Don't get mad GET EVEN with Fee Pay HOW TO!

[deltadelta48]

Same happened to me AND they refunded all money back to people I had already mailed items to!!

Here is a good way in US to get reinstated and make a bit of trouble for feebay too. Write a detailed letter to your state's Attorney General. Give lots of detail, including your fees paid each year, how many items you sold, your earnings, etc. Take my word for it, they are very interested, especially in the fees you paid for getting shabby treatment. When they heard I paid $5000+ fees a year the Attorney General's office ears perked right up!!

The Attorney General's office will contact feebay directly and give them a deadline to reply to you. All of this correspondence stays on file for several years so anyone in the public can access it.

In my case process took months and I did get a direct phone call from some dope at feebay who still could not figure out why/how it happened. I suspect rivals too as the feedback was getting nasty BUT I also had virus contamination that marked paid items unpaid too. Feebay took more than a month to fix and never corrected anything. I did not get a settlement but I did get my name cleared on feebay.

I was reinstated about 4 months after I was suspended BUT I had missed the whole Xmas season so I do, lost a lot, including items I mailed but feebay decided to refund for.

In any case, the phone person was still kind of spunky, I was reinstated but they were going to watch me close, etc. I promptly told her I had started my own web site, joined ebid AND taken the names and addresses of 6000 past customers with me!!!! She did not say much after that.

I mailed out postcards and emails telling all I moved, and moved on. I know it does hurt, but if feebay supports such antics, poor policies, etc, they deserve what they get. If you need email addresses, go into paypal and pick them up there.

Note that feebay's sales are down from high of 100 million auctions a day to 24 million!!! (see powersellersunite.com for daily stats of all auction sites) so they ain't doing too hot.

Oh, never never use the name ___bay again. It is searchable.

Peel off your feebay car sticker and add one from ebid (it comes with your free t shift for one buddy point).

Wear your ebid t-shirt proudly and give info to anyone who asks about ebid. Get all your old customers to join (espec. those who bought a lot) and sell (you earn buddy points). New customers who spend money help all of us sellers (we are 500,000 strong now!!!).

Throw away your feebay pen or sell it on ebid!!

Start your own website (godaddy is cheap, I have a 5 year website address and have a shoppal store, store is only $10 a month) and work at marketing that via the various search engines. Once it gets going, add the ebid icon and direct your customers to shop your site and your stores on ebid!!

I wish someone would start a class action lawsuit (I saved all my info) but don't know how to do that. If someone does, we stand a chance of getting some money back. Someone wiser than I needs to look at all these stories.

Good luck, take a breathe and start a new life. Welcome to ebid!

[nobrassband]

This forum is entitled "Ways to promote eBid and your eBid Stores".

"Ideas for promoting your eBid Stores, your eBid auctions and chat about getting the word out about eBid."

A positive approach to member support.

Sometimes it seems to be more about why some folks are unhappy with eBay. In the process of venting their spleens, the notion that this is supposed to be a positive forum about promoting eBid and supporting eBid members seems to get lost.

Perhaps a Spleen Venting thread should be opened in the Kitchen Table.

[heatemyfather]

Wow, looks like you have some very cool stuff, although quite specialised so I hope you're bringing your own customers in from where ever, I suspect most of eBid's casual browsers won't be in your target customer group! I assume there are forums or other online communities in your field that you frequent, it may even be worth taking out a couple of ads pointing people to your eBid listings. Why not open an eBid store too?

Best of luck with your listings! Be patient though, remember that we are in a quiet corner of the internet and there's a global recession on, two things that are hurting sales everywhere right now.


EDIT: I see your listings all appear to have some comments in the sub-titles about fleaBay; although many of us share your sentiments I think it does look unprofessional. The mere fact that a seller such as yourself is here tells us that you've opened your mind to online selling beyond fleaBay, there's no need to ram it home.

ANOTHER EDIT: How about offering something other than PeePal for those of us who live outside of the US and have sacked PeePal? Google Checkout is a good alternative, similar fee structure but has the big advantage of Not Being PayPal. Then there's PPPay, it's not great but then again it's Not PayPal and offers a similar service. PPPay Escrow is about the only genuine Escrow service I know of which isn't corrupted in one way or another.

[hush77hush]

i agree with you anttalkin if all the newbies vent there spleen about feebay when they find ebid then this site will look more and more dodgy to buyers this is going to affect sale and that is why we are all here.
more and more people know that feebay is not for them we do not have to shout about it, It makes ebid look bad.

[marschenegger]

This forum is entitled "Ways to promote eBid and your eBid Stores".

"Ideas for promoting your eBid Stores, your eBid auctions and chat about getting the word out about eBid."

A positive approach to member support.

Sometimes it seems to be more about why some folks are unhappy with eBay. In the process of venting their spleens, the notion that this is supposed to be a positive forum about promoting eBid and supporting eBid members seems to get lost.

Perhaps a Spleen Venting thread should be opened in the Kitchen Table.

Perhaps the problem is that many members of eBid are here not because they want to be members of eBid but because some of them don't want to be members of the Dark Side. Not surprisingly, then, they use this site to talk about why they are not on that other site. It's the same reasoning why some people own Apple computers. It's not because they particularly like Apple computers. It's more of a statement about what kind of computer they do NOT own.

[TiasTreasures]

i agree with you anttalkin if all the newbies vent there spleen about feebay when they find ebid then this site will look more and more dodgy to buyers this is going to affect sale and that is why we are all here.
more and more people know that feebay is not for them we do not have to shout about it, It makes ebid look bad.

I'm one of the people who is turned off by complainers. It seems a recent study confirmed what many of us already know. If we hang out with unhappy people, we get depressed. If we spend our time with happy people, we feel good.

I think the same thing is true here. Forget the dark side, don't even mention them in the listings or "All About the Seller." We're optimistic about eBid's future, let's concentrate on that.

If you really feel the need to vent, come to the forums! Lots of good listeners here.

[JudesNiceThings]

I'm one of the people who is turned off by complainers.

So am I!

Usually a case of 'preaching to the converted' anyway!!I also get really annoyed when people come to eBid expecting it to be a 'clone' of feebay, with all it's ttendant rules and restrictions and of course they expect all the 'feebay refinements' for little or no cost!!

They can't have it both ways!! LOL

[Heruur]

Update: It seems that somebody must have forwarded one of my emails to FEE pay and they reinstated my fee pay account. I find it a bit hard to forgive fee pay for the stuff they did, especially the emails to my clients and PP reneging after i shipped.

I will be getting Google check by the end of the week, as i've heard it' services are a lot better and more legit than pay pal.

The main issues that keep popping up seem to animosity for the sarcastic remarks about FEEBAY in my auctions, and the mantra of "it's slower here" Since it will not let me edit the subtitle out i cannot change it for this week. If it hurts sales than so be it, as i expected to take a loss anyway. Sorry for venting, next week it will be back to normal.

The biggest issue I see on this site is lack of traffic because of lack of advertising in ways that get customers to STAY.

Here are some things that should help with site traffic.

1) Don't do both at the same time!, If you sell on Fee-pay and on ebid they will go to FEEPAY on familiarity alone. If you are a seller on fee pay and want out, let your customers know well in advance, and when the day comes stick to it.

2) Do promotional listings every now and then EXPECTING to take a loss, and chock it up to advertising expense. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to be able to stomach a small amount of risk in business of any kind. Note, I say SMALL here, don't mortgage the house LOL

3) Offer free shipping, THIS ONE WORKS! I know that in some countries posting cost is a fortune (poor Aussies!) so you may not be able to, but in the USA it costs about $3 to post most small stuff under a pound.

4) Offer reduced rate COMBINED shipping on things.

5) Try listing as an actual auction instead of all BUY IT NOWS, granted the first few will be a loss but the occasional deal for your customer keeps them coming back for more. THIS IS EXACTLY what made FEE-PAY the site it once WAS..

6) Try to find a niche market. The big boys out there offer consumer electronics, tools, clothing, etc that anyone can get at the mall/store. There is no competing against this unless you are a BIG corporate seller. INSTEAD Offer something UNIQUE that no one else has. A trick that works well in my field is finding something very common that will work for an uncommon use that requires something otherwise very expensive. i also find that unique one of a kind art items do well too, but you'll need to build it

7) Offer services as well as goods.

8) Do marketing research and find out what key words people are looking for as well as what the items you want to sell are worth. This is very important!

9) Good customer service, give your customers the benefit of the doubt and be courteous. For example if you sold something you have multiples of and the item gets lost in transit, quickly send another one out while you are waiting on the insurance to be processed. This one has turned a few potential negatives into glowing positives, and you'll have a customer for life!

10) Never underestimate the power of THANK YOU's, include a note thanking your buyer for their patronage- even better with a some token gift in your package.

My US $0.02 worth