Forget about the EULA, that is not my question nor relevant. You stated
that you perceived that you were harmed. I want to know how you were
harmed.
I did like the analogy of Novell's customer list though. But a fairer
analogy would be that Microsoft acquires a list of people shopping for
Operating Systems through their distributors. Then, seeing that people
were shopping for Novell, offering deep discount coupons to steer them to
Microsoft. And this is not an unheard of practice.
As far as steering customer's away from you, that is just free market
stabilizing forces at play. If your prices were competitive and there was a
perceived value in your offering you would not lose customers. I have been
both a seller and a buyer at Ebay. And, as a buyer, I would go through an
Ebay seller if their price was competitive due to the intrinsic value of
doing business via Ebay (i.e. protections offered via ebay).
But since you brought up the EULA and since you hinted at this in your
response I will give you another analogy. Your defense is the
DisneyWorld/Movie Theatre defense. Essentially, a bottle of water at
DisneyWorld is $3.50. DisneyWorld has an effective captured market in
their theme parks. After all, you cannot bring in your own drinks but must
buy your food and beverages from an approved DisneyWorld vendor. In
essence, a monopolistic model. So, your defense can be summed up as: I
have a monopoly here and I do not want anyone driving down prices by
circumventing the turnstile (EBay's EULA).
----Original Message Follows----
From: Andrew Wyatt <awyatt@intergate.cx>
Reply-To: slug-politics@nks.net
To: slug-politics@nks.net
Subject: [SLUG-POL] Re: [SLUG] Low priced memory
Date: 29 Aug 2001 22:24:17 -0400
On Wed, 2001-08-29 at 21:01, Steven Johnson wrote:
> How does it take money out of your pocket? We live in a free market
> system. So, unless you are pricing your goods and services above what
the
> market will bear the market will "reward" you by putting you out of
> business.
>
Ebay's EULA specifically states that users are not allowed to farm eBays
customer base in order to take potential bidders away from the service,
I think it's black and white, free market and all is all well and fine,
but this person obviously breaking a rule of his eBay membership. It has
little to do with free market. That would be like microsoft taking
novel's customer list against their explicit hands off notice, and
sending them all deep discounted upgrade coupons, that isn't legal why
would what this guy is doing be? It takes money out of my pocket by
pulling a potential bidders attention away from a service that I am
paying to provide a solid customer base, and product visibility. In
essence the guy is stealing from both eBay, and eBay's customers by
soliciting eBay's customers.
Andrew
>
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: Andrew Wyatt <awyatt@intergate.cx>
> Reply-To: slug@nks.net
> To: slug@nks.net
> Subject: Re: [SLUG] Low priced memory
> Date: 29 Aug 2001 17:14:34 -0400
>
> It appears that whoever is soliciting you is violating eBay's EULA, and
> can have their account terminated for it, just an FYI to be wary of
> these types of folks. eBay sent out mailers a few months ago that their
> EULA had been updated, and that buyers and sellers alike should turn in
> people that solicit eBay's customer base outside of eBay's "walls", It
> takes money out of both eBay's and eBay's sellers pockets (like me <G>)
> anyway, to quote a famous movie guy "That's all I have to say about
> that"
>
> Andrew
>
>
> On Wed, 2001-08-29 at 08:52, Rusty wrote:
> > Hey gang!
> >
> > I bought a 512M memory chip in an auction on ebay yeaterday. This
> > morning I received this email. You may be interested.
> >
> > Rusty
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > I noticed that you had bid on some memory. We are contacting you
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> > to make you a direct offer on 512MB pc100/133 64X4 SDRAM for 33.99.
Item
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> > ship. Shipping is $8.00 first item $6.00 each additional item. We
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> > Or if you wish to contact us by email please use this address
> > Questions@memteck.com DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL or we will not get
> > your message.
> >
> > We appreciate you taking the time to read our offer,
> >
> > Other Great offers from memteck:
> >
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> > 256MB pc100/133 SDRAM )32*64( $19.99
> >
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> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at
http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
>
>
_________________________________________________________________
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