Poor customer service
I have been an eBay user for over 25 years and have bought and sold over 1000 items. In February I sold a camera lens for $525. eBay confirmed the sale, provided the address in Florida, and said ship in 3 days, which I did as usual. About 10 days later they emailed me and told me to not ship the lens as the buyer was bogus. Of course, the lens had been delivered by then. I called eBay to find out why I had only been paid about $28 of the $545. I spent literally 5 hours on the phone, talked to 9 different people, and was cut off the phone 5 times, having to call back and go up the ladder each time. Finally†Roberto†in Payments told me, “Don’t worry, seller protections is going to cover this, and you’ll get paid in 30 days.†But nothing after 30 days so I called back and, despite the reference number he gave me, they didn’t seem to know anything about it and I spent 3.5 more hours on the phone with multiple people, again getting cut off over and over. At that point I was asking each person their name and made them promise to call me back if I got cut off. Not one of them called me back. I finally got a supervisor in Trust and Safety that basically explained the buyer had set up a store in my name using a VPN in Canada and gave themselves a $1000 coupon, applied it to the ]sale, and put a note on the sale to fool me, “Buyer paid with an eBay discount. This will not affect the funds you will receive - You can withdraw $543.60 on Feb 10 to your bank account ending in 8077 - Ship now.†After explaining how it happened, she put me on hold to connect me to payments again then cut me off. When I called back, they said there was no way to reconnect me to her.
So I called again and talked to “Anna†and she was on the phone with me for another hour and then said she’d call me back the following day at 3pm. As you can guess, she didn’t. So, I called today, and they say they are not responsible and can do nothing about it. This despite it being their responsibility to vet buyers, cull bad players, and make a safe working environment. So, I’m out $525 because they didn’t vet the buyer who hacked them and ran this scam, which one eBay person even admitted they knew about and had seen before and talked about how sophisticated it had become. So, my experience with eBay’s customer service, regardless of the final outcome which I am not happy about, has been awful. I cannot believe a tech company can accidentally lose calls that many times so I must conclude all these delays and lies and cut offs are part of their approach to frustrate folks to the point they give up. I was told so many conflicting things and lied to repeatedly. It took nine hours for them to finally say, sorry we’re not going to do anything for you. So, I will be dropping the 30 or so items I have up now and will no longer be dealing with eBay. I encourage anyone reading this to make their own evaluation on whether they want to end up being treated so poorly by eBay if they run into problems.
oldwestcoins
·2 years agoYet, you still show 24 active listings. ???
ittybitnot
·2 years ago@timba
I have read about this same scam at least a couple of times in the last week. Because I really stink at SEARCH on these forums I am having a hard time coming up with the exact threads. What I do recall is it is a complicated mess, involves account take overs and scammers giving themselves DISCOUNTS. I wanted to look for you to see if any of these were resolved, and how it was accomplished.
So far, I have only found this one, which doesn't say much but the eBay employee tells the victim they have to contact customer service....as you and most of us already know, that suggestion is rather insulting at best.
Hopefully, someone else remembers the other discussions and participated in them so they can be found easily. In the meantime, this is all I have come up with so far.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Help-cancelling-a-hijacked-order/m-p/34173705
ittybitnot
·2 years ago@timba
Found another:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Hacked-and-Scammed-by-a-buyer/td-p/34345568
This one shows how the initial hacking is accomplished:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Weird-scam-message/td-p/34410751
Please use the blue message button at the top of the page linked to in message #3 by @ckimodog and again here:
https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness
It is a chance for you to recover your money, and everyone here wants that to happen for you. It would be good to know what happens so we can help advise the next victim. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
chapeau-noir
·2 years ago@timbaI can understand the frustration, but do this one last thing - it'll be the shortest effort you have made. DM the agents on facebook with a concise message of what happened and your efforts to resolve it.
If eBay wants sellers to list expensive items (so they get their high fees), they need to do better.
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoAwful...understandable there is not much customer service.
This is why I won't sell anything expensive here...no customer service.
tinsoldierunderground
·2 years agoTry doing as ckimodog states. The CS reps contacted through this site can barely speak English, let alone understand it. They have zero knowledge of ebay policy, read from a 'feel good' script, and will give false information just to get you off the phone. Most couldn't find their a$$ with both hands.
ckimodog
·2 years ago@timba
So sorry for your situation. Don't give up just yet...
You may be better served by reaching out on social media via FB:
https://www.facebook.com/ebayForBusiness/
These US CS agents who are employed by eBay and been known to be very helpful. Many positive posts on this forum concerning a positive outcome. Reach out to them today and let them know your issue. I hope all goes in your favor.
Good luck to you!
timba
OP2 years agoI am done with them. They had eight and a half hours to get this worked out over two months. I spoke with 14 agents and was disconnected multiple times on three different long days of calling. Not a single agent called me back despite say ing they would. I talked to David then Kim then Fernando on Feb 21, then lost call. Then Kevin, Jacob, Guy, Rose, Alexa and Ernesto same day and was told it was covered by Ernesto in Payments and not to worry. Nothing happened in the 30 days he promised. Called back 3-25-24 talked to Andrea, Karen, Sophia, Abby. Cut off. Then Anna on 4-5 promised to call back next day after on the phone an hour with her and two supervisors and didn't. So not sure who these good customer service agents are but not one of these. Now they say they aren't responsible and won't pay as promised. Repeated lies and deflection to try to frustrate me so I wouldn't call back is ultimately all I can conclude.
jerseyboymusic
·2 years ago@timba
The "reps" you spoke with on the phone are outsourced third party. Do as @ckimodog suggests
ckimodog
·2 years ago@timba
These are not the outsourced reps you were speaking with. These are legitimate US eBay employees. Please take my advice and contact them. You may be surprised and hopefully a positive outcome on your situation. In the past they were very helpful with an issue I had and they will usually contact you within, if not less, than 24 hours. Again, don't give up just yet. Hang in there.
epowerbargains
·2 years agoWhat a horrible experience. It makes my stomach churn just imagining the waste of time and frustration. eBay needs to do better to protect sellers from these scams - and if they can't at least tell sellers - "Don't list anything for sale you can't afford to lose" - it is almost impossible to reach a live person with experience and the ability to resolve complicated seller problems. Many people have written that the disconnected calls, failure to return calls etc. are deliberately done to frustrate people into giving up. Sadly, people are going to find out the expensive way that selling anything of value is potentially risky.