eBay wants sellers' race, gender, sexual identity & disability information now.

[shop_giftworthy]

Have we finally become employees?  When do we get our paychecks?

Sorry, but this survey they put out bothers me. When someone creates an account on eBay to sell something, it's anonymous in regard to any of that type of information. Everyone's on equal footing here when they sign up. If they accurately describe their items, price them fairly, ship timely and take care of their customers in a friendly and responsible manner, why does race MATTER? Why does gender MATTER? Why does sexual orientation MATTER?

If I buy a pair of jeans or shoes from someone, I don't care what color they are or if they're gay. I just want to be thanked for my business and receive my item timely. And if it doesn't arrive, I want them to handle the situation responsibly. One human being to another.

My fear is that eBay is planning to target certain groups by suppressing their listings and reducing their income. Look at Facebook, Twitter and Google. Or eBay may decide to pull an "affirmative action" type of stunt where they give minorities lower final value fees or cheaper store subscriptions.  Maybe they'll decide to increase their commissions on sales of the Bible, and lower commissions on sales of the Quran. It's all political now, and it looks like eBay wants in on the game. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, they've been acting like they're too big for their britches for years now.

Anyway, NONE of this information should matter to eBay.  Except in cases of their actual eBay employees, which we sellers are not. We have to pay them!  They're opening themselves up to discrimination lawsuits as well - when sellers' sales start to fall off and business goes down and their listings are not coming to the top of search results when they did before, etc... Now they have a way to sue eBay for it. 

Their survey says the responses will be anonymized - do you really believe that?  I DON'T.  It's all recorded, because you can't fill out the survey without being logged in.  I encourage all sellers who want to stay on equal footing with all other sellers to email eBay at sellerdiversity@ebay.com and express your opinion about them trying to gather this information. Tell them it's quite frankly - NONE of their business. I filled out the survey and checked the "choose not to respond" on everything. Just to let them know I took the time and effort to let them know it's none of their business.

How much further is eBay going to go to micromanage sellers, and then charge them fees on top of it?  It bothers me enough that people who sell DVD's and games pay lower fees than I do in my category - but I can't call that discrimination because I choose which products to sell and I chose the category I sell in. It's not fair that I pay higher fees than DVD sellers - because eBay wants to compete with Amazon, but it's not personal discrimination. It's unfair pricing practices on eBay's part. If you ask me, it should all be equal across the board -especially with the fees we all have to pay.

Ask yourself, what possible purpose could eBay have for requesting this information from sellers?  Are they going to ask buyers, too? I highly doubt they'd get away with that! Of course they wouldn't - they want the buyers to spend money so they get their FVF commissions. So why do want to know what race, gender, sexual identity, disability, etc... from sellers who pay them rent for a spot in their marketplace?

Are they just curious to know what the demographics are? NO.  They wouldn't go through the effort for idle curiosity.  There's only one reason for gathering this info on people who are not employees. They plan to engage in discrimination and listing suppression. Just like Facebook did and Google, and Twitter.

Keep an eye on your listing impressions, promoted listings and your sales! If they start to fall off for no apparent reason, call an attorney.