In a capitalism point of view, there is no such thing as a monopoly because in a free market if there one game in town, they must be doing something right.
That would be bullshit, and in this case I am referring to eBay.
I gotten active (i.e. getting an account) back about a couple years ago. I also got a PayPal account because the two entities are basically an unwritten requirement.
In the last year, they went through some big changes, especially to their generic design and navigation of their website, and the requirements to enter in information of an item to please the “cataloging” system that eBay forces upon their users. They are known to do massive and controversial changes or the “two steps ahead, one step backward” practices (in some ways they had pioneered that way before Facebook was avaliable to users outside the .edu world.)
Also they are so overzealous on fraud, and of course I don’t encourage e-fraud, but the rules are so overzelious, it makes it harder for me to do business on eBay.
Last winter, I wrote an open letter to PayPal, because they (allegedly the computers) claimed I was at high risk for fraud, or whatever.
Recently, I noticed a blog post on their official blog about this same issue. Again, I am pissed off about this issue. PayPal hasn’t lifted this temporary ban, since my last post on this issue. I have no idea what created this flag, but hey this disrupts my business, it also screws me on my shipping prices because PayPal also prohibits me to do direct shipping because you guessed it, because I am at high risk. I don’t give a shit about “this is a standard FDIC practice” or other bullshit the eBay or PayPal bastards say. My bank (and my new credit union, because I had to switch thanks to Barney Frank and Chris Dodd) never held anything, and they have the same rights under the FDIC or what PayPal is doing.
I blame this almost entirely on a computer and lack of human beings to not sort out the bullshit claims of what a computer may think its saying.
I love using computers, mobile devices and e-commerce sites like eBay. but when they make my life tougher, and even when they think, they are trying to make it easier, it just makes me feel like I shouldn’t be doing things – like this – anymore.
I think high tech is peaking, its only going to go downhill the way of George Orwells “1984” prophecy (and maybe his Animal House prophecy too) and tech overtaking people’s lives, and how people cannot be detethered for less than an hour before they cry like little babies. I also don’t like how devices and computers are going back to the ol’ IBM where they dictate what we or cannot do (in reference to Steve Jobs’ take on Orwell’s “1984”.) And how the fictional movie “The Net” would become non-fiction 15 or so years after that movie came out, of how computers are the bosses and not the humans.
Which goes back to the fault of PayPal putting my e-commerce to a screeching halt, regardless what an automated CRM system tells me.
I hate eBay/PayPal, but I have to suck it up and accept a monopoly because monopolies can do no wrong.