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?

[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.

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

[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.

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: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.

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.