Venting My Spleen in an Open Letter

Dear Ebay,

After 8 years of relationship, the time has come to end it. I know this would be a shock to you if you were paying any attention. But you aren't and probably won't care. Actually, I assume if this letter made it to you, you'd send me a lovely form letter in response explaining how I could access the non-helpful online FAQ section along with some thinly veiled justifications.

But, in case you were wondering: it's not me, it's you.

Yes, Ebay, you've upped your fees. Yes, you've changed your feedback policy to make it so much more difficult to give honest feedback as a seller. I could overlook those things. You've been good to me. I've sold car parts and maternity clothes, and bought a few things things too. But I'm done. Why? Because you have a cheating heart.

When I went to sell some clothes two weeks ago, you required that I list PayPal as an option to pay. You also required I take all forms of payment on PayPal, even credit cards. Up until now I have only taken bank transfers. But, I went to PayPal and found that I could take 5 credit card payments a year without upping my rinky dink membership. OK, that works. So, I sold all three items, went to accept PayPal payment--wait, I can't do it without upgrading and can't say no either. Why? Oh, we didn't mention the asterisk at the bottom that said I can't use those 5 credit card payments on EBAY purchases. And did we mention that once you upgrade we charge you 2.9% on all transactions, even cash, and it is on the whole amount including shipping? And that you can never go back?

And one more thing EBAY OWNS PAYPAL!!

So what you are saying is that you require me to use PayPal, upgraded, so you can collect my list fee, my final value fee and then collect 2.9% plus $.30 on the transaction on top of it. By the time I was done, I had paid 25% of my profits to you one way or another.

So, I say to you Ebay: YOU ARE SLEEPING AROUND ON ME WITH PAYPAL AND I'M DONE! You only care about yourself and I'm leaving you. I'm sure you won't notice or care as you collect money hand over fist but I am holding my head high.

And, I've met someone else. Me and Craigslist have become quite close recently. Take that!



I feel better.