The Award Winning Place for Plain English Explanations of Internet Stuff
eBay is slowly rolling out its premium eBay Concierge Service to both buyers and sellers. Launched just about exactly one year ago, in October 2016, eBay’s Concierge services have only been available to a select few, are by invite only, and among other things allow Concierge members to chat in real-time with a customer service agent! Here’s what you need to know if you get one of these invitations.
There are a dizzying array of abbreviations on sites on which you can purchase used clothing and other used goods, such as eBay, Craigslist, and Poshmark, just to name a few. Abbreviations such as EUC, VGUC, GUC, EU, NIB and NIP can be confusing, while other abbreviations are more readily recognized, such as NWT and OEM. Here is a guide to all of those abbreviations, be they on eBay, Craigslist, thredUP, Swap, or wherever you may see them.
Wouldn’t you think that it would be fairly straightforward to figure out how to change or update your phone number on eBay? eBay has been around long enough that when some people first opened their accounts they may even have had landlines (imagine that)! However, it’s not obvious how to update your telephone number on eBay, so here is how to change that phone number.
After 12 years together, eBay and PayPal will go their separate ways next year. Ever since eBay acquired PayPal for $1.3 billion in 2002, the two companies have been deeply intertwined, serving as the twin pillars of the eBay tech behemoth. The highly lucrative PayPal, which after the split will be a publicly traded company, will now have to make its way alone. Why did eBay and PayPal split? Is it a good idea? And what does the decision mean for you?
If you got an email from eBay saying “Important – eBay Password Reset Required”, and are wondering whether it is a scam or legitimate, you’re not alone. Here’s the scoop.
Employees of more than a dozen high tech giants were subject to a secret agreement (see the smoking gun documents) between the companies to not poach each other’s employees. The deal, labelled “Techtopus” by journalist Mark Ames, included Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe, Dell, IBM, eBay, Microsoft, Comcast, Clearchannel, Dreamworks and Pixar, and British public relations company WPP (which stands for Wire and Plastics Products – they started out as a manufacturer of shopping baskets).
Men, beware. Before you propose in order to ‘do the right thing’ after being presented with a positive pregnancy test, be sure that you take your intended to a doctor for a blood-based pregnancy test, and that you personally see the results. Or, at very least, buy a new pregnancy urine test, hand it to your girlfriend outside the bathroom door, and have her come out with that test in hand, to see the results. Because there is a new cottage industry of selling positive pregnancy tests online, in both Craigslist and eBay.
You may have heard about eBay Now and the eBayNow app, and may well be wondering “What is eBay Now?” and “Where can I get eBay Now?” Essentially, eBay Now is an eBay personal shopping service, with a twist. Here is everything you need to know about this nifty same day delivery (in fact, within a hour) eBay shopping service, and also where it is currently active.
We’ve all had days where we didn’t want to work, but according to Andrew Valentine, a principal for Verizon Enterprise Solutions, a man he calls “Bob” took it to a new level by by outsourcing his own six-figure-salaried job to China for $50,000/year, while he surfed Reddit and looked at cat videos.
Wondering where you can get tickets to President Obama’s inauguration? Well you can’t get tickets to the president’s inauguration on eBay or Craigslist, at least if eBay and Craigslist follow through on their promise to not allow anyone to sell or scalp tickets to Pres. Obama’s inauguration on either site.
Countless people ran to their local supermarkets and convenience stores today, to corner the market on Twinkies, Hostess cupcakes, Snoballs, and Ho Hos, as the news of American fixture Hostess Bakery announced that it would be closing after being unable to resolve a contract negotiation dispute with the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM, or, simply, “the Bakers Union”). Pictures of empty Twinkie shelves at grocery stores started showing up on the Internet, and, at just about the same time, Twinkie’s started showing up on eBay, and through Amazon, at prices of as much as $1000 or more for a single box of Twinkies.
As the race for governor of California goes into overdrive, auction giant eBay’s former CEO, Meg Whitman, has found that an incident from her days at eBay is raising its ugly head to give her more than campaign plate dinners on which to chew. In an incident to which she admits, but calls an “anomaly”, Whitman had an altercation with an employee at eBay, while she was still the CEO, during which she “physically guided” the employee, Young Mi Kim, from the room in which they were both working.
This is a classic example of the problem when one entity with too much control owns the entire sales stream – from start to end – from offer to sale to payment: Paypal has started withholding payments that buyers have already paid until the seller not only ships the item, but “as long as the buyer doesn’t report a problem or leaves positive feedback”! “Your funds are pending – please process this order” demands the notice from Paypal “…This money is being temporarily held in your pending balance… It will be held for up to 21 days… It may be available sooner if we can confirm that the item was delivered or, if this is an eBay item, your buyer leaves positive feedback.”