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Students Embarrass eBay With Firefox Add-On
An anonymous reader sends along a posting from the Grooveking blog on a group of Stanford students who got together to help promote Firefox and ended up releasing a long overdue eBay Toolbar for Firefox before Mozilla and eBay could release their jointly developed extension in Europe. Mozilla's COO said the preemptive release of the eBay Toolbar had ruffled some feathers among European eBay execs. "Besides basic search features, it removes external ads on the site and allows users to see thumbnail pictures on ALL search items, even those sellers didn't pay for. An eBay toolbar has been long overdue... eBay can't be too enthusiastic about this toolbar since it cuts directly into its main sources of revenue: ads and thumbnail fees. But eBay users get a really good deal."
Violation of ToS =! Theft. Say that over and over again until you get that absurd idea out of your head.
If they want to block access from the toolbar (probably impossible since the processing is done on the end-user's computer), let them go ahead. But the end user is under no obligation to stop using said toolbar.
The new feedback system that just went into testing should help eliminate this. The problem is that the transaction is NOT finished when you pay. You could still dispute the credit card charge, or return the package, or file a complaint with the USPS, or any of a hundred other things. The new system *IS* more discrete and categorized, which hopefully means they will let us leave feedback in stages.
Also, I am in favor of not showing either party the feedback that the other user left until they have both left it. That would almost completely eliminate retaliatory feedback.
PS: I am a seller, and I actually do leave positive feedback as soon as the (proper) payment arrives.
If you visit the site with FIREFOX as your browser, it offers to install the toolbar. If you visit the site with EXPLORER as your browser, it offers to install firefox and the toolbar (making the assumption that you don't have firefox already installed.) Just access the plugin site with firefox and you should be okay.
eBay can't be too enthusiastic about this toolbar since it cuts directly into its main sources of revenue: ads and thumbnail fees.
I'm sorry but TFS is just wrong. Paypal is their main source of revenue. Believe me, double dipping by charging both sellers and buyers a fee to use the service is very lucrative.
I got nothin'