Ebay sellers plan a weeklong strike to protest changes to the site's fee, search and feedback policies.
By Stacy Cowley(FORTUNE Small Business) -- Activists opposed to eBay's (EBAY, Fortune 500) upcoming fee and policy changes are readying for a week long site boycott starting on Monday, with buyers and sellers waiting to see if this strike will succeed where past protests have failed.
The boycott, planned to run Feb. 19 - 25, is scheduled to overlap eBay's Feb. 20 rollout of significant changes announced last month.
Sellers say eBay's new policies are likely to cost them more money, but what's really inspired an outpouring of wrath is an adjustment to eBay's feedback system: sellers will no longer be able to leave negative commentary about their buyers. Critics say that will leave sellers vulnerable to negligent bidders and scammers.
"You get bad buyers as often as you get bad sellers," said M. Owens
Owens, who plans to participate in the boycott and avoid buying or selling on eBay next week, is also worried about the impact of a change to eBay's "best match" search algorithm, one of the least-publicized aspects of the upcoming changes. That search method, which will become eBay's default next month, favors sellers with high and detailed customer-satisfaction ratings. Low-volume sellers, like Owens, say this puts them at a disadvantage by burying their listings.
EBay spokesman Usher Lieberman said the company is taking a wait-and-see approach to the boycott talk
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I disagree with the statemant that there are as many bad buyers as there are sellers.
What is the motivation to be a bad buyer? None that I can see. I've had bids and then didn't receive payment, but I still have the item, I'm out my listing fees and time but it has only happened once or twice in over 6 years. I wouldn't call that a big scam.
But to be a scammer as a seller? Yes, there is money to be made in that. How many of us have:
a) paid for an item and never received it or heard from the seller again?
b) received an item totally different than described?
c) seen (or bid on) items that were listed as pictures of the item?
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