Join the eBay Boycott, Feb. 18-25!!!!!

This is direct from my bow making group. It's been making the rounds everywhere!

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This post is a really serious topic about Ebay. I'm posting this
everywhere I know how to get the word out. If you're not in a good mood,
come back to it later.

I'm not sure if everyone is aware of this, but Ebay is making drastic
changes for people who sell and buy on Ebay. If one looks at it from the
surface, the changes don't seem too bad. But if you look a little
deeper, they're really very scarey.

Many sellers and buyers are going to be having a strike on February 11th
through February 25 that includes no buying, no listing, no selling, no
auctions on those days. If possible, if you are an Ebay buyer and
seller, I would really appreciate it if you could honor those dates, for
nothing else, then on MY behalf because the changes have the possibility
to really hurt me as a seller.

Right now, the Ebay marketing machine is billing these changes as "fee
reductions" and that is what the media initally reported because they
way the changes were announced were quite deceptive. But, for those of
you who aren't really super active on Ebay and are wondering what all
the changes entail, a summary of them follows.

First, they are reducing the listing fee by 5 cents and making Gallery
free. On the surface this looks great and this is how they are marketing
the change - as a "fee reduction". However, if you read the fine print
you'll find that they are slyly raising Final Value Fees (The fee the
seller pays when the item sells at auction) by as much as 33% to 66% for
sme sellers. The percentage of increase differs by seller because all
sellers sell items with different values and the Final Value Fee is
based on the dollar amount of the item. So we save a nickel to list an
item, but pay 33% more after the auction is over. This first part of the
changes, while quite disgusting, IS bearable.

Second, they are removing the ability for sellers to leave feedback for
buyers. Now, Ebay has always been successful on the basis of both buyer
and seller being able to rate each other based on the success of a
single transaction. They are removing this for sellers. This is very
scarey for the seller population because as sellers, we already are held
hostage by what we call "Feedback Extortionist Buyers". These are the
buyers that buy something in an auction and then send an email that says
"You send me the item free or I will leave you a negative and ruin your
Ebay reputation!" . While people like this are quite few and far between,
they do exist. I've got over 792 transactions nd I've come across 4
difficult buyers who no matter what I couldn't please them. I managed to
scrape by without a negative because they were booted from Ebay, but the
point of the matter is that while most buyers are wonderful, these
psycho types of buyers DO exist. Now with this new feedback system, ONE
rogue buyer (and even my selling competition) could ruin my reputation
very easily. Even if I provided a 100% perfect transaction and the item
was received the very same day and all was perfect with the world, that
one person could ruin me if they wanted to. All they would need to do is
buy 5 or 10 items from me and leave five feedbacks separately - because
each and every negative will count against the seller. This would mean
the end of my store and my business on Ebay over one rogue buyer. Why?
Read the next section.

Third, as if one and two weren't bad enough, if a seller has below a 95%
satisfaction rating on Ebay, Ebay will not display your auctions in the
search engine. For example, if I sell20 items one month and 1 of them
has a neutral or negative left for it by a buyer (deserved or not), I
can no longer list auctions on Ebay and have them be seen in the search
engine. Yes, thats right. I can list, Ebay will take my money, but all
of my auctions will be on page 857 of the listing and never be seen by
any buyers. So once I get one negative, it is virtually impossible to
recover from that by selling additional items becuase non of my items
will be seen to be purchased by another buyer later. Its a no win
situation for a seller.

Fourth, as if all of this wasn't the most horrific thing you've ever
heard, they're making changes to Pay Pal - which is the method most
people use to accept payment over Ebay. From now on, if you have less
than 100 feedback and you sell an item Pay Pal will not give you your
money for 21 (TWENTY ONE DAYS!). Yes, you read that right. Say, Susie
sells a 50 dollar item and the buyer pays through Pay Pal. Susie is then
forced to ship the item FREE without any paymen. After 21 days has
passed, THEN Pay Pal will forward Susie her money. This folks is just
horrible. Do you know anywhere else on the planet where you can demand
that someone selling you an item give you the item FREE and ship it to
you FREE while you hold on to your money for 21 entire days? I sure
don't. On top of this "under 100 feedback" thing, again if I have less
than a 95% rating or get one negative or get one neutral - again - Pay
Pal will hold my money for 21 days. Imagine how must interest Pay Pal
and Ebay will accumulate on billions of dollars being held in 21 day
incriments - yet another disguesting way for them to squeeze MORE money
out of the system.

Fifth, they instituted "Seller Rewards". Essentially, if you meet
certain criteria as a seller you can earn 15% credit on your account.
The catch is that you have to sell 1,000 dollars or more on your account
every month and have to have a 4.8 rating on all your "stars". I feel
that these guidelines are impossible to reach and that they wer designed
to be impossible to reach on purpose so that Ebay, yet again, would not
have to actually pay out the discounts. To give you an example of how
hard these are to reach, out of Ebay's top 500 Powersellers (These
people are the creme of the crop on Ebay and make lilke $100,000 a month
on Ebay)...anyway out of tje top 500 of them, only SEVEN qualify for the
15% discount. SEVEN.

And finally, when all these changes were announced, the Ebay sellers
went ballistic. The response from Ebay management? We were told that our
complaints and nager and frustration and tears were - and I quote -
"NOISE!". Yes, we are nothing but "noise" to the Ebay management, yet
they are making million dollar salaries off of us.

I know I am so mad, myself. I have 100% positive feedback and I've
completed almost 800 transactions. I'm not a bad seller and I bend over
backwards to make a buyer happy. I have a very good record. But ALL THAT
HARD WORK and ONE rogue person could ruin it for me. Or even someone who
comptes against me can very easily get a new nick, by stuff from me,
leave negs - and take my listings right out the search engine!!). It's
not fair at all. Not to mention, if somehow I do screw up or get a rogue
buyer, Pay Pal won't even let me have my money for 21 days. When you do
this type of work full time, that is a terrifying thought.

So I'm here to beg you guys, if possible, and even if you don't
understand all the ins and outs of Ebay and what a seller has to go
through to sell on Ebay - PLEASE RESPECT THE STRIKE we are organizing.
Please! Please don't buy or sell on Ebay from Feb 18th through Feb 25th.
Please tell your friends and family members to do the same. We know that
not everyone can respect it - some people make ends meet by selling on
Ebay. But for those of you who can, us sellers would very much
appreciate it if you could respect the strike on those days.

Also - if you are an Ebay seller - and you are angry like the rest of
us, CNN and FORBES is quite interested in how we fee. Quite a few
people, including myself have flocked to CNN MONEY to get their
attention. So far, the comments and anger and speaking out are actually
working - the media is starting to pay attention and Ebay has stepped up
their marketing tactics. We feel that they're getting a little worried
over all the outrage.



Just in case you think it is not real, here is a link from ebay itself:
http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/overview/index.html

Here is their official press release (it sounds deceptively good):
http://news.ebay.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=290446

An article from BBC:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7228460.stm

There is s pledge over on the ebay forums. No buying or selling!!
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000636290&start=0

Ebay thinks the strike wont affect them at all, but we will see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_ZFThSM6Rk&NR=1

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PLEASE support us boutique designers, and BOYCOTT eBay Feb. 18-25.

Take a stand, and be heard!

Shop at:
*www.winkelf.com (Look for JaysTwin - me! - but I don't have anything listed yet.)
*www.etsy.com (Take the handmade pledge! Look for jaystwin - me!)
*www.mommyauctions.com
*www.sewcutebags.com
*www.spoiled-rotten-girls.com
*www.provisplace.com (Not quite working yet, but this is my website.)