feedbacks and shut your business down. Make no mistake, we’ve been doing this for years and have the power & resources to continually leave you Negative Feedbacks resulting in the closing of your business.
That is a personal threat! Notice they don’t specify what “business”, it could be an in home business or in town. This is a personal threat, and should be treated as such.
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na**ybusinraleigh (2967 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:19 PDT 9 of 421
I would go to the media immediately, forget ebay, they’re slower than molasses in January in Alaska.
Print it out with full headers, a copy of the auction, a copy of the bidding history of that auction and all other pertinent paper trail and go to your local tv and newspapers with it.
I would also send it to the State AG’s office in the buyer’s state with a cover letter explaining factually (no emotion) how this came about.
Don’t let ebay bury this one.
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mo**erof3wonderfulkids (0 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:19 PDT 10 of 421
Wow
He won your auction and instead of paying you for the widget he bought he wants YOU to pay him $100 to get 5 Positives? That means he is ready to bid on 4 more of your auctions?
BLOCK HIM.
Then report him to Ebay…and pull contact information. It’s probably not valid and that is one of the reasons you can get negs removed.
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I’m offically on Strike-No listing and no buying until the Feedback Policy is Null and Void.
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pu**e*couture (Private ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:20 PDT 11 of 421
It was only a matter of time………..
And eBay claims it was “worried about SECOND CHANCE OFFERS”
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na**ybusinraleigh (2967 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:21 PDT 12 of 421
purse, don’t raise my blood pressure SCO scams my behind!
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tu**eyjackson (324 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:23 PDT 13 of 421
We’ll see if the system works. If eBay does what they say they’ll do, this nut is out of luck.
As to the fee credit for featured plus, yes, as long as this was not a multiple item listing and you successfully file the UID.
I wouldn’t mind turning into a vermilion goldfish.
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wi**ysgrandma (2341 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:23 PDT 14 of 421
Check your e-mail
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pu**e*couture (Private ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:24 PDT 15 of 421
Seriously, I get chills……………..thinking about SCO “fraud” claims by eBay
I swear, I have bought AT LEAST 900-1,000 widgets *PER YEAR* on eBay, and have NEVER received a fraudulent SCO.
Can you say fraudulent FRAUD?
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na**ybusinraleigh (2967 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:24 PDT 16 of 421
who are the other 4 referred to?
Come on, this is the system ebay created, let ebay handle this publicly and address how they will stop this nonsense now. Not one seller at a time.
It is extortion and it’s a chargeable offense.
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co**ie10 (11166 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:25 PDT 17 of 421
I would go to the media immediately, forget ebay, they’re slower than molasses in January in Alaska.
That’s probably the dumbest thing you’ve said on this board.
OP - you HAVE to report it to Ebay. They are the only people who can shut down this looney.
By all means, send it to the media as well, but Ebay must be your first port of call.
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ww**88 (Private ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:25 PDT 18 of 421
You need to report this to eBay as extortion. Pull the buyer’s contact info (email and phone) and call him and email him. If the phone and/or email is bogus, report to eBay (if bogus any feedback he gives will be deleted). His contact info will have his address. Call the police department in his city and file a report.
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ai**rushayatollah (198 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:26 PDT 19 of 421
They will block the one ID, then the seller will get negs and NPB’s out the wazoo.
I actually wouldn’t go through FeeBay because if they take any kind of action at all the police may not have to get involved.
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ho**luludance (32 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:26 PDT 20 of 421
Post this on Trust and Safety.
Does Powerseller support function over the weekend?
I’d call Live Help.
File the extortion report.
I wouldn’t answer them at all.
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ai**rushayatollah (198 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:26 PDT 21 of 421
Contact ISP though.
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na**ybusinraleigh (2967 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:28 PDT 22 of 421
IF ebay had a track record of doing the right thing in a timely manner, I would use ebay.
Can anyone say they’ve got a good track record?
Go to the media, let the media know that the system ebay has set up is failing miserably.
Not only will this fool leave negative feedback, the seller will then have to go through all of ebay’s hoops to get it removed.
Who are the other 4? Are there 4 others? Talk about the perfect threat.
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co**ie10 (11166 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:28 PDT 23 of 421
Shame you didn’t post with your real ID so that we could all see who this person is that won the auction.
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na**ybusinraleigh (2967 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:29 PDT 24 of 421
cobbie, posting with a selling ID is a good way for people to mess with your auctions, don’t you think the OP has had enough of that already?
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pl**t1here2 (Private ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:29 PDT 25 of 421
Send me their address.
If they’re close enough, I’d like to have face to face, um, chat with them,
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ai**rushayatollah (198 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:29 PDT 26 of 421
A cheerleader.
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ho**luludance (32 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:30 PDT 27 of 421
Shame you didn’t post with your real ID so that we could all see who this person is that won the auction.
Oh, yes, and then some numnut here will bring the buyer to this thread and all hell breaks loose.
Nancy, I appreciate your sentiment about eBay, but eBay DOES shut down people like this. The advice given here has to be what’s best for the OP, not what will embarrass eBay the most.
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tr**arn (44 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:31 PDT 28 of 421
This is one example of when a seller should post with their selling ID. Without it we can’t block or help report this scary buyer. What if this buyer is trying this scam on multiple sellers. The OP should warn them.
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lo**postid (0 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:31 PDT 29 of 421
After we hear your reply to this email, we will contact you with further instructions.
That was a mistake on their part. Respond to it and see what the ‘further instructions’ are! Maybe it’ll be a better way to get info on this guy.
Try telling him you need his account info so you can transfer the $100 to him directly. And you don’t trust paypal for this transaction.
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lo**postid (0 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:32 PDT 30 of 421
Join him in his game, but make sure he never actually gets any money from you
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pl**t1here2 (Private ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:33 PDT 31 of 421
Not sure if it was mentioned, but don’t worry about possible negs, Ebay most likely will do away with any you get from this.
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ca**mom3boys (924 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:34 PDT 32 of 421
Please post the auction number.
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na**ybusinraleigh (2967 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:34 PDT 33 of 421
Honolulu, if you think hiding this ‘in house’ with ebay is the solution, fine.
I don’t. This is out of control garbage and those who want to stay and sell are getting all kinds of ridiculous feedback (because a buyer can with impunity ) and then this kind of cr@p?
And since the policies have changed, get an eyefull and see what people are teaching others to do to sellers on ebay, just google it and you’ll be shocked.
The plans are being formulated and some will take it to the extreme we see here.
Unless someone is prosecuted or publicly shamed, it will not stop.
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tr**arn (44 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:34 PDT 34 of 421
Lulu, I didn’t think about someone tattling to the buyer. There are some that would do just that.
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pl**t1here2 (Private ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:35 PDT 35 of 421
These people need to be jailed.
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na**ybusinraleigh (2967 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:35 PDT 36 of 421
Furthermore, will ebay block this buyer from registering again? How?
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ai**rushayatollah (198 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:35 PDT 37 of 421
Wall Street Journal.
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my**gbokali (256 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:36 PDT 38 of 421
This is BS OP….report to ebay, call the police, scream it on the hilltops…I wouild tell everyone you can. YOU CANNOT LET THEM DO THIS TO YOU…..no matter what they say.
DO NOT GIVE IN….please. I wish I could help you personaly cause this is just down right wrong not to mention has to be against the law.
and its EBays fault. Sorry, just my opinion.
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mi**yteoil (Private ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:37 PDT 39 of 421
You really need to report this guy under multiple reporting functions through ebay. Maybe forward it to the higher ups at eBay also. They really should see what has been created with their new fb policy.
I also agree that it is a shame that we don’t know the id of this person.
Does he have a lot of fb?
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