posted on February 8, 2001 05:32:44 PM
My latest end of auction notice has two nice invitations (SPAMSPAMSPAM) offering both FTD and UPS services to me and I assume my bidder.
If you appreciate these extra messages in your official mail like I do, please join me in responding to every one of them by mailing eBay to accept or decline. If it is important enough to insert in our business mail it warrants a response. Surely they will not object to taking time to read a response on such a serious matter. If they get thousands of replies - well they sent thousands out didn't they? You reap what you sow.
posted on February 8, 2001 05:37:38 PM
Excellent idea! If we all respond to each one maybe, maybe (nah, probably not!), but maybe they'll get it! Worth a try!
posted on February 8, 2001 05:52:38 PM
abacaxi - I bow before you. I am not worthy.
You are the Master and I am the Student.
Here is my letter-
Thanks you for the offers in my end of auction notice for FTD and UPS. Some people
might regard that as an unwarranted spamming unassociated with the business purpose
of the mail. I on the other hand appreciate them so much I feel it would be rude not to
send a personal response to anything important enough to include in our business
correspondence. I don't believe I will be needing either of these offers, but rest assured
I will give each one careful consideration and a personal timely response will be sent to
you every time you include such an opportunity for my review. In the same spirit I
would like to call your attention to a number of very nice number drill sets I have listed
under XXXX today since we are now sharing such opportunities with each other. They
make a perfect gift for the handi-man in your life. Please feel free to mention them to
the other people in support as I shall also share your offer with several friends and
associates.
posted on February 8, 2001 06:15:25 PM
Gravid What a great idea. I wonder how long it will be before their mailservers are programed to filter out our responses? In the meantime though it will be great fun. Anyone think it maybe a good idea to email them under a non ebay user email addy so we don't get suspended for some newly created TOS violation?
posted on February 8, 2001 06:22:31 PM
Well, if it's appropriate for FTD to advertise their stuff to you, it's appropriate for you to advertize your stuff to them
posted on February 8, 2001 07:08:58 PM
Well, isn't that lovely!!! I certainly would not appreciate my customers being spammed by eBay's self-serving ads in MY EOA notice, especially if I won't use the services of the companies they're pushing. That could lead to some serious problems between myself and my bidder and, IMO, that's equivalent to auction interference. Does anyone know for certain that the BIDDER is receiving these ads in their EOA email?
Gee, I wonder if eBay's planning on including these little tidbits of info (SPAM) in their new email messaging service. Anyone want to bet?
I guess Webster must have changed the definition of the word "VENUE" since I last looked.
posted on February 8, 2001 07:23:22 PMDebRay, thanks for that info - I sure hope they don't put that junk in the customer's EOA. BTW, I'm curious about those ads. Are they in HTML form? Any tracking bugs?
posted on February 8, 2001 07:35:28 PM
Well it said CC to the customer's mail at the top so I figured they got the exact same. Here is edited header
Return-Path:
<[email protected]>
Received:
from kira.ebay.com ([216.33.156.139]) by mailhost.col.ameritech.net
(InterMail v4.01.01.07 201-229-111-110) with ESMTP id
<[email protected]>
for <[email protected]>; Tue, 6 Feb 2001 14:17:21 -0500
Received:
from bear (bear-ge0.ebay.com [10.2.1.120]) by kira.ebay.com
(8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id f16JECo17411; Tue, 6 Feb 2001 11:14:12
-0800
Message-ID:
<[email protected]>
To:
[email protected]
CC:
[email protected]
From:
[email protected]
Comment:
0.0.0
MIME-Version:
1.0
Content-Type:
text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Subject:
eBay End of Auction - Item # 1408XXXXXX
Date:
Tue, 06 Feb 2001 11:XX:XX PST
Content-Transfer-Encoding:
quoted-printable
X-MIME-Autoconverted:
from 8bit to quoted-printable by kira.ebay.com id f16JECo17411
X-Mozilla-Status:
8001
X-Mozilla-Status2:
00000000
X-UIDL:
<[email protected]>
[ edited by gravid on Feb 8, 2001 07:37 PM ]
posted on February 8, 2001 09:21:15 PM
I am furious!!!! After just reading this post I went and checked my EOA notices and I have these unwanted spams in my emails also! How can eBay justify this after all the postings and rules about unwanted spam? They are blatently,(yeah, I know the spelling is wrong so save it!), trying to USE me to get to my customers! God forbid I advertise in my auctions that I will make a custom order, that would take away from their profits, when all I meant was I would resize an item to fit the high bidder! This bull is all about wording. eBay is using US to make it seem like we are refering them to FTD and UPS, personally! I have a one on one relationship with my customers,and the last 2 companies I would refer are UPS and FTD!! This is total violation of MY TOS!!!!
posted on February 8, 2001 10:37:32 PM
I just went and looked at my EOA and they are not on mine, but I still get their information in a email. Received one today with all that information in it.
posted on February 8, 2001 10:48:33 PM
This post needs to stay on top. It is another ebay slap. They are a venue remember? The only function EOA is supposed to be is to tie the seller with the buyer. That's it. It's not to sell flowers, underwear, or the lamest way to get a package from point A to point B just because the "venue" want to further line their pockets.
What if I had a bad experience with FTD? I have with UPS. Does the buyer, who may also be in the same boat, think I'm tied in with these companies?
I could care less about either UPS or FTD and they are riding on my back to make a buck. FTD and UPS don't pay me a penny in advertising and BECAUSE of my listing, and only because of my listing, is MY buyer, NOT ebay's buyer, being suckered into spending money that has nothing to do with paying for my product.
It's just another example of the gross ineptitude that drives the ebay engine. Meg may have graduated from the Harvard Business School but it's like I've always said; Don't ever confuse an education with intelligence.
CHING..."There's your change"
John
[ edited by Puddy on Feb 8, 2001 11:05 PM ]
DebRay - I just checked my email. I bought something and the message from FTD and UPS was there. I also checked some emails that were from my auctions. The seller and buyer get the same message from ebay.
I am curious, I would like to advertise on the end of the EOA notice. However, how many people actually read the end of that email? Many sellers like myself don't even look at emails from ebay anymore! To me, just about all email from ebay is spam!
posted on February 9, 2001 12:03:11 AM
taz, at least you gave me a chance to breath,,,,you're correct, no one really reads that end of the message crap anymore ,but if I am going to be used for an advertising "venue", I want to be compensated for it, as should we all!!
posted on February 9, 2001 03:16:21 AM
I think we are all missing a great opportunity.
Whether anybody reads it or not is a moot point.
WE the sellers pay EBAY for the "venue". They chose to break their own spam rules by using the auctions we pay them for to solicit OUR customers.
I have to pay EBAY $1.25 to list my item even if nobody looks at it ...SO... why can't I bill EBAY a $1.25 for every spam email sent to my customers without my consent OR the customers.
GEE....maybe anybody can be a venue.
I think I'll Email Ebay and inform them I am expanding my scope beyond the auction and, as my new business venture, I will now be charging a $1.25 for MY email contacts.
Since both UPS and FTD are using MY customer list (they DO sell them) I guess I should get $1.25 x 2 (or however many come ons they eventually decide to ad).
They charge US for a CHANCE for customers to look at OUR items.
Why can't WE charge them for a CHANCE that OUR customer might look at their offering?
The statement below is TRUE
The statement above is FALSE.
posted on February 9, 2001 04:31:26 AM
This is called "monetizing the customer base" (marketing speak for "selling our users to the highest bidder"
Sending email ads via any of the opt-in list brokers will cost the sender $0.15 to $0.50 PER DELIVERED EMAIL. I doubt that eBay charges less than that, because this is a group of PROVEN online buyers, most of whom have credit cards, and the emails are close to 100% deliverable. Primo targets!
So calculate the profit eBay makes when they tack these ads onto an email they are already sending out ... there is no added expense to them, just pure profit.
Estimating 500,000 successful sales daily, and a MODEST 12.5 cents collected per enmail sent ... 62,500 a day, and close to 1/2 million bucks a week! Annually, that's probably 22 million bucks of PURE PROFIT!
posted on February 9, 2001 06:44:55 AM
While I know that most of you folks who are upset with eBay's latest scam won't do anything except complain, if you really want to make your point, STOP BUYING AND SELLING ON EBAY.
Right now they could care less about your rants - you are addicted and you need to break free by severing the link
posted on February 9, 2001 07:04:34 AM
This is unacceptable!! If our customers are receiving this spam in their EOA notices then we have to try to do something about it. We've been through this before when eBay tried to put a link in the EOA notices for iEscrow over a year ago and they received such an outcry from the users that they STOPPED. We yelled about it on the DNF Board and sent complaints to eBay and we were effective in getting them to remove the spam.
Those of us who didn't have iEscrow as an option in our TOS didn't want the link in the EOA because it gave the impression to our customers that iEscrow was an option when it wasn't. Folks, this is auction interference, plain and simple, and we have to complain loudly about it NOW! EBay will continue to push and shove if we allow them to do so.
Does anyone still think the new email policy was enacted for our benefit? It appears to me that eBay and their partners have eliminated all of their competition and now can spam the user base EXCLUSIVELY.
posted on February 9, 2001 07:09:10 AM
RB. It is not that people are addicted, some need this venue to make their living. According all the published articles ebay is the largest and the best online auction and the 5 year projection says they will still be in business while the others might not. I agree that they shouldn't be advertizing on their EOA's and maybe if all of us write to them to explain their actions and I am sure they will get the hint. I sure hope so.
As of yet I have not received a EOA like that but I am sure it will be coming soon. Take Care.
posted on February 9, 2001 08:31:39 AM
Kind of like paying for a premium cable channel, then finding ads for bread or prescription drugs on it anyway.
RB: Every overstep by eBay marketing has driven me to bid less and less, starting from the moment they invited the already infamous DoubleClick (only a couple months after the initial firestorm over that company's plans) to start tracking and profiling eBay customers for the sake of direct marketing.
I've long decided that privacy policies aren't really worth the pixels they're written on (recently echoed in a newspaper article I read), and eBay proved it again by changing apparently millions of users' mailing preferences, with the blessing of TrustE (a name that now reeks with irony, making me lose what little hope I had for a voluntary system).
I'm now to the point where one of the things I consider before bidding is whether this item is worth further exposing myself to being sold out in the name of direct marketing. It might sound a little silly, but eBay was the only place I was doing personal online purchases -- that is how low my confidence is in the honor and security of "etailing" (hmmm, I just noticed the subtle second "meaning" in that word ) in general.
This spam is not coming in separate email, but in an email people were already going to receive, so I think they're counting on people not considering it spam for that reason.
The key question, however, is the following: is eBay including these ads in emails to people who have marked "No" on the "Special Promotions, Offers and Events" / "Receive notices about special offers for eBay members" item?
Has anyone verified whether there are any web bugs in the email, or is it still plain text?
Though I like that eBay is hiding email addresses most of the time starting soon, they went further than I would have, making all pre-EOA email exchanges go through their servers. Any bets on whether they have ads in those? (Shhh, maybe I shouldn't have said that)
eBay has become a minefield of marketing, to both sellers and buyers. To think that eBay was one of the few sites that was profitable without advertising....
----
What's being done in the name of direct marketing nowadays is crazy.
The above are all just my opinions, except where I cite facts as such.
Oh, I am not dc9a320 anywhere except AW. Any others are not me.
Is eBay is changing from a world bazaar into a bizarre world?
posted on February 9, 2001 08:39:56 AM
I don't even read the messages. Not to be too personal but if you do perhaps you should start selling more items on ebay. I use a system called Gator to remember all my passwords. When I open certain pages gator flashes ads, I simply delete them as the service they provide to make it easier to fill out forms and log in to sites is worth the hassal. What do you all think of the as you get in your credit card statements? and on your phone book? And on those little diner placemats? And along the outfield of your kids babe ruth field, and in the new Disney video you jsut bought? and on and on Just ignor them, if you do I'm sure the bidders will to and not affect your sales. You do not sell a shipping service or fresh flowers delivered to your home on ebay do you??
Prepare for the worst but hope for the best!! Spuddy98
posted on February 10, 2001 12:41:56 AM
This is OUTRAGOUS! {sp}
Ebay should give us back our old rates and make cash from their SPAM!
That sounds like a deal, at least I feel like I am getting something out ot if.
My auctions are so much more expensive since the increase, now they want to direct our customers from the EOA notice instead of to the nearest payment option.
Jeeze!!!! Why on earth did they go public in the first place? Seems to me that if things were going that well for Pierre there was no reason to raise more money selling stocks. He is selling out! That is what he is doing.. and has done. Sold out to the stock holders first.. not to UPS FTD you name it they will sell out to them.
Since when do you go into Wal-Mart and have someone run up to you suggesting you go elsewhere. What if you were selling Flowers on Ebay? Doesnt seem right. Just doesnt seem right at all.
The minute I tell my customers to come check out my Webstore they get all crazy and want to end my auctions... now they are sending invitations to my customers that I am hardly allowed to invite anywhere.
PATHETIC!! I see this community going further and further down hill.
I have asked for more refunds in the last month that I did the whole last year.. and will continue to do so.
MY LETTER: There is fee to solicit my customers of .10 per listing and FVF of .05% So if you want to continue to solicit them feel free, I will send you a bill!
