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Talked to VP @ EB for 30 min

Posts: 1672 Threads: 672

I used my company's search engine which I have to keep confidential for obvious reasons, and found the email addresses for 5 VP's of Ebay, because I was tired of talking to people that don't speak english in other country's. As luck would have it, one actally called me back, and we talked for around a half hour. Since many of us are buyers and sellers on the bay, I thought it would benefit all to share. If you are not part of the ebay family, ignore.

I started out by thanking him for calling me back, and said I've been a long time buyer, but recently started selling and worked up to 83 stars. I vented my frustration on how a buyer can post feedback after a transaction has been cancelled. Here is what I got back.

he said he understood my frustration, however he insisted that its important for buyers to express how the entire experience was for any given auction. Even if a bid was cancelled. He said the customer support team will only reverse feedback if it was discovered that a buyer was sending vulgar or other inappropiate messages, this can be in the form of profanity, threats, or a violation of rules like suggesting to buy outside of EB. I found out that my mistake was I did not block out any particular country for potential bidders.

next topic was, I asked why they do not allow sellers to post negative feedback for dead beat buyers. (like not paying)

he told me year ago, they did allow sellers to do this, and it turned into a feedback war game betweeen buyers and sellers, each would threaten to give negative feedback, and they discovered this was chasing buyers away. without buyers EB does not exist. so they removed that provision and only let buyers post nuetral and negative feedback and according to him it has increased sales greatly and has improved the stantards, by forcing sellers to stand behind what they sell. and going the extra mile to make sure buyers are happy so sellers do get good feedback. I guess I can understand his point on this issue. I know as a seller, I do everything I can to make a buyer happy. all in all, it was nice to talk to a person who listened and understood the frustrations behind the scenes, and this guy was real, and did listen.

Lots of Slingerland drums
70's Pearl Fiberglass Ivory
Posted on 12 years ago
#1
Posts: 1918 Threads: 60

... ... ... hmmmm ... ... ...

The developers of "email" made the same glaring flaw in their design. They built it on the foundation of "trust". Turns out, that's a pretty bad thing to do.

What Would You Do
Posted on 12 years ago
#2
Posts: 1247 Threads: 204

Thank you slingerland for sharing that insight. Many may not agree with the methods of the bay but I see they're ironing things out as they learn them too through trial and error. The same has to go for the seller even if there is an element of risk. I'm certain there are many utilizing that sight for sales/buying and have become very wealthy doing so. I could use that education.

Posted on 12 years ago
#3
Posts: 1672 Threads: 672

Olimpass

where in chi town are you?

Lots of Slingerland drums
70's Pearl Fiberglass Ivory
Posted on 12 years ago
#4
Posts: 1570 Threads: 66

I'm into R&R sometimes Rant&Roll. very interesting, your ebay contact. Ebay has flip flopped back and forth regarding phone access and for those of us who can't get to the V.P.'s., it sometimes is almost impossible. They've had periods where they have dropped phone access altogether and then there was that wonderfull live chat system. I wonder how much money they wasted on that crap. I'm a buyer on ebay and was one of the ones beating a perennial drum against the mutual feedback system. It's kind of funny that he would say that "they found out" that allowing sellers to post negative feedback would chase buyers away and that the system changed a year ago.It was only blatantly evident for about 10 years and changed about 2 years ago or more. Corporate mumbo jumbo, that is.----- What actually happened was ebay had a policy of virtually automatic suspension if you got 2 non-payment strikes, as well. So, if someone was trying to fleece you on shipping as has happened so many times on ebay------(ebay has to face the fact that the the reserve auction system doesn't work; it inhibits bidding, so most sellers start low with no reserve and a lot of them make up for a lower sale price by charging "handling fees" and jacking up the shipping,with bogus fees; which ebay says they cannot control) and then if you didn't pay ,or got into a protracted dialogue over shipping fees ; all it would take is a strike and then another and you were out. And, to add insult to injury----you had to appeal to the person that gave you the strike( who by now , considered you to be Satan's seed), to remove it. So, what actually happened was ebay was suspending buyers for no valid reason----that's why buyers disappeared.

The system isn't much better now but they have gone back to having a phone #, where you can ,if you know how, climb the ladder of importance to get some real answers----I even recently got them to transfer me to ebay.de where I managed to sort some stuff out in English.. In Germany, there is a 1-800 # emblazoned across the ebay page( doesn't work in N.A.) . Here, you have to be a mental contortionist sometimes, to find a phone#. They force you through some inane self help questionnaire torture, which half the time reroutes back to the start. The questions proposed as of supposed importance to you were devised by complete geeks who have to take English as a Second Language courses because their first language is Fortran.

Ebay is improving but they do have a long way to go. I don't know why they don't just take on a shipping account(s) with one or more of the major shippers----get a preferred rate, offer shipping and rate guarantees and do it right. They have done that with paypal( which they own) . After over 10 years buying on ebay and over a 1000 shipments coming my way----- I see shipping hassles as the single biggest flaw , especially internationally and ebay consistently passes the buck on it. Their shipping calculator attempt is a dismal failure, only guaranteed to drive buyers away because it is hopelessly inflated to cover their tush in an eventuality.

What ebay doesn't understand is that because shipping prices are contrived( what I mean by this is that you can get almost any company to offer an attractive price by putting them into competition)-----they are not as fixed as the companies would like you to believe but they will shoot for the moon and give you a charted price until you prove to them that they will lose your business, then the discounts start. Ebay has an enormous amount of clout and could carve out the sweetest shipping deal for their buyers and everyone would benefit , except perhaps the shipping companies that are on the outs and even they could benefit by bringing their prices into line. One thing is for sure , you can bet that the shareholders and execs of the big shippers aren't hurting right now. Case in point to the above. I recently talked a shipper into changing a 1668.00 shipping tab into a 327.00 shipping tab and they, rest assured, did not lose money on the 327.00 fee.They just fish for the big one . It's your job ( ebay's for sure) to make sure they only catch one meals worth at a time.

Posted on 12 years ago
#5
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