eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

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AuctionBytes Blog
News and insight focusing on
ecommerce and the online auction industry
by Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com

July 02, 2007

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

By: David Steiner

Mon July 2 2007 15:37:49

A check of Nielsen/NetRatings shows that eBay users are spending less time on the site than in previous years. In 2006, eBay trumpeted in a Seller Central Report on how buyers use eBay that visitors spend more time on eBay than on other sites, and that time spent on the site is increasing year-over-year. It used data from December 2003 to March 2005 to prove its point. A look at more recent data, however, shows the time spent has gone down.

I was looking at the Nielsen/NetRatings report along with other data to see if anecdotal reports had any merit - you can see my musings in today's AuctionBytes Newsflash article here.
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m07/i02/s00

There's tons of data, I'm interested in hearing what readers have to say, please leave a comment below.

Comments (227) | Leave Comment | Permalink

Readers Comments

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Susan

Mon Jul 2 18:08:37 2007

Thanks for all the new data, it is confirming what we have been assuming for a while. We are an eBay Trading Assistant with a B/M drop-off store. Since we need to pay our sellers in a timely fashion, we have no eBay online store.

The biggest vulnerability I see for eBay is that most of their latest decisions, and PayPal policies for that matter, favor the buyers. We have 100% positive and average >$200/auction. However, the star rating system that is non reciprocal (what about buyers who don't pay on time, have threatened negative feedback unless they get paid off, or don't even communicate) only stands to disenchant its sellers. For example, buyers that have no idea what it costs to pack and ship something can now rate shipping costs - not shipping costs that they knew in advance to placing a bid through the calculator. We don't make any money on shipping, so this rating seems to encourage sellers to reduce their shipping costs to even a loss so an item sells higher (more in eBay's pocket).

If eBay is focusing on making the experience more positive for their buyers, unfortunately they are not taking the sellers into account, who are the ones who actually pay their salaries. That will eventually erode their profits.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: EstateRoadShow

Mon Jul 2 18:08:58 2007

Formerly as CatBecca and now as EstateRoadShow our focus has been on live auctions connected to eBayLive. We list on eBay for 10 days then hold the live auction. In 2001 we could expect 3000+ bids and 125 bidders signed on eBayLive, now getting 300 bids is difficult and having 25 signed on bidders is the norm.

Our last event showed something amazing, we received MORE bids from AuctionZip.com (a free site) than eBay for the first time since 2001, and those bids accounted for 33% of the winning bids.

My opinion is that the magic of no reserve auctions where the chance to win something at a great price is gone on eBay. Sort of like going to a Casino where the house always wins.

With EstateRoadShow, we are taking off where the old CatBecca model left off before we sold the company in 2005. We are listing 600 items at a time worth $25-$5000 and starting all items at $5 / no reserve. The focus is on the big picture, not on individual items. If more sellers did this, I think the magic might return. We have never lost money using this method, focusing on the big picture not individual items.

In the meantime, other sites like AuctionZip are gaining ground on eBay - heads up folks!

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Bob Furlong

Mon Jul 2 18:14:18 2007

Everyone is right on. It always stuns me that while storage cost and server cost per transaction are dropping like stones, eBay fees went up. They should be going down. Then they would get more listings and still be profitable...probably more so as they make most of their money in listing fees.
Our profit picture is not good either.
Higher fees, lower conversion ratios, higher shipping costs, and of course higher gas prices have all reduced our profit. Gas prices are a particular worry as they suck money out of our customer's hands like nothing else. I think most of us forget that a large percentage of our customers live on fixed incomes and paycheck to paycheck.
It struck home the other day when it cost me $40.00 to fill my VW Bug.

To top off the cake the rise of the Chinese bandits is bone chilling. Not only am I bombarded with wholesale offers but I also have to compete with a never ending supply of sellers who list low prices and high shipping cost from China. Their low feedback numbers suggest that they are flooding the market and then changing names. I bet they are stiffing eBay as well. Maybe the new requirements for ''overseas sellers'' will help.

I am a gold power seller with 10,000+ feedbacks and I don't know how much longer we can beat ourself up on ebay

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Anonymous

Mon Jul 2 18:15:17 2007

Thank you for such an interesting article.
First I would like to apologize - English is not my mther tongue so please excuse my mistaakes.
I do not think one can atribute the slow down to one mistake or another that ebay has done in the last two years. It seems to me that the general atmosphere has changed dramatically. When I registered to ebay back in '99, my user name was my email address. I could speak freely with sellers, ask them everything about anything and then just buy. I don't recall a time in which a seller tried to convince me to buy anything off ebay, and before paypal was a major thing - money just crossed the atalntic in an envelope.
Now, as a seller I feel like I'm being hunted (financially of course). Ebay had blocked direct and free contact between buyers and sellers and now when I get an e-mail from a potential buyer I feel I need a lawyer to answer it without being at risk of suspension. This, along with the never ending hike in fees has created two things which influence my business: The fees are reflected on the prices and sellers become less comfortable with their communications with clients. In other words there is no more fun for buyers either. Niche auction sites, in which I am active are much cheaper and much more tolerant to things which are a big no on ebay (such as free communications and off site deals). It influences prices and it influences the atmosphere in which buyers and sellers are doing their transaction.
And one last thing. I know much have been said about the fees, but the listing fees as they are on ebay now had killed the flea market atmosphere which is the base of the pyramid.
To conclude. Ebay has become a place which generates a paranoic atmosphere in which buyers and sellers are so much "protected" they can no longer trade with ease. And all that because of greed.
More than anything the figures shown in the article make me sad. It realy used to be a fun place - not anymore.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Emily Leonard

Mon Jul 2 18:17:32 2007

eBay's besetting sin is a total disregard for what Corporate America calls ''stakeholders'', the many constiuencies that must be well served to keep the company profitable.

eBay's stockholder's letters go unanswered, even those addressed to the chairman of the board by name. In most successful big companies such letters go to a department which does nothing else but keep the ''owners'' happy.

eBays employees (sellers) are exploited, insulted (where they find the idiots who staff customer support is a mystery worth of Mr. Holmes) and apparently entirely overlooked in both long and short-range planning.

Customers (buyers) are made to work so hard to find anything it's hardly worth the effort, expecially when there is no genuine attempt on eBay's part to stop fake emails, fraudulent sellers or those who charge exorbitant shipping fees. Attempts to draw their attention to one of these misccreants result in the most condescending form letter.....

And the general public is insulted by the most pointless ad campaigns ever devised.

It may well be that eBay is easing out of the auction business into the much more lucrative field of financial services. Did everyone notice that one can now pay for Northwest airline tickets via Pay Pal?

Too bad we can't find a smart venture capitalist to start a new auction site, staffed by people who understand the 'stakeholder' concept, and capitalized at a level that would allow for the very best technology, carefully selected and trained customer service personnel and really great advertising.

Or just put a handful of veteran sellers on the Board of Directors and on the Compensation Committee. Present management would either shape up or ship out.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Michael Paese

Mon Jul 2 18:24:16 2007

Here's my take on the whole situation.
1. SIS was a wake-up call to many sellers (such as ourselves). It showed caused us to go "all-in" on stores, and we had great sales as a result. Even after the reversal, sales improved while the percentage of fees (due to lower listing fees) DROPPED.
Sellers abandoned Core, which was overpriced and hard to justify for slower moving niche items.

2. SIS reversal was NOT about "clutter", as eBay (and one other posted) said. It was about stopping the free-fall in Core listing totals. (Want proof? If "clutter" was the issue, and not totals, why did they allow sellers to list 15 identical items? Some cats are now completely spammed by sellers, who admit to using all the listings to insure buyers can find just THEIR listings.)

3. EBay then proceeded to try to make Store listings less attractive (rather than improving Core performance), again because Core listing totals continued to decline, and with it the stock price.
This has since brought some degree of stability to the totals, but the trends are still bad.

HOWEVER, please note that the SIS was not the cause of the fall, rather the trigger event which made the disease apparent.
The underlying cause is the lack of faith which buyers have in the site. It is NOT about seller problems - it's about BUYER problems. Most seller problems would go away if buyers would return and be willing to pay more again!
If you speak to most buyers about eBay, the first word out of their mouth will be "FRAUD". They'll tell you how they got ripped off, or their friend did. They'll tell you how they had problems with their last purchase(s). Heck, even most EBAY EMPLOYEES openly suggest not spending more than $20 or $30 on the site as a safety measure! Even experienced buyers say that they have to be very cautious buying.

As for "fun" on the site, how much fun can it be if you always have to be on your guard? If you have to beware that the "thrill of the hunt" and "bargain hunt" isn't really "too good to be true"? Until they make buyers feel safe again, few buyers will really have "fun".

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: merrie

Mon Jul 2 18:26:55 2007

Great article, many useful observations. If Ebay wants to get back to the "CORE," then do it. The stores can be a separate venue. Most of the big guys that they have recruited are STORE type enterprises. They need to make up their minds. Auction, store or both, but don't keep whining about one thing unless you are sure that is really the problem. We, the sellers did not initiate the STORE concept. Make it work, integrate it or get rid of it. I sell both auction and store and am tired of Ebay blaming their slide on this or that.

Ebay, you are the market giant, make it work!!

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Kathie Harrow

Mon Jul 2 18:34:15 2007

I've been an eBay seller for 7 years, and for the first time I have nothing listed. It just isn't worth the time and effort right now.

I can live with the fee increases, but what they've done to the search function is criminal. It began with adding stores to search and then pulling them out, but the real disaster was the expanded listing numbering changes from product based to seller based. It used to be that numbers were assigned according to the type of item being sold so that items were on servers according to the type of item. Then they expanded the numbering with the first two digits of the new item number being the same for all of a seller's items - I think this is actually relates to a server number. I also think that servers are rotated on a regional basis so that a person doing a search for Item X in Maine will not necessarily see the same items that a person doing the same search at the same time in Oregon will see. Only a theory - since eBay will not discuss the issue.

Ebay Express has been a disaster and should be dumped along with the inane advertising campaigns eBay has run. Permitting ads from Yahoo, etc to compete directly on the same page with an ebay sellers items may be putting money in eBay's pockets but is taking it away from the sellers.

If eBay would direct the resources that have been invested in Express and all these cheap ''frills'' into combatting fraud and scams and improving customer service - eBay might become a more ''fun'' experience for all.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Bob

Mon Jul 2 18:59:11 2007

With all of the things going on,
aka MAJOR CHANGE

Store Search
Feedback Stars
Hidden Buyer ID's on $200 now making it easier for people to feel like they are being SHILLED
Higher store fees
Removing the Ads and Featured Store budget for those links (adwords)

AND eBay keeps making massive changes, and always says that it is what the users are requesting!!!???
WHO??
I have been a Gold PowerSeller and have NEVER been asked for MY Opinion.
I was rated by Sellathon in the top 40,000 sellers (ok, not major, but serious). And does anyone CARE???
NOT eBay, or at least they don't show it.

And to be honest, your SHRUG attitude you mentioned is exactly how I feel.
I really don't care anymore.
Yes, I am concerned about my business, but the decrease in profit and all the massive change, most being very negative,
have just made me apathetic.
eBay doesn't care, so why should I???
And that, my friends, is SAD

Really really SAD

People have been talking for some time that eBay has turned into a large Flea Market, not a nice unique shop to find treasures.

The best thing that could have happened to eBay would have been for Meg Whitman to have taken that job with Disney. Look at the amount of money in the high management, they are just bleeding eBay to death, a slow bleed....

Look at the stock options and how much eBay is giving away, all for a company that is in a spiral (downward and negative...) So why give the eBay execs all this incentive to ruin such a great place as eBay???

Is anyone awake at the eBay? Are you listening? Do you care?
Maybe you better show it to the sellers.

I wasn't even interested in going to eBay Live this year, why???
Just to get revitatlized for a few weeks, only to learn that all the promises won't mean anything when reality sets back in, and I come down off the high....

Sighhh.....

eBay is Apathy....

Can we all survive (the Sellers)???
I am not sure, only if eBay is listening and stops all this massive change and killing the great place that WAS eBay!!!!!!

I don't care about eBay Express, and Stars, and Wiki, and Blogs, and Reviews/Guides and whatever other CRAP you pile on, the bottom line is simple,
THE BOTTOM LINE.

Help the sellers make more MONEY!!!
eBay you are all about business and your stockholders and THEY want MONEY, and guess what, so DO the SELLERS!!!!!

Is that CLEAR!!!???!!!!

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Jeff Stannard

Mon Jul 2 19:12:07 2007

Hi- saw the AB's data article in my inbox right before listing more eBay items.

Maybe I'll wait, it is a holiday week afterall.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Rob

Mon Jul 2 19:29:18 2007

You trace all he problems to the top... to arroagant Queen Meg, more interested in her next bonus check (and stock options) than customer satisfaction... like another queen who once said ''Let them eat cake.'' Add Meg's liberal, controlling style. Add reliance on techno-nerds (with no Customer Service skills) who like to play with new ideas and find solutions to problems that don't exist. Add a frustrating one-way communication model that the Internet allowed (i.e. no customer interface) and you've got the Perfect Storm. So sad. Meg has cashed out her stock, is job hunting, and looking for another good company to wreck and plunder.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Chris

Mon Jul 2 19:43:19 2007

One of the biggest mistakes Ebay made was allowing the Asian invasion.
This dramatically increased fraud and this fact alone has sent buyers running - never to return. Yes, word of mouth is - never go near Ebay - you will get ripped off. Trust & Safety have done too little - too late. These buyers have been burnt & they won't come back.Management failed to recognise the Asian way of trading is very different to the Western world. Management have wasted millions in trying to woo the Asian population.
Allowing the Asian population to list on Western Ebay sites has driven prices down to a point where Western sellers have little or no chance at competing so they have left.
This, along with the never ending 'tweaking' of the site, draconian rules & fee hikes for less exposure makes sellers feel as though they are unwanted & we are just working long hours for very little return & employed by a bad boss.
We have been selling for over 4 years and the sell through rates have dropped from 80% to 25% in this time.
Ebay is no longer a safe place for sellers as one small listing mistake means Trust & Safety will wipe you off the face of Ebay for however long they feel like. Ebay refuse to disclose standards by which they expect sellers to adhere. Instead they just wipe you if they don't like your performance.
With all this, why on earth would sellers feel enthused? No wonder they have become apathetic & are looking at other avenues of selling.
We honestly think Ebay management are overpaid, top heavy, arrogant & the words 'customer service' or 'courtesy' just isn't in their dictionary.
Ebay have little or no respect for sellers - they seem to have forgotten who pays them!

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: steve49

Mon Jul 2 19:53:57 2007

I'm beginning to wonder if this whole ebay scheme isn't run by some teenage nerd in his basement.I

think he just goes out and takes a pic of a big office building and Photoshop's the ebay logo on it to make it look real. Every once in a while he'll wake up Grandma Meg and Uncle Bill and trot 'em out so people think there's a actual company.

How have I come to believe this? Just take a look at ebay's latest tricks...

Blogs, Wiki's (whatever that is, I bet the teenager knows)
My World (uh...huh?)
Regular Search broken for months. Nobody cares...they're makin' "Playgrounds" (there's that kid again) now.
"Hurry, open a store. No don't...too many listings. Just kiddin'...we REALLY like you!"
The famous 6% store fee hike (apparently the kid skipped math class).
Ignorant TV commercials that can only appeal the "lowest 2%" of viewers.
No phone number available unless you belong to the Secret Service.
No one to answer the phone that knows ANYTHING (must be his little brothers and sisters).
Suspend seller's for two weeks but don't tell 'em why or how to get back on the "good boy" list.

And on, and on, and on...

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Ray

Mon Jul 2 19:56:55 2007

David David David... You are my pal... It has taken a long time for what I have been saying to begin to show up in print.
I was a Gold Power Seller. A one man band at that. I was fortunate in that I could run 100 or so listings a week and produce pretty close to 20K in sales a month. I did that for close to six years. So while this is anecdotal, it stems from live blood, sweat and tears of full time sales on ebay. For what it is worth, I worked hard at this. To date I have 7000 total transactions, with 2 negs since 1998 when I signed up on ebay. So probably not the kind of seller ebay should drive away.

I bought my house, car, truck, put my son though college and relocated to the south from New England on what I made on ebay. Then... on March 1 the year Bill and Meg were compelled to play with SIS, sales just melted almost overnight.
You might wonder as what happened that I saw it so early in this ebay decline. How did I know this was not just some seasonal issue as Meg kept saying?... It wasn’t magic… 80% of my sales shipped to the west coast. I am in North Carolina now and moved here from Massachusetts. So have sold from the east coast a fair amount. One day the west coast simply disappeared along with 80% of my sales. The east coast was not searchable by the west coast. From the sounds of other sellers the effect seems to have gone both ways. I am only speaking to my own experience here.

I know that sounds extreme, but keep in mind I have been at this for a while and have come to know many powersellers personally on both coasts. I called all I know and we tested the east west disconnect from both ends at the same time. Folks in the west (as a practical matter west of about Kansas) could not find my stuff in the general search. But could find it if I provided the listing number. One guy ( a local guy) asked if I had anything listed at all. Then told me he did a search by seller and my user name came up as unknown or some such thing for a few days.
I had always set up my listings to end at 7pm or so PST to give my listings time to ferment so the west could bid at a reasonable early evening hour. It worked like clock work for years.

The east west disconnect was in place for most of a full year from its start. One day, poof, the west coast was back. Many, many emails and phone calls to ebay and never one response. At first I thought I was helping them a bit by pointing out the disconnect…
In short the volume has never returned. I am just selling off my inventory, locally and on ebay till it is gone. I have other irons in the fire and don't need to have Meg and Bill in my back pocket without earning their place there.
It is very sad. They make billions. They could have just shown their face once a year at ebay live and taken a 51 week vacation and made billions more.... Then they forgot the core of ebay is the sellers, real people not listings. They didn't listen. Maybe they should take a ride along the east coast of Lake Ontario and see what happened to the steel industry when they stopped listening... I can hear that steel rusting from Charlotte.... Too big to Fail?.... Not the steel industry, not Enron, not the Bank of New England and Not even eBay... It won't happen overnight, but they best start listening and acting on reality instead of Meg's imaginary community....

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Cowbell

Mon Jul 2 20:04:18 2007

Yanking of SIS was the beginning of the end for me. I now have more (and better) sales on other sites, afer six years of selling exclusively on eBay.

I chose sites where there is no fee until the item sells. eBay has no incentive to promote the sale of anything, as they get paid regardless.

I have come to believe that eBay sees FVFs as ''gravy.'' If it sells, fine. If not, no matter. They've already got a listing fee, a gallery fee, a BIN fee, and whatever else we poor saps buy to get seen over the other guys.

Why should they care that my sell-through rate dropped to 10%? They've already got my money.

Why should they care if anyone can find my store items? They've got the fee and five cents per item every single month.

eBay lobbied hard to get me to open the store in the first place. I had record sales until eBay pulled the plug.

If eBay really cared about ''clutter'' there were a number of choices they could have made.

They could have limited the number of items a seller could have in the store, for instance. They could have limited listings to one of each item.

How does making stores less attractive make core listings more attractive?

If a business wants to make one product more attractive to buyers, they do not raise the price of every other item in the store.

If eBay wanted me to sell more on the core, they would have lowered the price. They would have made gallery pictures free. They would have made BIN free.

They didn't, so I went elsewhere.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Bidofthis.com

Mon Jul 2 20:16:20 2007

I just listed my first auction on Overstock after reading your article.

Yes it used to be much easier to find a winning bidder on eBay.

brian

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Tully

Mon Jul 2 20:18:50 2007

I was glad to finally see in black and white some numbers that certainly made sense. Though I do think one of the most important factors was not emphasized enough- FEE HIKES.

Multiple fee hikes has sent MANY sellers fleeing from ebay. Those same sellers...were also buyers. Add to that what others have previously said:
Gas hikes
Ebay not listening seller OR buyers
ExpressMess
Fraud

I have been on ebay since the first year and have seen the up and down trends. But this down trend looks unrecoverable. I have 2 separate ebay stores and for the first time I am (like many others) having to look seriously at downsizing and finding options outside of ebay.

I'm afraid one more fee hike and there will be another mass group of sellers leaving and ebay won't recover.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: anonymous

Mon Jul 2 20:23:52 2007

Yes, EBay is broken - big time. The ''Powers that Be'' are more concerned with their profits than they are with working with their employees (the sellers) to create an atmosphere where the sellers make more sales/profits, thereby increasing eBay profits. They increase listing fees and final value fees - sellers list fewer items at lower costs - voila, eBay makes less money. If only eBay would go back to lower listing and final value fees, then sellers could get back to the business of selling more items for more money, making more money for themselves and eBay. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out - 100 sales at lower fees can be much more profitable to eBay than 10 sales with double the fees.

I have been a Power Seller and even though eBay will deny to the end that they ''picked'' on us, they pulled my listings right and left for trivial issues - when I was only listing exactly what the customers were asking for! I am an honest seller trying to make a modest living but eBay tied my hands at every turn. Now that I am not a power seller - and refuse their invitations to join the ''team'' - they have not paid a bit of attention to the very same type of listings they pulled before. EBay does not create a level playing field for sellers. We try to offer products the customers want at a competitive price and eBay pulls listings right and left from some sellers in that category and not others.

As for the store issue - I agree that eBay is missing the mark there. Yes, customers want to go shop, buy, and leave knowing their ''treasure'' will soon be on its way without having to wait a week for an auction to close and risk losing the item and having to start all over. When I go shopping in a local store, I want plentiful parking, well stocked shelves, helpful salespeople if needed, and no long lines for checkout. EBay can provide all of that without the hassle of leaving home, using expensive gas, and looking for parking - IF they want to. But they don't - they want to micro-manage the sellers. And in most cases, I believe that they have no clue what that seller's market entails. One Size Rules most certainly do not fit all in the world of eBay - yet they continue to force square-peg sellers into their round-hole rules. Customer service is a joke as they only give you canned explanations of those inadequate policies that don't do a thing to enhance the eBay experience.Fun? NOT! Many sellers are leaving eBay - and taking their mailing lists with them, I am sure. EBay was once THE place to find that hard to find item, but now, thanks to Google's increasingly powerful search, you can find it on any number of web sites without ever visiting eBay. Wake UP eBay - time to get back to the basics of what made eBay a phenomenon in the first place.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: duane

Mon Jul 2 20:28:11 2007

Right on David! You have hit the nail on the head. I have been an ebayer for over ten years and am pushing 7000+ feedback. I feel violated every time I use Ebay or Paypal and long for a new kid on the block.

On top of what Ebay does to its sellers, look down the road at the Internet Sales Tax. Add that to the list that will send even more buyers and sellers down the road.

The price of gas does figure into the the big picture for sure.

Also, the recent postage increase goes way beyond the 2 cent letter hike. Some rates increased by as much as 30%.

Lower realized auction prices and higher fees and much disrespect from Ebay itself all figure in to this.

Two quick suggestions.

1.An advisory board or seats on the board of directors comprised of veteran Ebay users. As I do not think that there is one person in upper management that would know how to make a living using the very service that they are selling.

2.The elimination of a set ending time for auctions. Make it so that an auction is not over until there have been no bids for a specified period of time. That would get rid of sniping and raise final realized prices thus create more revenue for once without increasing seller fees.

There is not one negative item in your article or in any of the comments today that I do not agree with. I feel that I will not be selling on Ebay any more within the next year. I have ZERO loyalty to Ebay and will treat them the same as they treat me when I ask an important question....with an automated answer that does not pertain to the question that was asked. And by the way...what about some real insurance as promised???.

The very concept of Ebay was fine all by itself without corporate thinking making suicidal changes as it has. The energy of that concept really was self sufficient and I believe it would be strong today had it been left alone. But once you have shareholders involved you have to make them more money by making your product cost less...their way of doing that was by making us pay more.

I could write a lot more...but I need to put more time into listing. Between what doesnt sell and and what is incorretly pulled for not being politically correct...maybe I'll still make two bucks in the end.

Ebay leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I have many testimonials from others that feel the same. These are people that used to be excited about using ebay...they arent any more.

One last point, Ebay and many other coroporations are in the practice of utilizing the free time of the consumer as their free resource. Be it though hold time, switchboard menus or some other form of time theft. We are out of time folks...it is time to let them know.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Don Davis

Mon Jul 2 20:32:23 2007

eBay needs Customer Service!

Stop spending money on these stupid "Toys", wikis, blogs, etc.

Spend some money on real live customer support that have a brain! The ones they have are over paid dummies!

Thanks eBay for suspending my account it just gives my more of an incentive to look into other areas to expand my business!

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