eBay Rebrands Meetups, Says Au Revoir to 'Griff'

by: pace306

What’s the difference between Griff being at work and Retiring?????

Nothing. Really, nothing

He may have been first, but he’s done NOTHING to help sellers in all the years he’s been on the job

Big office, big pay, great benefits and a tab at Walkers - but nothing for sellers.

Retiring For Dummies???  (Sequel to eBay for dummies)

by: Snapped

“ the "Uncle Griff" persona on the eBay discussion boards, fiercely defending eBay against criticism.“

Peter reportedly founded eBay under the premise that, as a whole, people are “basically good”.  That they mean well.  You might call it one of their first algorithms.  Then he hired Mr. Griffith, dressed him in costume, and either he, or by direction, promptly threw that foundational brick out the window.

He became the nom de expert in things eBay, but unfortunately was not an expert in the business practices and nuances unique to the vastly varied marketplace of the wide array of categories of items eBay coveted to represent.  Although to be fair, he was just a spokesperson - and neither was eBay any kind of expert.  Yet they claimed the role. For ‘your’ own good.

Meanwhile, instead of seeing what eBay has labeled ‘criticism’ requiring a stanch defense as instead, actually a ‘basically good’ and well meaning attempt to bring attention to areas where improvements were suggested - improvements that would be mutually beneficial - and btw, it’s a too often overlooked true motivation for those labeled eBay ‘bashers’ - eBay donned shields, and labeled those who dared to tell truth to power as “noise”.  

And that - and his endorsement of that - is one of the largest roots of the big ol’ choking weed that is eBay’s overreach when it comes to trying to control every phase and factor of it’s eCommerce seller’s businesses. You know, eBay’s customers.  The one’s who pay the fees, no matter the source of the funds.  The ones who thought good ol Grff really was ‘on their side’.  Till it became clear who eBay preferred to ‘side’ with with every resolution, judgement, and ‘enhancement’.

So, customer ‘service’?  Serving who?  

A career in a chair as a spokes-persona, but not a person.  Working behind a shield - for a while, a literal one plastered on almost every eBay page.  A one-way ‘advocate’, who’s promises to influence were either never heeded, never empowered, or more likely, too risky to do any more than falsely promise to forward when it came to a chance at sabotaging the now celebrated career longevity.

And overall, why it’s all replaceable now by a box of circuit boards and cooling fans.  For your own good.

by: pace306

When Pierre hired him - the first item sold was a BROKEN laser pointer (for parts & repair?????)

No Paypal
No One Way Feedbacks
No Adyen (so you control all the money)
No VERO (inspired Pan Am products)
No crazy advertizing
No PPC
No mandated FREE catalog building
No 500x500 (499x499 will destroy the net!) mandated pics

It was simple, it was easy and it became so popular that it became the norm (selling on the internet).

Yes times have changed - but not for the better, has it? True things needed to be updated - but not in the ways they are today.

Griff? Griff made bank off his "The Official eBay Bible Paperback – June 1, 2003" book..After all, defending the indefensible IN PUBLIC deserves a reward - doesnt it?

Like the Mafia eBay patterned itself after, one good turn deserves another.

Seller Advocate was the term that was used later on in his career ...... exactly WHO was he advocating for? It certainly was NOT sellers.

Where was he when feedbacks became one sided? No where. But thats just one of the MANY sins that he let go by.

Now that he made money off the book, now that he has alot of eBay stock options, now that they stock (for some insane reason) is $94 a share (and he has many shares), its time to "retire".

PLEASE eBay - NO MORE "SELLER ADVOCATES", please.

by: Rexford

Wouldn't Uncle Grift have been a more appropriate Moniker?

Seller's advocate?  Interesting that "vacated" is just shy of one letter of being an anagram for advocate.  As it relates to how he helped sellers, whether it be advocate or vacated, the results will be the same.

by: Valaset

@Pace306 @Snapped @Rexford

The three of you should be ashamed of yourself and the lies you are spreading about Griff and EBAY.

I have been a seller on the platform for over 20 years.  I sell $350K a year on EBAY.  And was a loyal listener of EBAY Radio for the entire time it was on.

Griff was ALWAYS trying to help the seller succeed.  Was he a spokesperson for EBAY: Yes.  Has EBAY over the years made some changes that we as sellers may not have liked: Yes.   But to attack a man who spent his entire career trying to help sellers SUCCEED on the platform is uncalled for.

I think the three of you clearly need to look yourselves in the mirror and ask yourselves if YOU are the problem on why you have not been successful on EBAY.

Not everyone is cut out to be run a business...

by: pace306

Not everyone is cut out to be run a business ---- Classic case of the pot calling the kettle black

You've been a seller for 20 years, I've been a seller for 27 - since 1998 (my dad can beat up your dad)

I've MORE then eclipsed the revenue you claim to make - but so what?

"Griff was ALWAYS trying to help the seller succeed" - IN WHAT WAY?? Parroting eBay talking points is great - but its still a lie

PLEASE list all the PRO SELLER INITIATIVES HE SPEARHEADED AND FIXED.

IN EVER SINGLE INCIDENCE - EVERY - he was of NO HELP when eBay rained down its terror on sellers. NOT ONE bad policy got removed, rescinded, changed or modified because he was "the SELLER ADVOCATE".

Hes been there longer then the last 6 or so CEOs and NOTHING has changed, nothing.

If Im wrong - prove it, PLEASE.

How do I know? I contacted him on Facebook (eBay for business) and got the USUAL BS - even though he "tries to help people" aka useless.

"I think the three of you clearly need to look yourselves in the mirror and ask yourselves if YOU are the problem on why you have not been successful on EBAY."

I am as successful on eBay as THEY allow me to be.

When YOU get FAKE VERO RUN INS (and I had to pay lawyers to get me out of it)(I was proven right each and every time and got NO APPOLOGY for eBay) and YOU have to get in between eBay and Paypal for fake money holds - THEN maybe we are close to being on the same level and you can talk.

Before I did eBay "full time" was was an electronics buyer for a few different $100 million companies - I understand how to do business very well.  I STILL have my industry contacts and do business DIRECTLY with Marshall, Casio, WD and many more.

The problem is - and its BIGGER then The Grifter ..... As long as a buyers lies mean more then a sellers truth ... Griff, no Griff, Jaime the Magician or anyone else - none matter because the core values of the company are crooked.

And before you ask - YES - If I could get all the brands I sell UNGATED on Amazon, I wouldnt need eBay. But I cant, no one can - so eBay it is.

Is it too much to get honesty, parity and fairness from your "SELLING PARTNER"?

by: Rexford

Valaset, not ashamed. Your experience was not my experience, and apparently was not the experience of the other two posters who you are trying to shame. (One might say attacking,)

And who says that I, or the others, are not successful on eBay?  Could we be more successful?  Likely so, as I was selling on eBay more than 20 years ago and I remember what it was like at that time.  Then eBay became a public company and it was all about pleasing Wall Street, and we suffered through some very questionable CEOs who appeared to be more interested in stuffing their pockets that sellers' pockets.

You have a dramatic view of what attacking someone is.  I wasn't in any way attacking the man.  I just saw absolutely no value in his position as a "sellers' advocate".  I viewed him more as an eBay advocate.

And my, aren't you judgmental with your "not everyone is cut out to run a business" comment.   I have been selling on eBay longer than you have, you haven't seen my books, and I run five businesses on top of having a very rewarding full-time job with a $20 billion company.  As you can likely see from my  post, I am very busy.  No time for a radio show.

by: Snapped

When eBay “let go of its successful past”, it included trashing my eBay business.    Not all at once of course, it was a death of 1000 ‘enhancements’.  At the time that represented over $2M in sales for items sold over a four year period with an average sale price over $100, an average turnover time of 9 days, an average return rate of practically never, and sustaining enough income after taxes and fees to support 6 employees.  This was a business I acquired in 2007 (after a 25 year career in business) which had already itself done over $3M in the 3 years preceding since it opened on ‘03.

One day not long after, after a few ice cream socials and some Lewis Carrol inspired sharpie drawings conjured up after some “thinking days”, eBay’s CEO at the time decided they knew better than we did (all sellers) what was needed to succeed, disregarding the fact we were already doing so.  When issues arose that impacted our business model itself, eBay’s ‘advice’ was either change our business model, or see ya.  

During this period, Uncle Griff as we were all supposed to blithely identify, attended a number of “live exchanges”, where a topic set of eBay’s choosing was opened for chat room posted questions.  I actually conversed this way with him directly, as he was claimed to be attempting to ‘advocate’ for our success, in each case with our attempts to overcome or come to terms with eBay’s ever schizophrenic attempts to three year plan its way to a ‘successful future’.  For almost two decades now.

There were a couple times he could not find good reason to disagree, and so ‘promised’ to forward it all for ‘consideration’.  No follow up was ever provided, no response to queries in context, and no further even acknowledgement such a conversation ever took place.  If he was ‘advocating’, there was NO evidence of it.  Alternately, there was no empowerment there, perhaps even some risk.  Either way, nothing was ever ‘reconsidered’.  
However, every other time the ‘guidance’ given was simply this - eBay’s way, or the highway.  Find a way to tolerate, adapt, afford, and conform to whatever size we say should fit all, or don’t.  And stop being so “noisy” about it.

Meanwhile, clearly there are folks who are willing, more tolerant, more malleable, or more formulaic in their own enterprises where such is specifically suited to eBay’s vision of what eCommerce should be, at least as far as what brings the most profit from the rake to them.  

And clearly those folk - especially those newly exposed to this world and without any better frame of reference to compare - those folk would find good benefit from a friendly uncle’s embrace.  But that’s not ‘advocating’, that’s coaching.  Hear tell there’s even a ‘bible’ for it.  

But as for ‘advocating’ for the betterment of a sellers plight, when such a seller falls in to the category of apathetic acceptance?  Not so much.  And I am only one of those.  Just one of too many to enumerate here.  

Incidentally, none of this is intended to be ‘personally’ demeaning.  Shame on YOU for jumping to that conclusion.  He served his purpose, and deserves his compensation for it.  You cheer for that if you choose, but that doesn’t render his purpose - eBay’s purpose as his employer - any more of an ‘advocate’ for the from then until now, sellers who eBay has disenfranchised.  

No matter who sat in that chair.  

by: Shanna

@Valaset,

When you get home tonight, ask Griff what he will spend his 30 pieces of silver on.

by: pace306

Gather around dear friends while I tell you the story of Pace & The Perfume

As most of us know, selling some items in some categories ON EBAY is a dangerous and perilous adventure. Yes some sellers have all the luck and have no issues, some of us though do not.

Of course for EVERYTHING I SELL (in EVERY category that I sell in) I have paperwork for, back up if needed, and I do business with US based firms with 30+ yrs in wholesale.

That doesnt stop eBays crybaby buyers for causing TROUBLE.

In any normal "place", no returns means NO RETURNS except on eBay where it means "we override your policy because it benefits US, and that fact that we lie about it, means nothing because we are BIGGER then you and can beat you up AT WILL. WE SAY that NO RETURNS means the buyer gets their money back AND gets to keep the item. (eBay being the San Jose Mafia likes to steal from sellers - so the idea that a buyer can say almost anything and get to keep the item AND the money is a normal natural thing).

I received and sold a WHOLE 6 pcs of a specific perfume. Current items, not out of date, still sealed, factory shrinkwrapped with 5 out of 6 people providing positive feedback.

Then comes #6. "I DONT LIKE IT". Well miss 1) Im sorry we dont take returns on personal items and 2) did you ever smell this item before you bought it??

Buyer: "no i didnt but I heard it was a great scent"

buyer to eBay: Negative feeback given "smells like antishave" - but no case (since DUH theres nothing wrong with it - you just dont like it.

Pace to CS: "its a product review NOT a service metric - unfair".

CS to Pace: "yes you are right but eBay no longer allows us to change feedbacks - Ill send it to HIGHER UPS"

Higher UPS to PACE: "STFU on the negative, buyer has a right to say theres SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR ITEM"

PACE IN REPLY: but I was promised by CS that you would resolve it

CS back: TOO BAD

PACE TO UNCLE GRIFTER: "remember me? remember when you screwed me via VERO with Skullcandy? Casio? Denon? Pioneer? and you promised via VERO CS (not regular CS) that this kind of "screwing WONT happen anymore?) So OK I need you to step in please."

The Grifter: "Yes I remember those cases, Im sorry they happened the way they did - but I cant help you. We appreciate your 27 yrs on the platform and Im sorry VERO caused you problems when it wasnt your fault, but I cant/wont override CS's comments on feedback removal and use it as a tool to IMPROVE YOUR SERVICE to customers (aka take cr@p back anytime all the time)  (I HAD 1 negative in the last 5 yrs, buyer swore he had a defective item, never opened a case, never returned the item, could never show any kind of tracking - but left a negative saying he wants a refund even if he never returned it - and eBay let it stand)

So, for those playing the home game: Hes a nice man, maybe even a kind man. He may be head of his church, he may have made eBay ALOT of cash (and vise versa) - but what he ISNT (at least to me - Ive heard rumors that in the past if you emailed him on Facebook he would help) is a seller advocate.

I stand by my words. I hope he has a great retirement but gets nightmares from all the times he let eBay screw people when he COULD HAVE, SHOULD HAVE stepped in to help.

by: Shanna

Pace, he was never a nice man. He and his cohort Jeff would sit in their office and conspire on how to stick it to the sellers on the boards. He loved talking down to people. When it was pointed out eBay was cutting short USPS shipping estimates to complete with Amazon's 2 day delivery, he gleefully would tell people to switch shippers, make 3 times as much as your item sold for in overnight shipping with Fedex. People would complain that eBay CS wasn't following their written policy on feedback removal, then one day Griff got a negative on one of those Hawaiian shirts he sold, it said measurements were wrong and they didn't like it. People talked on the boards about how that was exactly the kind of feedback that would never be removed, and the next day it was gone. He would claim it never happened, but when people started posting screen shots of it, they were banned.

by: pace306

Shana :)

eBay as a company - is rotten to the core - so its no surprise that people that work there (higher ups) are rotten as well.

I never met him personally (he never went to any of the trade shows (back in the day when eBay actually showed up to some of them)), so I cant say he was mean or rotten (nasty).

What I can say - as you described - that it was "All About the Benjamins" and nothing more.

He wrote a book getting people to sell items on eBay which made them money, they in turn gave him a cushy office, lots of perks and a title that said alot but did nothing.

There always were stories that IF you got im on Facebook and contacted him directly that he would help you out (if you deserved it) - but when I did it - it exploded in my face.

I was accused (by eBay not the companies themselves directly) of all kinds of things. None had any basis in fact, none were real - and eBay knew all of it as the emails passed through their system.

The makers stated in plain english that they never even saw ANY of the "so called fakes" and that their not wanting them to be sold online was enough to be able to use eBay as a tool to get them removed.

"Sorry pal , thats NOT how it works here in the USA - there are laws".

A asked in simple english - how can a seller sell cosmetics? No seller (unless they have their own brand) makes anything. I ant tell you if you will smell better, look better, or anything else - its the BUYERS responsibility to know what they are buying. I just move items from point A to point B and make something on them inbetween.

If you bought X and I shipped you Y, or I sold you X and it got damaged on the way or lost - no problem - I have 3rd party (shipsurance etc) to insure every one gets made whole.

I cant however make anyone "like" a perfume scent - thats a product review.

So when it was FINALLY MY TURN to ask for help - I got treated badly. I didnt ask for anything that was outside eBay rules - just that I cant take back open personal items and I cant be held responsible if you dont like the smell and I was told STFU.

Why though? Blood Sport? To try and prove sellers are garbage and buyers are great? What was the point?

It made me look into the "seller advocate". I ant point to ONE bad eBay seller initiative that stopped or put the breaks on.

He certainly didnt reform CS, the broken Feedback system, money holds or anything else that most sellers have to deal with 24/7.

Personally he may be a nice guy, but he WAS NOT a "seller advocate" for anyone on the platform