eBay Rewards, better late than never
16/12/2008 at 22:01
Just in time for Christmas, some sellers have had a surprise windfall from eBay today. Those with long memories may recall 2007′s eBay Seller Rewards progamme, an eBay promotion mostly notable for being almost entirely incomprehensible to those taking part.
Sellers who inceased their sales last Christmas were supposed to be eligible to receive a percentage of the increase as a PayPal voucher, but as 2008 wore on, no one received anything at all. The website which was supposed to show how much sellers were going to get wasn’t updated, and eventually, most of us stopped caring.
Today, I am happy to reveal that I have just received a PayPal payment for £8. Even better (I’m sure he won’t mind me publishing this), Chris got £9. I hear of one seller who says they’ve received 46p. Has anyone done better? Or worse? 
Kiss-and-Make-up says
10:09 pm on 16/12/2008
LOL I thought it might be a spoof, ah well I better think carefully how to spend my £1
John M see i put an M IN TO AVOID CONFUSION! says
10:19 pm on 16/12/2008
I got 2 quid, happy days thats my bog roll sorted!!
Amount received:
£2.00 GBP
Fee:
£0.00 GBP
Total:
£2.00 GBP
——————————————————————————–
Date:
16 Dec. 2008
Time:
12:16:31 PST
Status:
Completed
——————————————————————————–
Subject:
PayPal UK Marketing has just sent you £2.00 GBP with PayPal
Custom Note:
eBay Rewards payment 1st October 2007 to 31st January inclusive
Mordillo says
10:34 pm on 16/12/2008
I got £74.59!
Chris Dawson says
10:35 pm on 16/12/2008
So I’m doing well with nine quid then
Sue Bailey says
10:51 pm on 16/12/2008
Drinks on you then, Mordillo.
Des says
11:00 pm on 16/12/2008
£120
Well chuffed
Credit crunch my ar*e, I’m off down the shops to spend it!!
Clarky says
12:04 am on 17/12/2008
Amount received:
£176.91 GBP
Fee:
£0.00 GBP
Total:
£176.91 GBP
I spent god knows how long being told “its being sorted” and now finally it has
*dies of suprise
whirly says
7:10 am on 17/12/2008
I got chuff all.
Bryn says
7:20 am on 17/12/2008
I dont recall anything about it what so ever but got £207.51!!
FenLex says
9:11 am on 17/12/2008
Flipping ‘eck! This makes eBay Extra look well run and worthwhile!!!
John Pemberton says
11:54 am on 17/12/2008
Subject:
PayPal UK Marketing has just sent you £44.65 GBP with PayPal
Custom Note:
eBay Rewards payment 1st October 2007 to 31st January inclusive
Michelle Waterman says
1:23 pm on 17/12/2008
Didn’t get a thing i’m afraid. oh well.
theknickermafia says
1:55 pm on 17/12/2008
Yay £6 for us, just enough for a take away for one…wonder if they take paypal
Tony Goodman says
3:13 pm on 17/12/2008
£38 – Yay!
Steve says
4:40 pm on 17/12/2008
I received over £150, which was a huge surprise, especially as the email was plastered with outlook spoof/phish/fraud warnings.
I’m just waiting for the chargeback.
DBL says
5:35 pm on 17/12/2008
I got 6 quid too, I thought it was a bliddy spoof, it was so long ago and I’m not sure if my memory is as good as it was last year ‘cos I can’t remember LOL
It’ll go toward the wine quota for next week
Kate says
6:24 pm on 17/12/2008
#12 and #8 – I didn’t get anything either. I have a vague recollection of thinking I wouldn’t qualify anyway as my sales tend to decrease at this time of year.
whirly says
6:31 pm on 17/12/2008
#17 From memory you had to SPEND more per month to qualify for the rewards, given that it has taken 12 months to cough up the dosh I am glad I sat tight and carried on as normal,,
List and hope,, tis the only way to go.
steve says
7:56 pm on 17/12/2008
£98 had forgot all about it ,but all helps!
Simon says
8:47 pm on 17/12/2008
dont want to show off or anything, but we had major expansion last year – our rewards was £376 – very nice un-expected surprise !
It did look like a spoof – and we almost rejected it !
Id totally forgot, and the program was a complete brain ache anyway !
Dan Wilson says
12:28 am on 18/12/2008
Well, this is a great example. Let’s assume that (unless you’re an edge case) that eBay Rewards has been a generally good thing for honest, successful and growing sellers. You may have pocketed a ‘rebate’.
Last weekend there was a great deal of grumbling regarding the ebay.co.uk staff cutbacks. It could be classified as ‘What have eBay staff in ever done for me?’ (http://www.tamebay.com/2008/12/ebay-close-european-national-offices.html#comments)
Well, if you have ever enjoyed any benefit whatsoever from eBay Rewards, you have your answer. This scheme (effectively cashback on fees for sellers who meet growth targets and minimum standards) was the brainchild of a Richmond based employee who conceived, proposed, tested and implemented it. A great example of eBay.co.uk innovation that has been adopted elsewhere.
Ed (BuildaSkill) says
11:24 am on 18/12/2008
The way you say that Dan, you’d think it was yourself that came up with the scheme (must go trawl the boards to check – LOL)
But for the record, an on behalf of all the honest Britons living overseas, powersellers or not, who had the UK registered as our home sites, with UK bank accounts/cards tied to our seller accounts, but who had obeyed eBay’s item and seller location policies by registering our residential address as overseas …. it took six weeks of harping on at pinks and CS before we were all told – “POKE OFF, you’re NOT eligible”.
Just another example of why expatriates should break all the disadvantaging rules set by eBay UK? (As many have never stopped doing, and got all the perks because of it).
Hmmm?
Taexalia says
12:52 pm on 18/12/2008
Two Pounds Sterling.
Dan Wilson says
1:14 pm on 18/12/2008
Ed,
No, not my brainchild and certainly not taking the credit: just citing a great example. I’m suggesting that a lot of good work is and has taken place in national offices that are closing and saying ‘never did me any good’ is a bit naive and blinkered.
For the tiny, tiny number of cases like yours, you must surely understand that making special arrangements is sometimes simply not economically valid for a business pursuing profits?
Sue Bailey says
2:45 pm on 18/12/2008
#22: There was no residency requirement for this particular promotion. You can read the T&Cs here:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/ebayrewards/tsandcs/
nickynackynoo says
7:48 pm on 18/12/2008
£407.12….I’m Happy !!!
nickynackynoo says
7:56 pm on 18/12/2008
Sorry got it wrong !
£412.07 !!!
“eBay Rewards payment 1st October 2007 to 31st January inclusive”
MarkM says
12:07 am on 19/12/2008
Way back when I sold on ebay and this scheme was introduced I got two payments of £200 and £400 which paid for a Wii and a PS3.
Which was nice
Ed (BuildaSkill) says
6:51 am on 19/12/2008
Dan #24 & Sue #25
I know there were no location requirements set in the policy, but if you trawl the UK PS board you will find that a pink (I think it was Richard but not sure) specifically stated that non-UK residents with non-UK addresses registered against UK accounts would specifically NOT be given the rewards.
To me, that was disingenuous – it was an eBay UK program, therefore if the account was an eBay UK account, it should have been eligible regardless of where the holder was situated. – Dan, I’m sure even you must admit that the coding needed to differentiate and exclude based on address, is no more or less difficult than the coding to differentiate and include based on site of registration.
Put it at another level. If a Brit lives outside the UK, should the UK government state they are not eligible for a British passport? Of course not. But that is exactly how eBay UK have been treating overseas UK-members for about 3-4 years now. They did not do this back in 2003-4, so what (or who) changed at Richmond sometime late in 2004 / early 2005?
Currently, with accounts on Singapore and the US, those sites do not punish me for my location – they simply require that the account is registered on their site, regardless of my residential location, in order to qualify for programs and incentives. This is a good example of inclusion for global market opportunities, and the opposite of what European (incl UK) sites are practicing.
Sites like Australia, Canada, France, and others are ramping up CLD offers where regardless of nationality, sellers must be located INSIDE those countries – at one level this is fair enough, but when placed alongside the marketing tag line of a “global marketplace” and the historical culture of all users eligible on all sites, it is indicative of money grasping and desperation to retain revenue levels (i.e. shutting out large portions of the seller base from discounts to minimise fee-impacts).
Over the last 2-3 years, the incidences of exclusionary practices eBay-wide have accelerated. Perhaps the policy makers should be examining that trend to see why they are shedding paying customers faster and faster, and picking up so much anti-eBay press. If they were to return to the number one founding principle of “all people are basically good” and to inclusionary policies, then eBay would not be getting overtaken by Amazon as demonstrated by Nielsen’s unique visitor numbers for last month.
Remembering back to announcements in Spring 2007 about protecting the home territory (eBay North America) re the trans-Atlantic visibility chop – have the non North American sites been ordered to shut the door on expatriate and non-resident sellers to force them onto using the dot com site, thus protecting / inflating the revenues for the home territories? Remember, there is always method in eBay’s madness, and it is rarely (if ever) plainly stated.
Ed
Ed (BuildaSkill) says
6:56 am on 19/12/2008
Just an afterthought – Sue is expatriate and got the reward cashback, so how come Asian-based expatriates were told they could not, and did not (yet)?
Hmm?
Adam says
9:44 pm on 19/12/2008
Took me a bit of searching to find out what my mystery payment was!
16 Dec. 2008 Payment From PayPal UK Marketing Completed
Details
£755.20 GBP £0.00 GBP £755.20 GBP
750 odd quid is quite nice but think of the £10,000s we spend on advertising on good old eBay! lol