Another eBay monopoly story.

[camrok]

It's not hard to get annoyed at eBay for their lack of care when dealing with their seller customers. (It's not like we provide them with much revenue [sarcasm]

Today I made the effort of paying my fees via alternative funds linked to my PayPal so as to not draw down on my households account. (that is my default if the funds are not there to pay for any transaction)

Due to timing eBay then automatically deducted the exact amount a few hours later from the exact account I was trying to avoid... Sh(@ happens.
I called eBay and PayPal to sort this out and they both said it had already been processed and there was nothing they could do about it.

I call BS. And if the roles were reversed and I owed an eBay customer money do you think I'd have to pay?
If I was dealing with any other company that did not monopolies the used stuff market eg electricity or mobile phone company, I think the outcome would have been much more pleasant.
I wouldn't have had to wait 6 hours for a broken English reply via email that says no and we don't care in a round about way.

I've responded by saying I will get in touch with fair trading in Australia. And see what they say.

It may not seem much but in small business this wouldn't happen, so why in big business is it ok?
Rant done.
thanks
Cam

[leffemonster]

Nov 16, 2015 12:17:09 GMT -8 camrok said:

It may not seem much but in small business this wouldn't happen, so why in big business is it ok?

Because it's big business. That's why they don't give a sh!t. In my experience the smaller, humble retailer will pretty much do anything to help, as they rely on your return custom and 'spreading the word' about what a good retailer they are. eBay has such a hugely massive customer base that if they piss off a few folk here and there, it matters not one jot to their overall business.

I had an issue recently with a certain hotel booking web firm. Their system changed the date on a booking I had made, and I only noticed after it had been processed. I immediately called them to explain what had happened, and that I had definitely selected the correct date (it was a booking in relation to a family funeral after all) and the agent said "no problem, we can change the date". The second booking was a few quid more, and I confirmed 3 times that they were only processing payment for the additional amount. And guess what? You got it - double payment out of my account.

It took almost 2 weeks of me contacting them by telephone (to their foreign call centre) before the matter was resolved. Their excuse - none offered. Their customer service was atrocious, but they don't care. Had I made a booking direct with a small, family run hotel and needed to change the date, I'm pretty sure there wouldn't have been any issue at all.

The bigger the business, the bigger the 'so what' attitude.

[Adrian-VTA]

eBay heavily penalises sellers as well. Someone thinks you took a DAY too long for an item to arrive and leaves bad feedback? Yeah, you've just lost your top rated seller status. Get another one from an idiot? Yeah now you have to do a re-education course on customer service. Lock your paypal account? SURE!

I'm dealing with one right now where I've had back and forth with a customer on tracking (he wanted tracking, I don't offer it due to cost). Admittedly I only do eBay messages around twice a week otherwise it takes up too much time (Average time it takes me to answer a query is 10-20 minutes. I often have to trial fit a part or refer to some long lost parts sheet for a watch they made like 100 of in the 60's.....)

So I'm a few days late responding (yeah OK bad form from me) because I was flat out, I get a bunch of harassing messages with lots of exclamation marks, a dispute, then this -

"Hello !! I am shocked how ignorant you are as a seller !!!! You have my money with you for like 10 days now !!!! Please ship the part at once !!!!"

I already apologised and gave him some freebies for being late. Really? You need to call me names?

I had another guy who was in country SA, left me negative feedback for post taking the normal time it takes to anywhere in AU. Yeah thanks, like I have supreme control over the postal service. I state posted within 3 days and it was done within two (I often lose a day because the order comes in at like 11:30pm).

Their customer service is dogshit. I can't leave bad feedback on a buyer, yet they can take a crap all over me, GREAT! That's fair. And I agree with you Cam, if they weren't a monopoly we would be telling a different story.

Then that brings me to the site itself. It hasn't changed since 2004. It's horrendously slow because it's all written in CGI. You can't customise it really and it looks like a dog's breakfast. Trying to deal with a bunch of stuff at the same time? GREAT let's crash on you. Trying to find a function (I'm referring to offers) that will help out a customer? Sorry dude, no logical way to get there!

If it was a horse you'd shoot it and start again, it's terrible.

Nov 16, 2015 12:17:09 GMT -8 camrok said:

It's not hard to get annoyed at eBay for their lack of care when dealing with their seller customers. (It's not like we provide them with much revenue [sarcasm]

Today I made the effort of paying my fees via alternative funds linked to my PayPal so as to not draw down on my households account. (that is my default if the funds are not there to pay for any transaction)

Due to timing eBay then automatically deducted the exact amount a few hours later from the exact account I was trying to avoid... Sh(@ happens.
I called eBay and PayPal to sort this out and they both said it had already been processed and there was nothing they could do about it.

I call BS. And if the roles were reversed and I owed an eBay customer money do you think I'd have to pay?
If I was dealing with any other company that did not monopolies the used stuff market eg electricity or mobile phone company, I think the outcome would have been much more pleasant.
I wouldn't have had to wait 6 hours for a broken English reply via email that says no and we don't care in a round about way.

I've responded by saying I will get in touch with fair trading in Australia. And see what they say.

It may not seem much but in small business this wouldn't happen, so why in big business is it ok?
Rant done.
thanks
Cam

[camrok]

I've decided to do something about it.
I've contacted the ACCC (the Australian corporate consumer watchdog and turns out they have an eBay team dedicated to investigate.
It may seem like a trivial issue but their system failed. At least in this instance I can escalate it outside of the control of eBay. It likely won't go anywhere. But you never know.

[Adrian-VTA]

The only way eBay has survived some serious class action work is because of the separation of it's company bodies. Now they have spun off PayPal it makes it harder to go for their throat, I'm surprised they didn't do this sooner.

When they bill me fees, it's always cryptic and it's done at weird times.

I'm really pissed off at the policy changes where they now charge commission on postage. I can understand why they have done it, as some sellers would sell an item for $10 then have say $100 postage fee free, but they don't provide that service, so it's a rort. Ultimately the customer should decide if that is a reasonable deal for them, not eBay. It's just a money grab.

I'm planning a move away from it because my fees now are just astronomical, equivalent to over half of my mortgage payment.

Nov 16, 2015 17:05:13 GMT -8 camrok said:

I've decided to do something about it.
I've contacted the ACCC (the Australian corporate consumer watchdog and turns out they have an eBay team dedicated to investigate.
It may seem like a trivial issue but their system failed. At least in this instance I can escalate it outside of the control of eBay. It likely won't go anywhere. But you never know.