Wow, I leave town for a few days and this board starts poppin!!
If I'd been here though I could have told you right off who Power Seller was before she revealed herself as I recognized with her from another board, another thread. In some respects I honestly must defend her as she has no idea just how much she
does understands how we feel and
why we express these feelings about an auction site we've lost faith in and employ the methods we do. I bet she's just too modest to admit this understanding, that she has done the same in the past. So I'm going to help her by sharing with you. I'm going to quote a few postings by her from the thread I mentioned.
She knows what it's like to speak out and have posts pulled in censorship. She applauds sellers who were banned but come back under new ID's to fight another day. She does not condone the stripping of honest, inquiring posts:
Quote:I would LOVE to tell you that I'm being zlapped around like CRAZY, but I'm NOT saying that because I would get zlapped for saying that if I were to say it. So I'm not.
xxxxx, it's true. We're not allowed to mention any _____ here, in fact that's exactly why I was ______ from the discussion boards for 7 days before.
Sadly xxxx, the kitty is now on break for a few weeks. However, I have no doubt that she will find plenty of ways to add nails to feebay's coffin during the coming weeks.
xxxxx, it appears that the boom is being lowered on us and posts are being removed and ______________ (sorry, can't mention it). I don't think there's much that I'm allowed to post, so maybe I'll try to get on PhotoBucket later today and then post a picture of my 3 yr. old son with our new kitten. Surely that must be allowed.
Maybe I'll get in trouble for this too, but it seems that the most secure jobs at eBay right now are with the Moderation Team.
Susan, do you like this post better?
Did anybody ever watch that TV show 'The Mole'? I really wanted to be on that show, but health reasons prevented me from trying to get on there. I thought that I could have been a great mole if they chose me, and if I wasn't the mole I could definately make everyone suspect me because I'm quite clever and weird.
Sadly, I really don't think they give a hoot about losing us, but they have taken steps (that I'm not allowed to mention here) in an effort to shut us up. It doesn't seem to matter how upset we are as long as the stockholders and general public don't find out about it.
Speaking of being shut up, does anyone know why I was banned from the 'G__LE WE NEED AN AUCTION SITE' group? Anyone? Anyone? I only posted there once, and I really put a lot of thought into trying to make it a good and significant post. Now I'm not even allowed to read the messages to catch up on what's been going on over there.
xxxxx, why is it that they always go after the two of us at the same time? This is exactly how it went down on 8/16, and now today I just got 3 in a row of the __________ that I can't mention or else I will get another _______ and I will go 'poof' again. I won't be surprised if they send me 'poof' anyway without me posting another thing. As if it's gonna do them an ounce of good to try to silence us! Personally, I think they're better off keeping us on this board than elsewhere on the web! 'Ya think???
Funny that they are so threatened by our posts, and yet they seem blind to the fact that there would be none of these posts if they had not pulled the FEE INCREASES on us.
She supports and finds humour in smartass posts made by others, posts that ridicule an auction site. And she can appreciate sarcasm:
Quote:OP said:Â Now look what you've done!!! That which cannot be said, has not been said about ME! I did NOT get any kind of e-mail telling me what I could and could not pass along to others. So don't ask me about passing along addresses to other places, 'cause I do NOT do that. That would be wrong! ]
xxxxxx
PS response:Â LOL xxxxxx, that was awesome. I can't even drink my coffee I'm laughing so hard.
OP said:Â Why thank you, xxxxx. I had a really good time writing that. I was laughing my b off at my own cleverness.
xxxxxx
OP said: HEY GOOBERS. I HAVE A FIRST AMENDMENT!
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/K...ingcat.gif
PS responded: LOVE the boxing kitty. She looks ready to POP someone. I'll come back and take a look at her again after I POP on over to another site for a few minutes. Not that I'm advertising it, because the Moderation Team wouldn't like that, so I'm just saying that I'm gonna POP over there for a little while.
She is morbidly curious about the number of stores that have closed and has a healthy interest in what the company goals and strategies are:
Quote: Are you gonna wait until 8/23 and then ask live help again how many stores have closed in the last 30 days?
YES, I want it to be reported how many stores have already closed or are closing, BUT I want them to report beyond that and see that those who have to stay for a while longer on eBay are just as affected and just as angry as those who are being forced out of business. Can y'all believe this??? Many of us can't afford to stay and many of us can't afford to leave! WHAT A FU@#$%^ MESS!!! Sorry guys, I didn't mean to yell. I'm O.K. now.
Does anybody know what eBay's 'goal' is??? How many store listings and how many core listings do they want to see? Or what percentage of each???
I've been thinking about asking the waggly officials if they have any advertising strategies that us little folks can put into action. First of all, we need business cards! And a full page flyer with all of our stores on it would be nice to include in all of our shipped orders. And never forget the power of our yaps.
She can sympathize with the emotion of anger and frustration that causes people to use stronger language:
Quote:I have to say that God firmly set my feet on the WP path on 7/22. I will not question it, and I copied all of my listings to WP A.S.A.P. (although I will have to keep my store here at least for the time being even though the fee increases make me want to vomit. Please note that I'm not saying that's the right move for everyone, just what's going on with me.
Oh, and one more thing that's really pissing me off related to the fees is that I'm getting an increasing number of non-paying bidders. One of them is on a $150. sale. So with fees being as high as they were and now even higher, I'm being charged a lot of money on sales that aren't even happening. I know I can get most of it back by going through the system, but it's a major pain in the a$$ and I HATE IT!!!
She respects the internal drive to spread the word and wants to work towards helping others from making the same mistake:
Quote:I know that many stores have already shut down or will before the fee increases or soon after. BUT, I want to make it clear to eBay and everyone else not to think for a second that a store remaining opening indicates acceptance of the fee increases. I have no choice but to leave my store open unless I come up with a winning lottery ticket. People may look at my store and see it remaining open with a lot of listings, but what they can't see is my huge shift in loyalty. They can't see that all of my time and energy is now spent moving my sales away from eBay as much and as fast as I can. They can't see me buying as little as possible on eBay from now on, and they can't see the effects of my big yap telling everyone I know what I think about what they've done.
With the announcement of the fee increase, eBay lost probably 60 years of my potential selling AND buying loyalty. I am a fairly young Silver level PowerSeller, just starting out really, just scratching the surface of what I could have done here had the rug not been jerked out from under me. In addition to the eBay store that I had begun to have success with, I used to buy most items for my family on eBay, and the majority of my store inventory was also purchased on eBay, so they had me coming and going. Now what they have from me is my big mouth telling everyone I know what a greedy corporation they are.
My intention in letting everyone here know what I'm doing is to encourage others to join me if we want to be at least semi-united. I know that there's no one perfect solution that's right for everyone here. All of our individual situations and businesses are unique.
Yes! Our thread is back in action! Doin' the good work. And has anyone been mean to anyone else here even once today? I do not think so!!! Teamwork is the way to get this done.
Hi xxx! Good for you with your personal website. I won't have the time for that kind of adventure any time soon. So you say they don't support you on the .ca boards? O.K., I'll be a positive pom pom shaker for you. GO xxx! GO xxx! GO xxx! Does that help? Well, I never was any good at cheerleading. And yes, it IS a matter of principle for me too. I am and will continue to take financial hits for the purpose of steering my business away from the feebay A.S.A.P.
She understand our passion to see an auction site falter:
Quote:Another thought, instead of trying to fee us all to death, they could have 're-balanced' things by doing a small increase in our insertion fees in exchange for a small reduction in our final value fees. That would have caused us to list smarter and maybe be more proactive about working to increase our sales and stuff like that. I think that would have been a lot better than making us all so angry that we never want to sell or buy here again. 'Ya think?
She knows that closing a store you worked so hard on isn't an easy decision. Not to count on one source of income. To lose all you invested; time, feedback etc.:
Quote:I'm totally with you. I'm building on Waggle while slowly downsizing my Feebay store (and all of my new listings are going on Waggle). I can't wait till they day they get that service going and I can get all of my listings up on Waggle quick and easy. I will feel sad when I (probably) lose my Feebay Power Seller status, and starting over with a feedback rating of zero is kind of a shocker too!
xxxxxxxx, I'm with you. I feel very discouraged and sad about the entire situation. I think we should all try to be thankful for the difficult but valuable lessons we are learning --
1. NEVER keep all of your eggs in the one basket.
2. EXPECT that change is always just around the corner and be prepared to roll with the punches.
That being said, this whole stupid mess is really depressing. I'm finding it really tough to focus on what I need to be doing to pull myself together. Hugs to everyone and may God bless us all.
She is too shy to share what feedback really means to her and her tips on how to establish it quickly:
Quote:xxxxxx, what is your ID at Wagglepop? I started a list of those of us who are moving over there so that we can 'shop' from each other, spread the word about each other's items, help build each other's feedback ratings, etc.
I've been trying to do business with as many of these as I can, but my finances are in a really awful state so there's not too much I can do at this time. If we all try to shop from each other though, it will help at least a little bit with this challenging transition. (Oh, and I'm doing 6 penny auctions over there this week on items that I normally sell for up to $31.99 to try to drum up some quick biz. In case anyone wants relatively inexpensive feedback.
I've added your store to my list of WP stores opened by posters on this thread. I'm trying to buy something from everyone to help get our sales off to a good start and boost each other's feedback, etc. My list is up to around 16 stores.
xx, you're absolutely right. There are some true monkey brains over there. I think I'm better off avoiding them and getting some work done instead. I don't understand how they can claim that I'm a religious nut who's responsible for most of the world's wars. Oh get this, the scripture that really got this one guy bent out of shape was this one --
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
That makes me a religious nut??? Wow.
-- xxxxxxxxx
(P.S. - May I pretty please have some WP feedback? Thanks!)
Her eyes are wide open and she won't work just to benefit someone other than herself:
Quote:I'm sticking with WP. They are already off to a great start and I know that they are extremely serious about listening to their members' input to improve as they grow. Until they prove me wrong, I'm headed full steam in that direction.
My feebay sales have actually been strong and steady. Normally I would be thankful for that, but now it makes me angry to see so much of my profits going to fees for a company that I no longer want to see profit from my efforts.
She
still has doubts, 5 months later, that WP is the ultimate solution to eBay:
(posted Aug 5/06)
Quote:WP is working great for me too. I've been able to list 131 items so far with no trouble. Today I will finish copying my last few store listings over there and that task will be complete (praise the Lord)!
It pains me to say this, but for now I can only downsize my FeeBay store and not close it because my sales have been strong in the last week and I have no hope of paying for the roof over my family's head or other bills without that money (nearly $300. in sales yesterday alone). I will be working as hard as I possibly can to improve and promote my WP store so that more and more of my sales will happen there (and less and less on FeeBay). Best wishes for everyone here whatever you choose to do!
Lisa, I knew when I saw the fee increase announcement on 7/19 that my PowerSeller days were numbered. I'm a very good salesperson, but I refuse to bust my you-know-what just to make someone else rich.
She knows how to do math but can't see to catch what doesn't add up on WP:
Quote:I bet they legally had to send that reminder because their first notification was misleading. It's title read "Resetting the Balance of the eBay Marketplace" instead of "Destroying Your Business and Livelihood While eBay Self-Destructs". Sad to say, I think many store owners may not have known about the new fees until today. I know that sounds crazy to those of us who have been beside ourselves ranting about this for weeks, but it probably is the sad truth. Has anyone visited the eBay Stores Discussion Board much? They have many great threads going over there.
Did anyone notice that even the way they disclosed the fee increases is misleading? I'm talking about how it shows the New Final Value Fee as --
Selling Price New Final Value Fee
$0.01-$25.00 10%
$25.01-$100.00 7%
$100.01-$1,000.00 5% (no change)
They're making it look as if your Final Value Fee on a $101. sale will be 5% (same as now) when the TRUTH is that it will be 10% of the first $25. plus 7% of the next $75. plus 5% of the last dollar for a total of $7.80, NOT the $5.05 that they're trying to make it look like. How many of us realized that and how many didn't catch it?
And in ending, she approves of sellers speaking their minds, adding value to a discussion without being ganged up on, and avoiding the pitfall of becoming a cult-like follower:
Quote:Yesterday I joked about the mole thing, but I don't think it's funny anymore. None of us needs to put down anyone else for what anyone else thinks may add value to this discussion. And I really, really hope that anyone can come along at any time and contribute what they see as valuable without being jumped on for jumping in for the first time or for not having posted in a few days or not being part of some exclusive trusted inner circle. Let's face it, there aren't very many of us who can spend all day every day following this long thread. The only reason I have been is because I've been too angry and upset with eBay to get any real work done, and I guess participating in some of the threads gives me a little bit of comfort in some way. I'm going on too long here, but my point is LET'S BE ANGRY ABOUT THE EBAY FEES AND STOP TURNING ON EACH OTHER! Thank you, I'm stepping off my soapbox now.
See everyone? We have her pegged wrong. She's just like us, thinks like us, has the same values, the same reactions to injustice. The shame lies in the fact she doesn't have a clue that she does...
You don't have to thank me Power Seller for defending you. It was my pleasure.
