http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?jdonohoe

“Ebay Stockholders and Sellers Calling For Immediate Termination of John Donohoe CEO”

PLEASE! Pass this information on to others!!!

John made it clear that he “absolutely was confident in the direction” he was taking the company in, and that he would not listen to (“The Noise”) Sadly, the Noise went in 3 phases: JD, JD, DON’T JUMP!!! IT WON’T WORK, YOU’LL JUST MAKE A MESS, We maybe yard sale bumpkins, but OPEN YOUR EYES~! The second phase was: JD, you made a big mistake, please listen to us and fix it–but that fell on deaf ears. And finally JD is reaping what he sowed. The 3rd phase is: WE TOLD YOU SO, DUMMY!

The only way JD can save this disaster is to publically retract his elitist comments, admit he made mistake, give back sellers the ability to leave negative feedback, and open his EARS!

At one time I was making 3-6K in sales and some decent extra pocket change after expenses. All that has ended. I have been blocked permanently from using the service.

NO WAIT!! I have an idea…
I’ll become a perdatory buyer and extort sellers.

I’ve never put up anything for sale, but I have bought a couple dozen things over the last several years and for the most part have been satisfied.

If all the claims posted here are true, I don’t understand why sellers who have a long history of sales, would suddenly get suspended for a negative comment or two.

It’s always been a Buyer Beware environment, but half the time the ethical sellers have their own return/refund policy if a buyer is not satisfied. When I decide to bid on something I always look at the feedback rating and prefer the ones that are mostly closer to 100%, but I’m also aware there must be some unreasonable buyers who will mark a negative for spite or something. So if it’s something I want I might take the risk.

I don’t get why eBay would begin “punishing” Sellers, the very members who comprise their business in the first place. Sad.

It should be clear, I am a wholesaler and not a writer or a stock expert, but I have a first hand inside look having been a powerseller for over 10 years, 1.7 million per year sales and account for $156,000 paid to e bay per year for seller fees, this is the bases in which e bay shows profit or loss in a great way for there core business, this does not account for paypal fees charged, seller manager pro, e bay stores. It was felt that E bay was a beautiful place before it failed not only its buyers, but its sellers. This, although it would seem, at the moment, can be seen by the stock prices offered currently and the downgrades by large investment firms. This downturn happened during the market crash, but was data compiled before that time it should be noted.

An estimated 70,000 – 80,000 eBay sellers have been suspended due to aggressive, “at there discretion” unfair, flawed policy. These are the large sellers, most pay an excess of $10,000 per month in site fees. This is an estimated loss, on average, of $5000 per month for 70,000 sellers all its managements wisdom has pushed away $350,000,000 per month or 4,200,000,000 per year based on these educated guesses as e bay does not release information about how many or how much it may have damaged itself with these flawed changes. Maybe the current stock price will.

E bay has spoken, treated sellers and buyers with disrespect, no conformity in answers received from e bay or policy’s, put sellers of 10 years who set our business to service the e bay market in a bad financial strain because of an aggressive unfair policy, which e bay keeps it sellers in the dark how to quantitative it, sellers and buyers have listed and regrettably moving on to something else. These are resourceful business people who will do well marketing for another company. They will be hurt financially in the short term, some loosing everything due to this irresponsible policy change. It should be noted that these sellers are also buyers and I personally buy a few thousand on e bay per year, they will not see another dollar from me. Even if I wanted to, it would be unlikely that what is being searched for could ever be found due to policy changes, and is most likely available at buy.com, Ubid.com Goggle stores (formally known a frugel.com) or Amazon.com. These sites are taking notice and are more than willing to facilitate what customers are asking for. Both knowledgeable sellers and buyers are voting with there buying power. The best site I have seen that is like e bay before it became too big for its loyal sellers and buyers is: onlineauction.com, small but growing with the right values for its buyers and sellers alike.

I talked to the owner of onlineauction.com 1-800-900-2828, Rowen Grisham, a previous e bay powerseller who seen improper change coming long before many sellers and buyers realized. Rowen Grishamw says they are about to roll out a goggle search program that will make it more visible. This is just one example of where e bay buyer and seller base is going. This demand that e bay did not supply is believed to be realized by its investors speculated by those who have been long time sellers and buyers of 10+ years. Far back when e bay wanted to supply its sellers and buyers with a fair service, as when the site was born. The size of the company and its inability to maneuver against all the many upstarts is going to prove interesting. Small companies that are hungry and taking advantage of a situation where current management is failing. A matter of supply and demand. When there is a demand and one company will not supply it, be assured another will eventually.

Anyone considering investing or putting time into future sales may want to take a look at the aggressive policy’s they have put in place, there are little to no direct policy as there has been for the last 10 years, it is now “at there discretion” rather than a written or qualitative policy in many cases. This is making the company policy as un uniform as it has ever been. Even when the rules were written for all to see, there were interpretation issues, however, now it is just up to the person answering the phone or sending the e mail and no room for improvement or debate to better or change. Although communication has always been an issue for E bays customers as well as sellers on message boards complain how hard it is to get in touch with them and when you do no one on the other end seems to be empowered to help or care to do little more than quote out of the corporate handbook offered in form letters and help pages. If you are as lucky as us to have been a powerseller, you can call and sometimes have your call returned within 3-4 business days and hope to be available at the time the call is returned, you can ask the same question to 10 different e bay “officials” and get 10 different answers that do not relate to one another. This is not a speculation, this is based on personal experience as well as discussions with other large sellers. They have turned a blind eye to its sellers and buyers alike. I wouldn’t be leaving if there was any good reason to stay.
E bay bought Bill Me Later, I would have been surprised just 6 months ago, but I am unhappy to report that I am not at this time, the reason is this management has taken down the tread that holds e bay together as can be seen by its buyers and sellers everywhere complaining about the flawed aggressive policies that have taken place over the last few months, maybe you have heard some of them or are one of them. Every comment citing that the previous system was not broken. E bay has had community and trust, this 13 year trust has been violated and has failed both sellers and buyers in just a few months of unfair, faulty policy change that has taken a ship this size and turned it so fast that it is out of control and is facing a challenge to bring the ship back to course as it was before in the core business, although still ignored by management at this time, this is just in the core business, this shows the danger of a lateral move like credit right now. Not even taking into account the bad timing as the world economy will not view this favorably given recent events. This policy change was over a short aggressive period, but the negative impact will make it difficult to navigate back in position, if this venture is not successful, it will be even worse for ebay, its investors, and the management that follows. The core business has taken a great hit world wide, now it is committed to a market that is new. A new market during the time when its core business is in jeopardy due to flawed policy and a slowed economy with unproven new management. This will prove a challenge that may take years to repair relationships between sellers and buyers when it has been realized by investors concerned on top of unpopular credit service. It has only been a 6 month meltdown since new management fumbled a working system and seems callous to its customers concerns or to make effective migration back to the system with effective proven 12-15 record. A proven record built by previous management over 12-15 years, undone in a unprecedented 6 months.

So, e bay wants its investors to trust it in a huge risk buy, when the investors are clearly concerned and most can see that e bay can not run its core business in a way that is satisfying to its customers, causing them to leave, look for other suppliers that will eventually be able to meet demands of the once complacent sellers and buyers. Sorry, it would be hard for anyone with basic knowledge of the problems with recent policy of the core business to buy this, having been a seller and buyer for 10 years, it makes it even harder to buy. I can say, I am happy to report my family, who bought stock when they seen my success on e bay, sold there stock when I explained the new managements flawed, unfair, and aggressive policy handed down. The stock has followed since this and many are betting with there dollars fell it will continue to fall. Maybe Jim Cramer, hyper as he is, has a point when he said he could not get behind the company, and that someone should buy the company “and put them out of their misery.” It is hard to argue with him, stock sold back in march, when these policies were being talked about, (not implemented yet) sold seems to be the smart move. Stock was $30-$32 per share at that time, March 2008, it dropped every since as can be tracked from any stock quote chart. Yes, the economy took the abrupt hit, stock price had already plummeted by 1/3, $19-$22 per share, before it happened that our country was in trouble from bad credit/debt. Many have said they wouldn’t want to touch this a credit market at this time. I would also not want to answer to shareholders when they learn what long time sellers and buyers have seen in the past few months. Good thing for golden parachutes I guess, maybe that will soften the fall?

I think this report on NYtimes has some good in site of the problems facing the company with the current buy:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/ebay-plays-warren-buffett-buys-online-lender/#comment-55807

The buyer knew how to work the system. Claimed shipping damage/locked up my account and fleeced me out of my mill and 1000 dollars. Paypal and ebay should be separated. Period.

The bottom line is that the quickest way to effect change is to vote with your pocketbook and go elsewhere. The market will punish eBay and will reward wherever the many sellers here think is the best place to be. So stop whining and start aggregating somewhere new.

Ebay is the biggest and BEST game in town – I just wish they would STOP fixing things that arent broke and that NOBODY asked for!!