Sizzling Summer Sale is a joke

So I get this email about this big $1 deal, from, yup you guessed it, buy.com, and by the time I open it and go to the link the auction is already ended. This is not the first time this has happened. I just don't understand the point of this whole thing, it is a huge joke if you ask me, if not a scam. Then I try to contact Live Help, but I have to download a .dll file. I have a Macbook Pro. OSX does not use .dll files. Any moronic Indian programmer would know this. Ebay has turned into one big joke. I just want the item offered to me in the email and/or to talk to Live Help. Is that too much for them to provide? Do I really have to use an inferior operating system and open my computer up to viruses, spyware, trojans, backdoors, etc. to be able to contact their Live Help? I would not doubt in the least if their Live Help was a backdoor itself. So is there any way to get this item that was offered to me or am I screwed out of it like always?|||Wow. Attitude, man. You should know that the emails you receive regarding this are automatically generated. Those items go quick. Early bird gets the worm here. You can opt out of receiving these emails in your account notification preferences. And you might as well do that, as those emails just point to the Daily Deal page; which is accessible from the top of any eBay page, including this one. Just click on that link when you check eBay, and you'll see the current, in-stock deals.friends Director,|||I just don't understand the point of this whole thing... Not to belittle you at all, but - The 'point' of this is not to actually serve you, the eBay buyer, with any real opportunity to score big and minimal cost - though legally the ad does have to be ligit, there's no limit to how short a time frame it remains viable. The point is for eBay to collect ad revenue from Buy dot so they can place an ad you'll click on (to generate the revenue), and then wind up at their store listings, likely hot to buy something else now.--------------------------------- Sometimes I wonder if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it. - - Mark Twain|||Right, that's what burns me. I actually would have bought this particular product this time and of course it's not available, even though I clicked on it the second I got the email.|||Right, that's what burns me. I actually would have bought this particular product this time and of course it's not available, Ebay set the limit of of a $100 item at 3 per ebay account. Of course, out of the 75 that sold most people bought more then one. Ebay could have let more people get in on this by setting the limit to one but they dont care.|||Since ebay no longer owns Buy.com. What do you expect them to do? Link~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I did not sell you my opinion|||When did Ebay ever own Buy.com?|||Not true - the supposed Daily Deals changes all day long. I received 3 different emails today alone and all linked to Daily Deal pages with different listings as the main 5 listings. Only one of those pages was the one you got to clicking on the link at the top of any eBay page - the other 2 were different. And this Sizzling Summer Sale with the $1.00 items is a true joke - and just a slap in the face to long time eBayers - especially the every day sellers with stores who pay the fees to keep this whole operation going in the first place. I know there has to be buyers out there too for any one to sell anything - but using unfair trade practices like this supposed "sale" is a joke. Every day this week during this supposed "sale" my email was timed received into my system minutes after the items had already sold out. I was onliine - signed in - with a very fast T1 connection and it was sold out before the email even was sent. I don't mind trying to be the early bird to get the worm on a level field - but sending out emails after an item is already sold out is really a new low even for eBay. Automatically generated emails that get sent out in some order and what - I am 5 minutes down into the list to get sent out?? Nothing fair about any of it. A few lucky folks in the beginnig of the email list get to purchase items for nothing and the rest get screwed. Typical eBay. I know there has to be gimmicks to generate interest in eBay to get more buyers online. But unfair trade practices like this are a joke. Why doesn't eBay reward their sellers with deals like this available only to their sellers instead of the occasional buyer who just happens to be lucky enough to be high on the list when the emails get sent out?? The last reward of any kind eBay aimed solely at the sellers was some crappy storefront design contest - but of course we always get the annual reward of increased fees for the privilege of selling on eBay to make them money. It might be nice to get something you wanted at a fantastic $1.00 price like the lucky few get to purchase - might make the 500% increase in item listing fees and the 100% increase in final value fees we have endured the past few years go down a little easier.|||Sorry - the above post was made in response to the post by billy_biggle-fan and got posted at the end down here. I totally agree with the orignal post - the Sizzling Summer Deal is a total joke!!|||The Daily Deal page changes throughout the day as items sell out, and new ones are added. Try checking the page 2 or 3 times in one day, and you should see that it has changed. Although I didn't specifically say that, my post strongly hints towards it. Emails can be delayed for various reasons. If there is a lot of traffic, an email can be rerouted, thus possibly causing a delay. Email is not the best form of communication for timely items. (eBay should know this and only offer IM or texts to inform people of the Daily Deal.) Thus, I stand by my advice to simply opt out of the email, and check the Daily Deal page directly when you check eBay. That way you will see exactly what is in stock at that moment, available for you to buy.friends Director,|||For the Daily Deal that is fine - but since the Sizzling Summer Sale - which is what I thought this thread was opened about - is only available by email it is just plain unfair tactics by eBay - letting a select few have the opportunity to purchase something at an unbelievable price. The Sizzling Summer Sale item is not posted on the Daily Deal page available by using the link on an eBay page - and it does not show up on the Done Deals. And you can not access it from the email either when the email arrives after it has already sold out. It said SOLD OUT across the front of the email when I opened it. Why waste the time sending it out?? Why taunt people with something you would really have liked to have - and at a price that is unbelievable - when it is not even there. At least if you shop on Black Friday you can get in line and take your chances. There are NO chances involved in this deal. It is totally unfair and worthless except to the select few that get the first emails sent out from a slow server. I used to view eBay idealistically too. Wait until you have been screwed over time and time again with site problems that only effect you and a few of your competitors - but not the majority of your competitors so they are still making sales - and eBay acknowledges there is a problem but doesn't get it fixed for 7 weeks. And steadily increasing sales over months drop 80% in one month and never recover because all of your listed items show an item condition as "Acceptable" (which is the lowest of the gradings there is - basically crap you would not buy - when the item condition is not even supposed to show up on any listings in that category and there is no way to set it or remove it). Even when many of your items are brand new still sealed - and no item condition at all shows up on your competitors' listings. eBay's solution to the few effected sellers of which I was one - cancel your listing and we will credit you the store listing fee for that month. Real easy for them since they did not go to the time and trouble to put up over 3,000 listings. Let's see - can you say just close up shop?? eBay's answer to the problem. All I am saying is if you want to run some kind of fair promotion send an email announcing a time the item will be available and then anyone interested can take their chances at the given time. Just like shopping on Black Friday. Limit access to the server to the first 100 to keep the server from crashing. But don't send me an email for something I might like to have AFTER the item has already sold out. And maybe do something for the sellers alone for a change - offer some deals to them - rather than just another increase in fees. Sure - they offer a 20% discount for being a Top Rated Seller of which I am one. But that 20% discount does not make a dent in the increased listing fees from last month alone - much less with crappy sales that they killed thru their site problems - plus they increased the FVF in my catefory from 12% to 15%. According to my math the discount just means that the FVF did not increase for me - but the monthly listing fees nearly doubled. So where is there a discount?? It would kill them to offer some special sales occasionally to the tens of thousands of sellers alone instead of the millions of occasional shoppers?? I even buy on eBay - actually a good bit - hundreds of more feedback as a buyer alone than you have feedback total. And some other very occasional buyer who doesn't have to deal with the daily crap that eBay dishes out to sellers gets an email right off the top of the list for an extremely good deal?? There is no fairness at all in any of it. But of course there has not been any fairness on eBay in a long, long time. There were sellers once who thought it was actually fun being a seller on eBay. Not any more.|||I agree that using email for a time-sensitive promotion was not the best strategy eBay could've used. I certainly don't see any reason to get completely upset about it either. Is it unfair that some stores on Black Friday only stock 100 of the hottest item, and you happen to be #150 in line? Sure. Is that the best marketing strategy? No. But it is what it is. So I still stand by my advice to simply opt out of those emails, if they upset you. You'll no longer be bothered by it. In fact I'd recommend reporting your frustration to eBay, right to the top if needed. If they don't know how upset people are about the emails, they won't know to fix anything next time. In fact I'd include some suggestions for improvement near the top of that message, such as seller-only deals as you said, or perhaps invitation-only deals to volume buyers, or further advance notice that includes the exact time the deal starts.. That might get it read by someone able to make things happen. I'm not idealistic about eBay. I'm realistic about them. They make mistakes. They can be slow. Their site sometimes has problems. They make changes that affect peoples finances, sometimes drastically. They don't always get things right. They are a corporation whose fiscal responsibility lies only to their shareholders, and the government. They make decisions based on their bottom line; decisions that should benefit the site's users, but don't always benefit all of them. They are run by human beings, who sometimes mess up. I'm not emotionally attached to eBay. I use the site as part of our overall business strategy. If eBay decided to kick us off tomorrow, which they have the right to do, we would not be out of business nor lose all of our income. I use the site for what it is, a tool for selling and buying. So far eBay has been a very successful tool. If they cease to be, we'll move on. We've had glitches that caused problems here. We report them to eBay, correct them as best we can, and go on. We work up the chain to correct any problems if needed. I've been on eBay since 1998, have owned 3 businesses including the one I'm working on currently, and have been in retail for nearly 20 years. While I may not have the same number of transaction under my belt as you, I'm not inexperienced either. If you are so upset the company, why stay around?friends Director,||||||Is it possible the $1 deals are coming out on RSS or twitter at the same time emails are going out - so those people are able to get to them quicker? .|||