On Sun, 17 Jan 1999 15:48:17 EST, PCACala@xxxxxxx wrote:
>Hi Frank and others:
>
>Re: Interesting ecommerce ethics question regarding solicitation of
>unsuccessful bidders with an item they have shown an interest in.
>
>If a company (in this case ebay) leaves an information hole that allows
>competitors to exploit (however small the competitor is), isn't the
>responsibility of the company to plug the hole? To not do so is to allow a
>loss of profits. That loss should not be the responsibility of a successful
>competitor. Marketing by its very nature is the exploitation of niches (i.e.,
>holes). Successful companies plug their holes.
>
>A flip side to this situation is a seller being solicited (I refrain from
>using the word spam) by a non-bidding after a sale and having the buyer says
>they will purchase the item at asking price. That also avoids ebay's
>commission.
>
>The auction agent cannot and should not place controls on communications that
>take place between buyers and sellers AFTER an auction. They no longer carry
>a contract with the seller at that point and buyers and sellers should be free
>to barter as they wish. In a real life auction, one might approach (upon
>leaving the premises) the owner of an item that failed to sell. A deal might
>be worked out outside the auction hall, when the seller has retaken possession
>of his or her goods (and paid the auctioneer a listing fee). I can't think of
>anyone who would argue that is unethical.
>
>The act of approaching the seller in the real world is the same as e-mailing
>the seller in the virtual world. Likewise, the act of approaching an
>unsuccessful buyer in the real world, to tell him or her you have a similiar
>item, is the same as e-mailing a potential buyer in the virtual world. In
>either case, if the contacted party rebukes the offer/approach, one simply
>apologies.
>
>One's presence at an auction convays information that would not have been
>gained if they had not taken the time to be there. Since there is a
>business cost involved in having attended an auction, I see no ethics problem
>with recouping those expenses by using the knowledge gained to generate sales.
>
>Gary Reese
>Las Vegas, NV
Hi Gary, and others.
Your story certainly makes sense. But with respect to sending
unsolicited offers, eBay rules are slightly different from what is
normal in the non-virtuyal world.
I quote from http://pages.ebay.com/aw/privacy-policy.html :
==========start quote====================
Your Use of Other Users? Information.
In order to facilitate interaction among all eBay community members,
our service allows you to access other users? email addresses and
phone numbers. Further, as a seller you will be sent via email the
User ID and email address of the winning bidder(s), and as a winning
bidder you will be send via email the User ID and email address of the
seller.
By entering into our User Agreement, you agree that, with respect to
other user?s personally identifiable information that you obtain
through the site or through an eBay-related communication or
eBay-facilitated transaction, eBay hereby grants to you a license to
use such information only for:
(a) eBay-related communications that are not unsolicited commercial
messages, and
(b) any other purpose that such user expressly opts into after
adequate disclosure of the purpose(s).
In the case of (b), you must give users an opportunity to remove
themselves from your database and a chance to review what information
you have collected about them.
In addition, under no circumstances can you disclose personally
identifiable information about another user to any third party without
our consent and the consent of such other user after adequate
disclosure.
eBay and our users do not tolerate spam. Therefore, without limiting
the foregoing, you are not licensed to add an eBay user?even a user
who has purchased an auction item from you?to your mail list (email or
physical mail) without their express consent after adequate
disclosure.
==================end quote============================
Of course you can have many different opinions on what is a mail list
and what is not... but I still think that sending one and the same
email message to a list of unsuccessfull bidders doesn't differ that
much from 'sending unsolicited commercial email' (I also like to avoid
the word spam here).
Anyway, there is no harm done at all. People can have different
opinions on these relatively unimportant issues. So do Jan and I, but
I am sure we mutually respect each others views.
Frank van Lindert
Utrecht NL.
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