Power Sellers Unite

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17240 Location: Texas

eBay wants to know how buyers feel about customer service and is conducting an in-depth online survey. Some questions are a bit perplexing, such as, "How important is it to you to quickly solve computer and Internet browser problems?" Wouldn't every eBay buyer want to resolve such problems as quickly as possible?

But other questions provided insight into what new features eBay may be considering, such as, "How would you feel if eBay provided a wizard that would check your computer and browser settings and forward those settings to Customer Support to help solve technical problems?" and, "How would you feel if eBay provided you the ability to ask questions to Customer Support in Facebook?"

http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl

seewhatimsellingnow · Joined: 29 Feb 2008 Posts: 1254 Location: Ohio

Have you ever felt that that Ebay workers (customer service, etc.) who are also Ebay sellers and buyers, may constitute an out-and-out conflict of interest? When we- ordinary Ebay sellers and buyers, bid on or list Ebay items, we have no idea of that seller's or buyer's records. We cannot look into their records.

Sure- we can look at their feedback, but that discloses nothing, concerning 'buyers'- who ALL have 100% Positive feedback (since sellers are not permitted to leave them anything other THAN positive feedback) But what do Sellers buyers, who happen to WORK for Ebay, know about US? Do THEY have an unfair advantage?

When we speak to workers in Ebay's Customer Service, we realize that THEY have the ability to...
1- Look into our seller accounts
2- Look at our DSR records
3- See if we are Above or Below Standard sellers
4- Look at our 'Ship-Time' records
5- See if we have claims pending against us
6- See if our Paypal accounts have been put on 'Hold'
7- Look at- and perhaps even 'control' our 'Search visibility'.
8- Rate our DSR scores anonymously, throwing us into a Below Standard rating, for the upcoming evaluation?
9- Look into our Ebay messages to and from our buyers

They have a LOT more privileges and 'insider' abilities than non-Ebay workers do and I feel these privileges constitute a Conflict of Interest.

I have to wonder...if they bid on our items- do they have the ability to 'slow down' the views on that item, or to throw it into a lower 'search visibility'? Just where do the conflicts end with the MANY unfair advantages?

Something to think about, for sure. Betty Lou

luckyalive · Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 589

"How would you feel if eBay provided a wizard that would check your computer and browser settings and forward those settings to Customer Support to help solve technical problems?"

I use Macintoshes - I don't need no crappy Wizards for a dysfunctional operating system.

This survey is nothing more that a publicity stunt. You see this from all the big corporations. They hand their employees these nice little prepared booklets on ethics and such and then they - the management - are robbing the place blind. They are trying to say they care, but putting out fake "we care" propaganda in the form of a survey.

How about this question - if another major company would enter the online auction field such as Google or Apple how many minutes would it take you to close your eBay account. Or how long would it take you to move to Apple's payment system once its further expanded.

I just looked at my DSR rating. Previously my shipping cost dropped down to 4.9 as well as the shipping time. Today the shipping time is now back up to 5.0.

This is TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE. There is no way this rating could go up because:

(A) There are NO dsr ratings that would have dropped off their fantasy 12 month chart they claim to use.

(B) It is statistically impossible for recent higher rating to raise the rating back up to 5.0.

Stockmiser · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 1169

Lucky - they actually calculate everything to 2 decimal places (see your dash board), and round up at 95/100's (so 4.95 becomes 5.0).

When the Colder Ice site mentioned the online "DSR calculator" (a year ago?) I wrote him to point out that it was completely inaccurate because it didn't calculate to the 100ths - he eventually looked at my calcs (a simple spreadsheet) and saw that I was right..., and that in some cases it took very few dsr's to move a rating.

The difference between 4.9 and 5.0 is not .1 - it's .01 because it's really the difference between 4.94 and 4.95

renaissancegirl · Joined: 22 Nov 2011 Posts: 7

I have the typical eBay story, been selling there since the beginning, I have great feedback and all the other things that have been written about BUT this is a spin on the regular. I sent a very large action figure out in the original box and the plastic on the box was damaged by the post office (surprise!).
The item was fine, just the plastic was damaged on the box. Without contacting me by email they buyer wanted my contact information from eBay. I didn't wait for the contact from the buyer, I called them. She confirmed the situation and decided she wanted to call instead of email. OK, Whatever, onto the point of this post. She is a relatively new eBayer and attempted to contact eBay to get their advice and she told me she got such an incredible runaround that she could not get ahold of anyone and when she finally did the person barely spoke english, she did not have any advice for her and just basically took the call and listened to what the buyer had to say and ended the call. The buyer tells me she does not want to buy on eBay anymore, not because of her experience with me (she actually gave me glowing 5 star feedback) but because of the way eBay handled her. By the way I refunded her shipping charges and she was very happy with that. eBay is really cutting their own throat with both buyers and sellers now. So Sad. It used to be "The place to be". Where did all the sellers go after they are leaving eBay now? Did people just stop selling?

renaissancegirl · Joined: 22 Nov 2011 Posts: 7

This was the craziest phone call to eBay I just had to share it. Been selling for many, many years. Performance is above standard, policy compliance is high, account is current etc. I have limits on my account of how much I can list plus every time I log in a screen pops up that I am below performance standards. I called eBay (big mistake) to ask that this screen be removed and my limits possibly be removed also. The first customer service person I spoke with reviewed my account and said my account is in great standing and there is no reason limits should be there or performance screens should be coming up. When I requested they be removed she said she had to transfer me to another dept. for review. When I got to that dept. that is where the craziness began. The customer service person began by telling me that my acccount is in excellent standing and my performance is above standard. She also informed me that there is no performance screen popping up on my account (I must be imagining this). She then aggressively went on to say that we needed to "talk about" my account and what I was planning to do with it in order to remove any listing limits. She said she wanted to know where I get my merchandise and what type of seller I am. I asked her what she meant by "where do I get my merchandise?" She said "Are you selling things that are just lying around your house?, Are you buying to resell?, Are you selling your own personal items?, Are you buying from a distributor to resell?". I asked why she needed to know and she responded that she wants to know where my items come from and we needed to discuss my account further. I was feeling very defensive at that moment but decided not to let her know it because I dont know what she was going to do to my account. I told her these are things of my own (not true and really none of her business). She said again that she and I needed to "discuss" my account and what I was going to do with it. I told her I wanted to talk about the listing limits and she responded to say that there is a listing limit on every single person on ebay whether it is shown or not. Now, of course I know that is not true. I have more than one account and there is not a limit on the rest of the accounts but again I did not tell her that I have more than one account. She repeated that every single seller on eBay has a listing limit and mine could be raised but never removed. She said some may not be shown but they are there. I told her to "never mind" and just to leave my account the way it is.
I eventually hung up on this nonsense call. I have had some crazymaking calls to eBay but this one takes the prize of all time.

luckyalive · Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 589

You should have asked her what she had to do for Donahoe to get her job because you could not imagine her getting one in the outside real world based upon her office skills. Was it a weekend fling or something more involved. Did she use whips?

LOL, reminds of the call I got from ebay teling me of the new Spring program. First thing I said was I wasn't interested as it was all a bunch of ebay propaganda. Second thing I said was that no I did not want an email about it.

RatherRuss · Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 135

I guess this is as good a place as any....leaving ebay for perhaps the 10th time, this time no going back. Flea market sales in 2 days (even in dead of winter) are outstripping 24/7 sales on ebay. And now I am below compliance, found out just a week after I got my 11th birthday congrats from ebay...whoopee, that the proverbial dime get you a cup of coffee and an ebay customer service who knows nothings, speaks English as a second language (not badly, just no depth to conversation)....wait til you see all the hoops ebay/paypal send you thorough, holding reseves for 21 days is not enough, they want you to wait 180 days before your account actually closes "in case there is a 6 month old problem?" I guess....well ways exist around an unfriendly, in fact down right stupid company and policies. So, now to get nose to grindstone, up my flea market sales and re start my own website and work at it....no more letting ebay dictate terms...I may not make as much money gross, but working for $2.00 an hour on ebay won't ease my retirement. Customer service has never been their strong point and it sure isn't now...

ebayrunaway · Joined: 22 Mar 2012 Posts: 24 Location: Arkansas

So, ebay wants to provide "a wizard that would check your computer and browser settings and forward those settings to Customer Support to help solve technical problems."

There is no way I would let ebay's "wizard" snoop through my computer, see what programs I'm using, and what other ecommerce sites I've been to or subscribe to, what icons are on my desktop, etc. I mean, really, I don't know what sort of plundering info in my hard drive they might like to gather for statistical purposes - or what kind of spy software might be installed. I don't trust ebay AT ALL! AND I'm not usually some paranoid case, but for ebay I will make an exception.

It's bad enough that I still need to sell stuff on there to survive for the summer, while I move and develop other ecommerce venues. Why in heaven's name do they need to check my computer and browser settings? It's none of their dang business! Check for what? (I've used computers since before Windows existed! I remember DOS syntax!)

I think I'm going to move ebay to the number 2 spot on my list of corporations that can't be trusted, right under Monsanto! ebay is EVIL !!!

things4u · Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 1331

No matter how much you protest to e bay your just spinning your wheels.
So if you continue to use e bay and keep accepting the forced changes your trying to get water from a dry well,
E bay has clearly proven time and time again it is their bottom line and the buyers that make them money with out buyers e bay wouldn't be profitable.
eb ay has put rules and regs inplace to protect sellers so stated but they are not as they seem
just one instance of this is where you can set your perfrance for a buyer to bid/buy from you you do this using the potential buyers feed back but if you choose to use the option that if a buyer has zero feed back they can still bid buy from you as E bay added a clause to that rule for new buyers because everyone starts with 0 feed backs questioned cs on this and they just repeat the same thing over and over no matter what facts you present to them about scamers and that you could loose your product and the money because they file a claim and don't return the product in the condition that they recieved it and often times destroy it so it isn't possible to resell it.
as for their wizzard they will probally make it manditory that you install it or your account will be restricted or suspended till you step in line or give up and move to another venue to sell or really wise up and start your own web site to sell where you set the rules that the customer has to use to purchase or return merchandise from/or to you.
the best thing you can do is use it till it no longer is usefull to you and just suck it up because Ebay says you have to it is in their user aggrement they are right even if they are wrong and you are wrong even if the laws say your right, Ebay wins anyway

swan20 · Joined: 19 May 2008 Posts: 14

Ebay sure can provide better service..they just choose not to. I use them for my 50 free listings and and some occasions free listing days. After that, I dont list at all. Buyers email me asking if i will relist or relist now so they can bid, I just tell them due to Ebay listing fees and such, I can relist next month...

On top of all their changes...the latest one will take my top rate seller discount ....that means no listing expensive items at all!!