On Jan 29, 11:33 am, Ignoramus1782
wrote:
Now sellers will only be able to leave positive feedback.

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/...tml?ov=004KM#2

Feedback Changes
The eBay Feedback system was designed to provide a simple, honest,
accurate record of member experiences. Focusing on customer service
includes doing everything we can to grow customer confidence in our
sellers.

* Buyers will only be able to receive positive Feedback.
* Positive repeat customer Feedback will count (up to 1 Feedback
from the same buyer per week.)
* Feedback more than 12-months old won't count towards your
Feedback percentage.
* When a buyer doesn't respond to the Unpaid Item (UPI) process
the negative or neutral Feedback they have left for that transaction
will be removed.
* When a member is suspended, all their negative and neutral
Feedback will be removed.
* Buyers must wait 3 days before leaving negative or neutral
Feedback for sellers with an established track record, to encourage
communication.
* All Feedback must be left within 60 days (compared to 90 days
today) of listing end to encourage timely Feedback and discourage
abuse.
* Buyers will be held more accountable when sellers report an
unpaid item or commit other policy violations.

FYI...

TMT


EBay lowers some fees, raises others By AMANDA FEHD, Associated Press
Writer
Tue Jan 29, 6:16 PM ET



EBay Inc. is rejiggering its fees -- raising some, trimming others -- to
meet rising competition and maintain its share of the online auction
market it helped start a decade ago.

But those who keep tabs on the Web site, including its top sellers,
say the changes are a step in the wrong direction.

"It's too little too late," said Steve Grossberg, one of eBay's top
100 sellers and the founder and president of the Internet Merchants
Association.

Grossberg, a Florida-based vendor of video games, spoke by phone from
a conference of 200 of North America's top eBay sellers in Washington,
D.C., where incoming CEO John Donahoe announced the fee changes
Tuesday. EBay makes 80 percent of its revenue from the top 20 percent
of its sellers.

"I think you are going to see a listing decrease, you are going to see
some sellers leave the site or pull back quite a bit and think of
other ways to make revenue, and it's going to backfire," Grossberg
said.

Listings on eBay's various sites in the fourth quarter rose 4 percent,
reversing two straight quarters of declines, the company reported last
week. The number of people actively using the site has stagnated,
rising just 2 percent from a year ago, while revenues have risen
modestly.

The price changes, which take effect Feb. 20, are complex. It will
cost 25 percent less to list an item for auction and up to 50 percent
less to offer something for a fixed price. EBay's commission on items
sold for fixed prices over $100 will also decline.

Its commissions on auction items selling for more than $1000 will
remain at 1.5 percent, while its commission on cheaper items will rise
as much as 67 percent.

Under the old rules, for example, a purse auctioned for $25 would have
cost the seller $1.91, including 60 cents for listing the item plus
eBay's commission of $1.31. Under the new structure, the seller would
pay $2.74, including 55 cents to list the item plus a higher
commission of $2.19.

"EBay does sincerely want to compete. They are reacting to the
competitive threat of Amazon," said Ina Steiner, editor of
AuctionBytes.com, a trade publication for online sellers.

Amazon already has "cherry-picked" a lot of eBay's high-volume
sellers, Steiner said.

Company spokesman Usher Lieberman said the company's internal pricing
experiments and number-crunching show listings overall will rise in
response to the changes.

"We've heard from our sellers for a long time that they've wanted us
to reduce their upfront cost and risks, and we've done that,"
Lieberman said. Lieberman predicted the changes will result in savings
for more than 60 percent of sellers.

EBay most wants to encourage growth in fixed-price sales, the area
where it sees the most potential for growth.

One of its main rivals in fixed-price sales, Amazon.com Inc., charges
no fee at all to list an item, though it charges a commission as high
as 15 percent.

Sellers told The Associated Press that Amazon is more straightforward,
takes less time and that they make more money using it, partly because
Amazon pays for payment processing.

Randy Smythe, a former eBay seller in Southern California, said eBay's
sellers take more risks than Amazon's because they have to pay before
an item sells.

Smythe sold music and movies on eBay for nine years, bringing in up to
$4.6 million a year. He stopped in 2006 because he saw increased
competition from those who were gaming eBay's fee structure, charging
less for CDs upfront but more on shipping. He found he was keeping
just 2 percent of his gross revenue, and he now blogs about the
industry instead.

"What's going to happen is it's still going to be too expensive to
sell on eBay and make good money," Smythe said.

Donahoe said eBay is at a crossroads. He told the sellers the new fee
structure will be driven by their success.

"To maintain our leadership position in e-commerce, we can no longer
afford to make incremental changes to meet our customers' needs,"
Donahoe said. "We need to redo our play book and we need to redo it
fast. We need to take bold actions to meet the expectations of buyers
and sellers around the world."

Donahoe said a majority of sellers will see their prices fall.

But sellers said the changes will increase their costs.

"I don't see any real incentive for the average seller to list more
with this new fee structure. I think their 'bread and butter' core
auction listings will continue to diminish as a result," said Bill
Hamilton, a Georgia-based top seller who specializes in collectible
gemstones.

The new fees affect only sellers in the United States. More changes
are coming in Britain and Germany.

The changes come as longtime Chief Executive Meg Whitman announced she
would retire at the end of March. Donahoe, president of eBay
Marketplaces, which encompasses its shopping sites and classifieds,
has said he will aggressively change eBay's product, customer approach
and business model.

Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with Global Crown Capital, said eBay's
rising fees have in the past caused sellers to look elsewhere on the
Internet for places to practice the online skills they perfected at
eBay, whether it's their own Web sites, Amazon, or other shopping
sites.

"The more savvy sellers look at a multitude of options. It's not like
Amazon is taking market share from eBay in a big chunk, it's more of a
gradual shift. This commission going up will be a telling point over
the next months to see what kind of reactions it gets," Pyykkonen
said.