Has EBay Forsaken its Founders Ideal?

Hi all,

Aye, there are rumblings in the eBay jungle! P*ssed off punters aplenty (myself included) vent our displeasure as the Internet colossus flexes it’s (not so subtle) online muscle…

I know, it’s a sad sorry tale of greed and disgruntled dreams.

So, what’s the beef?...Well until recently, items listed for sale by eBay punters on the UK site would automatically appear in the search results on it’s the bigger American brother .com site (and very nice too)
But since February, the most common 'simple search' on eBay.com only brings up items for sale by US sellers. (not so good at all)

OK, it is still possible for American users to find items listed by UK sellers, but only if they click on the 'advanced search' option, which of course isn’t (on a pro-rata basis) likely to be too often the case. Getting in on the .com action is vital to sellers as it receives mega more hits than our smaller UK site could ever dream of as well as offering simple access to nearly 300 million American consumers.

eBay announce they've changed their policy to eh… try and make the process more relevant for buyers… yeah right so lets see how relevant shall we? You see to add extra insult, UK sellers are told they can still continue to list their items automatically on the bigger site but only if they register separately and maintain two eBay accounts. (I bet they are) This means having to put items up for sale on both sites (two listing fees) not to mention the real balls ache of having to start creating your hard won feedback right from scratch on the new site!

C’mon Brits Let’s hear it for eBay!

Look guys, I've bought and sold on eBay and I certainly won’t cheer to the rafters any measure which may affect my potential online revenue. Alas our choices are limited. People may always moan and threaten to quit (taking their business elsewhere) but in truth eBay really are the biggest game in town. No other online auction site produces a fraction of the traffic generated by eBay. And with out traffic, without those online feet beating a path to your door many will find it hard to sell a bean!

Yet, it’s all a long way off from the noble sentiments expressed by eBay’s founder Pierre M Omidyar (above) when he first set out the standards by which eBay should operate…

We believe people are basically good
We believe everyone has something to contribute.
We believe that an honest, open environment can bring out the best in people.
We recognize and respect everyone as a unique individual.
We encourage you to treat others the way that you want to be treated"

The way that you want to be treated? It’s time for eBay to get back to basics and remember that it was Mr & Mrs Little who made them the Mr Big in the first place.

Catch you later
Shirley

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