Hi Everyone,
I lurk here frequently, but I don’t believe I’ve ever posted at this plumeria forum before. I’ve delurked to start a discussion about a change in the way eBay lists bidders on auctions. Now, when you look at the bidding history on an item, the bidders are listed as a***b, c***d, j***r, and so on. You can no longer tell whom you are bidding against. This means you can’t tell if you are bidding against a friend, or if you are bidding against a shill.
Below is a link to an eBay bidding forum thread about eBay’s changing their display to hide bidder’s identities. Please add your eBay name to the list of people who object to this poorly thought out idea. Ask your friends in cyberspace and meatspace who have eBay accounts to weigh in on this subject at the thread below.
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=2000298866&tstart=0&mod=1204869783605
Philip
Protest eBay Changing The Way Bids Are Listed
Please take the time to explain exactly why you have a problem with this
Be 100% professional and courteous and I will forward it to a friend of mine who works for e-bay at a very high level.
While you have a list that is being submitted, my friend appreciates feedback on such things as he is involved in development.
Thanks!!
I think ONE reason EBay started this is because sometimes mean competitors will contact bidders who are bidding on your plants and tell them not to, or plant doubts in their minds.
On the other side there are indeed sellers from whom the public should be protected. I think EBay just got tired of complaints about lost sales because of people contacting bidders whether for good, or, for bad reasons, and this resulted in cancelled bids, which is also lost revenue for Ebay if the item doesn't sell.
Ok, here are my reasons for objecting to hiding bidder identity and detailed history:
I can’t tell if I’m bidding against a friend or relative
It makes it impossible to tell if one or more bidders are shills
I can’t analyze another bidder’s past performance as part of my bid strategy
Bidding under these conditions is like entering a pitch-black room full of strangers while holding money
Any interest area has acknowledged experts; their actions can lead you to good sellers you were unaware of, or clue you in to take a look at what they are bidding on
Sellers are not able to see that someone with a history of nonpayment or other problematic behavior is bidding on their item
On a related note: baring sellers from leaving feedback on buyers deprives one of clues about someone’s probable behavior if they later become a seller
I understand that eBay is trying to protect buyers from unscrupulous people, however, this has deprived me of much of the information I use to protect myself. I no longer trust eBay auctions because transparency is gone. Many bidders will feel the same way; sellers will experience less bidding activity and lower sale prices.
Philip
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Edit: It seems I was mistaken about sellers not being able to see the identities of bidders. On the eBay forum threads discussing the changes, early posts by sellers before the changes were implemented indicated they believed they would be deprived of information about the bidders’ identities. Posts made after the changes show this is not the case and I apologize for any confusion I caused in this area.
Because sellers can no longer leave feedback on buyers, there is no way sellers can research bidders through the eBay system. I have come across an outside effort to collect the ID’s of bidders that have been blocked by various sellers, collect them into a centralized list, and redistribute them to all sellers. Because it’s an outside effort, I can see a lot of potential problems with this. Not all sellers will participate, vindictive additions to the list being made, personal information falling into the wrong hands are a few of the problems I see with this.
Philip
This message was edited Mar 9, 2008 11:43 AM
Hold on a minute---- thought that sellers listing an item could still see the identity of the person bidding??? Did I miunderstand your post? I thought that when I list an item at least I alone could see who was bidding. I have certain people blocked from bidding and occasionally still have the need to add one or two more each seson because of various negative situations. I haven't started listing for the year as of yet, so someone please enlighten me. I might consider going elsewhere this year instead if this is the case with EBay.
Brad,
I was mistaken about sellers not being able to see bidders' IDs. See the edit to my post above yours.
Philip
Okay Philip--thanks,
One more question-- you are saying that if I have a buyer that refuses to pay and is a royal pain in the you know what, that I can no longer leave feedback for him/her? What? You are saying only buyers can leave sellers feedback?? If this is true it is indeed creepy! The majority of buyers are decent folk, but man, there is indeed the occasional unpleasant individual. I would hate to think Ebay no longer supports sellers.
I’ve been relying on what I’ve been reading in eBay’s message board about feedback from sellers. Apparently, because eBay didn’t do a good job of publicizing intended changes beforehand, there has been a great deal of confusion on the part of sellers, buyers, and people who fall into both categories. I’ve copied below the part of an eBay announcement to sellers that talks about changes in feedback for sellers. Note that sellers can only leave positive feedback.
Philip
3. Feedback Changes
Significant changes coming soon will increase buyer confidence and showcase good sellers.
* Buyers will only be able to receive positive Feedback.
* Positive repeat customer Feedback will count and Feedback more than 12 months old won't.
* Negative and neutral Feedback left by the buyer will be removed for transactions in which a buyer doesn't respond to the Unpaid Item (UPI) or if the member is suspended.
ernnnttt....
Im glad my ebay rush of purchasing madness has passed
I have enough private sources to feed my need now.
I will still sell on ebay though, for now..