Boycott Ebay This Week

[Faust]

Posting this at my friend's request.

Full Story

(FORTUNE Small Business) -- Activists opposed to eBay's (EBAY, Fortune 500) upcoming fee and policy changes
are readying for a weeklong site boycott starting on Monday, with
buyers and sellers waiting to see if this strike will succeed where
past protests have failed.

The boycott, planned to run Feb. 18 -
25, is scheduled to overlap eBay's Feb. 20 rollout of significant
changes announced last month.

Sellers say eBay's new policies are
likely to cost them more money, but what's really inspired an
outpouring of wrath is an adjustment to eBay's feedback system: sellers
will no longer be able to leave negative commentary about their buyers.
Critics say that will leave sellers vulnerable to negligent bidders and
scammers.

"You get bad buyers as often as you get bad sellers,"
said M. Owens, a Severn, Md.-based seller of high-end dolls that
typical go for several hundred dollars each. On such an expensive
transaction, having a buyer cause trouble - by, for example, disputing
the transaction and requesting a credit-card chargeback after they've
already received their merchandise - can be financially devastating,
she said.

Owens, who plans to participate in the boycott and
avoid buying or selling on eBay next week, is also worried about the
impact of a change to eBay's "best match" search algorithm, one of the
least-publicized aspects of the upcoming changes. That search method,
which will become eBay's default next month, favors sellers with high
and detailed customer-satisfaction ratings. Low-volume sellers, like
Owens, say this puts them at a disadvantage by burying their listings.

EBay spokesman Usher Lieberman said the company is taking a wait-and-see approach to the boycott talk

"At
this point it's still premature for us to speculate," Lieberman said.
"We're empathetic with our sellers and understand that they're
concerned, and that some of them object to some of the changes we're
implementing. On the other hand, we think we have very good reasons for
what we're doing."

[xcoldricex]

haha i've been boycotting ebay for over a year now. fuck ebay.

i like how they sent out that email saying gallery pictures are free and they cut insertion fees!

scroll down a bunch and you see they raised the final value fees SIGNIFICANTLY.

[tims]

I won't be listing anything on ebay, but let's just hope no one lists anything I just have to buy this week :)

[DHC]

[quote user="xcoldricex"]

fuck ebay.

[/quote]

WORD!

[mortalveneer]

Something to sell to intelligent classy consumers: SZ Classifieds

Something to sell to moderately intelligent younger consumers: SuFu Supermarket

Something to sell that's overvalued by much of the foolish populace: Ebay

This is why I continue to sell on ebay, even if my frustration with them seems to mount annually...

Anyone notice how they automatically put your return policy as accepting any kind of returns within seven days? I listed a few auctions before I saw that last week...

[Faust]

/\ yes.

[Chinorlz]

Ugh. why do they have to keep raising shit? I mean honestly. Low low low overhead/operating costs... no need to advertise... they're just getting greedy now. Shit was fine before.

Fuckers!

[jay]

I am sorry but eBay and the devil PayPal are just flat out GREED. I have countless friends that have been screwed by both. Personally, I would rather not sell an item than to give eBay my money.

[Yan]

Yeah boycott ebay unless

You make money that way. Many sz members selling I see

There something you really like on there.

They send you a discount coupon.

You want to fund a faceless dot com business that screws nearly 10% from its customers