When eBay decided this week to halt the auction of freebie tickets to London's Live 8 concert, it caved to bad PR. I wonder whether eBay could have dodged this bullet if it allowed more direct user comments on auction items.
On one hand, we've seen that comments on news web sites can get out of control and be inflammatory. The flip side is that when people are able to express opposing views prominently, they feel empowered, which may make them less likely to use the sort of subversive tactics seen in the eBay-Live 8 case.
The 150,000 tickets for the Live 8 in London's Hyde Park were distributed via a text-messaging lottery. Musician Bob Geldof organized the July 2 event -- with concerts simultaneously in London, Philadelphia, Berlin, Paris and Rome -- to increase awareness about poverty in Africa.
Predictably, many winners of the tickets started selling them online. For high-demand events, it takes a photo ID system to put the tickets directly into the hands only of those who would actually use them. Faced with a problem he could have anticipated, Geldof slammed eBay.
According to BBC, he encouraged people to place ridiculously high bids that they had no intention of honoring, thereby sabotaging the Live 8 ticket auctions.
eBay initially refused to budge, saying the sales were legal, but then backed down. The company said its customers didn't think the sales were appropriate and should be stopped.
The screenshot on this post shows that stopping the sales hasn't been totally successful. Not only are they still showing up on eBay -- with sellers promising to complete the deals via email, thereby making moot the problem of £10 million bids ($18 million) -- but they've also migrated to craigslist. On Tuesday, the day eBay said it would stop the auctions, no Live 8 tickets were listed on craigslist; on Wednesday, there were 32 listings for Live 8 tickets on craigslist.
My point isn't to defend huge markups on tickets, especially those obtained free for an event intended to raise awareness about poverty. But for eBay to stop these sales, if they are indeed legal, sets a precedent and could encourage others to use similar underhanded tactics to sabotage auctions and pressure eBay.
Where eBay went wrong:
- eBay halted the auctions even though it conceded that they were perfectly legal.
- The explanation of eBay Managing Director Doug McCallum -- "We've listened carefully to our customers. Overwhelmingly the voice is that they would like us to take down the listing." -- doesn't jibe with the mixed comments on eBay's own message boards or elsewhere.
- Faced with a PR problem, it appears the company will buckle rather than stick up for the rights of its sellers.
One thing eBay did right: It suspended the accounts of people who posted the insanely high bids.
Now, let's take a page from web sites that allow users to post comments on articles: What if eBay, which has a great user feedback system, also allowed any registered user to directly post a comment on an item? So, not only could you post feedback when you've completed a purchase or sale, but also to comment about a specific item while the auction is still going. (Buyers already can ask sellers questions, but it's up to the seller whether to display the question and response.)
If the critics of the Live 8 ticket sellers could have posted comments on each auction item, they might have been satisfied. By having their dissatisfaction presented in a prominent way, they might have been less likely to enter £10 million bids and call for eBay to halt these ticket sales.
Even if a comment system wouldn't have stopped the heavy-handed tactics in this case, it would be a valuable tool for an auction site. It would enable buyers to share information about an auction item, and the feedback rating of the person commenting would give the users a way to judge the credibility of the person making the comment.
More posts about Comments and Message Boards
Comments