imabrit
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posted on October 23, 2000 06:04:29 PM
Okay no doubt you are sick of ebaY outages as I am.The announcement does not help much either.
Any tools not available to a bidder for on reason or another hurts all of us.
The seller list is not available this is a big deal it will hurt us not having this.
Question is what can we do about.Should we demand a reduction in fees, a refund on all listing fees over the next 10 days or some other recourse.
I am not interested in hearing about listing on other sites.The bidders are on ebaY not these other sites.
So any suggestions what do you think.
I plan on every night for the next 10 days on demanding a refund on all fees.
With the situation the way it is,it is affecting my income.
It will also make bidders disgruntled about using the site.
The next 10 days with intermittent problems plus the week already past.Puts this at over 2 weeks.
2 weeks of problems in any business has the potential to seriously damage its credibility and ours.
So what do you suggest.
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lucre
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posted on October 23, 2000 06:15:37 PM
A campaign to inform all of the stockholders of what type of company they have invested in.
If you want eBay to listen to us, the best place is to hit them where it counts, on Wall St.
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radh
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posted on October 23, 2000 06:18:35 PM
This is the type of messagethread that provokes & encourages eBay to NOT share info with us.
I'm glad that they finally described what the actual problem is.
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pineyhurst
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posted on October 23, 2000 06:20:50 PM
Ebay itself or insiders own 53% of the stock.
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dman3
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posted on October 23, 2000 06:24:48 PM
I for one feel everyone who listed auction this month is intitled to a 50% discount on all unsold Item that were listed since its at least half ebays down time that is at fault for the lack of sales and veiw time.
on the other hand I would be happy just to see ebay start a policy of gaining 12 auction time for every time there is an outage during the duration of each listing .
I dont mean just mean unplaned crashes I mean they should stop the clock and extend the auctions for at least 12 hours even when they are down for scheduled down time no matter what the reason I am paying them to have my Item avalable for sale to everyone on the net who comes to there sight or does a search on there sight or remotely from another like AW .
I say they should extend 12 hours because as its been pointed out if they are down for even 30 mins dureing prime time we lose all the snippers and buyer in that time for a whole day they cant get in to make dead lines on watch items and snipping they wont be back till next time at least 12 hours or more.
WWW.dman-n-company.com
[ edited by dman3 on Oct 23, 2000 06:29 PM ]
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freddy57
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posted on October 23, 2000 06:28:57 PM
Personally, I am not going to place any more auctions on Ebay until they get their current problems fixed. A week or two won't make any difference anyway. They don't seem open to offering any relief from the current dillema, so the best thing that I can see is just cut off the auctions for a while and watch them scramble to get their equipment back to working properly.
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dman3
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posted on October 23, 2000 06:38:45 PM
freddy57 :
this in its self maybe a good temporary Option for some sellers but not all and this in no way is a solution to the problem this is not the frist time and wont be the last time this happens.
I think most of us know the up grades and up dates are a nessary evil of the web and the net it self.
To you it might be a few $$ loss in listing fees but there are some this is there full time income and many have far more then $5 to $20 a week nothing to sneeze at I agree but many seller have $1000 or more tide up in features gallery and listings.
if we all just stoped listing for the week it would hurt them yes but it would hurt many sellers worse as they are not multi milion $$$ IPO businesses. and just to stop listing 10 days is only a temporary fix .
WWW.dman-n-company.com
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imabrit
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posted on October 23, 2000 06:46:33 PM
Radh.
I am suprised at you.ebaY probably came out and admitted it as people where starting to take notice of the problems.
That they had no choice to tell what the problem was,as failure to do so hurts the credibility of the site.
Makes too many shareholders start to wonder why the site has problems with no logical explanation.
This way it satisfy's the shareholders,they like to hear the idea of upgrades that will help growth.This sounds like a really good thing to them.
What do you suggest,what other options are there available to us,just lay down and take it on the chin.
I currently have approx 400.00 tied up in fees for this week alone.Not much for some but too me it is.
Like anything else if I have to pay then I want what I am entitled too.Or at least some sort of refund on fees or something.
I will start listing some things on Yahoo as I have made some adjustments,thanks to the suggestion of a seller here that should help me get more exposure without anymore money being spent.
I have no problem spending money if I get what I am paying for.
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jfpnatl
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posted on October 23, 2000 06:49:40 PM
I dont know what we can do, I know for a fact that its effecting my auction, which in turm effects my income. There are no alternative sites to list, I tried yahoo, it dont work! I cant depend on e bay any more, You wouldn't beleive the people who have contacted me to say they would have bid had they been able too, offering to buy at opening bid price, this is a starting point, which is at a bare min. for me to even possibly break even on an item. I cant stay in business breaking even. With this watch thingy, its killing my income!!!! People need to learn they cant depend on the site to get back to auction and BID while they can! We cant educate the bidders, nor is our responsibility. With the watch they think they can wait till the last seconds of an auction and buy a dirt cheap prices.
I am at a total loss as where to go from here. I am about to give it up!
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freddy57
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posted on October 23, 2000 06:50:59 PM
DMan,
I see your point there for those who are crazy enough to try to make their living selling on Ebay. My auctions, I sell computer parts and accessories mostly, always have bids within a few hours of listing and I don't need to use the gallery and pay the big fees in order to sell my stuff. I can see where those that do could stand to lose some serious bucks if they don't get any bids or worse yet, too low of a bid. But dealing with an entity the size of Ebay and trying to demand refunds will probably not be too effective. Like the first post in thread so aptly put it, Ebay has the bidders. Having that advantage, they can pretty well tell us to drop dead and go on with life with impunity. If we stop listing, they stop getting fees, temporary fix? Yes, at least until Walmart or somebody starts listing and kills everybody off anyway.
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imabrit
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posted on October 23, 2000 07:02:10 PM
I am one of those crazy people thas uses ebaY as income.Its my family of 3's only income.We homeschool so my wife does not work.
The stress I think is starting to get too me.
I too am considering giving this up at least full time anyway.
Already started looking in the paper for another sales job.Or even start another business down here in Florida.
I like what I do and I like ebaY too,for the most part they do a great job.But I can only take this for so long before I consider other options.
Just as ebaY loosing fees,lost sales hurts me also as it does you.
I list my items to sell not have them not sell because ebaY is not working right only to get possibly my fees back.I cannot pay bills that way.
If bidders cannot access the site the way they are used too,then they will loose patience and quit using it.
Maybe they will go to Yahoo or Amazon.
Anything that hinders the buyers ability to search for an item and bid will hurt us and ebaY in the long run.
I sell unique items that are not generic.I try and list new and unusual items weekly.Most of my repeats bookmark my seller page too see what I have.As they may have no idea how too look me up in the search engine by the description I use.
SO if they cannot pull up the seller info then that hurst me.Which costs both ebaY and me money.
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chum
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posted on October 23, 2000 07:05:20 PM
I honestly dont think its legal for eBay customers to be paying for services they are not receiving. Yahoo is free and has little trouble. So when someone defends eBay, all I ask is If yahoo a free site can remain stable, then why cant ebay who charges all these fees? I never got an answer, so I moved to yahoo. If the sellers cant sell, the bidders cant bid. My bids on Yahoo the past week were terrific thanks to eBay.
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dman3
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posted on October 23, 2000 07:05:38 PM
I personally dont have alot tied up in fee my self I usually manage to get bids that pay my fees with a bit left over.
but I think your wrong about are not haveing a chance in getting ebays attention because they are so big we are so small.
There are many Millions registered Users on ebay more then a fair share are sellers these sellers make up 98% of there income you could say one or two of us couldnt get there ear but collectively weather they want to admit it or not we are the majority stock holders of there business even though they hold the paper that says they are the stock holders with out us all the paper is worth about 1 tenth of 1 cent as scrape to a recycling company 
with out a happy registered seller and buyer base they are worth less then the newest auction site on the net.
WWW.dman-n-company.com
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CAgrrl
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posted on October 23, 2000 07:06:39 PM
I respectfully disagree with you that Yahoo doesn't work. Maybe in your categories it doesn't, but Yahoo has great for me! Right now my Yahoo auctions are hopping. Ebay outages are fantastic for biz at Yahoo!
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imabrit
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posted on October 23, 2000 07:10:53 PM
As of this time tommorrow night I will have atleast 40 auctions ready to go on Yahoo.
I ran a test today too see if the bul loader through AW works and I have all my settings correct well I do.
I also tell all my customers to check my auctions on yahoo,ebaY and Amazon.
I have a large credit over 2000 with Yahoo that I will use to feature my items and see if I cannot generate some extra interest.
Tomorrow is a new day and raring to go.
I think I will start my scanning for it as right know.That way I maybe able to get more items listed.
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freddy57
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posted on October 23, 2000 07:11:47 PM
The question is, do you think you could get about two or three million sellers to all pull a walk out at the same time in order to get Ebays attention. I seriously doubt it. Unless you have the ability to not only say you are going to affect their bottom line, but to actually put feet to it and make it happen, you really have nothing to bargain with. Your right, we pay their bills, but it takes the cooperation of a lot of people to get a giant like Ebay to seriously take notice of you.
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Bogalucy
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posted on October 23, 2000 07:17:53 PM
Lucre says: "If you want eBay to listen to us, the best place is to hit them where it counts, on Wall St."
I say: "If you want eBay to listen to us, the best place is to hit them where it counts, in the Wallet!"
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dman3
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posted on October 23, 2000 07:18:28 PM
CAgrrl
I resepectfully argee with your disagrement yahoo does work for many areas of selling I also agree that every ebay outage incresses sales on yahoo.
at least that was the case last year for me unfortunatly for me it is not going as well as last year I get only two bids in 5 months I think this speaks for its self.
but as I always say when my sales are not good someone elses sales are booming there.
imabrit :
as I under stand it you sell a lot of book a printed stuff yahoo is free and all you have not much to lose but do your research there this books and printed items are pretty dead there right now.
look hard at your inventory and yahoos catagorys and there bidding right now and list to sell what is selling there now
I know the $2000 is free credit but it stil a lot to blow for little results .
WWW.dman-n-company.com
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VeryModern
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posted on October 23, 2000 07:19:21 PM
Ebay itself or insiders own 53% of the stock. >>>
pineyhurst, how does that percentage compare with last year, or 2 years ago?
That tells the story.
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capotasto
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posted on October 23, 2000 07:31:38 PM
"I am not interested in hearing about listing on other sites. The bidders are on ebaY not these other sites"
WELL the buyers are at ebay because that's where the sellers are... If the sellers went to Yahoo, or even just posted a percentage of their items at Yahoo, then the buyers would follow.
Especially if we all put in our EOA note to check our auctions on Yahoo too.
Vinnie
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AnnieJean
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posted on October 23, 2000 07:58:37 PM
Capotasto: Truer words were ne'er spoken! Alas, you're spitting in the wind posting them here. 
[ edited by AnnieJean on Oct 23, 2000 08:04 PM ]
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imabrit
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posted on October 23, 2000 08:05:45 PM
capotasto
AnnieJean
I think you missed the point I plan on listing items on other sites.I am working on this right know.I also am letting my customers know this too.
But I wanted other suggestions rather than the obsvious.
thanks
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justjoan
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posted on October 23, 2000 08:05:47 PM
** This Function is Temporarily Unavailable **
Trying to see a sellers ebay things that I have in my favorites and got the above....
Now if I was a newbie, I would think, what's wrong with this person, that it's saying that.
And only if I knew about the announcements would I know what is going on..
As a seller I would be very very upset if BUYERS couldn't get to my site and it looks like something is wrong with ME...
Buyers don't check al lthis stuff they just look for things to buy....
SAD situation.
Joan
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radh
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posted on October 23, 2000 08:06:05 PM
Adrian: Someone here last week posted a reply from support@ebay which explained that the intermittant difficulties on the site were due to the transition to new servers.
So........ I am surprised with YOU, lol!
The reason being that YOU are usually very rational when you post here.
e-Commerce is in its INFANCY.
e-Bay is 2 years old, (no jokes about the terible twos, hey?!)
Site crashing can happen at ANY instant when conducting online auctions; this is a FACT, and Adrian, it was a factor that I'd simply presumed that you always took into consideration BEFORE listing any auction.
I was very worried that eBay got hacked - and I'm relieved they ain't.
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AnnieJean
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posted on October 23, 2000 08:08:16 PM
Imabrit: I really feel for you in your situation. However, do you really think that eBay has any intention of listening to you, or any other small-time seller for that matter?
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janusaries
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posted on October 23, 2000 08:14:29 PM
As a seller, I keep track of my items using the "Search by Seller" functionality on eBay. When that is down, I can find my items one at a time by searching on keywords, but it is a BIG PAIN.
As a buyer, I have my favorite sellers bookmarked and periodically "search by seller" to see what they have listed. When that functionality is down, they lose sales because I can't find their stuff!
I have auctions going off in just over an hour, and I am NOT A HAPPY CAMPER.
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imabrit
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posted on October 23, 2000 08:18:43 PM
Radh.
I understand growth and that every company has its troubles and I expect ebaY to have the same.
Down times have not really concerned me they go with the territory.
But once or twice no problem but this has been ongoing for a week and still has maybe 10 days to go.
Plus ebaY is finally admitting the problem when they where telling us they did not know where it was.In reality they where creating the problem and that's what bothers me.
I was hoping with the growth of ebaY that I would see an increase in my sales with time.
That new bidders would come along and buy the items and as they got what they wanted then more would turn up.
Well sadly I am not seeing that happen and more and more of late,people cannot bid on my auctions because part or all of the site is down.
I can only put up with this for so long.I am finally at that point.
Some of that sales drop is due to competition that I expect and I can adjust too that as needed.
But I cannot adjust to major down times during peak times.I cannot do anything other than hope it comes back up.
Other sites are new too but they do not have these problems.
Look at Yahoo and the stock market they can monitor stocks all over the World.Thats hundreds of thousands of stocks that change almost every second.Yet they manage to stay up just fine.
Why cannot ebaY do that.Plus thats only a small part of what Yahoo is all about
Adrian
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furkidmom
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posted on October 23, 2000 08:19:16 PM
NO Annie Jean...but they would listen to ALOT of small time sellers. Don;t ou think the Power Sellers are feeling the pinch as well? One drop of water at a time can float a ship. Everyone needs to pull together and start dripping the water!
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susiegirl
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posted on October 23, 2000 08:22:25 PM
When working in a system growing as fast as the net, and ebay are growing there are bound to be growing pains...and glitches that last far longer than we want them to. I also have had my sales impacted by this past week's downtimes and disfunctionality...imabrit, I also am surprised that you are taking this so hard, I agree with radh, that it is not like you. It can be very very frustrating to try to list, try to check your auctions....hope that your buyers can find you....and have ebay been partially dysfunctional for a couple of weeks. With all the problems, I do think ebay is the best auction on the web, and will remain so. It is really hard to rely on this biz for a full time living...with ALL the variables inc. ebay's hiccups....much like relying on a storefront for your living during a snowstorm! We will get through all this as we sellers get through everything, griping all the way, but wedded to it none the less!
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rustybore
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posted on October 23, 2000 08:23:58 PM
I am a Seller and Bidder...
The Bidder in me is off to Yahoo, where I have the chance of finding something interesting that I like. I bid on and win perhaps 1 or 2 things a month on Yahoo, its not a bad place really, and right now at this very moment? Yahoo is working fine...
Sorry ebay
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