(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.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
I Hate EBay! For Real!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 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?
Post a Comment