EBay - a complete joke - and letter of complaint

**tobyt** · 01-06-04

I wanted to wait a month after the latest revision of the EBay commission strusture to see the actual financial impact that resulted.

So being the start of the new month I sat down today and did some calcs that covered the last 12 months.

THE RESULT: This month we sent them pretty much exactly the same volume of traffic that we have sent them for each month over the last year however our commission revenue this month dropped by a massive 88%.

After 3 years of loyally supporting them, they decide to thank us by introducing a commission structure that does not even pay us peanuts.

It goes without saying that I have now decided to remove all of their links simply because if I don't, I am going to have trouble living with myself - allowing yourself to be abused by a merchant in this manner and then continuing to take their crumbs does nothing for the professionalism in Affiliate Marketing.

In addition to that I have sent the following email to Graham Broomfield at eBay UK - ukaffiliates@ebay.com

I would suggest that if there are other affiliates that have also woken up to what I call Ebay's "screw you" game, that you also send a copy of this email to them to register your discontent.

Please feel free to use a copy of this email if you so wish:

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Attn: Mr. Graham Broomfield

Mr.Broomfield

Having been an affiliate partner of eBays for several years, I find myself extremely disappointed at having to send you this email advising you of our withdrawal from your Affiliate Program.

When you revised your latest Affiliate Commission offering, I and many other of your affiliates really wanted to believe that you had the best interest of our relationship at heart, and that you wanted to create a commission structure that would work for both merchant and affiliate.

However the nagging doubt that all eBay was doing was attempting to say to it’s Affiliates was “thanks for nothing, we don’t need you any longer” really has proved to be correct.

We have consistently sent you traffic and sales each month over the last years and in return as a direct result of your new commission structure we have seen our commission revenue this month fall to just a small fraction of what it was last month, even though the quantity of our visitors has remained constant.

This is really a slap in the face for us, AND all those affiliates that have worked so hard over the recent years to help you to build your brand. Please don’t kid yourself that the building of your brand just happened by accident – whether you like it or not it has been due in no small part to the effort of your affiliates – and this is how EBay has chosen to thank and reward us.

I wanted to wait a month after the implementation of your new Commission Structure before I came to any firm conclusions. However not only do I now have no choice but to withdraw from your Affiliate Program – my greatest inclination now is to devote the efforts I have spent promoting Ebay in the past, to influencing other affiliates to follow my lead AND influencing all of the customers that use our websites, to use alternative online auction sites in the hope that they might find companies that actually value their client/customer relationships rather than abuse them.

I hope that you do in fact have the foresight to give my email some consideration and reply accordingly. Maybe a considered answer from yourself might help to change my mind. However as things stand, it would appear that your latest affiliate commission structure was simply a way of having a joke at the expense of your affiliates and seeing how far you could push them before they woke up to the fact that Ebay really placed no value on it’s affiliate relationships whatsoever.

Yours Sincerely

**bizwizard** · 01-06-04

You are dead right about eBay. Their new commission structure is shocking. Like you, especially as I'm fairly new to affiliate marketing, I thought I'll give it a fair go and see how it pans out. Since the new structure started, I've had exactly zero commissions from eBay.
For my first 4 months as an 'affiliate merketeer' eBay was my best converter. Alas I am also considering removing all but one link and possibly that one as well when I've redesigned my home page.

Regards

Jim

**Jeff** · 02-06-04

Originally posted by tobyt
THE RESULT: This month we sent them pretty much exactly the same volume of traffic that we have sent them for each month over the last year however our commission revenue this month dropped by a massive 88%.

Maybe the quality of the traffic you're sending them is well below average.

The visitors I send to eBay aren't particularly well targeted, so I was expecting a big drop, and my commission for May was down by around 15%

I've heard other people say that the new structure resulted in better performance when it was introduced for ebay.com

**pericom** · 02-06-04

I noticed a 200% drop in commission - quality and levels are the same.

*SHAKES HIS FIST AT MR BLOOMFIELD*

**Qui Gon Jinn** · 02-06-04

Some folks don't listen do they, we did say this program was potentially heading down the pan (porcellain) in a similar fashion to the Ebay US program. You only have to read the other US forums to gauge quite confidently the direction of the UK program would probably follow suit.

We used to do well with the Ebay US program, when the new deal structure was introduced the effects were noticed quickly no effort was made in pursuing to chase scraps in an area which was too saturated. Too many affiliates are scrambling for a small piece or pie which is remaining...perhaps the affiliate program is a victim of it's early success, assisted by the continue promotion by publishers. We are now longer a member of the program

We didn't accept the new Ebay UK terms as they were a little draconian. We found better alternatives to replace in their stead and are enjoying the rewards that sweetens labour. We did exchange a couple of polite emails from a representative from Ebay UK on the deal structure, new t's and c's and spyware, but that was about it. They didn't follow to resolution. So it was the right time to bow out gracefully from the program.

Since Befree has taken over, our sales across CJ are about a third of what they were 5 months ago and EPC's are reducing across the board. At the time we were apparently one of their top publishers. Since one of our numerous issues with CJ prior to new year, we have absolutely zero confidence and zero tolerance in CJ tracking and reporting.

They still have some good merchants on the network, but we are not going to make an effort to push them to their full potential whilst there are alternatives. This with the way our account has been handled and spyware. But hey, what's one affiliate who could have easily earned 6 or 7 figures through their network. It's CJ who lose out on the over ride.

They spin you, give you lip service, give you the run around and are only looking out for themselves - in my opinion.

By our records CJ owe us a lot of money, they will lose 10 times that amount in over ride they could have had. Am I bitter, of course I am when you've had to put up with the c*** we have had to.

I am not going to mince my words. I don't like them and I certainly don't trust them, impo they went further downhill coinciding from when Nicky left. And that is besides anything to do with spyware. There are merchants on the network we would dearly like to promote to their full potential, but it goes against the grain on principle.

But alas it has been a blessing in disguise allowing us to forge better relationships with other networks who will prosper in the long run.

Rant over

**tobyt** · 03-06-04

Good one QGJ....

I guess what I wanted to do by starting this thread was to believe that maybe there was the slightest chance that whoever decided to make the changes to the commission structure did so with a degree of ignorance, and that they by contacting them by email might allow them to take the bull by the horns and consider addressing these issues....

Having said that they have not even had the simple courtesey of replying to our emails and in doing so showing that several years marketing efforts by ourselves counted for something.

It is however more than likely that the person that is responsible for this, whether it be this Bloomfield chap or not, is simply a person with little or no commercial experience, has absolutely no commercial foresight or accumen, is therefore to scared to speak out at the "great, wonderful and world-conquering" EBay and is therefore simply devoted to covering his own backside rather than committing himself to being an effective and professional Affiliate Manager.

**tobyt** · 04-06-04

I would like to confirm that I received a reply from Ebay today and the reply was on the encouraging.

It would not be appropriate to post a copy of the response here without receiving their specific permission - however suffice to say that the overall tone of the reply was encouraging and indicated a willingness to listen and discuss - and thats a good start.

Hopefully I will have the relevant persons permission to post their reply shortly....

...stay tuned!!!