posted on December 23, 2000 03:11:01 PM
Hmm...So does this mean if someone is selling hundreds of teh same item dutch at a fixed price format that they can no longer say "if you want to pay now, place a bid and paypal me the money"? And subsequently, people can begin emailing ebay ratting competiitors out for stuff like this? Yet people who bottom feed and bid siphon using unregistered email address don't get punished? Hmm...
posted on December 26, 2000 04:32:39 PM
Don't read something into the rules that isn't there.
It isn't fee avoidance under this case, because he says "place a bid" first, so Ebay gets the fee.
Remember Ebay can make all the rules they want. But they can only enforce the legal ones. Of particular note is thier attemps to control side deals. Clearly prohibiting something in an auction listing is in within thier authority. But private communication between two parties, regardless of the nature of it is none of thier business.
posted on December 26, 2000 09:10:49 PM
I think that Ebay is coming dangerously close, with this new rule, of stepping out of the "venue" only status to that of employer by setting down rules on how people must run their business and trying to control what correspondence one has with their customers. There is a line there and I believe they may have crossed it, legally. They may draw the unwanted scrutiny of the IRS with this one.
I think it is great that they are trying to control the amount of "spam" and the bottom feeders..but they went a step further. I think they are getting some bad business advice from someone!
