EventHorizon1984 Blog Log

"Come to think of it", eBay Lifted the Heineken Advertising Slogan

"Come to think of it", eBay Lifted the Heineken Advertising Slogan
2 November 2009
EventHorizon1984

It's been a long time since we've heard the phrase "Come to think of it".  Not the "new" eBay ads flooding the market with "Come to think of it, eBay."  But the Heineken slogan noted by Lucious Van Der Kreig on Auctionbytes."

"Come to think of it,
I'll have a Heineken."

Founded in 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken, Heineken is "Europe's largest brewery."

Perhaps ironically you can find this 1986 color advertisement, "COME TO THINK OF IT ~ I'LL HAVE A HEINEKEN! 1986 AD" for sale by seller Woods_Elf on eBay.

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"If there is something to steal, I steal it."
Pablo Picasso

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Addendum
4 November 2009

A little extra digging turned up this gem.

ADVERTISING; SSC&B Campaign For Heineken to Begin
The New York Times
Philip H. Dougherty
May 26, 1981

"The first ad campaign for Heineken beer from SSC&B will begin to run in magazines next month. The ads will be big pictures of frosty, beaded bottles and glasses of the No. 1-selling import with the simple quote in smallish type, ''Come to think of it, I'll have a Heineken,''.

The rest of the very very short article states the initial advertising budget was $12 million.  Adjusted for inflation that would be about $28 million now.

One wonders how much eBay spent to copy an existing successful advertisement.

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Addendum
6 November 2009

Yes, at this point we're merely having fun.  After all eBay and it's compensated representatives are now spinning "Come to think of it" is a common idiom and essentially free for the taking.

Anyone know the name Mal MacDougall?

Mal MacDougall On the Spot
Adweek
Deanna Zammit
October 6 2003

"Along the way he introduced Diet Coke with the tag, "Just for the taste of it," and coined Heineken's "Come to think of it, I'll have a Heineken."

Here's to you Mr. Mal "Come to think of it, I'll have a Heineken" MacDougall.

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"I'm never surprised when the gods of advertising remind me once again that there is nothing permanent in the business but change."
Mal MacDougall

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Backstabbing 101 - Buy.com and Amazon Halloween Slicing of eBay?

Backstabbing 101 - Buy.com and Amazon Halloween Slicing of eBay?
30 October 2009
EventHorizon1984

With Buy.com an eBay partner, one might believe there is absolute loyalty extruding from Buy.com toward eBay.  Total absolute support of eBay owned PayPal by Buy.com on it's site, being one show of a tight partnership.

On the other hand tomorrow is Halloween.  Cue slasher background music.

Buy.com teams with Amazon in taking online payments

Buy.com on Thursday began offering “Checkout by Amazon” and “Amazon PayPhrase” that allows its customers use their Amazon accounts to pay bills.

Looks like a case of hurting the one you love.

Or is that Money Conquers All?

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"You traitorous, disloyal, you stab me in the back the first chance you get?"
James T. Kirk, Star Trek

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Whatever Happened To ... 661henryglen and General Motors (yourgmdealer) eBay?

Whatever Happened To ... 661henryglen and General Motors (yourgmdealer) eBay?
3 September 2009
EventHorizon1984

By now you're seen the joint General Motors (GM) and eBay joint communique, "eBay Motors and General Motors Extend California 'Click and Buy' Promotion Through September', trumpeting their success.

As they put it:

• "Since the beginning of the program through August 30, shoppers visited dealers’ virtual showroom sites more than 1 million times and logged more than 1.4 million searches of GM inventory. In addition, nearly 4,000 new car buyers entered into negotiations online, over the phone and in person"

However if you're the type that examines the hype and have a few questions, you may have spotted these articles:

• EBay Issues A Press Release Update About Their Innovative Relationship With GM
• TheBrewsNews.com - "So, let me get this straight… eBay put out a press release saying that a 57.1% feedback seller who has less than a handful of items that sold on the platform in a month, out of tens of thousands of listings, is part of a “successful” eBay experiment because the seller was able to generate almost 4,000 leads to conduct business outside of eBay.   I guess the term “innovative relationship” is probably an accurate description for the eBay-GM partnership.  The innovative relationship with GM does seem to fit in quite nicely with eBay’s whole disruptive innovation theme they currently have going on.  And, as Rob Chesney says, it is what eBay does best."

• GM + eBay = Crash & Burn
• DiamondHaus.com - "Doing a search of GM’s completed listings currently yields over 39000 listings for the past two weeks.  Going over the first five pages of 200 listings each yields no sales.  In fact I’ve watched this seller for a few weeks and have yet to find a single sale after going through approximately 10 – 20 pages.  However, yourgmdealer has received 9 feedbacks (more on that later) so there have been some sales.  Based on eBay’s stated average of a 70% feedback participation rate that would mean yourgmdealer has made roughly 13 sales.  This would yield a 0.03 % sell-through rate.  That’s about 100 times worse than BUY’s sell-through rate."

• GM Extends Its eBay Partnership - But Why?
• SeekingAlpha.com Richard Read - "GM's vice president of U.S. sales, Mark LaNeve, says that "The numbers on eBay itself aren't significant, but we didn't think it would be." Unfortunately, that's the classic "Yeah, we meant to do that" explanation for poor performance that never convinces anyone."

• eBay Motors Extends Special Deal for GM
• AuctionBytes.com Ina Steiner -
• "AuctionBytes has received email letters from sellers pointing to the low feedback ratings consumers are leaving for the seller."
• "Another complaint is that eBay is condoning off-eBay sales through the agreement."

• General Motors brings its legacy of bad service to eBay
• WalletPop.com - "Exhibit A in the "Nothing has changed" file is this: the feedback rating for GM's eBay account."

• eBay Seller YOURGMDEALER Racking Up The Negs!
• eBayMotorsSucks.com - "Meanwhile 11,410 GM Vehicles are left to sell on eBay - At the rate they are selling, the 2011’s will be out!"

• General Motors' deal with eBay leads to few sales
• BloggingStocks.com - "In the program's first week, there were 2,400 offers that led to negotiations, but the companies declined to say how many of those actually culminated in sales -- which is never a good sign."

Yes, the above is blatant link gathering, abet we do make it easier for you to find these articles.

We do recommend reading the TheBrewsNews.com article, and subscribing to their site.

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"We know GM has the vehicles, if not they can build them. ~ LOL"
ebay_paid

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Below is the obligatory screen shot (click to enlarge) of the eBay feedback for General Motors (GM).

And a text copy of GM's feedback.

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=yourgmdealer

10 Feedback received

Revised Feedback: 0

	Feedback	From / Price	Date / Time
	Pleasant and easy to deal with	Buyer: strategicnetworksinc ( 0 )	Sep-02-09 10:08
	Chevrolet : Colorado (#390079847689)	US $28,427.00	View Item
	no car to buy	Buyer: 1spongekitty ( 1 )	Sep-01-09 08:08
	Chevrolet : HHR (#350241521084)	US $25,214.00	View Item
	BAIT AND SWITCH. POST BIN RAISED PRICE BY 950 FOR "TRUE COAT" ALA FARGO.	Buyer: shark1998 ( 961)	Aug-23-09 19:30
	Pontiac : Solstice (#320410583374)	US $30,002.00	View Item
	Dealer was very nic, item was as advertised and transaction was straightforward.	Buyer: rickrita535 ( 36)	Aug-21-09 11:05
	GMC : Canyon (#320410579385)	US $13,436.00	View Item
	IT HAS BEEN A VERY EASY PROCESS	Buyer: 661henryglen ( 0 )	Aug-21-09 10:48
	Chevrolet : Equinox (#320413548483)	US $21,710.00	View Item
	Great Deal for My Cobalt at Rotolo Chevrolet Superb Service by Shane Brown & All	Buyer: anoble ( 872)	Aug-21-09 09:41
	Chevrolet : Cobalt (#390079847630)	US $16,131.00	View Item
	Used "Buy It Now". Listed @ "wrong" price. Dealer refused to sell. GM no help !!	Buyer: setrigger ( 207)	Aug-20-09 17:47
	Chevrolet (#390080182961)	US $42,085.00	View Item
	THIS A VERY SIMPLE PROCESS	Buyer: 661henryglen ( 0 )	Aug-20-09 16:51
	Chevrolet : Cobalt (#350241502303)	US $14,580.00	View Item
	it was very easy	Buyer: 661henryglen ( 0 )	Aug-20-09 15:37
	Chevrolet : Equinox (#320412117336)	US $21,451.00	View Item
	The dealer was excellent, and we are happy with the purchase.	Buyer: pyates1_2007 ( 0 )	Aug-15-09 23:04
	Pontiac : Vibe (#350238284907)	US $16,630.00	View Item

In keeping with the article title, let's look into zero feedback buyers 661henryglen and pyates1_2007.  At the time of this article, neither has received any positive feedback from the sellers they made purchases from.

If you're wondering why zero feedback buyer strategicnetworksinc is not on our poke into list, we suspect they are Strategic Networks INC , a legitimate buyer.

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"Richard Kimble has been tried and convicted for the murder of his wife. But laws are made by men, carried out by men. And men are imperfect. Richard Kimble is innocent."
The Fugitive (1963)

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In the current rush to figure out what is going on with the GM and eBay deal, it's been posited that 661henryglen and pyates1_2007 are shill bidders. That they were sent in to boost feedback for GM.

This is wrong.

Consider for a moment that yourgmdealer (General Motors) was not the only seller that 661henryglen and pyates1_2007 and made purchases from.  You do know that these two made purchases from other sellers?  Ergo if you believe the shill bidder assumption, then 661henryglen and pyates1_2007 must be doing the same for the other sellers they made purchases from?

Really???

No.

This is not to say that there is no shill bidding or feedback manipulation occurring on eBay.  But considering the other sellers involved here, we don't see it.

Let's try the simpler explanation.  That perhaps we're dealing with what's commonly known as a "joy bidder".

• "These particular group of people would just bid and win your item and then refuse to respond to your emails or calls for payment."  paladin_star( 79)

Anyone take the time to ask these other sellers about these other closed transactions?  Take a guess as to what we did.

We believe it is wrong and unfair to tarnish the reputations of the other sellers involved.  If you feel the 'innocent unless proven guilty' is overly broad, honest sellers should consider that could have been you.

And with an abundance of joy bidders it can still be you.

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"The dealer was excellent, and we are happy with the purchase."
pyates1_2007 ( 0 )

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Buyer number one is pyates1_2007 and they've been an eBay member since November 27 2004.  According to eBay they reside in California (United States).

These are their last three purchases, and they've received no feedback.

Buyer pyates1_2007 bought a set of four tires.  For a very nice price. 

Nine days later pyates1_2007 purchased a 2010 Pontiac Vibe w/1SA "4 cylinder 1.8L Anti-Lock Brakes Bucket Seats" from GM San Diego, and the next day another 2010 Pontiac Vibe w/1SA (Hatchback 4 cylinder 1.8L Anti-Lock Brakes Power Brakes) from GM Paso Robles.  The only feedback they've given is for one of those cars.

• #350238284907 -- Paso Robles GM Dealer
• 2010 Pontiac Vibe w/1SA (Hatchback 4 cylinder 1.8L Anti-Lock Brakes Power Brakes)
• Purchased at:  Aug-13-2009 11:15:24 PST
• Feedback left at:  Aug-15-2009 23:04 PST

This looks like someone doing comparison shopping, then over the next two days taking what they consider the better deal.  The making multiple purchases but paying for only one, is a type of buyer/transaction common on eBay.

Our verdict:  Another satisfied GM customer.

Our condolences to the San Diego GM dealership.

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"it was very easy"
661henryglen ( 0 )

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We're sure it was easy.

Buyer number two is 661henryglen and they've been an eBay member since June 03 2009.  According to eBay they reside in California (United States).

They made multiple purchases over a two day (24 hour) period, and they've received no feedback.

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=661henryglen&ftab=FeedbackLeftForOthers

9 Feedback left

	Feedback	Left for	Date / Time
	THANK YOU	Seller: gigadirect ( 1280)	Aug-21-09 14:31
	-- (#390083797397)	--	View Item
	thank you	lmendezjr2003 ( 39)	Aug-21-09 14:26
	-- (#220466055499)	--	View Item
	thank you	miker397 ( 101)	Aug-21-09 14:22
	-- (#270444908199)	--	View Item
	THANK YOU	appliancedirect321 ( 230)	Aug-21-09 12:35
	-- (#180399022173)	--	View Item
	THANK YOU	buy ( 824671)	Aug-21-09 12:26
	-- (#400068379238)	--	View Item
	THIS WAS VERY SIMPLE	gmouse123 ( 2087)	Aug-21-09 12:24
	-- (#320414700852)	--	View Item
	IT HAS BEEN A VERY EASY PROCESS	yourgmdealer ( 2 )	Aug-21-09 10:48
	-- (#320413548483)	--	View Item
	THIS A VERY SIMPLE PROCESS	yourgmdealer ( 2 )	Aug-20-09 16:51
	-- (#350241502303)	--	View Item
	it was very easy	yourgmdealer ( 2 )	Aug-20-09 15:37
	-- (#320412117336)	--	View Item

Here's where it gets interesting.

The list below shows on line one the item number and seller.  Line two has the time the item was purchased and the time feedback was left and the time between the two events (Hours:Minutes:Seconds).  Line three shows the purchase price and the name of the item.

Pay careful attention to the times in each line two.

1. 390083797397 -- gigadirect ( 1280)
2. Aug-21-2009 14:31:00 -- Aug-21-2009 14:31 PST -- 00:00:00
3. $1,499.00    6 WWE - SummerSlam Tickets 8/23/09 (Los Angeles) VIP

1. 220466055499 -- lmendezjr2003 ( 39)
2. Aug-21-09 14:25:53 -- Aug-21-2009 14:26 PST -- 00:00.07
3. $160.00    WWE - SummerSlam Tickets 8/23/09 (Los Angeles)

1. 270444908199 -- miker397 ( 101)
2. Aug-21-09 14:20:24 -- Aug-21-2009 14:22 PST -- 00:01:36
3. $515.00    Walmart Gift Card $500.00 Balance - Free shipping

1. 180399022173 -- appliancedirect321 ( 230)
2. Aug-21-09 12:13:39 -- Aug-21-2009 12:35 PST -- 00:21:21
3. $1,615.00    Maytag Epic Series 27" Front Load Washer and Dryer New

1. 400068379238 -- buy ( 824671)
2. Aug-21-09 12:11:36 -- Aug-21-2009 12:26 PST -- 00:24:24
3. $90.71    NEW Haier 1.7 Cu. Ft. Compact Mini Refrigerator (Top...

1. 320414700852 -- gmouse123 ( 2087)
2. Aug-21-09 11:12:35 -- Aug-21-2009 12:24 PST -- 01:11:25
3. $539.97    NEW NINTENDO WII+WII FIT+WII SPORTS RESORT+MARIO KART

1. 320413548483 -- yourgmdealer ( 2 )
2. Aug-21-2009  07:23:47 -- Aug-21-2009 10:48 PST -- 03:24:13
3. $21,710.00    2009 Chevrolet Equinox LS

1. 350241502303 -- yourgmdealer ( 2 )
2. Aug-20-2009  16:48:01 -- Aug-20-2009 16:51 PST -- 00:02:59
3. $14,580.00    2009 Chevrolet Cobalt LS

1. 320412117336 -- yourgmdealer ( 2 )
2. Aug-20-2009  15:33:11 -- Aug-20-2009 15:37 PST -- 00:03:49
3. $21,451.00    2009 Chevrolet Equinox LS

A rather short time between purchase, delivery, and feedback wouldn't you say?  Not that there appears to be at the moment any money changing hands.  According to sellers 661henryglen never pays for their purchases, and unpaid item cases have been opened.

Our verdict:  Possible "Joy Bidder".  Consider putting this one in your Bidder Block List (BBL).

Because 661henryglen hit sellers that eBay has a vested interest in, buy (Buy.com) and yourgmdealer, we believe their buying spree days may be over.

But that does bring up an interesting conundrum.  Big IF 661henryglen committed unwelcome and malicious buying against eBay vested interest sellers, why is their account not a registered user (NARU)?

Two answers:

1. They're a legitimate buyer.
2. If their account is NARU'd, this leaves open the possibility that ALL feedback left would be removed.

If we're dealing with case number two, this would have virtually no affect on buy (Buy.com).  Buy (Buy.com) has 679,689 positive feedback over a 12 month period.  Removing one positive feedback would result in an insignificant change in their Feedback Profile.

The GM yourgmdealer account is a another matter though.  Over a 12 month period (or 1 month period),  yourgmdealer has seven positive feedback and three negative feedback, resulting in a 62.5% Feedback Percentage.

What kind of visual image does the casual view see with three less positives?  Does a Feedback Rating of four positives and three negatives look good?  Which is the near coin toss chance of getting a good deal from GM/eBay.

Are we having fun yet?

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"It's my gift. It's my curse."
Frank Black, Millennium (1996-1999)

"It's a blessing, and a curse."
Adrian Monk, Monk (2002-2009)

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© 1984-2009  Event Horizon

Silencing the Lambs - eBay Cuts Voices Roster

Silencing the Lambs - eBay Cuts Voices Roster
26 August 2009
EventHorizon1984

It's that time of year when rosters get cut in professional Football. In that same vein eBay has taken to slashing it's eBay Voices lineup from 130 to 100.

According to an AuctionBytes article "Is eBay Phasing out 'Voices' Focus-Group Program?", the person "responsible for Voices, eBay Senior Manager of Seller Development "responsible for Voices" Garnor Morantes said:

• "This change is something we've been thinking about for a while and is meant to give others the chance to participate in the program. We're looking to bring in some new perspectives, some new buyers and sellers - all levels of selling."

Incidentally, detouring a bit.  If you're thinking "focus group??", here's something we pulled (sort of) at random:

Using Focus Groups For Evaluation
Mary Marczak & Meg Sewell

• "The technique was developed after World War II"
• "A focus group could be defined as a group of interacting individuals having some common interest or characteristics, brought together by a moderator, who uses the group and its interaction as a way to gain information about a specific or focused issue."
• "A focus group is typically 7-10 people who are unfamiliar with each other. These participants are selected because they have certain characteristics in common that relate to the topic of the focus group. The moderator or interviewer creates a permissive and nurturing environment that encourages different perceptions and points of view, without pressuring participants to vote, plan or reach consensus"

Unfortunately eBay doesn't quite get how not to use focus groups:

• "because focus groups are usually made up of a very small number of people who voluntarily participate, you cannot assume that their views and perceptions represent those of other groups that might have slightly different characteristics. They are not "random samples".

And someone is ignoring the disadvantages:

• "Small numbers and convenience sampling severely limit ability to generalize to larger populations"
• "Moderator may knowingly or unknowingly bias results by providing cues about what types of responses are desirable"
• "Results may be biased by presence of a very dominant or opinionated member"

"I do not think it means what you think it means."
Indigo Montoya, The Princess Bride (1987)

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This roster cut has produced some consternation from eBay Voices members.

For example eBay perennial favorite PowerSeller Marty (clact (5147)) made his usual flurry of correct and incorrect statements. Or as he described other people doing the same thing, "all the BULL$&*@ in these comments".  Such as:

• "No other major company has a program like Voices in place to keep them on track and there is no doubt in my mind that at some point this company will be moving in the right direction."

This individual should consider that they're wrong on two counts.  According to eBay CEO John Donahoe eBay is moving in the right direction.  And about that focus groups myth?  Check out this old interesting article.

Business Week
Shoot The Focus Group
14 November 2005

• "Exasperation with focus groups, while not universal, is growing as companies look for better ways to get inside consumers' heads"
• "Perhaps the most common complaint about focus groups is that consumers are not honest in front of other people."
• ""Consumers aren't dishonest, it's that most people don't listen the right way." On the other hand, maybe consumers can be heard more clearly when nobody is watching."

As you might expect, the reaction of eBay Voices members posting comments to the AuctionBytes article "eBay Silences Founding 'Voices' Members" varied. Some of the posts read:

• by: Randy
• Thu Aug 20 02:29:54 2009

Looks I was smart to leave when I did last year ....  Randy (Former) Voices 3 Member.

• by: What Me Worry
• Thu Aug 20 13:44:57 2009

Heck this was coming...I saw it when I was in the program.
When Voices was founded, it's members were actually helpful to the employees in forming programs.

The past several years, many members felt that they were nothing more than "lab rats" as ebay measured reactions to already made decisions.

When the administrator of the program, Garnor Morantes, has to remind members to be positive about their comments and admit that he's hesitant about opening up the comments for all employees to view...they do not want to hear what they need to know...they want to hear what they want to hear...

Signed...former Voices member

• by: Nancy Leckron
• Thu Aug 20 14:30:18 2009

I am one of the effected Voices member's that was retired.  I value the time I spent giving my opinion on a varity of topics.  Remember people, we are real live human beings.  I gave my time for the greater good of the entire eBay Community.  Yes, I am a Proud Former Voices Member!

• by: Still a Voice
• Thu Aug 20 15:38:06 2009

I am saddened by this decision, but feel the need to reply to a couple comments made here.  I remain in the program, but have always been a small buyer/seller, and in fact, am currently at my lowest level ever, having only listed less than 10 items in the last six months.  Also, I am definitely not an eBay cheerleader.  I am disappointed in the direction eBay seems to be going.  As long as I am Still a Voice, I will remain an advocate for the small seller!  I don't think the program has the influence it once did, but I DO think it continues to have merit.

Those who are being removed this week will be sorely missed.  Those who were involuntarily removed in the past (or resigned under obvious pressure to do so), not so much.

• by: former_Voice
• Thu Aug 20 15:45:59 2009

I enjoyed my time in Voices.  There was true give-and-take, and eBay really was interested in what we had to say. That doesn't mean that everyone got what they wanted, and any Voices member who thought the group had any real power is just kidding themselves.  However, I can say that there were several instances of ''done deals'' not happening or being altered, due, in part, to the responses of Voices members.

eBay is a business.  It is not evil. I don't believe that JD is evil. Somehow someone got the idea that eBay would care more about the community than its own financial health.  That will never happen.

Grow up.  If it works for you, fine; if not, then shut up and move on.  Be responsible for your own situation and stop blaming someone else.  

• by: brecklundin
• Fri Aug 21 03:18:41 2009

For those who feel voices members were sycophants and yes men sorts you are the exact reason some of us left eBay.  I was an active member of the user boards helping 1000s of members at the drop of a hat in order to make smaller sellers find their way through eBay.  I was a member of what might have been the most influential and effective Voices group.  I know that is saying a lot but we were note even close to "yes men/women" and at that time eBay truly listened to us.  

We each gave up years of our time and advice I personally would have charged clients tens of thousands of dollars for...all to HELP my fellow sellers.  But we were met with petty jealously from the more unbalanced eBay'ers who always knew better yet accomplished nothing.  

I finally left when there was too much of a difference of opinion between myself and one individual who was running the program.  

I will tell you I gave them the Health Insurance thing for Power Sellers and argued that they were asking sellers to commit themselves full time to selling and eBay had the resources to help organize a group insurance program.  eBay LOVED the idea...unfortunately the INSURANCE INDUSTRY refused to come up with a real health insurance program.  Still the options which came the ashes of a well intentioned program, which eBay genuinely put a LOT of man hours into trying to develop, but what rose was at least a very decent Rx discount program that saves me over $400/mo on medications and even more if I was willing to take some of the more dangerous meds to help slow down the progression of my primary health issue...Meg overstated the scope of the program at eBay Live 1 but at the time she was unaware of the final denial from the insurance carriers...still there is value in the program.  I take pride in knowing I was a motivating voice behind something to potentially help millions of people save even more millions on many aspects of their health care needs.

Another personal feature of the site that was exclusively mine and I gave it to the lead programmer free because I was never going to be able to develop feature on a site as my serious programming days were behind me and I had a parent who needed me as her caregiver.  And that feature is the Best Offer, I designed it, talked to Mark about it and eBay made a few changes but developed one of the most used features on the site...and no I never was paid or asked for compensation.  But eBay added it after my disagreement with the then coordinator of Voices...and it was over something very stupid on my part but I am a stubborn bastard when I am in the mood...and boy was I in the mood...hehehe...

We came up with the idea of annual convention type events moved around the country...this because eBay Live.  It would have worked had eBay held the community together with real mods rather than farming it all out...big error on their part...

You also have no idea who many ideas we stopped cold in their tracks during conference calls.  You should have been a fly one the wall when we gave a top to bottom dressing-down to UPS VP's when they were trying to gain exclusive access to eBay sellers of all other carriers.  Sellers in antiques and collectibles can tell you that UPS might be the single worst carrier in terms of delivery, obtaining signatures as paid for (drives can just drop boxes even if a sig is required when the area is designated as a drop and go area...this would destroy the needed signature for PP Seller Protection.)  We pointed out that there was no such thing as a one size fits all.

We were strongly influential in getting sellers to be required in revealing all fees in their listings.  Shipping, handling and insurance.  Our compromise was in lieu of limits which are impractical because a seller in NY has higher staff overhead than one on small town USA.  So, our suggestion was a compromise (eBay was against revealing or limiting...) but we pushed and argued very cogently for simple declaration of any fees.  before us there was no rule and sellers often raised fees if items sold under value.

We fought with PayPal when they tried to take away the 1.5% cash back for using the PP Debit card...they wanted to eliminate ALL cashback programs...I for one told PayPal directly that should they remove that program I would not use their service...I am no large seller, but I had an ace in the hole as did every member of our group, we had the ear of the community on the eBay Boards, each of us in a different board.  While we alone might not have saved the program, we planted the seed of doubt that cutting the program would potentially wreck eBay's recently acquired PayPal.  Again earning millions of funds for millions of sellers...but we were "yes men/women".

I am sure there will be those who know exactly who I am from my comments...and those people will also know I honest to a fault...and I take crap from nobody, and every member of our group was the same way, each in their own way.  Two of us were more vocal but the others were just as resolute unwilling to compromise beyond a certain point where sellers and/or buyers would be harmed.

I have the utmost respect for my fellow members in our Voices group...we worked hard for everyone of us, we did nothing in a self serving fashion...but there were those out there who felt because we were legally bound to not disclose these things we were 'assimilated'.  I personally put my eBay account at risk in standing up for what I though was right...yet I say cowards with posting ID's bitching like 8yr old school girls about us, eBay and the lack of decent tinfoil for their hats.

I guess you can say I stopped caring.  I stopped caring about eBay as a company as well as my fellow eBay'ers...now a decade later, I care only for my buyers and give them the best of the best in service and respect.  Something the whiners have not clue about...

I have a personal list of eBay execs who I have the utmost respect for...the believed in the small community the level playing field and all the things which eBay was...but unfortunately, they lost the battle.  

I will point out two....Maynard Webb and Bill Cobb.  Yeah, many of the whiners thing those two were just horrible people...having actually looked them in the eye, spent hours in person with them and one the phones, they are honest and decent people.  There are easily 50-100 people at eBay I still remember that had the best intentions.  Sadly, the decisions from the very top, did some serious damage.  I also know the people who believed in the community, they either gave up hope to feed their families or left eBay.

After our eBay group basically the program was changed and significantly watered down.  Still that does not mean the members were in it just for themselves and to say they were part of eBay...those sorts were actually weeded out pretty early.

No matter what the antagonists say, I know what I did personally and what my group did as a whole...and we did GOOD.

The single regret I had was we were unable to convince eBay to move eBay Live Listings out of the core or at least into their own sub area in each category.  but eventually we were proven right because many remained vocal and kept pointing out the ethically questionable aspects of Live Auction format and their mixing in with regular listings.

I know this was not well written but I needed to express that in our early groups there were a couple special teams (we really became a team and ours was as cohesive a team as I have ever worked with, and we never knew each other before Voices, well I knew one member of my group and she was one of the stellar members who was in it for us ALL not herself...

I also have bent, but likely not broken my NDA but after a decade since I signed it, I feel things have changed enough to live with someone "peeing in the cheerios" a bit in order to set a few things straight.

I know the anger will come back..it always does, but if you examine the eBay ID's of those people you will find proof of their lack of stability revealed in how they deal with customers.

Ina knows me and knows who I am...and I know w/o her watching eBay for us, we would be caught even more off guard...

Mostly anonymous posts are not truly satisfying, and at this juncture all three of you* may be wondering who are these eBay Voices.  While it's possible to piece together a list (as we choose to understand it), that's never happening here. Other than the basic privacy issues involved, that would be just plain rude.

* We jest. It's really four.

For brevity we will stick to speaking of a few members made openly public by eBay.  In April 2003.

eBay's "Voices" program...
by Daphne, eBay Staff Member
April 2003

According to The Chatter article since 1999, "Several times a year, eight to ten members are flown to eBay's corporate office in San Jose, California. They are chosen from all levels of eBay's buying and selling community -- from Shooting Stars and PowerSellers, to mom-and-pop sellers, and all levels of buyers."  Followed by, " regular conference calls and email discussions".

The writer goes on to say, "Participants sign non-disclosure agreements" and "This confidentiality makes Voices groups a powerful tool".  Then Daphne discloses three names.

It's definitely interesting about what became of these three eBay Voices members.

• eBay's "Voices" program...
• "drexelantiques, who attended Voices said this about his experience: "eBay had set up a wonderful program. Very informative. I hadn't expected eBay to really listen to the Voices participants, but they did. eBay staff was very concerned with users' opinions. Participants' questions were answered fully. The eBay staff were very frank in discussing issues. The staff at eBay that we had a chance to talk to were among the nicest group of folks I have met in a long time. We were treated very well. ….eBay staff also alleviated some of my concerns over the direction eBay was taking.""

Today seller DrexelAntiques (2175) (member since Nov-12-98) remains an active buyer on eBay, but their last eBay sale feedback was August 29 2003. They have a brick and mortar store.

• eBay's "Voices" program...
• "gatorpack wrote: "The most important thing I took away from the experience was the realization that everyone I met at eBay was genuinely sincere in their efforts to carry on as much of Pierre's founding philosophies as possible, yet pragmatically deal with all the twists, turns and complexities the beast was spinning off. In 1995, '96, '97 or '98, who could have possibly imagined what was to come. If anything, it reinforced, rather than changed, our perceptions and opinions of eBay. I know exactly what it's like to work in an environment where you are constantly making up things as you go along.""

Today seller Gatorpack (32761) (member since Jan-22-99) neither buys nor sells on this account. The account remains active with an impressive positive feedback of 32,761. Their last eBay sale feedback is dated October 12 2007.  They're currently selling online at Gatorpack.com.

• eBay's "Voices" program...
• "giraffer had this to say: "Really I expected to hear a sales pitch, or as we often give our customers where I work...the mission statement pitch. And never expected anyone would listen to us and really show that they cared about the community and our problems. I was impressed to have vice presidents sitting down and talking with us in such an informal manner. I was impressed with how friendly everyone was and how they made me feel important and glad to have me there. What did I take away? That everyone at eBay cares and will continue to do their best to make the site work for the community. That they are real people, not just this unknown entity. I'm so proud of this program and eBay for having it that I proudly display the Voices logo on my ME page and my business card.""

Today Giraffer (3020) (member since Jan-19-99) is a "Retired Member eBay's Voice of the Community 10".  By eBay Corporate standards they are a small seller. The account remains active in sales and purchases.  Giraffer is an active poster on the eBay Discussion Boards.  Giraffer is as exuberant about eBay now as she was in 2003.

"any Voices member who thought the group had any real power is just kidding themselves"
former_voice

.

With this small sample showing two out of three eBay Voices sellers gone from eBay, we have to wonder how relevant is eBay Voices to the participants?  And do 100 eBay Voices have any relevance to the millions of eBay buyers and the 50+ million active sellers on eBay?

Or is eBay Voices all 'baaaaa' humbug.

.

"You will let me know when those lambs stop screaming, won't you?"
Hannibal Lecter MD, Silence of the Lambs (1991)

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Senator Edward Kennedy v. eBay PowerSeller Oldspartantrader

Senator Edward Kennedy v. eBay PowerSeller Oldspartantrader
26 August 2009

EventHorizon1984

We're not a political blog, and rarely post the hot button politics of the moment.  But sometimes you 'gotta do what you gotta do'.

"Everybody's entitled to an opinion"
Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott, Star Trek

 

In the case of the death of Senator Edward Kennedy (D), there are two basic opinions.

1) Boston Globe - McCain: Kennedy 'always kept his word'

• "Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican presidential nominee"
• "Well, there's one thing that I think that has epitomized the Kennedy family, and that is service the country, and a country above one's own self-interest. Ted Kennedy, I think, epitomized that service to the country. He had a very heavy burden of an incredible tradition to carry on. He shouldered it, he became an institution within an institution. And all of us will not only miss him, but perhaps maybe try to carry on his legacy of reaching across the aisle and getting things done for the American people. We need this now more than ever before."

2) oldspartantrader eBay PowerSeller

• eBay Stores Discussion Board - A criminal passed last night
• Excerpts:
• "on the whole a despicable example of a citizen"
• "That sympathy does not extend to being mute in face of people calling him great"

At this point we would say that 'these are not our comments', and to 'post your comments on the appropriate thread'.  Only sometime after 2:14 PM PST eBay deleted the thread, and most likely issued a Pink Slap.  Typically eBay will cause a thread to vanish, because the post shows eBay in a bad light or is considered by eBay to be offensive.

Since like fellow PowerSellers Marty (clact) and itspostingtime, oldspartantrader is considered a leader on the eBay Stores Discussion Board, you might wonder what gives?

View (mouse click) the screen shots for the full uncensored posts and come to your own opinion.

 

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"If you wanna do anything about it, I'll be outside. I'm a lot drunker than you are - so it'll be a fair fight."
Lt. Barney Greenwald, The Caine Mutiny (1954)

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eBay Developer Important Security Update - Oh Please!

eBay Developer Important Security Update - Oh Please!
10 August 2009
EventHorizon1984

 

In the article "Passwords compromised for eBay developers," Chris Dawson of TameBay wrote:

• "eBay have identified a possible security flaw and are requiring all developers update their passwords."
• "The developer blog reports that eBay have recently identified a means by which someone could have" "gained access to eBay Developers Program account information."

We're not surprised this happened.  The surprise is eBay in public admitting a "security flaw".

The equivalent of code monkey felgercarb can be found in this security announcement from the eBay Developers Program blog, regarding the "possible security flaw":

Important Security Update: developer.ebay.com
Posted by Laurel Kline in Critical Notes from Tech Support, Business News & Developer Website
Monday, Aug.10.2009, 3:06 PM PT

This is Kumar Kandaswamy, and I manage the eBay Developers Program. I'd like you to read this important message about account safety.

The safety and security of the eBay Developers Program is a top priority. While we believe that people are basically good, we also must live with the reality that there are fraudsters out there who have made it their illicit "profession" to find ways to exploit others on the Internet.

Occasionally, fraudsters attempt to gain unauthorized access to the eBay Developers Program. eBay has recently identified a means by which someone could gain access to eBay Developers Program account information. This type of access DOES NOT allow the capture of financial or other sensitive information, such as credit card or bank account information or Social Security numbers.  Fortunately, we have not detected any unusual activity with any Developer account.

Out of an abundance of caution and to help ensure the security of the eBay Developers Program, we are requiring that all developers take the following steps:

• Take advantage of our new, stricter password standards and change your eBay Developers Program (developer.ebay.com) passwords. It is not necessary to change eBay (www.ebay.com) passwords.

If you believe you or your customers have been the victim of fraudulent activity, contact us immediately at developer-relations@ebay.com.

Sincerely,
Kumar Kandaswamy

There's much unintentional eBay humor with the statement from Kumar Kandaswamy that "safety and security of the eBay Developers Program is a top priority."  Because historically that has not been the case.

Follow us.

Once upon a time Sergiu Daniel Popa was brought to the attention of the public by Dan Browning of the Star Tribune.  As reported in his article "Suspect in 'phishing' scheme indicted":

• "A Romanian immigrant was indicted Tuesday in federal court in Minneapolis on charges that he operated a computerized "phishing" scheme for several years that raked in financial records and personal identification from thousands of individuals"
• "Sergiu Daniel Popa, 20, of Shelby Township, Mich., was indicted on three counts"

Days later there would be a post about the article on the eBay Stores Forum. This was followed quickly by eBay user ID spopa2006 stating, "Listen guys. I am Sergiu D. Popa. I am that horrible guy!" and "I will make your life a hell."  And much much more.

When this activity and background was reported to eBay, their reponse was to delete the spopa2006 posts.  He was able to keep his eBay account active.  If you look quickly, you can view his Feedback Profile as of 11 August 2009 01:07 GMT.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

This all would be rather uninteresting save for the fact that spopa2006 was a poster on the eBay Developer forums:

• "Hey there. I wrote a similar project in C++ by using pointers. However, the implemented network interface i used in C++ is no longer supported and I am not a C# guru as I am in c++. Tell me whether or not you got your solution. You can email me at gam30v3r2007@yahoo.com"

The activities of a registered eBay Developer.  You know the ones who work on the software that eBay buyers and sellers use.

Feeling that "safety and security" yet?

Oh, and did we forget to mention that this took place in 2007?  For those interested we kept the details in a June 2007 article, Sergiu D. Popa Response To Dan Browning Star Tribune Article.

Well there is innocent unless proven guilty.

BAMM!!  But wait, there's more.

In October 2008 Dan Goodin followed up with "Romanian national cops to $700,000 phishing trip":

• "Who's your underworld Popa?"
• "22-year-old Romanian national has admitted he participated in a US-based phishing operation that raked in some $700,000 over a three-year period."
• "Sergiu Daniel Popa, who for the past seven years has lived in New York and Michigan, pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to two felonies related to the scheme. He faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison and a fine of $500,000."
• "FBI agents began their investigation of Popa in early 2005."

Kumar Kandaswamy is crowing about protection from "fraudsters attempt to gain unauthorized access to the eBay Developers Program", but described here is a convicted hacker who eBay gave Developer Program access?

With spopa2006's regular eBay account active, you have to wonder if his Developer Program access remains active.  And if he gave others access to his account, during his extended absence.

Kumar Kandaswamy said, "we have not detected any unusual activity with any Developer account".

Oh, Please!

How many times does a warning have to be given to eBay before someone listens?

And given the lax vetting process, one really has to wonder if there are other "Popa's" signed up to the Developer Program?

.

"So, people hire you to break into their places... to make sure no one can break into their places?"
"It's a living."  Martin Bishop, Sneakers (1992)

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The eBay ideeli Diamond PowerSeller Feedback Affair

The eBay ideeli Diamond PowerSeller Feedback Affair
5 August 2009
EventHorizon1984

Being the curious* type we wondered what were the facts behind the comments on purported new eBay Diamond seller ideeli. 

Here's some of what we found.

On 7 May 2009 the ideeli eBay user ID quietly sprang into existence.

Here's how eBay seller ideeli describes themselves:

Ideeli offers privileged access to the most sought-after fashion, home and beauty products. Ideeli is a shopping community offering luxury brand-name products at 20%-80% off regular prices. All of our items are brand new, and authenticity is 100% guaranteed.

A month later came listings for fashion products, and ideeli's first positive feedback.

     

	Thrilled with my new bag! Extremely quick shipping! Thanks!	Buyer: emerald624523 ( 107)	Jun-25-09 17:19
	NEW Alexis Hudson Twinkle II (Ink) (#170346717957)	US $15.50	View Item

     

A new eBay seller had made their entrance.

Within a span of another month things got interesting.  This short article will cover the feedback portion of 'interesting'.

...

"When you argue, I have this compulsive need to argue back."
Jack McCoy, Law & Order

...

The answer to the frequently asked question, 'was ideeli feedback removed?', is yes.  We did not find everything, but what was found does support the "yes" answer.

Why the feedback was removed is a question we'll leave to the readers.

This record covers the time period June 24 2009 20:08:30 through August 5 2009.

Except where attributed, screen shots were obtained from the Google cache.  The link to the cache is provided as reference material, but keep in mind a Google cache does not exist forever.  We anticipate that many of the links will be aged out by publication.

...

"I worry. I mean, little things bother me. I’m a worrier. I mean, little insignificant details – I lose my appetite. I can’t eat. My wife, she says to me, “you know, you can really be a pain.”‘"
LT Columbo, Columbo

...

The ideeli Feedback Chronology

June 24 2009  20:08:30 GMT

Feedback:  ideeli (0)

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:okuM6wdJnIMJ:feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewFeedback%26userid%3Dideeli%26ftab%3DFeedbackAsSeller%26ssPageName%3DVIP:feedback:3:us+feedback.ebay.com+userid%3Dideeli&cd=13&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

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July 5 2009  16:04:54 GMT

Feedback: ideeli (9)

• Rating  1 month  6 months  12 months
• Positive  10  10  10
• Neutral  0  0  0
• Negative  0  0  0

Revised Feedback:  0

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:gDeJ3FwuqmgJ:feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewFeedback%26userid%3Dideeli%26iid%3D170343935522%26ftab%3DFeedbackAsSeller%26ssPageName%3DVIP:feedback:2:us+feedback.ebay.com+userid%3Dideeli&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

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July 7 2009  18:25:32 GMT

Feedback: ideeli (15)

• Rating  1 month  6 months  12 months
• Positive  20  20  20
• Neutral  0  0  0
• Negative  0  0  0

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:BtuoieVIGsUJ:feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewFeedback2%26userid%3Dideeli%26ftab%3DFeedbackAsBuyer+feedback.ebay.com+userid%3Dideeli&cd=11&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

.

July 7 2009  18:25:32 GMT - July 15 2009  22:02:45 GMT

A smaller version of original screenshot from instantvideogames:

Regarding the Negative Feedback.

Reported by coolbeans717:

eBay buyer chatychik4887 bought "NEW Alexis Hudson Twinkle I (Mocha)" #170351642263 on 3 July 2009 15:36:46 PDT (22:36:46 GMT) from ideeli, and left ideeli a Negative feedback.

The indication was the Negative feedback had "DO NOT BUY FROM THEM".

A similar report was made by craftscraftsandcrafts and nostalgicthreads.  The Negative feedback was something to the effect that the 'seller refused to ship to a different address and refunded her payment'.

 
Sometime between July 7 2009 18:25:32 GMT and July 15 2009 22:02:45 GMT, Negative feedback was received by ideeli and removed by eBay.

.

July 15 2009  22:02:45 GMT

Feedback: ideeli (30)

• Rating  1 month  6 months  12 months
• Positive  42  42  42
• Neutral  0  0  0
• Negative  0  0  0

Revised Feedback: 0

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:Aw_i5jqWYy4J:feedback.ebay.in/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewFeedback%26userid%3Dideeli+feedback.ebay.com+userid%3Dideeli&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

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July 16 2009  16:57:00 GMT

Neutral feedback received by ideeli.

	Why did it take 6 days to ship the order ?	Buyer: ggsecost98 ( 15)	Jul-16-09 09:57
	Cole Haan Air Dempsey Men's Penny (Black Calf 8.5M) (#170355611818)	US $94.00	View Item

.
July 18 2009  03:01:12 GMT

Feedback: ideeli (58)

• 100% Positive

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:29sK_Ii33gcJ:cgi.ebay.ph/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D170355539015+feedback.ebay.com+ideeli&cd=47&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

.

July 18 2009  22:56:46 GMT

Feedback: ideeli (72)

• Rating  1 month  6 months  12 months
• Positive  86  86  86
• Neutral  1  1  1
• Negative  0  0  0

Revised Feedback:  0

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:cFQBvAFSWhIJ:feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewFeedback%26userid%3Dideeli%26ftab%3DFeedbackAsSeller+feedback.ebay.com+userid%3Dideeli&cd=14&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

.

July 22 2009  20:15:17 GMT

Feedback: ideeli (192)

• Rating  1 month  6 months  12 months
• Positive  223  223  223
• Neutral  1  1  1
• Negative  0  0  0

Revised Feedback:  0

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:Yv-FPFh_OYQJ:feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewFeedback%26userid%3Dideeli%26ssPageName%3DVIP:feedback+feedback.ebay.com+userid%3Dideeli&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

.

July 23 2009  18:58:00 GMT

Negative feedback received by ideeli.

	COUNTERFEIT SHOES!!! SHOES MADE IN INDIA. THIS IS AGAINST THE LAW!!	Buyer: topqualitycoins ( 789)	Jul-23-09 14:36
	Reply by ideeli (Jul-23-09 15:13): Buyer has not replied to e/v-mail to confirm authenticity we are happy to help.
	Cole Haan Air Sharon Women's Slide (Black 10B) (#170355539755)	US $79.00	View Item
	BEWARE, THESE ARE NOT ORIGINAL COLE HAAN, BUT MADE IN CHINA!! DO NOT BUY	Buyer: topqualitycoins ( 789)	Jul-23-09 11:58
	Reply by ideeli (Jul-23-09 15:12): ideeli is an authorized seller of this brand Buyers welcome to confirm with CH
	Cole Haan Air Geneva Men's Slip-On (T.Moro 9M) (#170355539097)	US $109.00	View Item

.

July 23 2009  22:34:55 GMT

Feedback: ideeli (255)

• 99.6% Positive

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:CbY3D34DQcQJ:myworld.ebay.com/ideeli/+feedback.ebay.com+ideeli&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

.

July 24 2009  12:37:16 GMT

Feedback: ideeli (269)

• Rating  1 month  6 months  12 months
• Positive  313  313  313
• Neutral  1  1  1
• Negative  2  2  2

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:HQCTKvQfaisJ:ebay.chodientu.vn/feedback/ideeli/+feedback.ebay.com+ideeli&cd=85&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

.

July 24 2009  12:37:16 GMT - July 25 2009  06:09:26 GMT

Sometime between July 24 2009 12:37:16 GMT and July 25 2009 06:09:26 GMT, two (2) Negative feedbacks were removed by eBay.

.

July 24 2009  12:37:16 GMT - July 31 2009  01:43:11 GMT

Sometime between July 24 2009 12:37:16 GMT and July 31 2009 01:43:11 GMT, the July 16 2009  16:57:00 GMT Neutral feedback was removed by eBay.

.

July 25 2009  06:09:26 GMT

Feedback: ideeli (295)

• 100% Positive

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:Y-Qw8yGbID0J:cgi.ebay.com.sg/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D170355539718+feedback.ebay.com+ideeli&cd=18&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

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July 25 2009  13:46:00 GMT

	seller took a long to ship item	Buyer: tmays1906 ( 15)	Jul-25-09 06:46
	Cole Haan Adrien Bit Men's Slip-on Shoe (Tan 13M) (#170355538904)	US $79.00	View Item

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July 31 2009  01:43:11 GMT

Feedback: ideeli (451)

• 99.8% Positive

• Rating  1 month  6 months  12 months
• Positive  506  511  511
• Neutral  1  1  1
• Negative  1  1  1

Revised Feedback:  1

	Ordered shoes, They didn't fit and seller only gives an in store credit.	sherwood2sm7 ( 13)	Jul-30-09 11:36
	Cole Haan Air Barrett Men's Penny (Burgundy 9.5M) (#170355538980)	US $99.00	View Item

.

August 5 2009  04:41 GMT

Feedback: ideeli (543)

• 99.8% Positive

• Rating  1 month  6 months  12 months
• Positive  590  609  609
• Neutral  3  3  3
• Negative  1  1  1

Revised Feedback:  1

	slow shipment	Buyer: chimbambastuff ( 405)	Aug-04-09 22:41
	Cole Haan Air Ibiza Women's Strap (White/Orange 8B) (#170355539060)	US $49.00	View Item
	slow shipment	Buyer: chimbambastuff ( 405)	Aug-04-09 22:41
	Cole Haan Carma Air WS Women's Wedge (Ivory 8B) (#170355539864)	US $139.00	View Item

...

"I am the Energizer bunny of forensic science: I never sleep and I never give up."
Abby Sciuto, NCIS

...

* Old professional habits die hard.

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The 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. Why Bother With Columbus Day??

The 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. Why Bother With Columbus Day??
20 July 2009
EventHorizon1984

Today the United States and the world remembers the historic 20 July 1969 landing of the lunar module Eagle (Apollo 11) on the moon, and human's first step upon the moon. 

Why forty years later is this uniquely American endeavor not a U.S. national holiday? 

Because the United States continues to have the inane 'America Discovered' holiday of Columbus Day.  A national holiday celebrating the 'accomplishment' of an Italian national, sailing for the Spanish government to find a route to China, but landing in what is now the British Bahamas instead.  Not quite the site of the future U.S.

Columbus Day is also celebrated in Spain.  And as we understand it no where else.  Of course.

Incidentally Leif Ericson was the first historically recorded European to land on North America. He did so and started a settlement about 5 centuries earlier (1003 AD).  Of course his party was greeted by the local indigenous population.

So much for Columbus being "first."

.

"That's one small step for (a) man.  One giant leap for mankind."
Neil Armstrong, United States, 20 July 1969

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The eBay Weed of the Day

The eBay Weed of the Day
16 July 2009
EventHorizon1984

In the article 'TripAdvisor Warns Of Hotels Posting Fake Reviews' author Melissa Trujillo reported one company "has been quietly posting disclaimers to warn customers of hotels writing fake reviews to improve their popularity rankings or hurt competitors".

This is a common problem. As referenced in the article:

• "Apple required that consumers purchase or download an application before they can review it online in the App Store"
• "A plastic surgery company, Lifestyle Lift Inc., agreed to pay $300,000 to resolve an investigation into positive online reviews written by employees, the New York attorney general announced Tuesday"
• "travel industry insiders — but often not casual travelers — understand the financial incentives hotels have to artificially inflate their rankings on the site. Some offer discounts or freebies to patrons who write positive reviews or hire public relations companies who say they can improve the reviews"

Common and widespread to the extent that the U.S. FTC (Federal Trade Commission) wrote the FTC GUIDES CONCERNING USE OF ENDORSEMENTS AND TESTIMONIALS IN ADVERTISING in 1975 and 1980.

Very briefly that Guide requires companies to identify themselves when commenting on their products. And people making comments about a product, that a company shows to the public, must be independent of the company. Or the person or company must provide to the public their relationship.

This Federal Guide apparently is so abused that the "Federal Trade Commission is revising guidelines on testimonials and endorsements to reflect the growth of online marketing".

Which brings us to what is a "Weed"?

We use the term "Weed" to describe people paid to post. The term derives from how these individuals are viewed. For example the featured article notes, "company has policies to weed out suspicious reviews".

A Wall Street Journal poster provided a partial description of the tactics an eBay Weed employs. This edited version is similar to PowerPoint discussion points given by public relations companies to writers.

1. Blame the messenger.
2. Attack the messenger or message.
3. Downplay the message.
4. Twist what the messenger is trying to say.
5. Spin everything positive for Ebay

6. Never blame Ebay for anything
7. Tell users to go elsewhere if they don’t like it

For the Weeds that will use some of those tactics on this article, tell your supervisor to study a little history. Or actually read the various Public Relations text books. Some of us did.

Philip Morris Public Relations 1992:

• Change the focus of the issue
• Explore and exploit the opposition's weaknesses
• Investigate legal challenges to opposition efforts
• Develop alliances with other groups being attacked by the opposition
• Begin large-scale program of journalism education (focusing on accuracy, accountability, objectivity, etc.)
• Become a source of information and expertise

The above combined checklists sounds familiar doesn't it?

One persona missing from the public relations tactics is the 'friend'. A theatrical example is Security Officer Price from the film Stalag 17 (1953). This personae and it's subtypes are the hardest to detect, and we'll leave that for a future article.

Which brings us to the eBay Weed of the Day.

Disclaimer: We are commenting on individual(s) associated with the following posts, who may have attempted to influence public opinion through methods unsanctioned by the FTC. This opinion should not be taken as fact, and the reader should form their own unbiased opinion.

This part of a recent post was made on a recent article involving eBay.

• #1  "Some people just can't handle change or changing markets. A handful of people have been complaining for more than a year now (mostly the same ones on every blog they can find in a day); they need to learn to move on."

Interestingly months earlier the following comment was made on a different article by another independent voice.

• #2  "if you take out the 10 or 15 most vocal anti-eBay people blogging all over the place (sometimes with different names as well), you realize that the noise is pretty low if noticeable at all. Life goes on, adapt or die.

To be obvious:

1. "Some people just can't handle change or changing markets"
2. "adapt or die"

1. "they need to learn to move on"
2. "Life goes on"

1. "A handful of people have been complaining for more than a year now"
2. "if you take out the 10 or 15 most vocal anti-eBay people"

1. "(mostly the same ones on every blog they can find in a day)"
2. " blogging all over the place (sometimes with different names as well)"

The dissimilar writing styles 'sound' like two separate writers. Which begs the questions. Two different people stating near identical talking points months apart?  Down to the parenthesis; "(", ")"?

We leave you with this thought. Those are not the only examples.

"Sure. Fine. Whatever."
Dana Scully, X-Files (Syzygy)

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From the eBay Stores Forum - Store Owner Died

From the eBay Stores Forum - Store Owner Died
14 July 2009
EventHorizon1984

eBay seller/buyer maverickcom made their first, and so far only post on the public eBay Stores Discussion Board.  A very memorable put on a list type post.

It's sentiments like that post which confirm that the eBay Community is essentially dead or on life support.

"God would probably want you to take the stick out of your butt and get over this."
Dr. Erick Foreman, House

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http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Ebay-Stores/Store-Owner-Died/520135159

maverickcom

(591)

View Listings

Posts: 1

Ignore

Store Owner Died Jul 10, 2009 5:41 PM

I inquired about a purchased item. The seller's child replied, said they lost their mother to a tragic car crash and she will be monitoring her Mother's Store. BTW, she's mailing my item. Should that be permitted? How do I notify eBay.

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Back In Time - eBay Would Like Your Input

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

//

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.

Kind Regards,

eBay Research Department

---

This email was sent to you (*****) because your Notification Preferences indicate that you want to receive eBay product surveys. These surveys will ask you for your opinion on various topics; you will never be asked for personal information such as your password or credit card/bank numbers. If you do not wish to receive further communications, please sign into "My eBay" by clicking on the "My eBay" link found at the top of the eBay home page, and change your Notification Preferences. Please note that this change may take up to 10 days to process.

Decipher, Inc., an independent market research firm, is conducting this online survey for eBay. For questions about its validity, you may email us at research@ebay.com. To stop receiving e-mails from Decipher, Inc., please click here.

Have safety concerns? Learn how to protect yourself from spoof (fake) emails at:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/reporting-spoof.html

For questions about eBay's communication policies, please visit our privacy policy at
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/privacy-policy.html and our User Agreement at
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/user-agreement.html

Copyright © 2009 eBay, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
eBay and the eBay logo are registered trademarks of eBay Inc.
Other trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.
eBay is located at 2145 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125.

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Comments

mylegacy-treasures ( 815) View seller's items | View Blog Recently, it appears that Mr D. and staff aren't asking Qs just to get the answers that they want to hear. Perhaps we can return to 2005, 2003, 2001 or even 1999! And have a happier, healthier and more successful buying and selling environment. Jul-07-09 14:17:48 PDT

madcat1010 ( 1536) View seller's items | View Blog I got one that asked for my age!! I assumed it was a scam and sent it in to ebay.....they said it was legit. Jul-07-09 14:22:49 PDT

cdlucel ( 481) View seller's items | View Blog check your ebay email first, before responding to your normal email provider..always go through Ebay..for all your needs..lol ;) woof woof Jul-07-09 14:26:50 PDT

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Richard Ambrose Is Leaving eBay. Does It Matter?

Richard Ambrose Is Leaving eBay.  Does It Matter?
1 July 2009
EventHorizon1984

During the irregular perusal of Tamebay we came across the article Richard Ambrose leaves eBay for new challenges.

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.

Getting back to "Who??", in the article, Chris Dawson of Tamebay wrote:

"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).

Richard Ambrose

From article dated, 14 November 2007.

Feedback Profile

	medievalist ( 918)
	Positive Feedback (last 12 months): 100%
	Member since: 12-Jan-99 in United Kingdom

Recent Feedback Ratings (last 12 months)   1 month 6 months 12 months Positive 39 115 205 Neutral 0 0 0 Negative 0 0 0

Detailed Seller Ratings (last 12 months) Criteria Average rating Number of ratings Item as described 57 Communication 57 Dispatch time 57 Postage and packaging charges 56

Feedback is excellent, but as wryly noted by many he is an eBay employee.

Speaking of which if you check his complete listings you will find something missing. 

eBay Employee Trading and Community Content Policy

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.

Not to worry though as Richard Ambrose, before leaving eBay, was "UK's Head of Customer Support and Trust & Safety."

"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish"
Douglas Adams (1984)

Here's his goodbye post on an eBay forum.  European style date of "01-07-09" is equivalent to U.S. format "07-01-09".

Mr Ambrose, if you're lurking

medievalist  (915 ) View Listings | Report Afternoon everyone, Thanks for the (mostly!) good wishes. 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	39 of 303

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:

Linkedin Profile:

Richard Ambrose
Director, Trust & Safety at eBay Europe
London, United Kingdom

• Director, Trust & Safety

• eBay Europe
• (Internet industry)

• November 2008 — Present (9 months) 


• Head of Trust & Safety

• 
eBay
• (Public Company; ebay; Internet industry)

• October 2007 — October 2008 (1 year 1 month) 


• Head of Finding

• 
eBay
• 
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; ebay; Internet industry)
• 
September 2004 — September 2007 (3 years 1 month)

• Senior Manager, Collectables & Entertainment 


• eBay

• (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; ebay; Internet industry)
• 
September 2003 — September 2004 (1 year 1 month)

• Head of Business Development 


• Music Choice Europe
• 
(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Media Production industry)
• 
January 2002 — June 2003 (1 year 6 months)

• Commercial Manager 


• Talkcast

• (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

• January 2000 — September 2000 (9 months)

• Consultant 


• Decipher
• 
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Management Consulting industry)

• June 1999 — January 2000 (8 months)

• Analyst 
Mercer Management Consulting

• 
(Public Company; Internet industry)

• 1996 — 1999 (3 years)

"The trouble with being infallible is that you have to deal with everyone else making mistakes."
Emperor Cartagia, Babylon 5

Anyone who's gone through stacks of resumes might be thinking 'what's behind the titles?'.

Glad you asked that.  Here's a small sampler of Richard Ambrose projects.

eBay to make free P&P compulsory for DVDs
Saturday, October 11th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

• "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."

Ebay Spokesman Richard Ambrose on Feedback Strike Boycott
February 22 2008

eBay Hopes to Boost Membership by Removing Seller Feedback
3:22 PM Feb 7, 2008

• 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 'sorry' over policy change
Friday, 20 April 2007, 17:01 GMT 18:01 UK

• "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's 10-year rise to world fame
Friday, 2 September 2005, 17:11 GMT 18:11 UK

• 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."

The inspector calls on eBay
12:01AM BST 26 Sep 2004

• 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

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How To Guide - FTC Guides Concerning Use Of Endorsements And Testimonials In Advertising

How To Guide - FTC Guides Concerning Use Of Endorsements And Testimonials In Advertising
18 May 2009
EventHorizon1984
Commentary

This comment isn't really about the material violations made by certain corporations and their paid shills.  Although we're including the link and text, because eBay spams the Internet with these eBay blogs and associated keywords. And we like to help them along.

Today's lesson, so to speak, is what we've noticed in the actual online FTC complaint process. 

If you don't feel like writing an actual letter and mailing it (http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/cmplanding.shtm), here's the link to the online complaint form.

FTC Complaint Assistant
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

What do we see first?

Step 1: Let's Get Started
Is your complaint concerning identity theft?
( ) Yes
( ) No

For this example, select "No".

Is your complaint most closely related to:
( ) Debt collectors or debt collection practices
( ) Credit Reports
( ) Dissatisfaction with other business practices

You get to the interesting part when you select "Dissatisfaction".

What kind of company are you complaining about?

Automobile
Business Opportunities
Home Furnishings/Repair
Internet
Lending Financial / Services
Lottery of Sweepstakes
Telephone/Cable
Work-related
Other

Want to hazard a guess as to what choices you get when "Internet" is selected?

Auctions
Internet Service Provider
Spyware/Computer Viruses
Web Design Services
Other Internet Practices

Auctions
Internet Service Provider
Spyware/Computer Viruses
Web Design Services
Other Internet Practices

It is truly amazing at the amount of Federal attention the "Internet" "Auctions" business has garnered recently.  Think the FTC is referring to eBay here?  Or perhaps eBay's paid and undisclosed speakers?

Unless some "Internet" "Auctions" business plans to spin this as 'Auctions means Amazon too'.

In case you're wondering.  Yes, there's more to the form.  Yes, we are doing some spring cleaning bulk filings.  Don't need this type of distraction and "noise" during the summer.

And you may be asking too, does this go anywhere?  Based on past history, see our end quote.

"Oooh That's Gotta Hurt!"
Ash (Bruce Campbell), Army of Darkness (1992)
http://www.geocities.com/evildeadpage/gotahurt.wav

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http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/endorse.htm

FTC GUIDES CONCERNING USE OF
ENDORSEMENTS AND TESTIMONIALS IN ADVERTISING

---

Sec.255.0 255.1 255.2 255.3 255.4 255.5

Definitions. General considerations. Consumer endorsements Expert endorsements. Endorsements by organizations. Disclosure of material connections.

Authority: 38 Stat. 717, as amended; 15 U.S.C. 41 - 58.

§255.0 Definitions.

(a) The Commission intends to treat endorsements and testimonials identically in the context of its enforcement of the Federal Trade Commission Act and for purposes of this part. The term endorsements is therefore generally used hereinafter to cover both terms and situations.

(b) For purposes of this part, an endorsement means any advertising message (including verbal statements, demonstrations, or depictions of the name, signature, likeness or other identifying personal characteristics of an individual or the name or seal of an organization) which message consumers are likely to believe reflects the opinions, beliefs, findings, or experience of a party other than the sponsoring advertiser. The party whose opinions, beliefs, findings, or experience the message appears to reflect will be called the endorser and may be an individual, group or institution.

(c) For purposes of this part, the term product includes any product, service, company or industry.

(d) For purposes of this part, an expert is an individual, group or institution possessing, as a result of experience, study or training, knowledge of a particular subject, which knowledge is superior to that generally acquired by ordinary individuals.

Example 1: A film critic's review of a movie is excerpted in an advertisement. When so used, the review meets the definition of an endorsement since it is viewed by readers as a statement of the critic's own opinions and not those of the film producer, distributor or exhibitor. Therefore, any alteration in or quotation from the text of the review which does not fairly reflect its substance would be a violation of the standards set by this part.

 

Example 2: A TV commercial depicts two women in a supermarket buying a laundry detergent. The women are not identified outside the context of the advertisement. One comments to the other how clean her brand makes her family's clothes, and the other then comments that she will try it because she has not been fully satisfied with her own brand. This obvious fictional dramatization of a real life situation would not be an endorsement.

 

Example 3: In an advertisement for a pain remedy, an announcer who is not familiar to consumers except as a spokesman for the advertising drug company praises the drug's ability to deliver fast and lasting pain relief. He purports to speak, not on the basis of his own opinions, but rather in the place of and on behalf of the drug company. Such an advertisement would not be an endorsement.

 

Example 4: A manufacturer of automobile tires hires a well known professional automobile racing driver to deliver its advertising message in television commercials. In these commercials, the driver speaks of the smooth ride, strength, and long life of the tires. Even though the message is not expressly declared to be the personal opinion of the driver, it may nevertheless constitute an endorsement of the tires. Many consumers will recognize this individual as being primarily a racing driver and not merely a spokesman or announcer for the advertiser. Accordingly, they may well believe the driver would not speak for an automotive product unless he/she actually believed in what he/she was saying and had personal knowledge sufficient to form that belief. Hence they would think that the advertising message reflects the driver's personal views as well as those of the sponsoring advertiser. This attribution of the underlying views to the driver brings the advertisement within the definition of an endorsement for purposes of this part.

 

Example 5: A television advertisement for golf balls shows a prominent and well-recognized professional golfer hitting the golf balls. This would be an endorsement by the golfer even though he makes no verbal statement in the advertisement.

[40 FR 22128, May 21, 1975, as amended at 45 FR 3872, Jan. 18, 1980]

§255.1 General considerations.

(a) Endorsements must always reflect the honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experience of the endorser. Furthermore, they may not contain any representations which would be deceptive, or could not be substantiated if made directly by the advertiser. [See Example 2 to Guide 3 (§255.3) illustrating that a valid endorsement may constitute all or part of an advertiser's substantiation.]

(b) The endorsement message need not be phrased in the exact words of the endorser, unless the advertisement affirmatively so represents. However, the endorsement may neither be presented out of context nor reworded so as to distort in any way the endorser's opinion or experience with the product. An advertiser may use an endorsement of an expert or celebrity only as long as it has good reason to believe that the endorser continues to subscribe to the views presented. An advertiser may satisfy this obligation by securing the endorser's views at reasonable intervals where reasonableness will be determined by such factors as new information on the performance or effectiveness of the product, a material alteration in the product, changes in the performance of competitors' products, and the advertiser's contract commitments.

(c) In particular, where the advertisement represents that the endorser uses the endorsed product, then the endorser must have been a bona fide user of it at the time the endorsement was given, Additionally, the advertiser may continue to run the advertisement only so long as he has good reason to believe that the endorser remains a bona fide user of the product. [See §255.1(b) regarding the ``good reason to believe'' requirement.]

Guide 1, Example 1: A building contractor states in an advertisement that he specifies the advertiser's exterior house paint because of its remarkable quick drying properties and its durability. This endorsement must comply with the pertinent requirements of Guide 3. Subsequently, the advertiser reformulates its paint to enable it to cover exterior surfaces with only one coat. Prior to continued use of the contractor's endorsement, the advertiser must contact the contractor in order to determine whether the contractor would continue to specify the paint and to subscribe to the views presented previously.

 

Example 2: A television advertisement portrays a woman seated at a desk on which rest five unmarked electric typewriters. An announcer says ``We asked Mrs. X, an executive secretary for over ten years, to try these five unmarked typewriters and tell us which one she liked best.''

 

The advertisement portrays the secretary typing on each machine, and then picking the advertiser's brand. The announcer asks her why, and Mrs. X gives her reasons. Assuming that consumers would perceive this presentation as a ``blind'' test, this endorsement would probably not represent that Mrs. X actually uses the advertiser's machines in her work. In addition, the endorsement may also be required to meet the standards of Guide 3 on Expert Endorsements.

[Guide 1]
[45 FR 3872, Jan. 18, 1980]

§255.2 Consumer endorsements.

(a) An advertisement employing an endorsement reflecting the experience of an individual or a group of consumers on a central or key attribute of the product or service will be interpreted as representing that the endorser's experience is representative of what consumers will generally achieve with the advertised product in actual, albeit variable, conditions of use. Therefore, unless the advertiser possesses and relies upon adequate substantiation for this representation, the advertisement should either clearly and conspicuously disclose what the generally expected performance would be in the depicted circumstances or clearly and conspicuously disclose the limited applicability of the endorser's experience to what consumers may generally expect to achieve. The Commission's position regarding the acceptance of disclaimers or disclosures is described in the preamble to these Guides published in the Federal Register on January 18, 1980.

(b) Advertisements presenting endorsements by what are represented, directly or by implication, to be ``actual consumers'' should utilize actual consumers, in both the audio and video or clearly and conspicuously disclose that the persons in such advertisements are not actual consumers of the advertised product.

(c) Claims concerning the efficacy of any drug or device as defined in the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 55, shall not be made in lay endorsements unless (1) the advertiser has adequate scientific substantiation for such claims and (2) the claims are not inconsistent with any determination that has been made by the Food and Drug Administration with respect to the drug or device that is the subject of the claim.

Guide 2, Example 1: An advertisement presents the endorsement of an owner of one of the advertiser's television sets. The consumer states that she has needed to take the set to the shop for repairs only one time during her 2-year period of ownership and the costs of servicing the set to date have been under $10.00. Unless the advertiser possesses and relied upon adequate substantiation for the implied claim that such performance reflects that which a significant proportion of consumers would be likely to experience, the advertiser should include a disclosure that either states clearly and conspicuously what the generally expectable performance would be or clearly and conspicuously informs consumers that the performance experienced by the endorser is not what they should expect to experience. The mere disclosure that ``not all consumers will get this result'' is insufficient because it can imply that while all consumers cannot expect the advertised results, a substantial number can expect them. [See the cross reference in Guide 2(a) regarding the acceptability of disclaimers or disclosures.]

Example 2: An advertiser presents the results of a poll of consumers who have used the advertiser's cake mixes as well as their own recipes. The results purport to show that the majority believed that their families could not tell the difference between the advertised mix and their own cakes baked from scratch. Many of the consumers are actually pictured in the advertisement along with relevant, quoted portions of their statements endorsing the product. This use of the results of a poll or survey of consumers probably represents a promise to consumers that this is the typical result that ordinary consumers can expect from the advertiser's cake mix.

Example 3: An advertisement purports to portray a ``hidden camera'' situation in a crowded cafeteria at breakfast time. A spokesperson for the advertiser asks a series of actual patrons of the cafeteria for their spontaneous, honest opinions of the advertiser's recently introduced breakfast cereal. Even though the words ``hidden camera'' are not displayed on the screen, and even though none of the actual patrons is specifically identified during the advertisement, the net impression conveyed to consumers may well be that these are actual customers, and not actors. If actors have been employed, this fact should be disclosed.

[Guide 2]
[45 FR 3872, Jan. 18, 1980]

§255.3 Expert endorsements.

(a) Whenever an advertisement represents, directly or by implication, that the endorser is an expert with respect to the endorsement message, then the endorser's qualifications must in fact give him the expertise that he is represented as possessing with respect to the endorsement.

(b) While the expert may, in endorsing a product, take into account factors not within his expertise (e.g., matters of taste or price), his endorsement must be supported by an actual exercise of his expertise in evaluating product features or characteristics with respect to which he is expert and which are both relevant to an ordinary consumer's use of or experience with the product and also are available to the ordinary consumer. This evaluation must have included an examination or testing of the product at least as extensive as someone with the same degree of expertise would normally need to conduct in order to support the conclusions presented in the endorsement. Where, and to the extent that, the advertisement implies that the endorsement was based upon a comparison such comparison must have been included in his evaluation; and as a result of such comparison, he must have concluded that, with respect to those features on which he is expert and which are relevant and available to an ordinary consumer, the endorsed product is at least equal overall to the competitors' products. Moreover, where the net impression created by the endorsement is that the advertised product is superior to other products with respect to any such feature or features, then the expert must in fact have found such superiority.

Example 1: An endorsement of a particular automobile by one described as an ``engineer'' implies that the endorser's professional training and experience are such that he is well acquainted with the design and performance of automobiles. If the endorser's field is, for example, chemical engineering, the endorsement would be deceptive.

Example 2: A manufacturer of automobile parts advertises that its products are approved by the ``American Institute of Science.'' From its very name, consumers would infer that the ``American Institute of Science'' is a bona fide independent testing organization with expertise in judging automobile parts and that, as such, it would not approve any automobile part without first testing its efficacy by means of valid scientific methods. Even if the American Institute of Science is such a bona fide expert testing organization, as consumers would expect, the endorsement may nevertheless be deceptive unless the Institute has conducted valid scientific tests of the advertised products and the test results support the endorsement message.

Example 3: A manufacturer of a non-prescription drug product represents that its product has been selected in preference to competing products by a large metropolitan hospital. The hospital has selected the product because the manufacturer, unlike its competitors, has packaged each dose of the product separately. This package form is not generally available to the public. Under the circumstances, the endorsement would be deceptive because the basis for the choice of the manufacturer's product, convenience of packaging, is neither relevant nor available to consumers.

Example 4: The president of a commercial ``home cleaning service'' states in a television advertisement that the service uses a particular brand of cleanser in its business. Since the cleaning service's professional success depends largely upon the performance of the cleansers it uses, consumers would expect the service to be expert with respect to judging cleansing ability, and not be satisfied using an inferior cleanser in its business when it knows of a better one available to it. Accordingly, the cleaning service's endorsement must at least conform to those consumer expectations. The service must, of course, actually use the endorsed cleanser. Additionally, on the basis of its expertise, it must have determined that the cleansing ability of the endorsed cleanser is at least equal (or superior, if such is the net impression conveyed by the advertisement) to that of competing products with which the service has had experience and which remain reasonably available to it. Since in this example, the cleaning service's president makes no mention that the endorsed cleanser was ``chosen,'' ``selected,'' or otherwise evaluated in side-by-side comparisons against its competitors, it is sufficient if the service has relied solely upon its accumulated experience in evaluating cleansers without having to have performed side-by-side or scientific comparisons.

Example 5: An association of professional athletes states in an advertisement that it has ``selected'' a particular brand of beverages as its ``official breakfast drink''. As in Example 4, the association would be regarded as expert in the field of nutrition for purposes of this section, because consumers would expect it to rely upon the selection of nutritious foods as part of its business needs. Consequently, the association's endorsement must be based upon an expert evaluation of the nutritional value of the endorsed beverage. Furthermore, unlike Example 4, the use of the words ``selected'' and ``official'' in this endorsement imply that it was given only after direct comparisons had been performed among competing brands. Hence, the advertisement would be deceptive unless the association has in fact performed such comparisons between the endorsed brand and its leading competitors in terms of nutritional criteria, and the results of such comparisons conform to the net impression created by the advertisement.

[Guide 3]
[40 FR 22128, May 21, 1975]

§255.4 Endorsements by organizations.

Endorsements by organizations, especially expert ones, are viewed as representing the judgment of a group whose collective experience exceeds that of any individual member, and whose judgments are generally free of the sort of subjective factors which vary from individual to individual. Therefore an organization's endorsement must be reached by a process sufficient to ensure that the endorsement fairly reflects the collective judgment of the organization. Moreover, if an organization is represented as being expert, then, in conjunction with a proper exercise of its expertise in evaluating the product under §255.3 of this part (Expert endorsements), it must utilize an expert or experts recognized as such by the organization or standards previously adopted by the organization and suitable for judging the relevant merits of such products.

Example: A mattress seller advertises that its product is endorsed by a chiropractic association. Since the association would be regarded as expert with respect to judging mattresses, its endorsement must be supported by an expert evaluation by an expert or experts recognized as such by the organization, or by compliance with standards previously adopted by the organization and aimed at measuring the performance of mattresses in general and not designed with the particular attributes of the advertised mattress in mind. (See also §255.3, Example 5.)

[Guide 4]
[40 FR 22128, May 21, 1975]

§255.5 Disclosure of material connections.

When there exists a connection between the endorser and the seller of the advertised product which might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement (i.e., the connection is not reasonably expected by the audience) such connection must be fully disclosed. An example of a connection that is ordinarily expected by viewers and need not be disclosed is the payment or promise of payment to an endorser who is an expert or well known personality, as long as the advertiser does not represent that the endorsement was given without compensation. However, when the endorser is neither represented in the advertisement as an expert nor is known to a significant portion of the viewing public, then the advertiser should clearly and conspicuously disclose either the payment or promise of compensation prior to and in exchange for the endorsement or the fact that the endorser knew or had reasons to know or to believe that if the endorsement favors the advertised product some benefit, such as an appearance on TV, would be extended to the endorser.

Example 1: A drug company commissions research on its product by a well-known research organization. The drug company pays a substantial share of the expenses of the research project, but the test design is under the control of the research organization. A subsequent advertisement by the drug company mentions the research results as the ``findings'' of the well-known research organization. The advertiser's payment of expenses to the research organization need not be disclosed in this advertisement. Application of the standards set by Guides 3 and 4 provides sufficient assurance that the advertiser's payment will not affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement.

Example 2: A film star endorses a particular food product. The endorsement regards only points of taste and individual preference. This endorsement must of course comply with §255.1; but even though the compensation paid the endorser is substantial, neither the fact nor the amount of compensation need be revealed.

Example 3: An actual patron of a restaurant, who is neither known to the public nor presented as an expert, is shown seated at the counter. He is asked for his ``spontaneous'' opinion of a new food product served in the restaurant. Assume, first, that the advertiser had posted a sign on the door of the restaurant informing all who entered that day that patrons would be interviewed by the advertiser as part of its TV promotion of its new soy protein ``steak''. This notification would materially affect the weight or credibility of the patron's endorsement, and, therefore, viewers of the advertisement should be clearly and conspicuously informed of the circumstances under which the endorsement was obtained.

Assume, in the alternative, that the advertiser had not posted a sign on the door of the restaurant, but had informed all interviewed customers of the ``hidden camera'' only after interviews were completed and the customers had no reason to know or believe that their response was being recorded for use in an advertisement. Even if patrons were also told that they would be paid for allowing the use of their opinions in advertising, these facts need not be disclosed.

[Guide 5]
[45 FR 3873, Jan. 18, 1980]

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DESTROY ALL COUNTERFEITS! - eBay's New June 2009 User Agreement

DESTROY ALL COUNTERFEITS! - eBay's New June 2009 User Agreement
14 May 2009
EventHorizon1984
Commentary

We made a condensed comment on the AuctionByte blog "eBay Revises Fakes Policy: Return, not Destroy".  What follows is a full article.

The material in this article is provided to you free of charge, "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

Basically talk to a attorney figuratively face-to-face when seeking legal advice.  Not that we're dispensing any.

The May 13th AuctionBytes articles "eBay's New Policy Instructs Buyers to Destroy Fakes" and "Questions over eBay's New Fakes Policy" brought to light a section in eBay's User Agreement, that would be implemented 14 June 2009.

• For covered claims that meet the conditions and are not excluded, buyers are required to destroy an item if they claim it is not authentic. Once a buyer confirms destruction of the item, eBay will reimburse the buyer.
• For covered claims that meet the conditions and are not excluded, sellers agree to not hold buyers or eBay responsible for the destruction of an item if it is not believed to be authentic

Looking at the California statutes, eBay INC being located in the State of California, this type of action is covered under "California Criminal Law", "Crimes Against Property", "Larceny", "Grand Theft", etal. 

All 50 U.S. States and U.S. Territories have similar laws.  Then there's the matter of Interstate Commerce, and it's coverage by the U.S. Attorney General and the F.B.I.

And yes, there's more.

A day later someone at eBay with a legal background must have read the MBA produced User Agreement.

***Updated: Changes to the eBay User Agreement***
May 14, 2009 | 04:46PM PST/PT

Scott Shipman

On May 15, eBay will be releasing a revised user agreement. This revision will address the obligations of buyers and sellers in transactions where a buyer has alleged receipt of a counterfeit item.

Under the revised agreement:

• Buyers and sellers shall work in good faith during the resolution process to determine that the item is not counterfeit.
• If buyer and seller cannot determine that the item is not counterfeit, buyers are required to send the item back to the seller. Cost of return shipping will be paid by the buyer or eBay, unless both buyer and seller have agreed otherwise.
• Covered claims that meet the conditions and are not excluded will count as a violation by the seller of our prohibited and infringing items policy.
• If eBay determines the buyer is not acting in good faith, eBay may restrict or eliminate their ability to return items or make future claims.
• Sellers shall not list, advertise, or cause that item to appear for sale, barter or trade, on any eBay Inc. web site or service.

These revisions to the user agreement are being made to:

• Provide sellers protections against inaccurate counterfeit claims.
• Provide buyers assurances about the authenticity of the item received.
• Maintain integrity of the eBay marketplace.

The new User Agreement is effective immediately for new members registering on or after today, and on June 14, 2009, for current members. You don't need to do anything to accept the new User Agreement. If you don't wish to accept it, you can follow these instructions to close your account.

Sincerely,
Scott Shipman
Senior Counsel
eBay Inc.

For the casual reader, these are eBay User Agreement sections being referenced:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/user-agreement.html

Buyer Obligations:

• Buyers agree to file claims in accordance with the conditions, exclusions and coverage limitations as further explained in the eBay Purchase Protection policy.

• For covered claims that meet the conditions and are not excluded, eBay will reimburse eligible buyers by PayPal or by coupon redeemable on eBay, in eBay’s discretion, based upon a number of factors, such as whether the buyer has a PayPal account, the type of payment made to the seller and the payment amount.

• Buyers who eBay believes are not acting in good faith, abusing the program or a seller, attempting to commit or committing fraud, or trying to unjustly benefit from the program may become ineligible for eBay Purchase Protection. Buyers who become ineligible will be notified by eBay prior to ineligibility.  eBay reserves the right to temporarily, indefinitely or permanently suspend the eBay Purchase Protection program immediately if we suspect abuse, excessive claims, tampering, or interference with the proper working of the program.

• eBay Purchase Protection doesn’t cover certain types and categories of goods or services, false, abusive or illegitimate claims, or transactions where you have been or may be compensated from another third party. Please read the eBay Purchase Protection policy for more details.

 Seller Obligations:

• Sellers agree to follow the program requirements as explained in the eBay Purchase Protection policy.

• All sellers with an open claim must work in good faith to resolve the claim, refund money and/or provide a replacement item, and accept a return of the item as explained by the eBay Purchase Protection Policy.

• If a seller doesn't resolve a claim, the seller agrees to pay eBay the amount paid by eBay to the buyer in accordance with the eBay Purchase Protection policy. eBay will invoice the seller for these amounts and seller agrees to pay eBay in accordance with the invoice terms.

Obligations when a buyer opens a claim alleging an item is counterfeit:

• Sellers shall work with the buyer in good faith during the resolution process to provide buyer with appropriate documentation or other assurances to satisfy the buyer that the item is not counterfeit, if such information is available.

• If buyer and seller cannot agree that the item is not counterfeit, for covered claims that meet the conditions and are not excluded, buyers are required to send the item back to the seller. Cost of return shipping will be paid by the buyer or eBay in our sole discretion, unless otherwise agreed upon by the buyer and seller.

• Covered claims that meet the conditions and are not excluded will count as a violation by the seller of our prohibited and infringing items policy.

• Sellers shall not list, advertise, or cause that item to appear for sale, barter or trade, on any eBay Inc. (including our subsidiaries, joint ventures, and other members of the group) web site or service located around the world.

• While buyers are not obligated to provide third party confirmation that an item is counterfeit in order to open a claim, in cases where there is written confirmation from the manufacturer that the item is counterfeit, or in additional circumstances where eBay elects to exercise its discretion, eBay may request the destruction of the item by an authorized third party and at eBay’s expense.

Let us briefly go through the new legalize.  Keep in mind that legal documents are written to minimize, or eliminate, vague, and subject to multiple interpretation, language.  At least that is the goal.

Condensing the above counterfeit section down to a more understandable form:

• "If buyer and seller cannot agree that the item is not counterfeit" this "will count as a violation by the seller of our prohibited and infringing items policy", and "buyers are not obligated to provide third party confirmation that an item is counterfeit".

Same as Scott Shipman's announcement, got it?

This part is solid:

• "in cases where there is written confirmation from the manufacturer that the item is counterfeit"

However there remains more language that eBay's legal team must clean up.  Which is not necessarily Scott Shipman's pervue. See http://news.ebay.com/team.cfm Michael Jacobson, eBay Senior Vice President and General Counsel.

Take a look at this:

• "or in additional circumstances where eBay elects to exercise its discretion, eBay may request the destruction of the item by an authorized third party and at eBay’s expense."

Read it very carefully.  eBay can destroy seller property when "eBay elects to exercise its discretion".  This part does not clearly explain "discretion".  In less legalize, "discretion" could be very very very very loosely replaced with 'whim'.

This has a bit more clarity:

•  "eBay may request the destruction of the item by an authorized third party".

But lacks the explanation of what happens should eBay NOT request destruction.  Because of the word "may", the statement can be interpreted as:

• "or in additional circumstances where eBay elects to exercise its discretion, eBay may or may not request the destruction of the item by an authorized third party and at eBay’s expense."

Consider what happens in the event that eBay does NOT request destruction of the item?  Do you know what happens to the seller's item?  There are multiple possibilities, indicating that this part is vague, and NOT clearly written.

Eventually eBay's legal team needs to put in a list of authorized third parties that will be used for destruction.  That is fairly minor though.

This part is not minor:

• "at eBay’s expense."

This CAN be interpreted as, 'eBay will pay for the cost of destruction'.  Fine, but incomplete.  Remember IN CONTEXT "at eBay’s expense" refers to the cost of destruction PERIOD.

Lets revisit the original issue in the original User Agreement.  eBay makes the buyer whole and pays for destruction of a seller's item, but THEN who ultimately pays for the money given back to the buyer?  The rewritten user agreement remains ambiguous or missing in this matter.

Consider what happens when a seller resolves the claim in good faith, informs the buyer to return the item for a refund, the buyer maintains the item is counterfeit, and eBay chooses to "exercise its discretion"?

• "If a seller doesn't resolve a claim, the seller agrees to pay eBay the amount paid by eBay to the buyer"

Is it likely that this provision, under Seller Obligations, would be applied whereby eBay unilaterally chooses to "exercise its discretion", declares the claim is not resolved, and eBay has the now seller's item destroyed?

• "eBay will invoice the seller for these amounts and seller agrees to pay eBay in accordance with the invoice terms."

Anyone notice there is more 'whim' in the new rewritten user agreement?  Is this deliberate or an oversight?

And as William Cobb would put it, soooo Is there more?  Yes. 

Think it's time to hit to personally hit the word processor Michael Jacobson ESQ, and clean up this mess?

"It's sort of an obsession with me to do the best I can for a client. My clients aren't blameless. Many of them are crooks. Probably a lot of them are guilty. That's not for me to determine. That's for a jury to determine."
Perry Mason

"The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done."
Oliver Wendell Holmes JR, U.S. Supreme Court

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The "DESTROY ALL COUNTERFEITS!" is homage to the Toho Company movie "Kaiju soshingeki" or "Destroy All Monsters!" (1968).

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eBay Media Center - Senior Management
http://news.ebay.com/team.cfm

Michael Jacobson
Senior Vice President and General Counsel, eBay Inc.

Download image

As senior vice president and general counsel at eBay, Mike Jacobson's responsibilities include overseeing eBay's legal department, its risk management program, and its policy group. He is responsible for interactions with content regulators, law enforcement, contracts, SEC compliance, and other legal matters. Prior to eBay, Mike was a partner with Cooley Godward LLP where he was recognized as an expert in securities law. His responsibilities included corporate and securities transactions, including mergers and acquisition transactions, public offerings, and venture capital financing. Mike earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Magna Cum Laude, in 1975 from Harvard College, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He subsequently received his law degree from Stanford University in 1981, where he was a Nathan Abbot Scholar and a member of Order of the Coif. He also received the Hilmer Oehlmann Jr. award as well as first and second year honors.

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Notable Comments

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Questions over eBay's New Fakes Policy
by: Grab your torches

Wed May 13 14:28:53 2009
Just calm down, you silly people
When the smoke that you yourselves are generating clears, you'll see that a third party verification is needed. This system is already in place and has been used for a long time.

.

4343martino ( 1851) View seller's items | View Blog Well fer sure...every buyer is a honest upstanding citizen of what ever third world country they happen to be in..You should know that by now world-secure....there never has been or ever will be a dishonest e-bay buyer...they dont exist..not in this world or the next..just ask e-bay they will tell ya...LOL>>>What a crock of sh*t e-bay has created with this one..chalk up another one for the lawyers...LOL>>> Mark May-13-09 15:27:25 PDT

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Questions over eBay's New Fakes Policy
by: Grab your torches
Thu May 14 13:45:31 2009

So much hype here.
Where does this false info about mailing counterfeits come from? It is illegal to sell them, yes. Illegal to use USPS to sell them, yes. NOT illegal to use USPS to send them to be authenticated/destroyed.
The eBay UA only states that a buyer must "confirm" that a counterfeit has been destroyed. It says nothing about the manner of that confirmation. The current process for a destroying a counterfeit is not spelled out either. Do you assume this means the buyer just has to say they did? No, they ship it to Texas, where it is supposedly destroyed if counterfeit, or resold if authentic. Is there any reason to believe that this won't be pretty much the same thing?

Any idiot knows that if all eBay will require is a buyer saying they destroyed it, then this cannot possibly be legal. Why then, do you all believe this is what eBay is going to do?

It seems much more likely that the user agreement is being left deliberately vague, for any number of reasons.

I swear, Ina could tell you that eBay Singapore was adding a category for human trafficking and you would all eat it up and repeat it everywhere.
Clowns, all of you.

.

Questions over eBay's New Fakes Policy
by: Grab your torches
Thu May 14 14:18:52 2009

Why doesn't somebody here just go ahead and buy a fake purse? Do it. You'll be making the world a better place removing a counterfeit. Much better than reporting it, getting the listing removed so the seller can peddle it somewhere else. Actually buy it and the fake seller is out the money and the counterfeit.
Now, tell eBay it's a fake and see what they ask you to do.

.

Questions over eBay's New Fakes Policy
by: Grab your torches
Thu May 14 15:04:12 2009

"If ebay doesn't want incorrect information floating around about ANY of its policies, then the policy should be completely transparent and 100% of it posted."

Seriously? This is a defense?
I would like a little more clarity over this policy as well, but that DOES NOT JUSTIFY MAKING THINGS UP!

.

Questions over eBay's New Fakes Policy
by: Grab your torches
Thu May 14 15:11:55 2009

Some secret policies are good.
The list of words in a title that restrict how many of a certain thing you can sell, for example. Make that known and people selling counterfeits know exactly what to avoid.
Exactly how best match works also. Remember when some unscrupulous sellers figured out to put NEW NEW NEW in the title to push their items to the top?

While I do not see the logic behind their vagueness in this case, I wont deign to say that it does not exist. I can't say with any certainty that 100% transparency wouldn't create an opening for the counterfeit sellers to abuse.

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A "Pay with PayPal" Requirement On eBay End Of Auction Message

A "Pay with PayPal" Requirement on eBay End of Auction Message
13 May 2009
EventHorizon1984
Commentary

Nothing like watching eBay push for an investigation of PayPal due to Sherman Antitrust violations.

For a good part of the this year and up until the second weekend in May, after a buyer made a purchase on eBay.com, that buyer received a standard End Of Auction email.  And that email started like this:

Dear **customer**,

Congratulations! You committed to buy the following item:Check out and send your payment now to get your item within 4-5 days.

But beginning the second weekend in May 2009, eBay altered the message text.  The brand new payment message looks like this:

Hi **customer**,

We hope you enjoy your latest purchase. The next step is pay the seller.
Don't wait. Pay now to get your item within 4-5 days.

Pay with PayPal, the safe and easy way to pay for your eBay purchases.

It does not matter whether a sellers uses direct credit card processing through a merchant account, or one of eBay's straw dog alternatives like ProPay, Moneybookers, Paymate, the buyer will see "Pay with PayPal".

This is what eBay defines as "convenient payment options".  That is "convenient" to eBay equals "Pay with PayPal".  Or maybe 'Any eBay seller can have a any payment method they want so long as it is PayPal.'

"Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he want so long as it is black."
Attributed to Henry Ford 1909

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Comments

tryork5ifp ( 262) View seller's items | View Blog first there was paypal.......then toothbrushpal.....Now there's vegetablepal and genetaliapal!!!! when will eBAy STOP!!! May-14-09 12:22:52 PDT

mylegacy-treasures ( 800) View seller's items | View Blog eBay will stop when they have become the 'we-own-the-world-pal' and Mr. "D" can go to his country club without being embarrassed to admit that he manages a multibillion dollar corporation named eBay. (psssst - don't look at the share price) May-14-09 12:39:46 PDT

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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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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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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. "

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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

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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.

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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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eBay PayFlow Checkout, Hacker Approved??

eBay PayFlow Checkout, Hacker Approved??
26 March 2009
EventHorizon1984


eBay plans to deactivate 3rd party checkout around June 2009.  Meaning eBay Sellers with Merchant Accounts (using 3rd party checkout), allowing non-PayPal credit card payments, are required to sign up for a mandatory PayFlow account beginning March 1st 2009. 

Well an event that appears interestingly timed with eBay's new PayFlow checkout occurred.  It appears that someone may have conducted the first large scale test of the vulnerability of eBay's new eBay/PayFlow checkout.

Cyber Attack: Unsolicited, Unstoppable PayPal Payments
By: Ina Steiner
Wed Mar 18 2009 22:42:14

• "There were several disturbing characteristics of this attack. It appears that scammers could use bogus information (including email address, physical address, and phone number) to send payments with credit cards that were, one would conclude, compromised or stolen. In some of those cases, it seems PayPal failed to identify them as suspicious to the merchant in a timely fashion."
• "But we know that when one incident surfaces, they are bound to be followed by more, so keep an eye out for strange activity in your PayPal account, and keep a close eye on your credit cards!"

Not that we find this surprising.

Look up active registered eBay Developer spopa2006 ( 3 ) sometime, as we blog back in time.

• "According to the affidavit, Popa was sentenced to 71 days in jail in Michigan in 2006 after being charged for using a hijacked eBay account to defraud someone into paying $1,448 for an item that didn't exist."

Remember, eBay code monkeys and Developers are working on and implementing software to allow buyers to input their credit card information directly on the eBay site and through eBay owned PayPal/PayFlow.

So your credit card can be safe.

"What's in Your wallet?"*

* What can we say, we like the Capital One commercials.

//

spopa2006
Re: Mail address of an ebay User ?
Posted: Jun 7, 2007 12:41 AM   

Hey there. I wrote a similar project in C++ by using pointers. However, the implemented network interface i used in C++ is no longer supported and I am not a C# guru as I am in c++. Tell me whether or not you got your solution. You can email me at gam30v3r2007@yahoo.com

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Suspect in 'phishing' scheme indicted
A Romanian immigrant is accused of using e-mails to dupe thousands of people into sharing financial records.

By Dan Browning, Star Tribune

Last update: June 20, 2007 –  9:55 PM

• "A Romanian immigrant was indicted Tuesday in federal court in Minneapolis on charges that he operated a computerized "phishing" scheme for several years that raked in financial records and personal identification from thousands of individuals, including many from Minnesota."
• "Sergiu Daniel Popa, 20, of Shelby Township, Mich., was indicted on three counts of possessing 15 or more devices designed to collect data on the Internet without authorization, and three counts of aggravated identity theft."
• "According to {FBI Special Agent Theodore} Theisen's affidavit and the indictment:"

• "Popa had more than 7,000 identities of victims of various phishing schemes, together with bank account, credit card and Social Security numbers, and passwords for some eBay, online banking and e-mail accounts. He offered to sell the stolen information to others."

• "Popa was convicted of larceny by conversion on June 12, 2006, stemming from a case in Saline, Mich. He was accused of using a hijacked eBay account to trick an individual into sending him $1,448 to buy a product that didn't exist. He served 71 days, Theisen said."

//

From eBay Stores Forum
Phisher Indicted - check out this article

spopa2006 (2 ) View Listings | Report                 Jun-26-07 13:34 PDT       3 of 3
Listen guys. I am Sergiu D. Popa. I am that horrible guy!

Now let me make things a bit clear for you. First and foremost, I think that the Feds are a bit mentally challenged to put me behind bars because I have access to a lot of databases and I can predict every single move one tries to make against me.

And by the way, employing the described techniques by the newspaper article I successfully obtained about 1.1 Million dollars. I never run a Western Union Scheme as the newspaper says. I run an insurance scheme and therefore there shouldn't be any complaints. Insurances have plenty of money.

They also fail to mention in the newspapers reports who I really am in terms of my education and my real story. If you would really know my background and my level of education, you would probably realize that I can listen to your phone conversation, or maybe take a refinance loan on your house without you knowing. I am really appalled by the fact that you guys are making such comments on my behalf. Who are you to judge me? You guys make me laugh.

They also failed to say that I used to work as a mortgage broker and I regret the mistakes I made by scamming insurance companies but I was only 16 at the time I was doing it. I also offered to pay restitution to the Government. However, they always have to win, and they will never accept restitution because they want to prosecute me.

I have also seen a newspaper article where I was described as speaking a broken English. Let's analyze that for a second. At 14 I was teaching Differential Equations and Mechanics at a 4 yr college in New Hampshire, and by the time I was 15 I graduated high school. I am not a wannabe. As a matter of fact, I think I read more books in my life than the whole FBI Minnesota office. If the newspapers are going to write an article about me, I ask them to tell the whole truth. Call my college professors and ask them who I really am.

I know FBI, NASA, BOP and all those other government bonehead agencies are not happy when a kid who immigrated from another country penetrates their systems, but such is life. Get used to it. If in this life, we would all have an equal level of intelligence the world would come to an end. But how would you guys know that? I bet you guys never actually read a sociology, philosophy or psychology book and actually made something out of it.

But here is a warning to everybody who will post bogus information about me:

I will make your life a hell. Do not test me. Do not post information that is not accurate. I already have enough bad publicity and I do not want more. I want to be left alone.

This also applies to the Feds. I have been a nice guy with you, but once again, you are not smart enough to catch me for one, and I would really hate to see you guys back to stone age. How much would the Feds loose if one of their databases were to be completely deleted?

I am not an evil person, but I could be if I wanted to. Let's all live in peace and harmony. Mind your own business and I will mind my own.

Very Truly Yours,
Sergiu D. Popa

.

spopa2006 (2 ) View Listings | Report        Jun-26-07 23:56 PDT       5 of 5
Why would you think it is a joke? Better yet, what are the reasons for which you think this is a joke?

//

Romanian national cops to $700,000 phishing trip

Who's your underworld Popa?

By Dan Goodin in San Francisco 

Posted in Crime, 9th October 2008 18:47 GMT

• "Sergiu Daniel Popa, who for the past seven years has lived in New York and Michigan, pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to two felonies related to the scheme. He faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison and a fine of $500,000. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled."
• "According to Popa's plea agreement, the scheme snagged the identities of 7,000 individuals who suffered a net loss of about $700,000. When his house was searched earlier this year, authorities found a machine for imprinting graphics on blank plastic cards, foil ribbons for making holographic images that appear on finished cards, blank cards, and partially created fraudulent drivers' licenses."
• Popa also possessed pre-built websites spoofing the online destinations of multiple financial institutions, such as PayPal, SunTrust Bank, and CitiBank, according to an affidavit filed in the case. He offered to sell phishing kits with step-by-step instructions for $1,500 and software and hardware capable of counterfeiting credit cards.
• According to the affidavit, Popa was sentenced to 71 days in jail in Michigan in 2006 after being charged for using a hijacked eBay account to defraud someone into paying $1,448 for an item that didn't exist.

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John Donahoe eBay CEO Analyst Day Quotes and Comments

John Donahoe eBay CEO Analyst Day Quotes and Comments
EventHorizon1984
12 March 2009

John Donahoe eBay CEO quotes and comments:

EBay Outlines Three-Year Revival Plan

"The eBay you knew is not the eBay of today or the eBay of the future."

• Translation: eBay of yesterday is dead.

"We were the biggest and the best. And when you're the biggest and the best, there's a strong tendency to try to preserve that," "EBay has a storied past. But frankly, it's a past we've held onto too much."

• Translation: eBay was successful, and we're changing that.

Donahoe pointed out that e-commerce is just 6% of real-world retail.

• Translation: eBay may think it's the 800 pound gorilla, but it's not.

Ecommerce Giant To Target 'Secondary Market'

"We are not a retailer"

• Translation: We don't know what we are.

Donahoe also declared that online payments unit PayPal was a second core business for the company with "an enormous potential."

• Translation: PayPal fees will increase this year.

It's open-mike day at eBay!

“Far be it for me to tell them how to value the company” said Swan, demurely.  “Give them hints,” suggested Donahoe.

• Translation: Please overvalue us.

Ebay: 'We Were Wrong'

EBay's pitch: Skype would help eBay users buy and sell goods.  "We were wrong," eBay Chief Executive John Donahoe told analysts and investors Wednesday at its San Jose, Calif., campus. "We thought it would reduce friction in commerce and payments.”

• Translation: Take my Skype. Please!*

* With apologies to Henny Youngman.

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Comments

mylegacy-treasures ( 791) View seller's items | View Blog Gosh, you went ahead and translated the Donahoe double-speak into English. Mar-12-09 14:30:05 PDT

observations-of-life ( 3536) View seller's items | View Blog Congratulations.I always enjoy reading your posts but this one is great.They all are.Thanks.LOL Mar-12-09 16:59:35 PDT

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Jeetil Patel of Deutsche Bank Says SELL eBay

Jeetil Patel of Deutsche Bank Says SELL eBay
EventHorizon1984
12 March 2009

Jeetil Patel of Deutsche Bank has for several years provided excellent guidance to clients about eBay.

Here's the official stance of Deutsche Bank after eBay's Analyst Day public relations fest.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/125672-what-are-analysts-saying-about-ebay-s-analyst-day
What Analysts Are Saying About eBay's Analyst Day?

Jeetil Patel - SELL - $11 PT

• While filled with long- term optimism, we thought the analyst event lacked near-term reality with respect to the current deteriorating fundamentals. In light of no near-term (2009) guidance, anticipate acceleration in growth, competitive pressures and economic backdrop, we think it's difficult to put much credibility into the 3-year plan. We think investors should gauge eBay against near-term performance.
• Near–term, the marketplace business is expected to underperform industry growth trends before flattening out next year and reaccelerating in 2011 – representing an optimistic view from eBay, we think . Clearly, this business represents the cash cow, and risk remains on declining demand, high seller commissions and lack of interface changes. We think the Skype unit is actually performing well, and management should hold on to this business model.
  
• The problem in the core lies with lack of demand, seller fees running too high and an e-commerce interface that is inconsistent with the industry norm (think product orientation, not listings metaphor). It is quite difficult for sellers to generate cash flows if they have to discount pricing (relative to other sites and direct) and maintain in-line to above-market commissions on selling on the platform, especially with weakening demand.

As a point of comparision, here are excerpts from 2007.

http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUSN1835465420071018
EBay Shares Fall On Growth Concerns

• Deutsche Bank cut its eBay rating to "sell" from "hold," saying eBay's better-than-expected numbers were mainly thanks to foreign exchange and tax-related items and its operating profit missed Deutsche Bank's estimate.
• "We think eBay is facing a worst-case scenario in its business," Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel said in a note to clients. "We think that eBay's core business is deteriorating to the point of pressuring volumes due to higher ad costs, less user loyalty, which in turn could affect revenue and profit growth beginning in the next several quarters."
• Patel said eBay's transaction volumes, which rose 2 percent from a year ago, have the potential to decline in the next one to two quarters.
• Patel said he was keeping his $33 price target for eBay shares even as at least six other brokerages raised their price targets for the stock.

When listening to the cheery "Rainbows and Unicorns" blather of the other analysts, consider their track record on eBay.

Do consider that those analysts make their money on commissions selling eBay stock.  And giving advice.

"Stop going for the easy buck and start producing something with your life. Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others."
Carl Fox, Wall Street (1987)

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Reuters - eBay zeroes in on PayPal in much-needed overhaul

Really?
EventHorizon1984
11 March 2009

Believe it or not.  According to eBay:

• "PayPal now commands a 79 percent market share in North America, but just 41 percent internationally, the company said."

"Sure. Fine. Whatever."
Dana Scully, X-Files

• http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc2009038_874618.htm
• "in the U.S., where PayPal is strongest, its share of online payments is just 12%. That proportion is in the single digits in Europe"

Denial is not a river in Egypt.

•  "Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal said Wall Street wanted "more tangible evidence of sustained recovery.""There is nothing new they gave us to make us feel more positive,""

"The eBay you knew is not the eBay we are, or the eBay we will become"
John Donahoe
“The old Ebay was sitting in people’s attics. The new Ebay is sitting in warehouses”
Lorrie Norrington

"Son, you're teasin' the gorilla in the monkey house."
Hank Hill, King of the Hill

//

Excerpts.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29637808/for/cnbc/

eBay zeroes in on PayPal in much-needed overhaul

By: Reuters | 11 Mar 2009 | 08:44 PM ET
SAN JOSE, California - By Alexandria Sage

"EBay Inc, fending off worries that its best days are over, hopes to transform itself by galvanizing growth at its PayPal payments system and jump-starting its lagging core business, top executives said on Wednesday."

"Chief Executive John Donahoe vowed to pursue "ruthless" change in its marketplaces business that began with auctions but now encompasses fixed-price sales and even classified ads."

"Within two years, marketplaces should see $5 billion to $7 billion in revenue, eBay said, spurred by search, catalog and platform improvements. That compares with 2008's $5.6 billion.

Still, Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal said Wall Street wanted "more tangible evidence of sustained recovery."

"There is nothing new they gave us to make us feel more positive," Aggarwal said."

""The eBay you knew is not the eBay we are, or the eBay we will become," Donahoe told analysts"

"PayPal margins will likely decline through 2010 due to the integration of online payments unit Bill Me Later, they will exceed 18 percent to 20 percent long-term"

"Analysts say eBay -- first known as the online marketplace for collectibles from Barbie dolls to quilts -- needs to boost its performance in the deepening recession, as well as fend off a resilient Amazon, which has stolen its market share."

""We were too slow in our approach to change. We were letting everyone into the marketplace, regardless of the experience they gave to buyers, " Marketplaces chief Lorrie Norrington said. "We have to do more and we have to do it faster.""

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eBay Garage - Do you really want eBay IN your computer?

Do you really want eBay IN your computer?
24 February 2009
EventHorizon1984

Following in the wake of the hack of eBay 3rd party service provider Auctiva, eBay has announce a protection service.

1. eBay: Let us look inside your PC, Nick Heath, 23 February 2009 17:30 GMT
2. eBay to Introduce Malware Scanning Service Called Garage, Ina Steiner, 24 February 2009

According to the reports, "eBay Garage, will run an embedded application that will scan users' PCs for any viruses or spyware" and "the user will be directed to the site of a security vendor."  And "eBay is partnering with two, as yet unnamed, security companies."

One of the companies will probably be Symantec.  And based on past history, the other company is likely to be owned by eBay, or eBay will have a financial stake in it, or eBay has plans to buy or invest in it.

The eBay Garage program will be run under the auspices of Dave Cullinane, eBay Marketplaces CISO (Chief Information Security Officer).  It appears one of his last assignments was CISO of Washington Mutual.

To any serious user of eBay we ask, 'do you really want eBay code monkey written applications loaded onto your hard drive, and running around in your computer?'

"Life was simple before World War II. After that, we had systems."
Admiral Grace Hopper

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The eBay PayPal 20% Hold Solution

The eBay PayPal 20% Hold Solution
17 February 2009
EventHorizon1984

• See also The eBay PayPal 5% Hold Solution.
• Related article, TameBay: PayPal reserves: here's what's really happening

eBay tests "improvements" on it's International sites, before applying them to the U.S. site.  An interesting "improvement" coming soon to U.S. eBay sellers is PayPal holding up to 20% of a sellers gross.

You can see Paypal's draconian application of it's "Reserves for Premier and Business Accounts" policy in the Great Britain thread (PayPal Reserve and Rolling Reserve) below.

With PayPal required to report U.S. seller sales to the IRS in 2011, this is a golden opportunity for PayPal to withhold 10% of a U.S. seller's funds for tax purposes.

Plus up to 20% for U.S. seller reserves.

"Ah arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you!"
Ambassador Londo Mollari, Babylon 5

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http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=1100224092
Paypal Reserve and Rolling Reserve

always-authentic-auctions (3925 )  10-02-09 07:43 GMT
We received an email out of the blue from Paypal on Saturday to let us know that our account that we have held for six years will now be subject to a rolling reserve of 6%. This means that from now on Paypal will deduct 6% of all of payments and hold them on a rolling 6 month basis to protect itself against chargeback's. It also on the same day took the minimum reserve amount from our account of £500.

Over the next six months Paypal will hold somewhere in the region of £6000 - £7000 of our money. As this is a rolling amount as long as we are trading we will not see this amount back. If we stopped trading in six months it would take a further six months to get then money fully back.

According to the person I spoke to at Paypal yesterday this is something that is rolling out to ALL Paypal accounts and that we are 'lucky' as some people are being charged up to 20% with 10% being the norm.

Over the last six years we have sold the same items and have had a tiny amount of chargeback's and buyer complaints, I would estimate that is easily less than 0.5% of our total sales, and that would be a high estimate.

How then Paypal can justify this I have no idea, in the past when there was a buyer complaint or chargeback they simply reversed a pending withdrawal, this has worked fine for the last years.

As the reserve is a rolling amount this effectively means our Paypal fees have increased by 3 time's overnight withy no notice.

Has anyone else experienced this ?

*dimebar* (74 )  10-02-09 09:12 GMT 1 of 23
There have been a small number of reports - from high volume sellers.

It isn't the norm, PayPal are telling you porkies.

Sadly, what they are doing is in their UA:

https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/policy_payments-outside#biz-policy

10.4 Reserves for Premier and Business Accounts. When managing risk for Premier and Business Accounts, we may take various steps, such as establishing a Reserve, changing the speed or method of payment for withdrawals, set off amounts from your Balance and/or requiring you to deposit funds with us as security for your obligations to us or third parties. The following types of events may cause us to establish a Reserve:

1. You cease a substantial portion of or all of your business or adversely alter your business/operations;

2. There is a material adverse change in your business;

3. You or your business becomes insolvent or is otherwise unable to pay debts as they fall due;

4. We receive a disproportionate number of customer complaints, Reversals, Chargebacks, Claims, fees, fines, penalties or other liability related to your Account; or

5. We reasonably believe that you will not be able to perform your obligations under this Agreement, the Card Processing Agreement, or any other agreement you have entered into with PayPal.

We may immediately establish a Reserve if we reasonably believe that it is warranted under this section. If we establish a Reserve, we will provide you with notice specifying the terms of the Reserve. You may close your Account if you object to the Reserve. We may increase or decrease the amount of the Reserve, provided that in our reasonable judgment the amount of the Reserve is related to the risk for which it was created. If your Premier or Business Account is closed for any reason, we have the right to hold the Reserve for up to 180 Days. You agree to provide us, upon our reasonable request and at your own expense, information about your finance and operations, including your most recent financial statements (certified or otherwise) and merchant processing statements (if applicable). You also agree to undertake, at your own expense, any further action (including, without limitation, executing any necessary documents and registering any form of document reasonably required by us to allow us to perfect any form of security interest or otherwise) required to establish a Reserve in a manner reasonably determined by us.

---

Has your account had any payment reversals, charge-backs or claims within the last 6 months?

Do you sell scammable or expensive items?

---

Personally, I think it's another excuse to create another revenue stream.

One man can make a difference.
Need help? Click here for the Popular Links and Useful Me Pages thread

always-authentic-auctions (3925 )  10-02-09 09:18 GMT 2 of 23
Hi, yes I read the terms and conditions and none of the reasons they quote apply to us. I have just got off the phone to them, they cannot help me with the specifics of our reserve, I am awaiting a call back from the team that applied the reserve. The shocking thing about this is that because the reserve is rolling this effectively means an increase in our fees of 6% which is a huge amount over a year, it's basically our profit that they have just wiped out.

always-authentic-auctions (3925 )  10-02-09 09:21 GMT 3 of 23
Just another point to add. We were given no notice of this happening other than the email from the US, although when I checked our account straight after reading the email the reserve had already been applied.

When I asked why we had not had any notice and when this was announced I was told by the Paypal agent that this was an ongoing process that started at the beginning of the year and that they had 60 million accounts to go through.

So other sellers should be prepared for the same thing.

global_megastore (21239 )  10-02-09 10:54 GMT 4 of 23
Paypal did this to us last November. They put a 3% rolling reserve on our account and then later that day sent us an email telling us they were doing it. We ended up having a conference call with Paypal in Ireland and the States and were told that this was because we sell high risk items and have a high rate of non-deliveries!? We sell children's duvet covers (hardly 'high risk'), Paypal refused to explain how they decided we have a high rate of non-deliveries, and wouldn't give us any specifics.

Currently they are holding over £6,000 of our eBay payments.

This reserve made us decide to stop accepting Paypal as a payment option for our non-eBay business. This means Paypal now lose out on approx £500,000 worth of business from us.

Would be interested to hear from anyone else affected by these rolling reserves.

*dimebar* (74 )  10-02-09 11:38 GMT 5 of 23
"This means Paypal now lose out on approx £500,000 worth of business from us."



I hope you told them that to boot


One man can make a difference.
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global_megastore (21239 )  10-02-09 14:23 GMT 6 of 23
We did explain this to the representative we spoke to in the States. He said he was only concerned with 'risk' and it was our decision how we accept payments. He made it very easy for us to decide that Paypal wasn't the answer.

global_megastore (21239 )  10-02-09 14:29 GMT 7 of 23
To make things clear, let me state that I am not posting here simply to knock Paypal. But holding a % of our money for long periods of time could badly affect our business, especially in these financial times. All it does is drive us away from Paypal, and in doing so, away from eBay. Amazon, VISA, Mastercard etc don't give us these kind of problems.

*dimebar* (74 )  10-02-09 20:40 GMT 8 of 23
Some corporations can't see the woods for the trees.


One man can make a difference.
Need help? Click here for the Popular Links and Useful Me Pages thread

global_megastore (21239 )  11-02-09 09:52 GMT 10 of 23
I think that one of the reasons Paypal aren't keen to discuss this is because they do not fully understand how and why the reversals are placed. We got lots of conflicting information from different Paypal representatives (in the UK and Ireland), none of whom seemed to have been fully informed/educated.

After approx 3 weeks we got a call from 'Risk' in the States who explained that the reserve had been placed and offered very vague reasons for it.

He also made it clear to us that Paypal could increase the % of the reserve if they wanted to.

*dimebar* (74 )  11-02-09 10:38 GMT 11 of 23
Same old story from the PayPal chimps.


One man can make a difference.
Need help? Click here for the Popular Links and Useful Me Pages thread

junkerking (0 )  11-02-09 10:42 GMT 12 of 23
We got lots of conflicting information from different Paypal representatives (in the UK and Ireland), none of whom seemed to have been fully informed/educated.

as dime said paypal chimps

cheryl30uk78 (Private )  11-02-09 17:07 GMT 13 of 23
and in the meantime they hold ppls money while they get the intrest another pp profit makeing enterprize

secure4life (40 )  12-02-09 01:07 GMT 14 of 23
We just received our reserve info today...out of the blue. We just started our store in September, therefore I don't know where this is all coming from. Anyway, does anyone know how to maybe avoid this? Or get rid of the reserve on our PayPal account? 5% is a lot - makes me re-think this whole PayPal method...

global_megastore (21239 )  12-02-09 11:06 GMT 15 of 23
I'd like to ask the same question as secure4life; "Does anyone know how to maybe avoid this? Or get rid of the reserve on our PayPal account?".

I have a feeling that once Paypal have put a reserve in place (i.e. once they get used to holding a sellers money), there is very little chance of the reserve being removed. It looks like we might just have to accept this as an additional cost for selling on eBay.

It's still early days, but it will be interesting to see the reaction should Paypal start rolling this out to more and more sellers. After reading about eBay's poor sales figures for the last year, I'm surprised they're putting more and more obstacles infront of sellers.

banannasarego (26 )  12-02-09 16:10 GMT 16 of 23
I think it is a simple situation :

PayPal want to be a bank ( and have registered as one in Luxemburg ).

A bank requires a stable supply of capital to lend against - and preferably free of any interest charge.

They can then make discreet loans to other businesses at relatively high interest but knowing what their rolling 6 month capitalisation is.

In effect they are taking a rolling six month loan from you - against your wishes at 0% interest.

secure4life (40 )  12-02-09 16:32 GMT 17 of 23
Yes...this whole Rollback Reserve idea is very unfortunate. For my situation we have a 5% reserve - even for money which we bring into the account from our own bank account. We ended up putting our store on hold (Vacation Mode)- in order to change all our prices to make up for this 5%. I have been told by PayPal that after 90 days they will review my case and see if the reserve will be taken off. In my opinion this will not be a very good thing for eBay and PayPal. Not only will they lose their customers - they will also lose a lot of money and business. I literally got laughed at when I said that this might cause us to shut down the whole eBay operation...I do not think that is funny. Anyway, I guess we will have to deal with it as sellers and the more people find out and get put on a reserve the more eBay and PayPal will get hurt in the long-run.

global_megastore (21239 )  12-02-09 16:56 GMT 18 of 23
Thankfully we didn't have to up all our prices, but it has given us a very negative impression of Paypal. We hope to continue using eBay in future, but it makes sense for us from a finacial point of view to concentrate more on avenues that aren't actively hampering our business. It's certainly made us more pro-active to non-eBay sales.

Ebay's not the only place to sell online, but it is the only place that wants to hold a % of our profits for 3 months.

banannasarego (26 )  12-02-09 17:04 GMT 19 of 23
secure4life:

1) You have not been charged any extra fees - they are just ho;ding a minimum of £500 or x% ( whichever is the greater ) for at least 6 months or until 6 months after: your last trade, and / or closure of your account. Unless there are chargebacks in which case the amount will be reduced accordingly.

2) Having reviewed rhe status of ebays attitude to their members I believe ebay and paypal are very happy to get as many accounts as possible closed: They do not want sellers any more neither do they want buyers - the idea that ebay want to become a mall or like amazon may be incorrect --> THEY WANT TO BE A SEARCH ENGINE to compete with google! so all they want are listings to publish and collect a fee per click!

ndc-uk (8747 )  15-02-09 12:42 GMT 20 of 23
They hold 5% of every transaction you receive weather or not you refund it. So if you refund a payment you have to subsidise the 5% they hold out of your own pocket.

Our solution?
Up to now we have kept eBay prices in line with our website/amazon/other venues. Now however we will increase our prices by 10% and then offer a 10% discount to people who pay us directly with a credit/debit card or via bank transfer/cheque. Although this may initially slow the sales down once people get used to our policy I beleive the slump in sales will be negligible. Furthermore it will probably push more people to just buy off owr own website which charges us NO commision!

I suggest others join this revolt!

ndc-uk (8747 )  15-02-09 12:44 GMT 21 of 23
and if someone does decide to pay by paypal they can hold 5% if they wish as the customer would have paid 10% over our desired selling price anyway!

global_megastore (21239 )  16-02-09 08:47 GMT 22 of 23
Will putting your prices up by 10% not badly affect your standings in Best Match, and drive customers away?

I like the idea of offering a discount for non-Paypal payments, hope this works for you.

ndc-uk (8747 )  16-02-09 13:51 GMT 23 of 23
it depends on how unique your product is and what your sales strategy is. For us currently the important thing is getting brand recognition for our website and trying to attract as many people as possible to that. We know that our prices are keen and we have a product which has a high demand, and beleive that once customers see tehy will get a lower price than listed if they pay by credit card etc then ultimately they will buy. We anticipate 1-2 slow weeks but we're prepared to buffer that.

Also we are now advertising quite clearly the 10% discount. Have a look at one of our ads.

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Greg Fant - ***Free Picture Price change***

Not So Free, eBay Free Picture Price Change
12 February 2009
By EventHorizon1984

• "I’d like to share some news regarding fee changes for eBay-hosted pictures that we’re making in the Collectibles, Art, Antiques and Pottery & Glass categories. The first eBay-hosted picture in an item is already free. Effective February 18, 2009, we are making all additional pictures, Picture Pack and Gallery Plus FREE for listings in all four categories on the US site", Greg Fant, eBay VP of Marketing & Buyer Experience
• eBay Gives Photo-Freebie to Collectibles Dealers, Ina Steiner, 13 February 2009

We wonder if sellers realize that according to eBay's User Agreement, eBay will own the rights to the photos you host on eBay?

When you give us content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise the copyright, trademark, publicity, and database rights (but no other rights) you have in the content, in any media known now or in the future.

If you want to know what eBay will do with your photos, here's what follows the User Agreement parargraph above.

For the convenience of sellers, we may offer catalogs of stock images, descriptions and product specifications, which are provided by third-parties.

The catalogs may include copyrighted, trademarked or other proprietary materials.

The reader may wonder why eBay needs "Collectibles, Art, Antiques and Pottery & Glass" photos, when eBay has a ready supply of stock photos available to sellers.  The answer is eBay does not have a large supply of stock photos for collectibles.

Yet.

Unless sellers continue to host their own high quality photos, after February 18th eBay will own the rights to a growing supply of royalty-free "Collectibles, Art, Antiques and Pottery & Glass" photos.

Which eBay will gladly loan out to all sellers.  Translation for eBay sellers: Give to your competitors.

Really think about it, before taking eBay up on it's "free" offer.

"I teach you to lie, cheat, and steal, and as soon as my back's turned you wait in line?"
Gregory House, M.D., House

//
//
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http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200902121347522.html

***Free Picture Price change***
February 12, 2009 | 01:48PM PST/PT

Greg Fant

Hello everyone...I’d like to share some news regarding fee changes for eBay-hosted pictures that we’re making in the Collectibles, Art, Antiques and Pottery & Glass categories. The first eBay-hosted picture in an item is already free.

Effective February 18, 2009, we are making all additional pictures, Picture Pack and Gallery Plus FREE for listings in all four categories on the US site (www.ebay.com). This includes all formats and all durations.

eBay is committed to providing a great experience to its users. Buyers in these categories have asked for more photos to help them decide which items to compare and which item to purchase. We believe that more free photos will allow sellers to provide buyers the visual details they need to make these decisions, lower buyer questions, and increase seller sales.

By the way, we're also working on improving the visual shopping experience for buyers with new ways to browse and view multiple, large pictures, which should further increase the benefits of free pictures for both sellers and buyers. Stay tuned for more information about these upcoming visual enhancements.

We’re excited to make these changes, and believe they will enhance the marketplace on eBay for everyone. I encourage you to click here for full pricing details.

Sincerely,
Greg Fant
VP of Marketing & Buyer Experience

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Dinah Balk - Special Alert – New Paypal Amendment Lowers eBay Sellers’ Credit Scores!

Once more, with Feeling.
30 January 2009
EventHorizon1984


Below is an excerpt from the latest article from Seeking Alpha writer Dinah Balk.

http://dinahbalk.com/

Dinah Balk
Friday, January 30, 2009 10:33 AM

Special Alert - New PayPal Amendment Lowers eBay Sellers' Credit Scores!

Over the next few weeks eBay sellers who have a Paypal Premier or Business account to processes buyers’ credit card payments will have a big decision to make.  They will have to decide whether to 1) close their eBay & Paypal accounts and then move to another venue like Bonanzle, Go Daddy, or Etsy or 2) cross their fingers and hope for the best.

Why?  The following Paypal amendment goes into effect on February 11, 2009. 

2.4  Credit Report Authorization for Premier and Business Accounts. If you open a Premier or Business Account, you are providing PayPal with your written instructions to obtain your personal and/or business credit report from a credit bureau.  PayPal may obtain your credit report: (a) when you open (or upgrade to) a Premier or Business Account, or (b) any time thereafter if PayPal reasonably believes there may be an increased level of risk associated with your Account.  An increased level of risk includes, but is not limited to, a high number of chargeback’s or reversals, or suspicious activity associated with your Account."

Unfortunately for Dinah Balk's audience, you may never see this article on Seeking Alpha.

There is the appearance that self-important individuals from eBay and PayPal have been pressing Seeking Alpha to censor articles and authors considered "insensitive" to their needs.  And Seeking Alpha appears to be dutifully performing this task.

While Seeking Alpha does state:

Seeking Alpha does not allow its editors to accept or reject an article due to the stock covered or the editor's agreement or disagreement with the contributor's viewpoint on the stock. (other than the $1.00 rule above)

They did publish and then willfully censored Dinah Balk's 2008 article "PayPal Ruins Christmas for eBay Customers".

Whether this is the mere appearance of censorship or the work of outside corporate influences attempting to manipulate stockholder perception, remains to be seen.

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According to eBay Customer Service, Alaska Is NOT In The United States

According to eBay Customer Service, Alaska Is NOT In The United States
EventHorizon1984
20 January 2009

If you've dealt with any form of eBay Customer Service, you'll find between the Eliza canned responses that they have little or no understanding of United States geography.

For example take this piece of pure ignorance from eBay Customer Service.

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your question.
I have reviewed the listing and show that they ship to the united states
only at the price of $49. In the listing they do not state that they
offer shipping to Alaska.
Therefore they do not have to honor that shipping price.
If you have further questions I suggest you contact the seller.
Thank you for your time

Sincerely,
******
eBay Customer Support

Over the years eBay Customer Service, and for that matter some eBay California based moderators, have made similar gaffs relating to three States of the United States; Alaska, Hawaii, New Mexico.  That is eBay representatives believe that NONE of the States mentioned are part of the United States.

As a service to a multi-billion dollar corporation That Should Know Better, here are the facts about these three States.  Read IT and learn.

Alaska
49th State of the United States

• Territory of the United States, 24 August 1912
• State of the United States, 3 January 1959

Hawaii
50th State of the United States

• Territory of the United States, 7 July 1898
• State of the United States, 21 August 1959

New Mexico
47th State of the United States

• Territory of the United States, 9 September 1850
• State of the United States, 6 January 1912

And a final reminder to eBay Customer Service and IT's representatives, a Territory of the United States IS part of the United States.  Like an equally misplaced in the United States locations, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

Disclaimer:  Some of us resided in the Territory of Hawaii.

...

"The person you are trying to reach is out of the area or has turned off their phone."
Dr. Eric Foreman, House

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The eBay PayPal 5% Hold Solution

The eBay PayPal 5% Hold Solution
EventHorizon1984
17 January 2009

• "In a very small percentage of cases, eBay asks PayPal to hold a payment in a seller’s PayPal account for up to 21 days."  Monroe Labouisse, "Director of PayPal’s business on eBay in the US and Canada"

eBay Public Relations published another puff piece, eBay Item Holds Explained (eBay Ink, Richard Breyer-Hay), regarding PayPal's holding of seller funds for "21 days".  As in prior years, eBay-PayPal described the account holds as affecting a small percentage of sellers.

And then they quantified IT.

This is what eBay-PayPal said in the January 16th article:

"We’re talking about single-digit percentages. Usually less than 5% of transactions."
Monroe Labouisse

To understand the magnitude of what "5%" represents, here's what was said earlier in the article:

"PayPal’s history with hundreds of millions of eBay transactions"
Monroe Labouisse

Based on "PayPal's history", "5%" would represent 5 million transactions put on hold for every 100 million transactions.

Here are the numbers from eBay's SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) filing, 23 October 2008 10-Q Quarterly Report  Form 10-Q. 

Quarter 3, 1 July 2008 to 30 September 2008

Active users:  83,000,000
Number of new listings:  555,600,000
Gross merchandise volume:  $14,395,000,000

Active registered accounts:  54,800,000
Net total payment volume:  $11,569,000,000

Given that neither transactions nor sellers are homogeneous, here's what a "5%" hold policy could represent in a completely off-the-cuff fashion:

Active eBay users affected:  4,150,000
Number of new listings affected:  27,780,000
Gross merchandise volume, HELD:  $719,750,000

Active registered PayPal accounts affected:  2,740,000
Net total payment volume, HELD:  $578,450,000

eBay-PayPal considers numbers like these "small."  We wonder what they would consider to be 'big'?

...

"What's life without the ability to make stupid decisions?"
Dr. Gregory House, House

...

See also our follow up article The eBay PayPal 20% Hold Solution.

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Google - Important Information about Your Account Display Name

Okay.  Who's Running The Store At Google Base?
EventHorizon1984
10 January 2009  (updated 12 January 2009)

If you are one of the hundred of thousands who use Google Base to advertise products, you probably got the email below.

Dear Merchant:

Thank you for your participation in Google Product Search. We noticed that your display name (Edited Out) appears to either contain errors or not conform with our Editorial Guidelines. Please go to http://www.google.com/base/settings to review your display name. Here are some tips to ensure that your display name is correctly formatted:

• Enter the name of your store without any additional text. You do not need to include \Inc.,\ \Co.,\ \GmbH,\ etc.
• Enter your website address only if you're the only store on that website. If you do this, make sure it matches your actual website domain and don't include \http://\. If you're a marketplace seller that shares a website address with other sellers, simply use your unique store name instead.
• Ensure that you've correctly spelled your store's name.
• Avoid unnecessary use of the following:
  • promotional text (e.g., phone numbers, marketing messages, sale announcements);
  • repeated and unnecessary use of punctuation, capitalization, or symbols (e.g., spelling your store name in ALL CAPS);
  • copyright and trademark symbols; and
  • offensive or inappropriate language.

Finally, note that Product Search truncates display names longer than 20 characters.

Please note that if you do not update your display name, we may update it to comply with the above guidelines. For more information on how to format your display name for Google Product Search, or if you believe you've received this message in error, please visit http://base.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=106840

Sincerely,

The Google Product Search Team

It appears a significant number of Google Base users, received this email perhaps in error.

We would be VERY interested in knowing why this happened, and what new measures Google is trying to enforce. 

If you have received the above email, consider sending a response to Google via the link below.

http://base.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=displayname

//

P.S.  Event Horizon (Hawaii), aka "Event Horizon 1984" aka "EventHorizon1984" aka "Event Horizon Hawaii" celebrates it's 25th business anniversary this month.  As our company name and service marks pre-date Google's existence, where did we go wrong Google? 

P.P.S.  Yes, we also pre-date the film.

P.P.P.S.  Yes, most of us enjoyed the movie.

"I created the Event Horizon to reach the stars, but she's gone much, much farther than that. She tore a hole in our universe, a gateway to another dimension. A dimension of pure chaos. Pure... evil. When she crossed over, she was just a ship. But when she came back... she was alive! Look at her, Miller. Isn't she beautiful?"
Dr. William Weir, Event Horizon (1997)

//
//  Google Responds 12 January 2009
//
   
Jena
Google Employee
9:07 AM
 Jena (Google Employee) says this answers the question:

Hello Google Base Users,

As you've all been made aware, we've incorrectly sent an email regarding Google Base account display names to a number of content providers. At this time, you may feel free to ignore this notification. We're currently investigating the cause of this error. Once the issue has been resolved, we will resend any notifications only to those accounts that do need to make changes to their display names.

To ensure your display name adheres to our guidelines, please review http://base.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?&answer=106840

We apologize for any confusion.

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http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/base/thread?tid=3e3d8e4fe99bbd6c&hl=en

Google Help > Google Base > Discussions > Submitting Your Content > not conform with our Editorial Guidelines

Question: not conform with our Editorial Guidelines

gcr
Level 1
3:20 PM
What is with the e-mail I got from Google Base? it says that my company name "Geisha Coffee Roaster" doesn't conform with their Editorial Guidelines. That is the name of the company. The name came from the most expensive coffee in the world "Geisha Coffee" produced in Panama, and yes we sell it and roast it!

What is up with Google? Then there is no-reply in the e-mail, so go figure...

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

-pat

All answers

ktb6915
Level 1
3:26 PM
I got a similar email (subject: "Important Information about Your Account Display Name")

"....We noticed that your display name (____________________) appears to either contain errors or not conform with our Editorial Guidelines...."

The company name used in this case is also legitimate. It seems to be a mistake. I followed the link on one of their support pages to apply for something like a display name exemption??.   

mygarter
Level 1
3:47 PM
I got the same notice this evening.  I submitted the form from the guidelines page telling them I belive it was in error.  Meanwhile, when I logged into my settings, I tried to make a change to my Description and upon hitting "Save" I was shown an error that states the URL I entered is already in use with another Google Base account.   How do we go about getting further support from Google?

ChippiesAvalanche
Level 1
3:52 PM
i too got one of those guideline emails.

my display name is

ChippiesAvalanche

my companies name is ChippiesAvalanche.

i dont have any llcs, any gmbhs etc, i dont have any punctuation or any thing else in the display name, just ChippiesAvalanche.

im confused...

help!

michael   

Celebird
Top Contributor
3:52 PM
1 person says this answers the question:

the url already in use error is most probably a separate issue --
please use the separate contact-us form link found on this page:
http://base.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=25191   

Celebird
Top Contributor
4:01 PM
1 person says this answers the question:
the display-name used can be legitimate and still violate google-base guidelines --
e.g. names sounding like advertisements or approaching trademark infringement.

if you believe your display-name meets all google-base guidelines
and haven't received direct email from google-base you can use the
'contact-us' link at the bottom of this page to contact google directly:
http://base.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=106840

   

Oman
Level 1
4:02 PM
We got the same notification regarding our base account information.  At first I thought it was some kind of phish email. 

The business name that we registered with our secretary of state is Myfootshop.com.  Myfootshop.com is the name used on business cards, stationary and customer receipts.  We use the .com to denote that we have no brick and mortar side to our store. 

Is the use of .com in a business name confusing to Google?  We replied as requested on the contact form, but after review of our account information, that little ditty is the only bit of information that may seem unique in our account.
References:
[1]   
Myfootshop.com(Web)
www.myfootshop.com

   

mygarter
Level 1
4:11 PM
I too have "dot com" in my name for the same reason.  Our name is trademarked with the US Trademark office in this manner.  I have submitted the form suggested.  Has anyone else run into the "URL already registered" problem too?  I only notice it when trying to save my account information.  My URL has been in use with my Google account for some time now. I've submitted that form as well.

M

   

brightpenguin
Level 1
4:32 PM
It's disgusting that they choose to send these notices out to my sites on the weekend when I am trying to enjoy some time off.  In return, they waste my additional weekend time searching around for contact information.  They cast stones and then hide behind the wall, very disappointing.

   

Celebird
Top Contributor
5:13 PM
i received the notification also; so it might do well
to wait and see if someone at google replies here.

that's not to suggest i'm not in violation.

   

rrras420
Level 1
5:16 PM
Does google have anything better to do with their time. I have had my same name Reneesatticcollectibles for many years on Ebay and over 1 year on ioffer. What is their problem? I do not see anything wrong with it. They need to get a life.

   

ChippiesAvalanche
Level 1
5:19 PM
Greetings!

i wondered about the trademark stuff myself, but i have been using ChippiesAvalanche since 1998, and every time i google my company name, the ONLY thing that comes up is MY stuff,

today, i googled and got...

Results 1 - 10 of about 2,010 for ChippiesAvalanche. (0.25 seconds)

all of these links lead to me.  there is no other ChippiesAvalanche.

so i am still confused.

also, i didnt get any notice about "url already in use error" or have any errors come up when i save my info. and the url i have is my data feed for ebay, (just like 30,000+ other ebay members)

http://esssl.ebay.com/GetListings/chippiesavalanche?fmt=g

in fact, the url was set up specifically by ebay FOR google to use for the store connector and the active feeds.

:)

so still confused about my display name.

michael

   

ChippiesAvalanche
Level 1
5:21 PM
Greetings!

celebird - "i received the notification also; so it might do well
to wait and see if someone at google replies here.

that's not to suggest i'm not in violation"

you got one too?

whoops...ehehehe

im guessing someone at google changed something in their algorithms and didnt check to see what the results would be...

:)

michael

   

mombulldog
Level 1
5:23 PM
I got a notice this evening saying there might be a problem with my name, Funkarelics. I've been connected to the Googlebase store connecter for almost two years with this name and not had any issues. I can't understand why the name would set off any alarms now. As far as I can tell, it's within the guidelines. I sent an email to the Google contact provided, and hope to recieve an answer soon.

   

Sharon B
Level 1
5:24 PM
I got the same notice, and it looks like I have 23 characters in my display name instead of 20 as the guidelines want to see.  (And I noticed the originator of this thread has the same problem.)   It says they will truncate the name (which they already appear to be doing) when it is displayed.  But I have submitted my feed and used this name for 3 years now ...

So I'm wondering if this will cause a problem in SEO or if I can just leave it.

   

mygarter
Level 1
6:26 PM
I'm thinking that they made some updates, changes, etc. and somehow a bunch of notices could have been sent in error.  We'll just have to see what they say when they repond to the help requests posted.  Searching the Forum, I don't see any other topics on this issue posted in the past and it's a bit odd that there are so many questioning it just tonight.  I'm going to hang tight. It could be just a glitch.

M

   

Thoughts
Level 1
6:47 PM
I also received the notice, read the rules, counted my characters-- Thoughts of Home, checked everything, however, I have a trademark/servicemark on my name Thoughts of Home. Perhaps that is the reason, but I am the owner of the mark so it should be fine to use it. My URL for the website is different than the display name   Tohomeshop.com so I wonder if that is the problem.

They say that they will truncate names longer than 20 characters so I imagine it will affect your SEO.

   

bluepennylady
Level 1
6:52 PM
Hi, all,

I received the same email.  IN fact over half the sellers using google base on the Bonanzle discussion board received the notification.  I have had a google base account since almost day one using my display name as it is right now, never an issue.  I am at a loss as to why my display name would be incorrect now.

I am beginning to think google may have had a glitch in their email system perhaps sending out hundreds of emails in error....

Judy
bluepennylady

   

Zane's Closet
Level 1
8:10 PM
Yup, got one too, under the name you see here.  I figured it was the apostrope, but, hey, that's the name of the store.  It would be a pretty sad fact to learn that Google couldn't handle apostrope or punctuation in their system....

   

Jen Hintz Yarn Arts
Level 1
8:23 PM
I got the message too.  I use the same name for that as I am using here, and it's 19 characters so that can't be the problem; It's also my own business name, so I can't see that being a problem.

I tried to use the "if you believe you've received this message in error" link at the end of the email, but it does not work, which made my stomach turn because I was afraid I'd fallen for a phishing scam.  Is there really no other way to contact Google about this?

   
rebekahsbowtique
Level 1
1/11/09
I got the same email. Mine stated that my display name Rebekahs Bowtique appears to either contain errors or does not conform with our Editorial Guidelines. I clicked the links in the email to find they were wrong links...nothing came up. I then went into a different page to sign into google and checked everything on the list and nothing seems out of place or wrong. I will just wait. Not sure what it is talking about ~

   
SimplySmitten
Level 1
1/11/09
We too received the same email from Google. Display name is SimplySmitten.com and have been using since day one with no changes or updates being made to it. Will be happy to change if do not comply, but unable to determine what it is we need to change. Our store name is SimplySmitten.com and in reviewing the guidelines, it appears to meet all listed. Can only imagine this email was sent in error or at least we hope so. I wouldn't worry too much about it at the moment, something seems to be off.

   
MaxMuhlin
Level 1
1/11/09
I received 10 of the email notifications after uploading my monthly feed for my 10 CafePress shops yesterday!  Following the email link, I did respond with my "justification".  Now we wait.  Upon learning that so many of you have received the same notification, I am somewhat relieved.  My sales show a definite dearth when I foolishly allow my Google Base feed to lapse without a new upload, so I am hopeful that this situation will be resolved.

   
cjbeez
Level 1
1/11/09
same email here... waiting for answers....

   
adele57
Level 1
1/11/09
I also received the email, but when I checked on my items which are on automatic upload, they are no longer there.  They were due for another upload on the 14th but are not on my base at all.  I googled my number one item and it never showed in the listing, my name still does though.  I have used Del's Delights since I started on Froogle before they even became Google base and never had a problem before.  I am hoping they get this straightened out and things work right again.  I keep wondering how many sales I lost because this just cam e to light and I have no idea how long my items have not been listed.  Base said they were uploaded 12/14/08 so they should have still been good, we will see.

   
adele57
Level 1
1/11/09
Well the manual upload failed.   Just checked and it said failed, bit I noticed the expiration date was last year so I changed it and tried again.  Will keep you updated

   
adele57
Level 1
1/11/09
Ok, changing the date worked for me, my items are listed again.  Still not sure about the email, but others might have the same problem with the expiration date that I did.

   
mjlarkin
Level 1
1:41 AM
1 person says this answers the question:

We run a Google Base Syncing site (http://synctobase.com) and received an email for each of our clients (over 300).  Clearly something is wrong on Google's end, because some of our clients have been with us for over a year with no problems.

I'm guessing some unlucky coder made a mistake!

   
al14
Level 1
1:50 AM
The comment about getting the "URL I entered is already in use" when saving the profile got me thinking. I had a lot of trouble uploading a few years ago when Google started integrating all its logins and more or less tried to drive everyone to gmail. As a result of fooling around trying to fix the problem I end up with two google base accounts, one under my gmail name and one under my business domain email account. Luckily I still know both passwords. I just logged into the inactive account, changed the display name to something irrelevant and erased the URL. After doing that, I could save the active profile without getting the "URL I entered is already in use" message -- and without changing my display name. Anybody else have duplicate inactive accounts out there?

   
rivertonstudios
Level 1
4:00 AM
I just wanted to throw in that this happened to me this morning too.  My display name is Riverton Studios.  Google must have changed something, because we all are experiencing the same problem.

   
andrea313
Level 1
7:05 AM
I got the same email. I had an apostrophe in my name, so removed it & got the error about the url already in use. So I removed the URL & tried editing my name again, and it worked. My name is still too long (>20 chars), but it shows up in the searches, so I'll leave it & let them truncate it...

   
RobL
Level 1
8:10 AM
I also received an email noting that my "display name (The StreamStone Shop) appears to either contain errors or not conform with our Editorial Guidelines," but "The StreamStone Shop" has 20 characters and nothing that seems out of conformance with guidelines. Mysterious. I've used the Help page's form to request clarification. Reassuring, in a way, to see so many of us were hit by this today....

Do you think this answers the question? Sign in to vote. Report abuse
   
taogem
Level 1
1/11/09
I also received the same. Previously my display name was TaoGem Gemstones. After reading through the editorial guidelines the only things I could think of was to get rid of the capital G in TaoGem and loose the word "Gemstones" as perhaps they looked at it as a promotional type text/word.

So I changed the display name to a simple Taogem.  Then today I received the exact same email suggesting still in violation somehow.

I did use the contact link, so hopefully will hear back with some more specific reason as to why the word Taogem is a problem.
   
sddevelope
Level 1
1/11/09
I have received this mystery email also. Why are so many suddenly getting this? My company name is osha4less.com. When I first began using google base a couple of months ago, I naturally entered osha4less.com as the display name. Google had no problem with this until now.
Admittedly the display name conflicts with Editorial Guidelines (it contains '.com'). I removed the '.com'. I then received a further email from Google within hours claiming that the store name still does not conform with guidelines.
I see no reason why I should be having this issue. I also contacted Google regarding this, and urge everyone else to do the same.
   
Radwinters
Level 1
3:12 AM
I have received the same bloody email. I changed the name of my store and received the same email AGAIN. This is starting to seem pretty freaking ridiculous.
   
lahunter
Level 1
5:51 AM
Me too, got the email. I had the business name Hunter's Romantic Secrets, then I changed it to the web site address www.Romantic-Secrets.com and still got the email. Not sure what to do.
   
maggied45
Level 1
6:47 AM
I also changed the name to comply with the 20 character requirement and got another email saying the same thing.  This has got to be some kind of error, right???
   
jnall3
Level 1
8:18 AM
I have two accounts at googlebase one is Fancy Frames Boutique and the other is Better Than New Designer Boutique.  Both accounts received this same message.  I went in where they said to dispute this email and I did.  Haven't heard anything back.  Does anyone from google every get on here to answer or do we just all sit and moan and they ignore us.
   
Jena
Google Employee
9:07 AM
 Jena (Google Employee) says this answers the question:

Hello Google Base Users,

As you've all been made aware, we've incorrectly sent an email regarding Google Base account display names to a number of content providers. At this time, you may feel free to ignore this notification. We're currently investigating the cause of this error. Once the issue has been resolved, we will resend any notifications only to those accounts that do need to make changes to their display names.

To ensure your display name adheres to our guidelines, please review http://base.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?&answer=106840

We apologize for any confusion.
   
bmesc
Level 1
9:33 AM
Jena:

I was not "made aware" of this situation. I wasted time on this e-mail trying to figure it out or find an answer, but I did not get an e-mail from your company informing me there was an error.

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Science Wit and Wisdom From PowerSellers Unite

Sometimes You Have To Look Back To See Forward
EventHorizon1984
11 January 2009

"according to poster (itspostingtime), I don't know what I'm talking about"
Randy Smythe, My Blog Utopia, 6 December 2008

It could be said that the anonymous eBay poster itspostingtime and his alter egos make liberal use of this argument. That's he's right (yes Mr. Smythe it's "he") because everyone else doesn't know what they're talking about.

Like this alleged alter ego.

http://www.powersellersunite.com/about24334-0-asc-0.html
cohibastore.com
Total posts: 2336
USA US Pennsylvania
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 11:07 pm  
Post subject:  2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved
 
The first, on May 21, headed "Climate change threat to Alpine ski resorts" , reported that the entire Alpine "winter sports industry" could soon "grind to a halt for lack of snow". The second, on December 19, headed "The Alps have best snow conditions in a generation" , reported that this winter's Alpine snowfalls "look set to beat all records by New Year's Day".

Easily one of the most important stories of 2008 has been all the evidence suggesting that this may be looked back on as the year when there was a turning point in the great worldwide panic over man-made global warming. Just when politicians in Europe and America have been adopting the most costly and damaging measures politicians have ever proposed, to combat this supposed menace, the tide has turned in three significant respects.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/3982101/2008-was-the-year-man-made-global-warming-was-disproved.html

Ultimately, in 10 to 20 years, we'll see whether cohibastore (cleggandco, maybe itspostingtime) is right or totally off the mark.  Or maybe we can accomplish the look ahead sooner.  By looking back.

Sometimes You Have To Look Back

In the day, or at least in our day, computer modeling was a hit or miss affair.  There were limits to what a researcher could do with computing power equivalent to what the average person has in their cell phone.

That changed in the later part of the 20th Century.  Computer modeling became less of a quija board and more of a precise analytical tool.  Good examples are nuclear weapons research and high energy particle physics.  Which is not to say that everything could be computer modeled accurately.  Notable exceptions being horse racing and predicting the weather.

Predicting Triple Crown Winners

Tell a gambler you have a system for horse racing, and they may have visions of easy money.  Tell a Professional Gambler you have a computer model for horse racing, and one thing they'll want to see (after laughing) is your track record.

Did you predict the winner for one race?  A day's worth of races?  A year's worth?  Multiple years?

You know a computer model or simulation of an event is fairly good, when the model is correct over time.  A good track record does have weight.  It's not proof, but such a model should be given some consideration in it's ability to predict.

"Unpredicted by all those computer models", Christopher Booker

Given the tens of thousands of models from all view points on the topic Global Warming, we applaud cohibastore's spokesman Mr. Booker for his Craw computer-like facility to sift through all of them. 

We do not plan on performing that miracle here.  This is after all a quick chat.

Using the old school unscientific method of randomly going through old newspaper clippings like cohibastore, we'll do a quick check of what was being said.

cohibastore.com
Total posts: 2336
USA US Pennsylvania
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 1:18 pm

As we've noted, 2008 has been a year of records for cold and snowfall and may indeed be the coldest year of the 21st century thus far. In the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month of October.

http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=315533893763712

  Not from 2008 or this year, because any hack can do that, but from years earlier.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/11/031106052121.htm
6 November 2003

"Such increases (in temperature) widen the gap between water temperature and air temperature – the ideal condition for snowfall.”

http://investor.com.com
14 October 2005

"Heavier rain or snow, however, will also fall in northwestern and northeastern North America, northern Europe, northern and eastern Asia, southwestern Australia, and parts of South America during the current century."

Obviously these are not heavy science pieces.  Then too neither were the articles in the PowerSellers Unite thread.  Equally obvious is there are thousands of papers that can show any view you want.

But for the purpose of the original PSU position, it's not an honest debate to state that Snow proves the models are false.  In fact it's down right silly to base an argument on something that proves the opposition correct and you wrong.

One makes valid arguments pointing out flaws in a model, not by showing how well the model predicts.

Epilogue

"While scientists generally agree that the world's climate is changing, there is more disagreement over how much of the change is due to human behavior."

This piece really has nothing to do with the climate debate, so what is the point of this piece?  Other than keyword generation.

It's Coherent Arguments For Dummies.

If one is going to make an argument that 'A' proves 'B' false, better be sure that is the case.

.

“To get anywhere, or even live a long time, a man has to guess, and guess right, over and over again, without enough data for a logical answer.”
Robert Heinlein

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