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eBay Begins A Change
ctwxman writes "If I hadn't double checked the routing, I wouldn't have believed the email I just received from ebay was real. After all, who is 'spoofed' more than ebay? But it looks like they're making some major structural changes in the way they deal with their customers. This includes, "giving our CS reps the flexibility and tools they need to really take care of you. So, to start, within the next 90 days, we'll shut down most of our automated email responses. Our users will get a "real" e-mail response to their questions - you'll hear from a human being who will try to help you with your problem or question right off the bat. We will only use auto responses to acknowledge receipt of spam or policy violation reports." Wow. However, don't read everything at its simplistic face value. When they say, "We also think the time has come to expand phone support," it's only for sellers. Still, this seems to be movement in the right direction. Now all they have to do is take a little more responsibility with fraud protection." The message is online; granted, this isn't the most exciting news ever, but it will end affecting a lot of people.
We bitch more about PayPal then Ebay. How about you fix Paypal first.
The ONLY reason eBay is alive is because they the Walmart of auctions - they have the biggestest marketplace, so everyone else has go to them to sell.
It is not because they have any clue about what customer service is.
I have had quite a few friends loose money on ebay. When they filed a report - what did they get? A FORM LETTER saying "we can not help you...". Any yet ebay/paypal still collected THEIR fees.
There are a few good aution helpers, where they list, sell, and package your goods for you but they charge 40%!!!
EBay will be around for a while, but this move is an attempt to keeping growing in a market that is starting to die. Auctions used to be fun, but until somebody can offer a guarantee to protect the little guy, more people will just as soon buy at Walmart. And that is not a good thing.
Before you get all excited about having EBay offering all this great customer service, realize that it comes at a cost. A cost that will be passed on to you - the people that use EBay, both buyers and sellers.
I'm a big tall mofo.
The most god-awful thing about ebay is: there is no way to get in touch with a real person there. There is no way to find a 1-800 number to talk to flesh and blood to solve a problem. I have had issues come up a number of times that automated emails and "faq's" wouldn't solve.
about time they are moving to a more "customer friendly" system...
Perhaps this is in response to constant criticism that eBay has ignored complaints and refused to talk to users over serious problems? The UK consumer program Watchdog did a peice on eBay not long ago. Users had experienced fraudulant transactions and downright theft via. other eBay users but had been stonewalled when they tried to complain to eBay to get the problem resolved. Watchdog found it near impossible to contact and speak to a real human being at eBay. If a TV production crew couldn't speak to anyone, what hope do normal users have?
So it's about time. Lets just hope the "real humans" at the other end of that email address arn't constricted into responding like a robot from a pre-written script..
I'm surprised that they just haven't had auctions to talk to real live customer service reps ;)
"But it now for $1/min!"
Automated replies are often useful. If the human customer reps are going to just dole out the same answers over and over, they're no more useful than automatic replies, but a whole lot more expensive.
As a long-time eBay seller, I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, one suspects they'll just hire a bunch of David Spade "No" Guys... Many times I've reported obviously fake sellers. They write back that they won't do anything until 3 cases have been confirmed against the seller. I round up two other badly screwed buyers and submit the info... They reply that's still not good enough, case closed. --- On the plus side, I've received over 500 personal checks as payment from eBay buyers, and NOT ONE has bounced.
1. Froogle.com can search eBay and other auction sites as well as online stores. This is leading traditional eBay sellers to list on other online auctions sites such as Overstock, Amazon and Yahoo to avoid the hefty eBay selling fees, yet still be seen.
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2. Niche Sites - The rise of niche sites devoted to one type of merchandise: Astromart for telescopes, Timezone for watches, Amazon for books, AuctionArms for sporting goods
3. Death of the collectibles market and commodization of PC parts - The bread and butter of eBay has been it's collectible market, which has taken a hit in recent years due to the economy. PC parts were another money maker until they became dirt cheap thanks to commoditization.
Already eBay is starting to disappoint in earnings, a direct result of all these niche players.
...how about they eliminate e-mail from the "ebay process" all together. I mean seriously, create a "Private Message System" that will allow both buyers and sellers to communicate, and allow ebay to communicate with its customers at the same time. Set it up so that you can choose to receive e-mail notification when you recieve a message so that you can still check your e-mail for new stuff, but keep the messages ON ebay itself. This way you can know when ebay messages are official or not. Obviously the primary exception to this would be password loss.
Bradford L.
http://www.modemhelp.net
When I report a powerseller with a 99% feedback rating, will you listen?
Even if this powerseller takes VHS quality fan tapes that have been very poorly burned to DVD-R and sells them for $25+? Even if it violates the over-the-air recording policy, dvd-r policy, and copyright policy?
Even if I point out the many many feedbacks which agree with my point of view? Even if I include the email where he sells additional items outside of eBay?
Will you be there eBay? Will you listen? Or will you continue to go after more petty things like arcade collectors selling real bootleg pac-man PCBs from the period?
I find it amazing that you can sell something according to the Terms of Service on EBay and a buyer can renig on such contracts through PayPal and get there money back.
I will NEVER sell tickets on Ebay again due to being burned in such a fashion where the person purchased tickets for a specific date, got the tickets but didn't open them and sent them back and did a refund request on PayPal. PayPal asked for the shipping tracking and saw it was returned to sender so they reversed the charges and gave the money back to the buyer.
For someone who did 15k in paypal billing that year to get ignored and to have no one able to answer my calls and emails was pretty upsetting to say the least. To have an "All sales are final" sale get reversed because of a cheating buyer was upsetting but to freeze my account and hold my money until I authorized an illigitimate refund was icing on the cake.
Paypal purposely won't accept visa or mastercard payments on reversed charges because they know they couldn't win a disputed or cancelled charge with Visa/Mastercard - Remember that when you let them suck money out unprotected via an EFT/Bank draft.
oh, and the insurance up to 500 only protects the buyer..
Seller beware.. ebay and paypal aren't out to help you.