ebay allowing external advertising to undercut their sellers!!!!

[misflutterby2679]

i just saw an officeworks advertisement at the bottom of the page of search results, advertising the same items as i have listed for a lesser price! What the hell is this all about? Is this not a total conflict of interest- encouraging buyers to leave the ebay site and purchase elsewhere? We pay ever increasing fees, to sell ever decreasing amount of items, only to have ebay stab us in the back - only rub our noses in it. No wonder everyones sales are down.

[digital*ghost]

This has been happening for a while now, and unfortunately there's not a lot that can be done about it, as there's actually a provision in the user agreement that stipulates eBay owns the advertising space you purchase and can sell portions of your advertising space to third parties. So, by using the site and listing items, we're effectively paying (if you're paying for the insertion fees) to give eBay more advertising space to sell - and agreeing to it. 

[putney32]

sadly, it is similar to advertising in the newspaper, you take out a 1/4 page ad for your TV sets and find your competitor has the other 3/4 or a page.....

fact of life, your competitors advertise where you advertise

[shipahoys_antique_and_collectable_centre]

Gotta say it works too.  The other day I was just about to buy a CD when I noticed an ebay ad showing someone else selling the same product for less than half the price of what I was nearly going to pay (never showed in my searches!).  So I clicked on the new listing found, checked feedback, and away we went.  Received today & money in my pocket from what I saved. But it's a shame for many sellers out there who are having their customers re directed away from them.  

[misflutterby2679]

So i assume this means that as sellers we too are able to advertise links to our own external websites that can offer the same items at a lower price due to lack of excessive pointless fees,in the listings we pay for, surely if they are allowed to drive business away from us we can return the favour by using them in the same way...

or would THAT be seen as a conflict of interest by the ebay GODS?

[putney32]

So i assume this means that as sellers we too are able to advertise links to our own external websites that can offer the same items at a lower price due to lack of excessive pointless fees,in the listings we pay for, surely if they are allowed to drive business away from us we can return the favour by using them in the same way...

no that would be against the Terms and Conditions of use to which you agreed with eBay when you signed up.

However, if you wish to purchase advertising on the bottom of pages such as that mentioned above by Officeworks, for your website, yes, eBay are willing to sell you that space same as they sell the space to Officeworks.

[phorum_junkie*]

You have two choices, you can use ebay to list your items and accept that it is their site, their rules, their advertising space and their right to display advertisements that bring in a considerable amount of revenue which allows them to keep their fees down or you can go off and list elsewhere.

Unless and until you are a major shareholder in ebay it is no business of yours how they choose to run their site.

[fourandsixpants]

....hence for ALL the reasons above and many more why I WILL NOT become a seller here.