eBay Strikers Say Scope, Solidarity Unprecedented

While angry eBay sellers have taken to the 'Net, it's not to hawk their wares. Instead they're posting messages and videos at MySpace, YouTube and Flikr, as well as blogs and forums, calling for solidarity in a week-long boycott that kicked off yesterday.

While many are upset about a new fee structure that generally decreases listing costs but gives eBay a bigger cut on sales transactions, the new policy no longer allowing sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers is primarily what is prompting the outrage — and the strike.

While sellers have called for boycotts in the past due to fee hikes with little effect, several sellers have told Ecommerce-Guide.com that this go-around is unprecedented in scope in support.

Seller Solidarity
Janie Monares, a veteran Power Seller from Texas, sells jewelry on eBay, using the profits to cover health care for her family, which includes therapy for a child with autism.

"I make more money on eBay than I do at my full-time job, so the changes in fees and feedback concern me because it will seriously affect my quality of life," said Monares. "Normally, I couldn't afford to strike, but I started even before the date, I saved up some money, because I think it needs to be done to send a message. That's the goal, we need to show them this is a huge issue, not just for the little guys, but for Power Sellers, too."

Valerie Lennert, of Anaheim, Calif., who told Ecommerce-Guide.com she was banned from eBay's discussion boards for creating a pro-boycott video posted at YouTube, agrees.

"I've seen eBay users get upset, but I've never seen them this upset. And I've never seen this many," said Lennert. "We have buyers unhappy because they're afraid they'll be paying higher prices for the same item as sellers just add the fees into their item prices. We have both multi-million dollar Power Sellers and mom-and-pop stores that sell one item a month — we have people from all levels of the buying and selling spectrum that are just outraged at the proposed changes."

Negative Feedback on Feedback
Lennert is supporting the strike because she is upset overall with the direction eBay is taking with the new policy changes, but mostly she is striking because of the feedback rule. She said that while most buyers are "wonderful people looking for a good deal," there are the "nut cases" that try to bilk sellers.

"The change hasn't even gone live and I'm already seeing buyers demand something for nothing with the threat of leaving negative [feedbacks]; these buyers don't know the changes aren't even live yet," said Lennert, who makes and sells doll clothes. "So basically, I will now be held hostage by rogue buyers who threaten to leave a negative if I don't give them their item for free, ship for free, enclose a lock of my hair, or otherwise meet their insane demands."

While eBay said the feedback change was made to eliminate seller abuse, claiming sellers leave "retaliatory" negative feedback at a rate of eight times more than buyers, Lennert said sellers now have no leverage when dealing with unrealistic buyer expectations.

"EBay is saying problem buyers like this don't exist. They are wrong," said Lennert. "Also, most buyers don't understand what it costs to ship, how long the post office takes, etc. They want something there in lightening speed, and while I do provide excellent customer service and will even give people items for free if they are unhappy, I don't own a space/time continuum machine for quick delivery. I foresee lots of dings on people's ratings for shipping issues that are simply beyond our control."

Competition Suspicion
Lennert and other sellers are also worried about competitors with no integrity who will abuse the system. She said a rival could easily buy an item with the sole purpose of leaving a negative feedback.

"So what's the big deal about a negative here or there? Well, most people haven't read the fine print and haven't yet realized this, but if you have a certain amount of negatives per month, your listings will not appear as normal in the search engine display. They are changing the way listings are displayed depending on a seller's feedback. In other words," said Lennert, "once you have a negative, your competitors' listings will come up first while yours show up on page 857 where no one will ever see them. Therefore, it is virtually impossible to recover from a negative as your listings will not be seen by buyers and your competitors will."

Monares agrees that the feedback issue leaves her in a vulnerable position, not only because of dishonest competitors, but in terms of copyright protection. She said under eBay's VeRo (Verified Rights Owner) Program she has the authority to remove listings of those who are copying her work, but won't be able to should she be suspended. "Competitors could leave negative feedback so your percentage goes down, and if it drops below five percent, you're temporarily suspended from the site, so your competitors can be doing anything," said Monares.

Growing Plants, Shrinking Profits
Meanwhile, there are sellers who simply think that the cost of doing business at eBay is now prohibitive to profits. Sue Surla, who is retired and has been selling home-grown on eBay for six years to make extra money, is one such vendor.

"I am supporting this strike because of the fee raises. I did some figuring and see that I will be paying eBay very close to 20 percent of my sales to when you figure listing fees, final value fees, monthly store fee, and PayPal fees," said Surla. "I just did my taxes and was shocked at the small amount of profit that I actually made for all my hard work last year. And now with new fees I will be making even less. eBay's greed is driving away many sellers who would like to stay on with them but have no other choice but to find an auction site where they can make a profit."

Surla also said that the new feedback changes are not well thought out. "I believe that eBay can come up with a good solution to fix the feedback problem without taking away the right of the seller to leave negative when need be."

(Continue to Page 2 for more on PayPal and Potential Success of Strike)

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