Pribek

Meg Whitman is leaving her position as CEO of eBay. This is from FT.

Ebay warned of an unexpectedly severe slowdown in its core e-commerce business on Wednesday as it disclosed that Meg Whitman, who rode out the boom and bust of the dotcom years to become one of the most prominent internet chief executives, would step down at the end of March.

The former toy industry executive said she believed Ebay needed a “new vision”, and that she had “repeatedly said 10 years is about enough time for any CEO to stay at the head of a company.”

However, her last two years have been clouded by high-profile slip-ups, including the purchase of internet telephone service Skype, which has failed to boost Ebay’s wider e-commerce businesses, a botched move into China, as well as an accelerating slowdown in Ebay’s central auction business.

I can’t comment on Skype or the China attempt but I think I have some insight on eBay’s “accelerating slowdown” in the auction business. I think that eBay is getting a reputation as being a haven for those who wish to commit fraud. This isn’t a view that I have formed from media reports; it is a conclusion that I have come to from conversations with people that I know personally who have had bad experiences with eBay transactions.

If you would have talked to me about this at this time last year, I would have told a different story. I have made a number of eBay purchases including the Winnebago I am sitting in now. However, in recent months I have become aware of several friends who have been defrauded by bogus eBay sellers, some of these are people who have lost thousands of dollars. In each case eBay has declined any responsibility and has not made any effort to compensate those who have been cheated. eBay has, of course, every right to stay hands off as the transactions are between individual parties but, is it good business?

What can eBay do about it’s growing reputation as a place to get ripped off? The easy but expensive answer would be to compensate buyers who have been burned. Not knowing the scope of the problem, that may well be impractical. I know this; I won’t be trading on eBay again anytime soon and it is a direct result of knowing many people who have got the shaft.

[tags] eBay fraud, Meg Whitman [/tags]