Ebay's automated help system . . .

[mrcoffeee]

Hi, the last three days I have had three very minor problems with Ebay but enough to have to contact live help, how many of you know where I'm going with this already? LOL, I bet A LOT OF YOU, anyway, there are six very limited help topics which do not include most of the problems you might need live help with. You cannot get live help unless you pretend your problem is included in one of those six topics. I'm retired IT with more than 20 years into it, I know how to fix their problems, If I could stroll into their IT department in person and have a seat at one of their terminals I could fix the issues in ten minutes, but I'm retired so I've been in contact with Ebay requesting they fix the limitations of the system, super easy, There are two main problems one is the categories of help choices do not cover every problem and 2 if you can get into a chat getting a live agent for some thing not included in those six choices is impossible. So you have to lie, well if you lie you get the wrong department automatically. Not a formula for success. So My suggestions to fix the issues are add two more categories of help problems and one tweak to the chat bot. Two categories need to be added, maybe more but these are needed desperately: first categories to add: 1) Technical help (or website help) and 2) Everything else   If you ckeck box one for tech help you get a help desk employee in the IT department, and if you check box 2) Everything else you get a switchboard operator who is trained to identify and understand the problem as efficiently as possible and then route you to another employee's extension who can help, and then make sure they're connected before abandoning you. Then the tweak to their chat bot, I know if you've ever tried to get a live agent with a problem outside of the six choices you feel me on this, You can't get a live agent all while being told "you can also speak to a live agent any time" You can type the word Agent one hundred times in a row and get nowhere. Typing "911" gets the box up quicker for "speak to a live agent" but be warned if you click it you're sent to choose which of those six  topics your problem falls under again, and basically resets you back to the start. My proposed tweak would add an "agent counter" to the chat box, if a customer has to type "agent" over and over again and get nowhere the fifth time they type it the counter pops and rings up a live "everything else" help desk agent. Now look, this didn't come to me because I'm special it's probably come to the minds of hundreds of thousands of people. I just happen to be trained an certified in the answer that's needed. So What I need you to do is copy and paste this in an email to Ebay somehow. Just keep sending over and over and over, I now have their attention I think and it's gonna take a little pressure to tip the scales but we're there at that point. If they suddenly start getting bombarded with emails and letters saying "this guy's fixes need to be implemented immediately!!! I've been talking to their help teams for three days in a row now, the last guy sent me a link to apply for their IT department, I'm 59 now, my working days are over. But my ability to fix problems never ends. So join me, Make Ebay Great Again!!! LOL If you've ever faced that help system with a problem not listed I know I can count on you to send TEN emails with this attached lol, GO FOR IT, ENJOY, the worst case scenario is it doesn't change, but Wow if they fixed it that could usher in a new age for Ebay . . . I always try to make everything better for everyone and I do it all for free . . . Cheers       :O)

[mrcoffeee]

I've re-enrolled in Misrosoft.com, updated my Microsoft partner Tech account and signed up for every single course dealing the with Windows 10 operating system. I'm going to completely recertify myself on all of Windows 10 and eventually 11. I have corrupted my operating system sometime over the last five years, Obtained some McAffee I can't get rid of, So I'm starting now to go directly to the deepest issue first, my corrupted operating system. I'm going to go step by step and gut and rebuild my Workstation and make some necessary changes like right now my system drive is Drive F, and my music drive is Drive C, that creates problems. I've always been able to make it work, but all the new troubleshooters only look to drive C for anything. So I'm rebuilding, my System disk will be drive C and music will go to Drive M. Fresh new install will flush all the bloated garbage of the last five years, and I can go from there . . . Thank you for your support assistance     🙂

[eburtonlab]

There are six choices you can choose for your problem; links, find me anything relating to the tech side of Ebay, there are no choices therefore you can't move forward in the flow chart, there is no forward for any tech problems with the website itself.

If your problem does not involve Buying/Selling/Account/Shipping & Tracking/Returns & Refunds/Fees & Billing, then talking to eBay customer service is probably not going to help you much. The folks making the phone calls or responding through the chat service are not trained technicians, they are call center workers reading from a prepared script that deals with common customer service issues.

Go have a look, Pretend your "My Messages" link won't do anything , and come back here and post the flow chart you would follow to get live help, because you have not even tried what I already told you what the issue was.

Are you having problems with your My Messages link? Is that what this is about? If so, I can make some suggestions of things you can try, such as alternative links that may work better for you.

See if this link to member messages loads for you:

https://mesg.ebay.com/mesgweb/ViewMessages/0/m2m

If that works, it may allow you to reach other messages as well.

You mentioned at the start having "three very minor problems", then never actually provided any details of the specific problems, at least as far as I can tell.

Before you take on reinstalling your operating system, you might want to try simply describing the actual issues you are trying to address.

The folks that read and respond here can be quite helpful if you describe your issue and if you are willing to try a few suggestions -- like testing another browser to see if that makes any difference for your particular issue. If so, that might indicate some possible courses of action.

As an IT professional surely you understand the need to rule out the easy problems first -- like an issue with a specific browser or a particular link -- before resorting to reinstalling your operating system.

[thevestedone]

While I strongly disagree with OP's conduct, doesn't that basically make customer service useless at this point?

Honestly wish that eBay wasn't the only marketplace like this, but I guess it's legal to have an abusive monopoly if it forms naturally. Anti-trust and anti-monopoly laws need to be reformed.