eBay's profit soars 53 percent

Online auction giant beats Wall Street estimates, driven by results in two key markets, the United States and Germany.

The story "eBay's profit soars 53 percent" published July 20, 2005 at 2:19 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[Razzl]

Better invest some of that in customer satisfaction...

Okay, so this confirms what I've been saying all along, that the Ebay business model is pure profit. Keeping that near-monopoly position must be worth more than anything to these guys, so why not relinquish a couple of points of that massive profit in order to put out the fires of dissatisfaction that are burning among you customers? Withdraw some of those punitive charges and add some customer relations staff (i.e., telephone operators) to heal the rift before it's too late. The startup of new competitors in the auction market place after a long lull isn't coming from weakness in EBay's position, it's coming from angry EBay customers who are consciously working to make a viable alternative. Not a good sign when your customers are so unhappy they're working to dismantle your business...