Ebay to cut 1500 workers

[seobro]

They say that business is deteriorating. Ebay has started to lose ground. I knew this day was coming. Ebay told us we could not sell ebooks for digital download in the auction. That vendors could not leave feedback.

They raise their rates when we are struggling to get by and when we complain they laugh at us. Well, now Ebay is going down, and it is about time!

Ebay may cut 1,500 jobs: Barron's | Reuters

[daddyoh]

Wow! That's big news and bad news for eBay.
`I'll bet you're right about it having something to do with
the digital products ban but it also says something bad about
the economy when eBay is (possibly) cutting jobs.

eBay must be thinking about trying to cut costs.
Why? Are sales down? Is income down? Are sellers leaving eBay?
Are buyers not buying? Yes, yes, yes and yes.

To me, it says there are less people spending money there because
they have less money to spend (anywhere).

There are way more buyers there than sellers.
I wonder if eBay could be considered a "leading economic indicator"?

[Magic Mel]

Ebay was a great auction site for many years but due to their stipulations and price hikes many aren't ebaying as much anymore, can't blame them at all.

[Kay King]

What it says is "ebay MAY cut" - though I expect it may be correct.

I don't think it it has anything to do with digital downloads - but with the lack of discretionary spending in this economy and the loss of trust ebay has had among consumers. The prices are no longer lower than other places in many categories, shipping costs are high, ratings are manipulated and ebay has done nothing to stop the flow of fake knockoff products being shipped as "original" or to verify country of origin.

When the fees were raised I saw that as a signal that ebay was trying to hold its profit line. The digital download area looked like a "Dollar Store" and was probably generating more complaints than it was worth.

Prices on ebay are no longer the bargains they were and time after time I find products I need sold at lower cost on Amazon - with free shipping and 2-4 day delivery.

As long as the economy was great, ebay got sales from people browsing and buying impulsively. At a time when buyers are buying only what they need, ebay is losing out to Amazon's lower prices, trustworthiness and free shipping.

It might be a good move for ebay to cut back and reorganize a bit for future growth.

kay

[KimW]

EBay made their biggest mistake when they opened the EBay stores.
That totally changed the whole concept of the site.
It was no longer an "auction" site.
Kim

[Darrell Hagan]

Originally Posted by KimW

EBay made their biggest mistake when they opened the EBay stores.
That totally changed the whole concept of the site.
It was no longer an "auction" site.
Kim

Yup, I agree. And things have gotten much worse since eBay decided to alienate their sellers too.

As I said in another post a few days ago, if eBay is your primary source of income, then at some point you will likely be very,very sorry.

[ahuddy]

eBay used to be the easiest way to make money online. But when they raised the rates, things started going downhill. Then they have made some bad decisions with their site, I stopped using the site awhile ago for both buying and selling. eBay was always the first place I checked for anything when I was buying something too. Now it's craigslist.

[rmholla]

I use to shop eBay all the time but the site isn't what it use to be. They ticked off sellers and buyers alike.

Rhonda

[jasonl70]

Over the past few years they 'lost their way'... And with the new ceo totaly taking them off course, it doesn't surprise me. The customer service is HORRID, and the fees are out of control (then add the pay pal fees, which they own)..

[valerieSONORA]

Ebay isn't going to die anytime soon though they are having troubles. But it looks like 1500 may be unemployed soon. While they are signing up for unemployment or welfare or looking through the help wanted ads, ebay will keep going on.

[Richard Tunnah]

I used to sell and buy on ebay for years but not recently that was until I sold a few items off for charity. Then it went wrong big style. I noticed I had £98 worth of fees due. I thought I owed £7.50 so a huge difference. I paid this then contacted them via live help. They said it's a mistake and I had paid the correct amount only to suspend my account a few days later for non payment. This went back and forth for a few weeks with ebay refusing to resolve it or take my phone call (I have a business powerseller account but used my buying non-powerseller account for these item sales). Next I got a letter demanding payment plus costs of a further £80. I was furious and sued them. I had printed out their correspondence where their reps said I didn't owe this money. Ebay accepted they made a mistake and 3 months later they settled. How stupid of them. If only someone took responsibility in ebay and sorted this then it could have been sorted within a day or so. That's me gone from ebay.

Rich

[vorales]

I was thinking to buy and sell on ebay and do some business where i can earn a bit.

What you guys advice , is it safe to work with ebay?

[myob]

I noticed a reduction in bids, but business is still doing very well overall. I sell business equipment, tools, and electronics. You really can't beat it for generating traffic to your website.

[bgmacaw]

The 10% figure makes me think that they're gearing up to do a "Rank and Yank", the GE/Jack Welch/Enron thing where politically unpopular troublesome employees are shown the door while brown-nosers get promoted or get raises.

[MoBuck$]

eBay had to see this day coming. I honestly think it is Karma, or they just wanted to get as much $$$$ as they could, then just drop people as business drops.

I kinda see it as "using" people. You hire someone to do your dirty work (employees), while you rank in the Big Paydays.

Then when sht hits the fan..... bye bye hard-working employess.

[Paleruby]

I notice Ebay has recently made it where the only form of payment is Paypal (no more checks or M.O.s) Gee that should boost the bottom line for Ebay with the transaction fees from Paypal. Of course if you buy something from me I'll take your M.O. or check. Just Email me.

brad

[Chri5123]

Originally Posted by seobro

They say that business is deteriorating. Ebay has started to lose ground. I knew this day was coming. Ebay told us we could not sell ebooks for digital download in the auction. That vendors could not leave feedback.

They raise their rates when we are struggling to get by and when we complain they laugh at us. Well, now Ebay is going down, and it is about time!

Ebay may cut 1,500 jobs: Barron's | Reuters

I think that this has been some of the reason for them losing ground, I tried using them a few months ago with physical goods and the same things I used to sell did not get half as many views.

[Mary Gallivan]

I used to love ebay and it was my starting point on Internet marketing.

First I was buying and selling bits and pieces then gradually moved into digital products where I became a powerseller and made quite a nice income.

Things soon changed though as most of you know, and we parted company. It doesn't really surprise me that they are having problems.

Mary

[derekwong28]

It just shows that even a monopoly can have bad times. Google watch out!

[George Wright]

Hi All,

Don't forget that eBay owns PayPal. If anything happens to PayPal that will affect most of us.

George Wright

[Ernie Lonardo]

"Ebay is going down, and it is about time!"

LOL come on...Ebay isn't going anywhere.

They're still making a killing and are still making profit, there anal "managers" just want them to reach certain targets and that's why their laying off 1,500 employees...because they need to kiss each others asses...that's what happens with big companies.

[Chris Lockwood]

Originally Posted by daddyoh

To me, it says there are less people spending money there because
they have less money to spend (anywhere).

There are way more buyers there than sellers.
I wonder if eBay could be considered a "leading economic indicator"?

To me it says ebay is screwing up with their numerous bad policy changes.

In a slowing economy, people would be MORE likely to go to sites like ebay to try to pick up bargains.

Is Walmart laying off any workers? That would be a more relevant indicator.

You can't blame every layoff or business failure on the economy. Those things happen even in boom times.

[Daniel E Taylor]

Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood

To me it says ebay is screwing up with their numerous bad policy changes.

In a slowing economy, people would be MORE likely to go to sites like ebay to try to pick up bargains.

Is Walmart laying off any workers? That would be a more relevant indicator.

You can't blame every layoff or business failure on the economy. Those things happen even in boom times.

You took the words RIGHT out of my mouth.

Every business isn't run perfectly. Even a big business like ebay
can make bad decisions which really hurt their business. the same
you way can to.

It's really tiring to hear everybody blame business failures on "the economy".

How about bad management and decisions. Take some responsibilty.

It's like if I sent out the email blasts "F@#$@ You Subscriber"
and business drops siginificantly, it's the economys fault.

Daniel

[Chris Lockwood]

Originally Posted by Daniel E Taylor

It's like if I sent out the email blasts "F@#$@ You Subscriber"
and business drops siginificantly, it's the economys fault.

Daniel

Unless you're the Rich Jerk- then people may find it entertaining.

[trafficwave]

My own opinion:

There are more and more niche/community sites popping up that people find more user-friendly. Around here, there are a few local sites that are set up like "garage-sale" sites or "auction" sites.

We find some better deals locally than we would find on Ebay.

This, combined with Ebay's policy of becoming more restrictive, less user-friendly, and more expensive are some of the factors that I think may be contributing to the "deteriorating" business.

My wife is an Ebay pro and she now prefers some of the local community sites to Ebay for a variety of reasons includine ease of use and fee structure.

[submit2.0]

No doubt eBay is Good E-commer site world wide but these dasy they are soing some foolish thing first they change the feedback policy and second they high the price. Now these dasy eBay is only Buyer Favour not seller so hope soon they will face big problem they will not get seller if thair terms and condition will be same for seller. They must change some condition and should be some seller favour

[Kael41]

Craigslist is doing well, that's for sure

[lightningzeus]

Wow, this is kind of very surprising. Never thought this would happen.
But you know recently ebay has been going after a lot of cookie stuffers!

[reapr]

eBay is still a great auction site. I sold on it actively up till 2002. I was going to get back in as a seller but ...
in the last year several things changed my mind. The current feedback system, increased postage rates and an increase in fees. I am confident that this and several other reasons are contributing to the problems they are experience.
Since then I have decided to be an affiliate and it was the best decision I ever made!!!

[John Hillage]

Ebay has definitely caused a lot of it's own problems I feel with its digital products policy and lots of other things that have annoyed sellers and buyers alike. I used to love when it first came out - but very rarely bother with it now (for buying or selling).

[wordwizard]

I recently bid on something on Ebay only to discover it a lot cheaper on Amazon. Of ocurse, I "won" it, so I had to pay up. Now, I always check Amazon first! But I still check out Ebay too, especially for stuff that's hard to find or discontinued.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Paleruby

I notice Ebay has recently made it where the only form of payment is Paypal (no more checks or M.O.s)

That isn't quite accurate. They have disallowed checks and money orders but you can use any online payment processor that you want as long as it meets eBay's quality guidelines and doesn't rhyme with 'oogle'. Since most online payment processors have more stringent rules than PayPal, most people will select PayPal.

[lennelljones]

Today, Ebay officially announced that it would cut 1000 workers:
EBay cuts jobs, buys Bill Me Later - Yahoo! News

[talfighel]

Wow, Ebay has been doing so well for the past few years and it is amazing to hear news that they are cutting jobs.

I am a little shocked....

Tal

[Scott Ames]

They also said this in the same press release:

EBay, in a statement released by its San Jose, California, headquarters, also said it was acquiring US online payments business Bill Me Later for 820 million dollars in cash and 125 million dollars in employee options.

[onlinemarketer]

well whatever they did to change it, we just have to wait and see if it will be for the better in the future, i think they have their reasons to cut 1000 workers, that's a lot of workers though

[melanied]

If I was one of the laid off employees, I would be pissed at the irony that they fired me because they couldn't afford my $30,000 salary on the same day they shelled out billions to buy three other companies.

[tommygadget]

Originally Posted by Magic Mel

Ebay was a great auction site for many years but due to their stipulations and price hikes many aren't ebaying as much anymore, can't blame them at all.

Mel,

You are a lot different in person from what I expected...

TomG. - perhaps it's an old photo...

[Melody]

EBay/PayPal is definitely NOT in any kind of trouble - as pointed out, they are purchasing BillMeLater for $820 Million in a CASH transaction, as well as a Danish classifieds site for $320 million.

And the Q3 numbers show revenue down slightly but profits are actually up. They have made a number of system changes that have allowed them to automate and streamline many areas of the business.

Layoffs are NOT always because the company cannot afford the salaries - in many cases, it is because automation has made the position redundant.

In fact, one of the companies EBay purchased earlier this year was a fraud technology that allowed them to substantially reduce the 'human' involvement in the fraud analysis area - so this may be where some of the layoffs are coming from.

[bobmcalister]

well...those of us in amerika should become familiar with Meg ...seems she is up for sec of the give the banks and the rich people more money under our new Presidente ....that would make her sec of the treas

watching OUR money ...sure

love this place