eBay

nobody*s_perfect · ‎03-02-2023

From today's Boston Globe:

The revised lawsuit included a bevy of evidence that emerged during the sentencings, including an eBay Powerpoint presentation to the US Attorneys Office conceding that actions of its former employees were “clearly criminal” and that former chief executive Devin Wenig’s “tone was improper and unacceptable.” The presentation also said the company did not find evidence that Wenig “directed or knew that criminal acts would occur.”

Baugh, during his sentencing, admitted to concocting the plot, saying he was a former covert operative for the CIA and FBI, where he learned to lie about his work. Baugh apologized for his actions and said he was “completely out of control” due to alcohol abuse....

The revised lawsuit added Wendy Jones, eBay’s former senior vice president of operations and Baugh’s direct supervisor, as a defendant. Jones asked Baugh to deal with complaints about the Steiners’ website and comments on the site, according to the lawsuit, and her failure to properly oversee Baugh was a “proximate cause” of the harassment.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/03/02/business/natick-couple-refiles-lawsuit-against-ebay-saying-th...

valueaddedresource · ‎03-03-2023

@deltilogical wrote:
"Baugh, during his sentencing, admitted to concocting the plot, saying he was a former covert operative for the CIA and FBI,"

Is this true? It explains a lot, since the 3 letter agencies keep proving their allegiance to China not the USA

@deltilogical - according to court documents in the various criminal and civil cases, Baugh did have some past involvement with FBI and/or CIA, but the exact nature and degree of that involvement isn't entirely clear.

farmalljr · ‎03-03-2023

@luckythewinner wrote:
@chapeau-noir wrote:
Peter Pan syndrome.

Ina's blog has been going for over 20 years and covers a lot more than eBay.
The top 6 posts on Ina's blog today include 5 stories about eBay, all negative.

I'm not defending eBay's criminal behavior, but ecommercebytes is focused on eBay and is generally critical.

Has the thought crossed your mind, that MAYBE there are far more people unhappy with eBay, it's actions, it's policies, etc. then there are HAPPY people?

I don't know Ina or her husband. I am not a fanboy. I do not post on her articles. But her journalism is truth. I have never seen an article attacking eBay or any platform. I have seen articles about things happening, articles about seller's displeasure with those things.

You have MILLIONS of small businesses working with eBay, and you have ONE giant corporation doing things that hurt those MILLIONS of small sellers. It's affecting families. It's affecting the economy of those sellers. I don't know about you, buy I am concerned when it comes to my ability to make money. I am concerned when roadblocks are put in my way. I am concerned when someone else wants to seize control of my sales, my income, and treat me like a peon worker, rather than the self employed small business that I am.

It's been said many time that the people on the forums are a small slice of the overall picture. I would honestly asses the overall picture as people are NOT happy at all with eBay. Buyers and sellers continue to decline every quarter. GMV continues to decline every quarter. 80+% of the posts are complaints about selling here. I don't know about you, but I take that as a clue. I don't think Ina is "critical", I think she is reporting what is happening. If anything, I think she leaves it to the reader to make those judgements.

valueaddedresource · ‎03-03-2023

@isokernus wrote:
Wish they put this type of effort into customer service.

@isokernus - so the *really* ironic thing about that statement is - SVP Global Operations Wendy Jones (who was head of security Jim Baugh's direct supervisor and recently added as a defendant in the civil suit) was also in charge of eBay's global customer service efforts as part of that job title. 👀

https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/wendy-jones-promoted-to-svp-global-operations/

At eBay Open in August 2017, SVP Global Operations & Customer Service Wendy Jones acknowledged eBay had a lot of work to do, saying:

Our reality today is that we don't make it easy for our customers. The rules and the systems are too complex, they are at times inconsistent, and in today's digital world of ecommerce, they're too slow.

She also said the company culture was changing when it comes to customer service starting with a new internal mission statement:

Our Unifying Purpose. We exist to help our customers and solve their problems in the quickest, simplest, easiest way possible… and make them feel great about eBay along the way.

That's also when Jones and then VP Customer Experience, North America Cathal McCarthy unveiled plans for Concierge support which was initially promoted as an invite only program, it was made clear (at the time) the plan was to make many parts of Concierge the standard support experience for all eBay sellers within 18 months....which of course we all know now didn't really happen.

Almost a year later, despite having not made much progress on "fixing customer service at eBay", Wenig awarded Jones an $11 Million bonus ($8 Million of which was specifically ear-marked as a retention bonus) which seemed particularly tone deaf given the round of layoffs the company undertook around the same time.

Slide from eBay 2019 Shareholder Meeting deck

So yeah....you are definitely not wrong about the wasted time and resources that could have been put to *much* better uses over the years.

coolections · ‎03-03-2023

@luckythewinner I went to that site one time and will never return. Nothing but haters hang there.

retro_entertainment_collectibles · ‎03-03-2023

I read eSeller365.com and find it reasonably reasonable and interesting at times.

retro_entertainment_collectibles · ‎03-03-2023

@coolections wrote:
@luckythewinner I went to that site one time and will never return. Nothing but haters hang there.

As my father used to say, "Hater's gotta hate, fater's gotta fate, waiters gotta wait and later's always late!" LOL.

partfinds · ‎03-03-2023

Same as here. So you say that people deserve threats and harrassment because they criticise Ebay?

partfinds · ‎03-03-2023

„Being critical isn't a crime. All bringing it up does is prove that eBay's response to criticism is completely out of line, unreasonable, and frankly insane. ”

Nailed it 🎯

esg-enterprises · ‎03-03-2023

@coolections similar to the way many on this board are treated by the employee posters anytime they question or portray anything negative about eBay. I agree with you, it is disturbing.

chapeau-noir · ‎03-03-2023

@esg-enterprises wrote:
@coolections similar to the way many on this board are treated by the employee posters anytime they question or portray anything negative about eBay. I agree with you, it is disturbing.

The 'employee posters' are all clearly designated as eBay employees. The rest us get called 'eBay shills' here for completely free. Whatta deal!

When you dine with leopards, it is wise to check the menu lest you find yourself as the main course.

#freedomtoread
#readbannedbooks

retro_entertainment_collectibles · ‎03-03-2023

@chapeau-noir wrote:
@esg-enterprises wrote:
@coolections similar to the way many on this board are treated by the employee posters anytime they question or portray anything negative about eBay. I agree with you, it is disturbing.
The 'employee posters' are all clearly designated as eBay employees. The rest us get called 'eBay shills' here for completely free. Whatta deal!

Speaking from experience I can say moderating forums is not a whole lot of fun at all. I still help at times moderate a political and a tech/coding forum and well... Like I said, not a great deal of fun albeit I've made many friends. Both the forums have just literal buckets more people than are on these forums and conversations especially in the one are far far far more disturbing and heated. I've great respect for anyone who care moderate forums, of course I volunteer but if I had to do it 8 hours a day? Need pay me $50+ an hour especially if I need be a fountain of knowledge on every detail of say eBay.

I ran a Multiple Sclerosis site for some years, very comprehensive venue with real medical professionals, Patient Associations and even Pharma on board towards goals. That said, you would not believe the attacks endured not just from patients who have something scream about having NO idea of the details they're screaming of not to mention other venues attacks. When ya' have every patient association on the planet telling you, "We're with ya... Use any digital assets we have towards goals..." and Pharma allowing exclusive access to content, research pieces vetted and more other patient driven entities want destroy it! UNBELIEVABLE but true. Doing that work I never received a red cent and it was a 5 day a week sometimes 10 hour a day job.

My point is we tend see things from our focal perspectives and that really limits our vision into realities. We see this all over American right now in our politics for example. I don't pretend know any solutions to any of it be that eBay, Multiple Sclerosis or Politics but what I do know is the more I know the better I understand.

partfinds · ‎03-03-2023

@chapeau-noir you should file complain with DOL that Ebay doesn’t pay you or fellow volunteers in any way for work you do. Why do you all do that for Ebay? Are you threatened since it is not about pay?

monroe67 · ‎03-03-2023

". . . you should file complain with DOL that Ebay doesn’t pay you or fellow volunteers in any way for work you do."

chapeau-noir:

That test we were talking about yesterday should include some vocabulary words, like "volunteer."

monroe67 · ‎03-03-2023

"Being critical isn't a crime. All bringing it up does is prove that eBay's response to criticism is completely out of line, unreasonable, and frankly insane."

Wow. That's painting with a broad brush.

What the Steiners' lawsuit proved is that the responses of some people who held (past tense) positions of authority at eBay were completely out of line, unreasonable, and frankly insane.

Indeed: one of the convicted defendants admitted he was a lying drunk which caused his actions to be out of line.

partfinds · ‎03-03-2023

@monroe67

i would never believe it that “volunteers” contribute here because of love for Ebay or because they love sellers so much . Simply probably there is different form of payments like benefits or maybe undocumented pay.

all in all “volunteers” sell on Ebay too so maybe there is something involved with better sales, traffic, etc.