The eBay™ Mentality in a PACS World

PACSman: I used to dabble on eBay picking up some pocket change while getting rid of things I really didn’t need around here. My house still looks like a “before” episode of Clean House, but my 16-year-old has picked up my eBay torch and now is doing what I used to. So far he’s made enough to buy himself a decent car but has barely made a dent in the storage shed I call a house (or is that house I call a storage shed).

I’ve watched eBay over the past year evolve and the changes aren’t good. The first thing eBay did that was bad was to no longer allow sellers to leave negative feedback - only buyers can. Their rationale was that sellers only left negative feedback in retribution for buyers who left them negative feedback so no one wins. Take away the feedback from the sellers and you level the playing field, right? Not quite. Now what you have is sellers who are at the mercy of unscrupulous buyers who scam you left and right and leaves sellers at their mercy.

My son has had to deal with several of these recently. He left a ¼ full bag in a vacuum he sold, and the gal complained “it was dirty”. Duh! Another guy said the cable box my son sold him was “no good.” When we got it back the box had obviously been tampered with, with the buyer removing the good hard drive we sold it with, and replacing it with his busted one. He then put the box back together the wrong way, even forgetting to plug in the hard drive cable. “No good” indeed. We shipped a consumer grade cordless drill to a commercial enterprise- and a used cordless drill at that. Everything was thoroughly tested and worked before it shipped. In his initial negative feedback he said the drill needed to be completely rebuilt. Huh? Maybe did need to be rebuilt, but you aren’t buying perfection when you buy something used and at 20 percent of new cost as well. It worked well and was as advertised. And lest we forget the guy who bought yet another cable box, then complained that the software wasn’t the right version, even if it clearly said in the posting: “Make sure you check with your cable system provider to see if this box will work with your system.” Whose fault is that? The buyer or seller? The seller took the hit even though it wasn’t his fault although at least he got a neutral feedback instead of a negative. Had he gotten a negative there wasn’t anything he could do about it though anyway…

Too many buyers seem to expect perfection, while too many sellers seem to deliver anything but, and never the twain shall meet. I’ve seen way too many used car “Buy Here, Pay Here” deals where the warranty ends when you sign the paperwork, let alone when you drive it off the lot. Of course, when (not if) problems occur buyers seem to do their best to be idiots too, threatening to destroy the seller even though legally they don’t usually have a leg to stand on (unless I’ve drafted a contract for them that is). What we really need is Rodney King to stand back up and say, “Can’t we all just get along?” Unfortunately, even a $3.8M settlement from the LAPD didn’t help poor Rodney who suffered 3 more arrests after being made a multi-millionaire, and the ultimate insult, being shot with birdshot by thieves trying to steal his bicycle back in 1997.

Have we as an industry gone too far? Innocent until proven guilty has become guilty until proven innocent. It’s the user’s fault that the system won’t do what it was sold as and ostensibly designed for. It’s the seller’s fault that they never told us what we didn’t ask. We buy on price then complain it doesn’t meet the functionality we desired. We pay more yet expect features and functionality that the seller never promoted the product as having, even though sales might have danced around the line of questioning that would have exposed the real answer. Just like e-Bay, we want the best for less, yet aren’t willing to settle for anything less than that.

Over the past five years, I’ve been saying PACS has become a commodities market. One look at the company’s quarterly reports shows that as being oh so true. While gross sales might be slightly up in a down market, which is a testimony to PACS, net revenues are down significantly. Last time I checked net revenues are what keep a company alive. There has been a tremendous shift in what makes companies money. Software sales used to constitute 25-35% of a company’s net margins. Now it’s less than 10%. Hardware used to be good for 10-15% uplift - now it’s pretty much all passed through. Service used to constitute about half a companies net margins. Now 65 and 70% of all profit comes from service. Only implementation has stayed constant at 20-25%, although I’m seeing companies adding a lot more implementation “services” on than are really needed.

Buyers need to do a much better job of due diligence, knowing what they want, buying only what they need, and knowing what the market will bear. They also need to understand that, just like on eBay, if they buy from someone with a low number of sales or whose negative feedback score is high, they’ll probably get what they deserve. Of course you have to take it all with a grain of salt too. My son has probably sold over 200 items, yet just passed the 100 feedback mark with only one undeserved negative to his name. He tests everything before he lists it, does an incredible job of packing and most importantly, stands behind his product, doing whatever is necessary to keep his customers happy, even though more times than not they really didn’t deserve it. How many vendors can say that in the PACS market? I know of maybe four at most.
The customer still has the upper hand (if they have a contract that covers them that is), but the best they can ask for is a vendor who listens as well - two people who can “just get along” for the sake of everyone.

Ms. PACS: It took no more than two words - PACS eBay - to find that your good buddy, the Dalai PACS, had found a Dynamic Imaging Solutions' Centricity® PACS-IW 3.6.2.0065 for sale for the low, low price of $45,000. He posted this on Doctor Dalai this past Feb. 2009. The PACS was not too outdated and had been fairly recently upgraded. To the Dalai's point, would GE handle licensing and service for whomever bought this?

There is a something missing on eBay - and often in PACS - a blackhole that needs to be filled. Similar to garage sales, used car dealers and sales people, it's all too often take the money and run. If it's a lemon, don't even think of putting the squeeze on the seller because they're long gone. Even with responsible, entrepreneurial types who test every gadget before sending it out - that's certainly a lot more than what most eBay vendors might do - it can still break a week post-purchase. By that time, it's no one's fault. I guess that's where the 'Buyer Beware' notice should pop up on eBay - buy at your own risk.

My colleague who sells WWII military collectibles offers insurance for shipping, at the cost of the customer of course. That way you can only go postal. In cases where you buy something and it just doesn't work, and the vendor refuses to refund your money, you can always slam him/her on eBay's Reviews. At least it will feel good.

Then there are the Pirates from all ends of the earth. One non-threatening, in the bodily harm sense, is a 53-year-old Hartford, CT, resident pleaded guilty to federal charges for criminal copyright infringement, i.e., pirating movies and TV shows and selling them on eBay (Mass Cops). He made off with more than $100,000 – too bad he didn’t take off to Mexico too.

There are eBay vendors that are pretty convincing and look like they really do sell Sony Ericsson T610 cell phones for just $13 or who really offer a Sony PlayStation 2 PIRATE LGND BLCK BUCCANEER for $29.99. It even comes in the ‘real’ box with all of the packaging, and via the UK! But once you plug it in – you couldn’t charge it with a defibrillator. Go back to the vendor – and if you can trace him back to Shanghai or Shangri-La, you’ll quickly find there are no home addresses or accountability in Never Never Land. eBay may eventually identify the cons and kick them off the site to boot, but give them a week or two, and they’ll be back.

On that note, I would double check with GE before putting your credit card down on that Centricity PACS for sale on eBay.

On the bright side, where there's a need, there's an opportunity. In the case of eBay, and even PACS sold on eBay, there's a need for service. Are there any eBay product service providers out there - cuz we need one.