eBay Live and RocketPlace

We have two main events coming up, and we wanted to remind people who love to run into us at events!

eBay Live is 19-21 June. We're in booth 735, which is in the middle of the room next to the TSAMs. I'll be speaking at 6 sessions. So you basically can't miss us!

Before that is eBay's Developer Conference. I'll also be speaking at one session that I'll be repeating. So look for me there at those sessions, but possibly not at too much else since we'll be building our booth.

After that is RocketPlace, 10-12 September 2008. This "get ready for holiday selling on eBay" conference event is at The Rio in Las Vegas. Registration is open, and space is limited! http://www.RocketPlace.com With eBay Live taking a break, and with how fast eBay is changing, the twice-yearly RocketPlace events will be an educational and fun way to keep your eBay and online sales strong and growing.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Is That Charity A Joke?

I just heard about Music Rising. It is described as:

Musical instrument replacement fund developed by U2's The Edge to benefit musicians of the Gulf Coast who lost their instruments and equipment in the 2005 hurricanes.

So let me get this right. Most of an entire town is homeless. The land their owned is worth nothing. They had to leave their homes and for some, their city. Tornados are killing people all over our country. People are hungry. Other countries right now are dealing with earthquakes and other natural disasters killing tens of thousands.

And out of all of the pain in the world right now, The Edge from U2 puts together a charity to help musicians get replacement equipment?

I'm sorry, but I can't believe it. I'm a musician. I want musicians to have instruments and equipment. But if I have to pick feeding hungry people, educating people, or helping people in natural disasters, I'm going to make somebody wait for that Marshall stack.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

eBay's New Links Policy Clarified

Your'e hearing it here first... I finally got clarification on eBay's new links policy. This post was revised at around 3pm PT with further information I got from a conference call. This allows me to rewrite my eBay Live presentation slides this weekend! :)

Part of the new links policy is that listings are limited to no more than 5 approved links. This was confusing. I just got a clarification, and here is what you should know...

* You cannot link to ProStores, Kijiji, Rent.com, or Shopping.com. I assume this goes for Craigslist too. :)

* There is now a 5-link limit to "eBay community content" and "eBay properties" such as PayPal, Stubhub, and Half.com. By community content, they mostly mean forum posts, reviews, blogs, and guides. And the wiki if you remember that. :)

* The 5-link limit does NOT apply to your email address. You can link your email address all you like. You can link to third party credits and tools, and you can link to off-site photo pages as long as they don't offer items for sale. Photos only!

* You CANNOT have any Skype links or links off-site to information-only pages. So if you have an eBay listing for a printer, and it links to HP's page for the specs on that printer, that's no longer going to be OK. Any info you want to give people has to be in the listing (or within eBay like on a Custom eBay Store page).

* The About Me page can no longer have links off eBay. So if you're promoting your website on your About Me page, that'll have to go.

* Third party credits will have to link to a web page that describes the service or product that company provided. For example, rather than linking to our home page, our As Was Third Party Credit will actually need to link to our Services and Pricing page since that is where what we supplied to that eBay seller is explained.

* Oh, did you know that Auctiva isn't using compliant third party credits, and is dropping in extra links into your listings? Well they'll now have to stop as non-compliant third party credits will be cracked down on.

* Speaking on non-compliant, eBay actually WILL crack down on Third Party Endorsements. I've been warning people about those for YEARS, including last October 2007 in this here blog. That means that any link or logo (even an unlinked logo) from an outside company that is verifying trust, membership, or the like will NOT be allowed. If you are part of some sort of society, group that certifies you as something, PESA, or IMA, you will NOT be allowed to have a logo or link.

* The link limit does NOT apply to eBay Stores, Custom eBay Store pages, your About Me page, or your own cross-promotions. That includes galleries (Vendio Gallery, for example). Those will be ALLOWED and not limited.

* That means that clients with our Matrix service are OK as those are Store links and/or cross promotion links. And I was just specifically told that those are OK. As Was clients can stop worrying now. :)

And I'd like to remind a bunch of non-compliant sellers that HTML pull down menus are not allowed in listings. I don't care how big you are or how much you sell. It's against the rules because of keyword spamming, so stop doing it!

When are these changes going to be enforced?

The people I spoke to said that no specific date has been set, but it should be roughly mid-July 2008. That means that you have around 6 weeks to get your listings, Stores, About Me, etc... into shape. As Was clients, call us... we need to help you navigate these changes!

Posted at 11:20 AM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBack (0)

eBay Live! 2008 Vendor Reviews????

I stumbled on a blog post, and can't contact the writer since he seems to have no email address on his website, so I figured I'd comment here.

A blogger wrote that he will be reviewing vendors in booths at eBay Live, and he's going to give the following awards:

• Best new Vendor
• Worst new Vendor
• Best booth
• Worst booth
• Best Giveaway/Swag
• Best Customer Service
• Best discount
• Most improved product/service/vendor from eBay Live! 2007

My gut reaction when I saw this was, "This is part of why eBay Live doesn't work." Then I had a number of more specific thoughts. :)

1. This reminds of some of the reasons why eBay Live doesn't work for vendors. Everybody we know who exhibits at eBay Live does so at a great loss of finances and other resources. Now, we're all exhibiting at a show where we lose money, and a blogger is going to judge our booths, look for the best free stuff, and who has the best discount. He's going to judge companies he hasn't worked with, and broadcast that "advice." That's like meeting some doctors, and deciding which one will operate on you based on what he's wearing that day.
2. Most improved? I don't know this guy. He doesn't know us. How would he know if we were improved or not?
3. Best giveaway? I wish that shows didn't emphasise giveaways. I once had a woman come to my eBay Live booth, and bitch at me for not offering "enough free stuff" as she put it. I told her that free stuff isn't free, and the more "free" stuff I offer, the more I have to charge my clients to pay for that free stuff. I think my clients would rather I give away less free stuff and charge them less!
4. Worst new vendor. How will that be determined? Will this blogger hire everybody on the floor and see which company is the worst? Or will he just pick me because I'm not totally cool with his list of awards? :)
5. Best customer service... again, wouldn't you have to hire someone to REALLY know how their customer service is? We can all put our best faces forward in our booths, and then hey let's admit it... not everybody has great service. So I'm not sure how you will know from talking to someone in a booth who has the best customer service. Not everybody in my booth even works for me... some are friends who just come and help me give things out! I wouldn't want my entire company's customer service judged by a friend who is giving things out!
6. Best discount. I can only write a big sad face here. :( I think it should be Best Value. Which company is offering something that is really awesome for what you're going to pay. One thing to remember about discounts is that very often, the non-discounted prices are inflated so that the company still makes money when they offer their great discount. I don't know why we enable that behaviour! We don't offer show discounts so that we can offer the same great prices all year round. Show discounts, to me, are an instrument of pressure... sign up by this date and take money off. Sign up any other day and pay our inflated prices! Why do we do that to people!?
7. Worst booth. You know who has the worst booth at eBay Live? The good companies that I respect who can't afford to come. eBay Live has become so expensive and the return often so little that some of my colleagues aren't exhibiting at all... and they're the best at what they do. Sellers need them. To me, the worst booths are the ones that are empty because my colleagues didn't feel that attending was going to pay off. That's a shame!!!

So to this blogger, I hope you will reconsider your awards. I would love to see you awarding companies doing great work... helping sellers... giving a lot of bang for the buck... having great reputations. I may have the worst booth, the worst free stuff, and the most non-existent discount in your opinion, but what if we're the best company on the floor? What if we help people the most? What if the ROI is huge? Will it have been the best thing for your readers to only hear that we didn't have enough free stuff to give away.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Why Would I Hold A Check?

Last year, I won a lawsuit against someone. I had lent him money. He didn't pay me back. The judge found in my favour. Hooray. :)

The guy now has to pay me (with interest), so he sends a bit of money here and there. Every check he sends, whether he writes it or his wife writes it, has hand-written on it:

VOID AFTER 60 DAYS OF ISSUANCE

What in all that's holy makes these people think that I am going to wait any longer for their money? As in why would I actually get money from someone I had to sue to get it, and then sit on a check for months without depositing it? Every check they have sent me, I've deposited it the same week if not the first business day after I get it. I lent this guy this money in early 2006, and am JUST getting it now. There is no way I'm going to sit on the check for months without depositing it. That truly makes no sense.

So we'll call it what it is. Some sort of sense of power. Well, congrats. You're very powerful. You're going to make me deposit that check on the day I was depositing that check anyway! Feel the power that you have!

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Red Light Cameras

Tucson recently installed some red light cameras. I hadn't thought much of them until the day I pulled into an intersection to make my left turn on a yellow light, and watched a zillion flashes go off (in the daylight) when the light turned red. I remember that day, and was pissed off when the red light cameras all went off as I knew I had entered the intersection on yellow, committed to finishing that left turn, and got stuck with the light turning red while I was already out there.

I just got the ticket and letter. $280 for "failure to stop at a red light." Well, I didn't stop at a red light because it was yellow. The ticket came with four pictures: my license plate, a close-up of my face (the "driver"), and two photos of my car in the intersection after the light was red.

It wasn't looking good, and didn't match my memory of the day.

Until I noticed something on the page of photos. There was a URL with a notice number and PIN. I could go to a website to see these pictures AND a video they have of the whole thing.

What? A video? Yep. This is new to me.

I watched the video in real time, and at first, it looked like I ran the red light. That still didn't match my memory of the event. So I went frame by frame in the video, looking at fractions of seconds, and then I shouted out in triumph. There are frames of the video that show my car already in the intersection with the light still yellow. That matches my memory of the day. I entered the intersection on a yellow, and it soon turned red.

The FAQ web page for our police department says you will only get a red light camera ticket if you enter the intersection after the light is red. I think the fractions of a second made the machines think I entered after the yellow was gone, but my memory and some still frames tell the real story!

Well, I think I won this one. Thanks to Tucson for taking a video of the whole thing. It looks like the video starts when the light turns yellow, runs for the evidently 3 seconds the light stays yellow, and then records for a few more seconds when the light is red. I'll be requesting a hearing for this ticket, and if this isn't enough, I'll also be entering into evidence the laws of physics. Based on how fast I was going in the left turn lane before hitting the intersection, and based on when the video shows me entering the intersection, I didn't have enough time to hit the brakes and NOT end up in the intersection OR NOT end up with the guy behind me possibly rear-ending me.

Look out for the red light cameras. No mercy here! But at least with the video, there will be justice. :)

Posted at 04:15 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Why Is eBay Doing All Of This?

I wrote a post here about 2 weeks ago about why eBay would connect with buy.com, and somehow today woke up to a bunch of people commenting in it. The comments didn't agree with each other, but that's typical. :)

Someone commented, "Griff said the boycott didn't work." Well, there's didn't work and didn't work. He may have meant that the boycott really didn't affect eBay's bottom line or the shoppers' experiences. But the idea of a boycott is usually to get a message across to the company or supplier. To me, the message got across, and that message was, "If we get crabby enough about what's going on, we'll leave." I believe that was the message the boycotters wanted to get across, and I think they got it across.

So with more changes just announced, why is eBay doing all of this?

I still think it's quite simple, and when I tell people this, they tell me it makes sense. The typical "angry seller" may not like it, but I still think it's what's going on. Here it is:

You (sellers) didn't change when eBay changed their fee structures, which many people agree was designed to make people list in different ways and with different strategies than before.

You didn't change when people left you negative and neutral feedback about your service. You thought they were jerks out to hurt your precious percentage. No, some of that was real feedback from people who had real beefs with you, and you didn't listen or change.

You didn't change when eBay put rules out there like keyword spamming and not putting URLs or links in listings and Stores. You tried to get around it and still do those things because rules shouldn't apply to you.

You didn't change when eBay put together classes for you at eBay Live telling you better ways to do things. eBay Live isn't JUST a community conference. The classes can be helpful, even to the larger PowerSeller.

You didn't change when you decided that since you had your success doing things how you were doing them, nothing you were doing should change. You can call eBay execs egomaniacal if you want, but it's egomaniacal to think that you're doing everything right and don't need to change because you have some success.

So eBay had to FORCE you to change. eBay had to create punishments and rewards (almost like for children) because you weren't having any of it when eBay, your shoppers/buyers, and outside experts were suggesting that you change. Now you have no choice. Now, if you continue doing the same thing the same way, you can be put out of business.

eBay wants you to succeed. The idea that eBay wants to kill your business is something you tell yourself and the media to make yourself feel better and shift the blame. eBay would only want to kill the businesses of bad sellers who make good buyers leave eBay and tell friends eBay is bad. eBay wants the good businesses to thrive because it's nice :) and because that's how they make their money. They make money when good businesses sell things.

It's like your doctor telling you for the 10th time to quit smoking and drinking because your diseases are now fatal, and you're pissed off at the doctor (when you should be pissed off at yourself).

There is a large seller who got some free advice from me a few months ago. Her DSRs were failing, and to me, it was because she was not being clear about why her shipping charges were what they were. I don't need anybody to lower shipping prices that are fair, but if shipping DSRs are low on fair shipping prices. then you need to do a better job communicating.

I gave her a long list of what to do with her listings to help communicate things that were getting lost on people and then disappointing them. Did she take my free advice? As far as I can tell, the only thing she did was add a video about her shipping. She didn't re-order her info. She didn't edit her listings, which are mostly 8 feet long, and are mostly an ocean of text that nobody wants to read.

So she didn't change. She got the change or die message from her doctor, and she put a bandaid on a wart. She previously had a linked MP3 song about her shipping (which I didn't listen to), and now she has a link to a video (rather than an embedded video). But she didn't really change. She didn't rewrite or edit things. She didn't lay things out freshly. She just added more, and to me, sellers who keep adding more is how we ended up with 8 foot long listings that are oceans of text that we KNOW our shoppers aren't reading.

So even without eBay's changes, why do we still show our listings in ways that we know eBay shoppers aren't reading or getting? On the flip side of that, we enjoy being the only company designing and rewriting listings to help people with this stuff. :) So we're here for you! :)

To me, eBay is doing all of this this big and this fast because you didn't take any of the subtle and not subtle hints that you've been getting the last 3-4 years. Now you're getting the change or die message, and you seem to be surprised by it. Well, I'm sorry you didn't use all the previous changes and info to improve.

Some of my clients did. Some of my clients are LOVING eBay right now because they are on top of everything. Their DSRs are high. They are high in Best Match. They are getting the big PowerSeller discounts. eBay isn't screwing everybody or even most people. The sellers who resisted change and are still resisting change are mostly screwing themselves.

So what will those sellers do? Make a big fuss? Post comments in people's blogs? Leave eBay forever? Sell somewhere else? How about Amazon, with all of its rules? How about other, newer marketplaces? Once they get big enough, they will change their rules too. What works in year 1 of a marketplace may not fly in year 2. Businesses and marketplaces evolve. Sellers need to evolve with them or in advance of them. Otherwise, you end up where you are now, and hey, we told you so.

Posted at 02:44 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

If Your English Is Not Good...

If your English is not good, that's OK. If you are writing to me asking questions about eBay, and I don't understand you, it's not because I don't know anything about eBay, or I am refusing to help you. If I tell you that I don't understand your question, please try asking it again. If you are more comfortable in Spanish, please write to me in Spanish as I'm nearly fluent.

If I tell you I don't understand your question, please don't insult me and tell me that I know nothing about eBay. I am trying to help you for free, and insulting me is definitely not going to help you or help the language barrier.

Thanks.

Posted at 04:44 PM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Tattoos

For the most part, I just don't like tattoos. I don't get most of them. I can appreciate the artistry of some of the better ones, but the message of many of them... well, sometimes it's unsettling.

I was in a tattoo parlour recently. A house guest we had from out of town wanted to get a tattoo. I'm the chauffeur, and we went down to watch the last hour of the work being done. We spent some of our time looking around all the samples and artwork hanging around the shop. Here are some things I don't get that people evidently tattoo on them.

* A heart with MOM on it. It's just too Oedipal for my tastes.

* Messages about being hopeless. "Only Jesus can save me," "Only God will judge me," and other things with praying hands in handcuffs. If tattoos area reminders of things, why keep reminding yourself about feeling hopeless or un-redeemable.

* Images of children in sexual situations. I kid you not. One sample tattoo hanging up said, "JAILBAIT," in big letters. Above that was a drawing of a teenage girl wearing WAY too much makeup, and wearing a half shirt hoisted up to reveal large, bare breasts. On one side of this girl was a baby bottle, and on the other side was a teddy bear.

WHO THE HELL GETS THAT TATTOOED ON THEM? And is this person a father to daughters? What the HELL. Why is something like that even allowed? If we arrest people for having child porn, can we arrest someone for having a tattoo that seems to celebrate sexual relations with minors?

I just don't get tattoos.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Concert Etiquette

To the fake supermodel in 4" heels who showed up at last night's Sparks concert so stoned and/or drunk that she and her drink appeared to be on a rocky boat, do us all a favour, and stay home or stand at the back.

She kept trying to stand on us while saying we were crowding her. Then she spilled her drink on us. She didn't seem too sorry. Then she had words with the person I was with because according to her, he was pushing her. He was standing motionless. I think it was her rocky boat thing. He told her that all he knew was that he was standing there and had space next to him, and now he has no space next to him. She had just pushed her way to basically stand on top of him, and started making mobile phone calls.

Then she poured about half her drink on me, and tried to tell me she was sorry. When I asked her if she really was sorry, she told me to chill out - this was a concert. I asked her why she was giving me advice, and I wiped the drink off my arm onto her designer jacket. I told her that she had been in everybody's way, which was true given the number of people trying to get by her every few minutes.

I then decided that something had to come between me and her since she still had a drink and she was still on a rocky boat. A friendly British guy soon appeared, trying to make his way through the crowd. I basically stopped him between me and her, and engaged him in conversation. He stood there the rest of the night. Mission accomplished. :)

So folks, please. You may be a fan and know most of the words to most of the songs. But pouring your drink on people and talking about them really loud to your friends, who are standing next to the people you're talking about, is just very age 11 and absolutely not impressive. It can ruin even supermodel looks. :) Chill out. It's a concert. You don't need to be pouring your drinks on people for fun. You should be beyond that development stage.

Posted at 01:40 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Doing Some UK Biz

We'll be in the UK 17-21 May, flying out on the 22nd. We're looking to meet just about anybody who wants to meet us for business purposes. Sorry, no dates please. :)

Let me know if you're in London or can get to London! Thanks. :)

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Making People Jump Through Hoops

I use Sprint for my cell phone service. Been with them for years. I like them! But an experience trying to call customer service today made me think about what companies are doing to customers.

Sprint has different phone pricing on their website than in the stores. You may or may not qualify for any of these prices, but they don't tell you that up front. Whether or not you can have the advertised price is a mystery to be solved later! The store said to call customer service because they'll give me the advertised price, but the store won't.

I know I could never get away with this stuff. I couldn't advertise services for a fraction of what they cost, and when people call, tell them that they don't qualify for that price.

So I call, and I get Sprint's service center in Asia... I think it's in the Philippines. I ask the guy where he is. "Australia," he barks at me in a non-Australian accent. Other than his barking, I can barely hear him. I ask him to connect me to someone else because I can't hear him. I get another guy with a similar Asian accent. I can barely hear him either. I ask him to connect me to someone in America. "No," he tells me. Really.

I ask him to connect me to the International Department, who handles international roaming. I need them anyway since I'm going to be in England, and I know this department is in the USA. The guys tells me there is no International Department. Really. I told him he was shitty, and I hung up.

I called back from my Sprint cell phone. I got the International Department. They can't give me the cell phone at the advertised price either. This is just getting stupid. I ask for the Account Recovery department because if they're not going to sell me the phone that roams in England, then I have to buy something from AT&T or T-Mobile.

I get the Account Recovery. Holly in Albuquerque rules. :) She understands what I've been through, and long story short, she offers me the phone for LESS than the advertised price I saw. Well, holy crap. Not only was that easy, but it worked out even better than I thought since now, I'm going to pay LESS than I had hoped!

And it got me thinking.

What if the first person who picked up the phone had the power to sell me the phone for the price I had seen? What if the guy in the store could sell me the phone for the price has had written there? Why is a new cell phone $549 for some people, $219 for others, and $179 for others? Same phone, all for Sprint customers.

But it's not so much about the money. It's also about the process. Why does Sprint (or any cell phone company) need to wait for my 2nd call or the 5th rep I'm talking to to try to give me something reasonable that I want? I have to look at bottom lines and working efficiently. I can't imagine setting up call centres and tiers of ineffective, powerless people who can't really give people what they were promised.

What if the American companies gave their American call centres the real power to fix things? Why was the Asian call centre lying to me, barking at me, and basically refusing to help... while the Americans I spoke to were ALL friendly and tried to help, and those who couldn't happily transferred me to the department who could.

What about the customers who don't bother calling for resolutions, and just call to cancel? Could we have helped them better along the way? I like to think so. I think we could be doing so much better than we are. And today, I'm looking at you, Sprint... and I like you!

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

I Will Not Be Used

Following from the Please Don't Lie To Me post, we have today's Please Don't Use Me post.

The #1 reason to not use me is that I always figure it out. You are not fooling me into thinking we're great friends or business partners. I know when I am being used, personally and professionally. And then guess what. You end up on my poop list, and good luck getting something from me later.

I would respect people so much more if they were honest with themselves and/or me. I'd like them to know they're using me, and I'd like them to know that I know!

OK, enough said.

Posted at 05:00 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Idea That eBay Set Fire to a Nasty Crowd of Angry Sellers

I got a comment in this blog yesterday basically saying that by making the changes eBay has been planning and making, they have set a fire that they refuse to put out, which has only left the community to be a nasty, rioting, angry bunch.

I don't exactly see it that way.

To me, eBay made changes that needed to be made. I don't 100% agree with all changes or how they're being executed, but as a frequent buyer, I completely agree that standards need to be raised. Most buying experiences I have are negative ones. Sellers tend to be slow, poor communicators, and assume that I have habits and processes that I don't. I DON'T read every email you send me. I DIDN'T read all of your 5 pages of policies in your listing. I DO expect you to be friendly and act like you're glad to have my business. If you read my blog, then you know that each one of my buying experiences has been bad enough to turn any regular person off eBay. That's BAD for sellers and for the marketplace. If I were to stop shopping on eBay because the guy who sold me my MP3 player is a loser, you just lost me, and you didn't even do anything wrong.

I have been saying for YEARS that buyers are raising their standards. You can no longer get away with a picture, some bullet points, and some good feedback. People used to tell me that's all you need to sell successfully. Well, no, that's not all, and especially as buyers become more savvy, and especially as buyers raise their standards. Remember when we bought from any online website that sold because it was amazing? And eventually we started having standards, buying from some but not others? I have been warning sellers for years that buyers are raising their standards, and sellers need to raise their game. eBay is saying the same thing, but to make sure sellers listen, they've attached punishments and rewards.

I am glad that eBay wants to give people the "change or die" message. No other messages seemed to work. And those messages were out there. Sellers didn't change when I emailed them with issues about how I felt they dealt with me. Sellers didn't change when people left them neutral and negative feedback. They seemed to not hear the comments and just see bad marks that hurt them. Those marks are there for a reason, most of the time anyway. Not everybody who left you a bad mark is a jerk who didn't do the right thing as a buyer.

Many sellers STILL don't want to see how not great they are. But to me, if sellers had listened to ANY of the messages buyers and eBay had been giving them along the way, eBay wouldn't have had to make the changes the way they are making them now. If people had been open to change, eBay wouldn't have had to force them to change. Now that eBay is forcing people to change, people are mad.

It's like every time you go to your doctor, he tells you to stop drinking and smoking, and you don't. You like drinking and smoking, and you don't want to change. Your health start deteriorating, and your doctor tells you again to change your habits. Your spouse suggests you change. Friends suggest you change. Now the doctor wants you to lose weight too. You make no changes. Eventually, the doctor might give you the "change or die" speech. If you don't change your habits, you are going to be seriously ill or die. What do you do?

Whatever you do, you probably should have listened to that advice the first, second, or fifth time it was given. Many eBay sellers didn't. They didn't see feedback as actual feedback on what people thought of dealing with them. They saw it as a "will someone hurt me or not" thing and then "what can I do to undo or hide any bad thing someone says." I knew sellers getting lots of negs and neutrals, and when they admitted to me that many were valid, I asked how they're going to change. They weren't going to. They were going to try to get rid of the feedbacks, or bribe the people into mutual withdrawal.

So I don't see the current backlash as totally eBay's fault. I know eBay is unleashing a heap of changes at people seemingly all at once, and that's tough. But if sellers had been listening to buyers or me anywhere along the last few years, they'd be sitting pretty now instead of scrambling to change or leave eBay.

Posted at 05:00 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

No, I'm Not The Same Old Email Scam...

Drop in an American name, and guess what. It's still an unpolished turd written by a non-English speaker. Don't forget to send money to a "greedy woman" who wants to help orphanages and suggests you stop weeping. Please have your motherless babies contact her. Who believes this stuff?!?!?!

From: Mrs Judith Williams

Dear Friend,

My name is Mrs Judith Williams am 75yrs old of age, i stay in new york city, USA.I am a good merchant, I have several industrial companies and good share in various banks in the world.I spend all my life on investment and coporate business. all the way i lost my husband and two beautiful kids in fatal accident that occur in November 5th 2003. I am a very greedy woman with all cost i dont know much and care about people, since when I have an experience of my it difficult to sleep and give rest. later in the year 2004 Febuary i was sent a letter of medical check up,as my personal Doctor testify that i have a lung cancer, which can easily take off my life soon.I found it uneasy to survive myself, because a lot of investment cannot be run and manage by me again. I quickly call up a pastor/prophet to give me positive thinking on this solution, as my adviser.He minister to me to share my properties ,wealth, to motherless baby/orphanage homes/people that need money for survivor both student that need money/ business woman and man for their investment and for future rising. So i am writing this letter to people who really need help from me both student in college, to contact me urgently. so that i can make available preparation on that.especially women of the day, who are divorced by their husband, why they cannot survive the mist of feeding theirself. please contact me and stop weeping. probably let me now what you really need the money for, and if you can still help me to distribute money to nearest orhanages homes near your town. now am so much with God, am now born again. May you be blessed, as you reach me,please to remind you, dont belongs to scammers or any act of fraudlent on internet. I will give more information to you as i await your response immediately. Best Regards Mrs Judith Williams

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Response to Libel in AuctionBytes Blog Comment

Someone calling herself "Lynette" has libelled us in a comment in an AuctionBytes blog post. The post was about eBay Live being cancelled. I suggested our RocketPlace conference for anybody looking for an event that is positive-focused and aimed at helping eBay sellers. After all, with our track record, I know we can help eBay sellers.

Lynette posted something completely false and libellous about us, so I'm responding to it here. I'm not sure it deserves a response, but I hate lies, and I would rather dispel them than ignore them. I would challenge Lynette (and anybody thinking the same types of things) to come up with any evidence or proof of what she's saying. You won't because these things aren't true, and in that sense, it's morally and legally wrong to broadcast them. It goes beyond opinion and free speech when you are stating lies as facts when you have no proof, and you are looking to defame my business. I don't sit idly when I see that.

Lynette's post is in bold.

Ms Levitt, your rocket company is now an affiliate of ebay's and will be advanced/advertised as a service to be used by all the sellers on ebay who wish to spend the thousands of dollars that it will cost them in order to "keep up with the (ebay) Joneses". Correct?

No, not correct, Lynette. Not even close.

1. RocketPlace is not a company. It's an event.
2. It's not an affiliate of eBay.
3. It doesn't cost thousands of dollars. Early bird registration is roughly $300, and even less with discount codes.
4. RocketPlace is not about keeping up with the Joneses. It's about growing businesses and improving profitability. I want people to change and innovate, not just keep up. "Just keeping up" is definitely not going to cut it, and eBay's made that clear!
   
5. It is not being advertised as a service. It's not a service. It's not a product. It's a conference.

Although we all know the answer you will give in advance: "oh we are not affiliated with ebay, we are a separate identity", this is not true.

Yes, you knew the answer I would give in advance because my answer is the truth. We are not affiliated with eBay. They own 0% of us. They have not invested in us or lent us money. They do not share in any revenues or profits we receive. They do not control us. They do not run us. They don't sit on the board I don't have. :) We are a separate company. In fact, if you researched anything you said before you said it, you'd know that I started As Was years before eBay existed. I got the d/b/a in New York in 1991, and started being a full-time website company in April 1995. eBay was AuctionWeb in September of 1995. We were first!

The site you maintain is linked in the sellers' community pages, and is linked with all the ebay promotions every time they encourage sellers to sign up for them.

We are an eBay Certified Provider, and eBay promotes us to people who could benefit from our services. So we are a recommended vendor in a sense. We should be recommended... we do great work! :)

You are here to pad yours and ebay's pockets, and it is no secret to some of us.

Shame on you for saying this. All I have done for years is run a company to try to help sellers improve themselves. If I make any money, it's because my company is good at what it does. If we didn't help people, we would have gone out of business a long time ago.

Our business is like your accountant. He/she makes money advising you on tax and certain business issues. He does your taxes and maybe your payroll. So he advises and performs services, and he gets paid. You can choose to not use him at all. You can keep your own records and do it all yourself, and you might be fine doing it all yourself. But if you want a professional helping you, using his advice where he has expert advice and experience, or doing some heavy lifting for you, he can be well worth what you pay him. That's As Was in a sense. If you want our help, we're here, and I'd say nearly all of our clients would say we were worth more than they paid. If you don't want our help, you don't have to hire us.

I am not here to pad anybody's pockets. eBay makes nothing when I run RocketPlace. They are not investors in it. RocketPlace comes out of my pocket, and if it makes you feel any better, so far, it's operating at a huge loss. But I'm going to keep doing it because eBay sellers need help, and I don't see anybody helping. I don't see any other company or conference stepping up to the plate to give eBay sellers the help they need to improve their eBay businesses.

I'd love to NOT lose money on RocketPlace. That's no secret. :) But even if I lose money, I will keep doing it because I am driven by a need to help people.

So to you and your "some of us" pals, please stop making things up about me and my company.

So why not be open about it and discuss what will happen to those sellers who do not plan on spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on a business store front manager such as the ones you sell?

Huh?

1. We don't offer a business store front manager. I am not even sure what that is, but you can check our services page... we don't offer a business store front manager.
2. It doesn't cost thousands upon thousands of dollars because it doesn't exist.
3. The minimum it costs to hire us is $950. That's not thousands upon thousands of dollars. In fact, and you can look this up if you don't believe me, it's actually less than one thousand!
4. Our average client spends around $3,000 with us, and says that our work paid for itself on an average of 2 months. We have a great track record of happy clients who grow their businesses. You don't have to hire us if you don't want to, but I'm not sure why you would go out of our way to crap on us when all we want to do is help people.
5. What will happen to seller who don't use a business store front manager? Again, I'm not even sure what that is, so that's a hard question to answer. You're asking me to "open up" and discuss this, but I don't understand the question. So please feel free to comment here and enter into a dialogue with me so I can address your concerns.

All in all, it looks like Lynette is clearly some sort of upset person who has enough time on her hands to post false and libellous comments about us without asking questions first or doing any research. That's really a shame. I don't know her, so the only thing we could have possibly done to make her this angry is make her competitors better.

To Lynette or anybody like her, I welcome you to post here and ask questions about our company, conference, and services so that we can make you better informed. Since we're talking libel, if you're going to be posting about us, you're going to want it to be not libellous. I'm no attorney, but I think that's good advice. :)

Lynette, maybe you should hire us. :)

Posted at 02:41 PM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Trusted Selling Is Not Big Brother

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200804141145212.html

I saw a blog complain that eBay's new Trusted Selling initiative is Big Brother, and eBay is watching and monitoring people too much.

You wouldn't say that if your account gets taken over somewhat frequently. You might be glad that eBay is doing more to prevent that.

Saying that eBay's initiative is Big Brother is like saying that the alarm company who monitors your house is Big Brother and invading your privacy. The alarm company is paid to monitor what goes on at your house, especially if something extraordinary happens. A window breaks. Someone comes in and doesn't punch in the right code. Were we all better before we had such alarm systems? Were we safer? Happier?

Are we open to trading a bit of our privacy for more safety? Some are. Some don't want to, and they're allowed to feel that way. But not everything eBay does is automatically bad and wrong as many sellers seem to think. If eBay is doing something that saves sellers from account takeovers, I can't find a problem here. The less fraud there is, especially in the names of good sellers who are not committing that fraud, the better it is for all of us.

This is just eBay being like the company that alarms your house.

Posted at 05:00 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

How Many Chances?

How many chances do you give something you're trying?

Last weekend, someone signed up for our EverySeller Research tool. He had a problem logging back in after signing up, and it turned out we needed to purge some old data. So it wasn't down, but it was admittedly quite slow, which we've since remedied. :)

He had emailed me saying he couldn't log in, and I had emailed back saying I would have our programmer look into it.

Before my programmer got the chance to look at it, the guy called me. He expected me to know who he was. I had no idea who this guy was calling me until he explained that he was the person who had been emailing me about not being able to log back into ESR. OK. He basically called to chew me out.

He was telling me how horrible my customer service was, and how he knows about these things because he starts and runs a lot of companies, and I really need to do something about the service. I told him we were working on fixing his problem, like I said in the email, and I'm not sure what else we can do until I hear back from my programmer. I told him that the problem were resolved, I'd personally call him to see if I can address anything else. That wasn't good enough. He kept chewing me out. There was nothing I could do to make him happy, and he was still barking at me. OK, thanks.

I sent him a follow-up email apologising again for his experience, explaining the core of what my company does, and hoping that we can help him. Despite how he treated me, I wanted to be nothing but nice, interested, and helpful because that's me. :)

I woke up the next morning to an email from him wanting to cancel a service he hadn't seen yet, and an email from my programmer explaining the slow performance and how that was fixed via an overnight database purge. The cancellation email had a jab or two in it, so I guess this guy wasn't done.

And it made me think.

How many chances do you give something or someone? One? Do you judge something or someone by the one worst thing you've experienced with them? Do you give something a few tries? If you're in a free trial period, are you likely to give something more chances because it's not costing you anything yet? If someone emailed you that they were working on your problem, would you call them up to chew them out and tell them how much better you are than they are?

I tend to give things a few chances. I've been known to give too many chances. But I know that I wouldn't want to be judged by someone who saw me on my worst day. I would want the chance to be seen again when I'm having a better day. So I extend the same courtesy to other people.

Think about how many chances you give and how many you get. I bet many of us get fewer chances than we give, and some of us may want to give more chances. I sure hope I meet my new penpal at an eBay event. :)

Posted at 05:00 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Who To Blame for eBay and Buy.com

eBay and Buy.com just announced a relationship where buy.com will be listing heaps of stuff on eBay. Sellers are understandably going wild about it as they're afraid that they will lose sales to buy.com, and maybe eventually to other big retailers/etailers.

I was wondering why eBay would do this, and I came up with a theory. Just a theory. Nothing to back this up. But it makes sense to me.

I wonder if it's because of the boycotters. Let's look at this logically. eBay wants items on their site. They want them from sellers who will not randomly strike, and they want them from sellers who won't crap on them in their listings, About Me pages, discussion forums, blogs, and the media. Hey, we all want that. We all want clients/buyers/whatever who don't crap on us. Some of you say eBay deserves it... well that's going to be subjective since not 100% of sellers go through what you go through.

So let's say you're eBay and you want more items on the site. The sellers you've counted on might be leaving. They go to conferences that basically tell them to leave eBay. They join "trade associations" that put out 3-page negative statements about eBay, and tell investors that eBay is bad-o-rama.

What would you do?

You might try to find partners who have inventory that's in demand, who can deal with it and ship it, and who want to put it on eBay. A partner who isn't going to pull it because they don't like the latest announcement. You may have to offer them something nice to get them on board, but you'd probably be looking for people/companies like that. After all, your core keeps telling each other to boycott, and the media keeps telling buyers and sellers to stay away.

When someone keeps taking their ball and going home, you'll probably start choosing a new field. It may not be a level field, but it's a field where you think lots of people can still win.

So, boycotters, eBay hears you. And the message seems to be to find sellers who won't treat them this way. I say the boycots don't help. You probably didn't boycott USPS through any of their recent rate changes. Did your rent go up and did you refuse to go to the office for a few days? Did gas prices go up so you refused to drive for a week? A boycott is not solution focused, and eBay needs to be solution focused right now to turn things around for themselves. If your boycott is meant to threaten that if eBay doesn't do what you want, you'll leave, then

you

just

blinked.

You told eBay that you're so unhappy, you're willing to shoot your own livelihood in the foot to make some sort of point, a point eBay already knew. Maybe eBay will take a second shot at your foot too because you've made it clear that shooting at your foot is just fine. Sellers, vendors, and organisations tried very hard to hang eBay out to dry, especially in February... media interviews, investor calls, statements, conferences, discussion forums, boycots... so much aimed at hurting eBay, getting their attention, or "teaching them a lesson." And how did Q1 look? Not so bad. Not so hurt. Not so destroyed.

The eBay marketplace doesn't work without seller success and buyer satisfaction, but the eBay marketplace can work without the boycotters. Don't make eBay prove that to you because I'm sure they can. Now can you please stop with the boycotts?

Posted at 09:51 PM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

My Fake Email

I spoke to a tech support person a few weeks ago who told me something I never thought of, so I'm telling you.

You know how when you sign up for things, so many companies want your email address? I usually just don't give it. She gives it, but she created a "fake" email address she doesn't check, and she gives them that. I won't use her real name so you don't spam her, but let's say her name is Jenny. The email address she uses is jennysfakeemail AT gmail.com. And she actually says this to people. :)

The interesting thing would be to see how marketing ripples out. What if you gave each company a different email address, and then tracked what you got from whom? Assuming you gave those addresses to nobody else and didn't put them on the web or biz cards, each company would be the only one with that email. Then see who emails you. Just that company? Other companies? Spammers? Who sends you what offers?

I think that would be damn interesting. Has anybody done this and pointed out which companies are selling/sharing emails even when they're claiming they don't?

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)