Canned Responses From eBay

[dgridley]

I've mentioned before that I have an ongoing issue trying to recover non-paying bidder fees from eBay and the clock is still ticking.. I can't even dispute the fees until tomorrow, then, unless the bidder is an unregistered bidder, I have to wait an additional 7 days before I can be credited.

I can't recover my total in listing fees because I featured the auction and added options, you can list it again for free only as a standard auction, so I'm out $30 in listing fees alone (and am fighting to recover credit for $100+ in final value fees before I'm invoiced and they're deducted).

What really gets me is the canned responses you get 3-4 days after you contact them.. they start out by introducing themselves, then come the "cut and paste solutions" which, so far, have never even directly addressed my particular issues. It's as if they haven't really ev en read my original complaints.

I'm really reconsidering ever dealing on eBay again.. it's bad enough you run into snags with the system.. I could handle that. But at least let me deal with Support that actually replies directly to the issues at hand and not some intern spewing out Solution 1219 from the manual.

 

[dgridley]

Just to follow up on this.. I finally managed to get credited for my Final Value Fees on the 19th, 4 days after automated billing, which means I just got an invoice from eBay for the entire amount.. no credit. This amount is automatically deducted from my PayPal. When I questioned this in eBay Live Help, their response was "Well, hopefully the sytem will catch it and you won't be billed the entire amount"... according to them, there is no way to flag the account to deduct the correct amount as billing is "already in progress".

I know from past experience (this happened once before) that if they do deduct the entire amount, what they refer to as a refund amounts to a credit toward future ebay auction fees. We're talking about a $90 charge.. it'd take alot of auctions to work off those fees, assuming you even wanted to use the eBay auction system again. I know I don't.

In any case, I'm just posting this here as a warning to you all as to what can happen.. is eBay too big, too impersonal, too automated for it's own good? I think so...

The unfortunate thing is people will still list there and shop there.. but things like this need to stop happening in the future. ebay needs to sit up and listen for a change.

 

[The Equivocate]

I'm currently having a similiar problem with eBay. I bought a laptop off of eBay which was giving me problems within a week of having it. The problem is that I was already at school at that point, so I absolutely needed a computer (even if it was giving me problems). I emailed the seller and told him that I'd have to wait until I could get my desktop from home, and he had no problems fixing it whenever, for free. So, I eventually sent it back to him (at this point it's giving me even more problems) and he orders a few parts and fixes it. By now, it's past the 60 days to dispute anything. I get the computer back and within 10 MINUTES the thing stops working. I emailed the seller and he said that it was past 60 days and hes "gone above and beyond" what he even had to do, and that our business was done.

Fast forward to today, and I bring the laptop into the local Toshiba dealer and they tell me that the computer has a faulty hard drive (which would explain the errors I had been getting all along). I emailed eBay's Trust and Safety Dept and they told me what I already knew - I couldn't really dispute it because it was past 60 days. So now I'm either out $500 on the whole thing or a couple hundred for a new hard drive.

 

[dgridley]

The sad part is, I'm sure stories like this can be multiplied many times over each day..

 

[Genialnames]

I had even a worse experience and , believe me, here Ebay Italy is a nightmare.
I 've got closed my shop 2 times with no reason I mean absolutely no reason and infact then reopened in few days, but I wor 15 days to open the first and same amount of time for the second, I have been charged for the fees. I wrote several time to the support asking explanations, and never received an answer to my questions, only generical answers. I agree Ebay is doing very bad I think they are like Nazi.They looks like they hold a power and they like to impose, no discussion. To not mention the exagerates fee they charge included paypal.I hope some new competitor come up with a real market place.IMHO

 

[fonzie_007]

ebay is awful when it comes to customer service or having people with half a brain to help you with your problem. This is one of the reason why I will be shutting down my ebay store and only seldomly listing there.

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER... right next to aplus.net

 

[CrazyTech]

Agreed.

Just to add to the horror/incompetent stories:

I listed some names on Ebay and the listing was edited and removed because I had the domain names listed on there. The employee told me that I was breaking ebay's policy by linking to an outside site even though the domains weren't point anywhere and it was a link, it was the text domain.com. It wasn't even a link!

For the same auction, I made a note that I would donate all profit from the auction to my school tsunami relief fund and clearly stated that I was not a part or even claiming to represent a charity and that full documentation would be provided. I read and analyzed their TOS over and over and this was not forbidden at the time. Yet my auction was removed because I presented my item on behalf of a charity "without presenting any documentation" or something to that effect. I remember the copy+paste response said that I tried to suggest that I impersonated a charity and so on.

I've had other experiences as well. Some guy I purchased something from didn't post in his auction that you needed a confirmed Paypal account (and since mine is only verified because I use a bank account) he would not change the settings so I had to send a money order. He shipped me the package and then a week later I received a non-paying bidder claim and it took several weeks to get that removed.

 

[dgridley]

Thanks for your responses.. I honestly wish complaining about the situation would actually have some benefit besides allowing me to vent, but unfortunately, ebay has grown too big to monitor itself or adequately provide even a minimum level of satisfactory customer support.

Would love to hear other experiences in this thread..

 

[fonzie_007]

I would seriously look at other places to list your items such as craigslist. Ebay's listing fees are quite high (especially for low priced items that may not sell). As you can tell by my post, I am fed up with ebay and I am not going to support them anymore.

I find it crazy the only time they will let you talk with someone on the phone is when they are trying to sell you some service. You never can actually speak with anyone when you need help with a problem. Ebay has giving me the figurative f#*k you, so I am giving them the same response back... Maybe I should use my new domain FU2.org as a venting place for former ebayers...

 

[CrazyTech]

So you picked up FU2.org - I was thinking about it too.

I tried to find the responses I got in these instances but I guess they were deleted. I always try to save things like that when they are obviously copied and pasted.

 

[dgridley]

My ebay contact finally admitted after several emails that they did NOT investigate my issues (until after I sent them numerous complaints about the canned responses):

Thank you for taking the time to write eBay with your concerns. This is
Bobbie again and I'm happy to help you further.

I can understand the frustration that you are going through with the
buyer. I must confess that we did not investigate further into your
concerns with the limited information that was given....

Now, ain't that something? This was on the 18th, after 4 days of back and forth emails and "cut and paste" replies. They went on to request more information and still did not resolve the situation. It was only the following day, when I was finally able to dispute the fees that I received credit and then, only because the "buyer" was no longer a registered eBay user. Alot of headache could have been avoided if they had simply credited my fees earlier, because in an earlier email, they alluded to the fact the buyer was unregistered.

I told them I was a member here, with 22k members, and that I thought someone needed to post a warning regarding this sort of thing happening. THAT was when I finally got them to admit they hadn't looked into it yet. Funny, eh?

 

[fonzie_007]

Considering I was giving them upwards of $100 every month I found it quite surprising they couldn't even offer me some decent customer service. But then again, all they ever cared about was getting my money, not actually helping me.