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Griff: Let's get to the winner of our trivia question contest for this week. On the line with us is Peter from Yorktown, Saskatchewan in Canada. Welcome Peter.
Caller: Hi Griff, how are you?
Griff: I'm okay, let's ask that question and you can give me the answer. Over what 3-day weekend did founder, Pierre, create the first auction website?
Caller: That would be Labor Day weekend 1995, Pierre Omidyar created www.auctionweb.com.
Griff: You're the winner and you get a button.
Lee: Yay.
Griff: There are four hands clapping. It sounds like two at least. So, we'll send that out to you. I know that Peter, you're a regular caller to the show.
Caller: Yes, I listen to you religiously, Griff.
Griff: Oh, I love it when you use that word religiously with Griff in the same sentence.
Caller: (Laughter) yes.
Griff: (Laughter). We'll send that out to you. Have you got a question or comment? Are you going to eBay Live?
Caller: Actually I just have a comment. I want to thank you, Griff, for everything you've done for eBay.
Griff: Oh, my pleasure.
Caller: I know for a fact that once in a while I send you emails and you always respond to the emails very quickly and I just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate it.
Griff: My pleasure, Peter, thanks.
Caller: I'm looking forward to seeing you at eBay Live next week.
Griff: Oh, you're coming down, that's good to hear.
Caller: Oh, absolutely.
Griff: Make sure you come up to me and introduce yourself.
Caller: Oh for sure.
Griff: That way I can put a face on the name. Peter, thanks again and congratulations for winning our weekly eBay trivia contest.
Caller: Thank you, Griff.
Griff: So, you can win next week. All you have to do is listen to the first segment and we'll give you a trivia question. You call in with the answer and you can win the button for now. 888-327-0061. This could be your opportunity to call in and ask a question about eBay Live, ask about eBay, maybe you have a concern that you want addressed, I love to help address concerns. Give us a call at 888-327-0061 or if you're calling from across the ocean you can dial us at 858-623-0102. I was in New York last week promoting eBay Live through something called the Satellite Media Tour. You know what those are, Lee.
Lee: Oh yes.
Griff: You sit in front of a camera for about 6 hours, every 5 minutes going to another live interview somewhere in the country. Any time you're watching your local news and you notice they have a segment on with somebody who's a talking head and they're on for about 3-5 minutes, that person is probably doing this for 6 hours. Wow, it can be grueling, but it was fun too. I got a chance to tell a lot of people across the country about eBay Live for those who haven't signed up yet, also about our tenth year anniversary, and just some of the cool stuff that's going on at eBay. This is turning out to be an amazing year and it's not over yet. If you're coming to eBay Live we'll be announcing some extraordinary new things that are going to be happening at eBay at the event. You don't want to miss out. A lot of them will be addressed at the keynote speech which happens on Thursday which will be with Meg Whitman and Bill Cobb. Right before the speech I'll be roaming HP Pavilion with a camera and will be doing sort of "the man in the street" interviews and broadcasting them up on the screen at HP Pavilion so folks can watch it live. It should be pretty fun. If you want to get your mug up there and maybe make a comment or ask a question or just say "hi" to your mom and your family, this would be a perfect time to do it. HP Pavilion, by the way, is huge. It's the big arena in San Jose downtown, only about a 5 minute walk at most from the Convention Center and it's where the keynote speech is going to be, so it's going to be pretty cool. Lots of other events are happening as well. I'm all geared up, you?
Lee: I'm interested to know, up there in headquarters, in eBay headquarters, how is it different this year because eBay is there instead of a different location?
Griff: I think it's actually a lot less stress because so much of the stress for the employees.it's two things, the stress of having to travel is always great. I travel all the time, so it's easier for me, but a lot of the employees who are slated to staff the event when we bid in other cities have to travel and it can be difficult for people getting ready and having to leave their family and disappear for almost a week.
Lee: And you have to get your work done before you leave and there's always that.
Griff: Yeah, so this is different in that there is none of that stress, plus a lot more people get to go to the event. In the past only a select group of the employees get to go. This time the majority of the employees are located here in San Jose and they're going to get to go to the event, so they're all very excited. The other thing that's different is I think we get better and better at this every year and Abby Green, who runs basically the whole show this year along with John Fernandez, they just get better and better at this, so I'd defy anyone to find a loose end or something out of place. This is going to be the event that runs like clockwork.
Lee: A few loose cannons, but no loose ends.
Griff: Loose cannons? (laughter) I protest. Let's get to the phones. I see we have a call from Eric in Laguna Nigel. Where's that? I know where the beach is.
Caller: Yeah, it's actually a little inland. It's a little bit outside the beach.
Griff: Is your house okay?
Caller: Yeah, it's fine.
Griff: Yeah, but were you close by to those landslides?
Caller: Oh no. The landslides were at Laguna Beach.
Griff: Yeah.
Caller: So it didn't hit us at all.
Griff: Good.
Caller: The question I have is I'm getting spoof emails. They're using my ID and saying we're selling something that we're not selling and I'm kind of concerned about it because.
Griff: Now wait a minute, are you saying that they're using your user ID personally?
Caller: They're saying, yeah, boatdock911, and then they say contact us at an email that doesn't exist, I mean it's not our email. They're trying to use our ID to sell whatever they're selling, they're spoofing it.
Griff: Yeah. Have you reported this to eBay?
Caller: Yes I have.
Griff: And what was the upshot of that?
Caller: Well, basically change the passwords and stuff, but other than that I don't know whether we're getting results or whether it's going to stop because we get a ton of these messages.
Griff: Yeah, I can tell you one thing, eBay up until this point, just like anyone else, it's impossible to stop that email from coming in. But, we've just announced that we're making enhancements to our own messaging system. We're moving eventually to a system where all correspondence having to do with eBay will take place within eBay's message system which effectively keeps out the fraudsters. They won't be able to spoof emails within eBay and it will make it easier for folks who are otherwise unsure of whether or not an email has come from eBay to know for certain. In the meantime, those that come through email, you've got to kind of just delete them.
Caller: Just delete them?
Griff: You can report them to spoof@eBay.com, it helps us keep on top of getting the websites they create taken down, but there's nothing we can do to actually stop the email from coming, unfortunately.
Caller: Okay, but I was wondering if that was going to affect us because it was a real nightmare a couple months ago. We had to get all our PayPal and everything else changed.
Griff: It's not going to affect you in eBay's eyes. We'll do everything we can to help you get your accounts back in order and make sure they stay that way, so you don't have any bad marks with eBay at all.
Caller: No, we're 100%, we've never had a bad feedback.
Griff: And that will continue, you're still in good standing as far as we're concerned.
Caller: Okay, because my biggest concern was because of the spoofs the last time, they shut our account down and changed the passwords and then we had to go through Live Help to find out what went on.
Griff: Yeah, because what happens in a case like that is the minute they suspect that somebody has hijacked your account is they have to cease all activity, so they'll change the password and put everything in suspension until they can get the account back to you, the rightful owner. Thanks Eric. Let's go to Birmingham, Alabama. I can't.let's see.tell me your name.
Caller: Piangelo.
Griff: Piangelo, okay, welcome to eBay Radio, Piangelo. What's your question?
Caller: I'm in My eBay and I can see what I'm watching and what I've already won, but I can't see the items I'm currently bidding on.
Griff: Hmm. Let's check and see if that happens to me. When did you notice this beginning?
Caller: Just now because I accidentally logged out.
Griff: So I'm in My eBay and I'm looking at "all buying" and you're saying you cannot see.
Caller: .the items I'm currently bidding on.
Griff: Okay, does it even show up as "items I'm bidding on" and then "no items?"
Caller: I accidentally logged out and I logged back in and I received a message in red that said some of my information is not available, please try again later.
Griff: Oh yeah, that happens occasionally. It's just maybe a little database hiccup. So, I would log back out and log back in in a few minutes. It usually goes away pretty quickly, or continue to refresh the page by clicking the refresh or reload button on the top of the browser window. That happens to me on occasion as well. It's not system-wide, but occasionally it happens and just takes a little time, maybe a minute or two, and it goes away.
Caller: Oh okay.
Griff: Thanks Piangelo. Let's go to Napa, California and Jeff. Hi Jeff, welcome to eBay Radio. What's your question?
Caller: Hi, I subscribed to the sellers report and I watch my fees and try to keep my percentage under a certain amount. Is there like a magical number that works good to try to keep your fees down to like 10% or 12%?
Griff: Hmm, that's a good question. You know what, let's take a short break and then we'll get back to you with some advice. I don't know if there's going to be a set answer that will work for everyone. It's always wise to keep your fees down, but we'll address this in more detail right after we take a quick break, Jeff, so stick around with us. We're at 888-327-0061. We'll be back right after this on eBay Radio.
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