New Policy: Third-party Endorsements of eBay Members

[amy]

I know BuySafe will be allowed under this new policy...

**New Policy: Third-party Endorsements of eBay Members*** 

January 24, 2006 | 11:28AM PST/PT

Hi... I'm Sarah Brubacher, Senior Policy Manager for eBay. We've seen a recent increase in third-party "trust seals" that claim to guarantee a seller's trustworthiness. We feel these seals can undermine the importance of a seller's feedback rating and comments. They can also send a confusing message to buyers. And, since we have no way to verify that the information used to award these seals is objective, we have concerns about how credible they may be. Based on these concerns, we're implementing a new policy to govern the types of third-party seals that sellers can use.

The use of third-party seals on listings that claim to validate, verify, or guarantee the trustworthiness or reliability of the seller is no longer allowed. For example, using language such as "Trusted Seller" or "Reliable Seller" is not permitted.

Third-party seals that guarantee specific transactions or items are allowed. In these cases, the third-party companies offer insurance, transaction dispute options for buyers, or other services which are allowed. For example, sellers participating in a third-party buyer protection program may have seals with text like "Protected transaction guaranteed to $25,000" on their listings.

We will also continue to allow seals which represent membership in business or craft-related organizations, but do not otherwise violate this policy. For example, you can include language indicating you’re a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

To learn more about this new policy, and see more examples of what is and isn't allowed, please visit the Third-Party Endorsements of eBay Members policy page.

Permitted:
Guarantees of the transaction or item, but not the seller

    * “Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back”
    * “Protected transaction guaranteed to $25,000”

Seller confidence

    * “Buy with confidence! Check out my 1,000+ positive feedback”
    * “Member of the FDIC” eBay programs in specific categories

eBay Travel (highly regulated industry): “Seller Verify by SquareTrade Program”

    * eBay Motors “Condition Guarantee by Seller”

Not Permitted:

    * Seal that endorses a seller, for example “Trusted seller” or “Reliable seller” · Seal that manipulates eBay feedback, for example "100% positive feedback in authentic watches"

[bargainbloodhound]

This is a letter from BuySafe's CEO Jeff Grass about the new policy:

Greetings. I hope 2006 is starting off well for you and your business. I’m reaching out to you today with some positive news for the eBay community and buySAFE.

Early this week, eBay announced a new policy on the subject of third-party endorsements for eBay Members (http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200601241127362.html)

buySAFE has been expecting this policy announcement for quite some time now, and we are pleased that this previously ambiguous subject has been clarified for the benefit of the entire community.  In 2005, buySAFE worked with eBay during their development of this new policy, and we proactively introduced an improved buySAFE Seal in May 2005 that reflected eBay's expected announcement of these improved standards.  eBay specifically highlights and approves of buySAFE's Seal language in this week’s policy announcement (http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/thir...sements-of-
eBay-members.html?ssPageName=CMDV:AB) as it cites the language contained in our Seal today (e.g. Protected transaction guaranteed to $25,000).

The improved buySAFE Seal has proven to be a great success for Bonded Sellers and their shoppers.  Our internal performance metrics indicate that the new buySAFE Seal has consistently outperformed the older version of the buySAFE Seal by slightly more than 90%.  Most importantly, the financial metrics for buySAFE's Bonded Sellers also reflect these improved results. We’ve recently done some comprehensive A/B testing to determine the impact of bonding and, after more than 100,000 bonded transactions, we can state confidently that the results have been stellar - with average increases in ASPs of more than 2% and STRs of more than 3% (and for some sellers, the results have been 3 or 4 times greater).  Combined, these two metrics equal significant improvements to buySAFE Bonded Sellers' bottom-line financial results.

We believe that eBay's policy announcement is a positive action for the community.  Their announcement enables the legitimate, licensed providers of highly-regulated surety bond / insurance products to operate more effectively in the eBay marketplace.  As most of you know, buySAFE is licensed and regulated by all fifty state insurance departments to provide financial / insurance products to the public (this obviously includes surety bonds).  It is our strong belief that this additional regulatory oversight and compliance is, at the end of the day, a good thing for eCommerce buyers and sellers.  buySAFE believes that this objective, independent oversight by each state’s insurance department protects the interests of buyers, merchants and the marketplaces, and it ultimately promotes an optimal level of trust at the point of purchase.  eBay's new policy announcement is obviously aimed at achieving the same positive results, and as you can imagine, buySAFE is a big supporter of anything and everything that makes eCommerce safer for buyers and more profitable for sellers.

[xppman]

Translation:

eBay's new policy announcement is obviously aimed at trying to get buyers back to the site and as you can imagine "buyers" all over the net look at ebay as
SCAM CENTRAL and although ebay reports publicly that the numbers
of "buyers" are up. The truth is ebay is loosing market share very rapidly now. 

buySAFE is a big supporter of anything and everything that makes US and ebay more money.

We really don't care if ebay is safer for buyers and more profitable for sellers at all. We just wanna make more money and the real eCommerce websites
all of you keep opening up is really killing those chances for us.

[amy]

buySAFE is a big supporter of anything and everything that makes US and ebay more money.

buySafe charges sellers 1% of the final sales price.  They're on Overstock and TIAS too.

[xppman]

Correction:
buySAFE is a big supporter of anything and everything that makes US, Overstock, TIAS and ebay more money.

[amy]

[quote author=xppman link=topic=2338.msg8702#msg8702 date=1138832122]
Correction:
buySAFE is a big supporter of anything and everything that makes US, Overstock, TIAS and ebay more money.


[/quote]

I'm glad he corrected his previous post.