posted on May 27, 2001 02:30:14 PM
Being a Real-World business, with 5 locations, we have been frustrated by eBays latest policy change of "No Links." As a business that has been around since 1982, we value our reputation as a trustworthy respectable seller, and try to translate that reputation to our on-line customers by providing logos of our Real-World locations, and links to our history, policies, and website. However with eBay's new "no-links" policy our business can no longer immediately back-up the quality and reality of the goods we sell in their marketplace by providing pertinent information about who we are outside of eBay. This new policy change seems more intent on creating one giant amorphous unidentifiable blob of item listings, rather than building up an environment of unique sellers that a bidder can choose to purchase from. Fraudulent item listings, in such an atmosphere of unaccountability, will likely flourish while listings posted by reputable sellers will diminish.
eBay, in anticipation of this arguement from businesses like our own, has countered by touting the MyEbay pages and Ratings system as way for customers to discover the merit of the seller. However, having sold high-end antiques and collectables on eBay for just over a year, we know the problems inherent in those systems.
The MyEbay page's problem is that it is outside of the item listing, and consequently unconnected in the customer's mind with the item they clicked into it from. Its just another hoop that the customer has to jump through, and if there's anything a good seller learns is that customers hate hoops. How many pictures of people's pets and cars can a real customer wade through in the MyEbay pages before they just give up on the idea that there is anything relevant or relating to the reputation of the seller? The truth is we have never run across a customer who has viewed our MyEbay page.
The ratings system is an altogether different beast. Beyond the fact that ratings can be manipulated by sellers with multiple user IDs (see the Diebenkorn art scandal), the main fault with the ratings system is that no one gives anyone negative feedback because everyone is so afraid of it themself. Consequently, negative transactions are ignored by buyers and sellers for fear that there will be a retaliatory feedback, and in the end the whole incident goes unexposed and ratings stay the same - even when both parties to the transaction may well have been unhappy with the outcome.
eBay, in the absence of seller's backgrounds, has said that they will take responsibility for monitoring listings. Hower, this notion is ridiculous, since eBay may be able to automatically police their listings for policy violations but they will never be able to police the reality, quality, or honesty of those millions of listings. eBay is making a very bold statement when they say that their Internet forum is more important to the customer than the Real-World where all of this "virtual" merchandise exists, sitting in real stores, on real shelves, with real histories.
Our issue, then, is not so much that we can no longer drive traffic to our own website through our eBay listings (most of our traffic is derived from search engines anyway), but that now the listings we do put on eBay have nothing standing behind them, except eBay itself. Our reputation, and all the effort we have spent building up our business, and setting up systems to make our on-line customer's experience better, is being nullified by eBays attempt to control more of the marketplace and more of our customers. I can understand their motivation, these are the dot-com dog days, but to control the bidders by reducing their knowledge about the origin of their purchases seems dangerous; to control the sellers by taking charge of their most valuable asset, their reputation, seems undermining; and to redefine the community based on these policies and standards seems ludicrous.
You are correct. It seems that within a few years you will need eBay's permission to go out to eat in case you meet someone who has plans on buying an item on eBay.
Not that I suspect it would have any impact, or make them change their minds about their policies, but how's about forwarding that post to Ebay itself?
posted on May 27, 2001 08:03:04 PM
I have written eBay on a number of occasions, including very recently, and have been met with very nice form letters from Customer Support. The latest one thanked me for sharing my concerns and informed me that my message would be taken to the product development team for further consideration.
I am not holding my breath.
eBay has chosen a direction. And by doing so, they have opened up a wonderful opportunity for smaller, more specialized, websites. Who would be surprised if eBays misteps turn out to be the impetus for a better overall online trading environment? People may be forced to the knowledge that, unbelievably, there really is more to the Internet than eBay.
