eBay after the bell 9-29-06: Skype's good and bad news

Ebay + Skype = NSA pipe. How creepy.

I got your eBay customer service, right here.

You might want to read my message first, which is at the bottom of this posting.

I sent this message to eBay two weeks ago.

Memo to eBay: Nice doing business with you...


Dear Gary,

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to fraud on eBay.

eBay is always pleased to hear from members of the eBay community and
welcomes their comments regarding eBay's products and services. However,
eBay's long-standing company policy does not allow eBay to accept or
consider ideas, suggestions, proposals or materials other than those
eBay has specifically requested. eBay hopes members will understand that
this policy is intended to help eBay avoid future misunderstandings when
new products, services and features developed internally by eBay
employees might be similar or even identical to a member's idea.

Important Note:

If a member sends us an unsolicited suggestion, idea, proposal or other
material (collectively, the "Submission"), eBay will consider the
Submission to be non-confidential and non-proprietary. eBay shall have
no obligations concerning the Submission, contractual or otherwise
(including but not limited to an obligation to keep the Submission
confidential), and shall not be liable for any use or disclosure of any
Submission. eBay shall be entitled to unrestricted use of the Submission
for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, without
compensation to the member.

If a member sends us, at our request, a comment or suggestion to improve
the eBay site or add a new category or feature (for example, through our
suggestion box, customer support web forms, discussion boards, or
otherwise) (collectively, the "Submission"), eBay will consider the
Submission to be non-confidential and non-proprietary. eBay shall have
no obligations concerning the Submission, contractual or otherwise
(including but not limited to an obligation to keep the Submission
confidential), and shall not be liable for any use or disclosure of any
Submission. eBay shall be entitled to unrestricted use of the Submission
for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, without
compensation to the member.

If after reading this a member still wants to send us a suggestion,
please visit our Help page on sending suggestions to eBay:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/newtoebay/suggest.html

It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing eBay.

Sincerely,
Shania K.

eBay Customer Support
_____________________________________________





Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

Form Message %44333% 042205
D_ID091220060220D_ID/W_ID79978943W_ID/S_ID000S_ID
Subject: GS=C11008 The problem you're having with registering isn't
listed [ 30053T ?01 ]

Member-stated User ID: bearsvaluebaby
User Feedback: 504 (100% Positive)
User State: ?01

Browser Info: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1;
.NET CLR 1.1.4322)

My Account, Registration, and Password > Registration and updating
contact information > The problem you're having with registering isn't
listed

Message: Dear Sir or Madam,
I desire to make direct contact with a member of the Trust and
Safety team at the managerial level. I have initiated an on site
"watchdog" group which is fielding complaints directly from the
membership. These are serious issues which are not being properly dealt
with by Paypal and/or eBay customer service.
These matters are of significant enough merit that if they cannot
be dealt with on site then they will be forwarded to professional law
enforcement. A system generated email dismissing this contact shall be
interpreted as eBay's sanctioning of the offenses in question and the
matter shall be dealt with from that perspective.
I may be contacted by telephone, by an individual at the managerial
level, from 9:00am to 11:45am cst, Monday thru Friday at: 715-XXX-XXXX.
My group's desire is to keep these matters ON SITE rather than invite
outside interference. We have significant undesirable elements operating
on this site and it is my group's mission to see them displaced... with
you or without you.

Most Sincerely,

Gary E. Sattler

.....................................................


Now, it's really nice that they got back to me but the message you see above is the full extent of their concern with my submitted message.

I'm only guessing, but I'm willing to bet this is the same level of concern they have for the investments of their share holders.

Oh, and by the way, they have suspended me from their discussion boards. I invite you to go view my communications there.

Have a nice day!

Gary

Here's why they suspended me from their discussion boards. I posted this on four boards.


Hello bearsvaluebaby,

Recently we became aware that your eBay registered account was involved in the
following activity:

Using JavaScript or active code; making repetitive posts, or taking actions
that interfere with site operations.

which is not permitted at eBay.

This is a copy of your post:

LET'S ROLL
bearsvaluebaby (507 ) View Listings | Report Oct-01-06 10:12
PDT




This is called "Troll Warfare". eBay has LOTS of trolls.


Blessings to the investors... YOU built America!

Gary

Here's FRAUD for you!

If I am the high bidder on an item on eBay, with a high bid of... let's say $21.03, and there are no other bidders,

and I want to go away for the weekend so I up my maximum bid before I go away to ...let's say $30.00, and there are no other bidders,

the eBay system AUTOMATICALLY bumps up my current high bid from $21.03 up to $21.50... because that's the next natural bid increment at that value... but there have been no other bids.

So, I will pay $21.50 for an item that I had the winning bid for at $21.03... and no one else bid.

eBay gets their final value fees off the higher amount.


That's kind of like shoving your hand up the cash cow's A$$ ... isn't it?


Bend over eBay, it's my turn.

Gary E. Sattler

QUOTE, Off eBay communication between Union Members:

Your timing on this email is incredible...for the first time in awhile, I've been looking at my store items...

Shipping prices have changed (increased significantly)...I did not post those outrageous charges!

I seem to have duplicate and triplicate of many items...things I know for a fact that I've only posted once...(so I've been having to go back and "end item")

I'm getting 1-2 sales a day, all off of store inventory. I screwed up and thought I was relisting stuff into inventory and it went into auction - knowing I can't recover those fees, I've had to leave them, but have had no action on them at all. Will let them run out and be more careful when I'm relisting. Hmmm...now that I think of it...they WERE in store inventory, how did they get to auction? I've had nothing on auction for over a month...hmmmm...

So, I'm just now taking a good look at my store. We hope to have our new internet store "live" within a week, so I'm just treading water as far as eBay is concerned.

But I am curious how these changes have been made...good grief...I just know I didn't do 'em....

I know...I'm paranoid...

In a message dated 9/28/2006 12:11:20 P.M. Central Daylight Time, XXXXX@msn.com writes:
Hello Everyone!

For those who still have a store on Feebay, I would like to know if you have experienced any weird selling trends in your stores? Before the boycott, sales were non-existent. Right after the boycott ended and my store came off of vacation, within 2 days I had sold 5 decks of cards to 5 different buyers. This has never happened. Then sales got slow again, so I put the store on vacation for 2 hours each day for 2 days in a row. Then low and behold if I did not sell 4 shot glasses in 5 days and had 'best offers' on 3 more of them. This has also never happened before. It appears that whenever I come off of vacation, a certain category of store items becomes very visible to everyone for some reason. I'm not complaining about sales, but I do think it is odd. Also, my auctions are doing poorly. Anybody else notice strange trends like this?

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