How do I reach a human at eBay?
Summary: lessthanthreerecords is frustrated with eBay's customer service, citing issues with communication and unresolved problems including overcharged sales tax and incorrect shipping penalties. Despite attempts to contact eBay through Instagram and requesting call backs, responses have been inadequate or nonexistent. Other participants suggest tactics for better communication, such as addressing one issue at a time and leveraging AI to streamline messages. profitweb shows interest in the tax issues, while other participants speculate on reasons for the lack of communication from eBay, wondering if it might be due to the nature of the complaints.
As far as I know, my options are down to just Instagram and a phone call initiated through the website, but I can't access either. I was interacting with agents through Instagram until July 27, when they stopped responding to me. I sent several messages since, all have been ignored. Three out of the last four times I asked the robot on the site for someone to call, a call was promised, but never made. The one time the call was made, the agent suggested she transfer me to the tax department, but transferred me to someone who was not with the tax department and ended up hanging up on me. I've got a number of issues I need to have dealt with, and it seems eBay is ignoring everything but my money!
lessthanthreerecords
OP2 weeks agoIt just happened again. I requested a call through the eBay website after fighting with the machine to process basic English. Finally, it promised to have an agent call within 3 minutes. That was 1 hour and 28 minutes ago. Is anyone from eBay here on this site? If so, please call or e-mail. You have my contact information.
ryry-jj
·2 weeks agoI think this has more to do with the "tax fraud" statements you made, and I 'm sure you followed that up with more language which leaves eBay to not communicate directly with you...maybe not, but just how I read it
lessthanthreerecords
OP2 weeks agoI didn't use any inappropriate language with them. "Tax fraud" is what multiple states' departments of revenue called it, not a term I made up out of frustration.
ryry-jj
·2 weeks agoI don't mean inappropriate language, I meant you'd possibly said you'd look to take action. Many times at that point all communications stops, and you are now expected to communicate through attorneys. I have no idea, but that's the only thing I can think as to why you no longer have communication with eBay based on your post
theteamsetguy
·3 weeks ago@lessthanthreerecords ,
What did you do to piss them off? I’m assuming they disagree with you or can’t do what you want.
mam98031
·3 weeks agoOn each Ebay page there is a link to contact Customer Service at the top of the page and again at the bottom of the page.
Things have changed in recent months and Ebay is not offering customer service on any site other than Ebay and Instagram right now.
Here are your options for contacting Ebay Customer Service. Please be aware that for social media CS, you send them a Private Message and briefly explain what your problem or issue is. Feel free to leave your Name, address, phone number and/or your email address in this message. It is private and secure and it may help to speed up the response for you.
https://www.instagram.com/ebay/
https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/
Your options will be on the left. If you use the link below you can only get to the Automated Assistant or Chat box type AGENT in the box and hit enter. You will then get more options. Not all options are available 24/7. It will depend on staffing available. So sometimes you can request a call back and sometimes you can't. Sometimes you have the Chat option available and other times it won't me. If it is important to you to use one of those options, just try back later.
If you use a cell phone or other mobile device, you may need to turn off your Spam filter so that Ebay can call you.
If you are a seller outside of the US or Canada, you will need to use the Chat Option.
https://www.ebay.com/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpid
https://www.ebay.com/help/home
lessthanthreerecords
OP3 weeks agoThat's exactly what I was doing with Instagram, and it was working fine enough for a while, but like I said, starting on July 27, they completely stopped responding. When you suggest that the call back can't always be requested, doesn't it tell you that? In the three out of four examples, the robot said to expect a call in a certain number of minutes. I waited significantly longer than stated and no call was made. I have a landline phone, and there is no spam filter or other such block. eBay suggested the same thing when they were still responding through Instagram, but I don't even have that option on my phone. Strangely enough, the three times I got no call, there was no e-mail either. But the one time they did call and I spoke to someone, I got an e-mail immediately after I was hung up on saying that they were unable to reach me.
mam98031
·3 weeks agoEbay use to have an email version of customer service, that would be something I would never recommend. It is slow and frustrating. Besides, I gave no information about that because IDK what that would look like but again, not something I would recommend.
Having Ebay call you from the spot you can ask for this on the website, landline or not, usually works extremely well. IDK why you are having such trouble. But truly it is very unusual for this function.
All I can say is try this link and have them call you back. It should work just fine.
https://www.ebay.com/help/home
soh.maryl
·3 weeks agoSorry to hear about your difficulty in making contact. Many of the issues that arise on eBay can be handled without needing to speak with anyone. How about returning here and telling us about some of your issues?
lessthanthreerecords
OP3 weeks agoI appreciate your offer, but I still should be able to speak with someone in an official capacity at eBay. Probably the most serious issue (besides not being able to contact eBay directly) is their tax fraud which has been going on since 2020 with the start of managed payments. They repeatedly overcharge sales tax, then, as a result, overcharge final value fees. I have had many such issues refunded since 2020, but the three most recent ones are still outstanding (fully or partially). They promised to look into the oldest one and respond within 60 business days (which I thought was excessive). I waited the 60 business days, no response. So I reached out to them (this is when they were still responding via Instagram). They said they had forwarded the issue to the wrong department, so I needed to wait ANOTHER 60 business days, which is coming up September 3. There has been an additional tax issue since that as far as I know has not even been reported yet. Then as a separate matter, there was a sale I made back in May where the buyer immediately reached out to me to change their address. I advised them to re-order and I would refund the first order. They did so, and everything seemed to be fine. That is until a significant period of time later when I noticed eBay listed me as having 1 late shipment, which I have not had. Turns out, they expected me to ship a fully refunded item because I didn't jump through the right hoops in the right order for "the system." There was another newer order where a similar issue occurred and I needed to refund the order the same day it was placed. I tried to follow the exact steps the eBay rep recommended previously, but the options they said to click were not all there exactly as they stated, so I wanted them to verify that it was done correctly. The one agent I spoke to by phone said it was done correctly and I would not be penalized (hopefully that's right, but she didn't really seem to know what she was talking about). At the same time, she offered to remove the strike on my account for the May transaction. That was weeks ago, and the strike is still there, so I would like an update on that. If you can help with any of these issues, I would appreciate it, but I really feel like this needs someone from eBay to assist. Thank you again.
arraus
·3 weeks ago · Edited@lessthanthreerecords
I've been in similar situation.
One thing I'd highly recommend when contacting eBay CS... only address one issue at a time.
I know that's even more time consuming & frustrating, but it's far more likely to get results. Also, keep a record of each communication. I also like to run messages though AI so it shortens them & uses KISS principle. First and last sentence should summarize the issue.. and the desired action/outcome (when you know it).
You may be doing all this already. It certainly isn't foolproof.
CS everywhere just scans and tries to close cases fast (many don't even bother to read enough to understand the issue). So, I've started using the above tactics. It doesn't always work but it's helped a lot.
I'm dying to ask, can you provide specifics about the Tax issues? I'm curious and it might be happening to others. I would not expect the average CS rep to know didly squat if there was an unknown system issue. Thanks
lessthanthreerecords
OP2 weeks agoThe tax issues have been happening since managed payments began for me in 2020. Of course, as soon as eBay started charging fees on sales tax, they also started overcharging sales tax, and therefore overcharging their fees. I don't know if eBay is pocketing the excess tax or sending it to the states, but at minimum, they are profiting off the excess fees. It does not happen on most transactions, but I wouldn't say it's rare either. I run every buyer's address through TaxJar which tells me the exact sales tax rate including any local/county/etc. taxes. There is another service called Avalara which does the same thing. The only thing they do not include is any flat taxes like there are in Colorado, and I think maybe one other state, but eBay should be invoicing that separately. When I notice an error, I verify the TaxJar/Avalara rate with the department of revenue in question. In almost every case (I think there may have been 1 or 2 exceptions), the official state department of revenue rate agrees with TaxJar/Avalara and NOT eBay. Several years ago, I had an eBay rep admit that when a buyer does not enter the four-digit extension of their zip code, eBay charges the highest tax rate within the buyer's five-digit zip code, even when that rate does not apply to the buyer's specific address. That is tax fraud, and that's not just my opinion, but the opinion of multiple states' tax departments. Additionally, in some cases when this issue occurs, the buyer does include their four-digit zip code extension, so that is clearly not the only thing leading to these errors.
arraus
·2 weeks agoThis is very helpful. I will look into it too. Thx
theteamsetguy
·3 weeks ago@lessthanthreerecords ,
can you please give us an example of sales taxes that were overcharged for the benefit of all sellers.