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TAGnotes Fri 7 Sep 2001 Vol 3 Number 96 Issue 357
 

The Auction Guild Notes for Fri 7 Sep 2001
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$Buck98 on eBay. No reserve. $1.98 opening bid auctions.
Next event SEP 11th http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/$buck98/
       * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
NEED TO LAUGH? Rare & Out of Print stand up comedy videos.
http://www.geocities.com/dejaviewvideo/
       * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
For quality, variety & great deals, shop the experienced auction
sellers of the EMPORIUM http://www.lynnet.com/~jmm/emporium.html
       * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Support the people who support TAGnotes. Click on their links, bid on
their auctions and buy their products. You too can participate in a Win
Win solution. Support TAG and promote your website or auctions.
Subscribers Ads $5.00 - Commercial rates available, email
ta-@theauctionguild.com for details.
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The TAGnotes archive is available in a searchable format at
http://www.escribe.com/business/TAGnotes/
Interested in more information about TAG? Go to our website at
http://www.auctionguild.com You can find contact info for several sites
and services there, along with editorials and other information.
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ebaY's implementation of their new sign in system has caused a system
wide conflagration of endless problems for sellers and buyers. The
permanent cookies are causing constant connection demands. Some users
can't sign in and some can't sign out. Users with one computer and many
family members or business partners with different accounts can't get
access to their accounts. Features on the site are not working and not
recognizing the user even after the user signs in permanently, with the
function to send a buyer a payment reminder and the revise feature being
the most dysfunctional. Across the site user after user posted problems
with third party service providers systems no longer working due to the
changes. There were even reports that users would log into My ebaY and
end up in another users account. Once again ebaY has launched a major
system change without adequately testing it, and once again the sellers
will bear the brunt of the problems in lost sales.

On 6 Sep at 00:38:38 PT ebaY posted that the "Forgot Your Password"
function was not working. ebaY did not post when or if it was fixed.
At 14:00:42 PT users reported getting transfer interrupt messages when
trying to access various features on the site. This problem was
intermittent and talk quickly reverted to the myriad of cookie problems
that dominated the boards. At 14:22:31 users reported an inability to
relist, again quickly buried in the outpouring of cookie and sign in
problems.
ebaY took the site down for scheduled maintenance from 01:00 PT until
03:00 PT on Fri 7 Sep. This maintenance included the Billpoint web. At
03:57:41 PT ebaY posted that the ability to view items was not working
from 03:25 PT to 03:40 PT. At 03:54:11 PT users again started posting
their problems with the sign in system. Users could not leave feedback,
log in, submit auctions, and ebaY pic services were not working. Long
time users were getting messages that said "User ID or Password
Invalid", despite the fact that both were correct. At 07:28:43 PT cgi 3
and cgi 5 revise auctions were intermittently down. Complaints
continued about the cookie and log in problems, with users logged in and
able to use some features, but not others. The email a seller feature
did not work
At 10:15:39 PT ebaY posted that some users could not access the Spin to
Win promotion via Netscape. ebaY says they fixed it. At 15:18:28 PT
users reported they could not list and kept receiving error messages.
Problems with cookies and sign in continued throughout the day, and were
still being posted as we closed out this issue of TAGnotes.

TO REQUEST REFUNDS from ebaY go to
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=33
Don’t take no for an answer; keep requesting until you get them.

Pink Quote of the Day on 7 Sep at 11:16:24 PT in response to a gold
power seller who expressed his extreme dislike of the new cookie system,
and ebaY's inability to fix glitches and problems in the current
features, much less successfully launch new ones, sonny@ebaY said, "now
is that really realistic? Think about where we were 4 years ago, still
struggling to provide customer support on the boards only, before BIN,
before Password Hint, with the old MisterLister version (remember that?)
before some of the good things that have helped us grow as a company,
attract more users, and help our current users manage and grow their
businesses more efficiently? I'll be the first to admit that many
features have been more problematic than we'd like (obviously! :) -
however, any company...no, EVERY company... has to continue to scale its
site and business to keep up with the demands of the current market. Our
user base has changed so much since the old days; for the better, I
think. As we continue to grow, we will have to continue to change - it's
the nature of business. Now, with that said, I KNOW how this kind of
thing impacts you guys. You just get to a point where you want to throw
up your hands and scream "Enough!" A lot of the stuff we're doing now is
to improve our architecture and fix "old" code that never did scale.
It's unpleasant and painful, I know. I wish I could tell you it will get
better quickly, but that probably wouldn't be a fair statement. But I do
understand the frustration. I sell. I buy. I feel it too, sometimes."
In response another seller posted, "sonny That is the grandest piece of
propaganda I've ever seen written on eBay........... I would assume
you've been thoroughly indoctrinated by the best but he died in 1945.
But remember his words "If you tell the same lie often enough some
people will begin to believe it"." I do not believe TAG could have
responded any more succinctly.

Pink Quote of the Day II. We just could not resist this one, from the
SAB, " We are pleased to announce the launch of simplified "sign in" on
eBay." TAG can't help but be amused by the complete absurdity of this
statement. Maybe ebaY's idea of simplification is that since launching
this "feature" sellers can't use the site and bidders can't either, that
it totally simplifies the process for everyone.

ebaY has a few posts on the SAB and MAB about the new sign in feature.
They claim it should make ebaY simpler and faster to use. Previously,
you were required to login to ebaY several times during a single
session; now, if they can get the feature to work, you should only be
required to sign in once to perform most activities on ebaY. Actually,
in the past you could accomplish almost every task on ebaY without
logging in at all, or you could log in with a temporary cookie for just
the one activity that required a log in for security.

ebaY also claims that the cookies used for sign in on ebaY do not
represent a threat to the security of user personal information. For
more information on why and how ebaY says it uses cookies go to
http://pages.ebay.com/help/myinfo/cookies.html

ebaY has filed with the SEC to issue 1 billion shares of stock to sell.
This filing caused a drop in ebaY shares as stockholders grew concerned
about dilution of earnings. This filing will also allow ebaY to make a
future large capital purchase of another company. This too has
stockholders worried.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/010906/business_tech_ebay_dc_1.html
http://investor.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-7090460-0.html?tag=ltnc


As part of its Grand Opening of ebaY stores, ebaY has started a contest
to win prizes including a $10,000 shopping spree and a trip for 2 to Las
Vegas. Other prizes include branded ebaY gear, magazine subscriptions
and restaurant gift certificates.
For more information and official rules, click go to
http://www.ebay.com/promo/stores/index.html?ssPageName=HD01

ebaY has won another "venue only" lawsuit this time they were sued for
copyright infringement because bootlegged films were sold over its site.
http://investor.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-7092829-0.html?tag=ltnc


ebaY is changing the Sports: Trading Cards Categories. They are adding
a category that will be the exclusive trading floor for etopps cards.
etopps cards are a new type of premium sports trading card offered by
the Topps Company. These cards will be available in very limited
quantity and sold individually initial player offerings at etopps.com.
The program will be open to those who have bought these cards and wants
to resell them. If a buyer prefers, they can have Topps store their
portfolio of cards or ship the cards to the buyer.   The etopps category
will have different trading and listing rules. For more information go
to
http://topps.com/etoppspreview/play_book/default.html
http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/etoppsFAQ.html.
To view all categories listed in Sports on ebaY
http://pages.ebay.com/catindex/sports.html.

ebaY owned Butterfields Auctioneers are selling the George and Merian
Stoll Estate on Mon 10 Sep at 10am PT in San Francisco and on ebaY Live
Auctions.. Included in the sale are a wide range of objects that
decorated the home of an award winning composers of Hollywood's golden
era, George Stoll, whose work included Anchors Aweigh and The Wizard of
Oz. Preview this sale on ebaY Live Auctions by going to
http://pages.liveauctions.ebay.com/catalogs/catalog2108.html
TAG recommends you check Butterfields feedback profile before bidding,
to insure you are aware of how this company has done business in the
past.
ebaY Live Auctions   http://www.ebayliveauctions.com/
Butterfields   http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/butterfields/

With all the problems with the Billpoint systems unjustified charge
backs, one seller and TAGnotes subscriber suggested that sellers can in
turn can do a charge back to Billpoint. Because the payments that
Billpoint processes appear on the seller's credit card statement or bank
statement as deposits, Billpoint cannot actually do a legal charge
back. They, therefore, must try to debit your credit card and process a
charge, not a charge back. THIS can be charged back to Billpoint as a
fraudulent charge. If you do this, it is possible that Billpoint will
close your Billpoint account.

Another subscriber noted that if a seller closes an ebaY store they
cannot relist the auction items. New listings are fine, it's the relists
that are an ebaY engineering problem. ebaY is aware of this problem but
have done nothing to fix it to date.

Community overview board –
http://pages.ebay.com/community/index.html
ebaY news board - http://pages.ebay.com/community/news/index.html

ebaY categories with the category number
http://listings.ebay.com/aw/plistings/list/categories.html

ebaY contact information including analog mail and email addresses and
phone numbers, regular and toll free, refund info and insider trading
info etc can be found at
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=17
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Amazon Auctions, zShops and Marketplace

Announcement Board
http://prospero.amazon.com/n/mb/listsf.asp?webtag=am-sellannounce&nav=start&ctx=0


User to User boards
http://forums.prospero.com/am-sellconnect/messages/?msg

Amazon live telephone customer service 16 hours a day
Toll-free in U.S. and Canada: (800)201-7575
http://auctions.amazon.com
* * * * *
Privacy Protection software is needed by everyone. The newest update
for Ad-Aware is now available at
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software.html
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Online Auction Users Association elections are over and the election
results and new board members names are posted on the OAUA site.

OAUA has put together discount packages for their members for auction
management services.    http://www.auctionusers.org/discounts-am.shtml

Interested in volunteering and serving the Online Auction Community?
Check out http://www.auctionusers.org/volunteerop.shtml

http://www.auctionusers.org
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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 or websites.
TAGassist Contributors –
http://www.longlocks.com

http://www.coin-center.com

http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/copper-maven/

http://www.pantheus.com/
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