I saw one eBay powerseller/analyst wonder how buy.com could put up $10 million in listing fees, make about $4 million in sales and continue to keep listing on eBay. Inside these articles is the answer!
NYTimes Buy.com dropships & pays no listing fees-071408
I've been following all this news about Buy.com for some time now. As smaller jewelry sellers it doesn't affect us directly. However, the way that buy.com does business does affect us.
From some of the other information I've seen, their reputation is pretty bad. They offer for sale things they can't deliver or that are in poor condition. Lots of negative feedback. That reputational issue spills over on all of us.
I also feel that if buy.com isn't paying their share of fees, someone else is. Any guesses on who that might be?
Finally, I have about 100 expensive books in half.com. Now I have to compete against buy.com? I'm seriously thinking about moving all those over to another (not to be named here) website.
This buy.com business offends and upsets me a lot more than all the hoo haa over feedback and DSR's. That I had some control over. The buy.com is something e-bay has shoved down everybody's throat and only benefits e-bay, not the community at large. Very bad mistake on e-bay's part.
At the risk of being suspended, I will tell you that after reading the articles I did some research on some of the other sites mentioned. In a matter of minutes, and at little or no cost, I set up seller accounts on two of the larger alternatives, brand iO and brand OLA. I am also looking at brand A. Copying feedback ratings and all listings from here to the first two is quick easy. Both allow sellers to accept Paypal in addition to numerous other merchant services of the seller's choice. I'll leave listings in my store here for the time being, but will likely reduce them by attrition in order to reduce the fees I pay here.
Aside from the underhanded manner in which eBay has handled the Buy.com debacle, the thing that was most disturbing to me about the articles was the blog following the WSJ article in which the CEO of eBay (Mr. Donahoe) dissed the disgruntled sellers - and buyers - who expressed their concerns, and he callously dismissed them as "soretails". This conduct is completely unbecoming any corporate CEO, and the thinking behind it is arrogant and wrongheaded. I believe Mr. Donahoe and his management team will be looking for work within the next year, as the board will eventually be left with no choice but to dismiss him in response to eroding stock price & risk ratings and increasing shareholder dissatisfaction. Not that they'll need to worry about working anytime soon...most will receive huge separation packages making them financially independent for life, despite job performance that would rate a 1 or 2 on their DSR scale. JR
I went to list an item to night and I got a pop up message saying that because of my low transaction history, I was required to offer Paypal and my money might be held for 21 days if ebay doesn't verify either positive feedback or confirmation of delivery. What is that all about?
Seal - you could call eBay and ask about this. It's a very simple process - one they've recently updated. You'll have to ensure that you're on their list of Invited Participants in order to call, and if you are, the call will take just 40 minutes of your time - 31 of which will be on-hold time, another 7 of which will be spent circling through automated menus, 1 of which will be spent actually talking to a human who may or may not be able to help you, and 1 final minute will be spent on their 3-step survey. Be sure to answer honestly! ;)
And if you're not on the "Invited Participant" list of people authorized to use the 800# (how Dilbert-esque is that???), then consider yourself lucky because you arrived at the same result while saving yourself 40 minutes.
)
