| EBAY GETS A BAD PRESS (and keeps it's head down!) |
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( originally posted on the 7th of February 2008)
It's taken a few days for the news of feedback denial and higher final value fees to filter into the newsrooms of the world, which is worrying for what are supposed to be modern, on the pulse, news gathering services  . Still, better late then never. I've chosen this one from Sky News:
Sky News Article
The reason why I chose this one was because they approached Chris Dawson, who has the Tamebay site where he's able to indulge his favourite pastime of going into orgasmic fits about all things ebay. He doesn't wear rose-tinted specs, this guy's got rose-tinted eyes! Disturbing, considering that he's a powerseller on ebay with an ebay shop. His deluded comments in the Sky News report proves this:
Mr Dawson said: "Buyers are now scared to leave feedback, they've not been leaving truthful feedback if they have had a bad time..."
That's because the majority of them are cowards. A decent buyer has more backbone and doesn't think twice about leaving a neg if it's well deserved, regardless of the fact that they may be negged in return. They know that it's important to do so to warn other buyers. After May, once all these cowardly buyers realise that they can get away with it, they'll neg at the slightest problem that they themselves perceive. I've mentioned these kind of buyers before.
He added removing the negative feedback restriction on potential buyers was no different to owning a high street store, saying: "I can't tell if you walk in off the street if you are a good or bad customer."
But if you could, wouldn't that be better? If they walked in wearing a mask and carrying a shotgun, I think even you'd suspect they were up to no good!  This idea that listing on ebay is "no different to owning a high street store" is a common argument made by the inexperienced. Ebay, and sites like it, are very different to high street stores, regardless of what ebay itself says to the contrary. The closest thing I've likened it to is a massive internet car-boot sale, and because it is such a huge "organised chaos" frequented by millions of faceless users, it's vital that both buyers AND sellers are able to use the feedback system to size each other up. Taking it away from one leaves them vulnerable to the other.
You'll realise this, Chrissy boy, after May when you'll find yourself being negged on an increasingly frequent basis by these cowardly buyers for the most ridiculous of reasons. Then, when your rating drops below the threshold that loses you your FVF discount, you'll discover that ebay has actually stabbed you in both your rose-tinted eyes!
And I hope it fucking hurts! But at least you'll be alot wiser for the experience when any other reporter asks you for a comment in the future, so something good will come from your impending pain.
The news reports, though, seemed to have focused on Feedback and higher FVFs. So ebay's sneaky trick of using them to hide the failure of ebay express and the enforcement of paypal on users does seem to have worked  . Also, they haven't really been commenting much on it, except their lap-dogs, like Richard Ambrose who are strictly "on message" Mostly, they've kept a low profile until this outcry blows over.
And I still think that ebay planned this to retract later, but I won't go into that again like I did in my previous post.
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