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.

Another FYI...

TMT

EBay adjusts pricing to encourage low-cost sellers By Eric Auchard
Tue Jan 29, 11:22 AM ET



Online auction leader eBay Inc (EBAY.O) on Tuesday introduced price
changes and tighter sales standards in a bid to retain quality
sellers, improve customer service and revive flagging growth.

In a speech to eBay's top store operators and market makers in
Washington D.C., CEO-in-waiting John Donahoe will set out a plan to
reward the company's best sellers with sales incentives and priority
ranking in search results for auction items.

Key changes involve lowering fees for listing items within auctions or
for independently operated stores run on eBay. It also involves
raising some of the fees sellers pay once sales transactions are
successfully completed. And eBay plans to raise minimum standards to
discourage abusive sales practices.

"Sellers that describe items accurately, ship on time, and ship at a
fair price will enjoy preferential pricing and discounts on eBay,"
Donahoe said in prepared remarks. "We're serious about making eBay
easier and safer to shop."

EBay is seeking to reverse slowing revenue growth in its marketplaces
business, which is roughly half the level of three years ago. The
company telegraphed that changes were in store last week when it
reported its 2007 year-end results.

The moves initially take effect February 20 in the United States
across both auction bidding and fixed price markets. In coming weeks,
similar changes will be introduced in Germany and Britain, eBay's No.
2 and No. 3 markets. Eventually, the pricing and other rules changes
will take effect worldwide.

In the United States, eBay plans to reduce insertion fees -- the cost
of listing new items -- by 25 percent on most auction items and by 50
percent on most store items.

The fee changes, which vary by country, are intended to encourage
sellers to list more items and use more pictures to illustrate
listings, moves designed to encourage shopping.

Final value fees, or the price sellers pay for successfully completing
a sales transaction, go down as the value of items go up. The pricing
changes lower the up-front risk if listed items don't sell. "Put
simply, we will make more of our money when sellers are successful,"
Donahoe said in a statement.

Long-serving eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman said last week she
planned to step aside at the end of March and be replaced by Donahoe.

There were 532,000 stores operated with the eBay network in the fourth
quarter. The company no longer discloses the overall number of sellers
who participate in its auctions business. But it boasts 1.3 million
people make some part of their living selling goods or services on
eBay sites globally.

Along with fee changes, eBay is making its minimum standards more
stringent for anyone who sells on the site, primarily to discourage
behavior like charging excessive shipping fees or not describing
listed items accurately. Sellers with high customer dissatisfaction
ratings will be given lower priority in searches consumers perform on
eBay.

Analysts said the changes were welcome but that eBay has a lot more to
do to revive its growth in its auction business.

"While the moves are bold, I don't think they are going to change the
face of competition," Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, a
sales consulting group that advises online merchants who sell through
eBay and other sites.

But Wingo said eBay was headed in the right direction by cutting fees
that have pushed some merchants off of eBay, reversing a pattern of
fee increases seen in recent years.

Lower fees could help woo back sellers of books, music and videos --
items that typically sell for under $25, he said.

"These guys have had a very tough time as (auction listing) prices and
then store prices went up," Wingo said. "That drove a lot of selection
off the site," he said, both to rival Amazon.com and to Web sites
these merchants set up themselves.

Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel, one of two out of 27 analysts who
recommend investors sell eBay shares, has argued eBay must drastically
cut its sales commission structure in order to compete with Amazon,
which will require "hitting the Reset button on (its) business model,"
he wrote last week.

"We think the structural issues may take years to overcome, given the
economy, competition and financial impact," he said.

(Editing by Derek Caney)