How to protest ebay?

[robart05]

Hello all

Just been reading the thread regarding 21 day hold on money

As it should, it generated some heated responses and plenty of that good old venom for ebay.

Reasons for getting **bleep** off with this company are really starting to mount, aren't they!

So far any form of protest or intention to protest has resulted in approximately zero.

Be mindful that ebay is first and foremost a multinational corporation, and as such, they will grind every last cent out of everyone, by any means, and not care how they do it. To believe otherwise is naive at best.

I had a few ideas for a protest that might get heard, and not harm sellers too much at the same time.

If we picked one day a month where as many sellers as possible shut shop, this might get noticed

Imagine when Australians log on to ebay on a Sunday night, and keep finding a message saying sometthing to the effect that a protest by sellers is underway due to ebay breaking Australian law etc.

As well, what if  we all decided to take all our funds out of paypal at the same time?

And if anyone had any contacts in the media, it could get traction

just thinking out loud

whadyareckon?

Robert

[kangarooislandleathercraft]

I just had the pleasure of filling in an ebay survey on my experience as a seller.  Great fun!

My gripe is the defect system applied when a Mutual Cancellation is offered (because buyer duplicated order or changed mind or did not read the quarantine information).  I no longer care what level ebay are classing me at as Top Rated, Above Standard or Standard do not seem to discourage sales.  I do think the Top Rated requirements are an ebay fee grab and do not offer the seller any incentive.

[pennyforum14]

Robert, it might be feasible if you can get enough sellers to join in, but I understand a very small percentage of them actually read the forums, so good luck with that. 

Also, I think you might need to change the wording to read that it is a protest against Ebay's policy rather than stating it is against the law.  We may think it is, but to be honest I expect Ebay's legal team have done their homework on this one just as they did on the fvf on postage thing.  If challenged it is more than likely that the result would be that it doesn't actually breach the law (T&C and all that).  In which case, you might be in trouble for libel.

[saarzi]

Protesting within Ebays domain is pointless. It will be ignored. Why do something that is going to lower your own sales like closing shop?  You are right - ebay is a multimational corporation, controlling many businesses (not just Ebay) -  Australia is a drop in Ebays pond.  Regardless,  you will never get enough sellers to close shop or pull out of paypal at once.

Take turn the protest into action, and move it AWAY from Ebays grasp.

You can report Ebay to the financial ombudman and the ACCC, among others, in Australia. These are the watchdogs who will take Ebay to court on our behalf, IF they get enough VALID complaints with accompanying EVIDENCE.

Every. Single. Time. Ebay does something wrong, such as rule in favour of the buyer, against Aussie consumer law that protects sellers (which they do DAILY), lodge a complaint to the appropriate authority.   Its a quick online form.

If just Aussie sellers did this, they would be getting a few thousand complaints a day.

Unfortunately Aussies sellers on Ebay seem to be too lazy to find out their own rights unless its handed to them by Ebay - which obviously isnt going to happen. Most have absolutely no idea what their rights are, or that they have any.  

[saarzi]

Penny,

Australian Consumer Laws - you can read them online, as well as court precedence (and the significance of that), and corporate law and how it works in Australia.  Ebay breaches them regularly. The issue is colating the evidence properly, and submitting a complaint, then having enough of those complaints for action to be taken, OR taking action yourself (which will almost certainly never happen, unless youre a zillionaire).

Complaining to Ebay, the incorrect authority, not having the correct evidence at hand, or simply protesting - all of which is what 98% of sellers do, does absolutely nothing.

Cheers

[robart05]

Yep, not enough sellers read these forums, thats why I suggested anyone with a media contact would be useful

Of course the wording in any sort of protest would have to be considered - I was just thinking out loud

Closing shop for one day a month isn't going to hurt too bad, especially if it was a reasonably organised affair, with good numbers willing to make a stand.

I think the whole idea of going to the ACCC is more pointless than an active protest,. I'm sure they already have a host of genuine complaints against ebay already, action taken to date? Nil.

In the end though, reckon we need to take a (fern) leaf out of the Kiwi book, ebay doesn't really work there coz the local equivelent - TradeMe has beaten them to a pulp!

[peri-landlubber]

Has anyone been watching The Checkout'' on ABCTV (has been on at 6.30 pm Melbourne, Mon to Fri)?

The other night they were talking about consumer rights & all the things they mentioned, I think eBay as broken every rule.

Evidently U can get them to bring up some of the things U think aren't right.

Not sure whether it is re-runs tho.

By the way, on the news the other night some bloke (Govt I think), said if U think something is fraudulent, go to www.acorn.com.au to report it.

[i-love-my-sheep]

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@robart05 wrote:

Yep, not enough sellers read these forums, thats why I suggested anyone with a media contact would be useful

Of course the wording in any sort of protest would have to be considered - I was just thinking out loud

Closing shop for one day a month isn't going to hurt too bad, especially if it was a reasonably organised affair, with good numbers willing to make a stand.

I think the whole idea of going to the ACCC is more pointless than an active protest,. I'm sure they already have a host of genuine complaints against ebay already, action taken to date? Nil.

In the end though, reckon we need to take a (fern) leaf out of the Kiwi book, ebay doesn't really work there coz the local equivelent - TradeMe has beaten them to a pulp!

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Yes it would because you'd have to end all your listings, then relist them and if you don't have any free listings left you have to pay for them. Also for the store people, they would lose their sales history and watchers.