Dear Brews
Do you have a question you want answered? Send me an email! 
I am starting a series called “Dear Brews” where I answer some of your questions about eBay. Send me questions you would like to have me answer on TheBrewsNews Blog. The questions need to be general in nature as I am unable to answer questions that are specific to your account only. I don’t have access to your eBay account and I do not want access to your eBay account so please limit the questions to those you can describe for me without me accessing your account. You can send me screen shots, though!
Hope to hear from you soon!
I was on eBay’s home page today and found myself looking at an ad on the eBay search bar.
a search for digital cameras
earn cash back – search msn live. I clicked to see what it was and found myself looking at ads from various brand name stores and other popular markets- such as best buy, Amazon, shopping msn, shopping yahoo, walmart, Buy.com, overstock.com, tiger direct……
For eBay to allow directly competing ads is outrageous to begin with but to actually have the ad on the eBay search bar with cash back incentives to search the outside market is over the freaking top.
I also read on the powerseller board that eBay is promoting that ebay sellers are offering free shipping, and their are buyers confused and expecting seller to provide shipping- including international shipments.
I just don’t know how to express my disgust for this company’s lack of ethics.
Mechelle
June 10, 2008
Ebay INK is a little too sensitive. I just posted a message on the blog about the ACCC rejection. The message was shown for a whole TWO MINUTES before it was pulled down. Well, in the spirit of freedom of speech and opinion, here’s the message for everyone to see here:
JJH On 06.13.2008 at 11:30 am Said:
What an arrogant company. You’re going to delay the removal of other payment methods from the site until Tuesday July 15th. You’re SO sure you will win you announce the NEW date. Unbelievable.
What part of NO don’t you understand?
I’m sure the ACCC will put it into language you can understand.
How can anyone feel good working for a company like this?
JJH
June 13, 2008
I saw that jjh, he’s suddenly censoring lot of posts.
Sandi
June 13, 2008
Yea, well, Richard is now officially a jerk to me. Censor me all you want. The truth hurts, doesn’t it?. It took you what, 3 months to be assimilated? It should be Richard Brewer-Borg. Transparency my A$$, the ink blog is nothing more than a PR outlet and a place to let people vent. You don’t even bother to answer people anymore, or even interact. What a waste. I honestly don’t know why I’m even wasting my time, there, or here. I’m done giving that A$$inine management team stuff to laugh at – us.
JJH
June 15, 2008
Did you write to the ACCC? I did and they posted it. You should write not because it really matters here because for the most part it doesn’t- we are almost all paypal- offer checks/money orders doesn’t matter they are not used often.
Here is the link where you can find the comments people are making
Scroll down you’ll know mine by name- I think I just might be the only one on the globe that spells it this way
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/823668/fromItemId/776499/display/submission
Mechelle
June 23, 2008
Pretty emotional Mechelle, but well spoken.
JJH
June 24, 2008
ebayink is holding all of my comments for moderation. Some never appear. For well over a week, nothing I posted was approved. I have never once used profanity on the site, so I’m unsure what I did to deserve that. Richard has not responded to a single email. I’m pretty disgusted that the heavy handed moderation has taken the place of an “open” communication.
Clearly, he doesn’t want dissenting opinions anymore because the blog is too negative.
Maybe it’s because no one has anything nice to say about the company anymore?
Amber
June 26, 2008
Amber, you’re clearly on the chit list now, and if you don’t see your posts within a few hours, you aren’t going to. I’ve given up on that ink blog. I don’t bother posting, and I read it a lot less often now. I don’t care anymore. Look at the recent topics. Stupid things. Who cares?
Not to mention the same crew of 10 are the ones that post 90% of the comments just harping on the same old thing over and over. It’s nothing but a place to vent. Richard has no purpose.
JJH
June 27, 2008
Amber, do you have something nice to say about the company? I didn’t think so.
JJH
June 27, 2008
LOL
That’s ok. The alienation of the regular posters will be the end of Richard’s career there anyway. He’s probably got his resume out already, since he’ll have NO posters soon.
Just ex-ebay or current ebay employees and no verified readers.
Typical ebay, though, thinking only of the short term gain and not the long term consequences.
Amber
June 30, 2008
“Just ex-ebay or current ebay employees”
Well, gee thanks guys. I post there all the time and am 90% negative. How come you don’t come over and rant on my blog? I don’t censor anything except spam.
Henrietta
July 20, 2008
I’ve done my best to approve all constructive posts that come into the blog. Sometimes, the blog filter will pick up on words that are beyond “PG” and therefore the comments get held for moderation.
I will not condone personal attacks on my blog – whether it be directed toward my employer or to a particular reader. I understand the passion behind some comments made but just as the decisions of the company effect real people and real lives… so do the words and actions on the blog.
I feel I’ve been pretty non-filtering when it comes to constructive feedback and will continue to be so.
-RBH
Richard Brewer-Hay
July 21, 2008
For the record, I wouldn’t want Richard’s job (it might actually be worse than being an eBay seller if one can imagine that even being a possibility).
I have posted some pretty harsh criticisms of eBay on Richard’s blog, some of them when I was in the heat of the “passionate” moment and, yet, all of my posts have gone through uncensored. Only one was delayed and that is because there was one or more words that triggered the blog filter. (WordPress has filters and I have to manually approve many of the comments left on my blog.) In all honesty, I am surprised that a few of my eBayInk blog posts actually made it through. When I re-read them later, I thought “ouch” that was a pretty rough thing for me to say.
I do understand sellers’ anger, frustration, and passion first-hand and I know that many folks just want to be heard. I started blogging because I felt eBay was not listening and I needed an outlet. I didn’t want to take out my eBay “passion” on my family or my customers.
My suggestion to anyone who is posting on Richard’s blog or on the eBay community boards and finding their posts censored or blocked…. start your own blog. You can start your own WordPress blog for free and post what you want. Then you have the freedom to say what you want.
thebrewsnews
July 22, 2008
I don’t think anyone in eBay understands Sellers “Anger”.
Oh sure, there were a lot of “sad faces” at eBay Live when they were on the direct receiving end of it, but it’s all a bunch of false emotion. Money. That’s it. The stock price, and Wall street.
Why do you think RBH doesn’t want personal attacks against his employer. Might effect the stock price?
Don’t believe otherwise.
JJH
August 8, 2008
Richard deserves the heat he gets because he has repeatedly posted blatantly wrong information on EBay policies on an official Ebay site. Not real good for PR…..
Needless to say, if he worked PR for me…he wouldn’t be anymoe.
jerry
August 26, 2008
What happened to the old format? I’m afraid I don’t like the changes you’ve incorporated. If I could be allowed to ask for ONE item to return, it would be the calendar that showed the days you released a blog post. Can you put that back at least?
JJH
October 10, 2008
JJH, calendar has been reinstated. Was there something else you liked about the older format that you don’t see here now?
thebrewsnews
October 11, 2008
[...] Dear Brews [...]
Sharing Information Just Got a Whole Lot More Fun « TheBrewsNews
October 15, 2008
I am a powerseller, Amazon Seller, Buy.com Seller, and sell on many other market places. I am also looking to start a blog soon
Great Work here!!
Sammie
October 15, 2008
Brews,
I posted this comment as a reply to other posts, but here it is again, let me know what you think about my assessment of eBay’s transformation.
All the recent changes are a long-shot, desperate attempt to reverse eBay’s falling stock value. So far, the long-shot is proving to be only precipitating the fall.
Basically, eBay’s decided that auctions are passe and if they can’t compete with Amazon, they have not much to loose at this point. They know very well about sellers shifting their focus to other options, but they’re thinking, oh, well, it can’t get much worse than a $14 stock, we’re most likely done here unless a miracle happens and we can actually become an Amazon competitor, and so they’re focusing on acquisitions instead (they just bought a couple of advertising companies in Europe).
I think it will be several other companies that will fill out the gap once eBay becomes as “relevant” as Half.com is(because they’re NOT going to defeat Amazon). Amazon will continue to control the media categories, and other companies will do it right within their niche market, such as Etsy.
All I’m hoping for is 1 more year to continue with the volume we do on eBay, while continuing our transition to Amazon.
Rod Sotak
October 18, 2008
The top-bunk bedwetters at ebay have seen fit to eliminate the board moderators, so the boards themselves can’t be far behind.
Why the Inkblog’s still up at this point is an absolute mystery to me. I believe ebay in its current form will close at year’s end, and a nasty reorg will ensue.
The resulting press will be abhorrent, and altogether well-deserved.
I had only wished that some of ebay’s antics came uncovered during the current presidential campaign. Ebay had the potential of becoming Romney’s reverend Wright.
permacrisis
October 18, 2008
Brews, thank you for reinstating the calendar of posts. If I could make one more request, can you have it show at the top of the page instead of the bottom? Say, directly under the “Archives: Select Month” pulldown. Thanks!
JJH
October 30, 2008
Hi there,
I was wondering if you could do a story on how the economy has been affected by the amount of ebay seller suspensions etc?
If a company was laying off as many employees as ebay has suspended sellers – it would be front page news.
Anywho – great website and thank you for listening.
formercanadianplatniumpowerseller
November 13, 2008
It would be lovely if you could add to your description of the Monday talkShoe Auction Wally show that it is a Bonanzle Community Show, news, tips and chat
Henrietta
November 18, 2008
Hi there,
I think that best match is backwards again. it’s returning all the worst sellers up front and the best ones at the back..
Are you hearing anyone else report this?
Im a gold powerseller with 100% feedback and I have no listings at all on the first page of search results.
Im on the phone with ebay right now and they are off in another world!
let me know if others are complaining
thanks!!
Nicole
nicole
November 25, 2008
Nicole, I checked a few of my categories and didn’t see anything amiss. What category(ies) are you looking at?
thebrewsnews
November 25, 2008
Hey thanks for checking.. I am specifically looking at the search term, “wedding cameras”. I don’t see any of my listings on the first page of results at all..and typically I have 10 listings right at the top. All I see is my featured plus listing that I paid $75 for. Uggh. I called Gold Powerseller support and they are not seeing an issue.
So strange..
nicole
November 25, 2008
I often look at ebay’s deal of the day and today was something my son sure could use for xmas so I purchased it. There were still over 1200 items left so I thought I was in good shape until I received this email:
Hello x,
Thank you for shopping at Buy.com.
At Buy.com we strive to provide the widest assortment of high-quality products at the lowest
prices on earth. However, sometimes circumstances beyond our control affect our selection.
We were recently informed that the item listed below from order #44467019
is no longer available from that supplier. Please accept our sincere apologies for this inconvenience.
Your order for this product has been automatically cancelled. If you paid by credit card, you will not be charged. If you paid by another method of payment, for example PayPal or GoogleCheckout, please allow 2 business days to process your refund.
Order #xxxxxxxxx
sku – 202592346 : description – Plantronics Audio 370 Gaming Headset, 71018-14
If you have any questions, please contact customer support at http://www.buy.com/support.
Sincerely,
Customer Support Team
Please do not reply to this message. It was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming email. Instead, please contact us via our webform at http://www.buy.com/support
so ebay is running specials that it cannot even deliver- their deal of the day is a bunch of bull- unorganized and as a buyer it totally ruined my buying experience. Unbelievable.
nikki
December 16, 2008
What’s going on with Auctiva? There are all of these warnings that Auctiva may harm your computer. This is rather annoying as I use Auctiva for my listings to get multiple photos for free. I cannot even check my account. Is this eBays ploy to know Auctiva out of commission?
Runel Burns
February 22, 2009