The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that "An effort to sell General Motors Co. cars through eBay Inc.'s (NASDAQ: EBAY) online market is generating some leads for participating auto dealers but hasn't yet sparked a spurt in sales, dealers said."
In the program's first week, there were 2,400 offers that led to negotiations, but the companies declined to say how many of those actually culminated in sales -- which is never a good sign. The fact that the GM site on eBay is not a traditional auction site makes it difficult to gauge how many sales it's leading to. People submit offers on the site and then negotiate with individual dealerships to arrive at a sale price.
While GM has received praise for improvements in customer service in recent weeks, the program's feedback rating on eBay tells a different story. Out of a total of four feedback ratings left so far, three were positive -- but two of those were left by the same person. One was negative: "Used 'Buy It Now'. Listed @ 'wrong' price. Dealer refused to sell. GM no help !!"
That only four feedback ratings were left would seem to suggest that the program has not sold very many cars directly so far.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-30-2009 @ 7:15PM
Jo said...
yourgmdealer now has 2 negative feedbacks. Two things I find very disturbing about this entire feedback stuff. One buyer with a zero feedback rating purchased 3 cars and posted positive feedback within minutes of the listing endings, and another buyer with zero feedback posted + feedback on one purchase but when you go into their bid history it appears they also purchased a second car from the seller but did not post feedback for that sale.
We decided to screen shoot their current feedback to see if anything gets removed. We also checked into the bid history of the buyer who purchased 3 cars and it appears they purchased over $63,000 worth of items which included other items besides the 3 cars. We also screen shot this buyers bid history in case it goes puff.
8-30-2009 @ 8:24PM
Lori in Chicago said...
I saw the GM feedback also and I was very surprised that they already have such disgraceful feedback of 66.7%. Any other seller would be NARU'd for this feedback rating! And one new buyer bought THREE cars and left positive feedback within 5 minutes???? You can't get the car in 5 minutes to leave feedback!! What is going on here???
Here is a link to the feedback page, see for yourself! http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=yourgmdealer&ftab=AllFeedback
9-04-2009 @ 9:08AM
doc said...
Their feedback is now %57.1 with 3 Negs and an alledged shill to buy 3 positive feedback comments.
eBay member 661HENRYGLEN bought 2 new GM cars and left positive feedback 4 minutes later. The next day this member bought a 3rd GM vehicle and left positive feedback 3 hours later. This wreaks of eBay shill buying feedback fraud.
Any other eBay seller would be suspended with no hope of reinstatement for feedback this bad.
Here are some screen grabs of it all.
http://www.ebaymotorssucks.com/yourgmdealer.htm