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ebaY and Control Editorial

ebaY Trying to Clip the Strands of the Web?

Early in 2001 ebaY is going to be changing the email address request and 'ask seller a question' features on ebaY. In order to contact a seller, a user will have to use ebaY's ask the seller a question link, which will generate an email that will go through ebaYs email forwarding system server. ebaY claims they will not store a copy of your message and will not read these emails, but the current user agreement and privacy agreement allows ebaY to do both, and to add it to the individual file they keep on users. ebaY would have to change the user and privacy agreement to accommodate this new policy. In addition, ebaY has proved time and time again how poorly their site functions, and suffers repeated and ongoing crashes, glitches and problems with an up rate of approximately 90%. Believing that they could add a huge email service would require an ability to suspend disbelief, which should be beyond any reasonable person, be they user or stockholder.

ebaY claims that it is SPAM related problems motivating them to take this action. They also admit that this ebaY forwarded email will allow ebaY to warn sellers and buyers about the penalties for violating ebaY's policy on offers to buy and sell outside of ebaY, based on information obtained from ebaY listings or bidding activity. TAG wonders if ebaY will also be able to use this form as a way to legally SPAM users, subverting ebaYs opt out system, since it appears that a majority of users do opt out.

In open auctions the seller will be able to access all the bidder IDs and emails, but no one else will be able to see them. In TAG's view, this appears to be the only part of this new policy that makes any sense, as it prevents bottom feeders from contacting bidders and making a sale, thereby stealing bidders from the auction. Unfortunately, this same restriction will make it impossible for users to detect shill bidders, therefore increasing buyer susceptibility to being shilled. Since ebaY benefits financially in the short term by shilling, as it brings higher prices, and therefore higher final value fees, this is a win win situation for ebaY. They can prevent off ebaY sales to bottom feeders, making some sellers happy, and benefit from the higher prices brought by shill bidding.

When an auction closes the seller and winning bidder will have access to each other's email address. In the case of a non-paying bidder, the seller will no longer be able to offer the item to the back up bidder, unless they saved the information before the auction closed. ebaY does not refund listing and special feature fees, and these auctions are also not available for a free relist, so ebaY again profits, by getting those fees a second time, if the seller wants to sell the item. In TAG's opinion, since ebaY does nothing to prevent deadbeat bidders, this policy is only in ebaYs own interest and of no benefit to sellers. A very simple solution to greatly reduce the deadbeat bidders, would be for ebaY to require bidders to open an account, and fund it, just as sellers have to, either with a charge card or by sending a check or money order. If a buyer is a deadbeat, ebaY refunds all fees to the seller, and charges the deadbeat buyer with the listing and final value fees.

The changes are slated to occur first on the U.S. site and will follow in upcoming months on the international sites. For a preview of the upcoming changes and Frequently Asked Questions, go to http://pages.ebay.com/community/aboutebay/spam-preview.html

In a related and unannounced move, ebaY today stopped allowing New Users from registering with their email address as their User ID. Old User IDs can still be changed back to an email ID, but there is no telling when that might change. If you have been thinking of changing your user ID back to your email address, so that you can insure your potential buyers have access to it, TAG strongly advises you to do so NOW. This change in policy was such a surprise, that ebaY did not even brief their own support staff on the change. This was demonstrated by the post of katy@ebaY at 23:05:16 PT on the discuss new feature board, when we asked about it,
QUOTE I really don't know, but we have a request in for information on that right now. I'm afraid it will have to wait until tomorrow. We checked earlier and were able to change a regular ID to an email address, but not register a new one. It is possible that it will be part of this policy, but I can't tell you that as a fact right now, okay? When I know, I will let you all know too. ENDQUOTE

In TAG's view the only purpose of such a move would be to try to control all communications between users to prevent users from buying and selling off ebaY. We see listing on ebaY no different than taking an ad in a newspaper. ebaY has used the same argument, when their culpability is challenged, and when someone tries to give them the responsibilities of a brick and mortar auction house. You pay for the ad, it runs for a set time, and then your relationship ends. With a newspaper ad, if someone saves your contact information from the ad, and contacts you about something they saw in the ad, or asks for other products you might have that they are interested in, and buys something from you, would you have to send another fee to the newspaper? ebaY is claiming that any sale you make, where a relationship might have originated on ebaY, HAS to be made through ebaY.

ebaY has also made veiled threats that they are considering not allowing email addresses in auction item descriptions, which in turn would necessitate turning off html completely. They would also have to stop allowing third party service providers, would need to require that all listings are done on the site, and that only their internal payment system and picture hosting can be used. Since this would necessitate a complete isolation from the rest of the internet, it would be self defeating. Either ebaY is working on an intimidation model, thinking they can scare their users into submission, or they have an illusion that they can put the genie, whose magic allowed the creation of ebaY in the first place, back into the bottle.

-TAG