Title: Making eBay even safer
Date: Wednesday 30 April 2008
Time: 9.30pm to 10.30pm AEST (7.30pm to 8.30pm AWST)
Where: Workshops Board

See you there!
The eBay team

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	***Original: Upcoming online workshop: Making eBay even safer***
	28 April 2008 | 02:44PM EST As recently announced, we are making eBay even safer and there are a number of changes that may impact how you buy and sell on eBay.com.au. We'll be holding a workshop on Wednesday 30 April at 9.30 AEST (6.30pm AWST) to discuss these changes with you. The workshop is being held at this later than normal time to give members not living in the Eastern states a better opportunity to attend. So if you have any questions on how these changes will impact you, what you'll need to do to make sure you're prepared for the changes or why these changes are taking place, come along and speak with us. Title: Making eBay even safer Date: Wednesday 30 April 2008 Time: 9.30pm to 10.30pm AEST (6.30pm to 7.30pm AWST) Where: Workshops Board *Please note no personal account queries will be addressed during these workshops. What is an online workshop? Workshops are online discussions presented by staff, special guests and expert eBay members on a range of eBay related subjects. They combine informative material with interactive discussion and are a great way to learn, interact with eBay staff, and chat with the experts on a wide variety of topics. See you there! The eBay team
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This is great news for buyers and sellers alike providing greater choice and larger audiences with no extra cost or hassle!

To ensure you get the most out of this exciting new partnership, we’ve also revamped the eBay Motors site - it has a fresh look and feel as well as some great new features and functions making it easier to find and buy the item you want:

• Enhanced search features allowing you to quickly narrow down your options so only the items that interest you are displayed
• A scrolling live marketplace featuring a selection of some of the best cars on the site
• Easy to navigate category tabs

The new site is only in beta phase at the moment and is not yet replacing the current eBay Motors site but you can check it out at cars2.ebay.com.au. Give it a test drive now and let us know what you think. We’d really like to get your thoughts and suggestions on how to improve the site – in fact we’ll be giving away a Nokia 6110 Navigator mobile phone to the member providing the most helpful comments! Simply click the ‘send us your comments’ link on the homepage.

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"Free Shipping Sale" with Markdown Manager
Coming soon: a "Free Shipping sale" option in Markdown Manager. Buyers love a sale. And holding a sale offering Free Shipping for a limited time is a great way to create excitement and a sense of urgency.

Using Markdown Manager, you’ll be able to add a Free Shipping sale to any of your listings, individually or in bulk. This means you can now extend a sale to auction-style listings. When an item is part of a Free Shipping sale, buyers will see a Free Shipping icon on the item page.

Markdown Manager is the most popular eBay Stores feature. It lets you put your items on sale quickly and easily. Learn more about Markdown Manager.

New "Free Shipping" Icon for all Sellers
A new Free Shipping icon will appear whenever sellers select "standard free shipping" in their listings – whether they use Markdown Manager or not. This means listings offering Free Shipping are even more likely to catch buyers’ eyes.

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We realise these changes may have some implications for how you buy and sell on eBay.com.au, which is why you're invited to come and meet with us in person.

Come along and hear from eBay Vice President Simon Smith about why eBay is making these changes before we open up the floor to you for questions. We’ll have a number of eBay and PayPal staff available to answer your questions, discuss any concerns you may have and explain the changes in more detail.

Registration will be closing on Monday night so you only have a few days left to let us know if you'd like to come along!

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From now on the system will be noting the computers members regularly use when buying and selling on eBay. Then in June, we'll begin checking the computer you use to list an item to see if it's one you regularly use.

If you list an item using a different computer (e.g. at a friend's house, in a hotel, at the library) we may make a call to the phone number on your account to confirm that it's really you. We might also prompt you to verify your identity in other ways.

Please update your registered phone number
Please take a minute now to update your contact information. To add a phone number follow these steps:

1. In My eBay, click Personal Information (under My Account)
2. Click Edit in the Registration name and address column
3. Click Change in the Registration address column
4. Add in you current phone number

Having your current phone number on file helps eBay protect you. A wrong or outdated phone number will mean we can’t verify your identity. This could delay your ability to list items or respond to your customers.

If you have a mobile phone, we strongly encourage you to add the number in your contact details. That way we can reach you if you’re away from one of your usual computers.

eBay treats your phone numbers in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Why are we doing this?
Some criminals attempt to defraud people on eBay by illegally gaining access to member accounts and setting up fraudulent listings in that person’s name. Most often they obtain the member's user ID and password using a phishing email.

By checking that the seller is using one of their usual computers, eBay can better identify and stop this kind of fraudulent activity.

These changes are part of our ongoing efforts to make eBay a safe and secure marketplace. We thank you for your support as eBay continues to improve security.

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We'll be holding two workshops on Wednesday 16 April to discuss these changes with you.

So if you have any questions on how these changes will impact you, what you'll need to do to make sure you're prepared for the changes or why these changes are taking place, come along and speak with us.

Title: Making eBay even safer
Date: Wednesday 16 April 2008
Workshop 1: 12.30pm to 1.30pm
Workshop 2: 6.30pm to 7.30pm
Where: Workshops Board

*Please note no personal account queries will be addressed during these workshops.

What is an online workshop?
Workshops are online discussions presented by staff, special guests and expert eBay members on a range of eBay related subjects. They combine informative material with interactive discussion and are a great way to learn, interact with eBay staff, and chat with the experts on a wide variety of topics.

See you there!
The eBay team

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When will this occur?
Changes will be introduced in two stages:

1. All items listed for sale on eBay.com.au on or after 21 May 2008 must offer PayPal as one of the payment methods.
2. All items appearing on eBay.com.au as of 17 June 2008 must be paid for using one of the following:
1. PayPal
2. Pay on pick up (i.e. paid for when picking up the item)
3. Visa/MasterCard (with transactions processed by PayPal).

No other payment methods will be permitted.

Please note a small number of categories are excluded from these changes. Find out about these exclusions.

• Increased PayPal Buyer Protection – up to AU$20,000
  For eligible items purchased on or after 17 June 2008, PayPal Buyer Protection will increase to a maximum of $20,000 (based on the full value of your purchase, including postage).

• New PayPal Seller Protection
  PayPal Seller Protection has also recently been introduced to provide sellers with an unprecedented level of protection in the unlikely event of a claim or chargeback arising from an item not received buyer dispute or an unauthorised payment (eg from a stolen credit card).

Why is eBay making changes?
These changes are part of our ongoing commitment to protect our members. We believe buyers will be more confident shopping on eBay if only the safest payment methods are permitted.

In 2007 on eBay.com.au those who paid with PayPal were much less likely to enter a dispute. In fact those using PayPal were almost four times less likely to have a dispute over their purchase than people who paid with bank deposit. Plus, PayPal sellers were almost half as likely to experience an unpaid item as sellers who did not accept PayPal.

The data clearly shows that PayPal is a safer way to buy and a more reliable way to sell on eBay.com.au.

Buyers and sellers don’t have to share their financial details when using PayPal, which is one of the biggest fears consumers have when transacting online. PayPal eliminates this concern, making it one of the most secure ways to transact online. In fact PayPal topped the list of preferred online payment methods according to the Nielsen Consumer Report 2H 2007.

By addressing the main causes of disputes on eBay.com.au we will see a lift in consumer confidence. This will help strengthen the eBay community ultimately benefiting buyers and sellers, as well as eBay.

We realise that these changes are going to impact how you transact on eBay.com.au and we trust they will achieve the desired result of protecting our members and providing an even safer place to buy and sell online.

We will be hosting a number of online workshops during April and May plus you’ll have the opportunity to meet with us face to face in a series of Q&A events being held in May. Register your interest in attending an event.

For more details, read the nitty gritty on what's changing on eBay.com.au.

Regards
The eBay team

A message from our lawyers:
The PayPal service is provided by PayPal Australia Pty Limited (ABN 93 111 195 389) which holds an Australian Financial Services Licence, number 304962. eBay is an authorised representative of PayPal for the purpose of providing information about PayPal and is not acting as your agent. eBay is not providing personal financial advice to you and does not take your individual circumstances into account in providing information about PayPal. You should consider the Product Disclosure Statement and Financial Services Guide before deciding to sign-up for or use the PayPal online payment service at https://www.paypal.com.au

PayPal Buyer Protection and PayPal Seller Protection are also subject to the terms and conditions in PayPal's User Agreement, incorporating the Buyer Protection policy and Seller Protection policy which include details on eligibility criteria and the discretionary nature of the Policies.

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As the eBay systems automatically reverted to AEST on Sunday 31 March, the official time shown on eBay.com.au will not need to change on 6 April.

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	***Original: Daylight saving time - change displaying on eBay.com.au***
	31 March 2008 | 03:17PM EST This year, daylight saving (AEDST) has been extended to Sunday 6 April. However, daylight saving time on eBay.com.au reverted to AEST on Sunday 30 March. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause to the Community. eBay systems are automatically programmed to revert to AEST each year on the last weekend in March and after investigating an implementation of the extension of daylight saving to 6 April, it was determined that such a change could negatively impact site functions. Therefore during the week 30 March - 6 April, the time displayed on view item pages will be AEST, hence one hour behind daylight saving time. For example, an item that shows an ending time of 8:00pm AEST, will actually end at 9:00pm AEDST. What does this mean for buyers and sellers during this week? Our recommendation to buyers is to check “Time Left” when planning to bid on an item - this will give you the clearest indication of when the item will end. Our recommendation to sellers who schedule listings to end during the week 30 March - 6 April is to consider the above discrepancy between AEST and AEDST when determining listing times. Sellers who listed before 30 March Listings will appear to end one hour early however they will run for the exact time period you choose. For example a three day listing will run for exactly 72 hours. Therefore, a three day listing that started on Saturday 29 March at 6:00am AEDST will appear to end on Tuesday 1 April at 5:00am AEST according to the eBay.com.au clock. However, the listing still runs for 72 hours in total and the actual end time of the listing will be 1 April at 6:00am AEDST. On Sunday 6 April at 03:00am this issue will be resolved. Once again, we regret any inconvenience caused by this situation, and we appreciate your understanding. Regards, The eBay team
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Emma is a virtual customer support agent we are piloting starting today. While Emma is in her pilot phase she’ll only be available to approximately 30% of eBay.com.au members.

The introduction of Emma is aimed to help you get your answers quickly - without having to navigate through the help pages or wait to chat with a customer service agent.

How does Emma work?
Emma provides an experience similar to live chat where you ask questions and she responds.

When you click on Live Help, a screen will appear asking you to choose to chat with a live agent or Emma. She’s been trained on many of the most frequently asked questions and we’ll continue to train her on more and more topics.

At the beginning of the pilot, Emma’s going to be learning the words and phrases that members use in asking questions - so if she can’t answer your question initially, don’t give up on her, she’ll continue to learn and know more the next time you use her.

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Once again, we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

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	***Original: Technical issue within checkout***
	20 March 2008 | 05:28PM EST Some members have reported issues with bank details not being displayed correctly when completing checkout. We are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you do experience a problem with bank details not being displayed correctly, please contact the seller for confirmation of the bank account details so you can complete payment. We apologise for any inconvenience. Regards, The eBay team
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If you need to contact customer support during this maintenance period please do so via email - http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/contact_us/_base/index.html. Alternatively, you will be able to use Live Help once the scheduled maintenance is completed after 10am.

Regards,
The eBay team

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