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if customer service is the cornerstone of businesses, how was ebay succesful?
 

This is by far the worst company to deal with. The phone number is impossible to find. I had to get a verification email to get the number. I dont think its listed anywhere on the website.


The holding time was atrocious, the estimation was 6 minutes i lasted half an hour.

and I had to call again now im waiting again, estimation this time is 26 minutes. I beleive it'll take an hour.


But how come another company didnt take marktet share from ebay or competed aggressively? How could they hold a monopoly so big the way they treat sellers?

Right place, right time. They were there when some things on the net exploded. Just blind luck really. They were so dominating by the time others tried it was just too late.

Not unlike Microsoft. Just there when there grew a huge need.

Bill Gates was reported to have told his roommate when he seen a home built computer on the cover of Science America "were too late"

When it started it was fun and fair too....If eBay was a start up today they wouldn't stand a chance.

Exactly right. And, back in the day, eBay was GREAT FUN! Now it is a nightmare....

Well, just an opinion on the subject.
THere are companies that rely on either customer service or Price deals.
As there are customers who cares about manners / quality of service or money / price deals.

I for one prefer the good customer service and pay a little bit more. And usually even get a better deal as a regular customer. It makes it very positive mentally and both customer and company are happy. Plus the company gets a returning customer who spends more.

eBay just wants to make money, but at the same time... it was the bad apples that ruin it for us. So in a way 1/2 of the what made eBay what they are now... are those real scammers.
Now they just turn into a company that has good deals and disloyal customers because
some of us just want to get the best prices then leave.

Me... I haven't bought anything off eBay for at least a year and I bring my business elsewhere.
So far... much less issues and headaches.

Most do. You cant get away with bad service these days. People just move on and shop somewhere else. But eBay has the only restaurant in town right now. And if you want to eat...

Sometimes, and this is certainly the case with eBay, you have to put up with it because there is no other option.

I have a supplier I absolutely despise dealing with. I actually hate him he is so brutal to deal with. Rude and zero customer service. IE: "I do not communicate with customers on orders. There will be no tracking sent, you just have to wait for it" > Parts are sent UPS. So there is tracking, but he just refuses to do anything. Even simply emailing tracking. No order confirmations, no nothing. You pay, and a couple weeks later UPS shows up. You ask any questions about order and you get "Soup Nazi" type replies.

Why do I deal with this ass? He is the only one in the world I can get these parts from at his price. Its half what I normally pay. I have spent years looking and the jack ass is unbeatable.... like eBay, only game in town. So I put up with it.

If there were 3 or 4 viable auction sites out there crawling all over each other for a chunk of the billions you can bet your ass people would be treated better! A LOT better

I agree with pod, I also think that it's got to do with competition. eBay does not have any valid online auction platform competitors. People still need the service so they will use it, supply and demand. In essence, if there were only one grocery store in the neighborhood and that grocery store had bad customer service, people would still go there because well...there is no other choice.

(edit: should have read the thread above mine before I posted :rolleyes:, basically said the same thing)

That is EXACTLY Correct,,for MANY,,MANY,,Years Ebay was THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN,,,,,,,,,,,,,Now-a-days they have Amazom to compete with,,But they are Just as Bad,,or Worse,,,That is Only Because there is still Not enough Competion,,,99% of all potential Buyers Only trust Buying on one of these two sites,,,therefore thats where all the Sellers want to be and,,,,,,, Hence where ALL the action/Money is,,,,That WILL Change someday,,,

It is tought to see who could emerge as a VIABLE competitor.

Yahoo used to have auctions. So did MSN, Excite, Lycos and a few others. Today there is Etsy, Bonanzle, eBid and others. Most of them are nice, they have decent layouts, reasonable fees, responsive customer service and some cool features. What they don't have is TRAFFIC. At least not to the level necessary to be a serious competitor for eBay.

eBay (or AuctionWeb, as it was originally known) was the right idea at the right time. The internet was just starting to attract tons of users. And collectibles were HOT, especially Beanie Babies. There were some other auction sites, but eBay was the first to allow ANYONE to register to buy and sell. And word spread like wildfire. People flocked to eBay to both buy and sell.

Back then eBay was much different from what it is today. There was not much customer service to speak of, but users (sellers especially) didn't face all the issues they face today - so it was not really necessary.

You just registered and started to buy and sell pretty much whatever you wanted to. Relatively few listings were removed, unless they were BLATANLY illegal. You couldn't list body parts, for example. But most things wree just fine. The only big no-no was to list adult materials on the general site - they had to be in their own special section for obvious reasons.

Communicating with buyers and sellers was easy. It was ENCOURAGED. Most people used their email address as their user-id. You really felt like you were part of a community. eBay was cool. It was fun. It was the kind of website you told all your freinds about.

The feedback system was pure genius. Dishonest sellers were gone pretty quickly, as their bad feedback would eventually lose them their accounts. Most transactions went smoothly. Back then, you would send the seller a check or a money order.

You didn't go broke paying the fees, either. The final value fee was around 5%. Several sellers used CCNow to accept credit cards. eBay eventually started their own checkout system for accepting credit cards. But you were not FORCED to use it.

When PayPal arrived on the scene, they were NOT owned by eBay. They were a BLESSING! No more 5%+ fees to CCNow. PayPal took like 2.5% on each sale. There were NO 21 day holds. They NEVER asked for supplier information. If you sent them an email about a problem, you got an ACTUAL RESPONSE that was reasonable and logical.

Then it became "corporatized". New rules were added every week. Whole categories of items were banned. Ironically, at that time, eBay didn't like PayPal very much. In fact they HATED PayPal. They tried everything in their power to coerce users to use their own checkout system. You COULD use PayPal, but you couldn't use the PayPal logo unless it was under a certain size - a very small one.

Then things started turning ugly. You were no longer allowed to use an email address as your user-id. Communicating with other users became difficult. eBay actively discouraged it. They wanted all communication to flow through them.

Fees were raised at least once every six months. They added sub-categories left and right. Then they punished sellers for not using the CORRECT sub-category, even if it did not exist just three days earlier. Rules were changed so often that almost every user ended up violating an eBay rule.

Sellers who had 100% positive feedback were suddenly "No Longer a Registered User" for no obvious reasons.

And eBay sent a SERIES of emails to sellers warning them that it violated eBay's rules to enclose any information about the seller's own website with customer orders. eBay's position was that they were eBay's customers, not the seller's customers.

Lisitng items became an abrasive process. eBay would end your auction and send a form email stating you violated their rules. Of course, they refused to tell you WHICH of their new and ever-changing rules was violated.

I could go on and on, but you all know the rest.

Well thought out and well written post jeffweico - props.

ebay monopoly.... its scary but i think its about time someone steps up to challenge them, i think google should look in to this, with their google checkout system being successful very quickly and preferred by people who had nightmares with paypal, they have a chance. i think they can build an ebay/paypal alternative with some kind of google auction program / google checkout, they can advertise themselves all over the web for free too! lol, but yea i really hope someone can challenege ebay&paypal to make us seller's lives a little easier

Tons have tried. Its not so simple at this point now

They have. Deeply. And decided it was not something they wanted to get into

There are literally billions on the line. If taking them on was easily doable, it would be done by now. It would be nice for someone to take them on. But it would have to be a giant with massive backing. I dont see anyone capable or willing right now.

wow i dont know if any of you, have called ebay recently but oh wow.


I searched two hours for the number and found one.

I called, said press #2 for customer service. Then it told me to go on ebay.com and press help. lmao.


then on live chat. It was 11:35am when i started and i was still in line until 1:48 and im still waiting for him to help me. which he cant even take off a simple selling limit.

Ya, its absurd. Same thing. I spent hours looking for a number and when I got it a recording told me to go to site and hung up on me

I believe the new policy of selling limits will now drive the price of eBay items so high, that there will be an opening for competition. In the past it has been difficult to compete with eBay because customers knew that they can always get great deals on eBay. I think the days of the great deals could end as sellers are forced out, sellers of low cost items will be effected the most!

New Ebay Selling Limits May Change Ebay Forever

Selling limits dont effect the huge sellers. just new ones. So all it does is make it hard for the little guy. They dont like the little guy anymore. Thats what they built their business on, but now they dont care anymore

If we sellers (= ebay customers) had 10% of this attitude towards our buyers, we would be kicked off within seconds.

ebay tell us how good we must threat our buyers, and they, who should give us the example, do the total opposite.

Pod ..

Not sure where your getting your info ..

Selling limits are effecting power sellers with years of selling history.

International sellers, Asian sellers in particular are having a hell of a time.

This is not just effecting new sellers

New Ebay Selling Limits May Change Ebay Forever

I don't mean any offense here to anyone who is Asian.

eBay receives MANY complaints about sellers from Asia. Slow shipping is one problem. Customs seizures are another. China is the Counterfeit Capital of planet Earth.

Of course, not everyone from Asia sells counterfeits. Most are honest sellers just trying to make a living. But the eBay way is to shut down ANY sellers they feel pose a risk. They don't care of they hurt 10 innocent sellers if they can stop the 1 out of 10 that are dishonest.

So sometimes, Asian sellers can have a harder time than sellers from other countries. It is not fair, but that is just the eBay way.

I was not aware of that. I assumed sellers with a history could sell as much as they like. I wont take the time to look it up, so I will take your word on it. I find it hard to believe TRS are getting selling limits. But again, I will take your word on that. eBay never surprises me anymore. I stand corrected. Thanks

Slow shipping ... what does that mean?

It takes longer for items to arrive from Asia than if they were in USA?

Customs seizures are covered by paypal chargeback are they not?

Buyers in the USA want cheap Asian products, but they don't want to wait for them.

This is a total canabalization, buyers complain, eBay acts, sellers are limited and suspended. The result is that the products that buyers want, go up in price or dissapear all together.

Pod ..

Powersellers are also subject to selling limits..

It is widely covered in the forum and one of my good friends is a TRS with thousands of feedback .. he has been limited to 100 per 30 days.

As I noted, I stand corrected

For no reason? no violations or low DSR or complaints? Just "you can only sell 100 items" ? This has to be the dumbest thing eBay has ever done. How do they plan to make any money? Sorry if I sound skeptical. Its truly puzzling that they would slash the fees coming in from big sellers, for no reason [Even for eBay]

Jeffweico ,

It is very frustrating for sellers outside the USA when you have DSR for shipping charges and shipping time. American customers do not want to pay more and wait longer for items from international sellers. Of course they don't. It is unfortunately the reality that it will cost more and take longer to ship from overseas.

American customers should exercise common sense when making a decision to purchase from overseas, well .. eBay buyers using common sense.. GL with that!

The result is that it is nearly impossible to get reasonable marks for DSR if you are selling to Americans from overseas.

Another thing to consider is that this system allows racism to become a factor, by allowing buyers to rate sellers as they please, it is inevitable that racists will leave poor ratings based on seller location, name, and percieved race. The fact is that a certain percentage of people are racists, so when given this opportunity .. they will choose to harm sellers they feel are not of the same race.

Pod,

I am surprised you have not already heard about this?
Why do you think I wrote the article! It is big news.
International sellers are reporting more cases of limits for accounts with Powerseller and TRS, but there are reports from eveywhere.

Well, I dont sell from China so to be honest I haven't payed any attention. And I dont have any limits yet, so again, haven't noticed.

But from what I gather from your posts: Its the buyers fault and also includes some racism? None of this falls under the sellers problems?

I only ask because you haven't pointed out how some sellers seem to be just fine. Luck?

I buy items from China all the time. And It comes reasonably fast 2 - 3 weeks. But I also understand it wont be 3 days. *However, one seller I have bought off 4 times is always 4-5 weeks. Why? Is maybe the people getting hit hard not delivery as well as the rest? Why do 80% of my China purchases make it her in 1-3 weeks, but this one seller consistently at 5 weeks? They have a very poor DSR. But again, I dont expect stuff overnight when I order from china so I never leave anything less then 5 stars. But if some sellers are delivering much slower then others, they will get hit the hardest. Maybe just bad luck with slow mail, who knows.

But the buyers I buy off with high DSR are always faster then the ones with low DSRs. Do they just get crappy buyers? I know buyers are nuts when they think they will get stuff in a few days and its a nightmare. But that hardly makes them a racist. Again, I have bought stuff off Asian sellers as a repeat customer lots and the speed is always consistent from one seller to the next. Always slow or always quick. I know by the seller I bought from when to expect it. I dont care because I dont buy stuff off ebay I need right away. But if a seller is always slow the average buyer is going to be murder to deal with... An honest question because I dont know anything about the mail system over there, how can some buyers get stuff here in 10 days and others 5 weeks? Is it just random on how its handled with customs maybe?

Pod,

I am actually a Canadian (white if u must know)

I live in Thailand ..

So your comments about China and chinese sellers should be addressed by somebody who is perhaps chinese .

Pod

It is however Ironic how you choose to disagree with my opinion that racism factors into eBay feedback and DSRs, then you begin to rant about chinese sellers and direct that to me as a white canadian who does not live in China, but lives in Thailand?

Do you think " Thailand , China .. its all the same? "

Is there anything else you want to say to help me make my point ?

Oh smarten up.
I could care less if you are purple and live on the moon.... Not one word I've typed is even remotely racist.

DSR's for shipping time for seller's from Asia is lower? IMO that's exactly how it should be whether it is reasonable or not. I can't compete on price, but I can compete on shipping time...hence I have 5 stars. If things were reversed and most of my customers were in Asia my DSR's would drop and Asian sellers would benefit. Seems like it's pretty fair to me.

so many excellent points made in this thread. And yes, if I treated my customers the way ebay treated me, I wouldn't last 1 week on ebay.

I could never fathom treating my customers either online or in my brick and mortar store so atrociously, but as was so correctly ointed out, they are till now , the only game in town.

But nothing lasts forever, and they WILL one day have major competition and problems, sure as the sun rises. I just hope to live to see the day. :)

agree here with some points here about overseas shipping. It takes longer at times for items coming from Canada to the USA than it takes Asia to USA!!! Go figure. And no ebay buyers don't care, and often don't even read where the item is coming from. I do agree it is nearly impossible to get "Ebay decent DSRs " if you ship from abroad, but if you think about it, the system is nearly stacked against the seller.

I don't think ebay buyers are racist with DSR , I do think they are just plain dumb a lot of the time, and I do think the DSR system is dumb too ( at best) or an instrument of torture ( at worst)

It was at one time mandatory for ebay employees to also buy/sell on ebay , to know what it was like. Not so the case any more. God forbid Donahoe should sell a widget and face the feedback himself.

When I started on ebay wwaayyyy back, I actually got a call from ebay one fine day, not to verify who I was, but a call to say how well I was doing and what more can ebay do to help me grow my business. Yes, no kidding. I was really taken aback and thought , wow , what a great company! and I was so happy I had found ebay to do business with. It was really great, and I would tell anyone who needed help money-wise to try ebay.

Today I would not wish my experience on anyone. It has changed that much.

Sad.

to expect it to take longer from asia than a domestic shipment is natural, and yes if one wants things FAST then yes you would have an advantage being a domestic seller

however that is not the way DSR is structured

DSRs as they are now are a reflection of YOU as a seller. Your Geographic distance should not be a measure or reflection of you as a seller. If that were true your next door neighbour would be the best person in the world to buy from, and quite obviously that is not true.

Also the way DSR is set up now , the seller is rated by the performance of the post office. Just nonsensical.


DSR are inherently flawed, on so many levels , but just one being that all sellers are rated by the same system , meanwhile different shipping methods can be used, they are from all parts of the globe , and then all these variables are then put into the hands of a generally ill informed buyer with little shipping experience of their own, to evaluate - good luck.

There are some great points made in this thread.

For those of you that do not believe rasicm is a fact in DSRs and Feedback, do you think:
A: Racism does not exist?
B: Rasicst don't use eBay?
C: eBay has a system in place to ensure feedback is fair

lotsub maskes the point that Asian sellers should have lower DSRs, and maybe he is right, I think that is also what I am saying, people will leave poor DSRs because of shipping cost and time of delivery. Unfortunately Asian sellers are being held to the same unrealistic standards as American sellers, DSR falls below 4.5 and you get in trouble. I read that eBay is going to demand 4.8 in the future. I can never meet these expectations.

I ship to USA with registered mail, I write in BOLD read letters that delivery takes 2-3 weeks, I choose the econonmy 10-20 day shipping optoion on eBay. And I consistantly get low DSR for shipping time from customers who recieve the product within 2 weeks.

Now overall my customers are very happy, and I don't think they have a clue what they are doing when it comes to DSR. Because if they new that they were conrtibuting to the demise of many sellers that provide the cheap goods that they love to buy, they would not be so quick to give poor DSRs. And I don't care what anyone says, certain buyers will treat a seller with less respect based on the preception that the seller is Asian. And if you don't think that is racist, then what is?

For sure. eBay needs to take SOME step to make it easier for a buyer to understand that 4 out of 5 is a fail. Not what it sounds like, Just less than perfect. A movie graded 4 out of 5 stars is damn good. A ton of 3 or 4s would never be left if they knew how bad it was on seller.

Pod,

Well put!

Finally something we can agree upon !

Umm on the selling limit.. soo what if you sell 10 things and not get a single feedback? Feedback isn't always left.. and I have had some occasions where I only get like 1 out of 10..

How is one supposed to make much progress on limits like that..?

It's nonsense :heh:. Ebay has no obvious explanations for their outrageous policies or actions, that's just how it is. I'll bet they don't even know what they're doing half the time.

There was a recent thread about a guy who got suspended and when he asked eBay why he was suspended, this was the response he got from customer service:

"I am sorry to inform you that, since we have limited access to the tools, we are unable to check the reason behind suspension"

Yeah awesome, so eBay suspends users and have no idea why they do these things.. WHO KNOWS :confused:

the ultimate proof that ebay is a massive meteor travelling through the e-universe unmanned is when you do have a limitation placed on your account. it is not uncommon to recieve a unique response from every person you speak to on the phone and none of them have the authority to make decsions. The only one's allowed to release your account from limitation is some closed door email team whom you are not permitted to have a conversation with. i have been an active stock trader for many years and this is the sort of consumer complaints you hear about before a massive fraud is uncovered and someone goes to jail. anyone remember enron? worldcom? ebay is that big and it is hurting even more people with their policies. karma is a bitch...