Red Ink Diary

Title from a song by Australian icon Rolf Harris, lyrics here. A little warm up before we get to the serious stuff!

After eBay Australia won the dubious distinction of a record breaking number of public submissions to the ACCC in opposition to their proposed PayPal Only in Australia policy, things have changed, on the surface.

Simon Smith got simplified or went walkabout and eBay Australia implemented a new ‘by invitation only program’ to communicate with their sellers called eSayers. Participants agree to answer a minimum of 2 surveys within a 6 month period.

“eBay wants to hear what you have to say about eBay.com.au – its features, policies, changes, fees and what you like or dislike about buying and selling on the website. That’s why we’ve created eSayers, the eBay.com.au member panel where you have the chance to give us, the eBay team, feedback on a number of topics that affect everyone who buys and sells on Australia’s leading online marketplace.”

If past experience in the USA is anything to go by, questions will be carefully and systematically framed to allow only the answers eBay wants to get. Then, to quote our friend Usher Lieberman they can say “We listened to our sellers, and this was an opportunity to show we can move quickly and be responsive”

Then of course there are the usual eBay glitches to contend with:

You may see the first survey here. You You may see You may see the first surveyYou may see the first survey here.

Comments on the Australian boards would indicate the surveys are Canadian in origin. This adds an extra layer of potential for cultural confusion because Australians, Canadians and Americans are not all the same. Eh?

Y’all come back!

My friends at the Brews News noted glitches at PayPal in their blog earlier this week. The eBay boards have been in uproar about it since the morning of October 28th.

“Well so far PayPal has not manually released my funds from my unclaimed eChecks, as they had promised. My Buyers are not happy, as they of course already see their funds cleared from their account.

I ask PayPal if they would as least send emails to the buyers affected to explain. They acted like, “why?”. I had to explain it three times before they even understood how the buyers expect shipments after they pay. It’s like they don’t even understand how eBay works!”

“PayPal now has $1000 of mine on hold FOR NO REASON AT ALL, which makes it pretty hard to run a business. If they, for example, have only 2000 $250 ‘holds’ at any time, that’s half a million of our money they are earning interest on.”

That is five days ago and co-incidentally the same morning John Canfield, eBays’ Senior Director for Fraud Prevention Policy made an announcement regarding eBays Shill Bidding Initiative

Based on the positive results we’ve seen by anonymizing bidder User IDs, as well as our commitment to protecting all bidders from becoming targets for fraudsters, we’ve decided to extend anonymized User IDs to winning bidders, as well. This change will be implemented sometime this week.

Included in the announcement was an update on the Trusted Selling with Identity Confirmation plan. That is the one where if you attempt to use eBay with a computer they have not seen before, they freeze your account and make an automated telephone call. If you are not home, or like me, do not have touch tone telephone service, you get to deal with Live Helpless. Hello hello!

But I digress!

I asked a question on eBayInkBlog several times this year to which Richard Brewer-Hay was unable to get a sensible answer, although he did try. A post introducing Rich LaMagna this week offered an opportunity which I took. Much to my surprise Mr LaMagna responded. In fact, he responded to everyone who posted, not just the cheerleaders. Positive Feedback to him.

Remember the minor news item earlier this year about fake Skype subscriptions being used to defraud PayPal accounts? Here is a well written complaint dating back to March 2008.

The Industry Standard, a San Francisco based publication, features news and analysis that covers emerging technologies and companies, venture funding, acquisitions, site launches, and other developments in the internet space. An articlegoes into great detail including many informative screenshots.

As you can see from the screenshots we received, the phony subscription includes what appear to be Chinese characters in the Billing Description field, and all links are dummy links in the sections for logging back into the PayPal account and reporting errors. In addition, the email address for the “seller” is listed as “unavailable.” PayPal was quick to reverse the charges, but our tipster also had to cancel the credit card account, and PayPal offered no explanation for the problem.A request made by The Industry Standard to eBay regarding the issues did not receive a reply.

I am wondering if there is any connection to the ‘glitch’ above. What do you think?

Y’all come back!

Links & Related Articles

- The Industry Standard 10.28.2008

- Orange County Register June 2007