Hello All,

Next year I'll be a member of ebay for a decade and I always leave feedback upon prompt payment from a customer.  It is the 'golden rule' from ebay and there isn't anything else a customer can do!  If a customer wins an auction and pays promptly then they have done their part.

I just recently purchase a used Sony S-VHS player so we can transfer in high quality some of our very old S-VHS-compact tapes of our kids in high quality to DVD.  It is an old player that I'd drooled over at 1200+ retail 10 years ago.  With shipping it was about 200 on ebay.   Good deal right?

We'll even if it wasn't I couldn't complain as I'd fallen out of practice to check when the seller had left feedback to their previous buyers.  My seller didn't leave me feedback upon my very prompt payment!  So I'm now a feedback hostage.

So if I complain about the item, the seller would simply log a negative feedback on my account. Since we all value our feedback, eventually we'd both agree to withdraw our feedback!  This is becoming an ebay joke that I've been aware of for some time.

BOTTOM LINE: Take a minute to check to see when a seller has left feedback.  If it's within a day or two of the auction close time then Good deal!  If it's consistently AFTER THE BUYER HAS LEFT FEEDBACK then move to another seller.

Beware of lines such as:

• Please leave us positive feedback once you've recieve the item so we know you've gotten it.
• We leave positive feedback upon receipt of your positive feedback.
• Our automated system will post a positive feedback rating for you, upon receipt of yours.

There are many such lines on eBay that are quick to pick out as suspect! 

However when the seller doesn't choose to say I'm holding your ebay rating hostage in their ad text, remember to check the timing of their previous feedback posts! 

TOP SELLERS ON EBAY WILL ALWAYS GIVE YOU A POSITIVE FEEDBACK RATING ON PROMPT PAYMENT! 

There are many, many, many sellers on eBay that leave prompt feedback on payment, just try to watch out for the others!  Ebay could easily fix this issue with all of the paypal payments, heck they own the company. 

I just read that 2008 forcasts for ebay earnings isn't great, perhaps they should improve on their model..before google does!!!!

Kind Regards,
Mike Randolph
AbleCommerce.com, CEO

Hello,

I've spent a good deal of time over the last 2 weeks trying to find a nice car for our daughters 16th birthday.  I've found one thing to be true. If it seems too good to be true ...IT IS! 

I've received three similar email. e.g. I'm in the military, I'm stationed overseas, I'll ship you my car and you ONLY pay me if your happy within 10 days.

Hi there and sorry for the late reply.

The car is still available for sale. This is a 2003 Honda Odyssey EX minivan, 3.5L V6 Automatic, ONLY 58800 Miles, VIN 5FXXXXXXXXXX921.

It is in EXCELLENT condition; the body and paint are great, no scratches and no dents; the interior is clean; it has never been involved in an accident.

Here you can find more pictures with the car:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mXXXXXXXXXn5/car
(if the above link does not work copy and paste it into a new web browser window)

I'm an US Air Force Lieutenant currently stationed in UK. And the car is here with me. It was bought in the US and shipped to Europe, but it was never permanently registered here, the car is still registered in the US.

The car is for sale locally as well, but there are slim chances of this to happen. First of all this is a US model car, with the steering wheel on the left side, as opposed to a UK model, that has the steering wheel on the right side. And second, in order to be able to register this car here in UK the buyer would have to pay very high import/custom taxes that will double the price. So I decided to sell the car back in the US. 

As I'm unable to travel in the near future and I don't have anyone back home to help me with the sale I decided to make this transaction through eBay.

So how this actually works? Simple: the buyer sends the payment to eBay and they hold the money until the car is delivered; I ship the car to US; I get my money only after the buyer receives the car and makes sure everything is as agreed. I believe this protects both buyer and seller and it's the right way to do this.

The final price is $7,500 including shipping from Europe to the US and delivery to your home address.

So if you decide to buy this car or need further information please get back to me as soon as possible.

Thank you and have a great day,
Lt. MiXXXXXXXXXXXXXXgan

Here is the 'closing line' from another email

As I know that my current situation is pretty special I want the deal closed only through eBay's Buyer Protection Program in order for you to be 100% protected. You will make the payment to eBay and they will hold the money until you receive the car. ONLY AFTER you receive the car and inspect it (for 10 days) eBay will release the payment to me; in this way we are both protected. Anyway i am sure that if you won`t be satisfied with the car i will surely find another buyer in your area and there will be no need for you to ship the car back.

And another: ditto of the first email.

So how this actually works? Simple: the buyer sends the payment to eBay and they hold the money until the car is delivered; I ship the car to US; I get my money only after the buyer receives the car and makes sure everything is as agreed. I believe this protects both buyer and seller and it's the right way to do this.

Hello All,

Looks like 800 x 600 resolution is finally dead!  Based on a sampling in time from our AbleCommerce website < 2% are running 800x600.  So we can now safely design with a width of 996px.  Which is 1024 minus the scroll bar on the right of the screen.   The following graph is just one of the many reports available when using Google Analytics on your website.  If you don't already have it running on your website then you should, heck it's free!

 http://www.google.com/analytics/

Kind Regards,
Mike Randolph
AbleCommerce.com, CEO

Hello,

Just received the latest editing of Practical Ecommerce.  PE is a good little magazine focused on small to medium sized online stores and is published bi-monthly.  We happen to have a full page ad in this months edition as a test.

According to John Munsell in his article 'Merchants And Vendors Will Be Held Responsible', Visa alone levied nearly $5,000,000.00 dollars in fines in 2006.  So this is a serious subject unless you want to be on the receiving end of a fine ranging from 5 to 25k.

In addition to selecting a shopping cart which complies with PCI/PABA standards, your web host also must meet certain requirements.  Such as having a firewall and maintaining a strict access protocol to the server room.

An easy way get your online store PCI certified is by using a service such as ScanAlert. ScanAlert's full-service PCI certification program is $149 per year. Upon completion you are issued a Certification of Compliance accepted by all credit card companies and all banks worldwide.

Everyone is required to follow the rules, however smaller vendors are not required to report their certification if they are doing under 20,000 transactions per year.

Some general background about PCI from http://www.pcicomplianceguide.org/businesscompliance.html

What is Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance?

Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance is a set of security standards that were created by the major credit card companies (American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa International) to protect their customers from increasing identity theft and security breaches.

What are my requirements for PCI Compliance?

The requirements for becoming Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliant are dependent upon the merchant level that a company falls under. Merchants are divided into four different levels based on the number of transactions they process throughout a year.

Level 1 Criteria
Merchants with over 6 million transactions a year
Merchants whose data has been compromised

Level 1 Requirements
Annual Onsite Security Audit and quarterly network security scan

Level 2 Criteria
Merchants with 150,000 to 6 million transactions a year

Level 2 Requirements
Annual Self Assessment Questionnaire
Quarterly Scan by an Approved PCI Scanning Vendor

Level 3 Criteria
Merchants with 20,000 to 150,000 transactions a year

Level 3 Requirements
Quarterly Scan by an Approved PCI Scanning Vendor
Annual Self Assessment Questionnaire

Level 4 Criteria
Merchants with less than 20,000 transactions

Level 4 Requirements
No need to report compliance but must maintain compliance.

Kind Regards,
Mike Randolph
AbleCommerce.com, CEO

Hello,

I've been working with computers for 30 years now and have been actively involved in developing shopping cart software for over 14 years!  This blog will detail interesting information about eCommerce software development and the day to day aspects of running a successful online store.

I'll be updating the blog at a minimum once a week and more frequently if something interesting is found in my daily travels on the web.

Kind Regards,
Mike Randolph
AbleCommerce.com, CEO