New eBay Policy has Auctiva Competitor Closing Down

I got this email a little while ago and I must say this sucks. I've been using the premium level of this service and it's the greatest counter service I've ever used. Monitoring listings without it is going to suck. I've already written to Dave several times hoping to get them to change their mind. I don't understand how they would be in violation as the link doesn't lead anywhere to any off site sale. I also asked if they could just ditch the cross-promotion module and just do the counters.

I already asked Auctiva about this, and they don't feel their items are in violation, so why should ebaycounters be in violation?

This entire situation is really getting worse by the day. eBay creates APIs for 3rd party solution providers, a cottage industry springs up, and now another stupid executive decision and it all goes away.

I really can't stand this F'in company anymore. Where is the viable competitor?

I think the simple answer is....the business model is changing (for better or WORSE), so the services supporting the old model are no longer welcome.

Watching them get strangled by one policy noose after another won't be fun.

Maybe a book on Corporate insanity ain't such a bad idea. The subject material certainly gets a daily injection.

Danno

The links issue is really troubling.

Last week I tried to get "Live Help", couldn't, and emailed my question. Later I got through to Live Help and asked about the "legality" (under new policy) of linking to Wikipedia articles for educational purposes regarding book subjects or authors, when it would be too much to copy the text to the listing. Live Help told me it would still be okay to do so, that it wouldn't be considered a violation.

A couple of days later I received an answer via email which says:

"In regard to your question, unfortunately you would not be permitted to include in your listings a link to a site that contains more information(such as a biography of an author of a book you are selling on eBay).

If you are in a situation where the text you wish to include in your listing seems excessive (such as an entire wikipeida entry as you
mentioned) it is possible that not all of that information is essential to the listing. Please keep in mind that when listing on eBay you must
only include the most accurate, relevant information.

Including information that is irrelevant to the item or is excessive and not relevant to the sale of your item is not permitted."

I asked directly about counters like Sellathon and received no response.

quote:

"Including information that is irrelevant to the item or is excessive and not relevant to the sale of your item is not permitted."

I asked directly about counters like Sellathon and received no response.

The inconsistency between Live Help and an EMail response (perhaps 2nd level support person with true knowledge) is what I've also experienced on some questions/problems. I'm not knocking Live Help, but a policy issue question shouldn't have multiple choice answers.

The "stonewalling" on the policy legality of anything considered not relevant in the listing and/or anything the listing links to, is cutting directly to the heart of a possilbe real concern for every Auctiva member with a Gallery in the listing and a link to Store with other items. IMO, they don't want cross-promotion without their "visibility" methods via Best Match Search, etc. and want to extinguish that competitive edge by this new policy (and the one about "Search and Browse Manipulation"). Now you know why ebaycounter.com is going out of business. They couldn't get an answer either.

Here's the other troublesome policy text:

"New simplified Search & Browse Manipulation Policy
Starting in early June a new Search & Browse Manipulation Policy will take the place of the Keyword Spamming, Misleading Title, Miscategorization, and Brand Name Misuse policies. The new Search Manipulation Policy simplifies the guidelines for sellers, prohibiting any unfair methods of diverting members to their listings. This includes any addition to a listing not related to the item being sold or other activity that harms the shopping experience by making it difficult for buyers to find the items they're looking for. More information can be found in our FAQs."

Danno

You know, it makes sense that the scrolling gallery will be impacted because this is the kind of back door method ebay always uses to get what it wants---in this case, to use policy updates to further reduce competition and, secondarily, to force sellers to buy and maintain an ebay store. It is the same methodology behind the DSR system, in which a small seller cannot possibly survive. In fact, I have a very tiny account where now and then I sell a non-book item. I haven't sold on it since winter. After maybe 50 positives I got a neutral, which happens to be among the most recent feedbacks--i.e., the last to fall off. So with the 30-day rolling policy I'd end up with something like 6 positives and 1 neutral by November. I wrote to ebay and asked for advice on how to deal with it and asked their opinion about retroactively changing the terms under which users originally left neutrals. Anyway, guess what? They sent me a reply that said, "Dear so-and-so, We are sorry to hear you have decided to close your ebay account. Below please find a link that will help expedite the process. Best of luck in the future."

Well, they are definitely stonewalling on giving an answer to the scrolling gallery question and, like you say, asking live help is meaningless because their answers can't be enforced as policy. And it is true that their policy really is black-and-white, so if someone hedges it's probably intentional. Bwah!

quote:

Anyway, guess what? They sent me a reply that said, "Dear so-and-so, We are sorry to hear you have decided to close your ebay account. Below please find a link that will help expedite the process. Best of luck in the future.

Now that's perhaps the most "honest answer" I've yet heard from them, on how they really feel about small sellers. You should post that letter over at PSU.

Danno

quote:

Originally posted by Danno:
You should post that letter over at PSU.

Danno

For posterity I'll just paste the exact email here as I had paraphrased:

quote:

Dear ,

We're sorry to hear that you've decided to close your eBay account. To
have your request processed as quickly as possible, please go to:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/closing-account.html

Follow the directions you'll find there.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Ralph D.

eBay Customer Support

But I apologize for getting off topic, which wasn't my intention. I'm very concerned about the scrolling gallery, too.

You know something funny, I wonder if Ralph was giving you a "HINT" on how to handle the problem with least impact to both accounts, or more importantly, the business account.

He suggested (backhandedly) NARU yourself on the "problem account" to forego any status issues that might lead to suspension, etc. I know that eBay is suspending (by changing definition on daily basis) problem sellers for policy, feedback, etc. I also know they now concurrently suspend ALL ACCOUNTS linked to a single user by address, relationship, WHATEVER. He may have been suggesting it was best to NARU yourself with the problem account to preserve the business account. That way it never reaches critical mass.

He obvioulsy couldn't outright give that advise at jeopardy of his own job....handing out a policy bypass ticket.

Just a piece of twisted logic in an upside-down thinking new order.

Danno

Hey, that's a really interesting perspective and you could be right, because the way I phrased the question was, how much longer will that account be active if I don't sell and everything rolls off but the one neutral. Yet it's borderline surreal to imagine Ralph delivering covert help. Maybe he was giving me the kiss-off and you found the silver lining.

I had no idea they were suspending connected accounts, except in cases of buyer complaints. Especially in a relatively innocuous situation where the only factors are dormancy and the 30-day rolling count (and you know there must be thousands of small accounts in the same situation). But that would make sense as a way to eliminate the sellers that don't generate enough revenue.

So what does ebay stand to gain by getting rid of thousands of the little sellers? Bandwidth? Time? A way to direct more traffic to the preferred mega-sellers? Do small sellers cause revenue loss, or do they just clog up the search listings and take away some business from the mega-sellers?

'Ralph' is a BOT with a canned answer that (obviously) had nothing to do with the question. (JMHO and I'm stickin to it ) I's extremely rare, if not impossible to get an email from an actual person at ebay. As far as multiple user IDs, Ebay LOVES that...makes it look like their membership numbers are growing.

Hi 8880,

I agree, it appears to be a canned answer. What seems inconsistent about it is, it's not specific to the question asked unless it is taken in context to the possible outcome if nothing is done.

You need to read the policies on suspension and accounts in same household, etc. There are so many cases of innocent spouse, et. al. having accounts suspended it's only prudent to think the problem to that possible conclusion. It's what made me step back and rethink that seemingly disconnected (bot joke) answer.

Danno

quote:

What seems inconsistent about it, is it's not specific to the question asked

Sounds typically consistent to me, I always seem to get off target answers coupled to 75%+ canned tripe from eBay or PayPal whenever I have had the misfortune to need to contact them.

Curious I get even worse from my ISP, Tiscali with a ratio of 10 / 90% and even worse from my bank so according to my experience they don't seem to be much more incompetant than any other on-line may your chosen god help you service.

Whether the answer should be considered Bot programming error (to the extreme) that we've all experienced, human sympathetic cleverness, or Devine intervention, does the answer in fact present a correct course of action for the stated problem?

The topic is truely "suspension avoidance" in the current paradigm of constantly changing policies implemented in some cases before they are even announced or even the date they are suppose to take effect, e.g. ebooks.

Do we all (anyone with active Auctiva embedded listings) want to wake up on July 1 (or sooner) with all listings cancelled and accounts suspended? A business closing its doors to avoid a policy problem for its customers, isn't something to easily dismiss. Not getting straight answers to critical policy questions is also not something to blindly overlook.

Danno

Hi Danno,
Exactly right...
I have never yet gotten a straight answer from ebay, EVER. Not from Live Help, not from PS rep, NEVER. Even if I got an answer to a critical policy question I wouldn't be able to count on it to be correct.

Hard to imagine calling Amazon with a question about my selling account, or my bank about an account irregularity, and getting the kind of replies we get from ebay and pay pal.

quote:

Originally posted by Danno:
WDo we all (anyone with active Auctiva embedded listings) want to wake up on July 1 (or sooner) with all listings cancelled and accounts suspended? A business closing its doors to avoid a policy problem for its customers, isn't something to easily dismiss. Not getting straight answers to critical policy questions is also not something to blindly overlook.

The question HAS been answered, yesterday, on the ebayinkblog.com.

Cross promotion displays added by ANY 3rd party service provider ARE LEGAL.

Counters ARE LEGAL.

From Richard Brewer-Hay:

quote:

Re: Auctiva cross-promotion galleries, links, etc. These are permitted without limitation. In fact, any cross-promotion of eBay listings is permitted.

Re: Links to the Auctiva website (or any third-party service provider). This is permitted under the third-party credits exception in the policy, as long as the link/logo meets the restrictions. One of which is the fact that Auctiva can only insert its logo for services provided in the listing. For example, if the seller didn’t use Auctiva to provide auction templates, links to Auctiva promoting their auction template service can’t be included in the listing.

Cheers,
RBH

quote:

Cross promotion displays added by ANY 3rd party service provider ARE LEGAL.

Let's hope that's the final word and thanks for posting the info. Any explanation from Dave at ebaycounter.com on why they think or were lead to believe otherwise.

Oh....and my original thoughts about the policy of 3rd party certified partners having a waiver on these issues is sustained with that opinion.

Danno

quote:

Originally posted by Danno:

Let's hope that's the final word and thanks for posting the info.

Danno

It's really great news if it's true. The 3rd party certified partner waiver makes sense.