E-bay reports poor first quarter earnings and a worrying court case.

**wonwinglo** · 10-05-2006

ebaY's stock price continues its steady decline, after posting a disappointing first quarter earnings report. Listing numbers are way down, and Meg Whitman has committed to stockholders that she will suck more blood from sellers to increase profitability (look out - thinks increased fees for stores and store inclusion in search are coming). The Supreme Court is poised to rule on MercExchange's ability to place an injunction on ebaY to stop ebaY's theft of MercExchange's patent (a charge on which ebaY has been convicted, and has used up all appeals). If the SC rules in MercExchange's favor, BIN will end - and one third of ebaY's sales will disappear from the site, and/or ebaY will have to pay up for all their years of patent theft.Market researchers predicts that MercExchange will then take ebaY back to court and sue them on their violation of MercExchange's auction patent.

rjwood_uk · 10-05-2006

....who are MerchExchange?

**Bunkerbarge** · 10-05-2006

No sympathy I'm afraid. They have leeched sellers for too long and offerred buyers absolutely no protection from scams and unscrupulous sellers.

They hide behind automatically generated e-mails and sit on thier rears and rake the money in. I have reported three items of Phishing over the last couple of months and they have done nothing. How many buyers who weren't paying enough attention got burned.

**wonwinglo** · 10-05-2006

***MercExchange were the people who were the originators who devised the on-line auction system and tools that E-bay uses,the story goes back to the nineties and is very complex,take a read here- http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y04/m09/i30/s01

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjwood_uk

....who are MerchExchange?

**wonwinglo** · 10-05-2006

***I could not agree more,recently a company sold me some electronic parts that were smashed to pieces in the post because they were too lazy to put them in decent packaging,I complained first to the company who were not interested,then E-bay who passed me to Pay-pal,then back to E-bay who were not interested one little bit,they are not fulfilling their obligations just fleecing everyone out of every penny,they also add un-accountable amounts of money which appear out of nowhere to your account,the whole system wants revamping with a workable after sales back-up,they have been slated on the television 'Watchdog' programme for a lack of communications as you have pointed out Richard,many people are getting fed up with their apathy towards customers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bunkerbarge

No sympathy I'm afraid. They have leeched sellers for too long and offerred buyers absolutely no protection from scams and unscrupulous sellers.

They hide behind automatically generated e-mails and sit on thier rears and rake the money in. I have reported three items of Phishing over the last couple of months and they have done nothing. How many buyers who weren't paying enough attention got burned.

AerynPk · 10-05-2006

well i must admit they do scam a lot of poeple my dad was a victim on ebay with his laptop.

**wonwinglo** · 10-05-2006

***What happened with the laptop Char out of curiosity ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by AerynPk

well i must admit they do scam a lot of poeple my dad was a victim on ebay with his laptop.

AerynPk · 11-05-2006

Well dad thought that the laptop was in this country so he is wondering why the postage charge was so high he waited 4 weeks after emailing the seller about 4 times telling him that he sent it 3 weeks ago and it should of got there. he asked what the postage number was so he could track it and found out that it was at chelmsford. when he got there to recieve it he found out that it actually came from athens which seriously ticked him off as you can imagine. also when he got it the seller said that there was nothing wrong with it and found out that the hinges were broken and they mousepad didnt work properly. so he spoke to ebay and got him banned and paypal who also got him banned and he made him pay back £40.

rjwood_uk · 11-05-2006

i just recieved a watch for my girlfriend, it was so poorly packaged the box it is in is damaged, and here goes that story.....i dont really want to leave negative feedback incase he does the same back!!!!

surely sellers should leave feedback once they have recieved the money, thats the buyers part done and what they should be judjed on. really pisses me off!!!

**wonwinglo** · 11-05-2006

Always amazes me how some people rely so heavily on a jiffy bag for packing delicate items,I have had the same thing happen to me,small delicate items that have come across the atlantic rattling in a box with no packing.
Regarding feedback,the initial feedback 'should' be given by the vendor regardless of whether he/she wants you to leave it first,the vendor acknowledges prompt payment and the integrity of the buyer,and the buyer then leaves his/her feedback for the receipt of the item,that is the correct way to deal with feedback,this bit where they say 'You leave feedback and then I will' is not on and unfair.
Quite honestly when you see companies with a rating of 1000 plus items with negative feedback of 150 over six months,it is a farce ! but they are still selling plenty.
I think that now is the time for a wake up call to E-bay to provide a better service with customer proper backup,they are loosing face because of their sloppy greedy trading and resting on their past laurels as the biggest on-line auction house.
My advice is to always give honest feedback,even if as in this case the vendor may give you negative feedback,it is honesty and integrity that counts otherwise what is the point of a feedback system ?