(Note: Yea, my ebay handle Silentwarrior is totally lame. But I opened this account in '99. So give me a break)
I was all sorts of fired up today. Firing on all cylinders. I even woke up at 7. I never wake up at seven. I don't think I've seen the 7 hour from this side of night since '85. Yea, my sleep was crappy, but that wasn't from a lack of it. It had everything to do with a guest staying over who decided it was cool to turn the washing machine on at 4:45am. "I didn't think it would make any noise". Um. Ok. That guest is banned. For being an idiot.
I start checking my email and low and behold there's an urgent message from ebay: eBay Registration Suspension: NonPayment. Oh no, not this again. Talk about a time drain. It's not like I don't have anything else to do with my time.
As you know, someone hacked into my ebay account and listed items for sale. They sold a ton of them and accrued quite a large amount in listing fees. Ebay said they would cancel all the fees. They didn't. I received a bill. Spent hours talking to their shitty customer support via chat (they have NO phone support) and they told me next billing cycle, all would be handled. I assumed the ten hours I spent on their silly little chat customer service meant they got their story right.
Well, after that email this morning, I logged in, and my account was locked. Shut down. Incapacitated. Now I was livid. I had spent, literally, hours upon hours on the chat program several days ago getting this resolved. They had sent me back and forth from billing to fraud so many different times that my head is still spinning (in a chat window too! And every time I was shuttled back and forth, I was queued up again, having to wait to speak, er, chat, with the next available idiot). When I would begin to raise my voice to tell them they had been doing this 6 times already...you know, by CAPITALIZING WHAT I WAS SAYING, they wouldn't answer me and they would just send me back and forth between fraud and billing. It was a nightmare. That's when I was finally assured next billing cycle the charges would be dropped...no problem.
So today I get on chat to resolve this. I'm so angry I can barely type. This is such a nuisance I don't even know what to say about it. But it makes me realize when a company just doesn't get it. I write a lot about companies not getting it. And while in good times, this can be ok, because everybody is happily spending money, it is not a sustainable practice, either when the economy turns or when alternatives begin to pop up. With eBay, it'll be more about competition than about the economy. It will be about customer backlash and their own mistakes. A big error they already made was dropping 3.5 billion dollars for Skype. Man. That was dumb. But another is alienating customers. Last year they made some changes to feedback ratings and listing fees which put the eBay community on the offensive. Customers left in droves. They held boycotts (great story). I hate eBay so much right now. But I'm sure I'll still use them for things. At least until the next auction site starts competing.
The worst part of this whole thing is that I can't even complain to ebay. I've sent emails...I get a canned response back. There's no phone number. No management on the chat program you can talk to. It's a nightmare! And their partner company, PayPal, is no different.
12 comments:
Send them a certified letter and keep a copy:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/user-agreement.html
eBay Inc. is located at 2145 Hamilton Ave., San Jose, CA 95125.
Nick
Appreciate it...thanks!
Ebay has hurt the public in many ways, Inside Ebay itself customers and out. Ebay has powerful control over public spending and we as Ebay sellers are only looking for extra income. We as sellers have given them total power now. They own both sites Here's a clue. Live help is not live help on Ebay, but pre package computer pi-pe answers. Also if you sell a lot, your are paying almost same as a real store. It just does not take a lot of capital to open business. look at ebayexodus web sites. to learn about the real ebay. There is not board rules for the public sellers or buyers.Best way is take time to get small free sites to list. But wait longer to get sales. I work more for them then I do on myself, the only way is boycott Ebay, hit where them where money talks. Only way is not sell or buy on set up day such as week of Oct 20-27 each year so we can get their attention. We will only lose 1 week sales and can still be okey. They lose Millions for that week. We as people can band together and get voice. by spreading the word. Its our money.
And as tool, We can use it, when our voice is unheard.
We are really stronger than we think. They want our money, and it can make them listen to us if we plan, spread the word and set up dates to do this. We are strong as a group!! this can be done to big corporations to give smaller business a chance. Look at all the building projects going on around us yet we are poorer. Look at where we sell and buy products.We need to Give back to small companies who care for the customers. This is how we can get attention. I will step up and will do it. (instead of waiting to hope a fix by talking) Will you?
We have a lot of power, they need us. We have word of mouth to spread the word and e-mails out side Ebay. Oct 20-27 Don't sell or buy on Ebay. They will laugh until it happens and if they are worried, this will get their attention and they will change, even other big companies.
Oct 20-27 each year (Example)
only buy from small companies to show we as people Care about our impact of what happens to us!
Please copy and paste to spread the word!
@anon - Thanks for the comment. I'm on board. Unfortunately the time has passed this year. How about organizing? A union for internet users?
When will there be an Ebay class action lawsuit about shipping DSR system? Specifically, the shipping time DSR, it is inherently unfair to them but especially when it comes to Cross Border Trade. Specifically, it is unfair for a buyer to rate them on how long it takes a carrier to deliver a package. But it's not just delivery delays; it's customs, unreasonable buyer expectations (which we must better manage, by the way), higher shipping costs and the inherent pitfalls of language differences and mistranslations that create a real illegal point for sellers regarding this particular DSR.
@Anonymous. I wish there was a class action lawsuit now. It's so sad that ebay doesn't give a crap about their users. But I guess I take a little solace in the fact that ebay was just ranked the 49th worst company to work for.
We are once and only once buyes on Ebay. But the seller took away 500 bucks from our bank account and never shipped to us the product since March 31, 2008. Ebay has been contacted by millions of emails and we got back one answer that as buyers, we have to deal with the sellers ourselves. But the seller posted an Indonesia address and took our money from that country, what should we do with him or her? We hate Ebay.
@Anonymous - Your story is like so many others. It's obvious that there needs to be some action taken by ebay. Until enough people rally for support, they won't do anything. I've spoken to several people in the executive offices at ebay. They were far from helpful. I only hope that someone takes the initiative to organize. The only thing you can do is to file an FBI report here: http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
You should file a police report as well. But I will warn you, unless this user is scamming on a very large scale, it's likely that nothing will be done. It's sad, but true. I tried vigorously to hunt down the person who stole my identity. And the police, FBI, and eBay were not at all helpful. I still feel that ebay should have taken the reigns.
Just be more careful in the future. It was an expensive lesson.
There is a new auction site that just started up, but they have the right idea, low prices and customer focus.
I have noticed that there are a lot of free sites that will let you sell but what I wondered is, if they are free how can the afford to grow? This site charges a low flat rate fee, price depends on how big of a store you want, and NO FINAL VALUE FEES, No fees for upgrading you listings, and if you buy a store your auction listings are free. If you only have one or two items to sell they charge $3 per listing, no fees to upgrade.
They would also like to start a board of sellers to help make changes and upgrades to the site, which is almost unheard of, a site that gives the sellers a voice?
If everyone would band together and work the same site no matter what site it was, sites like ebay that try to take advantage of the sellers would no longer be able to get away with it.
It is about time that these sites see that with out us sellers they do not have a website to run, let alone make money from.
sites like ebay are getting richer and the sellers are getting poorer, something about that doesn’t sit well with me. A site like that does not need to charge so much to be able to make money, pure greed on their part.
I never want to work a site that makes me feel un-important again.
This new site is really something to check out, I know that it is going to be slow going at first, at least till they get some more sellers listing, but I believe that they are going to be real big, real soon, and I for one plan on being one of the first on board.
http://www.mynugen.com
Come and check it out, they have a lot of promise. I believe it will be worth your while in the long run. or short run if they can get enough people soon.
They have covered all that we have been complaining about with ebay.
@Anonymous - thanks for the comment. I've taken a look at MyNugen. I'll think about using it when I have something to sell. Best of luck, I really hope someone comes in and dethrones eBay!
There's hardly anyone using that mynugen site. Go to:
http://www.bonanzle.com/
Tons of users. They have been named as second to eBay now in size and their listing fees are very reasonable.
@Anon - Checked out Bonanzle... it looks stronger than mynugen, but still needs a way to go in terms of product offerings. But it certainly is nicely put together. It's also aiming for the niche market - non-mass produced goods? I don't know why they wouldn't go for everything. Electronics are a huge selling point on ebay - that would be a good angle.
Very reasonable rates! No listing fees (only selling fees) is awesome.
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