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TAGnotes Wed 21 Mar 2001 Vol 3 Number 38 Issue 299 |
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The
Auction Guild Notes for Wed 21 Mar 2001
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ebaY is going to ban mailing/customer list links in auctions. It
remains to be seen how they will implement this ban with service
providers who have purchased the ebaY API, and those who have had
approval by ebaY to integrate this tool in their software. ebaY claims
they already had the language in the user agreement that prohibited
these links, but they will soon 'clarify' it. TAG strongly recommends
that you offer a customer list sign up in every email you send. This
protects both the seller and the buyer from ebaYs manipulation.
At 09:07:54 PT on 21 March ebaY once again reported that
the free Honesty Counters were down. Andale/Honesty
reported themselves back as of 11:25, but ebaY has not
updated the AB as of this printing.
On 15 Mar TAG reported there is a problem with relisting an item
that did not sell the first time not showing the relist fee would be
refunded if the item sells the second time. This problem still
persists, with some users reporting that they did get the credit when
the auction sold the second time, but more and more users reporting that
they did NOT get the deserved credit. ebaY is forcing users to track
this and request refunds for every auction not issued the requisite
credit. ebaY continues to resist posting about this problem on the AB
so sellers would be informed of the possible monetary loss. Sonny@ebaY
did issue an internal explanation of the problem for the education of
all the ebaY reps, so hopefully when you request a refund the CS folks
will know what you are talking about and be aware of the issues.
Another listing glitch was an additional 10 cent fee appearing on the
listing confirmation page. This fee is not showing up on the Account
Status page where it really matters but is double charging the 10 day
auction fee on the confirmation page.
For directions on requesting ebaY refunds go to
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=33
Pink Quote of the Day Sonny@ebaY on 21 Mar at 21:42:34 PT
when asked why ebaY has not yet posted about the relist fee refund
problem on the AB said, "Never in my 3-year history with eBay have
I known this company to take any money they didn't earn. Yes,
there's a problem, but we can't post about it until we know what it
actually is. I have no doubt that when the problem is identified and
fixed, the appropriate credits will be given, as they always have
been when things like this occur." TAG does not agree with the
reasoning for not posting the fact that ebaY knows there is a problem,
as it would facilitate sellers tracking their auctions for this
problem, rather than having to reconstruct records after the fact to get
refunds. We also do not agree with the statement that ebaY does not
take money they didn't earn, and think the month of October 2000 an
egregious example of ebaY defrauding users of their fees.
ebaY is changing My ebaY and fixing some long standing problems.
ebaY is adding an "Items I've Won" table in the "Bidding/Watching".
This will provide info access on the items, the capability to leave
feedback for the seller and pay for the item with Billpoint. They are
also adding an "Items I've Sold" table within the "Selling" tab. This
table allows sellers to track items they have sold, leave feedback for
the buyer, and find info on the items. Users will once again be able to
see a complete 30 day history of all their ebaY items from the "Items
I'm Selling" table. Users will be able to customize and save
their
preferred layout of My ebaY pages. Users will be able to select the
opening page of My ebaY, select the maximum number of items displayed in
a table, and set My ebaY as the Home page on your computer. Users will
be able to save up to 15 Sellers lists in the "Favorites" tab. And
coming in mid to late April, users will be able to delete ended listings
from the My ebaY tables. To preview the changes, go to
http://pages.ebay.com/preview/selling.html
http://pages.ebay.com/preview/buying.html
http://pages.ebay.com/preview/favorites.html
The changes to My ebaY may impair third party auction management
tools that pull data from My ebaY. Contact your auction management
software provider and warn them about these upcoming problems.
Title search approx 3 hours and Title and Description search approx
21 hours delay in search indexing lag times.
http://www.geocities.com/codclass/content/lag.html
For workarounds to ebaY's email system and attempt at exclusive
agency go to http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=50
ebaY Contact Information, analog mail and email addresses and
phone numbers, regular and toll free, refund info and insider
trading info go to http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=17
Approx 5.25 mil auctions inflated by approx 6% due to double
category listings yielding 4.94 mil auctions
* * * * *
Amazon Auctions, zShops and Marketplace finally on 20 Mar posted
announcement about their outages and problems from the previous
week. Amazon reported there were several brief outages over
the weekend of March 16-18, and again on March 19 and 20. Affected
auctions were extended, per our standard policy:
http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/help/outage-policy/
Sellers may have experienced delays when uploading their inventory
or requesting reports during this time period. All these issue should
now be fixed. Amazon Marketplace listings identified by UPC code
were not being identified properly by the system on March 18 and 19.
This is now fixed. The Inventory Loader listings that failed due to
this are available for download as Error Log files using the "Review
your Inventory Uploads" link in the Seller Account area. Some
Amazon.com Payments transactions processing is slow. Amazon
has fixed the problem that caused the payment problems, and they
are processing the backlog. Transaction information in the Seller
Account area is current. On 21 March, some Inventory Loader
uploads have resulted in duplicate listings. Affected sellers will be
notified by email of any steps required to correct the errors.
Future uploads may be submitted and should function properly.
http://amazon.remarq.com/list/16791839
Amazon owned Bibliofind.Com is now a free public service for the
bookselling community, as of March 2001.
http://www.bibliofind.com/joiningbibliofind.htm
Amazon User chat board
http://amazon.remarq.com/amazon/threads.asp?g=discuss%2
Eamazon%2Eseller%2Econnection&nav=LAST
Amazon live telephone customer service 16 hours a day Toll-free
in U.S. and Canada: (800)201-7575
http://auctions.amazon.com
* * * * *
Yahoo Auction
Yahoo announcement board
http://auctions.yahoo.com/phtml/auc/us/promo/announcements.html
Yahoo site map.
http://auctions.yahoo.com/phtml/auc/us/promo/sitemap.html
http://auctions.yahoo.com/
Yahoo Contact Information
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=38
Yahoo PayDirect phone number
1-877-521-1458
Actual auction count 21 Mar 267,761 of all auctions available via
the Yahoo category page. Spot check yields a 9% bid rate
http://list.auctions.yahoo.com/
* * * * *
Andale/Honesty reported that today's outages were due to a network
overloaded due to denial of service attacks by some outside agency.
The attack was their network not their service, and users were
assured that all account data remained secure. The outage persisted
until 11:45 PT. CNET article on Andale attack
http://yahoofin.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-5209605.html?tag=lh
Article on denial of service attacks
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/03/07/dos.attacks.
idg/index.html
* * * * *
Free Image Hosting
http://www.auctiontalk.com/imagehosting.asp
http://www.photopoint.com/
http://www.freepichosting.com/
http://www.baypal.com/
http://www.tupics.com
WebSpace provided by most ISPs with your account. You upload
the photos using FTP software such as Fetch for the MAC or CuteFTP
or WS FTP for PC based computers or WebTV. Many of these type
programs are available as freeware or shareware from Zdnet.
Free Site for Storefront and Customer List
http://www.bigstep.com
http://www.spree.com
Free Auction Management Tools
http://www.vrane.com
http://www.auctionflow.com/
http://www.collectoronline.com/manage/
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Internet Traffic Report
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/cgi-bin/tr_chartpage.pl?NorthAmerica
* * * * *
Online Auction Users Association
The March newsletter is out and can be viewed at
http://www.auctionusers.org/newsletter/
Chat Schedule
Thursday, March 22, 9 p.m. EST - Chat with eDeal
(rescheduled from February)
Thursday, March 29, 9 p.m. EST - Chat with Joe Force from
Bargin and Haggle. com (tentative, waiting for confirmation)
OAUA live chat http://www.auctionusers.org/chat.shtml
Interested in volunteering and serving the Online Auction Community?
Check out http://www.auctionusers.org/volunteerop.shtml
http://www.auctionusers.org
* * * * *
Online Auction & Trading Site Co-op
Interested in an OAT Site Co-op?
Interested in getting involved?
Information on co-ops -
http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/cir55/cir55rpt.htm
http://www.wisc.edu/uwcc/
Ideas for co-ops continue to develop
http://pub51.ezboard.com/bletsbuildacoop
To participate in weekly live co-op chats go to
http://pages.zdnet.com/labellebooks/OnlineSellersCoop/
Every Sunday Night at 8:00 PM EST.
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***PLEASE NOTE: Many long links we post in TAGnotes must be
copy/pasted into your browsers URL/Address box in pieces, with no
extra spaces, to get them to work due to HTML limitations****
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If you would like an Auction House or Service Provider added to
this list, please email us at ta-@theauctionguild.com
Have any information for us? email us at ta-@theauctionguild.com
TAG Subscribers have often contributed to information reported on in
TAGnotes. Visit their auctions.
TAGassist Contributors
-
http://www.321gone.com/member/FBNeNotes
http://cgi6.ebaY.com/aw-cgi/ebaYISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=
ViewListedItems&userid=aj14+&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=200
http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/customer-glance/
A5TGMPMTNX03S/104-1323617-7144715
http://www.dandelionfarms.com
http://cgi6.ebaY.com.au/aw-cgi/ebaYISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=
ViewListedItems&-@natronics.com.au+&include=0&
since=-1&sort=3&rows=200
http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=
ViewListedItems&userid=amunre&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=200
http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItems&userid=pcalton
http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=
ViewListedItems&userid=bllamb&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=200
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