I’ve just had three emails in quick succession – two from eBay and one from Google - that knocked me clean off my chair each time.  Each of them was such a nice little surprise that I’m thinking today must be Christmas Party day in their offices and someone is a little too full of Christmas Cheer.

The first one was from the billing office at Google Adwords, telling me they’d inadvertently charged me VAT and were sending me a refund cheque for £1.11 from the Irish office – okay okay, stop laughing you lot.  I know it’s not much, but it’s still a very nice and welcome suprise, and will go nicely amongst the Christmas cards on the string until New Year (if the post office can get it here early enough).

Then I got a pretty email from eBay Singapore, and wait for it … it was a PowerSeller Newsletter !

I’d not had a PowerSeller Newsletter from the UK office for (takes off socks coz needs toes to help count the years) … a very, very long time before transferring my account to Singapore this year.  What was even more surprising about this one was that if contained the very thoughtful (I’m feeling mellow right now) reminder message of -

Feedback Revision Process Expires Soon

The 2008 Feedback Revision process which enables buyers to change ratings and comment on sellers will expire on December 31, 2008.  With the revision process sellers have a limit of 5 requests per 1000 Feedback they earned within a 12 month period.

Note: After receiving sellers’ revision requests, buyers have 10 days to respond and non-response will result in the Feedback remaining. As a result, sellers are recommended to make revision requests as soon as possible. From January onwards, sellers can no longer make revision requests using 2008 “feedback revision quotas”.

Yes, yes, I did check the email header and it’s genuine – it even includes DSR data and other stuff to remind me of how I’m doing (wonders if, and hopes, it’s the FVF discount snapshot numbers?).  I’m also wondering if this is an early sign of Jim “Uncle Griff” Griffiths seriousness about his new role as eBay’s “Seller Advocate”?  The newsletter also had a couple of other reminders in it, such as -

• ENJOY 30% OFF your Final Value Fees when you offer Free Postage! Only from November 7 to December 31, 2008. (Applies to SE Asian registered sellers only, and to listings on eBay AU & eBay US).
• This festive season, send your international packages using DHL and enjoy 35% off DHL Express services. Pass these savings on to buyers so you can sell more, faster!
• Just in time for the holiday season, PayPal launches its new and improved website for Thai users with the same benefits and more, including new language options. For a better shopping and selling experience with PayPal, enjoy the improvements at www.paypal.com/th.

Jolly Good.  So there I was enjoying a seasonal glow after a refund from Google and feeling all “trusted, respected, and rewarded” by the eBay Singapore seller support team, when I got another email – this time from eBay UK Trust and Safety – uh oh – but it was not what I was expecting to read.

In mid-November, and blogged about in this BuildaSkill editorial, I received three MC036 Listing Policy violations, and listing removals, due to an unannounced policy change on eBay Germany – a site on which I had no active listings at that time.

Just to remind you of the background, the Germans changed their retail regulations for the herbal pain relief Tiger Balm products and started issuing federal slaps to sellers via German eBay Trust and Safety.  Managing eBay sites then issued policy violations against the sellers, driving many to within a hair’s breath of suspension (no serious seller has just one Tiger Balm listing uploaded at a time), including me.  Yet more Dolphin Tails Tales?

Thanks once again to the most excellent Aileen Enwright, within eBay UK Trust & Safety, common sense has prevailed.  Those listing policy violations are to be reversed and removed, and the pulled listings are to be reinstated.  I just hope all the watchers are added back, and that the “drugs policy violation notices” sent to customers are followed by retraction notices from eBay, though I won’t hold my breath on that happening.

I just hope these are not my full quota of good luck after a terrible 3 months of sales.  I really could do with someone turning the revenue supply back on too.  This last quarter has seen the lowest sales since the first year that I was selling online – and I started doing that 3 years BEFORE eBay’s predecessor, AuctionWeb, was invented by Pierre Omidyar.

Gaz