Big Corporation Stepping on the Little Guy - Ebay ® Scams Sellers

Ebay ® unfortunately scammed me out of moneysystem.
by stiff arming me in to paying for services notFake bidders kept requesting I leave them positive
rendered and then they ruined my reputation byfeedback after sending them a penny. I wanted to
saying that myleave them negative feedback, however since ebay
First off, a few months ago I had over 90 positive® removed this function, I was being held hostage
feedback with 100% satisfaction on ebay. This wasby all bidders to leave them positive feedback
earned over years of transactions.  Unfortunatelybecause they are the only ones that can hurt my
ebay ® recently made some changes that reallycredibility by leaving me negative feedback. If I didn't
hurt my business in several ways. Including myleave them feedback and they sent me money, they
business reputation, pocket book and lots of wastedhad the right to leave me negative feedback.
time.On 9/4 I sent an email telling ebay ® the following:
I have been selling on ebay ® for years, however(exact message below)
I began selling web site hosting services on ebayI have several hundred listings for hosting online. The
quickly within one month racked up over $400reason I listedall of these online was because I
promoting my products and business. I was offeringthought since people were bidding theywere going to
a discounted auction to give ebay ® users a greatsign up for the service I was offering. So a few
start up rate on web site hosting. I was offeringhundreddollars later, it turns out 3 out of 4 people
them an introductory rate of $.01 or $1 for a few 1 -are bidding on my itemsjust to hold me hostage for
3 free months of services.positive feedback. This is terrible andexpensive. How
I soon found out that other ebay ® users werecan this be resolved?
buying my auctions and not signing up for hostingI never received a response until 9/10 when ebay
services, therefore costing me a large amount of® shut down my account and hundreds of my
money. I later complaned about this (see below).auctions I spent around 50 hours working on. I was
After some research I found out why I was gettingastonished!  I attempted to contact ebay ®
a lot of people buying my auctions and not signing upregarding this on the phone, however their phone
for my services. Turns out that ebay ® created anumber hangs up on you and does not offer any
search function that gives ebay ® users bettersort of support. This company is very scarey,
rankings if they have higher feedback rankings.because I believe that companies that treat
Additionally ebay ® implemented a feature thatcustomers like this are destined for failure.
requires a certain amount of feedback for users toAfter requesting help and spending hundreds of
be able to sell on ebay ®.  So in essence whatdollars with ebay ®, my account was shut down.
was happening was people were bidding on myNot to mention, many legitimate accounts I obtained
auctions that I paid ebay ® for, sending me (oftenended up cancelling services from me because ebay
times) one penny and then requesting positive® sent them a letter saying that I was abusing
feedback. This had me outraged because it wastheir services and that any feedback I left for them
costing me large amounts of money to list thesewas not legitimate. This type of thing was a major
auctions and costing a lot of money on marketing.defamation of character for my business.
Then a lot of my auctions were being taken downAfter everything I have paid around a thousand
by fake bidders. dollars paying and improving my ebay ® auctions,
Another thing that ebay ® did was remove ANYput in tons of hours and feel abused by ebay ®. I
SELLERS ability to leave negative feedback about also am shutting down several companies that I run
buyers that treat sellers poorly, which makesthat use paypal ® as a payment provider.
absolutely no sense because sellers are the onlyObviously this is all my personal opinion and ebay ®
people that pay ebay ®. These people that helpand paypal ® are all Designated trademarks and
make ebay ® succeed in the stock market are thebrands that are the property of their respective
ones getting treated terrible and not being able toowners.
protect themselves from buyers abusing their