For those that haven't heard yet, sellers are planning ANOTHER boycott of that "other site!" This one is supposed to go indefinitely starting May 1st....here's more info about it:
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MAY 1ST BOYCOTT THREAD - PLEASE PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT HERE. mrskillion (177 )mrskillion (177 Feb-26-08 16:40 PST Goodevening Seller Central,
I have a few announcements/requests to make this evening. First, I want to announce an open-ended boycott of ebay starting on May 1st, 2008.
The group of 1,000 sellers ( and growing every hour )which has organized itself outside ebay has been discussing for a number of days now what our next steps should be.
We believe that another boycott is something that needs to be done. We have picked the date of May 1st for a number of reasons. It gives us time to organize and spread the word. It coincides with the month the new feedback changes go into effect. And personally, I always think of May as the month when things really begin to grow. I believe that this boycott will really, really grow!
Our last boycott, Feb 18-25th, was successful in many ways. First, without it we would not have a core group of 1,000 ebay sellers organized now! Secondly, we had a lot of media attention and now many sellers and buyers know about the recent policy changes. They would not have known if all of us did not spread the word. Lastly, we were below 11.9 million listings, which I believe was a great first step.
We did come together and unite with one voice and we were heard. They knew we were there....they have just chosen to ignore us. They may have been under the misconception that it was over on the 25th and we were all going back to business as usual.
I don't think so. I am asking for your help and support. Please go to the two off-ebay sites and sign up. We are in the process of choosing state leaders, so if you can take that leadership roll it would be wonderful. Each of the 50 states will have a team leader in charge of handling the media contacts, news distribution to other ebay sellers/buyers in their state and other tasks. State leaders report directly to the core group which consists of 6 at the moment.
We need to send an even stronger message to Ebay that the policy changes they have recently made are not acceptable.
What were those policy changes?
First, we were told that there was a fee reduction. WOW, GREAT! That was a short lived smile on the face of the average seller.
A few sentences later we read in the Ebay announcement that listing fees were going down by as little as a nickel while Final Value Fees were going up by as much as 67%.
Reserve fees doubled and were made non-refundable
Fee hikes are bad enough without being lied to about them.
Then we learned that while buyers were still allowed to leave positive, negative or neutral feedback sellers were only allowed to leave Positives.
Ebay is going to tell me what my opinion of a transaction is going to be? What if it wasn't positive?
Oh, then I can leave nothing. Well that really doesn't work. What if a buyer never paid, or paid four weeks late, or called me at home at 3am? What if they filed a chargeback and sent back a USED broken ipod instead of the brand new one they bought from me?
Positive feedback or nothing really doesnt work now does it?
Oh, then there is the paypal issue. Paypal can hold the sellers money from a sale up to 21 days.
Here is the post from a pink on the paypal thread 30. What can I do to avoid having eBay item holds?
Your payments WILL BE NOT HELD if you meet all the following requirements:
eBay Tenure: Greater than 6-months
Total Feedback score: More than 100
Dissatisfied Buyers %: Less than 5%
Or if you meet all the following requirements:
Detailed Seller Rating: Greater than 4.5
Total Detailed Seller Ratings Recieved: More than 20 in the last 12-months
OH, and paypal will just keep the interest they earn on your money for all their trouble! Problems with BEST MATCH and other ebay functions are issues too.
THIS TIME IS DIFFERENT. THIS TIME EBAY HAS GONE TOO FAR. JOIN US MAY 1st. EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO JOINS US MAKES US STRONGER.
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This might be a good time for former 'bayers who have come over here to spread the word wherever you can. Maybe a strong advertising campaign from eBid, or just every seller taking it upon themselves to notify as many former customers as they can locate can make a significant difference?!