Powersellersunite.com (PSU) - New Posting Policies a Selective Police State?

[The Tavern Wench]

Shelley,

I agree the feedback changes are probably more concerning than anything eBay has ever done.  The new setup does have a potential for abuse and I'd say particularly so in some categories more so than others.  Luckily, I've never sold in those categories. 

I was recently reading on the Powersellers board at eBay that several of them are even planning on turning off their logos until this whole thing 'shakes out' as they put it.  There have been comments posted on other eBay boards suggesting or flat out saying some were going to be 'gunning' for the PS in order to ding their DSRs so they can't get the discounts and/or hopefully will lose their PS status.

After seeing some of the comments made over at PSU in the past two weeks, I can full well see this sort of thing happening...if nothing else just to prove to eBay that the system will not work.  What these malicious people don't realize is they aren't hurting eBay.  They're only hurting other sellers like themselves. 

Many of the posters I've seen over at PSU (and on the eBay boards as well) are the very reason eBay put this new feedback thing into place.  These few bad apples have ruined the whole barrel so to speak. 

I've seen more than one instance where a buyer has left a neutral (a nice neutral) and been rewarded with a negative from the seller.  Granted, we all get irritated and mad as all get out over unnecessary neutrals, but retaliating with a neg is not the answer.  Especially when some of them may be by newbies who truly just don't 'get' the feedback system yet.  Everywhere else in the world, 'neutral' means not good/not bad, unfortunately on eBay it's seen as the equivalent of a negative.

I am going to watch and wait to see what happens.  I'm not ready to throw a good source of money and advertising down the tubes yet until I see actual results.  If I see the feedback causing trouble and it starts affecting my bottom line, I'll be out the door.

I just can't believe eBay would not see the potential for abuse and be prepared to counter it.  Too many negs on the site will run off the buyers too.


My biggest concern right now that not too many people have talked about is the way the Best Match searches and the way your exposure will be controlled by other factors.  To me this creates an unleveled playing field more than anything ever has.  This has the potential to affect my bottom line.

 

[2boysandtoys]

Deb - you raise a good point.  I'm less concerned about the fee portion than I am the other.  The search is just scary.  I say this solely cuz I've yet seen any company master search.  So - when one suggests they're going to apply some 'inside knowledge' - scares the bejesus outa me.  The search there is currently not at all what it used to be.  If I wanted to search for boys jeans in past years, I'd get logical results.  I've not had the same luck in the last 6-9 months.

So - search bothers me a whole lot.  The feedback doesn't concern me as much as I always leave it upon payment.  If they don't pay, I do 'the deed' and move on.  I'll never be a PS there, so the DSR thingie doesn't affect me.  I can see where this would make others 'concerned' - it's just not too impacting to me.

BUT - the Paypal 'hold' concept does.  Here's my beef - Paypal (ebaY) suggests they are self-governing as they are not a financial institution.  OK - then why are you deploying tactics similar to those of banks (from 30 years ago....but still).  If you all remember, back in the day of writing checks, banks would hold your funding until they were sure it cleared the whole process.  When computers were larger than our homes, this process took a long while.

Paypal's right to hold funds aligns their process and policy more closely than ever before to a financial institution.  My issue - there is not mutual protection, which is why the banks did it.  They invoked the holds to protect 2 financial institutions and actually the payee (vs. the payor).  This move by Paypal protects Paypal, and the payor.  The 'other 2', which are most critical are left out of the equation.

If Paypal has the right to hold any monies from any transaction for any buyer at any time, they SHOULD be forced to comply with ALL financial and banking SOPs (standard operating procedures).  If they're holding it, sellers should get interest too.

So - in the equation of all the changes, the one that actually concerns me the least is the fee element.  It's tangible, well defined and measurable.  It's the others that should cause the - uh-oh....how is this affecting my business - sellers relying on ebaY to squirm. 

 

[CrankyCanuck]

I am going to watch and wait to see what happens.  I'm not ready to throw a good source of money and advertising down the tubes yet until I see actual results.  If I see the feedback causing trouble and it starts affecting my bottom line, I'll be out the door.
 

Nope, me either!  Ebay is still the place to sell some things (for now anyway), and I was able to move some higher priced items last year that were just sitting around at the other venues.  I wasn't sure I would be able to manage without my ebay store after I closed it, but I was pleasantly surprised that I did just fine.  My dependence on ebay is getting less and less all the time, and I feel good about that.  I've even managed to get away paypal to a large degree as I opened a merchant account with Propay.  So far, so good, and great customer service!

Shelley
 

[2boysandtoys]

Shelley - congrats. on your success!!!  What is Propay?  I don't know if I've heard of it or not (and trust me when I say I may have and do not remember).... 

[The Bar Keep]

Dee,

Ok, here I am, drifting over and, boy, do I have opinions on this issue  

I am one of those newer members at PSU, but I am not one of those with my head stuck up my ass (or, to put it more nicely: stuck in the sand).  What is wrong with PSU is that they have a "community" mentality.  Which, at times, is an excellent attitude to have; if you're dealing with homelessness, world hunger, AIDS, teen pregnancy...you get the picture.  Yet, when it comes to business, all of those who are successful, know that it is a dog eat dog world out there.

Bolding mine:

I agree but I also think you are living in the now instead of researching what has transpirered over the past several months in regards to PSU. The eBay boycott is just what is happening today at PSU and I believe that PSU should bear the blame 1, 2, 3 months from now when the knee jerkers realize they pissed away a good thing or a chance to invest in themselves.

Dee, I am not sure what cart system you are using but have you ever seen a PSU cart before? I will provide you with one of the Mods carts at PSU and hopefully you will find the time to place a comment. See thread below:

http://www.thecrabbyhost....elgatosdencom-t480.0.html


Dee, have you ever seen or heard about the, you wash my back I'll wash yours between the PSU mods and the peebay forum? See thread below:

http://www.thecrabbyhost....72.0.html;msg8603#msg8603

Dee, have you been wondering about censorship at PSU, or lack there of in the case of Adam8x who I just took on yesterday over sexist comments to our very own Deb? See thread below:


http://powersellersunite.com/about15749-225.html


Dee, have you ever read why this thread was started in the first place? Click on page one and have at it.

I like your style Dee but think you are late to the show in this case. Please read and then tell me what you really think of PSU and the associated sites. I am sure your thoughts will be something to see and read!!!


Joe - The Bar keep


P.S. Hey Dee??? What is a "wing ding"? I see you over at PSU and I am a bit confused as to what one of those has to do with the BOYcott.

[The Bar Keep]

Ok folks this is some funny sh!t  PSU turned the listing count page back on and the site went down again. WTF kind of boycott is this that we can't see the numbers? 

In all seriousness, they have the balls to complain about eBay yet the site that is cetralizing the boycott can't even provide a play by play of a listing tote that is flawed to begin with (don't include eBay store items but include the store items for sites like hibidder).


Bravo to the boycott planners. 

[The Tavern Wench]

One of the (few) boycott promoters on the eBay Powerseller's Board today was getting excited saying the count had dropped by 1.75 M.

Another Seller was quick to point out that the PSU tote board was NOT a good/accurate way to judge the listing counts because it is a daily chart by the hour.  The listing drop they were seeing was the difference between 9am and Noon which is a common downtrend time of day with listings ending.

This was a more accurate gauge:

The current 2008 chart for February shows
12.3M on 2/1
12M on 2/5
15.9M on 2/14
14.4M today (as of 10am PST)

Remember there was a sale.


Feb 2007 ran between 12M and 16M
About the same and that is for the whole month. The 22nd through the 28th of Feb 2007 was very low 11.7M to one spike of 13.8M give or take.

So unless things have changed drastically within the past few hours, doesn't look like the boycott has had a very dramatic effect so the PSUers aren't missing much. 

[The Bar Keep]

Hey Deb when you get a second try loading Elghetto's site and PSU at the same time.  Didn't PSUnite claim all PSU stores were on a seperate server from the forum? Yeah ok Bob like we believe that one now. 

[The Tavern Wench]

Hey Deb when you get a second try loading Elghetto's site and PSU at the same time.  Didn't PSUnite claim all PSU stores were on a seperate server from the forum? Yeah ok Bob like we believe that one now. 

It's a miracle!!! They're both back....but very, very slow loading. 

BTW...saw this posted by PSUnite after the page finally loaded. 

eBay view charts 15,070,090 -455950 -3.03% February 18, 2008 9:05 pm 

[2boysandtoys]

  - gotta go see if I can get on....I've been busy (  ) !!!

[The Bar Keep]

- gotta go see if I can get on....I've been busy (  ) !!!

Don't bother it's gone again  Who is playing around with the clapper? 

[The Tavern Wench]

Don't bother it's gone again  Who is playing around with the clapper? 

Maybe they made someone mad.   

[2boysandtoys]

I was gonna ask if someone could wake me inbetween page loads....my head is getting sleepy waiting..... I'll get food - that will work -   

[2boysandtoys]

 

[CrankyCanuck]

Shelley - congrats. on your success!!!  What is Propay?  I don't know if I've heard of it or not (and trust me when I say I may have and do not remember).... 

Thanks Erin,
I'm just happy to be able to survive financially without being too reliant on ebay. The last year or so I had my store open there wasn't very profitable anyway so no great loss.

Propay is a payment company, similar to paypal in some ways, but the accounts are basically merchant accounts.  I can take the credit card info directly and input it via the Propay website, or over the phone.  They also tied it in with my Riverwood's website so people can pay directly.  I really like them so far, you get responses from customer service right away and not some canned response 3 or 4 days later like paypal.  I think the regular U.S. accounts are about $35 a year plus so much per transaction.  You can read about it on their website if you're interested.  www.propay.com.

Shelley