Link: http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/SpringUpdate2011.html

I have been a member of eBay since 1999.

At first eBay was the dream come true. Low cost auctions where you could buy or sell almost anything that you desired with little or no worries. A small yet growing community of people buying and selling all sorts of stuff, mostly tech and collectables, but eBay grew and grew. Eventually they bought Paypal and several other companies. They got larger and larger and have instituted many changes over the years. Purportedly to add safety to the user experience.

When eBay was young, a seller could take almost any payment method that they wanted. Cash, Credit, Check, Western Union or USPS Money Order. Since eBay bought Paypal though, they have slowly whittled those payment options down to ....wait for it...just PAYPAL. Well that's not completely true, there are still other payment options but eBay makes it very difficult to access those other methods. Granted, there was a lot of fraud and you had to be very careful about what and how you bought or sold something. But if you understood the rules of the Wild, Wild West you could find a great deal and almost never get screwed for your trouble.

Recently I received an email detailing the next series of changes in store for eBay users who sell things. Since I occasionally do sell things on the site I continued reading with some interest. I was shocked to find that I was being contacted because my "...account was below the minimum standard as of this writing...".

Eh? What the hell does that mean? Nowhere in this letter did it say what this "minimum standard" might be.

Has someone filed some kind of complaint with eBay? No. I have a 100 percent rating on the site with over 12 years of reasonably active use and have never had a negative feedback rating. Am I slow to ship? No. I actually use their shipping widget to check out and ship completed auctions and have always promptly mailed everything that I have sold.

The letter goes on to say what I need to do to get my sub-par account whipped into shape:

What you need to do:

* Stay on top of your status in your Seller Dashboard.
* Follow best practices to get above standard.
* Always upload tracking information to eBay and ship the same day the buyer pays to have your funds available faster. Note if you print shipping labels on eBay or PayPal, tracking information is uploaded automatically and funds will be available for shipping.

At the top of the list is "use my seller dashboard" but since I don't sell enough to qualify for this option I don't have access to this feature. The second item says that I should follow their "best practices" suggestions. This is list of how to do good business on eBay. You know, tHings like; mail your sale promptly or describe your item clearly and other really really basic stuff.

Check!

Third is; always upload tracking info...yadda yadda.. yeah,  yeah! That's automatically done by EBAY!

So what's the deal!?!

Today I called eBay's customer service center in ...I dunno...Bilara or Dwarka or who knows where.

After explaining the situation; I was put on hold for a couple minutes. The young lady came back on the line and explained that since I didn't have 12 positive feedbacks from purchasers over the past year that my account was considered to be sub-par.

I'll let that soak in for a minute.

It wasn't that my account was fraudulent or had caused someone to complain or that I had failed to ship in a timely manner. It was because I wasn't selling enough on their bloody site.

Not only that, but since people who I had sold to had failed to leave feed back I was considered to be a sub-par seller.

Oh well. I guess that they can just go whistle, because I really don't care whether someone leaves feedback just so long as it's not bad feedback. Mrs Jimmer has confessed that she never leaves feedback at all on eBay, no matter what the experience. I've tried to explain the importance but ...(brick wall mode engaged)

"So" asked I "What are the ramifications of such a thing"

"Well, Chim" said the voice "Unless you get your account to the minimum standard we may hold all payments for as long as 21 days"

WHAT!?!? Hold payments? 21 days?!? Three weeks...wait..business days...ONE MONTH!

"So what they're saying is; unless I sell more; or ship faster; or strong-arm my buyers into leaving positive feedback; or any other reason that you see fit, you are going to screw me and my buyer?" said I.

"Your buyer?!?!" said she

"Yeah, you don't expect me to send anything to the buyer without being paid. Do you"?

"But you will have been paid. We will be holding the transaction for 21 days".

"Then I won't ship until the transaction is cleared. Clear"?

I put up with the 2.7% off the top transaction fee from the mandatory PayPal account. I have (barely) put up with the 10% listing and final value fees that eBay charges on every auction. I will not accept them holding my money and expecting me to fulfill the transaction as though I have been paid.

eBay nails me for 12.7% off of every transaction and now they want me to sell more else they will hold my money.

Fuck You eBay.