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TAGnotes Thu 29 Mar 2001 Vol 3 Number 43 Issue 304 |
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The
Auction Guild Notes for Thu 29 Mar 2001
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On 26 March ebaY posted at 00:32:15 PST that they needed to
perform more emergency maintenance from 01:30 PT to 03:30 PT
but except for a short period of time would keep the site up.
At 03:16:05 PT they extended the maintenance until 04:30 PT.
At 04:11:00 PT they announced that needed to take the site down
from 04:15 until 04:35, but at 04:33:36 PT notes that they actually
took it down from 04:15 until. Users reported that Mister Lister was
once again speaking German, an intermittent reoccurring problem
with Mister Lister. At 13:22:50 PT, users reported cgi 5 was slow
and timing out, and that at 17:10:15 PT listing was down. At
17:37:03 PT users received Network error Unable to read URL from
host cgi3.ebay.com: Connection reset by peer messages. At
18:36:10 PT cgi 6 sellers list was not working and at 18:37:30 PT
users reported a site outage that lasted until 18:41:02 PT but went
down again 18:47:19 PT. This did not last long, but users continued to
report intermittent problems. At 19:17:48 PT users reported
feedback problems on cgi2, that continued into the following day.
On 27 Mar ebaY at 03:13:31 PT users reported continuing problems
with the feedback forum. Users reported slow page loads
at 05:28:21 PT. At 18:58:50 PT ebaY reported that there were
problems with the Feedback Forum. On 28 Mar users reported at
11:09:07 PT users were getting internal error problems. Other
users reported slowdowns, and these problems lasted until approx
11:24 PT. Problems with the Feedback Forum with cgi 2 slow
continued to be reported on 29 Mar at 12:31:20 PT, but it was
working again at 13:56:50 PT. At 19:13:35 PT users reported
cgi 5 error messages, but the site stayed mostly functional until
maintenance started.
For the OUTAGE on Sunday 25 March, TAG recommends that all
sellers who feel their auctions were negatively impacted by the
outages apply for refunds. Despite ebaY saying they would not
give refunds, it appears that all sellers who have requested them,
have received them. It is a well established and long standing policy
of ebaY's to give refunds when asked. Users have both emailed TAG
and posted on the boards that ebaY is issuing all refunds as requested.
For directions on requesting ebaY refunds go to
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=33
ebaY took the site down at 01:00 on Fri 30 March from
01:00 PT and 03:00 PT for regularly scheduled maintenance.
Users are cautioned that Netscape has a flaw in displaying
the Microsoft HTML 'td' tag, and refuses to parse it unless it is
perfect, and even then, it won't necessarily parse it. When this
'td' tag is used in auction descriptions, this causes those users
browsing using Netscape to not be able to view the auction listing.
The easiest solution is to simply not use this 'td' tag.
ebaY has a long post on the AB about the relisting problem. ebaY
identifies this problem as having occurred between 14 and 20 March
though TAG claims the problem was not fully resolved until
23 March. During this time frame, relisted items were treated as
new listings, so sellers were charged a second insertion fee without
the ability to receive a refund if the item sold. ebaY says that they
cannot automatically identify which items were relisted during this
period so due the appropriate relist credit. ebaY will provide
sellers an estimated credit based upon each seller’s relist history and
the number of eligible items (ones that were relisted and closed
successfully), that were listed between 14 and 20 Mar. This
excludes Dutch and Premier listings. For more info on ebaYs
relist policy go to
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sellerguide/selling-fees.html#relisting
ebaY will also allow users to relist those items treated as new
listings because of the glitch, to be relisted and be eligible for a
relist credit. This means that sellers are, in essence, being
compensated for one relist. Remember that relist credits are only
available for 30 days after the close of the auction. ebaY is requiring
all invoices to be paid in full. Relist credits will be applied to your
account no later than May 15, 2001 and will be reflected on your eBay
invoice.
TAG recommends that those users who can should track their
relists for the time period, and if necessary request an
adjustment. Many third party auction management systems - both online
and software - track relists for you automatically. Check your
management software to see if you already have access to this
information.
ebaY has made the previously announced changes to the
announcement board. There is now a System Status Board, and a
Marketing Board. the Community Page now has a traffic light
status chart, though no changes have been noted to the green lights,
despite intermittent feature outages. Announcements will stay on the
board for 15 days and then automatically scroll off. Exceptions are
to correct errors, or when ebaY consolidates several posts into
one post. To view the boards go to
Marketing http://www2.ebay.com/aw/marketing.shtml
System Status http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml
Evergreen System Status lights
http://pages.ebay.com/community/index.html
Blackthorne AA Classic & Pro users (NOT SAB and SAP) can
go to http://www.blackthornesw.com/bthome/aacupg.htm
for a patch upgrade to fix the refresh problems with ebaY.
Users of SAB have posted about it and say that it is a massive
program, a big memory resource user and is sometimes hard to
keep running. There are lots of technical problems, many download
problems, and ceaseless upgrades required. On the positive side
you can track everything on it, listings, bids, ending bids, have
they paid, feedback, customers names, addresses, etc. and if you
can get it to work on your computer, it is lightning fast to make
listings, and has valuable bookkeeping tools. It is dependent on
ebaY working, and some users say that eBud does the same thing
but for $20 less. SAB and SAP can be found at
http://pages.ebay.com/auction_assistant/basic.html
eBud can be found at http://www.ebudsoftware.com
ebaY is running a Power Seller survey
http://survey.ccsurvey.com/ebay0101c/survey.pl
For sellers who feel they have not had their refunds or other situations
dealt with to your satisfaction, you can file reports with
The Attorney General of California and also in your home state
http://caag.state.ca.us/piu/mailform.htm
The Better Business Bureau
http://www.bbbonline.com
The Federal Trade Commission
http://www.ftc.gov
The Office of Consumer Affair, US Department of Commerce
send email to - Caff-@doc.gov
The FBI's Internet Fraud Units
http://www.nipc.gov/contact.htm#arrow,
National Fraud Information Center
http://www.fraud.org
eComplaints http://www.ecomplaints.com/
If you have access problems on ebaY try one of these anonymizers
Masking servers list http://webveil.com/matrix.html
http:safeweb.com
http://www.surfola.com/
http://www.iprive.com/index.shtml very
http://www.dis.org/erehwon/anonymity.html
http://www.cyberarmy.com
ebaY has once again SPAMMED many of its users, even those with
their Opt Out preferences on ebaY set to NO. This SPAM came
from ebaY Japan, and since much of it was in Japanese (or the code that
would be Japanese if you had a Japanese character set on your
computer)most users have no idea what it was about. Report all
incidents of SPAMMING to Truste, the BBB, your ISP, ebaYs ISP and
SPAMCop.
TAG strongly recommends ALL users read the new User and
Privacy Policy Agreements (UA/PP).
For a summary of the revisions to the UA and Privacy Policy, go to:
User Agreement: http://pages.ebay.com/help\basics\uarevision1-faq.html
Privacy Policy: http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/pprevision1-faq.html
To view the entire revised User Agreement, go to:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-user.html
To view the enter revised Privacy Policy, go to:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-priv.html
ebaY has added sites in Ireland, Switzerland and New Zealand
visit the new site, please go to the following web addresses:
Ireland: http://www.ebayireland.com/
New Zealand: http://www.ebay.co.nz/
Switzerland: http://www.ebay.ch/
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 5.44 mil auctions with 6% inflation for double listings
netting 5.1 mil listings.
* * * * *
Amazon Auctions, zShops and Marketplace
Amazon Marketplace users are still reporting better results with books
on Amazon that they get on Half.Com.
Amazon User chat board
http://amazon.remarq.com/amazon/threads.asp?g=discuss%2
Eamazon%2Eseller%2Econnection&nav=LAST
Amazon owned Bibliofind.Com is free for the
bookselling community.
http://www.bibliofind.com/joiningbibliofind.htm
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 10% bid rate and an
approx 1.5% daily sell through rate including take it now sales.
http://list.auctions.yahoo.com/gbbbb
* * * * *
PayPal is offering a Mastercard debit card to preferred customers. You
can get a 1.5% cashback that applies to purchases made with the debit
card only and not ATM withdrawals. To get the debit card, the user needs
to be a premier/business account holder, sign up for the money market,
verify a bank account and offer ONLY PayPal on their auctions for their
online payments. Sellers can offer payment options of checks, money
orders or other offline payment options, but not services like Billpoint
or PayDirect.
PayPal has added a bidder notification option to their site. This
will automatically notify ALL your auction winners that they should
pay by PayPal, if you offered PayPal in that auction or not. The
default apears to be 'On' so to turn it off, log into Paypal, click
on the 'Profile' button. On the left side of the screen is a column
of selections. One should say 'Bidder Notification'. There will be
a list of any auction sites you are currently set up for, and the
text of the letter, along with the box where you can add your own
personal info. At the bottom of the screen is a little box saying
'Click here to Disable Winning Bidder Notification'
http://www.paypal.com
* * * * *
AuctionWatch (AW) crashed yesterday 29 Mar for approx 20 minutes,
and users reported that instead of launching pre-scheduled auctions
as set by the sellers, AW launched them at AWs convenience. AW
posted that the site was down for a brief period of time. If you had
items that were attempting to list, check the auction site to see if
they made it first, then if they are in error in your pending section
select them and resubmit. AW will consider refunds on a case by case
basis. http://www.auctionwatch.com
* * * * *
Online Auction Users Association
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
To participate in weekly live co-op chats go to
http://pages.zdnet.com/labellebooks/OnlineSellersCoop/
Every Sunday Night at 8:00 PM EST.
* * * * *
Possible problems for some DSL users because of bankruptcy of
NorthPort Communications. Several services such as some
Excite@Home's and @Work divisions might be affected.
To move your service to another ISP, please use the Covad Safety
Net program located at www.covad.com or call our Covad Safety
Net hotline at 1-800-366-7221 to see which ISP you are designated
for. You are welcome to contact another ISP to have your line
switched if the designated ISP does not meet your needs. The
following ISPs are designated receiving partners under Covad's
Safety Net Program: DSL.net - www.dsl.net/rescuedsl or
866-340-2585 Speakeasy - www.speakeasy.net/switch or
800-556-5829, option 3, option 1 XO Communications -
www.xo.com/xofferings/internet/dsl/tranfer.html or 866-502-9696
COVAD.net - www.covad.net/support/index.htm or 888-64-COVAD
Read this article at
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-5340431.html?tag=st.cn.1.lthd
* * * * *
On The Lighter Side
ebaY Spoof site
http://www.capnwacky.com/eGad/main.html
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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://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/customer-glance/
A5TGMPMTNX03S/104-1323617-7144715
http://www.dandelionfarms.com
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
http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=
ViewListedItems&userid=env13&include=0&since=-1&sort=2&rows=200
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