keziak
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posted on July 5, 2001 08:42:08 AM new
I noticed today that my winner's notices from ebay are a different format and seem to be coming from a different address. I wonder if that is a permanent change. I hope not, because the new format doesn't include the information I give in the listing, most importantly the shipping rates I quoted. Now I have to pull up the auction each time to make sure I am giving the right quote in my own email to the winner.
keziak
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kyriaki
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posted on July 5, 2001 09:39:12 AM new
I have never had any shipping amounts stated in my EOA notices from eBay!!!!!
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bustervein
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posted on July 5, 2001 09:51:31 AM new
kyriaki
if your shipping amt is in the description it used to appear in the notices.....if they fit into the amt of text space ebay alloted in the notice.........or some of mine did,
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nothingyouneed
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posted on July 5, 2001 09:56:37 AM new
The end of auction notices always carried the item description text from the auction listing (after all the garbage about "what to do next" . Now there's garbage BEFORE the actual EOA notice...more stuff to scroll through and take up disk space. I think the EOA should be brief and to the point with just the essential facts and put the marketing effort towards people who DON'T use eBay instead of those who already do!
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flynlizards
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posted on July 5, 2001 11:08:37 AM new
When I got my first one, I was confused, too. I don't care for the lack of info, either. It was pretty nice having all the details on the same page. More incentive to move to fixed shipping if possible, huh.
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ozgirl
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posted on July 5, 2001 11:09:38 AM new
Keziak; I agree totally with you ! I was so frustrated today to see the "shortened" EOA notice; I too include the shipping cost and means in each auction, and the prices do vary, so I've always cut and pasted the basic info and print it out as my hard copy; now I had to go to My eBay and pull up each auction - 27 auctions for just one day - truly frustrating and time consuming !
Sandy
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keziak
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posted on July 5, 2001 12:24:44 PM new
Sandy, exactly! And I have about 75 closing today. Of course if Ebay is down, a lot will close unsold and I won't have to bother with pesky things like sending winner's email...
: - /
keziak
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ozgirl
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posted on July 5, 2001 01:25:18 PM new
Yeah, "those pesky emails" LOL ! The address is different now too, they're from
"endofauction@ebay". I thought they were phony at first ! Although several came through the old way, the majority was the new way - yuck ! I checked a couple of the message boards, but I don't see any info about it yet; I'll check with eBay again later and see if there's an announcement.
Sandy
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kittykittykitty
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posted on July 6, 2001 02:14:50 AM new
oh, bother. just got home and got mine - all the 'new and worsened' flavored ones.
rhetorical question
why does ebay keep breaking things that aren't broke?
/rhetorical question
this really is a pain. i also put shipping in the text and used their eoas to make my own. bad enough to have to go get the info from each auction, but now ebay's unavailable as usual on thursday night/friday morning, and i can't get in!
not knowing who else to write to, in my frustration i wrote to safeharbor voicing my displeasure for the new.
kittyx3
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paintpower
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posted on July 6, 2001 06:52:23 AM new
The other bad thing about these emails is that they are advising your buyer to pay you online with Billpoint! EEKKK. I don't take Billpoint! Hope buyers don't think something is wrong when they can't pay me that way. What happens if you don't take Billpoint and a buyer tries to pay you with it?
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dottie
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posted on July 6, 2001 07:26:12 AM new
paintpowere: not only that... but have you noticed that lately it would seem that the "default" on the listing page is set to indicate that the seller DOES accept BillPoint?
If you're not careful when your LISTING or RELISTING, eBay will automatically add the BILLPOINT payment options and logos to your listings....
I've been wondering about whether or not it's a "glitch" or something sneaky they've done on purpose.
Since eBay owns BillPoint, I would imagine that any information provided to eBay in order to SELL on the site would easily be shared with BillPoint... and some of the new requirements for selling on eBay include CC info and BANKING info.
Once eBay has that information... and passes it along to BillPoint... then it would stand to reason that eBay could easily "sign ya up" for BillPoint and then include the BillPoint payment option info in your listings (whether you want it or not) and THEN spam your winners in the EOAs with links to pay for their items via BillPoint.
The whole thing really bothers me... and I think it will become my mission today to get a straight answer out of someone (anyone) from eBay about these related coincidences!
- Dottie
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keziak
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posted on July 6, 2001 08:14:24 AM new
Dottie - I thought the BP problem only happened if you'd actually signed up for the service at some point? Now I'm wondering if they can sneak it onto anyone who has registered a credit card with ebay?
keziak
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toke
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posted on July 6, 2001 08:21:57 AM new
keziak
FWIW...I've had a credit card listed with eBay for almost 3 years (to pay my fees), but the so-called "Billpoint glitch" has not appeared in my auctions. I presume it's because I've never signed up with them.
That cute little Billpoint link has appeared in my EOA, though. I can't begin to tell you how that ticks me off. What sleazy tactics.
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sharkbaby
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posted on July 6, 2001 08:24:44 AM new
Yeah I don't like the new one either. I used to just scroll down into my description to pick up the ship cost for my eoa email to the customer. Now I have to go to my ebay pg and get it from the auction itself.
Oh well, I've had worse things happen to me this week! 
______________________________
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BJGrolle
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posted on July 6, 2001 08:32:18 AM new
You don't need to pull up the auction page itself (and that can be a pain if you're on dial-up access). There are a couple of ways around this.
1. Write your auction description using word processing software or web page software (making sure to stick to the basic HTML, not letting the program stick in all the extra code that isn't necessary and causes problems when you try to get your auctions on site) and save it to your hard drive. Then you can pull up the file on your computer without having to wait for a slow web page to load.
2. Use auction software that allows you to input the shipping charge for the purpose of it appearing automatically in the EOA.
http://bjgrolle.freehomepage.com
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sharkbaby
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posted on July 6, 2001 08:35:26 AM new
Sounds like a LOT of extra work to me! It takes like 2 seconds to pull up the auction if you already have a window in ebay anyway.
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BJGrolle
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posted on July 6, 2001 08:59:12 AM new
What's different about writing up a description directly on the selling form or writing it up in FrontPage or Word instead? Not much, IMO, in the way of extra work anyway. And if eBay is down, you can't pull up the auction page anyway.
And if you're writing up the description in your auction launching software, it takes an extra second or so to input the shipping amount (if it's known ahead of time anyway) in the right place, then it's there automatically when you're ready to send out the emails.
If you don't want to pay for software, that's fine. Then you have to continue cutting and pasting to fill in the blanks in your email templates, which to me, takes much more time after the fact than having the info. all ready to go before the auction is even on site. I've done it both ways, and I'd never want to go back to the cutting and pasting.
I'm not trying to be critical here, just expressing another point of view. Try it or ignore it, makes no difference to me.
http://bjgrolle.freehomepage.com
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pobo
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posted on July 6, 2001 09:04:15 AM new
I've had billpoint logos showing in my auctions and I never signed up with an account with them. A couple people have tried to pay with billpoint and write hateful emails demanding I fix my billpoint account (which I don't even have).
I wrote ebay regarding the logos, and they finally responded with something that had nothing to do with what I was saying and telling me how wonderful of a service billpoint is.
I did notice in the emails they corrected the "winner bidders" to "winning bidders". That had got on my nerves.
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mballai
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posted on July 6, 2001 10:53:17 AM new
What I can't stand is the 'sorry you're bid didn't win and here are twenty other auctions to get spammed on.' Rub salt in the wounds and expect someone to bid?
I don't like the Billpoint bug, but I am using Billpoint now that PayPal can't figure out how to run a business without raising fees twice in a month and treating small sellers like garbage.
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mildreds
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posted on July 6, 2001 11:46:29 AM new
Thank You Keziak for posting this. I also cut/past my shipping terms onto my end of auction notices. All my auctions are so different and I give the buyer the option of insurance so there is not one shipping number to load into automated software.
Also I get alot of buyers who email me minutes after auction ends which is nice when they are international. It is so easy to have all the information in my inbox.
I could just swear up a storm right now at Ebay. I am soooooooo tired of their constant changing of things. I am a retired mechanical engineer and am well aware of the concept of continuous improvement but this is crazy.
I wrote a note to Ebay complaining about lack of description. Maybe if enough people email they will put the decriptions back.
Email Ebay at [email protected]
I wrote last week when they put the advertising header above the "Congratulations" info and you had to scroll down to find out the auction information. They did take that off of my end of auction notices.
Bahhh Hum Bagh .................
[ edited by mildreds on Jul 6, 2001 11:47 AM ]
[ edited by mildreds on Jul 6, 2001 11:48 AM ]
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discoverybooks
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posted on July 6, 2001 12:13:54 PM new
I was furious when I discovered the change -- we use custom software for post-auction management, and it relied on the item description being in the the eBay notices. Without that information, the software didn't work at all. It took my husband all day to re-write the program, and we still don't have all the bugs worked out of it. It'll probably be another week before everything works properly again.
Bah. I wish they'd quit messing with things!
Rima
http://discoverybooks.org
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dottie
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posted on July 6, 2001 12:34:06 PM new
FWIW, I forwarded this thread to some folks at eBay so that they could get an idea about what kinds of information is important to have in the EOAs and what is NOT important information for buyers and sellers.
I think some of the feedback in this thread will be very helpful to that team.
Additionally, I spoke with someone a short while ago and it is my understanding that the Billpoint default is a possible glitch and it is being looked into. (regarding it's relationship to the EOAs)
It would seem that the text about paying via Billpoint is only suppose to appear in the EOAs of auctions that have ended successfully where the SELLER has chosen at the time of listing to offer Billpoint as a payment option. IF THIS IS TRUE, then once they get that pesky little Billpoint Default "bug" taken care of, sellers shouldn't have to worrry about their winning bidders being spammed for Billpoint UNLESS they chose it as one of their payment options at the time of listing/relisting.
I'm still waiting to hear back regarding the EOAs and Billpiont stuff... and will make an effort to post something here (or on the other auction discussion forum) when I get any substantial information.
- Dottie
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toke
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posted on July 6, 2001 12:46:11 PM new
Thanks, Dottie.
I have to say I don't believe the Billpoint promo in my EOAs is a glitch for one single minute. Never used Billpoint, never signed up for Billpoint, never had it accidentally appear as an option in any of my auctions.
Yet there it is, in my EOA. Some amazing glitch, huh? Bah. How cheesy can they get?
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kittykittykitty
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posted on July 6, 2001 12:56:58 PM new
here's what my ebay eoa's say, and i've never signed up for billpoint.
Here's what to do next:
The bidder and seller should contact each other within three business days to complete the sale. Winning bidders should send payment directly to the seller or use eBay Online Payments by Billpoint to pay the seller easily and directly. If you need help, click here:
thanks for pointing this out. probably not a problem for buyers who've been around, but if i were a new buyer and received this, i'd assume the seller accepted billpoint.
dottie, i hope they listen.
kittyx3
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dottie
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posted on July 6, 2001 04:33:59 PM new
Update on the EOAs with Billpoint text.
It is my understanding that the Billpoint text will be removed from the EOAs.
I'm not sure if they are removing the suggestion for Billpoint on ALL of the EOAs or just the ones where it was not offered as a payment option... but either way, I'm glad to know that the folks at eBay moved quickly on this one.
kittykittykitty: They listened! *smile*
- Dottie
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dottie
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posted on July 7, 2001 06:40:49 AM new
I'd be curious to know whether or not the Billpoint text is gone from the EOAs yet.
Does anyone have any successful auctions ending today that were not offering Billpoint as a payment option?
If so, let us know what the EOA looks like.
Thanks!
- Dottie
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litlux
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posted on July 7, 2001 07:51:04 AM new
To answer the original question "change in ebay notice...permanent?"
Of course not, nothing stays the same at ebay ever. Change for the sake of change.
And as to the revised end of auction notices that started this discussion, imagine the millions of notices that went out with that "winner bidders" error. Proves that nobody with basic english skills even proofreads these missiles that affect our lives so deeply.
Even more galling, to me at least, is that the changes weren't designed to help buyer or seller, but were purely spam to promote ebay's financial bottom line.
I have been reading between the lines of these bungled promotional attempts. The real cause of these shove-it-down-their throats sales pitches, is that ebay is desperate to meet the ridicuous 50% long-term growth rate promised their stockholders.
I don't object to good, targeted promotion that helps create more sales. However, these plebian attempts only serve to raise my hackles. IMHO they are inept, the work of rank amateurs who do not even know how to spell.
-edited to fix spelling errors. Did I get them all?
"Take care of the customers and the community and the profits will follow."
[ edited by litlux on Jul 7, 2001 08:00 AM ]
[ edited by litlux on Jul 7, 2001 08:03 AM ]
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sharkbaby
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posted on July 7, 2001 08:09:05 AM new
I received an EOA email from eBay very early this morning and the Billpoint blurb was GONE. The auction description info is still gone too.
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hwahwahwahwa
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posted on July 7, 2001 08:21:34 AM new
i never bother to read these notices,i check my auctions and know what the results are.
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dottie
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posted on July 7, 2001 09:12:20 AM new
sharkbaby: Thanks for letting us know that the Billpoint text is out of the EOAs.
Also, I DID mention yesterday that the description text in EOAs is important for many sellers. There was some agreement to that statement, and I'm hoping the reason for removing description text in the EOAs will get examined... and the PTB will reconsider the importance of including that pertinent information within the body of successful listing EOAs.
- Dottie
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