Sellers on eBay are up in arms about changes to the site that, in their view, is providing a poorer service for more money. They also fear that they are being squeezed out as eBay looks for a more profitable model for its online shops.

According to the vendors, eBay is reducing the visibility of items in the virtual shops while increasing its cut of the sale of each item, thus forcing up prices or squeezing margins. The merchants feel that they are being cleared from the service to make way for the new 'Express' service due to launch this autumn. The new service claims that customers can 'buy from experienced merchants with a solid eBay track record'.

In protest many British shops boycotted the service in protest at the action. eBay put the number of companies taking part in the action at around 100 although the organisers claim

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three times that number were involved.

The group are wanting to vote with their feet, if there was somewhere else to go.

Unfortunately, such is the power of eBay, there is not another site on the Internet that offers the same mercantile environment as the auction giant. So, the disgruntled sellers are demanding that Google set up a rival service to eBay without further ado.

On the website, the merchants say 'Google is the ONLY name on the internet which we feel would be totally trustworthy and would actually get auction traffic.'

However, this warm feeling of trust does not extend to the board of eBay that is still refusing to accept Google Checkout as a payment method on the auction site. Along with its own PayPal service, eBay will only accept Bidpay, Propay, Interac Email Money Transfer.

According to an FAQ on eBay, the policy of restricting the number of payment services 'is designed to promote safe online shopping, and to encourage online payment methods that are safe, easy to use, reliable, and offer high levels of protection for users'.