As most of you know eBay has recently announced they are taking MAJOR steps to increase the "Customer Experience" which include policies to benefit high volume sellers, changes to their Feedback system, and fee changes. Many of these changes have brought a chorus of disenchantment from sellers as evidenced by the blogs and discussion boards across the internet.

I listened in on the teleconference call jointly conducted by PESA (Professional eBay Sellers Alliance) and ECMTA (E-Commerce Merchant Trade Association) yesterday February 12, 2008 to discuss concerns over the announced eBay changes. This conference call was scheduled to be an hour and ended up lasting over 1 1/2 hours.

As I listened with profound interest, one point became overwhelmingly clear. Sellers on the site want to know exactly what policies will be in place to protect them from buyers as one of the changes will not allow sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers.

In it's Rewards & Standards overview of the changes, eBay's statement is:

• "Buyers will be held more accountable when sellers report an unpaid item or commit other policy violations."

This statement is a typical eBay "canned response". As I have listened in on the webcast eBay held at the Ecommerce forum, the latest eBay TownHall webcast and eBay Radio, Lorrie Norrington, Bill Cobb, John Donahoe and Matt Halprin have all said in essence, the same thing (go figure)" We will be devoting considerable resources to this, but must rely on the seller to report abuse" (I am paraphrasing).

It is time for eBay to "can" the "canned responses". It is time for eBay to be upfront and DESCRIBE exactly what steps are in place to address this concern, describe in detail how this will be monitored, and how eBay will deal with these situations. It is time for eBay to respond to those that report abuses, both buyers and sellers, and follow up, no longer with the "canned response" and let us know what the outcome of the report is.

I know eBay will say this is confidential information, but if I report a problem to law enforcement, they tell me what the outcome is, why should it be any different with eBay. eBay does not have to give me the personal information, just let me know that the report was investigated and the user has either been cleared or sanctioned and why.

eBay should develop a process to address these report IMMEDIATELY. They (eBay) should not take the step of restricting or suspending anyone without TALKING to them first! Not an email, a real live person contacting the affected user and giving them a chance to respond BEFORE taking action. Sending emails to advise a user that they have been sanctioned and telling them that they must use email to resolve the situation is no longer a viable solution. Many many users who have been victim of restrictions or suspensions have waited weeks or months for the "canned response" from eBay.

When real peoples lives and livelyhoods are at stake is this the right thing to do? I don't think so!

JUST MY OPINION

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