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TAGnotes Wed 12 Sep 2001 Vol 3 Number 98 Issue 359
  

The Auction Guild Notes for Wed 12 Sep 2001
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We at TAG would like to express our deep sorrow and heartbreak at the
horrific tragedy suffered by our nation. Our hearts and minds are with
the families and friends of those who lost loved ones. We have posted
disaster contact information, disaster relief information and links for
contributions to the United Way, Red Cross etc. on the TAG website at   
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=67
      * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
For Hot Deals on women's clothing, visit "Coco's Closet", My Deals page
on
UpperBid.com:http://www.upperbid.com/cgi-bin/auction.cgi?justdisp&Cocorenee

      * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
For quality, variety & great deals, shop the experienced auction
sellers of the EMPORIUM http://www.lynnet.com/~jmm/emporium.html
      * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Due to the national tragedy some $Buck 98 event participants have
postponed
adding items until Thurs 13 Sep. $Buck98 on eBay. No reserve. $1.98
opening bid auctions. http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/$buck98/
       * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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.
************************************************************
On 11 Sep at 16:05:23 PT ebaY posted that their discussion and help
boards were down. The chat boards were not affected. At 16:55:14 PT
ebaY posted that the boards were down from approx 15:48 PT until 16:52
PT. At 17:09:42 PT ebaY announced they were temporarily suspending the
ebaY stores grand opening Spin to Win game and sweepstakes, due to the
nations tragedy. They also cancelled the Mills Malls events for the
weekend of 14-16 Sep. They will try to reschedule the events for a later
date and provide more information as soon as it is available.

ebaY's implementation of their new sign in system continues to be a
major problem. Users continue to post messages about their problems with
this system, though the site posts are dominated by the national
tragedy. ebaY has not updated their users on the status of these
ongoing sign in problems. There are still widespread problems with
bidders who can't access the site to bid, can't get to their My ebaY
feature and access their Watch list, along with sellers who can't list,
relist, revise or manage their ebaY accounts.

Some work arounds suggested by ebaY
*Sign in to ebaY before logging in to any of the discussion boards
including the Community Help Boards, Category-Specific Discussion
Boards, User to User Discussion Boards, Workshops and Affiliates Boards.
The Chat boards are not affected.
*If you still have problems signing in to the rest of ebaY, close all
open browser windows and then open a new browser to sign in to ebaY.

USERS suggested workarounds include
* Access the site through one of the non-US sites such as ebaY Canada,
UK, or Australia.
*Use a browser such as Opera (www.opera.com) that ignores most of the
intrusive tracking code on ebaY.
*Use protection against ebaY's cookies with programs such as AdAware,
clean your cookie files frequently, get the new IE V6 browser and set
the P3P option to screen out ebaY's intrusive tracking code.

In TAG's opinion, sellers who feel their auction were negatively
impacted by buyers not being able to access ebaY to bid, should request
refunds for ALL auctions running during this ongoing fiasco.

ebaY will take the website and the Billpoint site down for scheduled
maintenance from 01:00 PT until 03:00 PT on Fri 14 Sep.

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.

At 19:56:49 PT after hours of user posts on the ebaY boards and emails
to safe harbor, ebaY finally decided to end all auctions that were World
Trade Center connected. ebaY posted that they do not allow trading of
items directly related to a crime of this nature (crime scene material,
propaganda, etc). For details go to
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-offensive.html
In addition, out of respect for the victims, their family members and
the survivors, ebaY is temporarily suspending trading of all items
directly related to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, regardless
of whether the events of 11 Sep are mentioned on the item or in the
listing. This temporary suspension will be in place until 1 Oct.

One ebaY member decided to take matters into his own hands, and made
very high bids on auctions, reported the auction to ebaY and when it was
ended early with him as high bidder, posted negative feedback on the
seller's feedback page.
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/farmboy1031/

Pink Quotes of the Day - 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. 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.

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.

On 11 Sep at 09:37:59 PT ebaY posted a caution to users to be patient
with their trading partners due to the catastrophe on the east coast.
ebaY also posted that some US post offices might be closed in some
areas. Users should monitor announcements by the post office at the
USPS website at http://www.usps.com.

ebaY is having problems with their new banner ad package for
PowerSellers. The ebaY Amazing Media, Inc. AdVariant advertising
package is supposed to be available for all PowerSellers. The problem
is that some PowerSellers try to register and are told they are not
PowerSellers. The only solution appears to be contacting PowerSeller
support, and if the PowerSeller can get a response, to have the ebaY
support person manually correct the AdVariant permission list.

The changes in ebaY's revision system now makes it possible for sellers
to use the relist function on an unsold item, to change just about
everything about the listing, including the title, description, picture,
price category, etc. Sellers can't change the starting price to a
higher level or add extras at no charge, but it appears sellers can add
extras and still get back the listing fee. Sellers can use the relist
to sell a completely different item on the relist, and as long as it
sells will get the listing fee refunded.

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

ebaY counts show 5.8 million auctions inflated by 5.2% yielding approx
5.5 mil.

ebaY announcement board http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml
* * * * *
Amazon Auctions, zShops and Marketplace user continue to experience
serious problems. Users report not receiving notice once a winning
auction has ended until 2-4
days later and in some cases over 12 days have elapsed without a notice.
In addition listing numbers suddenly increase 100-300 auctions for
sellers who have large numbers of items listed. Upon checking, the
increase is due to multiple listings of the same items showing up,
sometimes 2-5 of the identical ad. Correcting this multiple listings
can take hours as they all have to be found and removed manually.
Amazon has acknowledged the problem, but without providing assistance to
the sellers, or an idea as to when this might be fixed.

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
Auction Pro phone number 1-877-251-0696
http://auctions.amazon.com
* * * * *
USPS The United States Postal Service has resumed normal operations
today and most mail service has resumed throughout the country. The USPS
is reporting that all pickup and delivery is halted in lower Manhattan,
but most other postal offices should be open and operating. Due to the
interruption in air transport, airmail packages may be delayed. However,
the USPS is routing these packages onto trucks and railways, so the
delay should be minimized. Check the USPS site for updates at
http://www.usps.com/

The USPS also announced on 11 Sep that they are filing for another rate
increase.
http://msnbc.com/news/627032.asp?cp1=1
* * * * *
Online Auction Users Association
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
*************************************************************
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.pantheus.com/

http://www.wheatlandferry.com

http://www.bidville.com/search/user_search.asp?user_id=ZZyzx
000&shop_type=all&sort_by=
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