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TAGnotes Wed 26 Apr 2000 Vol 2 Number 64 Issue 146 |
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From:
The Auction Guild <tagn-@theauctionguild.com>
Date: Thu Apr 27, 2000 3:45am
Subject: TAGnotes Wed 26 Apr 2000 Vol 2 Number 64 Issue
146
The Auction Guild Notes for Wednesday 26 Apr 2000
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eBay had an outage/slowdown from approx 19:15 PT until approx
19:55PT. eBay claims it started at 19:21 and lasted 9 minutes, but
posters on the chat boards reported it differently. If you feel your
auctions were impacted by this outage/slowdown, email a credit
request to bill-@e....
eBay is now removing zip codes from user contact information,
so have finally succeeded in making that information almost
completely useless. All that is left is a name and unverified
phone number.
eBay is once again having problems with indexing so all the listing
information is again running 6 plus hours behind. This effects
new listings, ending soon, going going gone etc. and all updating
of these items. For current information you need to go to the actual
item page and not rely on search information. eBay has fixed the
problems again, but information is not current. This has been one
of several reoccurring problems for three weeks.
eBays new car site is obviously a work in progress as more problems
appear. They have a stated goal of creating a safe and convenient way
for anyone to buy and sell a used car online. With users questioning
this dramatic change in format, eBay says their current site does not
easily adapt to the needs of typical used car buyers (for example,
their need to search using multiple attributes and the need to provide
special services such as financing and insurance). They feel the new
approach was required to make the site usable for a broader base of
customers. They acknowledge that eBay Motors is far from perfect,
and that they have experienced intermittent problems with listing
pages and other bugs. There have also been difficulties that have
negatively impacted eBay members, and they are taking the
following steps to help address these problems
* Sellers caught in the transition will get credits for the standard
insertion fee which will automatically be applied to seller accounts
for all items listed in any of the 28 expiring eBay categories, for
items ending in those categories after 12:00 PT on April 24. This
will apply to all items, regardless of whether or not they sell.
These credits will be applied to eBay accounts by 15 May.
Expired categories list is at
http://pages.ebay.com/community/news/autos-oldcats.html
* In response to intermittent access problems in listings on eBay
Motors, items listed in any eBay Motors category from Mon 24 Apr
12:00 PT through Wed 26Apr 12:00 PT will be extended by 3 days.
* The eBay Motors team has established a discussion forum to try to
create a constructive dialog and to establish a plan to address
concerns.
eBay says this dialog will get executive level attention. The forum
is called eBay Motors and is located at the Soapbox Discussion
Board located in Community Chat at
http://pages.ebay.com/community/chat/index.html
You can also send suggestions to motors--@e...
Once again someone is trying to prey on eBay users by claiming to be
connected with eBay, and inviting them to participate in commercial
opportunities. Some of the emails have requested that users provide
credit card information or eBay passwords. eBay says that it does
not share your email address or other information to third parties
for Marketing purposes, without permission.
As always follow these rules
1. Do not give out your credit card information. eBay will NEVER
request your credit card information via e-mail or through a pop up
screen or window on their site.
2. Do not give out your password. Giving out your password
will compromise the security of your eBay account. Change
your password on a regular basis at
http://pages.ebay.com/services/myebay/selectpass.html
Meg has posted her quarterly letter to the eBay investing and using
public, detailing eBays status for first quarter 2000. Some of the
stats show $12.7 million of gross merchandise sales per day and
approximately 600,000 listings per day (TAGs last check showed
approx 730,000 listings per day). She hits on the changes made
during first quarter, characterizing them all as improvements, which
TAG does not fully agree with. The closest she comes to an
outright lie is when she discusses the site's performance in the
first quarter. She claims eBays uptime percentage was better
than 99%, and anyone who reads TAGnotes knows that depends on
how you define 'uptime'. On the other hand there have been no
complete crashes that lasted more than an hour or so (not counting
the denial of service attacks) and for that TAG gives credit to eBay.
They have a long way to go before they can claim 99% uptime.
Meg talks about the publicity eBay received during first quarter,
but totally failed to mention the bad publicity related to fraud,
Dept of Justice investigations and ongoing suits by various Atty
Generals of several states. She also talks about the complete
integration of Billpoint, but fails to mention that it can only be
used by US sellers. Overall, TAG feels this is a typical upbeat
cheerleader type message, without addressing any of the challenges
the eBay using public has to deal with, or what eBay is doing to help.
And finally something TAG thinks is a good move on eBays part,
in an as yet unannounced sponsorship deal with TIAS.Com, which
has a direct link to and from the eBay page, eBay now has a
linked page directory for Antique Malls very similar to their great
collections page. This appears to be open to any Antique Mall
owner who guarantees a certain (as yet unknown) number of
listings weekly. TAG has emailed eBay requesting details on
how to get listed on the directory. We are surprised eBay never
did this for their power sellers, but maybe this is a trend for the
future. (Our thanks to a sharp eyed TAG subscriber who spotted this
info on TIAS.Com and passed it on to us)
http://www.ebay.com/antiquemalls/
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml
Listings, currently approx 4.44mil
* * * * *
Yahoo Auctions has recreated it newsletter and created a new
features board, providing (at last) a location with links to
all its special features.
http://auctions.yahoo.com/phtml/auc/us/promo/whatsnew.html
To see the base information and latest offers use
this link – http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html;
$sessionid$JNIBZCYAAAAGJWGIHUVUTIWYZA4S1PX0?pid=5
Approx 2.0 million auctions currently running
http://auctions.yahoo.com/
* * * * *
Amazon Auctions in addition to staying with the ill conceived
Hot Items search default, has also removed the ability for a buyer
to search for a seller via their email address. Only a sellers
user ID can be searched for, so if a former customer only has
an email address, they will not be able to find the seller again.
TAG continues to recommend all Amazon users email or
call Amazon with your opinion about these issues. All Amazon
ever really had to offer to OAI sellers was good responsive
customer service, but that seems to have disintegrated.
The email address we have on file for the CEO Jeff Bezos is
jef-@a... To see the base information and latest offers
use this link – http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html;
$sessionid$JNIBZCYAAAAGJWGIHUVUTIWYZA4S1PX0?pid=5
* * * * *
Popula.Com A small interesting niche site with a predominance
of books, records and magazines. A few gems are available.
Listing fees are 25 cents nonrefundable per listing includes one
free relist. If the object still doesn't sell, it can go to the
Orphanage for free. Offerings stay in the Orphanage (starting bid
of $1.00)for one week after there is first a bid or, if there are
no bids, for two weeks. Listing fees are waived to any seller who
puts up over 100 items in a calendar month. Credit will show on
account after the 100th items in a calendar month. Features
available bold face for $1.00 extra per listing. Final Value fees
are 5% on any winning bid up to $10, 4% on any winning bid from
$10.01 to $50, 2.5% on any winning bid over $50 . Sellers are
allowed to bid once on their own item. They have to pay the
commission if that is the high bid. http://www.popula.com
Current listings 1116 49 items have bids
* * * * *
If you would like an Auction House or Service Provider added to
this list, please email us at tagn-@t...
or TheAuction-@egroups.com.
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