posted on September 27, 2001 05:30:52 AM new
Meg Whitman was on a segment of Good Morning America about 8:20 AM EDT. Whoever said she'd be knocking on celebrities doors to pick up support and merchandise for A4A hit it right on the head. She had an Agassi signed racket and some other signed tennis items (Capriati, the Williams sisters). Shoes signed by Susan Sarandon and Vivica Fox, and a picture of Pitaki and Joe DiMaggio donated by the Govenor.
GMA donated the wooden flag they have on the set that was moved from the old location and they have a picture of Mohommed Ali and his wife helping them hang it in the studio that will go with it.
She mentioned that the A4A is going very well, will run through Christmas day and has already raised 4 mil. She said that eBay has waived all fees, so has Visa, MC and Discover and that 100% of the $$ will be going to the victims.
posted on September 27, 2001 05:40:08 AM new
Is she going to have another fundraiser for all the victimized sellers that will have fallen by the end of the 100 days?
posted on September 27, 2001 06:40:01 AM newIs she going to have another fundraiser for all the victimized sellers that will have fallen by the end of the 100 days?
Exactly!!!!!!!
I still cannot get over the fact that this is running at the same time as the prime selling season of the year.
posted on September 27, 2001 07:16:18 AM new
Funny how she only touted the items the "Rich folk" donated, and didn't mention ONE WORD about the SMALL SELLERS donating the items AND that THEY pay the shipping costs as well!
I can FINALLY sypathise with you sellers who are being raped and pillaged by ebay by this sham mass advertisement blitz that ebay is shamefully using this tragedy to promote.
"WE are waiving all fee's" she says...
"So are Visa and MC" she says...
What about the sellers Meg? You forget about them you piece of garbage!?
You disgust me, you self serving, self promoting, self back patting a-hole.
posted on September 27, 2001 07:47:04 AM new
Did we really expect Meg to thank the little guy? After all A4A is simply a big, self-serving marketing ploy by eBay. Gotta hand it to them, they do know how to market!
[ edited by eSeller004 on Sep 27, 2001 09:32 AM ]
posted on September 27, 2001 07:54:21 AM new
Well, with 4 million so far, and the time this has been running, their total is only about 25% of what their current goal should be, and if it includes the million eBay threw in, then it is moving even slower.
Meg's & eBay's priorities are all messed up on this one for sure.
posted on September 27, 2001 08:00:58 AM new
I guess I don't really understand all of the complaints. You don't think that all of this "free" publicitiy is going to bring a lot more people onto ebay, and you don't think they are going to look outside the A4A material? Also, the total of $4M so far is probably just a VERY SMALL percentage of items sold. I think the problems sellers are experiencing have more to do with a country under attack, and with a lot of uncertainty about the future.
posted on September 27, 2001 08:01:30 AM new
And so as not to miss the opportunity to take another shot at eBay and Meg, and their total disdain for their users-
For DAYS now eBay users have been crying out for ebay to give us a total of what AFA has raised. Look at ebay's boards. Not a SINGLE WORD from ebay, but that they're QUOTE working on UNQUOTE a counter to tell us. Not an update from a Pink, not a whimper. Then this woman has the GALL to go on GMA in yet another effort at self- and ebay- aggrandizement and announce some unexplained and undocumented figure there? And to CONTINUE to ignore its users???
posted on September 27, 2001 08:05:36 AM new
It's too bad that sellers need the tiny little bit of income that they DO get selling on ebay, or a "drop 100,000,000 listings in 100 days boycott" might wake them up.
posted on September 27, 2001 08:26:38 AM new
I just saw it out here in the West...Think I'll go puke now! Then I'll go ahead and be grateful that I don't have to depend upon my ebay income now...My heart REALLY goes out to those who DO have to depend upon that income. Well, although I'm not listing anything right now, I'm still shopping ebay a little bit and I will ONLY be bidding on the regular (non A4A) auctions!!!
posted on September 27, 2001 08:29:41 AM new
Well, truth be told, I bid on a few Yahoo auctions yesterday.
I haven't done that in ages.
Stuff sure is cheap over there!
posted on September 27, 2001 09:03:10 AM new
ahc, my regular auctions are tanking, the AFA are going berserk, mostly on items that didn't sell the first two times around. So far the "new users" haven't helped me at all and the economy argument doesn't work with that, either.
posted on September 27, 2001 09:13:32 AM new
Hmmm...Maybe if a lot of sellers also wrote GMA it might stir up something..? It really sucks that the real truth is not well known beyond this venue and ebay can just go on and spew this crap and have everybody think that they (ebay) are doing this wonderful thing when, in reality, it's the blood sweat and tears of the sellers on the line here.
posted on September 27, 2001 09:38:36 AM new
Maybe this all wouldn't be SO bad if it didn't keep coming across as the ONLY thing ebay is the least bit concerned with....cases in point:
1:Buyers AND sellers need to take exception to the fact that newbies are being SHOVED into AFA ONLY auctions from the home page!
2:When you bid on anything, you are once again SHOVED into AFA auctions from the bid confirmation page!
What's next Meg....a page coming up before we can place the bid that tells us the same item(s)is available in the AFA auctions???
It's bad enough that the sellers are being TOLD what to do to be "patriotic".....as a buyer, I do NOT appreciate being PUSHED into AFA auctions!
I am not as interested in being the top dog as I am in no longer being the fire hydrant!
posted on September 27, 2001 10:20:33 AM new
I suppose I have no reason to complain as I have not listed a single AFA auction, nor do I see how AFA has adversely affected my sales.
However, I did see Meg on GMA and I specifically wanted to see if she gave the sellers donating their time and merchandise ($$) any credit at all. She did not that I could see.
posted on September 27, 2001 10:27:28 AM new
Maybe when AFA is done, they could then run AFBEBS...Auction for broke Ebay Sellers, to recoup the money we lost. I am emailing GMA....they need to know the Billpoint marketing BS scam.....if we all sell and bid on AFA...whose gonna pay our bills??? Will there be charities run for us? How can we possible help the economy if Ebay has seen to it we can't buy a d*mn thing now that they took our bread and butter away!....Stinks, and GMA needs to know the truth....
posted on September 27, 2001 10:46:49 AM new
Does ebay have anyone that works in their PR dept with any common sense whatsoever?? It would have taken 5 lousy minutes to write up a little "Thank You ebay Sellers"? But of course not, she is too busy tooting her own horn.
I wonder what is going to happen if they dont raise $100 million...Is ebay going to donate the rest, or are we going to pay for this somehow?
posted on September 27, 2001 10:54:36 AM new
Ahhhhh, if we could only organize and have a massive one day protest with no listing or buying and of course let all the news media outlets know about it and what's really going on at eBay.
posted on September 27, 2001 12:16:16 PM new
wbdareme, thank you for the url to email gma. Here it is again folks:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/GoodMorningAmerica/GMA_email_form.html
I wrote the following, and hope you'll all do the same - it only takes a minute.
Dear GMA,
While I appreciate that you want to give eBay's Auction's for America some publicity, I find that as a news show, you sure didn't look at both sides of this.
This morning Meg came on and while kissing the fannies of many celebs for their donations, she never once thanked the mom & pop sellers for their contributions. Please note that these mom & pops not only donate inventory for eBay's glorification, but have the privelege of paying for the shipping on what they've donated.
Other points you've missed:
Many sellers who would have participated aren't doing so because eBay has made its payment service, i.e. BillPoint, the only way to pay. BillPoint currently has about a third of that market. When PayPal, who has about 70% of that market asked to be included, they were given a resounding, "No!" Doesn't this seem just a bit self-serving to astute reporters such as yourselves?
While we all want to help, this self-promoting plan of eBay's has cut into the all important retail season sellers wait for to make much of their income. Some small sellers are literally going out of business because of this. Will Meg/eBay hold a benefit for them when this is all over? I doubt it.
In the future, I sincerely hope GMA does a better job of getting all the facts before they jump on a bandwagon that looks good on the surface, but stinks from the inside out.
posted on September 27, 2001 01:07:47 PM new
Oh darn! Now what am I gonna do with that truckload of Harley's autographed by Arnie Schwartzenegger I just ordered from the supplier???
If we dont LAUGH about this insanity, we will start slitting our wrists!
In all actuality, maybe if this DOES turn into nothing but celebrity-donated goodies, there could be hope!
But if you have a backstock of used celebrity underwear, I would be dumping it quick!
posted on September 27, 2001 01:12:21 PM new
I wonder what Meg is doing with all the NPB on the AFA auctions? Perhaps that is why they haven't raised as much. Since you can ONLY pay through billpoint, and all that stuff has been listed, would seem that a few haven't paid.
Rather ironic that ebay will have to deal with NPB themselves don't you think?
DJ
posted on September 27, 2001 01:19:09 PM new
Did Auctionwatch get cut out in this AFA fiasco. Can you list auctions for AFA though auctionwatch or do they have to list through ebay only?
posted on September 27, 2001 01:49:14 PM newWhoever said she'd be knocking on celebrities doors to pick up support and merchandise for A4A hit it right on the head.
I said it. Only way I can see her pulling it off. And if it does get pulled off this way, it probably won't really hurt us, and may just help.
But she's gonna have to hustle her butt off if she wants to meet her goal.
posted on September 27, 2001 02:13:37 PM new
Reminds me of fish gasping for air when out of water. She is something, I'll grant you that. She is the worse case scenerio of any of us making it big time, really big time.
Whooomph--power--power---power.
Sometimes wish I had know her pre eBay days. She is no dummy, by any stretch of the imagination. Some horrible choices she has made the last two years. Who was her mentor?
Billpoint exclusive, Watch feature, and the new fiasco, A4A.
Oh well, we little sellers will survive and prosper, no matter what eBay throws at us.
We are a tenacious bunch and will not be thwarted by new eBay concoctions!
Did you ever see someone be successful and deliberatly shoot themselves in the foot?
That is what I feel eBay has been doing for the last two years.
But ya know? eBay is no longer Meg Whitman or her policies. It is we, the small sellers that have made eBay and will continue to make eBay. Whether she will ever publically aknowledge this or not is moot.
We are a power and she has no control over us! And her refusal to acknowledge us is so special! She fears what she does not know!
"If I do not mention a segment, it is not so. I have power, I have demigod status, I can get on any major network station to ply my spin."
Keep on keeping on eBayers. Do not accept Billpoint, list in spite of her.
Contribute to the National Tragedy in your own personal ways.
I'm pooped. Sorry for this long winded diatribe. Just so frustrated at times.
After all A4A is simply a big, self-serving marketing ploy by eBay. Gotta hand it to them, they do know how to market!