Canada post have provided eBay with a lengthy announcement relating to a new classification for certain lettermail items deemed “Irregular” due to their size or shape.

Essentially, the new classification relates to non-flexible items between 10mm and 20mm thick, with “box-like” corners.

Full details can be found in the full Canada Post announcement in the BuildaSkill Global Post Offices Forum board (login required) with links to all the relevant info pages on the Canada Post website.

Ed

Many people keep reporting this, both on and off eBay, but eBay refuse to listen, or to fix the issue. 

Prior to the Ides of March, eBay’s willingness to fix or not fix the issue affected only potential or actual feedback that sellers would receive, plus the potentiality of losing the sale.  In legalese, that would constitute an indeterminate consequential loss of income to the seller - something which would be very difficult to present in court, particularly in the EU where buyers have the right to a “change of mind” within seven days of purchase.

Since this year’s Ides however, eBay has lost its “only a venue” defence with the introduction of seller-fees discounting based on anonymous and subjective opinion from buyers, in the form of the controversial Detailed Seller Ratings (DSR) feedback system, and the regular suspension of selling permissions based upon those same DSR’s.

As any eBay seller is already experiencing, just weeks after the introduction of invoice totals discounting, a proportion of buyers are being unreasonably critical of seller performance issues that are not caused by the sellers, but by the eBay systems supposed to provide a “better buying experience“, and by other 3rd-parties such as post offices and national Customs divisions.

The example that follows is from a live transaction that occurred last night on my main selling account.  Fortunately, this buyer is a regular customer and it was she who alerted me to an unauthorised change in the content of my listings - a change that can only have come from eBay’s site modifications, and which also revealed a serious flaw within a core site-function …

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Since January 2007, eBay sellers have complained that the eBay system has been broken as far as shipping calculations are concerned, particularly in the area of multiple item sales where the sellers offer discounts for shipping in one parcel.  Additionally, there have been regular reports of eBay applying or displaying incorrect postage settings and prices.

In the UK, there have been numerous forum threads where sellers interacted with eBay staff, reporting specific instances of problems whilst the technicians dug into the site programming to isolate the fault.  After each such thread, eBay pronounced the problem fixed, though sellers frequently knew it was only masked.

Now a new trick has come to light in the 16-month-old broken shipping calculator saga.

This time round, it relates to a whole new kettle of fish and arguably should be reported direct to regulatory authorities, as it is obviously the result of deliberate programming designed to defraud sellers of the visibility they are expecting when they buy advertising space on eBay.  The manipulation, demonstrated below, also absolutely removes forever any potential for eBay to claim they are “just a venue” due to the way in which they are recalculating and displaying shipping costs set by sellers.

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What Is Drop Shipping?

The Perfect Solution
by Palyn Peterson

Drop shipping one of the greatest business innovations since products. Seriously, don’t laugh! I’m not joking!  With what other service can you use another company’s products, their warehouse, their shipping department, and have them provide you with all the information you need? Do you see what I mean now?

Every entrepreneur who is looking for the most efficient way to sell products over the internet should be very enthusiastic about drop shipping. It finally allows you to sell nearly anything you want, be it computer equipment, toasters, billiard tables, even planter pots, all without having any inventory. And do you know what zero inventory means? It means less risk! The only time you ever buy any products from the wholesaler is when you have already sold it to a customer! And the best thing is (or should I say, another best thing), the wholesaler packages it up and ships it out to the customer for you, and usually your business name is on the box! As far as the customer knows, you have a warehouse full of products.

When you sign up with a wholesaler, they will most likely ask you for your tax license number, or a faxed/emailed copy of it to prove you are a legitimate business. If they don’t ask you for this, they are either a very small wholesale company with a specific niche of products and just want to make the process easy for their clients, or they are not a real wholesaler at all.

If you ever come across a “wholesale” company that carries tons of items, ranging from Barbie’s to hair dryers, and they say that you don’t need to have a tax license to deal with them, then be very skeptical, because 99 to 1, they aren’t a wholesale company at all.

That sort of company will just take your order only to turn around and order it from the real wholesale company at a much lower cost than you paid for it (and they did have to get a tax license to do this). It doesn’t stop there either. Since you bought it at a higher price, you will need to pass this on to your customers by marking it up higher than you need to. And if you ever needed or wanted to, you would have less margin when lowering your prices to match or beat your competitors. And your competitors would probably have a tax license, so they would be dealing with legitimate wholesalers.

Seriously, be very careful about this, there are many wolves in sheep’s clothing out there. So skip the middleman, get your tax license, get legitimate and you will save yourself a lot of grief and money.

Once you make an account with a wholesaler, some will mail you a wholesale catalog and price list in the mail with a CD full of product images to use on your website. The smaller companies will just allow you to copy the pictures and descriptions off their website. With this product information, you can post the products to your online store and wait for orders. It’s as simple as that!

Then, when a customer places an order, you either call, email or fax your contact at the wholesaler and give them the customers name, address, and the items they want,  including any other miscellaneous information the wholesaler may want. The wholesaler then charges you for the cost and shipping of the order at wholesale price, then packages it up and sends it off to the customer. All you have left to do is turn back around and charge the customers credit card for the items with your profit margin markup.

The reason this is growing in popularity amongst wholesalers is because they get to have many other companies market and sell their products, thus reaching more people and selling greater volumes. The wholesale company is still able to sell their products for the price they want, and you get to keep the profit margin as a reseller. It’s a win/win situation.

Drop shipping is enabling the average person to be able to run a successful, full service online retail store from the comfort of their home. Zero inventory, no shipping department, only buy when you have already sold — this is the perfect affiliate program.

Copyright © by Palyn Peterson
mailto:pal-@futureinternetmarketing.com

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You’re probably getting tired of reading the same old complaints, or brown nosing, about eBay’s DSRs, in blogs and forums by now. 

If anything, the same old same old worrying of, and harping at, the same concerns by the masses, and the rose-tinted rebuttals by the select few, shows a lack of imagination on the part of all of them.  So here’s some new bones to gnaw upon.

As UK sellers are all too keenly aware, eBay UK is enforcing business registration for PowerSellers, and in a new twist of the dagger in the back of their paying customers, the compulsory business registration emails (that started going out today - i.e. on a weekend when there are no staff available to field queries (typical eBay UK tactics!)) says that those who don’t comply will not be permitted to sell anything until they do so - now that’s not what Bill Cobb announced in Washington, so once again, eBay UK has overstepped the lines in the sand drawn by their American bosses.  The emails say that notified sellers have until 31st March to comply.

So let’s take a new look at the no-feedback, plus DSRs, plus compulsory business registration issues…

First up, eBay have made no announcements regarding a change of User Agreement to bring Business Registered User (BRU) to BRU transactions in line with international trade laws and terms of business.  Specifically, standard international trade terms mean that shipping is negotiated separately from product negotiation.  The reason for this relates to the terms of shipping applied in business to business (B2B) transactions. 

Essentially, international shipping terms allow sellers to specify Frieght on Board (FOB) terms, which means the seller is only responsible for delivering the goods to the air or sea port, after which all liability passes to the buyer, with no (zero, zilch, nil, nada) comeback on the seller (including chargebacks via PayPal) if the buyer then does not receive the goods, or receives a damaged or partial consignment - because from the point of delivery to the despatching port, it is the buyer’s agent or carrier that has taken title and liability, and any attempt at enforced refund (such as a PayPal chargeback) automatically becomes attempted theft and defraudment under international laws.

To summarise that last paragraph, if a buyer and seller have a B2B transaction, based on FOB terms, and PayPal permits a chargeback (regardless of value) then they are in breach of international trade treaties and laws, and international banking and other financial regulations, and PayPal are then equally liable (with the buyer) for making financial restitution to the seller up to the value of the original invoice, plus any and all costs of recovery of that value.  (citation to follow)

Secondly, eBay UK’s much reported over-zealous application of the EU and UK Distance Selling Regulations comes to the fore in BRU to BRU transactions.  Simply put, B2B transactions are not covered by the regulations.  End of story! 

Therefore, if Mr & Mrs Numpty-Deadbeat have sold enough to require business registration on eBay, and they then buy from another BRU seller, they have zero entitlement to return and refund privileges - that’s right, once they’ve bought, they can be legally forced to complete the purchase with no return or refund option, and it is the EU and UK authorities that would enforce the completion.   If eBay interferes and tries to get the seller to back off, or imposes any penalties or sanctions because of the enforcement of payment, then they can be pursued, by government agencies, under various laws that range from anti-competition to business interference, even to conspiracy to defraud.

Furthermore, that same situation of BRU to BRU sale means the buyer should have no right to leave DSR feedback for shipping costs or delivery time, simply because European law for delivery in B2B cases is entirely different than that in consumer to consumer or business to consumer sales.  I’m guessing the same applies in other countries and trade-blocs too. 

Additionally, under current UK & European laws, any defamatory comment left by a European business buyer, on a public record such as eBay feedback, for a business seller, automatically makes eBay jointly and equally liable with the comment-leaver for libel against that seller.  The ensuing suit then being Seller vs Buyer and eBay.  In the US, eBay have successfully defended cases (2nd story on that link) that say they are not liable under such circumstances, but remember, laws are different across the pond.

You may ask who’s going to be brave enough to take on eBay in a libel case over feedback? 

OK, a couple of thoughts on that trail.  First up, have you ever stopped and really, really, thought about why eBay has this legal form available for you to download, have certified by your legal advisor, and submit in order to have feedback removed that you consider defamatory?  The simple answer is that it’s not about giving you a quick and clean (though not always cheap) solution to cleaning up your feedback.  It’s all about eBay avoiding becoming a co-defendant in a libel suit, along with the attendant bad-publicity, unfavourable-judgement risk, and potential damages liability.  We’re not just talking isolated cases here, we’re talking hundreds of millions of members, with a large percentage of them believing they have cause to sue.  

If you factor that into the soon to arrive changes to feedback on eBay, then cutting sellers ability to leave negatives and neutrals becomes less about ensuring a “great buyer experience” and more about shielding the corporate buttocks, which becomes crystal clear when you read paragraph 8 on this page.

Incidently, I tried to locate the “legal notice to remove feedback” form, using the obvious click-trails in the eBay UK Help pages - all references and links to it have been removed and almost every page clicked to, now displays that the page has been moved and that I was being redirected.  There’s obviously some major rewriting of the legal end of the Help system going on this month.  Luckily I had a shortcut to it in my favourites folder (even though I’ve never used the form before).  If you’re thinking of using it, do so quickly as it may be that eBay are closing that avenue for cleaning your feedback.

Second, on the law suit trail, is that a small group of sellers in the US have repeatedly sued eBay and other corporations for various complicity causes related to the VeRO program and almost constantly won their cases.  It isn’t just the eBay sellers, some big names have been at it in the past too.  eBay knows that every one of its policies is on a sticky wicket legally - especially where those policies have a public interface (such as feedback records), or interfere with genuine business sellers’ businesses.  This issue also surfaced on eBid during the last two years resulting in a major clean-up on the UK company’s sites.

Finally, one lesson learned in UK & US courts in libel and defamation cases, is that they almost always settle out of court, before a judgement is reached.  The reason is simple.  For a large corporation, especially a media corporation (which is what eBay is - it’s an advertising-publisher, not a commerce company) to be sued for libel or defamation is too costly in terms of the publicity, the potential damages, and the fact that the Plaintiff is unlikely to attempt a suit if the damaging content can be laughed off or ignored as trivial or untrue.  Therefore libel cases that reach a court-date tend to be looked upon in favour of the plaintiff, by the judiciary, before even the first word has been said in the courtroom.  In other words, eBay has a higher chance of losing, than they have of successfully defending, a case brought against them for libel or defamation.  If they happen to be a co-defendant, then the odds are stacked even higher against them according to the history of libel cases.

So what do you do with this information?

Well, as a very first step, I’d recommend rewriting your terms of sale on eBay to differentiate between business and consumer buyers. 

Therein comes an interesting legal point for the eBay beagles … B2B sales usually involve direct negotiation between buyer and seller, and in eBay speak that means the cardinal sin - off-site sales. 

Oh, it’s going to be a fun 2nd quarter this year  and I further recommend every business seller gets Skype activated on every one of their listings  before 31 March.

Ed

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For the second time in a month, French transport unions have called their workers out on strike, immobilising the country’s rail systems.

Energy workers are reported as also joining the open-ended strike, and university students at several campuses have taken to the streets protesting proposals that could have business controlling curriculums.  I wonder how long before the road transport unions, and the agricultural workers (both known to be game for strikes and port blockades at the drop of a hat) join the rail and energy workers.

The knock on effect is that a lot of deliveries are going to be affected.  France borders many western European countries and their normally fast and efficient service shuttles a lot of mail and freight between Benelux, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Spain, in addition to the UK since the opening of the Channel Tunnel.

Following on from the UK’s months of postal strikes, this is not good news for mail order and online retailers and wholesalers, nor for offline business relying on postal and small freight delivery services into and out of Western Europe.  Be sure your customers and suppliers are forewarned and their expectations managed …… “the cheque is in the Chunnel”?

Ed