As many of you already know, the eBayTM, Seller Non Performance Policy has been the topic of many websites and discussion boards. When this author first started the ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business radio program, I was fortunate enough to feature on the show, Chris Romanowski from empire_liquidators, an ebay seller.

empire_liquidators is a large liquidator of return, salvage and shelf pull department store products on eBay and has been averaging over 2500 items on the site at any given time. This past weekend I happened to bring up the empire_liquidator auctions and to my amazement, the total number of items ws down to about 220. I know this is unusual, so I called Chris this morning to see what was happening. As I had suspected, based on my knowledge of their selling strategies, empire_liquidators have been suspended by eBay for violation of the Seller Non Perfomance Policy.

That's right, ebay has suspended a seller with a 99.6% positive feedback rating!

I talked at length with Chris this morning. He states he has had conference calls with Trust & Safety, in which they (eBay Trust & Safety) stated that empire's seller satisfaction rating is at 94.6%. In other words, 5.4% of empire_liquidators buyers are unhappy, yet empires feedback is still at 99.6%. Trust & Safety also told empire, that they (eBay) were "uncomfortable" with empire counting their own statistics, and the only statistics that count are those that eBay provides, and additionally Trust & Safety was uncomfortable providing access to managers in Trust & Safety so that empire could discuss this matter with management level personnel according to Chris.

According to Chris, with eBay taking into account the "negatives AND neutrals" in arriving at the 5.4% dissatisfied customer number, eBay has taken the step to suspend AND restrict their selling ability. This action was taken even though this PowerSellers rep at eBay has repeatedly over the past several months reassured empire that they were in good standing with eBay and had nothing to worry about! It should also be noted that according to Chris, empire_liquidators has paid over 2 million dollars in eBay fees in the past 2 years.

Chris told me this morning, that based on the eBay actions, empire_liquidators is or has begun moving a large number of items to Overstock.com auctions.

I will have Chris as my guest on our weekly ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business radio show in the very near future to allow him an opportunity to explain empire_liquidators position on this situation. Attempts are being made to contact eBay for a response and I will keep you posted and certainly post any comment from eBay.

One has to wonder, who is steering the ship at Trust & Safety? Why can eBay not provide hard and fast black and white rules and guidelines for the Seller Non Performance policy?

I have discussed this on the radio program in the past and will continue to do so until the mystery behind the Seller Non Perfomance policy issue is brought to light and made obvious to anyone!