10 grand for 10 weeks, for 10 years of PayPal
October 15, 2008
To celebrate 10 years of trading, PayPal are going to give away £10,000 a week for the next ten weeks.
To qualify you simply need to make a purchase on the PayPal Offers site and of course pay using your PayPal account. There are hundreds of merchants to choose from with many offering discounts or cashback if you purchase through PayPal offers.
The qualifying promotional period runs up until the 18th December, so when you’re out buying your Christmas presents check out PayPal offers, there might be a discount or cashback, but there could also be a 10 grand bonus paid into your PayPal account.
£1/2 million fake Nikes taken off eBay
October 15, 2008
Trading standards have seized a huge haul of fake Nike trainers destined for eBay. Valued at around £500k, shoes that would retail for around £120 were being sold at the bargain price of just £15.
Having made test purchases on eBay trading standards offices posed as traders interested in placing a bulk order and were shown a container stacked high with hundreds of boxes of “exceptionally good quality” counterfeit Nike trainers.
The local council warned other counterfeit sellers that the trading standards team are on their case. Trading in fake goods on eBay isn’t a great career option.
eBay acquires Trade2Trade motors site
October 14, 2008
If you’ve never heard of Bradford based Trade2Trade Ltd it’s not surprising as it’s a site dedicated to the motor trade for buying and selling excess stock. Now however it appears to be owned by eBay.
Autowired reports eBay acquired the company as part of the Danish $390 million BilBasen/Den Bla Avis deal, as the company is part of the same group.
Managing Director of Trade2Trade, Claus Hovge Andersen, said of the takeover “eBay has been looking at our organisation, being particularly interested in our unique dealer management and sales tools”.
Whilst it appears eBay will look at the site as an investment rather than integrating it with eBay Motors there’s a new pool of experience that could be drawn on for eBay’s main motors business.
And the Wii winner is…. Gabor Csepeli
October 14, 2008
Gabor Csepeli
Gabor is a seller of computer ink products using both an eBay shop and Amazon UK as channels to market.
“The ChannelAdvisor UK team had a great day out at Small Business 2.0, meeting entrepreneurs from all walks of life.
We’d like to congratulate Mr Csepeli on winning the Wii console and thank the Small Business 2.0 team for pulling together such a great event and thank everyone who visited our booth or came to hear James Scott’s presentation.”
- John Hayes, ChannelAdvisor
Congratulations Gabor, and if you buy a copy of Mario Kart be sure to pop past the TameBay forum and hook up with the other TameBay Wiiers
Powersellers banned from free listing promo
October 14, 2008
There’s a free listing weekend on the 18th - 19th October, but not for PowerSellers or Business registered users.
Items listed with a start price of 99p or under can be listed for free by domestic users of the site. The promotion only applies to the auction format, fixed price listings and certain categories are excluded from the promotion.
To be honest it’s no surprise to see professional sellers barred from the promotion, the new fixed price listings with multiple quantities are the way forward for most sellers. It’s not such good news for the pro-sellers who exclusively list in the auction format as they’ve seen final value fees rise and a free listing weekend would have been a nice bonus.
It is good to see eBay encouraging casual sellers and buyers listing on the site, it’ll be very interesting to see just how many new auctions are listed over the weekend period. I suspect the site won’t be flooded with new listings to the extent it has been of previous listing promotions, although doubtless a few sellers may use buying accounts to launch auctions and save a few pennies.
I’ve gotta lego of my eBay logo
October 13, 2008
Four and a half years ago an AFOL (Adult Fans of LEGO) started work at eBay and painstakingly built the eBay logo out of LEGO. Ever since it has hung next to their desk at work in the San Jose eBay offices, to the admiration of fellow workers and visitors.
Now they’re leaving the company they’re looking for a new home for their sign, which is constructed of around 3000 individual LEGO baseplates, so of course it’s up for auction on eBay.
It would be a bit sad to break it down for someone “who just wants to buy a crapload of white plates”. The idea of an “eBay Marketing rep who wants a nice centerpiece for a convention booth” would be a fitting epitaph to one eBay employee’s love of the company.
5¢ on 14th October for eBay Canada
October 13, 2008
eBay Canada are holding a cheap listing day on the 14th October for Auctions and Buy It Now listings. To qualify for the discounted rates shipping has to be specified.
The promo is only open to Canadian residents, and has the normal exceptions (Motors, Property etc) and doesn’t include Shop Inventory Format listings which are still available in most countries outside the UK.
Moneybookers: Worldwide direct payments made easy
October 13, 2008
At the Small Business 2.0 show Moneybookers presented a compelling argument as to why online sellers should consider using their services.
PayPal options
The biggest advantage that I see Moneybookers having over PayPal isn’t simply their rates (and for larger merchants they will negotiate a custom package), but in the flexibility of payment options for buyers. Although they offer an eWallet option buyers don’t need to explicitly register for a Moneybookers account to transact, with sellers offering direct payments they can use simply use their payment method of choice.
Moneybookers options
Whether it be Carte Bleue in France, Laser in Ireland, or one of the 24 versions of direct debit in Poland, Moneybookers will allow your buyers to pay you using their payment method of choice. Buyers can choose domestic bank transfer, credit/debit card or cheque and being able to pay with their customary payment option it’s one more reason for them to purchase from your site. Moneybookers enable payments from 200 countries in 34 currencies, using 50 payment options but with just 1 connection.
If you sell on your own website and want to make it easy for buyers worldwide to pay Moneybookers are well worth considering. Many sellers already offer a choice of PayPal or Google Checkout alongside a card facility with a merchant provider. Moneybookers replace a merchant banking facility enabling payments in multiple currencies and multiple payment methods in a single solution. Moneybookers can also be accepted on eBay and is approved under the accepted payment policy.
It’s all about making it easy for the buyer - if you accept their currency and their local banking facilities it can make the difference between them completing checkout or losing the sale.
eBay to make free P&P compulsory for DVDs
October 11, 2008
eBay UK will announce a raft of changes on Monday including compulsory free postage for DVDs.
From early next year there will be maximum postage rates set for media and mobile phone categories. Richard Ambrose from eBay stated that some of the maximum rates will be below actual cost and for DVDs they will insist sellers offer free post, although upgrade to priority services and overseas postage can still be charged.
Other changes to be announced will include:
Feedback Revision
Feedback Revision will be live on the site in about a weeks time. Sellers will be able to request buyers revise negative or neutral feedback upwards with a limit of 5 revisions per 1000 transactions, which is roughly the rate of negative feedbacks left across the whole site.
Identity Confirmation
eBay have already announced they’ll be protecting seller accounts by checking they are creating listings from the computer they habitually use. This is already turned on in TurboLister but will now roll out site wide by the end of October. If a seller tries to list from an alternative PC they’ll be required to confirm their identity before continuing which will prevent fraudsters from listing on hijacked accounts.
Annonymisation of emails
Similar to Australia eBay will begin to hide email addresses between eBay users until they have transacted. When buyers and sellers communicate eBay will create a temporary email address which can be replied to from email clients such as Outlook or webmail without the requirement to log into the eBay account.
This will be a great assistance for sellers trading on multiple eBay IDs to save time having to log into the relevant account just to answer a simple buyer enquiry.
Postage and Packing maximum charges
eBay will begin to set maximum postage costs from January, begining in the media and mobile phone categories with free post enforced for all DVD listings.
DSR transparency
eBay will increase visibility of DSRs to enable sellers to improve their businesses. Users will begin to see a breakdown of DSRs by category to establish if particular product lines are dragging their overall scores down and enable them to target areas for improvement.
By early 2009 great DSR transparency will appear in the Seller Dashboard, but will be available to developers through the API by the end of the year.
eBay Priorities
eBay are focusing on the three top reasons why buyers stop buying on eBay
- Losing money on eBay
- Getting a negative feedback
- High postage and packaging charges
They have already made progress by banning sellers from leaving negative or neutral feedback for buyers, in 2009 they will be focusing on buyer safety - it’s simply not acceptable for buyers to be able to lose money on the largest ecommerce site in the UK. This is why changes such as anonymous emails and seller identity confirmation are being introduced. If fraudsters are unable to list on the site or contact potential buyers there is no way they can take their money.
Postage and packing charges will be next target area for eBay in order to meet buyer objectives. Although maximum or free postage charges are being introduced in media and mobile phones first, don’t be surprised if they come to your category next.
Post Office kiosks and Royal Mail market research
October 10, 2008
Post Office Post & Go Kiosk
Royal Mail have started to introduce new automated self-service kiosks in some Post Offices with the first two units installed in a Bristol Post Office on Wednesday this week.
The Post Office Post & Go Kiosks aim to be the quickest and simplest way to send mail and buy stamps. Customers can purchase stamps that can be used immediately or taken away for later use.
All customers need do is place their item on the scale and follow the step-by-step instructions to send their item paying with cash with the option of card payments for transactions over £2.00.
The initial roll out will see 175 Post & Go kiosks in 80 Post Offices spread around the country.
Royal Mail Market Research
Want to take part in some market research for Royal Mail? If you’re a PowerSeller shipping 300 items or more per month and can be in Marylebone, London on Tuesday 21st October 2008 at 11.00am for a couple of hours they’d love to hear from you - and of course, there’s a cash incentive too!
Please contact Clare McGoran mcgoran.c@proximitylondon.com for details and let Clare know how many items you send each month.
UK sellers disadvantaged - a poor buying experience
October 9, 2008
The first two weeks of Best Match being enabled on the UK site with Recent Sales boosting popular listings has been interesting but it’s becoming clear that UK sellers may be being disadvantaged on the UK site.
UK sellers that wish to get visibility on international eBay sites are currently disadvantaged to their overseas competitors. It’s not currently possible to use the International Visibility Feature (IVF) on UK fixed price items. This allows overseas sellers to list on their own sites and pay a minimal fee for visibility in the UK.
It isn’t just fees though, there are two other factors which need addressing - search advantage and product suitability.
Search Advantage
Sellers listing on non-UK sites are getting huge advantages in search visibility. Many have a Recent Sales advantage, but not from sales on eBay UK. A listing on eBay.com with IVF will appear on eBay UK, but if it attracts sales on eBay.com it appears to get a corresponding boost from Recent Sales in search results. The listing may never attract UK sales but still appear right at the top of Best Match, which pushes UK sellers lower in search results and isn’t great for buyers either.
Listing enhancements that haven’t been paid on eBay UK appear to carry over to the UK site. Listings with UK visibility from IVF get to the top of the page with the Featured Plus listing enhancement. Highlight, Bold and Subtitle also carry over to the UK site even though the features were paid for on another site.
A corresponding advantage isn’t available to UK sellers as IVF is only available for auctions. A UK seller can’t get to the top of Best Match on eBay.com through Recent Sales and listing enhancements gained on the UK site.
Buying Experience
While there are many buyers happy to purchase from overseas (and sellers willing to ship to or from the UK), there are products rising to the top of UK Best Match that are either not attracting UK sales or shouldn’t be available in the UK in the first place.
Some products are simply incompatible, electrical products listed on eBay.com with IVF appear at the top of UK Best Match but have US power cords. Products such as computer keyboards do well on Best Match but, if they aren’t UK layout, UK buyers simply don’t wish to purchase them. There are countless examples of non-UK items at the top of Best Match for which it’s highly unlikely a UK buyer would consider purchasing.
Other items are illegal and simply shouldn’t appear on the UK site at all. Throwing knifes are banned on eBay UK, but there are knives available, appearing on eBay UK but listed on eBay Italy and eBay.com. It’s illegal to export items manufactured pre-1930 from China, but in the collectibles category there are many “Chinese Antiques” shipping from China - these products must either be fake, or shouldn’t be shipped outside mainland China.
The two main issues with search results are first the advantaging of products listed on overseas sites and gaining search advantages not gained on the UK site. (A specifically different situation to overseas sellers listing directly on eBay UK, gaining search advantages from UK listing enhancements and Recent Sales to UK buyers). Second the raised visibility of products which either aren’t compatible, or are illegal for sale in the UK. UK buyers simply don’t want to buy these products, or will be disappointed with them when they arrive.
eBay are continuing to optimise Best match which is still a relatively new system. Doubtless they’ll be looking at which listings are appearing on the UK site and if listings are being unfairly advantaged or simply aren’t relevant and shouldn’t be appearing at all.
It’s been said that in recent times eBay has relied too much on data-driven decisions and not enough on reality. Hopefully that’s changing and will start with showing UK buyers not just the most “data-relevant” products but the ones UK buyers actually want to buy.
My own experiences since Best Match was introduced are encouraging, especially the boost listings gain from Recent Sales and resultant purchases. Although it’s working well for me, sales are up, and I’m optimistic for the future, it’s still tough competing with listings that have gained huge UK visibility advantages with search benefits inherited from overseas sites, not from UK sales.
Edited to add: While this article was being edited eBay have blocked throwing knives listed internationally from being visible on eBay UK
Hammertap: Competing without lowering prices
October 9, 2008
Jen and Amy from HammerTap hosted a webinar this evening to give an insight on how to avoid a price war. This is of particular interest with eBay UK moving to Best Match where promoting the “best deals” often equates to “lowest price”. The webinar looked at ways to make your products stand out and appeal to buyers which, with Recent Sales search advantage, should help you to the top of Best Match results.
All things being equal the lowest price will win the price war, so the only effective way that sellers can make themselves stand out is to differentiate themselves from the competition.
HammerTap suggested four ways to take yourself out of competition with other sellers and differentiate your products:
- Change the product itself, make your product different to the competitions. This could be as simple as branding the packaging.
- Market to a new audience, e.g. Instead of selling a Wii to gamers, market it as a fitness product with the Wii Fit
- Add on value, e.g. Make your laptops stand out buy adding on a free laptop case or add a memory card with a PDA
- Bulk - Buyers will often want to purchase larger quantities, experiment with different quantities on a single listing.
Non-price competition is usually more profitable than selling for a lower price and avoids a price war. If you can make your product stand out from the crowd you can still attract buyers whilst retaining healthy margins.
EU seeks to encourage cross border transactions
October 8, 2008
The European Commission have adopted a proposal which should strengthen consumer rights with the aim of increasing cross border online transactions.
Currently there are four sets of legislation (Unfair contract terms, Sales and Guarantees, Distance Selling and Doorstep Selling) which would be simplified into a single set of rules known as “The Consumer Rights Directive”, if the European Parliament and the 27 member states approve the proposal.
Some of the highlights are an increase from a 7 day cooling off period to 14 days (currently covered by Distance Selling Regulations), the right for buyers to choose between repair, replacement or reimbursement for faulty goods and confirmation that sellers are responsible for loss or damage in transit. The proposal also calls for clear pricing information and any additional costs, to encourage shoppers to compare prices across the whole of the EU.
Currently there are around 150m EU citizens who purchase online, but only 30m make cross border transactions. According to the report 2/3rds of Europeans think there are more potential problems in making cross-border purchases rather than domestic purchases. 56% of Europeans think that sellers from other EU countries are less likely to respect consumer protection laws than suppliers from their home country.
The new proposal aims to boost cross border trade enabling and encouraging all Europeans to buy from the seller offering the best deal regardless of which EU country they’re located in.
Tradebox nominated for Sage awards
October 8, 2008
Tradebox have been nominated for both the Sage Innovation Award 2008 and Sage Developer of the Year Award 2008. These are the only two awards available for members of the Sage Developer programme and reflects just how much work has gone into their accounts solution - Finance Manager.
They’ve already won two awards this year at the North East Digital Awards. They’ll be exhibiting at Small Business 2.0 on Saturday this week so if you’re attending don’t forget to wish them luck for the 5th November when the awards will be announced.
I’m guessing if they win that they won’t mind missing out on fireworks while they attend the Sage gala dinner 
eBay UK defaults to old search - 30 day BINs vanish
October 6, 2008
Many users on eBay UK appear to have been defaulted to the old search experience. Instead of displaying Best Match with only auctions sorted ending soonest, fixed price listings are also displayed in the pre-Sept 25th sort order.
What’s worse is that sellers who have made use of the new 30 day listing format get zero visibility in core search results. 30 day BINs act as SIF listings in the old search and for many sellers this means they now have very few, or even zero, listings appearing on the core site.
It’s possible to opt back into the new search experience, but the big question is how many buyers will? Threads are starting to appear on discussion boards including Q&A and the PowerSeller board suggesting large numbers of users have been switched back to the old search experience.
If eBay are running tests with small numbers of users still showing the old search experience that’s one thing. If vast numbers of users have been switched back it has serious repercussions for sellers who have switched to 30 day listings as buyers simply won’t see their products.
I’m hoping that eBay move most users back to the new search experience in the very near future. In the meantime sellers who have worked to get to the top of Best Match with Recent Sales are reaping no rewards, but are actually being disadvantaged against sellers who blindly re-listed 10 day BINs.
SM & SMP intermittently broken
October 6, 2008
eBay appears to be decidedly broken this morning. On the busiest day of the week sellers are getting “Input Error” when attempting to use Selling Manager or Selling Manager Pro. Not a good start to the week when there’s a whole weekend’s worth of sales that need printing and despatching.
The good news is that PayPal and My eBay appear to be working so sellers will be able to get some work done 
High powered lasers to be banned on eBay & Amazon
October 5, 2008
Both eBay and Amazon are to ban sales of high powered green laser pens, according the BBC 5 Live, Donal MacIntyre programme.
There have been reports of lasers being used to blind both commercial airline pilots and police helicoptors. Laser under 1mW are considered safe for use and are ideal for use in presentation, but some laser pointers for sale on eBay are up to 240 times as powerful, one listing on eBay even offers a laser supplied with balloons for testing - the laser beam is so powerful it simply shining it at a balloon will burst it.
The Donal MacIntyre programme is due to be aired on Radio 5 Live at 7pm this evening.
7 Top tips to game Best Match with Recent Sales
October 5, 2008
Being at the top of eBay’s Best Match is a little akin to winning the blue Buy Box on Amazon, the listings at the top of eBay’s Best Match are starting to attract the lions share of the sales.
Some experimentation over the last week has revealed some great strategies to ensure your listing is at, or near, the top of search results. Best of all many of the tactics won’t cost you a penny to implement.
Recent sales are the surest way to gain exposure for your listing. The big question is how do you kick start sales to get to the top, especially if other seller’s listings have had sales already? Here are my 7 top tips to gain Recent Sales including two ways auctions can be used to boost a BIN listing’s visibility in search results:
1) Featured First
Featured First is the only sure fire way to the top of search results but it’s going to cost you (£44.95 for up to ten days, £134.95 for up to 30 days). Featured First is a great way to buy exposure but, as it’s success starts to be seen, more and more sellers are starting to use the listing enhancement.
If you’re one of just two sellers to use Featured First in a category then you’ll always be at the top, but as more sellers start to use the feature you listing will appear in a rotation and the exposure starts to fall.
This is a feature that should only ever be used once on a listing with good run rate, and then recent sales should be keeping you at the top of search. However, for slower sell through rate, high value items, Featured First is definitely worth considering on an ongoing basis.
2) Auctions to drive sales
Yes auctions are old hat, as a seller you probably prefer to know you’ll get the price you want and many buyers want to buy instantly rather than bid. Well that might be the case but auctions are still sorted using Ending Soonest and are still a great route to getting your listings to the top of search results.
Auctions at an attractive start prices will get buyers looking, strong links from auctions are a great way to kick start some sales on your main BIN listings. Look at the auction as a loss leader to gain attention and drive traffic from the auction to your BIN. Also consider trying an auction with a BIN price for an instant sale because….
3) Auction to Recent Sales Advantaged BIN
… It’s possible to gain a Recent Sales advantage in Best Match from an auction and this is the main reason sellers should be experimenting with the listing format. If your auction sells at a final value price that you’d be willing to sell at (or below), relist it but convert it to a BIN.
In testing it appears that Recent Sales advantage is transferred from a sold auction to a new BIN listing and can propel the BIN towards the top of Best Match at best, and above an identical BIN listing with no sales at worst. Auctions can be used to actively gain a head start for a multi-quantity BIN.
4) Best Offer
On your first listing of a new product always add Best Offer. It only takes a few sales to make a huge difference in search results standings. Some experimentation with this tactic has thrown up some interesting trends, the most significant of which is that early sales will tend to be Best Offers, but once an item reaches the top of search results buyers start to buy at the full price rather than making further Best Offers.
It’s well worth accepting the first one or two offers at less than you’d normally consider, in order to boost your listing in search results. Offers are worth accepting even if you make a slight loss on a couple of sales - it’s still probably still cheaper than paying for Featured First, to get to the top of the page.
5) Email Marketing
Get smart about your email marketing, use it to drive traffic to the listings you want to sell. Use emails to highlight new listings that you need to gain Recent Sales to increase Best Match placement.
Read more
Tradebox announce new post-sales solutions
October 4, 2008
Tradebox are well known for their eBay accounts software, and are set to develop and launch a new series of post-sales solutions for online sellers, as well as a brand new website which went live today.
They will be launching the new product range this month and you can see them at Internet Retailer on the 7th, Small Business 2.0 on the 11th, or E Commerce Expo on the 28th-29th October.
Stephen Bales from Tradebox & Nick Edgar from NEL
Speaking of the challenges online sellers face Tradebox Operations Director, Stephen Bales says: “Businesses operating in this virtual environment still face the very real demands of collating their financial information – and if their systems can’t communicate properly, they can face many hours of additional work every day”. The Tradebox solutions provide the ability to automate accounts, collating sales from eBay, Amazon, Play.com and ecommerce websites into Sage at the click of a button.
It’s an exciting time for Tradebox, with many sellers looking to expand beyond eBay, accurate financial record keeping becomes a greater challenge. A product which can automate accounts from the many disparate platforms which sellers trade on, can save many hours of manual record keeping. You can download a free trial of the software and book a demo on the Tradebox website.
50% off discount code for Parcel2go courier deliveries
October 2, 2008
Parcel2Go are offering half price standard deliveries this week. Any delivery booked before midnight on Sunday night qualifies for 50% off their standard £7.99 plus VAT rate. Simply enter the discount code ‘HALFSD3‘ when booking your collection.
Parcel2Go have doubled their business since this time last year. In September 2007 they handled 21,000 parcels, but this September that increased to 55,000 for the month. Steve Kramer, Parcel2Go Director said “People have realised that they can get better value and have parcels - big and small - collected from their door”.
If you’re selling a larger item on eBay they’re worth considering, especially if it’s going to cost more to deliver via Royal Mail. For Parcel2Go to double their business in a year they’ve got to be getting something right.
50% off FVF for free shipping on eBay Aus
October 2, 2008
eBay Australia are offering a 50% discount to PowerSellers who list with free shipping between Wednesday 8th and Tuesday 14th October.
The Aussie site has recently launched a new Free Postage Hub and qualifying items will be included in the hub.
eBay point out “We know this may not work for everyone, but if you’ve never tried offering free postage before, this is the perfect opportunity to test it out on a few items and see how you go. Who knows, you could just boost your sales and soon be listing all your items with free postage!”
Free post is definitely a selling tactic all sellers should experiment with, it can produce great results, especially if your competitors aren’t offering free post.
Hammertap webinar: “Avoiding the Price War”
October 2, 2008
Hammertap are to hold an online seminar on Wednesday 8th October to discuss how sellers can use competitive analysis and buyer behavior to differentiate their products, stand out from the crowd and avoid a price war.
With the introduction of Best Match in the UK and recent sales often pushing the lowest price products to the top of search results this workshop couldn’t come at a better time.
Talking about price wars Amy Kendall of Hammertap said “Price wars are based on the fact that ‘All things being equal…the lowest price always wins the war’. “The trick is to make things unequal and add value to your listings so you can avoid the war altogether.”
The webinar will feature HammerTap software, but is open to all eBay sellers, you’ll need to reserve a place and the seminar starts at 6pm MDT on Wednesday.
(I believe 6pm MDT is 1am Thursday in the UK, so one for the night owls to attend… If I’ve got the time wrong please let me know in comments and I’ll edit )
Auctiva replace Sellathon counter with kickitback counter
October 1, 2008
Auctiva have replaced the Sellathon hits counter in live eBay auctions with a Kickitback counter. If sellers don’t wish the new counter to appear it’s possible to select “No Counter” in their Auctiva settings.
For UK sellers it’s probably best to disable the counter or consider an alternative, Kickitback discounts are only available for some purchases on eBay.com with cash back paid in US$. Nothing sold on eBay UK will qualify for cash back so sending your UK buyers to the site just doesn’t make sense.
Sellers who still have the old Sellathon hits counter displayed on their auctions will find that the link has also changed to the Kickitback website. It would make sense for Auctiva counters placed on sites other than eBay.com to link to a relevant site, or simply not to be linked at all. In the mean time it’s a great way for Auctiva to promote their new site for free.
eBay tell buyers to get a full refund
October 1, 2008
eBay have updated the Buyer Protection page with the advice that if your item “arrives significantly as described, then you can receive the full value of your purchase (including postage) back when you pay with PayPal”.
Personally I’ve always believed that if a buyer gets what they paid for and are happy with it, as a seller I should be allowed to keep their money. Hopefully eBay will update the page to read “arrives significantly NOT as described” before too many satisfied customers want their money back.
Skype 4.2beta and Skypephone SkypeOut released
October 1, 2008
It’s a big day for Skype, at eight o’clock this morning they unveiled the latest Skype 4.2 beta software which vastly improves over the original beta released in June. There’s a classic view for those who prefer the earlier 3.8 version of Skype, along with a more Windows like tabbed view for contacts and conversations.
A host of new features including the ability to group contacts, for those with a large number of messages coming through Skype say there’s better notifications and alerts. There’s also the ability to resize the Skype window, and any section within Skype to give more space e.g. for video or chat messages.
It’s not just on Windows that Skype is changing, the Skypephone from 3 is getting SkypeOut enabled from today. 3 will be pushing software upgrades to all of their Skype enabled handsets today with new calling packages, (the most expensive of which costs £7.99) allowing users to call mobiles or landlines anywhere in the world via Skype.
This is a huge step forward, with other mobile providers attempting to limit VOIP on mobiles, even over WiFi, 3 have taken a brave step in fully embracing Skype.
The big question is do you really need a land line for running an eBay business any more? With Skype on your desktop and on your Skypephone you’ll be able to make or receive free calls anywhere there is mobile coverage.
