Ebay really sucks lately. I'm staying away until they quit screwing people. I've been a long time customer, but have not use the site in 6 months ever since they raised their rates. Every one should do the same then I no they will change.

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I don't think eBay has a grasp on the concept that most people don't like change. Even if the changes they make improve the site, which seems to be up for argument, every weird change they make exasperates a few more people until all their people are gone.

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Recent missteps by eBay executives should have everyone questioning the quality and vision of the new leadership at eBay.

First, in announcing pending changes in policies and final value fee increases, eBay CEO John Donahoe disrespectfully referred to anticipated dissenting opinions from buyers and sellers as "noise".

Not exactly a great way to demonstrate the value he places on the opinions of the very buyers and sellers upon whom his company is dependent upon for its continued survival.

Second, after small sellers rise up in arms, pull listings and cancel accounts due to: 1) announced fee increases, 2) discrimination with regard to listings visibility in Best Match search, and 3) new listing prompts insisting sellers reduce shipping fees when postal rates are increasing - Lorrie Norrington posts on an eBay blog that "eBay wants small sellers".

The horses had escaped already escaped the barn by the time Ms Norrington tried to close the doors on this one.

Not helping her case is the timing of the announcement that eBay had signed a discount fee agreement with Buy.com at virtually the same time as Ms. Norrington's post, further documenting the preferred status for large sellers while adding possibility of similar deals to come.

Third, eBay announced that they were going to make PayPal the only form of electronic payment in Australia, eliminating competitive online payment processors, as well as direct bank deposit, and thus telling buyers and sellers that it is PayPal or hand to hand payment at pick up only on eBay Australia.

If successful the plan was reportedly considered to be enacted across eBay globally.

Then comes a non denial denial from eBay spokesman Usher Leiberman who wrote: "In the U.S., we are not mulling, planning, or otherwise seriously considering a move to PayPal-only," and..."There are U.S. market-specific reasons why PayPal-only is something we simply cannot do in the U.S."

But Leibermans' statement gets less definitive as he continued to write: "Categorical statements have a tendency to cause headaches down the road,". Apparently, the headache down the road is either his denial that future plans are to force PayPal only in the US or not.

At best, Leiberman's statement is confusing and seemingly contradicts itself.

Fourth, in a meeting with eBay buyers and sellers in Australia about plans to allow PayPal payments only on the site, eBay Vice President Simon Smith stated: "We're not allowing people to offer unsafe choices, just like in this democracy you can't go out and buy heroin on the streets."

Not exactly a well thought out analogy any quality executive would offer to customers as they express outrage over the new proposed policy.

Fifth, in an article here :
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23690645-8362,00.html

Alastair McGibon, eBay's trust and safety executive claims that undisclosed "internal numbers" are the basis for eBay's claim that PayPal is the safer payment method in Australia.

McGibbons, eBay, and PayPal refuse to offer any statistics to support their claim.

This is quite similar to the manner in which the mafia collects extortion. Don Corleone stops by your store and says he wants a fee from you on a regular basis, and for that fee he will promise that his mobsters do not burn down your store.

eBay is now extorting members in Australia in order to benefit their own bottom line.

What kind of executive extorts members on the basis of statistics which he can not and will not produce to support his case?

At what point is eBay going to realize that the current leadership is inept and doing more damage than any competition could hope to inflict?

eBay is rapidly losing buyers and sellers, and it is the executive leadership of the company holding the door open for them as they leave.

If this represents the quality of eBay leadership going forward, then this company seems destined to go from champ to chump in less time than it took AOL to self destruct.

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If you want an indication of what Aussies think about all of the eBay changes of late visit our Message Boards
http://forums.ebay.com.au/forum.jspa?forumID=500000001

or read some of the submissions that have been submitted by eBayer's, a number of our large banks incl our Reserve Bank, government regulatory bodies, IT companies etc. etc. Following link is to submissions received by our ACCC where eBay have applied for exemption to our 3rd Party Trading legislation.
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/823668/fromItemId/776499/display/submission

But thousands of people like me who have sold on and off since eBay started in this country more than 10 years ago have left and now listing elsewhere.

eBay ain't no fun any more!

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Read # 3 and I say there is no sense writing it twice.I totally agree with RicRoe.Nee else need anything else be said?

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im an ebayer in australia. i both buy and sell. as a seller i am scared of the new rules which will come in forcing us to accept paypal only. if someone wants to get nasty, they can always file a paypal claim stating that they did not receive the item and paypal refund them no questions asked

with the new feedback rules, a seller is unable to leave negative feedback for a buyer, we are only allowed to leave them a positive feedback. if a non paying bidder comes along, we are not allowed to let others know that the npb is a loser

with digitally received items (wholesale lists) they have now been banned. you must either print the list out or save it to a disc and mail it to the buyer whereas before you could email them the list and they had it right away ad it kept costs down. the reason ebay changed this is because some cretins were listing digitally received items for extremely low prices and selling them to boost their feedback rating. the simple fix would have been to put a minimum listing price on these items. for example, you cant list something like this for under $10. the funny thing is that when an aussie lists a wholesale list, ebay remove it. when someone from overseas lists the same thing on the australian site, ebay let it go

i am currently suspended from ebay because i took a stand against them. they removed my wholesale list and did not give me a specific reason why. they emailed me and said it could be one of 3 reasons so i replied and asked EXACTLY which reason it was removed for. ebay did not reply because they knew my listing breached no policies so i relisted my item. they then removed it again and again i asked why and again they refused to respond so i relisted it a third time.

they removed the third listing and then suspended my account. they have said that i am suspended for "at least 7 days." they will not even give me a timeframe. when you go to jail, you know exactly how long you will be there for and the judge tells you exactly why you are going to jail. ebay dont give you that luxury

ive stopped whinging about the justice system in australia because it's more fair than the ebay system. i hope the ACCC chews ebay up and then spits them out like the crud that they are

aussies are stating to gravitate towards sites like oztion and bidmate now where we are struggling but will get there in the end. without sellers, ebay will make nothing, they should remember that!

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