posted on April 13, 2001 12:22:51 PM new
I saw that last night, read some on the posted comments and noticed where she is reported to have made sales over the years of about 30 million dollars plus of her option stock. Beats two weeks pay and a farewell lunch.
Since new management can't make it much worse in the auction area I'm willing to wait and hope that something positive comes out of the "new" YAHOO.
posted on April 17, 2001 05:41:31 AM new
Regardless of who is "currently" running Yahoo, they need to start making some major decisions, as they did with the porn, fast and public, before there is no Yahoo to salvage. I am afraid if they wait till all the new people are on board, etc., etc., there will be nothing left to save.
Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the Yahoo decision on porn, at least they made a fast and public turn around - something they now need to apply on their auction site (i.e.) realize there are major problems, LISTEN TO THEIR PUBLIC as they did with the porn, and QUICKLY make changes on the auction, and announce them publicly.
posted on April 17, 2001 06:53:35 AM new
"LISTEN TO THEIR PUBLIC as they did with the porn, and QUICKLY make changes on the auction, and announce them publicly"
Apart from the fees which they will have to leave in place to survive, what other changes do you think are needed?
What I don't like about Yahoo:
1. Too many illegal items (bootleg CDs and tapes)
2. The "Ask Seller A Question" thing - should be allowed to communicate directly with a seller. Or at least have the unanswered questions available for everyone to see, not just the asker. Many shady sellers purposely avoid answering questions because they don't want bidders to know the answer.
What else?
By the way, I doubt if any normal person would consider Playboy magazines as porn. I think Yahoo overreacted a bit here
posted on April 17, 2001 10:48:22 PM new
juggheadd,
Have you ever actually listed and sold on Yahoo Auction???????????
"Apart from the fees which they will have to leave in place to survive, what other changes do you think are needed?"
For starters, they can DUMP the listing and reserve fees and charge a modest FVF instead. They can try to entice their "desirable" sellers back with Wallet credits for performance (like positive feedback). They can revamp the category structure to get rid of unnecessary subcategories, and replace them with badly, badly needed subcategories in almost every antiques and collectibles category. They can hire an employee to police the site for TOS violations (including bootleg software and tapes).
"The "Ask Seller A Question" thing - should be allowed to communicate directly with a seller. Or at least have the unanswered questions available for everyone to see, not just (the ones that are answered). Many shady sellers purposely avoid answering questions because they don't want bidders to know the answer."
You obviously haven't listed much on Yahoo Auction, or you'd KNOW HOW RIDICULOUS SOME OF THE QUESTIONS ARE that are asked in "Ask Seller a Question". Or OBNOXIOUS. Or STUPID. Or INSULTING.
"By the way, I doubt if any normal person would consider Playboy magazines as porn."
Playboy magazine isn't pornography??? Then what IS it? From Webster's Dictionary comes the definition of pornography: "material (as books or a photograph) that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement."
Now if young, beautiful, voluptuous, naked women in suggestive poses isn't "intended to cause sexual excitement", what IS the intention??????????????????
posted on April 18, 2001 05:04:10 AM new
Looks like grannee got a little too close to that wringer again ... OUCH!! - don't you hate it when that happens
wrt the A&Q thing, is a question like: "DO you have authorization from the owner to sell copies of his work?" considered "OBNOXIOUS. Or STUPID. Or INSULTING"?
wrt porn, you can play with semantics all you want but I think most intelligent adults understand the difference between "porn" and the girls of Playboy
posted on April 18, 2001 06:32:12 AM new
I am sure I will get an argument, BUT, Yahoo could learn some lessons from eBay!
1. If you feel the need to close an auction, refund the fee for the auction.
2. If you feel the need to remove a seller do it through a temporary suspension, at least the first time, don't destroy the whole account with no recourse for the seller, remember Yahoo, you aren't always right.
3. Make your money via FVF, not posting fees.
4. Recognize the difference between Yahoo and eBay, and that items have always moved slower on Yahoo and often have to be posted and reposted, and allow the seller this right, and collect your funds in FVF.
5. If you cancel an auction on TOS, explain the reason, sellers aren't mind readers and often one has no idea what TOS they have broken.
6. Allow links to web sites back, you will find many sellers would return if you weren't so ridiculous about this.
7. Eat crow, apologize, and get your act straight and quick; you will be fortunate if you get 1/2 of you good sellers back because of you malingering, double talk, and ridiculous actions of the past few months.
1. Right - by allowing Yahoo to end an auction for whatever reason THEY decide, AND keep your listing fees reeks on a rip off. Theoretically, they could end every auction and go to the bank with a pile of unearned dough and never have to explain anything.
2. ebay needs to learn this too. Instead of convicting a seller without a trial, they should temporarily suspend a seller and conduct a REAL investigation before making any final decision.
3. and 4. Right.
5. Right.
6. No comment.
7. Again all auction sites need to learn how to do this.
posted on April 18, 2001 02:48:48 PM new
jwpc; Good points. One more I would like to add is that the CC verification for buyers should be an option that the seller chooses. I saw an immediate drop in sales as soon as they started the mandatory verification for bidders.
As much as I would like to see Yahoo become a serious eBay competitor, I consider my chances of returning to Yahoo Auctions, slim to none. Its not a personal grudge. It just seems unlikely that they'll adjust the fees and address all the problems that have destroyed their auctions.
One final note. How many banners, logo, and links do you see on the internet advertising Yahoo Auctions. Only arrogant #*%@#'s would charge listing fees and not advertise.
posted on April 18, 2001 03:17:25 PM new
JWPC, You got that one 100% correct with those answers. Maybe we should all mail and/or phone in these comments to Yahoo auctions. Maybe then they will slow down their massacre of Yahoo auctions and Yahoo sellers. It did not work in January but after losing 93% of their auctions, maybe they will listen now.
posted on April 19, 2001 08:48:31 AM new
I wondered about an email to the new CEO and the person hired to oversee auctions.
Not that they would read the emails themselves nor follow specific suggestions but a quanity of emails, all suggesting the large number of concerned sellers, previous seller efforts to build YAHOO, the body of suggestions here and at OTWA, efforts such as MAM and our wanting to help might encourge them to review archives from the user point of view and open communications for future co-operation.
Maybe not but as a new manager I would be interested in what had caused so many users to leave and what they wanted from us before they would consider returning.
Just tapping into the desire of tens of thousands of eBay sellers to have any successful alternative site to market thru is a tremendous potential customer base that anyone should consider.
Bidville targeted unhappy YAHOO sellers and got 500,000 listings in the blink of an eye.
Think what YAHOO could get if it made a strong effort to combine an outreach to sellers with an internal program to market its' auction section to present YAHOO site users.
Sellers would be glad to help make YAHOO successful and profitable. They want fair not free.
Many of us pay substancial fees to eBay based on results. We would pay them anywhere our efforts were profitable.
At a time when profits are so elusive for online businesses maybe managers should wake-up to the fact that online auction sellers have learned how to consistently make money in this endevour and have something to offer.
posted on April 19, 2001 10:04:14 AM new
"but as a new manager I would be interested in what had caused so many users to leave and what they wanted from us before they would consider returning."
I think that would be pretty obvious to any person taking over this position. In other words, I doubt if they would hire someone who was not auction-literate.
A bunch of emails couldn't hurt though as long as they were positve and offered good ideas.
"Bidville targeted unhappy YAHOO sellers and got 500,000 listings in the blink of an eye."
But's that all BidVille got. A bunch of listings and very few buyers. Yahoo may have been wise to purge themselves of the 10 cent sports card traders.
"Sellers would be glad to help make YAHOO successful and profitable. They want fair not free."
Exactly. Buyers too
"At a time when profits are so elusive for online businesses maybe managers should wake-up to the fact that online auction sellers have learned how to consistently make money in this endevour and have something to offer."
That is a good point but it doesn't explain ebay's success. They do a lot of things to turn off buyers and sellers yet we keep going there to do the bulk of our business.
Whatever the price (I don't know a lot about sports cards), BidVille seems to be overloaded with them right now. That and the fact that you can list stuff for years and years over there (the same items keep coming back!), it's not even worth my time to check their site anymore. Yahoo seems to be my best hope.
posted on April 19, 2001 04:58:16 PM newJWPC said
"1. If you feel the need to close an auction, refund the fee for the auction."
I'll argue that one, yesterday I ran across porn tapes in regular categories. Clicked sellers other auctions, he had 30 just listed porn movies. His closed ads show he had always listed in adult, now that it's gone he just put them where ever he wanted. They all had extremely graphic thumbnails and descriptions and Yahoo canceled them all pretty quick. If all they did was cancel ads and refund I suspect he'd keep doing it for months until he got booted. Then he'd just get a new ID and continue. Sound familiar?
I find it rather humorous you of all people suggest if they told a seller what was wrong the seller would stop doing it. I and other posters told you on at least 5 threads NO switchblades, ONE ad per item, NO website links. You ignored that advice and disregarded many Yahoo warnings for months until they finally booted your ID. You continued the same violations on your next ID until it got booted. You didn't need to be a "mind reader", all you needed to do was read TOS or listen to the AW posters who told you exactly what your issues were. I absolutely agree Yahoo should be the one to explain the exact problem and they do need to change that.
But why should someone like the above porn seller who intentionally attempts to list banned items or a seller who intentionally relists exact violating ads in spite of numerous warnings be entitled to refunds? You could argue you didn't get what you paid for but Yahoo covered that by placing a disclaimer on the submit item button that you've read TOS & understand your ad can be canceled if it doesn't comply. Then they put in TOS no refunds for canceled ads. That leaves it entirely the sellers choice to risk their cash. I think cutting down all the repeat offenders by costing them $ was their ONLY smart business move.
Sasoony, you're right, about half the bidders hit the road when they started CC verification last Sept.
The only links I ever see to Yahoo Auctions are on various Yahoo pages- clubs, games, mail etc. I see eBay links on all kinds of websites.
Reston_Ray I always enjoy your input. I referred to the infamous 1/4 chat transcript for an issue yesterday and was ROLF at the last line "Thanks everyone for participating...we'll look to do this again soon." Not that the chats were at all productive but they've certainly made no further attempt to communicate with us in an open forum.
