Feb. 18-25, 2008 Do Not Buy, Sell, or List on Ebay!
Today kicks off the Great Ebay Strike. For those of you unfamiliar with what's going on, a new CEO of Ebay has announced some policy changes that will greatly hurt the user experience and propagate corporate greed. Here are the offending changes:
1.) A Major Rate Increase - They've claimed that they're offering a "listing fee reduction" by 5 cents. Isn't that nice? What they don't tell you is that at the same time they're raising the seller's auction-end fees by 33-66%! 
2.) Revamping the Feedback System - Under the new system, Sellers can't leave negative feedback for Buyers. This leaves Sellers unprotected from ratings fraud and gives Buyers no incentive (other than human decency) to behave themselves. It's like arming one side with a gun, and not the other.
3.) 95% Positive Feedback Requirement - That's right, unless your positive feedback rate is 95%, then your auctions won't be listed in Ebay's search engine, which means no one will ever see your auction and you will never sell anything again. So if one person receives a few negative feedbacks, they have no chance to redeem their ratings because they'll never be able to sell again!
4.) PayPal To Withhold Money - If you have fewer than 100 feedback (which means most occasional Ebayers), PayPal will withhold your money from you for 21 days!!! That's right, 3 weeks of you not getting YOUR money! And no, they're not giving you any interest for holding your money hostage for 3 weeks.
Not only does this harm the Ebay community as a whole, but this new policy specifically targets infrequent users (which includes me!). It's as if Ebay is trying to eliminate anyone but hardcore Power Sellers.
Then to add insult to injury, the new CEO of Ebay mocked the "noise" users made when they complained about these new policies. So Ebayites decided to get together and show this greedy CEO just how much noise Ebayers can really make!
2.) Revamping the Feedback System - Under the new system, Sellers can't leave negative feedback for Buyers. This leaves Sellers unprotected from ratings fraud and gives Buyers no incentive (other than human decency) to behave themselves. It's like arming one side with a gun, and not the other.
3.) 95% Positive Feedback Requirement - That's right, unless your positive feedback rate is 95%, then your auctions won't be listed in Ebay's search engine, which means no one will ever see your auction and you will never sell anything again. So if one person receives a few negative feedbacks, they have no chance to redeem their ratings because they'll never be able to sell again!
4.) PayPal To Withhold Money - If you have fewer than 100 feedback (which means most occasional Ebayers), PayPal will withhold your money from you for 21 days!!! That's right, 3 weeks of you not getting YOUR money! And no, they're not giving you any interest for holding your money hostage for 3 weeks.
Not only does this harm the Ebay community as a whole, but this new policy specifically targets infrequent users (which includes me!). It's as if Ebay is trying to eliminate anyone but hardcore Power Sellers.
Then to add insult to injury, the new CEO of Ebay mocked the "noise" users made when they complained about these new policies. So Ebayites decided to get together and show this greedy CEO just how much noise Ebayers can really make!
For a slightly more entertaining take on the strike, watch the video below. It has more flair, I'd say:
1 comment:
Great post, great video. I support the boycott!
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