eBay Is Conducting a 'Mass Layoff' In the Bay Area (mercurynews.com)

eBay is planning to slash nearly 300 jobs from Bay Area locations by July 20, calling the cuts a "mass layoff." Those being laid off were informed at the end of June, reports The Mercury News. The San Jose-based company estimated that it would eliminate 224 jobs in San Jose, 41 in San Francisco, and five in Brisbane. From the report: "This action is expected to be permanent," eBay stated in the Employment Development Department filing. "No affected employee has any bumping rights." Over the one-year period that ended in March, eBay lost $1.64 billion on revenues of $9.84 billion, according to information posted on the Yahoo Finance site. During the first quarter that ended March 31, eBay earned $407 million on revenues of $2.58 billion. Compared to the year-ago first quarter, profits were down 60.7 percent and revenue rose 12 percent.

Comments

How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

It's a scaled up beanie baby store - how do you actually lose money with that market share? If I was CEO I think I would just find 100 of the best and brightest to run it, fire all the deadwood and make bank - hope more layoffs are coming!

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[EvilSS]

They are losing revenue to Amazon and craigslist. Amazon from "professional" sellers moving where the sales are, and craigslist for the guy wanting to sell his one or two whatevers and not deal with ebay, their fees, shipping, and the increasing possibility of getting ripped off by unscrupulous buyers and ebay's overly customer friendly dispute policies.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a scaled up beanie baby store - how do you actually lose money with that market share?

Hire 14,000 people?

https://www.cheshnotes.com/ebay-number-of-employees/

There's no reason Ebay couldn't run on 500-1000 employees, possibly even far less. California tech companies are perfect examples of Big Money == Big Bloat. Ueber, which has even LESS functionality than eBay has NEVER been profitable.

Frankly I think Silcone valley is headed for a massive fall. This massive hiring for these tech companies just can't last. Maybe this is the start of it?

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[110010001000]

They are? Revenue rose 12% to $9.84 billion. How can you not make a profit running a website at close to $10 billion revenue?

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep. Just about the only real use for eBay these days are sellers of hobby items, where the hobby isn't popular enough to support local clubs or sales gatherings. Even that stuff will usually have a hobby-centric forum somewhere that has a "sales area" for like minded hobbyists to advertise and facilitate transactions via PayPal.

When eBay and PayPal were the same company, they fed off each other. Now that they're separate, people are finding that the 'payment between untrusted parties' part is a lot more needed than the 'find the item I want' part.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[gravewax]

probably from all their desperate sales to bring shoppers back. There doesn't seem to be a week that goes buy without ebay subsidising a sale for one large vendor or another with 20% discounts. I am guessing a lot of people are sick of the scammers, the overpriced items and are simply more aware of the alternatives out their. hell 90% of the shit on ebay (and amazon for that matter) is just Aliexpress stuff with 500% markup in price.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[Bing Tsher E]

eBay spends too much time trying to be Amazon. It's the place I go for obscure electronic parts* and old test equipment. But every time I go there the browser has to load a bunch of sleek counterfeit merchandise and bullshit for consumers. eBay has gone way too vanilla in the last decade.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[AHuxley]

Different US states have tax rates that are not great.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[AvitarX]

I use eBay for pretty regularly (in the hundreds a year range) for a lot of different things. Used blazers are a great buy there with a vibrant market and my size. I just purchased a Wii, I've purchased drug like substances (though they're cracked down and nobody's account is around log enough to be reliable, legal, not research chems, just to clarify), used computer stuff, glassware that's cheap and from China, used video games, medium old computer components (I needed a 10 base 2 connect (or whatever they were called) a few years ago for work, eBay got me one for cheap and fast, same for weird SCSI connectors/terminators for old but expensive hardware.

I haven't found a better market for these things (better meaning price and ease of searching). Sure, it's not as relevant as it used to be, but it has a purpose..

10 billion a year seems like a reasonable revenue stream for them. I often end up there through Google when lookog for something I want, so presumably they're one of the better options for things I'm looking for.

Re: How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not tax. It's the 14,000 employees, I suspect.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[Anonymous Coward]

Easy, they turned themselves into a chinese flea market, can only take so much rent, have zero vision to do anything else, and their current market is saturated.

I sell on eBay here and there but would never buy there. I don't sell anything of consequence either, been burned too often by their policies. Fuck everything about them.

I assume some the executives are basically robbing what's not nailed down via lavish pay.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[Anonymous Coward]

They are losing revenue to Amazon

Always baffles me that Amazon is so popular. Everything about their site and service turned to shit in the last few years.

Ebay is pretty much always cheaper, doesn't obfuscate who sells something, has more items and a search engine that actually finds what you're looking for, not what Amazon thinks I should buy instead.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[DrXym]

And AliExpress. People are buying all their tat direct from Chinese sellers. Who needs eBay and its expensive listing fees?

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[Anonymous Coward]

That.
Aliexpress is kicking the shit out of a lot of chinacrap retailers. Get your china crap direct from china for a tiny fraction of what you pay in the usa.
Thanks to the killer deal china and the post office have. It's even cheaper to have stuff shipped from china than it is from the usa.

Aliexpress has far better customer service too and there's no screwing around if you have a problem.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a new eBay seller and I'm going to have to disagree with you. Nearly all new items on eBay are drop shipped with a lot of them coming from Amazon. In fairness there are 5% off Amazon credit cards, affiliate links, Prime provides free shipping, and you can buy discounted gift cards, so in reality those resellers are getting 5-15% discount on everything they buy but they're also paying at most 13% in eBay/Paypal fees. So those using all the tricks can sell things cheaper on eBay, but those who aren't are selling slightly higher than Amazon.

eBay has had a bunch of glitches this past year and are alienating a lot of sellers. They completely lost product images for tons of listing, had all their view counters stop working (blamed new browser security features), and are trying to change their from a search-based listing to a product-based listing. Meaning it'll look more like Amazon with a recommended seller and a link/section for these-guys-are-also-selling-this. They are trying to get the manufacturers to be in the buy-box position. If they succeed, eBay stops being a collection of random sellers and becomes the store itself. Accepting free returns is slowly becoming mandatory which will crush a lot of small sellers as buyers make a lot of fraudulent returns. Etc... Basically eBay is trying to become more consumer friendly (good thing, but they are also screwing the seller in the process instead of helping us) while setting itself up as the seller instead of random of people.

I agree that the search and choice of products is better on eBay. Please buy from sellers with lower feedback (under 10k). Those are the guys working hard to make their living and need your purchases. The ones with tons of feedback are simply scraping from all the major retailers and automatically forwarding your order to them. Their cash cow is polluting the search results with copycats so you randomly pick their listing.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Ebay is pretty much always cheaper

I find just the opposite for 99% of the stuff I look at- it's almost always a few bucks more on ebay than on Amazon.

Part of this is due to the man-in-the-middle scheme, where someone lists something on ebay for a few bucks more than on Amazon, and when they get an order they just buy it from Amazon and have it sent directly to the seller. They make a couple of bucks for doing nothing except transferring the order from ebay to Amazon.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[Cajun Hell]

Huh. My first question was "How did you have as many as 300 employees in the first place?" Perhaps our two questions, when combined, start to paint a coherent picture.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you think that craigslist is somehow easier to sell on than eBay, I beg to differ. I've sold several things on both sites. On eBay, auction non-payment is a huge problem that I experienced about 50% of the time. However, I've found that using the "buy it now" option results in a pretty high successful transaction rate. In my experience, about 50% of the buyers on craigslist don't actually want what you have, can't understand written or spoken english, or can't pay for it, or just don't show up when the transaction is supposed to take place. Buy yes I agree that eBay has shifted too far in dispute resolution toward buyers. I just don't agree that craigslist is somehow better due to the flakiness of the people that shop there.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well...lots of ways. CEO Dummy Wenig got a private plane for all travel last year or the year before due to "safety concerns" and flies to the Hamptons every weekend. Then there's the generous awards to all of these clowns that come in, fuck something up, and move on (or, worse, don't). eBay's also bought and dismantled numerous smaller companies. Then there's having sales so poor that you subsidize flash sales to the tune of 20% to boost quarterly numbers...while collecting 10% fees from sellers. US sellers anyway...Chinese clogging the site with duplicate and fraudulent listings with US-subsidized "free" shipping don't pay anything because Dummy thinks they're the future. Then there's the dumb advertising campaigns that almost nobody actually sees. "Fill you cart with color?" What the hell does that mean?

Most of eBay's anemic growth has been charging their 10% fees on the annual 5% growth in shipping prices.

Personally, as an old-time eBay user who tried to start a business there a few years ago, eBay is its own worst enemy. It hates to be a "flea market" full of used/new-old-stock goods and desperately wants to be Amazon. That sort of stuff was what I went to eBay for and I've all but stopped shopping as they've driven away those vintage sellers. At the same time, the fees are so crazy high and visibility so throttled that I just couldn't make it selling new unless I engaged in scalping, which I hate, and even then the benefit was marginal at best. Judging from the looks of it, that's what many are using eBay for and I just can't be bothered to put up with it scalping/scalpers when I have better options.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[Anonymous Coward]

eBay has had a bunch of glitches this past year and are alienating a lot of sellers.

As someone working for eBay (hence the AC), let me fill you in on what happens after such a glitch. First of all, our uptime is measured by the second. This is referred to as ATB time.

There is a very, very rigorous change process. Nobody is allowed to even access the production network until they completed a training dubbed "Think Twice", and passed a subsequent test with a 90% score. If you make a change without an approved CR, you will lose your badge the same day. Medium and high risk changes must be approved by CAB and in some cases on VP level.

If you still manage to screw up despite your change being reviewed by your peers, your manager, CAB and a VP, you end up in the sharky waters of "Problem Management". You will be invited for a tea-no-biscuits meeting with Problem Management, the SEC, your manager, SRE, and typically a VP (or higher, depending on the impact). This is your chance to explain what happened, why it happened, how you mitigated it, and what you learned from it for the future. If you are a frequent flyer in post-mortem meetings, that typically means that your days at eBay are limited.

I recently had the "opportunity" to present a post-mortem analysis after a "glitch" which impacted business for less than 60 seconds. Trust me, it's not a pleasurable experience.

From the inside I can tell you: eBay takes "glitches" very, very seriously.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[datavirtue]

I use the fuck out of Craigslist. It is fun and managing the scams is easy and straight-forward.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[datavirtue]

Send a message to seller...."can you please sell on CL?" Watch them jump.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[ayesnymous]

If I want something cheap, a lot of times eBay will have it with free shipping, so that I don't have to try to find other items at Amazon to qualify for the $25 free shipping.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[AvitarX]

CL is great for stuff that's close, but I'd be worried about transactions where I can't pick up.

Re:How do you lose money if you're eBay?

[nwf]

Sounds right. I stopped going there years ago. Most stuff was either:

1. Shipped direct from China and generally garbage with long ship times.
2. Priced over MSRP and/or current prices on Amazon.
3. Have such poor descriptions and photos, I can't even tell what's being sold.

Although in fairness, #3 is a problem for amazon as well. I can't count how many movies or shows I've looked up to purchase on Blu Ray and they have basically no information as to what's included.

The rare situation where I find something that's obviously made in China but being sold by a US seller, I've found that it rarely lives up to the description. Either it doesn't work or it lasts like a week.

I have tons of stuff I'd sell on eBay, but even all the stories I read and here from people directly about fraud and how eBay handles it, I'll just toss it in the dumpster. Not worth the trouble for $10.

Because PayPal and Amazon

[Anonymous Coward]

I stopped using eBay because of PayPal. I've not ever considered returning because of Amazon.

Re:Because PayPal and Amazon

[rmdingler]

Be careful what you wish for. Amazon, the behemoth, is nearing 50% of total online sales... ebay, Apple, and Walmart are 2,3,& 4, with multiple imitators attempting to crack the top few.

Full disclosure: I'm an Amazon Prime subscriber, yet balance is of tantamount importance in every marketplace.

Re: Because PayPal and Amazon

[Anonymous Coward]

I stopped using eBay years back because of Amazon but Amazon's been pissing me off so much the last few years I'm starting to check eBay more and more again. Amazon can't even figure out how to ship a ****ing book anymore. I've had several expensive paperbacks ruined (covers ripped off) because Amazon just throws them in a box without so much as adding packing. Back in the day even if it was a ten dollar book they'd shrink wrap it to cardboard for protection but doing that these days cuts too much into Bezos profit I guess. How else would Bezos fund his private rain forest? Bill Gates has an island sure but at least he's quiet about that stuff.

Re:Because PayPal and Amazon

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you meant paramount.

tantamount: equivalent in seriousness to; virtually the same as.
paramount: more important than anything else; supreme.

Re: Because PayPal and Amazon

[Anonymous Coward]

Last book I bought on Amazon came loose in a box and the cover was creased and dented. I returned it for a replacement, and this time it came in a padded envelope. Amazingly, the replacement was in much better condition.

Re: Because PayPal and Amazon

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to let my Amazon Prime subscription lapse for the exact same reason. No matter what you order, it is unlikely to be packed even close to sufficient, especially if it hopes to survive the untender mercilessness of the USPS.

Although Amazon Japan, at least in shipments to the US, still does the 'shrink wrap to cardboard' thing for books and other small items. Probably due to the culture in Japan. Please, no one tell Bezos that there's still a part of his empire that thinks a bit about the customer, or he'll put a stop to it.

Re: Because PayPal and Amazon

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes I feel badly for those laid off but eBay and PayPal have been nothing but dicks in my interactions with them. Not surprising people are shopping elsewhere.

Re: Because PayPal and Amazon

[Anonymous Coward]

Japan is awesome with that stuff. A couple years back I ordered a couple books on buddha directly from a Japanese religious publisher because they had them new for $20 and Amazon used wanted $450+ a piece. Anyways In my decades of mail ordering I've never seen a package that beautiful. It came in this box custom sized to the books and then they took that plastic package strapping and wrapped the box like youd wrap ribbons around a birthday present. I was impressed to say the least.

Re:Because PayPal and Amazon

[Hadlock]

Yeah I see a lot of stuff for sale on Amazon that's also on ebay. Especially for arduino-level stuff where you're buying a raw 12:1 12v electric motor, or whatever, ebay has always been great, but now those guys have an amazon seller account too, and the amazon model makes reviews a lot more accessible.

Comparatively on ebay it's a lot easier to accidentally buy an "PlayStation .4 - Box only" rather than the item you wanted to buy. And Amazon has their 2 day prime delivery network, which is hard to beat. Anything ordered on Ebay is going to come in a shitty plastic bag via USPS in 4-9 days typically.

Re:Because PayPal and Amazon

[postbigbang]

I find Amazon ratings full of WTFs, not that the Never A Negative Review on FleaBay is much better. Amazon's search engine truly sucks. Ebay's is only a tiny bit better.

It's shipping where the Prime marketing delivers. Ebay lacks really good supply chain tech. And their customer support is pretty lame.

Re: Because PayPal and Amazon

[Anonymous Coward]

Please, no one tell Bezos that there's still a part of his empire that thinks a bit about the customer, or he'll put a stop to it

No worries there, mate, they belong to a different empire --- and I am glad. Bezos won't even blink. I don't hate him; he created the current definition of disruptor

Re:Because PayPal and Amazon

[datavirtue]

The search is good enough but if it doe not return results I expect, I switch to the Google (go directly to Google site as my default search is DDG). The suggestions and products other people have bought is where the magic happens--delivering value for all: Amazon, the sellers, and the buyers. It is the epitome of targeted advertising. Everyone loves target advertising. I use Amazon to research products and most of the time I buy from them. If wal-mart and other retailers had an e-commerce that was tuned for the consumer I would use their sites in the comparison progress and identify the bricks and mortar location to get the product now--but they (Target, Wal-Mart etc..) completely muddy their sites with crap making it impossible to do this.

Why would I want to see someone else selling a product through wal-mart's site!? I want to find the store that has it NOW!

Any threat to Amazon is perceived.

Re: Because PayPal and Amazon

[datavirtue]

Only complete fucking douche-bag nerds would get upset over a slight bit of sub-optimal packaging. Jesus, you ordered from
Amazon because they made ALL the hard stuff easy for you and got it there quick. Your condition is called "barely functioning autistic."

Re: Because PayPal and Amazon

[datavirtue]

I think one of the problems with eBay is summed up by this comment. People still associate their extremely negative Pay-Pal interactions with eBay. It seemed the obvious synergy to spread the Pay-Pal name all over eBay like hot honey butter but in the end it is a rotting taint. I still shudder with memories of Pay-Pal when I think of eBay--and vice versa.

Re: Because PayPal and Amazon

[Anonymous Coward]

Found the amazon warehouse ogre.

Re:Because PayPal and Amazon

[rmdingler]

Ebay is golden for obscure parts like specialty motors, equipment, and such that are difficult to source elsewhere, and the service is generally better than the pessimist in me suggests it might be...

Amazon is the ultimate umbrella corporation, protecting the purchaser better than competitors from the malfeasance of sellers not burdened by a super-sized conscience.

yawn ...

[Hugh Jorgen]

no news here, move on

Forget market share

[rsilvergun]

they're practically a bookie. They don't operate much of anything, they're a middle man. And they take 8-15% of gross. Are they losing that much to fraud? They don't have any crazy tech initiatives, and they sold off Paypal. They had almost $10 billion in revenue and spent $11 billion. What the devil did they do with all that money?

Re:Forget market share

[Anonymous Coward]

overstaffing of bay area employees that stroll in around 10, out for lunch from 12 to 2, and home by 5.

Re:Forget market share

[Anonymous Coward]

They had almost $10 billion in revenue and spent $11 billion. What the devil did they do with all that money?

My thought exactly. They spent more than $11 Billion . . . . on what?

And how does it take more than 50 people to run the entire business?

Re:Forget market share

[Narcocide]

. . . on what?

Office rent.

Re:Forget market share

[vtcodger]

"What the devil did they do with all that money?"

Hey, hookers and drugs aren't cheap. And neither is a penchant for trying to fill inside straights.

Re:Forget market share

[DrXym]

I should think that fraud is a major part of their income. Seller sells a bunch of counterfeit goods, only a % of buyers open a dispute, eBay seizes the sellers funds and after resolving disputes keeps the rest as well as all the transaction / listing fees. Rinse and repeat.

I've never thought that any middle man service, be it AliExpress, eBay, Amazon, Kickstarter et al really takes fraud that seriously. They'll pay lip service to combatting it, but at the end of the day they still profit from both ends from it happening.

Re: Forget market share

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, they enable and commit fraud. I dont how they are losing money.

Re:Forget market share

[Anonymous Coward]

My thought exactly. They spent more than $11 Billion . . . . on what?

Advertising and promotions. They've been making a big push to get people to go there first for fashion, home furnishings, gifts, etc. I don't know why anyone would, considering that their stock is more random than TJ Maxx with much higher risk. They're desperate to get away from the garage sale reputation when that's really the only reason to buy from them.

Re:Forget market share

[Anonymous Coward]

Scaling a system the size of eBay is a non-trivial problem. Years ago (this may still be true today) the search engine got more hits per day than google's. Unlike systems like CraigsList, there is lots of tech under the surface at eBay - machine learning to help with ranking, inventory analysis, etc. If you let a system like that run on autopilot, it will slowly become irrelevant, as it had begun to do so back in 2007.

Re:Forget market share

[datavirtue]

I sold a laptop there two years ago and they sent me a message telling me I could have the money in a month. I told the buyer I could not sell it to them after all and they understood. I refunded the money and no sale transpired. eBay hounded me for their $80 or whatever. I told them never to call me again and they haven't. I'm banned for life. Thank god.

The only thing I used eBay for was buying refurbished laptops. There are other places to get them. I really lost interest when it became loaded with Chinese vendors. The only real value was in person-to-person sales and that was a lot of fun. Now it is stale and boring on top of the the scams...I bet the place is mostly scams now.

Re: Forget market share

[Anonymous Coward]

"What the devil did they do with all that money?"

Apparently it takes 14,000 H1-Bs to run an auction website.

Another Victory For Trump's America

[Anonymous Coward]

It's Christmas in July

Re: Another Victory For Trump's America

[Anonymous Coward]

No American jobs were lost.

I've been to eBay's headquarters as a vendor. Pretty sure my company were the only US citizens on campus that day.

I wonder

[RickyShade]

If beginning to rip off their customers with flat 10% fees had anything to do with it? There are cheaper and better alternatives and they refused to keep up with the times. eBay is gonna go away like Blockbuster, Toys R Us, and anyone else who refused to change with the times.

Re:I wonder

[AvitarX]

What's a better alternative (as a buyer)?

I'd love to shop for second hand and obscure things somewhere the sellers are happy.

Re:I wonder

[Nunya666]

What's a better alternative (as a buyer)?

What's a better alternative (as a seller)?

No other site (that I am aware of) comes close to their market share. If you want to get your old junk in front of as many eyes as possible, then you're stuck with eBay's fees.

Re:I wonder

[datavirtue]

Craig's List and Amazon are good enough to escape the third-world malaise of eBay.

How can they possibly not be making bank?

[AbRASiON]

Have you all seen the goddamn fees to use ebay? It's a disgrace.

Maybe people are using it less? I try to avoid selling on there absolutely as much as possible.
(Note: Australian here, being scammed on ebay seems far less likely than in the US)

Re:How can they possibly not be making bank?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ebay Australia is the scam. 15% are fees and are one of the most expensive things I pay per month behind postage and private house rent. I just sell things from home and can't imagine how businesses make eBay viable.

It is far more than gas, water and electricity for which where I am (South Australia) pay some of the highest electricity prices in the world.

Re:How can they possibly not be making bank?

[houghi]

I use email adresses like companyname.com@example.com so that I know where spam comes from. In the 10 years (or more) that I have been doing this, only ebay was spamming me. Well, probably their sellers. For that sole reason I removed the address and gladly give my money to others.

Re:How can they possibly not be making bank?

[bobby]

Have you all seen the goddamn fees to use ebay? It's a disgrace.

Maybe people are using it less? I try to avoid selling on there absolutely as much as possible.
(Note: Australian here, being scammed on ebay seems far less likely than in the US)

The rapid proliferation of rampant fees is one of the many downsides of "free market" economics. It's suddenly everywhere in the US- airlines, any travel really, car repair, restaurants, concert tickets, the list goes on and on. I'm sure someone somewhere has a "fee processing fee".

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/land-of-the-fee-9780199970162?cc=us&lang=en&

Re:How can they possibly not be making bank?

[datavirtue]

"I'm sure someone somewhere has a "fee processing fee"."

Every bank known to man.

Re: How can they possibly not be making bank?

[astrofurter]

I've heard it called "gotcha capitalism". Basically a form of lawful fraud.

maybe

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe if their site didn't lock up my browser for 2 minutes, while it loades God-Knows-What, everytime I go to my watch list I'd actually use the site more. It didn't use to do that.

Re:maybe

[RickyShade]

You need to troubleshoot. Maybe your browser has a trash addon/extension. Something out of the ordinary is going on there. TLDR: It's not them, it's you.

Haven't used Ebay in years

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to think EBay was the greatest thing until they got greedy and began to negatively punish sellers and almost always side with customer on disputes.
Its not worth it to sell on Ebay and the sellers either charge too much or they offer little compared to retail stores

Re: Haven't used Ebay in years

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously the selection on ebay is incomparably better than a local storeâ(TM)s, especially for used items.

Re:Haven't used Ebay in years

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep I quit eBay when sellers could no longer leave negative feedback about buyers. It was clear they cared more about volume sales instead of the sellers that were loyal to them. Screw em.

Hahahaha

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what happenes when you dicks charge an arm and a leg to used stuff and screw the seller completely. It turns into an online store which you can't compete with Amazon.

Serves you right, laid off eBay scum

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to do a lot of shopping through eBay. One day PayPal froze my account. No idea why. I lost several hundred dollars in it. They made it so difficult to activate I just gave up and stopped using eBay altogether. I haven't shopped there for years.

At the time they scum at eBay and PayPal no doubt couldn't give a shit. And they got to keep my money.

I'm no the only one. There are many stories on the net and man web sites dedicated to people screwed over by eBay and PayPal. Corporate knew about this but they ignored us.

Well now the chickens come home to roost. To those laid of eBay employees; HA HA! I hope you end up living on the street. This is what happens when you treat your customers like shit. Enjoy your unemployment assholes!

Re:Serves you right, laid off eBay scum

[bobby]

I used to do a lot of shopping through eBay. One day PayPal froze my account. No idea why. I lost several hundred dollars in it. They made it so difficult to activate I just gave up and stopped using eBay altogether. I haven't shopped there for years.

I had a somewhat similar experience, but in the end it was a good thing. I'm a pretty tenacious person at times. I called ebay, paypal, my bank, Visa, each many times and nobody would tell me squat. I got a VP of IT at the bank to dig into their server records (I told you I'm tenacious) and he figured out that ebay (maybe FBI too?) had flagged the seller as criminal and automatically blocked the transaction, but did not want to tip off anyone who might work for the criminal and try to test the system. The flag triggered freezes on the PayPal, Visa debit, and tiny bank account I use for online purchases. To fix it I had to call yet another entity: a mysterious security company and answer a bunch of questions and they reactivated the accounts. I was glad for the protection, but not the hassles and non-communication about it.

This is happening more and more, and in light of recent articles about SIM card hacking, personal info database leaks, and all forms of "identity theft", it brings up a very important question: how can someone verify that you are who you say you are? I don't care how many factors of authentication you use, someone will find a way to get in- through or around.

Re:Serves you right, laid off eBay scum

[datavirtue]

They cannot keep your money. It falls under RegE and must be submitted to the state that you are from so they can notify you to get your money.

Re: Serves you right, laid off eBay scum

[astrofurter]

C'mon, this is PayPal we're talking about. Robbing their users is a big part of their business model.

LOL

[Anonymous Coward]

In the article fleabay management says "we are a technology company". The reality is they are a trading platform where people unload their unwanted trash. If you don't understand your own business you are more than certain to fail. Ebay. Become more efficient in allowing your customers to buy and sell trash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKtlK7sn0JQ

Re:LOL

[dkone]

One man's trash is another's treasure. That is what made the first few years of Ebay successful. What it has become is more the trading platform you are eluding to. Now trying to find the treasure is almost impossible since 95% of the shit on Ebay is from corporate interests just selling junk.

Re:LOL

[bobby]

Yeah, my biggest problem with ebay is the search itself. They disallowed wildcards years ago. I wrote and called and nobody would explain why. I told them they were being greedy and stupid- that in the short-term they might spark more sales, but in the long term, buyers will tire of not finding things. I even mentioned Amazon twice- the first time the ebay rep. said "ouch, that wasn't nice". The second time (different rep) just hung up on me.

So now I have the almost opposite problem: I enter an exact search, and I get items that do not have that search term in the title. I don't want seller's "keywords" - I want my exact search terms from the titles ONLY. Oh, gee, craigslist lets me do that.

Also, if I want to find an item, I don't want all of the accessories. If I search for "laptop", I'll get "laptop power adapter". I have to use dozens of tedious and tiring minus terms. And maybe someone has "laptop with power adapter" but "laptop -power -adapter" search will exclude that laptop that I might otherwise bid on. Stupid.

So I use ebay less and less.

If ebay can fix their search, they might turn the tide.

What is the new terminology?

[Anonymous Coward]

This used to be called right-sizing... or downsizing... or a market-adjustment. Have we come full circle?

Re:What is the new terminology?

[Anonymous Coward]

And what the fuck is a Bumping Right?

Re:What is the new terminology?

[gordguide]

And what the fuck is a Bumping Right?

It's when an employee has some kind of tenure with the company, so that they can take another's job, and that other person gets laid off.

Re: What is the new terminology?

[Anonymous Coward]

Its union bullshit where someone with seniority can simply take the job of someone with lower seniority. Lower seniority person is on the street with nothing.

Re: What is the new terminology?

[astrofurter]

But eBay is non-union.

A/Cs hate the customer.

[Anonymous Coward]

At the time of this posting, EVERY post that mentions something about "always siding with the customer" is done by an AC including a reply you got to this post. I wonder why that is?

Re:A/Cs hate the customer.

[datavirtue]

I'll go on the record to agree with them. eBay does not realize that their customer is the seller. I expect eBay to be purchased by China.

Privacy offender.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you buy anything off their site as a guest they create a dummy profile and start spamming you to sign into their site. You can't unsubscribe from these emails unless you create a full account. When you contact them to delete the account their staff are quite aggressive in tone and don't want to delete your account. You have to be quite firm. They start asking all these questions about your identity, pretending to be verifying it is you, but they don't have this information in the first place from the dummy account. I won't be buying anything off them again.

because ebay went to shit, on purpose

[Anonymous Coward]

A few years ago an insider wrote an article admitting that internally ebay's policy changes were purposefully designed to push out the small sellers.

The changes to the feedback and refund systems made it so that it is no longer safe to sell on ebay. Anyone can purchase your goods, claim it's defective, return an empty box to you, and ebay trusts that the shipping label tracked back to you means they actually returned it to you. ebay then steals the funds from you (out of your control), and refunds it to the "buyer". (scammer!)
There is *zero* recourse available to sellers for this behavior.
The feedback and comment system changes over the years have been nothing but one-sided against sellers. No recourse against deadbeat bidders (at least you don't lose product--but you still pay ebay fees). No recourse against libelous reviews.

So, I quit selling on ebay years ago because of this. No regrets--it was a hassle anyways.

Re:because ebay went to shit, on purpose

[Anonymous Coward]

Amazon ain't that great either dude. I had some asshole return something on the last day of the 60 day return period, and when I finally received it back, it was busted. Nothing I could do.

Re:because ebay went to shit, on purpose

[datavirtue]

Why is this modded zero? He described exactly what happens on eBay.

Re:How do you drive casinos to bankrupcy ?

[Bing Tsher E]

I think Meg Whitman already tried.

Re: How do you drive casinos to bankrupcy ?

[Anonymous Coward]

She forgot, California governor office doesn't have a Buy It Now! button

they are friendly to buyer : seller are worst

[aepervius]

More victims among buyers than among sellers Reported by 2.7 percent of the population, fraud connected with an online purchase â" non-delivery of goods or services which have been paid for â" is significantly more common than fraudulent sales transactions, where goods or services are delivered but not paid for (0.2 percent).

https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2013/43/three-percent-of-online-buyers-and-sellers-victims-of-fraud

it is from nl, but I heard similar statistic in germany. Basically company are more friendly to buyer because statistically there is far more probability to get scammed by a seller than being not paid by buyer. It is definitively right to be more friendly by buyer too, increase of buyer number would attract seller, but a bad rep for buyer and chasing away sink the palteform.

Re:they are friendly to buyer : seller are worst

[EvilSS]

That's 5 years old dude.

They used to be so great

[dkone]

Before they bought PayPal, Ebay was such an awesome place to conduct business. I used to sell a lot of stuff (as a private seller) through Ebay. I had a great reputation and made some nice side money. Then they tried their hardest to ram PayPal down everyone's throat. That is when I was left, it was such a hassle. I moved my stuff to CL and continued to sell, prices went down, but for the most part I was selling local and didn't have to deal with shipping or fees, so in the end CL was a much better choice.

Now Ebay is a joke. Every corporate interest has a store front their. As a buyer that knew the original Ebay I see their current site and have to say it is very confusing. They really should have stuck to what made them great, which was letting private sellers move their junk. If I don't go to Amazon to find something and just use a general search, any shopping hit that comes up the is from Ebay is a guarantee that I won't look at it.

I feel for the people getting laid off, they aren't the ones that caused this. All the senior management will keep their jobs and Ebay will continue to be a confusing market front.

Re:They used to be so great

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah ... it's basically the opposite of what you said.

eBay wasn't really good to use UNTIL they bought Paypal. Their ownership and direct integration with Paypal made them great. The two companies leveraged each other quite well. Paypal made a ton of profit, but believe it or not, most of the innovation was going on in Marketplace. Paypal made huge use of those innovations.

Carl Icahn destroyed eBay by splitting it.

Re:They used to be so great

[datavirtue]

OK. Log in and post that trash.

They're Seller-Hostile

[mnslinky]

In the past several years, eBay has become hostile to sellers. I don't have a lot of volume on that site, but I cringe every time someone buys something from my business. Only buyers can leave negative feedback for a seller, and the "eBay Buyer Protection" is a mislabeled "eBay Fraud Enabler" feature.

Case in point, I recently sold a security panel main circuit board replacement. I realized I had one more for sale than I had in inventory, so this particular one ended up being drop-shipped from one of my distributors. This wasn't a used part, or one that was sitting on my shelf for a long time, this was brand-new, recent stock.

The buyer received the item and immediately requested a return claiming the board was defective. Their comment was that, "upon power-up the board makes several loud clicking noises." The is a DSC circuit board, and those loud clicks are an indicator that the panel has been "dealer locked". Not even the manufacturer can unlock a panel in this condition. It's not possible the panel would have been dealer locked from the manufacturer.

I asked the buyer to provide me the serial number of the board he was going to return so I could compare it to the one my distributor had shipped. The buyer responded with, "I'm not putting up with your hassle, I'll appeal to eBay."

Now, I had listed the item as "No returns", but apparently eBay Fraud Enabler simply overrides this setting and they lock your funds and force you to accept the return or simply refund the buyer's money. This is crap.

This case is still open with eBay, but the buyer was supposed to return the faulty circuit board to me by July 16. It never arrived, so I suspect this will resolve in my favor. It hasn't stopped the buyer from leaving me my first ever negative feedback since I joined the site in 1999 (really!): "Worst seller broken part tried to scam and refund." That sentence doesn't even make sense.

I've never really "needed" eBay. Paypal's recent issues, as well, I'm thinking I'll just close both accounts and walk the other way.

Re:They're Seller-Hostile

[Anonymous Coward]

I've dealt with the same thing. The eBay rep basically said that they side with the buyer because they have no reason to believe that the buyer is lying about the reason for the return, even if the buyer says that the return request is bogus in eBay's own messaging system. It's a rigged system and they don't even try to hide it. As for the "No Returns" bit, there's no such thing. If you accept returns, the buyer pays for return shipping. If you don't, then you pay for return shipping as punishment for not accepting returns; you can't not accept returns. Returns are a huge problem with hobby items that have huge swings in price in a short time - people will just buy the same thing multiple times and return (or threaten to return to get the seller to cancel the sale if the item hasn't shipped) the more expensive ones to save money. Some buyers use the threat of returns to shake sellers down for discounts.

On the flipside, eBay encourages shill bidding, so sellers can use that to maximize sale prices. Some sellers blatantly use shill bidders on just about every sale (using 0 feedback bidders to bid up the price of the item at the last minute and then retracting any winning bids) and eBay never takes any action against them. There's probably money to be made in a shill bidding service, or eBay could just add an autoshill feature to maximize their return in fees.

Re:They're Seller-Hostile

[PseudoAnon]

That sounds like a very bad experience and like their system is set up for enabling many more experiences like that. Thank you for sharing. Your story and the one posted in reply were fascinating to read.

The feedback system is retarded...

[Anonymous Coward]

Every time I buy something I don't need the whole world to know via the public feedback that lets any random mother fucker see everything one bought. Not to mention they can get your address simply by buying something, so if they see you bought some expensive electronics gear by scraping your feedback, then all they have to do is get somebody to buy some shit from you, and they have your address and a list of all the goodies in your house. I don't get how something so insanely privacy hostile is even a thing in 2018.

Curious ....Executive Pay?

[PortHaven]

"eBay earned $407 million on revenues of $2.58 billion. Compared to the year-ago first quarter, profits were down 60.7 percent and revenue rose 12 percent"

Revenues up, profits down....first thing I would want to know is HOW MUCH did Executive Compensation increase during that time.

- Jason