Just wanted to add, the US sellers are also in on this boycott, and it has become International, and I am in contact with the UK co-ordinator... There are three pertinent threads on eBay, that have stayed relatively on topic for you to review:

CORE Boycott Sign In:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000217979&tstart=0&mod=1158251007457

Come On Everybody, Let's Clean Up eBay!:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000352607&start=0

and,
Interview with a Media Outlet, Need YOUR Thoughts:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000352126&start=0

Pay special attention to the last one, as most of the sellers posting there still have stores...

Some incredible information, thank you for your time...

eBay User damaradeaella

We are joining our colleagues in England with the boycott of eBay. As a Power Seller, I have over 180 items listed in fixed store inventory...I refuse to pay the high prices for the auction format...and I will be putting my store "on vacation" for the next four days. eBay sellers have seen sales drop dramatically over the past month, and there has not been one pro-active response from the "management team" at eBay to help us out (I don't call that "balance," I call it poor leadership). This is an excellent opportunity for us to join hands around the world in our outrage with eBay.

As a Texan, I will repeat the words made by James Bowie at the Battle of the Alamo as Texas fought for her independence...

"the line in the sand has been drawn...."

This boycott began in the UK and has since spread worldwide, with many many countries being involved, and we're working together to IMPROVE ebay. We don't want ebay to fall, although contrary to our efforts to try to reach the mind of ebay management, that may be the final outcome if things do not change.

Millions of people have come to depend on ebay for atleast supplemental income, all the way to using it as a full time job. We're not going to all this effort to bring a giant down! We're trying to save that giant from itself, and to save ourselves!! With ebay continually refusing to answer to any of the issues at hand, it's just a matter of time.

And what are the issues to be exact? I'll copy in a letter that came out of the UK, stating our biggest comcerns:

1. Customer Service is nonexistant.

2. Fraudulent Sellers are repeatedly reported but Ebay does nothing to stop the practice.

3. Non-Paying Buyers are allowed to keep buying, when reported, and continue not to pay.

4. Ebay totally represses any voice of dissent by sanctions, threats, restriction of privileges, or loss of sellers accounts and arbitrary closing of the stores of dissenters, and censoring of
discussion groups.

5. Meg Whitman announced that they are bringing back the "Magic" by raising store fees to force sellers back into the auction format, and getting rid of the Stores. This is totally senseless, since that is a great part of Ebay's income. Yet their home page is still soliciting New Store Owners!

6. Current Ebay management raises fees to sellers 3 times in one year to cover the costs of their terrible judgment in business ventures that have failed: SKYPE, Half.com, Ebay Express and Free listings for China. They allowed the General Searches to be flooded with cheap, overseas imports and used that as an excuse for removing store items
from those searches. This effectively destroyed the selling power of small store owners.

7. Ebay management deliberately does such things, knowing that the stock prices, of their publicly owned company will drop, then "they" buy back huge blocks of that stock.

8. Meg Whitman's announcement that they were buying back that stock was buried at the very end of the statement of the latest Fee Outrages.

9. Thousands of questions from concerned buyers and sellers were emailed to Bill Cobb before the last August Town Hall Meeting and NOT ONE of those very pertinent questions was answered.

10. Ebay management consistently publicizes erroneous statistics to the press, none of which can be backed up by facts, i,e, Store fees raised by 6%, when in reality, it was 500%, along with raised fees on Paypal, higher Final Value Fees, higher costs for Photographs, etc.

11. Last Ebay boycott was totally down-played by Ebay as a 100 dissatisfied store owners, when the numbers were in the thousands and worldwide.

12. Ebay now refuses to "comment" on the worldwide dissatisfaction of their site.

13. Current Ebay Management has shown absolutely no foresite, or market research of their target buyers and sellers, nor appreciation of those that built their site, while they continue to make decisions to
promote venues that consistently lose money.

14. The outcry against the poor management of Ebay and flocking of buyers and sellers to other sites is worldwide and completely ignored, publicly, by Ebay. Their management continues to state the the
"grumbling" of a "few" dissatisfied sellers was expected. Yet they are calling and emailing we sellers that have closed our stores in disgust, attempting to find out "where" we are going and "why"
we closed our stores.

15. Ebay is rapidly losing all credibility and is becoming known as an auction site that cannot be trusted because of fraud, and total lack of customer service, and flooding of the site with cheap, knock offs and imported trash being sold.

Yes, the "Magic" of Ebay is gone, the current management killed it with poor management and is expecting the public to pay for their
errors.


I think that's really something to think about.

The international fallout over EBay's unwillingness to listen to and address their customers is finally coming to light. Across the world Ebay customers (buyers and sellers) have had enough.

This is what the Australians think:
http://forums.ebay.com.au/forum.jspa?forumID=18

When are you going to listen Ebay?
When are you going to clean up your act Ebay?

Maybe they don't want to; it doesn't seem like they do. If that's the case have a look here for suggestions of alternative venues:
http://www.powersellersunite.com/

I would also like to point out that there are Canadians that have joined the buying and selling boycott along with the UK Sellers. I too would like to hear what eBay has to say, but it appears that they aren't repsonding to Press inquiries. I believe that a lack of response speaks volumes and perhaps that is our answer. They don't care.

I really have to say well done to Bloggingstocks. You have been one of the few sites to acknowledge the magnitude of this issue when others simply wait to re-report bland eBay PR annoucements. You are a credit to the blogosphere.

I think this article highlights the possible threats eBay faces. It's not just a matter of upsetting user customers it's also about the threats waiting in the corporate shadows.

Take a look:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/61703/ebay_strives_to_regain_balance_as_the.html

This is a world wide boycott. Italy , Canada, Uk, Aus, USA etc!
E bay refuses to comment on the matters at hand and will not answer e mails or phone calls on the issues.
This is the only way to get them to liston. Maybe the Stock Holders will now sit up and take notice.
It is not going to go away this time. This sellers have organised all over the world.
Thank you Blogging Stocks for really Listoning to the sellers and informing the Stock Holders of what the real circumstances are at Ebay.

Ebay needs to recognise it's responsibilities to it's sellers (by not ripping them off) and it's buyers (by making it a safer place), rather than just to itself.

As it is blatantly apparent that ebay have neither the wish nor the desire to listen to its customers through normal channels, it is now up to the customers to show them what we REALLY want from the site.
A cleaner, safer place for everyone to trade.

As a buyer, I cannot say that my experience has been in any way improved by the new measures, in fact I now have to wade through ever increasing dross in order to find what I actually want.
I pity the people who are inexperienced , as they will be even more likely to fall v

As it is blatantly apparent that ebay have neither the wish nor the desire to listen to its customers through normal channels, it is now up to the customers to show them what we REALLY want from the site.
A cleaner, safer place for everyone to trade.

As a buyer, I cannot say that my experience has been in any way improved by the new measures, in fact I now have to wade through ever increasing dross in order to find what I actually want.
I pity the people who are inexperienced , as they will be even more likely to fall victim to the increasing numbers of "dodgy" auctions which now have carte blanche to appear on the site.
This is not healthy , and definately does not improve the standing of ebay in the eyes of the world.

...continued !

...victim to the increasing number of "dodgy" auctions which now seem to have carte blanche on the site.
This is not healthy , and cannot improve ebay's image in the eyes of the world.

Show your mettle and seller excellence by just leaving EBAY altogether and trying your luck with Google, Yahoo or Overstock or Amazon. This boycott is silliness with such wasted time when you could be selling elsewhere. You complain but don't leave; you're just whiners with an EU boycott fever. EBAY is not a welfare agency--adapt or die. Your goods were NOT moving. Make a change to move your merchandise. That's what EBAY is telling you. You gusy cry about a move from 2 cents to 5 cents! Yikes, you're business people?!

#3.Ebay management deliberately does such things, knowing that the stock prices, of their publicly owned company will drop, then "they" buy back huge blocks of that stock.

Very good point. Ebay did a buyback of their own shares in July in conjunction with the announcement that fees were to rise. It would seem Ebay are more concerned with the manipulation of their share price as opposed to sorting out the fundamentals of what is actually wrong with Ebay.

#12.This is about BUYERS too. Ebay hold a monopoly and they know it. The message to 'grow or die' is typical of those megalomaniacs who think that in order to be successful you have to monopolise and wipe out the smaller competition. Just like Walmart wiped out the corner store.

Ebay's 'magic' was based upon unique items offered by the smaller sellers who took pride in their business. Now we have giants who offer an impersonalised and automated service, as well as Far East listings which have now swamped the site.

To Kevin Leo:
I am a US PowerSeller and have been talking with other store owners on the eBay Boards. Right now, when business should be picking up, it has remained unnaturally slow for most sellers. There is concern about eBay interference with search capability and more. There is also concern that the buyers are just tired of eBay and are moving on. Personally, my sales, both from within my store and in core listings, were just fine until the end of August when this fee increase went into affect. I think you miss the point by calling this group "whiners". The CORE people are concerned about the continuitation and betterment of eBay, even when eBay doesn't care about them!

I started small on Feebay 18 months ago, and have made my shop very good and have lots of repeat buyers.
with the hike and the fact that they have removed us from searches I think ebay need to look at what they are doing . They need to ask us and the buyers what they want? Not just to make opur minds up for us.

EBAY take not and listen? For the good of ebay.

Core Rules

To Kevin Leo: I am an ebay shop owner and have now closed down my shop inventory listings for the four day period. With regard to your comment about slow moving stock, the various reasons for slow moving stock all need to be identified and understood. Until you identify the causes of a problem correctly, you are not likely to find the correct solutions. Making broad generalisations when there are likely to be many factors at play is not likely to come up with the right answers. Amongst the reasons for slow moving stock must be the fact that eBay has grown so successfully that the item offerings in some sales categories are now beyond saturation point. This is a strategic issue for eBay - how to retain interest on the part of buyers when there are so many listings in some categories for the same or similar products. Trying to persuade shop owners to move from fixed price shop inventory formats to auction listings will not fix that particular problem. There will still be saturation. Linked to this is the fact that Chinese members do not pay the same levels of fees as eBay members elsewhere in the world and there is not a level playing field in terms of fee structure between Chinese members and other members for items which can be sold and shipped internationally and which Chinese sellers are selling on the national eBay sites. Further linked to this is the fact that a number of Chinese listings have a very low start price and a very very high level of shipping charges. EBay charges commission on final selling price excluding shipping charges. For the record, my stock was selling. And for the record, most people who are upset about eBay would like eBay to be strong and successful with all stakeholders able to have a say on how the business is run. They are not a bunch of whiners. They are making their comments because they are very committed to eBay and care about eBay. Thank you.

Shame on you Ebay for taking advantage of your position as a monopoly without any regard for your customers who pay your wages. What will be next?

Hello Melly,

Thanks for allowing us to discuss & cuss Ebay. I honestly don’t think most sellers harbor any ill-will towards Ebay. Now Ebay’s management may be another story. I’m baffled on why Ebay’s management ignores us sellers. There has been very good input on the Ebay message boards on how to remedy the store situation and other seller needs. There were better ways to deal with their problems and still treat their sellers with dignity and respect.

Instead this management chose the harsh route and drove many sellers out of business or to do less business with Ebay. Then they continue to ignore us hoping the problems will go away. This is not leadership. This management wants what’s best for their stock and investors. While investors should not be ignored Ebay can’t do this venture without the sellers or buyers. The true balance should have been between Ebay users and investors, not the balance between store and auction listings. Ignoring one, investors or users, while catering to the other is wrong and is a recipe for disaster. It’s a chain reaction and something is starting to be missing from that chain. Ebay brings in the buyers and keeps their sellers happy, sellers do their thing uninterrupted, = both Ebay and investors getting paid. This management now ignores and abuses sellers through procedures and fees. Buyers are also ignored and abused through fraud and scams.

I think many of see that Ebay is broke and needs fixed. Ebay needs new management who will “balance” the needs of both users and investors.

Dan

I just want to say that for me personally being a laid off us union worker whose job has been sent to china...the way that ebay is pandering to ebay china to get them on board while the rest of us, espicially our compadres in the UK are paying the bill, well, it just makes me sick......

Just been listening to BBC Radio 5 in the UK - one of the biggest national stations - and they ran an interview with one of the organisers of the 4 day site boycott.

The protesters are getting a lot of coverage here in the UK - online and in traditional media - but I haven't heard a single word from an ebay spokesman yet.

Either they are all on holiday or they can't face trying to answer some of the issues sellers are raising! Which is it?

Just confirms what the protesters say in my opinion. eBay aren't listening, eBay don't care and eBay are out of touch with their cutomers and reality.

If I were a major stockholder now I'd be getting irritable to say the least.