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EBay Announces Even More Changes, Customers Still Confused

Posted on: Wednesday, 20 August 2008, 12:05 CDT

In an effort to attract new buyers and appease many current shoppers, eBay Inc announced it plans to cut fees U.S. sellers pay for fixed-price items on its Web site.

"I'd say this is the most fundamental change we've made, ever, to the marketplace," said Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay marketplace operations.

"It's a huge shift from where we've been."

Earlier this year, eBay made changes to its fee structure, search results and feedback system in hopes of making the online shopping experience better for its shoppers. However, many sellers have complained that their experience with the online auction site has never been worse.

In January, eBay cut the fees it charges for listing an item, but raised its commissions on completed sales of products auctioned for less than $1,000 or sold at fixed prices lower than $100. Meanwhile, the company began taking a lesser bite out of higher-end fixed-price sales - as much as 4 percent instead of a previous maximum of 5 percent.

At the time, eBay said more than 60 percent of its sellers would save money under the new rules. But plenty of complaints poured in. EBay responded by cutting listing fees by as much as half for items in its "media" category - such as books and DVDs - that sell for under $25.

Jonathan Garriss, executive director of the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance and head of Gotham City Online, which sells shoes on eBay, said his group's members are seeing fewer of their listed items sell, and lower average prices for things that do sell.

EBay is hoping to address the recent issue of its slowly growing list of active users.

In the most recent quarter, active users grew only 1.4 percent to 84.5 million.

The new “Diamond PowerSeller” plan allows high volume sellers to become eligible for reduced fees.

One Diamond PowerSeller, Buy.com Inc., is offering so many goods on eBay that many sellers suspect Buy.com is listing items practically for free.

Buy.com's listings also emphasize eBay's move toward sales with set prices rather than its traditional auction format. EBay says auctions are not going away, but fixed-price sales are the fastest-growing part of the company's marketplace, increasing 60 percent a year.

Now, eBay has announced that starting Sept. 16, it will let U.S. sellers pay 35 cents to list an unlimited number of identical items at a set price, for a month at a time.

For some sellers, like Michael Knight, who dismantles motorcycles and sells the parts on eBay from Garland, Texas, the sheer volume of recent adjustments has been frustrating.

"I have no control. I have to comply with anything they choose to do and I have no voice in the matter," he said.

He said he would like to move away from eBay, but its hard to transfer his listings to another site.

"I'd be giving up a month's income to get that done. That's the only thing that's keeping me on eBay - the inconvenience of leaving," he said.

Another change that frustrated many sellers was eBay’s changes in its feedback policy by removing sellers’ ability to leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers, while buyers can still leave negative feedback for sellers.

Some sellers complain that this put them at the mercy of unscrupulous buyers who try to take advantage of the rating system.

"Many times you feel like they're really pushing it to see if you'll give them some kind of a refund," said Bill Cartmel, who sells records on eBay from Lewiston, Maine. "They'll float the suggestion that 'This isn't exactly what I expected.'"

Further changes eBay said it would make include a maximum shipping price for sellers in its media category, with incentives to offer free shipping, and requiring sellers to include at least one electronic payment method.

The latter may irritate some small, but vocal, sellers who have objected to recent eBay changes.

"This will be viewed as 'eBay continues to push PayPal down everyone's throat,'" Wingo said.

Besides its main auction business, eBay also owns online payments service PayPal and Web-based call service Skype.

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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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