World Watching

yes? whats stopping you? If the answer is along the lines that, its expensive to set up a credible online store and make a little cash working from home then read this e-commerce article because the truth of the matter is, that it can be done for free… yes FREE and no, i’m not trying to sell you anything either all information provided on the worldwatching website is totally free of charge. 

The credit crunch may still have it’s fangs into the country and economically times may still be hard, recession still causing hardship, ebays fee’s still high and the future uncertain… BUT if you can set up a small online business and make a small success out of it now the law of averages says it should be a bigger success in better times.

The fact of the matter is people are still shopping online, albeit a bit more prudently than in the past… So if your going to sell to them you have to keep your costs down and if that means axing ebay fee’s from your overheads it can be done.

The abundance of online payment processors today also totally negates the need to have business bank accounts etc until such time as you actually find your business has grown and a business bank account is a realistic option.

Caution: Critical comments ahead!

I have come to the conclusion that postal workers strikes make some of ebay’s sellers outright dishonest and lazy.

Just the mention of a possible strike is enough to have my inbox bombarded with messages from some sellers stating that they simply “cannot post an item because i might not get it”

What kind of muppet do these idiots think i am? do they believe that somewhere in the heart of every sorting office there is a mail munching troll that eats mail posted in the run up to/or during a strike?

That said, i have also had some of the most speedy deliveries during these strikes as well.. either the management are really pulling out the stops or support for the strikes has not been as strong as claimed.

Having had enough i replied very abruptly to one such work shy lackey, pointing out that if they got off their lead laden arse and posted the item first class as i had paid for, given that the strikes were not due to start for another 4 days i would receive it before any disruption started.

Guess what happened… It arrived in the post next day!

Chris Crum, writing for webpronews has cited an auctionbytes survey stating ebay’s latest package of changes and stated they are going down better with ebay sellers, than the last lot did.

Hmmm the comments on the posting itself say otherwise..

The auction giant (yes, its still just about ebay) has lost sellers at an unprecedented rate in the last year, in my personal experience i would question whether many of them were the ones that needed ‘losing’.

ebay is still a minefield for the unwary buyer, it is still littered with scams intended to seperate the ebay’er and his money in return for… well nothing but grief!

It seems ebays relentless push towards the mythical ‘online mall’ continues regardless of whether they will have any buyers or sellers left when they get there.

In my opinion ebay needs to focus, focus on what made it an online auction giant in the first place rather than trying to be amazon in a different colour jacket.

read the ebay announcement with roles out the changes here 

PS. and donohoe needs sacking asap, both him and meg are a liability… in my opinion.

Almost exactly 12 months after being fined 40million euro’s by the french courts in June 2008 having been sued by luxury goods group LVMH, eBay has gone on the offensive by launching a petition to the the EU asking for ‘unfair trade practices’ to be outlawed.

 LVMH are just one group of designers who have been seeking to restrict peoples right to sell a LVMH product on eBay regardless of whether it’s secondhand or new.

See the ebay announcement here

In my humble opinion, i would love to know why the online tat emporium even needs to do this. Surely what little common bleedin sense must by default exist somewhere within the EU should say that if someone buys something and don’t sign legally binding contracts then what bloody right does LVMH or any of its cohorts have to stop me or you selling it if we then decide we don’t want to keep it.

Bottom line:  If you cant handle the concept of someone selling your products on, dont retail them in the first place!

On a personal note, i’m amazed some people will even pay anything at all for some the so called ‘designer perfumes’.. I swear some of them are nothing more than overpriced bottled Yak’s urine.

Is ebay addictive? well i think it must be, simply because for the second time this week i have found myself asking “why do i even bother with the online tat emporium?”

Earlier in the week, i had to contact an openly trading business that also retails on the auction site about an electrical appliance i bought via an ebay fixed price sale that has packed in after only a few months and having been used a few times in those months, Only to be told they would not honour their legally binding obligations having supplied an appliance that is clearly ‘not fit for purpose’ and claiming their warranty terms exclude the single largest and most vital componant knowing full well i can’t bloody prove no such exclusion was in the listing at the time because ebay deletes the listings after 90 sodding days.

Now this morning i recieved a parcel from another seller, containing only half the goods i ordered and some goods i didnt order instead of the other half of what i DID order.

I dont know quite what has gone wrong with the site, i have been using it since 2003 and never before the last 18months have i had so many bad experiences with sellers.

At the moment the tally is running at approximately 1 in every 5 transactions i make on the site results in problems and the situation is not helped by the current attitude of many sellers that all buyers are trying to scam them until proven otherwise.

Ebay used to be a fun place to buy and sell. Today its being overrun by rip off merchants and scammers leaving honest buyers and sellers difficult to find in amongst the endless multiple listings of imported chinese crap and the ever present back street cut throats just waiting for their next victim to come into view.

Rumours that ebay is preparing to shed its recent acquisitions such as Paypal and Skype have been fuelled even further by an ebay announcement that it is now discontinuing the use of Skype chat and voice options on ebay listings. Only a few weeks ago, Stumbleupon bought itself back from the online auction giant and rumours are rife that Paypal and Skype may also soon find themselves up for sale.

It seems ebay have changed the rules again, this time its to do with dispute resolution.

The company is now saying that it will have it’s own dispute resolution service and even admits it may make a ruling and then refund the buyer without ever contacting the seller until ebay invoice the seller for the refund that has already been made. Ebay also admit they will not insist on any dialogue between the seller and buyer prior to getting involved.

The online auction giants resolution service will replace the need for paypal claims and has already provoked some strong reactions on the Q&A forums. Most alarmingly one user claimed to have been part of the trial of the system and openly stated during the resolution of one dispute, that they had in fact recieved two refunds for the same item.. one directly from ebay and then one from the seller who did not know ebay were involved. Not bad you might think, but ebay are not giving money away.. the seller was then liable for refunding ebays expenses meaning they had actually refunded the purchase twice. 

Having been an ebay seller in the past, this does not really surprise me.. but it does have serious consequences for those who sell on the site, as ebay are still apparently moving towards their stated aim of ditching the ‘flea market’ image and becoming an online ‘mall’. ebay brought in sweeping changes last year that allowed them to instantly close the selling accounts of thousands of private sellers, and this change seems aimed at repeating last summers cull of private sellers. Ebay openly admit that this resolution service will allow them to sanction or close the accounts of any seller whose customers complain to ebay.

On the Q&A forum last night, unsurprisingly opinions were divided with a clear split between ‘Powersellers’ in general claiming this was a good thing and ‘normal private sellers’ foreseeing their accounts possibly being cancelled in the next few months, due to the abnormally high level of scamming by unscrupulous buyers that already plague ebay sellers.

The biggest scams at the moment simply revolve around claiming to have not received the item in question and ebay/paypal’s apparent readiness to refund the buyer without any let alone thorough investigation.

Another apparant issue is that many users (even the ‘regulars’ ) on Q&A seemed unaware of this change as ebay rolled it out very quietly back in April and have emailed at present only a few to remind them that the sites ‘user agreement’ is changing and unless you close your account, are deemed to have accepted the new ‘agreement’.

One interesting opinion did surface, and that was that last year there were rumours that ebay inc. may sell off either or both the skype and Paypal parts of the business, and that this may be preparing the ebay infrastructure for a Paypal sell-off..

View the information release here

After having recieved the bloody nose they did last year in Austrailia over mandatory ‘Paypal only’ listings it seems the eBay/Paypal dream of Paypal only hasnt lost its appeal to the company.

Paypal are now emailing ebay sellers citing the advantages of Paypal only listings over accepting other forms of payments especially cheques.

Its also interesting to note that they don’t mention that they can and often do withold your incoming payment for 21days while you dispatch the item and hope the buyer leaves positive feedback for you, or that they will refund the buyer from your account regardless of what you say in a dispute between buyer/seller.

Overall the paypal system doesnt always mean faster payments, in fact too often its far slower than accepting cheques on ebay.

My advice to anyone considering selling on ebay, especially to new sellers is keep accepting cheques and postal orders.. for you as a seller they are actually a safer way to get your money than Paypal