posted on January 18, 2001 11:51:04 PM
Keep waving them pompoms Radh
Yeah go girl.
Just keep raising fees for no good reason while already making tons of money.
Keep putting of maintenance so the system never gets above the level of pile of crap.
Keep laying off what few Customer Service people you have. (Side note:can't remember if this was rumour or fact, knowing Meg.....)
Keep treating the sellers like mushrooms or cash machines depending on your mood.
Just keep lieing to everyone about uptimes, system stability, and everythign else.
I agree- Go GIRL-FAR,FAR, AWAY!
If I had one change to make at Ebay-Meg and her cadre or nincompoops would be gone and replaced by someone who actually UNDERSTOOD what business they were in.
NOT Vorlon4 on Ebay (or anywehere else for that matter)
posted on January 19, 2001 07:11:06 AM
Profits are up, customer base is expanding...we should all not understand the business we are in like the folks at ebay...maybe we would see our businesses grow so well too!
posted on January 19, 2001 08:19:37 AM
This reminds me of a show CNN has on at night called "The Spin Room". I am flattered by their "spin", but I would like to see a breakdown of their base. Like how many users were banned in 2000?, how many non sellers are actually there?, how many sales were never completed? I know that in 2000 I had over $500.00 worth of merchandise that was never paid for. I would love to see the total for all sellers.
posted on January 19, 2001 09:56:53 AM
vorlon4: Your information is inaccurate. I thought perhaps I'd missed a news-alert when I read your post, as I have been very busy with numerous issues offline, but no. I wrote to James Griff at eBay, and received the following details:
"eBay has never laid off customer support employees. In fact, we have been steadily hiring new cs employees since our inception in 1995 (starting with me in November of 1996 and continuing today in Salt Lake City at a clip of about 20 to 30 new reps a month.)"
My main concern about eBay Customer Service is that I do hope that actual working conditions are G@@D.
I mean really good, DECENT working conditions - not the digital sweatshops associated with so many dot.coms which have led to unionization efforts among some techies.
Just imagine replicating the dank fetid factory conditions of the 19th century Industrial Revolution ---> now in the Digital 21st Century.
LOL!
What a hoooooooT!
However, if I ever-ever-ever hear of SWEATSHOP-conditions in Salt Lake City and I am alive & well, I will personally go liberate the eBay Customer Service workers, (before I hitchhike over the Rockies and have a personal one2one liddle conversation with Margaret Whitman.)
posted on January 19, 2001 10:02:19 AM
empires: thank you for the compliment, but please do not embarress Meg Whitman with your equation. In fact, I am olde enuff to be Margaret's eldesT sister, (ahem!)
It is very very clear to me that eBay will be successful, and that it will not merely survive the dot-BOMB shakeout, but will thrive.
I also predict that eBay will continue to beat Street expectations, for some lonnnnnnng time.
posted on January 19, 2001 11:36:07 AM
It is very very clear to me that eBay will be successful, and that it will not merely survive the dot-BOMB shakeout, but will thrive.
I also predict that eBay will continue to beat Street expectations, for some lonnnnnnng time.
The dot-bomb shakeout has not even begun yet. Bill Clinton isnt in office anymore dear, and eBay has not been around long enough to see what the impact of a recession would be. Its way to early to be bragging, when at anytime conditions could crumble.
posted on January 19, 2001 12:35:46 PM
They might do very well in a recession. Many people will want (or need) to liquidate things, and this will be a cost-effective way for many of them.
In past recessions, flea markets had lots of sellers. I was puzzled by this, until someone pointed out that if you were laid off, then you had the time and inclination to do this, even if the returns weren't that great.
So ebay will get its listing fees - possibly even final sales fees - and they still get to have other people supplying the stock and doing the grunt work.
posted on January 19, 2001 01:12:12 PM
Why the demands for justification?
If ebay feels they have such demand for their service that they can improve profits by raising fees, it is in their best interest to do so. Although some people may be under the impression that an explanation is owed, it is not.
If you are trying to get the best price possible (in a generally efficient manner)for your goods, you are doing exactly what ebay is doing.
posted on January 19, 2001 01:17:53 PM
They are increasing fees to make a fake economic boom that will satisfy stockholders, but will fail in the future like reaganomics did in the 80's. Anyone that thinks eBay is raising fees for the fun of it is wrongly mistaken, and this is the first sign of trouble. Once the fakeness of this passes, they will raise the fees again to satisfy worried stockholders, and the worse thing sellers can say is "well it's only a nickel", because this gives them a mandate to raise them more in the future.
The flea market boom came before the internet, but with the continued postal hikes, and ebay fees it does look like we will see a rebirth of them. To set up at my local swap meet is $10.00 a weekend, and is a much better bargain than listing 30 items on ebay. Yard sales are also becoming a hot item, and costs nothing. I see a bumpy road ahead for eBay, and all other sites as well.
posted on January 20, 2001 05:14:57 AM
Ok. A few different people have claimed that ebay is raising fees because they are in financial trouble/trying to make business look better.
If they didn't raise fees, I could claim that they were unable to do so due to financial trouble, because they face stiff competition and/or the on-line auction sector is stagnant.
And if they lowered fees, it would surely be because they are in trouble, and are desperate to retain business.
I only wish I was in as much financial trouble as ebay seems to be.
posted on January 20, 2001 07:55:59 PM
chum said, "The dot-bomb shakeout has not even begun yet. Bill Clinton isnt in office anymore dear, ..."
~ ~ ~
Ah, I don't think that Bill had any more to do with the growth of ecommerce than Al had to do with the invention of the Net.
Besides, all the techies are jumpin' in joy over the Ashcroft cabinet appointment.
These are very s-t-r-a-n-g-e economic times for the actual participants of e-commerce; when things are strange & unknown, people need something to BLAME.
-y-a-w-n-
eBay is NOT to blame for the decrease in final bids, NO WAY.
That is simply a NORMAL development of internet going global.
Change. Change. Change.
We ain't seen nuthin' yet, but when it's all over and finally settled down, decades hence, eBay will still be around, as EBAY CHANGES EVERYTHING.
Everything.
Someday, the economists will even take note of this.
Just about every business in existence at some time raises fees.Take the USPS,GM,FORD,DODGE,American Airlines,P+G,GE,
etc,etc,etc.
None of these are going out of business and the Co I work for just raised its prices and they are doing just fine.
So to indicate that ebaY raising fees is a sign of trouble makes no sense when you think about it.
As they said its been a while since ebaY did this so this was a good time.Fee increases should be expected so this was no suprise though I do not like it.
posted on January 21, 2001 01:26:46 AM
The reason it is a concern that fees increased although eBay beat expectations is because of the size of the increase proportionately to the regular listing fees already in place. It should be of particular concern to investors. What happens when eBay does not proportionately increase revenue next quarter after the new fee scale is in place? If eBay does not continue to "beat the street" investors will most likely react harshly as they have been doing to stocks that miss projections such as Home Depot. The best possible scenario is that they will not react harshly. There is less of a tolerance for those that miss estimates, especially in the dot com world. Why I think it is not a particularly good idea is that with a moderate increase in fees, eBay would have had some "wiggle room" so to speak. These larger fee increases (in proportion to what they are currently) will be figured into the projections the next time around. Expectations will be proportionately higher. The last few months the trends have shown a 15% decrease in online traffic. In my opinion this was also not the best time to hike the fees, and definitely not by the percentage they chose to.
Although eBay has not had an insert fee hike in four years, they have implemented steep increases in fees for other services sellers rely on to advertise their merchandise. They've even added fees for reserves that used to cost nothing. Gallery fees are an exception to this as it is an expansion of eBay. This is essentially a completely new part of the venue that was added. What bothers me the most is how eBay seems to declare indiscriminately that fees have not been boosted in four years. The fact is that only insert fees and final value fees have remained the same for that period of time. Featured fees (both category and featured on the site) increased 100% in those same four years. Bold listing fees increased 100% over those same four years. The failure to acknowledge that these
other fees have increased while at the same time stating that eBay has not increased "fees" (I guess it is assumed by eBay that everyone knows they mean insert and final value fees) is a contradiction. eBay can be quite specific when they want to be. Why are they so vague this time in their announcement? It is not at all unlike Pay Pal saying that their service would always be free, then later adding "personal accounts" to that phrase.
Am I going to go broke over it? No. But if it's "only a dime" then please leave that dime in my account. I do not credit eBay with my success nor would I blame them for my failure, after all they are only a venue.
posted on January 21, 2001 10:56:35 AM
imabrit: Adrian, there's a book I finally read last month, which I think you'd enjoy as it demonstrates from an historical perspective comments you've made for months about eBay essentially being a WHOLESALE marketplace.
The book is entitled, Tulipomania and it is very very very very well written, and I would not advise starting it late at night, as it is hard to put down.
The bottoming out of the Tulip futures market in Holland bears many resemblances to its modernday counterpart, EBAY - and the price slashing due to EXCESS of listings.
MANY MANY MANY correlations, Adrian, which I think will intrigue you.
[ edited by Empires on Jan 19, 2001 09:10 AM ]
