Back

11 Sep & Issues with ebaY

The ISSUES with ebaY and 11 Sep 01

There were three issues ebaY users brought up to the pinks on the ebaY boards as a result of the national tragedy.

The first requests from users to shut down World Trade Center auctions came around 09:30 PT on 11 Sep. At 10:49:42 PT in response to many appeals to end these WTC auctions Louise@ebay said, "be assured that those auctions will be properly dealt with. We'd appreciate them not being reported on the boards, but quietly reported here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/select-RS.html should you discover one. A sad morning ... we're as horrified as all of you are. -- Louise" The reality is that ebaY did not make an official decision and post it to the announcement board until 19:56:49 PT. Since ebaY automated this system, there were two other problems that evolved in ending these auctions. To start with, auctions that were put up by sellers as fund raisers for the tragedy were also all ended. Then it developed that auctions are not ended until they are indexed in the search system. This can take from 4 to 48 hours for an item to index in both title search and title and description search.

The second issue was a suggestion to extend all auctions by 24 to 48 hours to let the country catch its breath and let things stabilize, which started at around 10:30 PT. When asked about ebaY extending auctions when even the financial markets around the country and in some cases around the world had closed, at 13:28:04 PT Gwyneth@ebay replied, " I will pass that suggestion on." ebaY never did extend auctions.

The third issue, was that of adding a US Flag to the ebaY home page. ebaY did not do this either. When asked why ebaY did not put a flag on the home page to demonstrate solidarity Katy@ebay said at 16:35:14 PT on 12 Sep, "I don't know. I do think they have placed a message they feel is appropriate. Perhaps a commercial site is not the place to try to further capitalize on a tragic event? You can be sure that many of us will be doing our part to live up to the principles the flag symbolizes. .....................Katy" Posters to the boards did not feel this was an adequate response, and anger and frustration at ebaY on this issue continues. ebaY finally posted the US Flag on the front page on 13 Sep at 23:03:16 PT. They removed the flag on the 15th, but retained some donation contact information. ebaY did post a message of condolence on the 11th, some donation contact information on the 13th which they expanded on the 15th, including a pathway through ebaY to donate. ebaY has not publicized what donations their company or officers have made, and TAG feels this information would have been comforting to ebaY users along with showing leadership.

Overall TAG feels ebaY, with its enormous resources and ability to reach several million people, could have done more sooner. It appears to us they acted with too little, and too late, lagging far behind organizations with a fraction of their resources.

---