Ebay: A Lose/lose/lose sitution.

Article first published as Ebay: A Lose/Lose/Lose Situation on Technorati.

Ebay. The ingenious concept that allows anyone who wants to sell something to not only a national but an international pool of potential buyers. The Ebay success stories of sellers making six figure yearly income just staying at home selling on Ebay have been touted far and wide.  At one time it was great, however if you listen, you will hear lots of grumblings how Ebay has raised their fees over the years, and if you do a simple google search, you will find a plethora of reasons why sellers feel Ebay is really harming them. Among them:

* Illegitimate feedback
If a buyer gives you a negtive feedback for no reason, you can’t remove it. There goes your entire reputation and sometimes your entire business.

* Annoying rules
For example in the last 12 hours of an auction you can’t change images. A potential buyer emailed a seller to notify they had put the wrong picture on the auction page.  There was no bid but because there were only 10 hours left, the seller couldn’t change the picture, and what do you know, no sale.

* Bogus buyers
No more negative feedback for bogus buyers, meaning that buyers who don’t pay for their winning bids cannot be penalized by the seller. This too destroys the entire feedback system.

* Fees
Ebay’s sale commission is a good chunk plus you have to pay for every listing detail practically. Subtitle: $.50, picture: $.25, bold title: $1, etc.

* PayPal
If you use PayPal, which is very handy for eBay selling, you’re going to be ripped off. They continually take more and more commissions. Plus eBay owns PayPal so you are charged 3 times, listing, commission and PayPal!

* Refunds
Someone can buy your item using PayPal, receive the item, and then lie and say that it was not shipped. PayPal will then refund them the entire purchase amount. 

* Shipping
Everything relies on shipping. The postal service once lost a small expensive package that was sold; the buyer had not paid for insurance. So the seller had to wait for weeks to find out what happened, and then reimburse the item from their pocket.
 
* Terrible customer service
If you have a problem with a sale or purchase, you have to go through bots and finally days later receive a humans actual help.
 
Ebay also has a dark side no one wants to talk about. I am going to relay a situation to give an example. Follow along, and feel the tension grow...
Imagine you buy something for $450.00, your needs suddenly change, and you no longer need the item. It is in perfect new condition, but you can't return it where you bought it, so you think, "OK, I will list it on Ebay". Sure... simple enough.

You post it on Ebay for a 7 day standard auction, listing the item at $200.00. The listing ends with a winning bid, the buyer sends you an email saying they need it shipped to Nigeria. A little surprised, you inform the buyer that there will be extra shipping that you hadn't anticipated.

You then receive an email from the buyer stating they have sent you payment via "PayPal" and they are in a hurry for you to send the item immediately. Logging into your Paypal, you find there has been no payment made to your account. When you question the buyer, they never respond, and the phone number listed as a contact for the buyer is disconnected. The buyer isn't buying or sending you money.

Not only aren't you making a sale, Ebay has already charged you $20.00 as a FINAL VALUE FEE on the item that you never got paid for, and you haven't shipped yet. TO get this refunded due to a non paying bidder, you must file a claim with Ebay, and per their policy Per, you then have to wait 4 days past the end of the auction before Ebay will allow you to file a non paying bidder claim. Ebay sends the buyer another notice to pay, and you have to wait another 4 days for the buyer to respond. (8 days total after the end of the auction.)

15 days after you first posted the item, ebay finally gives you a FINAL VALUE CREDIT.

Because it is 8 days after the end of the auction, other bidders have moved on, thinking they lost the auction to the winning bidder, so you can't make an offer to any of them, so you decide to re-list the item, optimistic the second time around will bring a solid transaction.

Rinse and repeat. The same thing. A different bidder wins the auction, but this time,
there is no response to emails, and the phone number listed is an area code 809-XXX-XXXX. This is a variant of the 809 Area Code Scam.

You now have to wait another 8 days to get your final value fee refunded.

30 days since you first posted the listing, 2 non sales, disheartened, you reluctantly re-list your item yet again for the third time. Another 7 day auction listing results in a winning bid. This time, there is no response, and no sale.

This is an actual situation, not a fabricated example. 15 + 15 + 15 = 45 Days have passed, 3 failed auction transactions in a row. What's wrong with this picture?

EBAY POLICIES...geared against sellers, letting an undesirable element run rampant on their system. There isn't any real protection for a buyer, in fact, the buyers are protected. A single buyer can bid and NOT PAY on 3 separate occasions before they are banned from Ebay.

What Ebay SHOULD do:

#1. A winning bidder should pay within 24 hours of the end of the auction, or at least contact the seller within 24 hours to confirm they are going to pay.

#2. If a winning bidder doesn't pay, that would be an instant 30 day ban. If they do it again, permanent ban.


#3. When an auction ends, all bidders are put on standby notice for 24 hours till the willing bidder pays. If they don't pay, #2 applies, PLUS the next highest bidder is offered the item. This would prevent a lost sale due to runner-ups going elsewhere to buy.


#4. Lower the ebay listing and final value fees. It's an automated website for Pete's sake, lower your prices, more people will sell and more buyers will come. Between Ebay fees, and PayPal fees (also owned by Ebay) they are getting approx 11% of your total sale price.

Have YOU had a bad experience with Ebay? Leave your story and comments, I would love to hear what you have to say!

Desperate Houseplants Tweet For Help!

Article first published as Desperate Houseplants Tweet For Help! on Technorati.

Everyone, their brother, and their dog are on Twitter. The latest Twitter stats, say they have 106 Million user accounts, with 300,000 joining every day, with 180 Million unique daily visitors. Now, just when you thought it was safe to go out, the next revolution in social networking has landed.

There is no longer any need to stay home and talk to your plants.
Now your houseplants can tweet you.

An ingenious electronic device (sku: KIT-10334) from SparkFun, offers a connection to your leafy pal via online Twitter status updates to your mobile phone.

When your plant needs water, it will post to let you know. Forget RSS feeds, Pffft. This is an S.O.S. feed! Plus, it sends its thanks when you show it love. Now when is the last time your cat thanked you?

It comes as a kit, so you can hone your soldering skills, (or teach someone else), while you build an essential line of communication between you and your houseplant, so you can bond and have a dedicated relationship!


It comes with everything you need to get your plant tweeting in no time, pre-programmed, but you can customize it with your own messages. The only thing you need to provide is a plant, network connection (and ethernet cable), and a power outlet. Unfortunately, it will set you back $99.95... per device.

If you are like most people, you have several house plants. This enters the territory of serious ethical dilemmas, as you will have to decide which is your favorite plant of all, among the little cries from all the other plants that come to the realization that you don't love them as much. :P


Comments? Leave them below and be sure to share this with your friends.

Merchants check out the cash cloud

Article first published as Merchants Check Out the Cash Cloud on Technorati.

Congratulations! You decided you wanted to go into business for yourself, you through and thought, had a brainstorm to decide what you wanted to do, you carefully rented a storefront location, stocked it with your chosen specialty, advertised, and after significant expense and cash outlay, you are open and ready for business... but ARE you really prepared?

One of THE most important things a merchant needs, and should invest their time setting up, is usually the one most often overlooked, or at best, not optimized for maximum efficiency. What could this possibly be? Three little letters.

P. O. S. - Point Of Sale. The buck quite literally stops here.


Elaborate Point Of Sale systems are usually quite expensive, you need an I.T. technical person to set it up for you, and maintenance and understanding how to use it is a massive problem for most merchants. Most times it backfires, and you will actually still see some merchants using nothing more than a cash drawer.


Well all that that has changed. Vend has come up with a revolutionary way to take the complicated electronic cash register systems and make them as simple to use as a cash drawer.

There is no software to install, no intricate set up, no contracts, and the price is manageable for even the smallest Mom & Pop storefronts.

Vend has moved everything off your computer, and into the Cloud. If you can use a web browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, etc.) you can use the Vend system.

It automatically lets you keep track of your customers, accounts, record a sale directly against a customer account, and process payments against that account at another location or on another date. You can organize your customers into groups, and also view a full sales history for each account.

This is IMPORTANT, because the only business worth having, is REPEAT BUSINESS.
If you are only using a cash drawer, or a regular cash register, when your customer walks out your door, what are the chances you will see them back again? By keeping tabs on them, you can interact, invite them back with coupons, promotions, and much more.


Vend is scalable from one register, to multiple registers at multiple locations. They have done an amazing job of keeping the user interface clean and uncluttered, so when it comes time for the all important check out, it's quick, easy, and fun to use.


I have seen many different POS systems, and in my experience, Vend is by far the best economically, technically, and for ease of use, freeing a merchants frazzled mind to focus on the important things, like running their business.

The good news: Everything above, plus you can use Vend free to start with.

Caveats: The free trial is limited to 200 products and any sales data you enter is erased after a week.