Bait and Switch, Part II

The first bait and switch was when eBay announced their fee decrease which turned out to be a big fee increase at the back end. Now eBay is at it again with this sort of double talk. eBay Motors is having a “special” but once again it’s not what it seems.  Here is a direct quote from the eBay Seller Central thread describing this:

I got an email today stating that from 4/26 through 5/23 there is a listing special – $5 off the regular price of $40, so it costs $35 to list a car. But they more than doubled the Transaction Services Fee – what had been $50 is now a rediculous $125. They put that in the email but only in small print and I’m sure it’s going to catch a lot of people off-guard.

Of course this is suppose to be a limited time “listing special”. What kind of special promotion actually raises the overall cost of doing business? Does that mean the transaction service fee will drop back down to where it was? I somehow doubt that. It looks like they’ve snuck in a large permanent transaction service fee increase while distracting you with the $5 discount. This sort of misdirection technique is what magicians use to pull the rabbit out of the hat. Sorry eBay. No one being fooled by this one and none of us is remotely amused or entertained by your slight of hand illusions.

Let the Promos Begin!

eBay UK has just announced a 5 pence insertion fee promotion to boost their slumping listings count shown below:

Of course the timing of this kind of promotion isn’t a coincidence. What’s slightly puzzling is the timing of the announcement itself. They usually announce these listing promotion fairly close to when it will actually begin to prevent sellers from delaying their new listings. However this time they’ve announced such a promotion about two days earlier than they normally would. My guess is this is in an attempt to sway sellers away from participating in the global May 1st boycott. It is designed to prevent a noticeable sharp drop in listings count on May 1st.