Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Queen Meg for Governor - Never!
The Meg Whitman ads I have seen are not the Meg Whitman I know.
When Whitman was CEO of eBay I attended Las Vegas eBay Live, an annual convention for thousands of eBayers. The convention traditionally closed with a pep speech by CEO Whitman about what eBay had done for Sellers in the past and would be doing in the future.
Since eBays attitude toward Sellers could, at best, be described as imperial.....raising fees, no telephone calls from Sellers, questions read and answered by computers that NEVER resolved an issue, arbitrary suspensions, Millions of dollars frozen or payments arbitrarily delayed by PayPal, and all sorts of rules and regulations for Sellers that accomplished nothing but to make their lives less profitable and more difficult......you can imagine the kinds of questions Whitman had to field. What I witnessed was an almost open revolt cut short when Whitman walked off the stage early. Apparently, this had become a growing tradition in the last several years. Sellers were very very unhappy with Meg.
So, what was Whitmans solution to this show of dissatisfaction? A committee to hear and resolve the Seller issues? An attempt to explain why recent changes in eBay policy were necessary? Changes in company policy? Anything, at all, to resolve Seller issues? Anything, at all, like the caring concerned Meg of the TV ads?
Nope. Whitman stopped the Conventions. After all eBay was the only game in town. Who cares what Sellers think? Where are they going to go? No convention equals no questions equals no Seller dissatisfaction. Out ear, out of mind....
For more about the real Meg, Google the recent Craigs List lawsuit where Whitman tried to sneak in the back door of Craigs List, by buying shares of stock from a disgruntled owner, and take over Craigslist. When she was unable to bully her minority stake into control of the company, eBay stole the operating secrets, by agreeing not to compete with Craigslist and then, within weeks, starting her own version of CraigsList...Kijiji. Surely we all remember Kijiji?
And of course there was her greatest financial coup..... buying Skype for $3 Billion, spending almost a billion dollars integrating it into eBay and then selling it for for $2 Billion.....Do the math. Of course, in doing this, she so alienated and ignored the wisdom of the brain behind Skype, that he resigned his lucrative new job and started Tesla Motors
This is Queen Meg, the real Queen Meg. The person behind all those caring, listening, warm and fuzzy ads. How could anybody think she will treat the citizens of California any better than she did eBay Sellers. After all, where are the citizens going to go? Nevada?
Read more: http://fresnobeehive.com/opinion/2010/05/whitmans_new_ad_lumps_poizner.html#ixzz0oCUBdFZ7
When Whitman was CEO of eBay I attended Las Vegas eBay Live, an annual convention for thousands of eBayers. The convention traditionally closed with a pep speech by CEO Whitman about what eBay had done for Sellers in the past and would be doing in the future.
Since eBays attitude toward Sellers could, at best, be described as imperial.....raising fees, no telephone calls from Sellers, questions read and answered by computers that NEVER resolved an issue, arbitrary suspensions, Millions of dollars frozen or payments arbitrarily delayed by PayPal, and all sorts of rules and regulations for Sellers that accomplished nothing but to make their lives less profitable and more difficult......you can imagine the kinds of questions Whitman had to field. What I witnessed was an almost open revolt cut short when Whitman walked off the stage early. Apparently, this had become a growing tradition in the last several years. Sellers were very very unhappy with Meg.
So, what was Whitmans solution to this show of dissatisfaction? A committee to hear and resolve the Seller issues? An attempt to explain why recent changes in eBay policy were necessary? Changes in company policy? Anything, at all, to resolve Seller issues? Anything, at all, like the caring concerned Meg of the TV ads?
Nope. Whitman stopped the Conventions. After all eBay was the only game in town. Who cares what Sellers think? Where are they going to go? No convention equals no questions equals no Seller dissatisfaction. Out ear, out of mind....
For more about the real Meg, Google the recent Craigs List lawsuit where Whitman tried to sneak in the back door of Craigs List, by buying shares of stock from a disgruntled owner, and take over Craigslist. When she was unable to bully her minority stake into control of the company, eBay stole the operating secrets, by agreeing not to compete with Craigslist and then, within weeks, starting her own version of CraigsList...Kijiji. Surely we all remember Kijiji?
And of course there was her greatest financial coup..... buying Skype for $3 Billion, spending almost a billion dollars integrating it into eBay and then selling it for for $2 Billion.....Do the math. Of course, in doing this, she so alienated and ignored the wisdom of the brain behind Skype, that he resigned his lucrative new job and started Tesla Motors
This is Queen Meg, the real Queen Meg. The person behind all those caring, listening, warm and fuzzy ads. How could anybody think she will treat the citizens of California any better than she did eBay Sellers. After all, where are the citizens going to go? Nevada?
Read more: http://fresnobeehive.com/opinion/2010/05/whitmans_new_ad_lumps_poizner.html#ixzz0oCUBdFZ7
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