Tamebay Morsels 02/07/09
July 2, 2009
eBay Australia has partnered with seekingservice.com.au to provide access to business services on the site. The service allows you to find local businesses and compare quotes by posting a one-off or ongoing project which businesses can bid for.
20% is a big drop in revenue, but it may be that last year’s $2.1m bid for Warren Buffett’s annual luncheon auction was simply too big to match. Recession or no recession, the $1.68m raised for the Glide Foundation on eBay this year is still a sizable figure.
If you’re a Skype user it’s time to upgrade to the latest Skype 4.1 release which apparently fixes a few bugs in the previous versions.
China has delayed an introduction of web filtering at the last minute turning planned protests into a celebration. Software was due to be installed on all computers to prevent access to pornography.
If you’re a hand made guitar aficionado there’s a DVD on eBay you have to buy – Antony Dewar chopped down a dead cherry tree in his garden and spent three years filming it’s transformation into a pair of guitars. Running for 3 hours 26 minutes the DVD shows everything from felling the tree to the finished product.
eBay Australia change the way User IDs are displayed
January 29, 2009
eBay Australia will change the way that bidder IDs are anonymised from the 3rd February. Instead of displaying “Bidder1, Bidder2″ it will change to randomised aliases consisting of two random characters from the member’s User ID such as “a***b, c***d” etc.
The change is said to be because many eBay users prefer the transparency that the aliases provide, although to be frank identifying a user from the alias is almost impossible.
Currently eBay UK still use the “Bidder1, Bidder2″ format when displaying bidding activity but use randomised aliases for Best Offers.
My eBay classic retired, new My eBay rolled out
January 20, 2009
Be prepared for a bit of a shock next time you log into eBay, it’s been announced around the world (although not in the UK) that My eBay Beta is about to become the default for all users. Today the old or “classic” version is set to be retired for good.
Back in August we took a first look at the new My eBay Beta and found it good for buyers but lacking in functionality for sellers, but many of our complaints addressed with added functionality. There are a few differences worth calling out:
Best Offers
Items with outstanding Best Offers aren’t as visible as in the old version. Whereas they’d be highlighted at the top of the selling tab in the classic eBay, in the new version they only appear in “Selling Reminders” on the “All Selling” summary view. If you’re on the “Selling Tab” you don’t get selling reminders and so won’t see any prompts to accept, decline or make a counter offer.
Even in Selling Reminders Best Offers could be handled better, if you counter offer to a buyer it still displays as “1 item with offers from buyers”. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve gone to respond just to find out I’m waiting for the buyer to make a decision.
Unsold Items
Another major display change to be aware of is with unsold items. The quantity displayed will now be the starting 
quantity, regardless how many items have been sold on a listing. In the classic version of My eBay the unsold item view displayed the quantity remaining when the listing ended. It’s a minor change, but a frustrating one for those who rely on these numbers for stock control.
Sort Options
The old My eBay was highly configurable with sort options for almost every attribute displayed. The new My eBay is severely limited with sorting limited to just the Watchers, Bids, Price and Time left columns.
In the past I’ve used sorts such as for highest/lowest shipping charges, to look for listings with outstanding questions to answer, or even available quantity. That’s no longer possible which makes managing your eBay listings that little bit more difficult, and TurboLister that little bit more attractive.
The biggest change facing most buyer and sellers is that the focus of the new My eBay shifts to the listing title rather than the User ID. This is somewhat perturbing at first although in fairness I soon got used to it when using the Beta.
Currently those who use Selling Manager Pro will escape the worst of the changes, but we’ve managed to get a sneaky preview (shown left) of what the new SMP tabs will look like when they get a minor makeover in the near future.
If you’ve been using the new My eBay let us know what you think of it. If you’re still using My eBay classic today is the last day it’ll be available on many eBay sites.
eBay say “complementary” offsite ads are success
November 7, 2008
eBay have announced that the off site adverts on Australian listings have been a success and are expanding to the Sport, Electronics, Computers, Toys, Motors and Home categories over the next few weeks.
eBay have had a rough ride in Australia with the Foxtel ads being pulled by Foxtel themselves in response to complaints from eBay users.
For eBay to continue with the adverts they must be successful which means that 1) eBay are making money and 2) Advertisers are making money. If users don’t click the adverts and sign up to the offers then there would be no value to advertising partners so we can take it as a given that they’re working.
The good news for sellers is that the adverts open in a new browser window so potential buyers may be diverted but they will still have your listing open in their browser to return to.
eBay say adverts will be “complementary” for example home and contents insurance offers in the home category. The big question is how long it be before the boundaries are marred and “complementary” becomes “competing”?
If adverts are expanded in Australia (and eBay’s advertising revenues are already up 127% on this time last year) it’s almost a certainty we’ll see adverts in more categories in the UK in the near future. It’s simply too much money for eBay to turn away.
eBay Australia finally gets Best Offer
October 24, 2008
Several months after the rest of the world, eBay Australia is adding Best Offer functionality to the site. Best Offer allows potential buyers of fixed price listings to make an offer below the BIN price to the seller. Sellers can set prices at which they will automatically accept and/or decline offers, or have the option to manually accept or decline each offer, or make a counter-offer if the buyer’s price isn’t quite enough.
Unfortunately for Australian sellers, the new feature will not be available via listing tools like Turbo Lister until next year. Anyone wanting to use it for the next few months will have to list through the Sell Your Item form, Seller Manager or Seller Manager Pro.
Best Offer will be available from early November, on Buy It Now and Classified Ad format listings only. There is no extra fee to use Best Offer. eBay Australia have more information in their Best Offer FAQs.
eBay Australia launches feedback revision
October 1, 2008
eBay Australia have announced the launch of feedback revision: from 13th October, buyers will be able to edit the feedback rating, comment or Detailed Seller Ratings they left for a seller.
- Sellers will need to initiate the process by requesting buyers revise their feedback, within thirty days of feedback being left.
- Buyers then have ten days to respond to the request.
- There are limits to the number of revision requests which can be sent. All sellers will get a minimum of five requests per year, but higher volume sellers will get five requests per thousand feedbacks received.
- Requests which are ignored or declined by buyers will still count towards the total, so sellers need to ensure their buyers understand the process and are willing to change their feedback before they waste a request on those who want the original comments or score to stand.
- Feedback can only be revised upwards: positives cannot be changed to neutrals or negatives.
- Sellers cannot ask buyers to revise positive feedback.
There’s more information about exactly how the system will work on the FAQs page, though the inevitable question of how eBay will deal with multiple negatives from one combined transaction, apparently hasn’t yet been answered.
eBay Australia also say that the Dispute Console is, from 21st October, to be known as the Resolution Centre. It’s about time this was done: the change of name alone should make the process a little less antagonistic for all parties. eBay Australia promise a streamlined reporting process and simplified management of open cases too.
At first glance, it looks like this has been implemented the right way. By making the process seller-initiated, and by the “only way is up” rule that prevents positives being turned into negatives, the revision process cannot be used to blackmail sellers post-transaction.
On the sellers’ part, the limits on the number of requests that can be sent are low, but not excessively so (eBay Germany allows two requests per month, regardless of sales volume). Non-positive feedback left in error can be edited, and prematurely-left feedback can be corrected once the buyer’s problem has been resolved, but no seller is going to be able to use this process to cover up multiple, ongoing issues with their service, which was always a problem with mutual feedback withdrawal.
As eBay Australia is the testing ground du jour for eBay’s new ideas, I can only hope this is going to roll-out elsewhere by the end of October as promised.
eBay Australia bring back ads on view item page
September 26, 2008
eBay Australia have announced today that they will continue with their controversial third party adverts on view item pages. Earlier this week, ads beneath the bid box were removed after complaints by eBay members to the advertiser, digital television network Foxtel.
eBay have now said that the trial of these ads will continue, though they will be positioned lower on the page and “will be clearly marked as a sponsored link”. Sellers in the Sports, Movies and Electronics categories can expect to see “sponsored links” appearing on their listings.
eBay Australia add “similar advertisements are already running in a number of markets, including Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, and the UK.” Well, that’s alright then. Let me tell you, if I need to: the Austrians, the Swiss, the French, the Italians and the British don’t like the ads either.
Foxtel’s online marketing manager left a comment on TameBay, expanding on the company’s position. He said:
being a reputable company we didn’t think they would place them in a way that would annoy their members. As soon as the complaint came in we looked at the placement in question and agreed it was intrusive to the sellers (who like us are online marketers)
Foxtel get it. Don’t annoy your users.
eBay, however, don’t get it. eBay see the ads as purely a revenue spinner, a source of extra cash. They need to look beyond this week’s balance sheet. The message of these ads, on the very page where sellers are trying to sell, is that eBay do not care about your sales. Even though you’ve paid eBay for that page, they still believe they have the right to siphon off your traffic for the sake of a few pence per click. And they do: it’s their site. But how much longer are sellers going to put up with a company that demonstrates its contempt for its paying customers quite so blatantly?
Sellers are already suffering from change fatigue after a year of constant policy, fee and listing strategy change on eBay. Telling us that our sales matter less than flogging their own advertising is really not what eBay should be doing right now.
Third party ads removed from eBay Oz after member complaints
September 23, 2008
Late yesterday, Australian eBayers began to notice third party ads appearing on their auction listings. A graphic and text link advert for Foxtel digital television was shown directly underneath the “your maximum bid” box on listings in some media and collectables categories: Auctionbytes has a screen shot.
As we might expect, the Australian community boards began to fill up with threads from members incensed that this had been foisted on them unannounced. Several sellers expressed a concern that buyers would assume that this “first month plus installation free” television package was included with the item they were selling, and that they would be left with the customer issues and the negative feedback when buyers discovered it was nothing to do with them.
eBay Support had no information to offer. Members contacting Live Help were told that they had received many complaints and were waiting to hear back from the business unit. Then they were told that the ads were “part of a test being done by our product development department”. Other support staff said they were “the result of a known eBay site issue”. New advertising space, test or glitch? Your guess is as good as mine.
And so some canny eBayers began to complain, not to eBay, but to Foxtel:
Send your complaint to Foxtel. If eBay stick their head in the sand about this, Foxtel certainly won’t, especially if they get lots of negative publicity about their product.
wrote one poster on the Australian PowerSellers Board. And that worked. Members who had complained directly to Foxtel received this email from their Corporate Affairs Co-ordinator:
These ads were placed on eBay by a third party, and it was never FOXTEL’s understanding that they would be placed in this way. We have asked that they be removed immediately.
I’ve got to applaud all those Australian eBayers who made their voices heard on this issue. It’s another appalling example of eBay’s inability to communicate, not only with its members, but internally: anyone could have predicted that 3P ads on the view item page would have resulted in an outcry from sellers, and Support should have been primed with correct information about just what was going on. Better still, eBay Australia should have announced the new ads ahead of time, so that sellers could make an informed decision about whether they wanted to pay for an eBay listing carrying someone else’s promotional material.
We’ve already seen adverts on eBay UK view item pages: I’m sure this won’t be the last time this happens. eBay’s belief is that they own the view item page, and can put what they like on it: but for sellers, it’s the page we’ve paid for and it should be all ours. The way this issue is resolved is going to shape the future of eBay: will it remain a marketplace where individual sellers can shine, or become Amazon Lite where you barely notice who you’re buying from? We’ve won a battle, but the conflict is nowhere near over.
eBay Australia introduce anonymous emailing
August 6, 2008
eBay Australia announce today that they are removing email addresses from eBay messages where the two parties have not recently transacted with each other. Messages sent through Ask Seller a Question, Reply to Question and Contact eBay Member links will instead appear to come from a temporary email address: responses will be routed by eBay back to the recipient’s real address and My Messages. The changes will be implemented from 1st September.
Once an item has been purchased, both parties will be able to see each others’ email addresses.
This change was announced at eBay Live as part of the “road map” for the second half of this year, so we can expect to see other sites following suit very soon. Sellers will need to make some changes in their ways of working to allow for this.
First, the good news: automated responses from your email client or server will now work. No more accidental replies to “use the yellow button” will make both automated and ordinary responses a lot more efficient. Buyers no longer have the option to hide email addresses, so all responses can be made via email if that’s your preference.
But there are a couple of potential pitfalls. The email address used to respond to messages must be one registered with eBay: given that emailing “use the yellow button” never produced an error message, it’s worth checking now to make sure email and eBay match. Subject headers are changing too, so your carefully set up mail rules will need to be changed: in typical eBay style, they’ve said that subjects are changing, but not what they’re changing to, so preparation is not possible.
Email addresses within the body of the message will be stripped out by eBay: for those trying to use ASQs as an off-eBay customer acquisition tool, saying “please email me at… ” isn’t going to work any more. I’m surprised there isn’t also a clause saying that web links will also be removed.
And despite recent flim-flamming on the links policy, Australia’s announcement still says that next year, email addresses are to be blocked from listings. That’s one to bear in mind if you’re redesigning templates in the next few months.
We’ve known this one was coming for a while now, and I’ve seen a lot of sellers complaining that it’s going to damage communications with their buyers and ruin their DSRs, but I don’t think so. If anything, it’s going to make communicating a lot easier when I don’t have to go through the hideously clunky My Messages system. But what it will do is make it a bit more difficult for sellers who use eBay primarily as a shop front for their off-eBay sales: gathering emails for your spamming list just got a bit more difficult. I’m not complaining about that either.
What do you think? Has this just made your life easier, or ruined your carefully thought-out marketing plan? Leave us a comment.
eBay Australia backs down on PayPal
July 3, 2008
eBay Australia have said that other methods of payment may continue to be offered by sellers on the site, though offering PayPal will remain compulsory:
eBay will continue to allow all existing payment methods on eBay.com.au. We have decided to withdraw the notification to stop any further confusion and disruption among the eBay Community. … eBay requires all sellers to offer PayPal as a payment choice on eBay.com.au along with other permitted payment methods of their choosing.
eBay have strenuously denied any plans to make eBay.com PayPal-only; it remains to be seen whether compulsory PayPal will be tried in other markets than Australia and the UK.
PayPal only: eBay vow to fight ACCC draft ruling
June 13, 2008
eBay Australia have issued a press release challenging the ACCC draft notice and vowing to fight on.
They have delayed implementation of the PayPal only policy until 15th July, it was scheduled to go live on the 17th June. The increase in Buyer Protection raising the cover to AU$20,000 will still come into effect on the 17th June for Australian buyers who pay via PayPal.
Whether eBay will succeed is anyone’s guess, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely. The ACCC note that over 600 eBay users, half of them buyers, sent in submissions opposing PayPal only and they themselves have “serious competition concerns” if they allowed an exception.
eBay say they hope to “work with the ACCC and hopes to achieve a final outcome which has the safety and security of eBay’s members as its paramount objective” and that they believe “the consumer benefits of this initiative are worth fighting for”.
PayPal only: Australia says no (for now)
June 12, 2008
The ACCC have requested that eBay delay implementation of the PayPal only policy scheduled to start on June 17th.
In a draft notice issued today the ACCC proposed revoking immunity for eBay’s PayPal only policy on the grounds that it will reduce competition and that they believe “consumers are in the best position to decide which payment method is most suitable for them”.
Noting the benefits that PayPal offer they say the advantages do not outweigh the anti-competitive effect.
Whilst this is a draft notice the ACCC notes eBay have already implemented the policy that PayPal has to be offered, but have asked them to delay making PayPal the only acceptable payment method until the final decision.
Now the draft proposal is published all interested parties can make further submissions so eBay will doubtless respond. It’ll be interesting to see if Google make further waves now that their role has been revealed.
It looks as if eBay Australia users can continue offering and using alternate payment methods, at least in the short term.
eBay must have been pretty certain that they would be granted immunity and allowed to implement the PayPal only policy. Regardless of the outcome it is likely to have an effect in other territories around the world and shape eBay / PayPal policy for some time to come.
Aussie PayPal promo as ACCC about to rule
June 7, 2008
eBay Australia have announced a PayPal promotion in the run up to the ACCC ruling and the site migrating to PayPal only for payments.
Every purchase made on eBay.com.au gets the buyer automatic entry into a draw for 4 x $10,000 and 10 x $1,000 credited to the winners PayPal account.
The competition runs from today until the 21st June 2008, and also encourages buyers to open a PayPal account if they don’t already have one. Not a bad move on eBay’s part to make it attractive for buyers to use PayPal, and the publication of the winners in July should go further to making PayPal appear attractive. I’m not so sure some sellers already averse to offering PayPal will see it in quite the same light though.
PayPal Australia clarifies policy on multiple purchases
May 19, 2008
A little bit of good news for Australian sellers from PayPal today: the User Agreement has been clarified. Paragraph 4.2.4 now reads “The Seller Protection Policy will not apply to a transaction if you combine eBay items purchased through separate PayPal payments into a single shipment”.
The UA used to say “seperate eBay transactions”, so that combining shipping fees for multiple items at least looked like it was against PayPal’s rules. (I don’t know if any seller protection claims were ever refused on this basis? Maybe one of our Australian readers could leave us a comment.)
It’s an important reminder for all sellers though, that if you want to be covered by the Seller Protection Policy, seperate PayPal payments have to have seperate proofs of delivery: bung two orders into one box and you are not covered.
eBay Aus wakes up to new feedback
May 13, 2008
Australians are getting to grips with the new recalculated feedback and inability for sellers to leave non-positive feedback. As can be expected though not everyone is happy.
One buyer laments “My 100% changed to 98% because of one neutral“, asking “Does that mean that sellers will be able to leave neutrals, which will count in the percentage?”. The good news for the buyer is that it doesn’t as sellers are no longer able to leave neutrals.
The downside is that for any buyers (and sellers) who have received a negative or neutral in the past year it will affect their feedback percentage until it drops off after twelve months. The flip side is that any buyers who do leave neutrals will in future affect the feedback percentage of their seller.
Sellers are up in arms, over the new messaging that eBay gives when a buyer leaves feedback. A seller reports “I clicked the “positive” radio button… and up pops a screen that says ‘Buyers can’t get negative or neutral feedback… so be honest about the transaction‘ or words to that effect…”
In reality sellers who do a sterling job have little to worry about, I’ve left feedback on dispatch ever since I started selling on eBay and the number of non-positive feedback I’ve received in that time is tiny compared with the positives buyers have left.
For sellers who have in the past left reciprocal feedback it’s time to start leaving positives – there’s absolutely nothing to gain by waiting for the buyer to leave feedback first and everything to gain from reassuring buyers with a positive that you’re a great seller.
There’s just two days left before the feedback changes hit the UK. Buyers have just two days left to worry about receiving a negative feedback and sellers have two days to prepare for the change. I’d strongly recommend leaving feedback for all outstanding paid transactions, but would suggest it should all be positive.
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