Back In Time - eBay Would Like Your Input 7 July 2009 EventHorizon1984
eBay sends out surveys to gather data to justify their future plans. And we get a lot of them.
We received yesterday (7/6/2009) the survey email below (personal information edited out). And it told us a great deal about how organized eBay is today.
The email is dated "From eBay Research Wed Jun 17 21:24:51 2009"
"Tell me Doctor, where are we going this time? Is this the 50's or 1999?" Huey Lewis and The News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4hwY061yQ4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgyvMp5YWcI
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Dear *****,
We would like to invite you to participate in a survey about your
experiences on eBay. Your input will help eBay to improve its
communications and ability to meet customer needs. Your feedback is
highly valued!
eBay has partnered with Decipher, an independent marketing
research firm, to conduct this survey. This survey is for research
purposes only. All the information you provide will be treated as
strictly confidential and will be used only for bona fide market
research purposes. Survey results are viewed in aggregate. Individual
responses are not identified.
We hope that you will take the time to complete this
12-minute survey, as it is an effective and easy way to share your
feedback with eBay.
To take the survey: Please click here
Thanks for being a part of the eBay community, and we hope to see you on eBay again soon.
Not being in the eBay European theatre of operations we (including me) went, "Who??"
For those unfamiliar with Tamebay,
it an excellent blog covering eBay from the European point of view. Or
for some posters over there, the British interpretation of how best to
use eBay.
"With over 1000 feedback (and no negs!) Richard knows eBay inside out. He was a valued and valuable member of the community, spending his own time on boards and forums talking to buyers and sellers and taking their concerns back to eBay’s internal teams."
The impressive description was followed by multiple posts, including one that stated:
Since he took the reins – incidences of serious fraud affecting multiple users have become the exception rather than rule
"We" being the curious type decided to ask:
Citation with actual numbers please?
And promptly received multiple responses, none with numbers.
Still leaving the issue of "Who??". Not to mention the new issue of a rise in hits from eBay related IP addresses, after we made the tiny post.
This interest in Richard Ambrose got our collective interest up. And like the keepers of The Prisoner, "we want information."
"Trust me. I know what I'm doing." Sledge Hammer!
Richard Ambrose's eBay.co.uk ID is medievalist (918).
The following are the rules that all eBay Inc. company employees must follow to use an eBay company Web site:
When eBay company employees list an item for sale on eBay, the eBay company employees must identify themselves as eBay employees and include the link to this Web page in their listing.
The above required disclosure remains oddly missing from Richard Ambrose's listings.
It's been a great privilege to spend six years at eBay supporting the buyers and sellers on the site.
I've
particularly enjoyed posting on the boards during that time (though I
haven't done it much this year) - it's the best place there is to take
the pulse of the community and understand how the changes we make are
really affecting people. I'm pleased to say that James is doing a great
job of making sure that all the staff who don't come here so much see
the posts that are made and read the opinions that are aired here. They
are more widely read, and have more impact on the decisions that eBay
makes, than you might imagine.
It's also been a pleasure getting
to know some of you personally. Sorry for those of you who have ever
found me direct in the past - I prefer not to mince my words, and I
apologise for any times when that may have caused offence.
I'll still lurk from time to time, and wish you all many happy and profitable years to come on eBay.
Cheers Richard
PS trufflington, many thanks for your post. James now owes me a fiver
01-07-09 16:31 BST
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Since this was an informal goodbye, we'll overlook the violations involved.
When eBay company employees submit Community content as members,
not as employees, they must identify themselves as eBay employees and
state that the content reflects their personal views and is not written
on behalf of eBay Inc.
Content posted by eBay employees acting in an official eBay
capacity will normally be identified by a different treatment from
content published by members; for example, a pink bar highlighting the
User name.
"I hired you because you look good. It's like having a nice piece of art in the lobby." Dr. Gregory House, House
According to Linkedin, like the mythical 'Elephant Graveyard' a company where ex-eBay employees end up:
"Richard Ambrose from eBay stated that some of the maximum rates will be below actual cost and for DVDs they will insist sellers offer free post, although upgrade to priority services and overseas postage can still be charged."
Starting Feb. 20, the online auction site will block sellers from leaving negative feedback about buyers.
"The feedback system has been around for more than ten years, and it remains right at the heart of what makes eBay work," said Richard Ambrose, of eBay UK.
"But it needs to evolve a little bit."
But eBay says sellers shouldn't worry.
"As buyers are more honest about their feedback, good sellers are going to stand out more and more," stated Ambrose.
"We're also going to increase the help we give to sellers when they occasionally encounter a buyer who doesn't pay. And we're going to make it much easier for them to report that and get their money back."
"eBay's Richard Ambrose says the changes make the site 'fairer'"
"Until recently, items put up for sale by eBay customers on the UK site automatically appeared in the search results on the bigger American ebay.com site.
But since February, the most common 'simple search' on ebay.com only brings up items for sale by US sellers."
EBay spokesman Richard Ambrose confirms that the company intends to make the site more user-friendly for businesses trading in bulk.
"If you want to sell, say, 50,000 Jiffy bags or 25,000 bricks, you can do it, but it's not a great experience," he told the BBC News website. "In the next few years, we will be making it easier to wholesale items on the site."
Mr Ambrose says that despite eBay's dominant market position in many countries, the company is not complacent about the future.
"We're in a strong, but not impregnable position," he says. "We're under severe pressure from Yahoo! in Asia - we're in a fierce battle with them in China."
EBay stirred up controversy among users by increasing some of its fees earlier this year. Mr Ambrose says this was to ensure that certain popular ways of making sellers' listings stand out were not devalued through overuse.
"From the outside, it's easy for it to seem that we're trying to flex our muscles. But in the long term, we want people to grow on eBay and maximise their profits. When they grow, so do we."
However, the Government is increasingly concerned that the sheer size of eBay means the Revenue is losing millions of pounds in tax.
"What has really made the growth explode is the shift which we have seen from being a site that is associated with collectable, quirky, hard-to-find, used, vintage items to one where people buy what we call practicles," says Richard Ambrose, eBay's UK category manager.
"By practicles we're talking clothes, cars, golf clubs, watches. We're seeing more professional traders and we're also seeing more private individuals who are just thinking of eBay as a place to sell things that they wouldn't have in the past."
But just how easy is it for tax authorities to investigate traders? After all, this is cyberspace. How can investigators be sure tax dodgers can be tracked back to the real world?
"When people register with us we do check that their personal details are accurate and that their phone number is accurate," Ambrose says. "Any seller is obliged to register a credit card with us."
And what about the taxman? "Anybody buying or selling on eBay needs to be aware of what their tax responsibilities are," Ambrose maintains. "But we are not in a position to enforce it . . . although we can and do co-operate with outside bodies."
"Even though your wording was within the letter of the policy, it could easily have been interpreted as violating the spirit of it." Richard Ambrose, eBay
Coming back to the original question, 'does it matter that Richard Ambrose is leaving eBay?'.
Based on what we've learned over the intervening hours:
Even though Richard Ambrose was working within the letter of the law, his actions could easily have been interpreted as violating the eBay Community spirit.
We find Richard Ambrose leaving eBay to be a non-event.
END RUN
"Gentlemen, I'm simply an honest businessman." Harcourt Fenton Mudd, Star Trek
The eBay/PayPal legal/financial team was busy at work implementing the new and improved 10% hold policy. Where PayPal holds 10% of PayPal payments made to sellers.
The dunning template (we edited in the Fill In The Category) letter sent out on June 23rd reads:
Your business is important to us, and we are
working hard to provide an easy, fast and secure payment service to you
and your customers while keeping our prices competitive. We're also
committed to clearly communicating changes to our policies and
procedures. To that end, we are writing to inform you of a change to
your PayPal account, which will take effect 30 days from the date of
this email.
Beginning 07/23/2009, a small percentage of the
total payments you receive will be held temporarily as a reserve in
your account. This small reserve amount helps to ensure that funds are
available to cover payment reversals or buyer chargebacks, if you do
not have a sufficient PayPal account balance and do not provide the
funds to do so.
A reserve is like a security deposit for
your PayPal account and is standard practice in the payments industry,
especially for retail segments like Fill In The Category where there is a
higher-than-average risk of reversals or chargebacks. This does not
mean that you have done anything wrong. We are requiring a small
reserve in your account because you sell in a category that has a
higher risk of reversals and chargebacks and because you are relatively
new to PayPal as a seller.
Your reserve amount will be 10%
of the total payments you receive, which will be held on a rolling
60-day schedule. That means 10% of the money you take in each day will
be held in your account, and then made available for withdrawal 60 days
later.
For example, if you receive $2,000 every 60 days
into your PayPal account, then a reserve amount of about $400 would be
required on a rolling 60-day period. In other words, about $6.67 would
be held in reserve each day, then released 60 days later.
If you are a PayPal Money Market Fund customer, you will still earn
interest on your total balance while your money is in reserve. Click
here for more information or to enroll in the PayPal Money Market Fund.
We recognize this is a change in the way we do business with
you. By requiring some merchants to reserve money in their accounts,
we're able to lower our own costs. Keeping our costs low helps us to
continue providing competitive pricing for all sellers who use PayPal.
If you have any questions about this change, please call us at
1-877-729-7252. We appreciate your business and look forward to a
continued partnership.
The end of second quarter (June 30) looming for eBay and PayPal, explains the timing of the 10% hold policy. Essentially new financial quarter, new revenue. The why hold at all can be found in knowing what the "1%" represents.
Using numbers from eBay's SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) filing, 23 October 2008 10-Q Quarterly ReportForm 10-Q, the following is the worse case (for sellers or best case for eBay/PayPay) calculation of "1%" per quarter.
Active eBay users affected: 830,000
Active registered PayPal accounts affected: 548,000
Net total payment volume, HELD: $115,690,000
PayPal's revenue in this case would be the interest on the $115 million per quarter, or $450 million per year. Plus incidental fees.
As we've noted on previous occasions, this is what eBay/PayPal considers to be "small."
"Keep On With The Force Don't Stop Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" Released 1979, Michael Jackson (1958-2009)
Let's use numbers from eBay's U.S. SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) filing, 23 October 2008 10-Q Quarter Report, and see what "one-third of 1 percent" represents.
The worse case amount for PayPal fraud in one year (not one quarter) at "one-third of 1 percent":
Bands of extremely turbulent weather stretched across the Atlantic toward Africa, as they often do in the area this time of year.
The plane "crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence," Air France said. About 14 minutes later, at 11:14 p.m. local time, 0214 GMT (10:14 p.m. EDT Sunday), an automatic message was sent reporting electrical system failure and a loss of cabin pressure. Air France said the message was the last it heard from Flight 447.
To understand this, think of "hurricane" force instead of "extreme turbulent weather", and think professional Hurricane Hunters.
Find it hard to imagine an unprepared plane and pilot flying into what appears to be stormy weather, only it's actually "extreme turbulent weather"?
This is an aircraft with "a loss of cabin pressure" at 24,000 feet in perfect flying weather.
Will leave it to your imagination as to the condition of an aircraft with "electrical system failure and a loss of cabin pressure" at 35,000 feet in "extreme turbulent weather."
Another traumatic grim reminder that despite what we humans think of ourselves and build, we are not gods.
"Rule books are paper - they will not cushion a sudden meeting of stone and metal." Ernest K. Gann, Fate Is The Hunter (Book, 1961)
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Full article available at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_brazil_plane_causes Analysts: Several factors involved in missing jet By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jun 1, 5:32 pm ET
BRUSSELS – The lightning and turbulence that may have hit an Air France jet flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris are rarely the cause of plane crashes, analysts say. But they note that rough weather may have triggered a series of malfunctions that led to the disappearance of the jetliner.
Chief Air France spokesman Francois Brousse suggested the plane could have been struck by lightning.
But most experts say lightning doesn't usually bring down a modern airliner, unless it coincides with other factors that contribute to the accident.
"Planes are built with lightning strikes in mind and are struck reasonably frequently," said Patrick Smith, a U.S. commercial pilot and aviation writer.
"I've been hit by lightning in my career a number of times, which at worst resulted in a superficial mark on the outside of the plane," Smith said in a telephone interview from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Aviation safety statistics indicate that each large passenger jet — such as the Airbus A330 — is struck by lightning about once every three years on average. Regional aircraft, however, which fly at lower altitudes, are hit more frequently — about once a year.
Philly.com - Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty In eBay Forgery Scheme 20 May 2009 EventHorizon1984 Commentary
It's a rather standard commentary that most "authentic" autographs on eBay are fake; i.e. forgery on eBay is not news.
What personally grabbed attention were two things. One, have some of these
autographs, which were obtained free or for the cost of a book. Authentication by standing in front
of the author while they signed the book. Second have some knowledge
of 'rubber' stamping.
Hint to forgers: Some signatures are in PENCIL.
If you collect enough autographs, a well done ink stamp signature when examined closely looks perfect and fake.
With "400 unsuspecting purchasers" of these forgeries, I have to suspect that most thought those fakes were real.
To those who weren't fooled and filed charges, good for you.
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Star Trek
Posted on Wed, May. 20, 2009 Pa. man pleads guilty in eBay forgery scheme Robert Moran
"A Reading man pleaded guilty yesterday to a scheme to sell forged
signatures of famous authors - including Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe, and
Tom Clancy - over eBay that netted him more than $300,000"
{Forrest R.} "Smith obtained documents that contained authentic signatures and had
ink-based stamps made for each signature, Magid said. The signatures
were then stamped into the books, which he later sold at inflated
prices on eBay. The indictment alleged that, since December 2006, Smith
sold the books to more than 400 unsuspecting purchasers, and made more
than $300,000."
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