Play IT Again Usher "eBay" Lieberman

Play IT Again Usher "eBay" Lieberman*
30 April 2009
EventHorizon1984
Commentary


Usher Lieberman did IT again.  Let's summarize shall we?

1. "as of June 15, will no longer be providing third party checkout service on eBay.", Dinesh Lathi Vice President Seller Experience, 13 April 2009
2. eBay Eliminates Third-Party Checkout, Impacts ProStores, Vendors, Ina Steiner, 15 April 2009
3. "No sooner do I give her props for solid sourcing that she publishes something wholly misinformed and just plain wrong", Usher Lieberman, 15 April 2009
4. "Some blogs have incorrectly reported that eBay is doing away with third party checkout.", Dinesh Lathi Vice President Seller Experience, 15 April 2009
5. "No one else here will work with you, Ina.", Usher Lieberman, 15-28 April 2009
6. “At a time when eBay’s business and image are suffering, shutting down communication with their sellers hardly seems to be a constructive move for the company. EBay’s current PR team appear to have chosen stonewalling instead of taking advantage of a valuable conduit to their community.”, David Steiner, 28 April 2009

eBay VP Dinesh Lathi did his usual, make a statement with technical holes in it and correct the big gaffe the next day.  Evidence that Dinesh Lathi needs to listen to his fact checking team, or that he needs a better fact checking team.

Now the previous seasoned and battle tested PR hack Hani Durzy might have said, 'VP Dinesh Lathi filled in perceived gaps in the third party checkout announcement. eBay's third party checkout is not going away.' and let the matter drop and be forgotten.

But eBay PR flack Usher Lieberman went above and beyond, stating "publishes something wholly misinformed and just plain wrong" and "No one else here will work with you".  Language not from a professional corporate Public Relations person like Hani Durzy, but language one might hear from a hormonal teenage boy with anger management problems.

As can be seen by the chronology above and below, Dinesh Lathi made the error, not AuctionBytes.  And in a very professional manner Vice President Dinesh Lathi corrected himself.

From a corporate stand point, something this minor should not have The Wall Street Journal taking an interest.

Maybe it's time for eBay Inc to announce that Mr. Lieberman will take extended time off for family matters.

"Smooth move Ex-Lax."
Donna Baumer

* As tempting as it was to use "Spin It Again", the term is overused and we love Casablanca.  And yes we're aware Rick Blaine never said Play it again Sam.

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//  13 April 2009, 1:50 PM HST
//

The April 13th email from eBay regarding 3rd party checkout.  Other than the removal of personal data, no changes were made to the original email.

Update your checkout service by June 15

Dear *:

Our records indicate that you?ve recently completed selling transactions through . We?re writing to let you know that as of June 15, will no longer be providing third party checkout service on eBay.

A big step toward reducing unpaid items for sellers is ensuring a secure and consistent checkout experience for buyers. That?s why, in the months ahead, we?ll be working to integrate key functions offered by current third party providers into eBay checkout.

The ultimate goal is to have all checkout and payments take place right on eBay--and to help you make a seamless transition to on-eBay checkout that fully supports your business as usual.

In the interim, as of June 15, sellers will only be allowed to use eBay checkout or third party checkout services offered by one of a select group of approved Certified Providers.

This would be a great time to take a close look at your business needs, and if you haven?t already done so, switch to eBay checkout before June 15.

If you need specific functionality that is not yet integrated into eBay checkout, you can choose a solution offered by a Certified Provider approved for off-eBay checkout.

We?ll keep you updated as new functionality becomes available in eBay checkout. We?ll also make sure you have the time and support you need to make a smooth transition down the road.

Thanks for helping us keep eBay a great place to buy and sell.

Sincerely,



Dinesh Lathi
Vice President, Seller Experience

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//  15 April 2009
//

Excerpts from "eBay Eliminates Third-Party Checkout, Impacts ProStores, Vendors" article.

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y09/m04/i15/s01

Auctionbytes-NewsFlash, Number 2020 - April 15, 2009 - ISSN 1539-5065

eBay Eliminates Third-Party Checkout, Impacts ProStores, Vendors
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
April 15, 2009

• "eBay will eliminate its Third Party Checkout Redirect on eBay as of June 15, 2009. Sellers who use third-party checkout solutions will no longer have the opportunity to display branding, cross-sell, up-sell and other merchandising opportunities at point-of-sale. This means a loss of sales for sellers and lost revenue for vendors who collect commissions on merchant sales. eBay will do away with third-party checkout completely next year."
• "The elimination of off-eBay checkout is clearly part of the company's move to try and become a marketplace that can guarantee all transactions by collecting information about when buyers pay and when sellers ship. On Tuesday, eBay Director of Seller Development Todd Lutwak told AuctionBytes that, over time, eBay would roll out additional tools and incentives for sellers to provide eBay with shipping information. eBay is also moving toward capturing data from payment services, including the ability to accept merchant credit cards in eBay Checkout. "

//
//  15 April 2009, 9:25 AM PST
//

http://twitter.com/usherml/status/1526364771

No sooner do I give her props for solid sourcing that she publishes something wholly misinformed and just plain wrong: http://bit.ly/2iD3Pg

9:25 AM Apr 15th from web

usherml

//
//  15 April 2009
//

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y09/m04/i15/s01

Update 4/15/09: I received an email from eBay spokesperson Usher Lieberman today stating: eBay is narrowing access to third-party checkout to approved providers and has asked these third-party checkout partners to update their user interface or UI to conform with a set of guidelines provided by eBay. This DOES NOT involve any changes to the third-party checkout functionality consistent with eBay listing policies and existing legal agreements, just to the user interface. Some of the approved third-party checkout partners may opt out of these user interface changes, in which case they will need to begin using eBay Checkout.

//
//  15 April 2009, 1:00 PM PST
// 

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200904151259582.html

***Third Party Checkout: Clarification***
April 15, 2009 | 01:00PM PST/PT

Dinesh Lathi

Some blogs have incorrectly reported that eBay is doing away with third party checkout. We want to clarify that this is not the case.

The facts: Beginning June 15, eBay will only allow third-party checkout services from approved providers who have updated their user interface according to a set of eBay guidelines. Our goal is to give buyers a more consistent checkout experience. These guidelines do not involve any changes to functionality that is consistent with eBay listing policies and existing legal agreements.

Some of the current third-party checkout providers may decide to begin using eBay Checkout instead of making user interface changes to their own checkout system. In this case, sellers can continue to use their services.

If you are a seller using a third-party checkout provider, we strongly encourage you to contact your provider about their plans. Most of our approved partners are planning to make the necessary changes to their solution, including: 

• 4Sellers
• Afterbuy
• Auctiva Corporation
• ChannelAdvisor
• Cultuzz Digital Media
• Digital River
• Kyozou
• Sandbourne Systems
• Vendio

To reiterate, we are not eliminating third party checkout on June 15, we are only asking third-party checkout providers to update the user interface.

Please keep in mind that the definitive source of information about eBay is eBay. You can find accurate information about any planned changes through this Announcement Board and through emails, calls and other official communications from eBay.

Sincerely,
Dinesh Lathi
VP Seller Experience

//
//  28 April 2009
//

Excerpts from "Spin City: eBay Struggles to Control the Message" article.

http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2009/4/1240930825.html

Spin City: eBay Struggles to Control the Message
By: David Steiner
Tue Apr 28 2009 11:00:25

• "There was a palpable shift when John Donahoe transitioned into the role of CEO and Jose Mallabo took over as Director of Corporate Communications early last year. In one of his first responses to an inquiry from Ina, Mallabo responded via email, "I will use this as an opportunity to set some expectations moving forward. While we appreciate that these glitches are of great importance to your readers - and we certainly appreciate you drawing our attention to them, we just can't guarantee you a response on absolutely everything. If they are of a size that impacts a critical mass of the community, then we'll put it on the systems board. If not, we will do our very best to track down the answers for you in a reasonable time frame but often times these glitches are so obscure and impossible to replicate that getting answers can take a considerable amount of our team's time." "
• "Interestingly, Mallabo posted a comment from a non-eBay IP address in March of 2008. Shortly thereafter, another post appeared from the same DSL IP address as Mallabo's, but using the name John Rathert (the name of someone listed as a cofounder of his previous business), criticizing another commenter and stating, "You and David are about as big a joke as there is.  Go write about the fuzz in your navels." "
• "In an incident at last year's eBay Live, Ina was pulled aside by Usher Lieberman, a member of eBay's PR team, and was told not to ask about specific user's issues or else she would no longer be granted access to eBay executives. "
• "Ina told Lieberman that if he had a problem working with her, she would happily work with someone else in the PR Department. His response was, "No one else here will work with you, Ina." "

//
//  29 April 2009
// 

Excerpts from "AuctionByte Bites Back at eBay" Wall Street Journal article.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/04/29/auctionbytes-bites-back-at-ebay

April 29, 2009, 2:26 PM ET

AuctionBytes Bites Back at eBay
By Geoffrey A. Fowler

• "eBay is facing a spat with AuctionBytes, a trade publication about eBay and e-commerce that attracts about half a million visitors to its Web site each month. "
• "In a post titled “Spin City: eBay Struggles to Control the Message” on Tuesday, AuctionBytes president David Steiner wrote that after 10 years covering the company, he has felt a “palpable shift” in eBay’s approach to communications since John Donahoe took office as eBay chief executive last year. "
• "The spat appears to have been most recently instigated by a report that AuctionBytes posted last week about changes to eBay’s third-party checkout system. Ina Steiner felt eBay’s public relations department was unresponsive to her requests for clarification, resulting in a post in which she reported that eBay had “nothing more to say.” "
• "EBay spokesman Alan Marks said his company could have done a better job communicating with its sellers, especially in the first half of last year. But he insisted “nothing has changed” about eBay’s commitment to communicating with sellers since Donahoe became CEO. “If anything, we have become more transparent,” Marks said "

//
//  30 April 2009
// 

Excerpt from "TameBay Morsels 30/04/09" article.

http://www.tamebay.com/2009/04/tamebay-morsels-300409.html#comments

TameBay Morsels 30/04/09
by Chris Dawson

• "Finally those lovely people at eBay seem to have a few differences with the time served Ina Steiner of Auctionbytes. If eBay UK PR are reading this we promise to be nice (even when we disagree with you) in exchange for free listing fees for life (ok I’m joking, fees are so low these days it wouldn’t make much difference anyway, we’ll just carry on saying what we think ) "

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