Ina Steiner EcommerceBytes Blog
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by Ina Steiner, Editor of EcommerceBytes.com
Fri Aug 14 2020 10:36:09

eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something

By: Ina Steiner

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eBay CEO Jamie Iannone sent employees a message about ethics this week in light of recent events. He told them that if they see something, they should say something. 

He also invited a former colleague, Rob Chesnut, to speak to the company about ethics. Chesnut, who ran eBay's Trust & Safety division from March 1999 through September 2008, recently published a book about corporate ethics.

Iannone's memo to eBay employees follows:

Team,
Nearly 25 years ago, eBay was founded on the idea of fairness and the dream of building an honest marketplace with a level playing field.

During our recent Global All-Hands, we continued the conversation about how recent events have given us the opportunity to reflect, reset and act. We have zero tolerance for unethical behavior at eBay. Acting with integrity is simply who we are.

Since I rejoined eBay earlier this year, and particularly over the last couple of months, the eBay Leadership Team has frequently discussed how openness, honesty, respect and doing business with integrity drives our success. I've visited a dozen individual team meetings talking about this topic across the company. We're posting news and info on the Hub and we're often reminding team members that if you see something that doesn't seem right, we want you to say something. There are multiple avenues to report, including anonymously, if you'd like. Of course, we have a strict non-retaliation policy to protect everyone who raises a concern. And, we've also emphasized these values - and our commitment to upholding them - with our seller community and our shareholders. 

And, here's the thing...ethics is everyone's responsibility. We all need to see ourselves as being personally accountable for our commitment to doing business ethically. That's why I strongly encourage you to join me, Marie Oh Huber, Chief Legal Officer, and Molly Finn, Chief Compliance Officer in conversation with Rob Chesnut, an eBay alum and highly-regarded ethics and integrity expert. 

Rob is the former Chief Ethics Officer at Airbnb and recently published a new book, "Intentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution." Our focus will be on bridging the insights Rob offers in his book with past events here at eBay and the respect he has for our culture and our team. I'm looking forward to hearing Rob's perspective on how we can further advance our efforts. The calendar invite will be out shortly for Monday, August 24. We'll also record the session and share it with everyone.

As always, I want to hear from you as much as you do from me. Good ideas come from many places. So please continue to share your ideas on our strategy, our business execution and additional actions we can be taking to ensure we all live our values every day.
Jamie.



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Perminate Link for eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something   eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something

This user has validated their user name. by: iheartjacksparrow

Fri Aug 14 11:08:22 2020

"We have zero tolerance for unethical behavior at eBay. Acting with integrity is simply who we are."

Did they open a comedy club next to Walker's West?

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This user has validated their user name. by: Life During Wartime

Fri Aug 14 11:28:14 2020

eBay is so big that it seems likely that there will always be people using the site mendaciously.

A venue doesn't have to score almost 100 percent ethical buyers and sellers to discourage bad behavior.  I know that Etsy sellers I have featured (that is, ''called out'') in my blogs sometimes have listings on eBay for the same products, and the eBay listings are honest while the Etsy ones are not.  

I think there is a perception among some online sellers that you can't get away with stuff on eBay that you can elsewhere online.  And that is not a bad thing.  

Perminate Link for eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something   eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something

by: FeelingFroggy This user has validated their user name.

Fri Aug 14 11:42:52 2020

Greedbay and ethics. HA HA HA HA HA HA So funny. Like calling the kettle white.

Perminate Link for eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something   eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something

by: pace306 This user has validated their user name.

Fri Aug 14 12:08:21 2020

eBay is %100 immoral, unethical, criminal and needs a state watchdog to have its corporate behavior monitored and corrected.

Say what you ant (and many here will) about the recent events that happened to the people running this site - about who know what, when.

That Mary Had A Little Lamb "didnt know about it" is BS.

eBays corporate greed and its disgust, thats 24/7/365 always pointed at sellers, is where the issues begin and end.

If you believe that someone is guilty - then they are -and always will be. Whether its politics, personal issues or work - once you set your mind on a topic or person "being wrong or the cause" then it wont go away, ever. And, eBay for the last 20 years has exhibited that exact behavior.

The "memo" is pure whitewash.

Sure - go tell eBay how you were screwed on the last return/negative or other issue - see how "THAT" goes.

"We have zero tolerance for unethical behavior at eBay. Acting with integrity is simply who we are." ---- %100 BALD FACE LIES (dude - you steal tax money from other CA counties and from sellers - whom are you fooling"?

"Good ideas come from many places." - but they certainly dont come from California's biggest mafia/triad.

Perminate Link for eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something   eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something

by: DingDong This user has validated their user name.

Fri Aug 14 12:38:25 2020

Too bad that the last moment of the Bad Seed movie (1956) doesn't happen.
They must have some type of guardian or protection from be hit.

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by: RL15 This user has validated their user name.

Fri Aug 14 12:39:00 2020

lies, lies and more lies.

this must have gotten written at walkers west at closing time.

fleecebay has no ethics at all.

Perminate Link for eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something   eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something

This user has validated their user name. by: Ric

Fri Aug 14 16:56:43 2020

Funny how the new CEO had to bring in a former head of Trust and Safety to discuss corporate ethics and integrity.  This reflects rather poorly on those currently charged with the task.

The memo states: .... "  We have zero tolerance for unethical behavior at eBay. Acting with integrity is simply who we are.".....

Flat out laughable coming from eBay a company that:

a) Conducted a war of terror against the Steiners.
b) Lies to sellers over and over again about how Mangled Payments will save them money and continues to falsely represent the reality that many sellers will end up paying more.
c) Intentionally buries some items and/or some sellers in search.
d) Implements seller facing changes to systems and policies with little or no advance notice despite past promises to the contrary.
e) Presents seasonal policy and system changes with minimal details in order to intentionally conceal the truly negative impacts sellers will face.
f) Routinely makes promises to sellers about things like seller protections, then bakes in unspecified and undefined loop holes that enable the company to renege on those promises in the largest number of cases.


eBay rule number one - Lies, half truths, and corporate deceit is Standard Operating Procedure .

Rule number two - See rule number one.

Perminate Link for eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something   eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something

by: Silver Ice King This user has validated their user name.

Fri Aug 14 17:41:56 2020

@RIC

The person they brought back was actually the last person that Ebay allowed to try and protect both buyers and sellers from fraud and online abuse.  But when Donohoe took over as the CEO in 2008 that was one department that was quickly found to be unnecessary at Ebay because he did not believe in the company having any ethics and it has continued to go downhill ever since.  As I remember 2008 is when Ebay eliminated the ability for Sellers to leave a negative feedback for a buyer which was the beginning of the end for Ebay being mentioned in the same sentence as Ethics or Morals.

Being truthful I cannot remember if Ebay has even had anybody in that department  since Donohoe took over followed by another Morally Corrupt leader in Wenig.  It would seem like a huge waste of money to bother anybody in that position until a lot of Ebays current Rules and Policies are rescinded and anybody in that department is allowed to do their job properly.  So far, as usual, all I see is more lip service aimed at convincing Sellers that they are once again going to be protected, but as usual nothing has changed as of this point in time.

Perminate Link for eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something   eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something

by: ebayout This user has validated their user name.

Fri Aug 14 18:03:36 2020

If ethics is siding with buyers 95% of the time in disputes, what do you call unethical...96%?

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This user has validated their user name. by: iheartjacksparrow

Fri Aug 14 19:06:32 2020

@Silver Ice King - February 1, 2008, was the day the no negative feedback for buyers went into effect. I remember the date well as my last auction ended on January 31st since I knew the days of letting other sellers know about bad buyers was over.

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by: Geetar This user has validated their user name.

Fri Aug 14 19:45:49 2020

We will see. There is a long way to go at ebay. There are too many bad employee's there now. it is what they're used to.

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by: Snapped This user has validated their user name.

Fri Aug 14 22:23:34 2020

All the kingโ€™s horses and all the kingโ€™s men can have as many coffee klatches, POW-wows and cocktail soirรฉes they want.

Watch what they DO. And when. Until then, and until they (at a minimum) loudly and Publicly acknowledge and apologize for their deceit, dishonesty, and theft by compulsion, eBay ethicsโ€œ will remain the epitome of oxymorons.

And this latest pronouncement, shamelessly disgusting.

Perminate Link for eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something   eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something

by: Shanna This user has validated their user name.

Fri Aug 14 23:13:41 2020

If they fired everyone at eBay with no ethics or morals, there would be no one left. How many people do they have on the payroll whose only job is to lie to their customers, the sellers? Ole Griff, Brian Burke, even Jordan Sweetnam, all paid liars. All those sycophants who work on the boards, and their paid lackeys. All of them need to go.

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by: acc756 This user has validated their user name.

Sat Aug 15 08:08:39 2020

I'd say it's the perfect opportunity for Jamie Iannone to shine and differentiate himself from past execs with some real leadership, transparency, integrity & accountability at eBay.  Time will tell if he is up to that challenge, but I'm willing to at least give him a shot at showing us something different.

A great first step would be to publicly broadcast this conversation.  Show us all that they are willing to walk the walk on ethics and that this isn't just a CYA move to try to mitigate fall out from the cyber stalking story.

Perminate Link for eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something   eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something

This user has validated their user name. by: toolguy

Sat Aug 15 10:59:29 2020

I saw something, I said something!

Then they banned me from the forums for "Shame & Blame"

I would NEVER report anything ever again, they can do their own policing!

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by: ebayout This user has validated their user name.

Sat Aug 15 12:22:55 2020

My Senior homeroom teacher told us something that I've carried ever since...
"The things you care about are the things you get DONE."
What have they done? Talk...talk...talk.
They have a Catch-22...if they do do something, they can't brag because they would have to admit it's been going on unchecked and unmonitored.  

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This user has validated their user name. by: Covid-20

Sat Aug 15 13:39:16 2020

๐‘๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘™๐‘ฆ 25 ๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘  ๐‘Ž๐‘”๐‘œ, ๐‘’๐ต๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ ๐‘ค๐‘Ž๐‘  ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘›๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘œ๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘–๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘Ž ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘“๐‘Ž๐‘–๐‘Ÿ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘  ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘š ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘๐‘ข๐‘–๐‘™๐‘‘๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘Ž๐‘› โ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘ก ๐‘š๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘˜๐‘’๐‘ก๐‘๐‘™๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘กโ„Ž ๐‘Ž ๐‘™๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘™ ๐‘๐‘™๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘“๐‘–๐‘’๐‘™๐‘‘.

๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘’๐ต๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ ๐ฟ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘ โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘ ๐‘‡๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘š โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘  ๐‘“๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘ž๐‘ข๐‘’๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘‘๐‘–๐‘ ๐‘๐‘ข๐‘ ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘‘ โ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘ค ๐‘œ๐‘๐‘’๐‘›๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘ , โ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘ฆ, ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘๐‘ก ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘‘๐‘œ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘๐‘ข๐‘ ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘  ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘กโ„Ž ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘”๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘ก๐‘ฆ ๐‘‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ ๐‘ข๐‘๐‘๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘ .

๐‡๐š๐ก๐š๐ก๐š๐ก๐š๐
ก๐š๐ก๐š๐ก๐š๐ก๐š, ๐๐ฅ๐ž๐š๐ฌ๐ž ๐‰๐”๐’๐“ ๐’๐“๐Ž๐. ๐๐ฎ๐ง๐œ๐ก ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ซ๐ž๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐š๐ง ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐๐ž๐ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฌ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ.
๐„๐›๐š๐ฒ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐š๐›๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐š๐ฌ ๐ก๐จ๐ง๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ ๐š๐ฌ ๐š ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ž๐ ๐œ๐š๐ซ ๐ฌ๐š๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฆ๐š๐ง ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฆ๐ข๐๐ฐ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ ๐จ๐ซ ๐š ๐›๐š๐œ๐ค ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ž๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐จ๐š๐ง ๐ฌ๐ก๐š๐ซ๐ค ๐ข๐ง ๐‚๐ก๐ข๐œ๐š๐ ๐จ.
๐…๐จ๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฅ๐š๐ณ๐ฒ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ฅ๐ค๐ฌ - ๐ˆ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฌ๐ž ๐ก๐ž๐ฅ๐ฉ๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ฅ ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฆ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐š๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ข๐š ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ค๐ฌ.

๐˜ฉ๐˜ต๐˜ต๐˜ฑ๐˜ด://๐˜ธ๐˜ธ๐˜ธ.๐˜ธ๐
˜ช๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ.๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ/๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜บ/๐˜ฆ๐˜ฃ๐˜ข๐˜บ-๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜บ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด-๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜จ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ-๐˜ค๐˜บ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ฌ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ-๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ด๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต-๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ข๐˜ช๐˜จ๐˜ฏ/

๐˜ฉ๐˜ต๐˜ต๐˜ฑ๐˜ด://๐˜ธ๐˜ธ๐˜ธ.๐˜ฃ๐˜ช๐˜ป๐˜ซ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ด.๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ/๐˜ฃ๐˜ฐ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ/๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ธ๐˜ด/2020/06/15/๐˜ฆ๐˜ฃ๐˜ข๐˜บ-๐˜ค๐˜บ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ฌ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ-๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ฌ-๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ฑ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ.๐˜ฉ๐˜ต๐˜ฎ๐˜ญ

Perminate Link for eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something   eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something

This user has validated their user name. by: NoMoreEbay

Sat Aug 15 13:48:21 2020

One of the most unethical companies in history schooling people on ethics. That's rich, comical even.

Perminate Link for eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something   eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something

by: pace306 This user has validated their user name.

Sun Aug 16 00:53:29 2020

"the eBay Leadership Team has frequently discussed how openness, honesty, respect and doing business with integrity drives our success."

NO thats not true, 'cause actually eBays actual motto was created to run up the value of the stock and its called "doing ANYTHING - even illegal things - robbery, abuse, fraud, petty larceny, intimidation and in the steiners case - stalking, and planned assault."

After all, sellers are garbage, anyone that speaks bad about eBay is useless and anyone that gets in their way - ends up paying for it. JUST (BTW) like the MAFIA - hence my nickname for them - the San Jose Mafia.

Why hold up people in alleyways when you can create a TOS/UA to take their money "legally".

Who was going to, who will stop them - no one.

All of it is "window dressing" (hat tip to The Usual Suspects) and I doubt even the nerds from Wall Street even believe it.

Jordan do nothing has been back for months now - and hes done nothing to stop the culture of corruption that defines eBay.

Jamie is just busy making sure hes got a golden parachute - like Wenig (who so far has escaped JUSTICE (since you know he was involved)) - he has no interest in "cleaning up eBay".

Theres no new sheriff in town, theres no new set of ideals - its all bs. JOB #1 is to get everyone into MP - then sit back and TOS people out of every cent they have (dont worry - MP will have better rates!). Theres a reason Mercari is doing so well .....

Perminate Link for eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something   eBay Internal Memo on Ethics: See Something, Say Something

This user has validated their user name. by: RKTOYS

Sun Aug 16 14:27:17 2020

It's just talk.  That's all you have to do these days.  Post a statement on Twitter about values while continuing business as usual.  Perhaps you've heard the term "virtue signaling?"

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