eBay customer service call back representative hangs up on Google virtual answering assistant.

[cope-18]

I'm a little bit disappointed here. This is the second time that I've requested a call back from eBay and before I even get a chance to accept the call that my Google virtual assistant answered for me eBay hangs up on the virtual assistant and has the audacity to send me email saying they couldn't reach me. after four goddamn seconds they don't even give me a chance to pick up. fix your **bleep**.

[ebooksdiva]

I suggest you turn off the virtual assistant when expecting a call back from eBay.

[cope-18]

I will not be doing that because that is my call answering assistant. 600-1 callers are customers/spam vs eBay customer support. what makes you think that is an okay thing to suggest? especially after I have expressed my frustration with how unprofessional hanging up after 4 seconds is. The assistant says "Hi, I am a Google virtual assistant answering the call for the person you were trying to reach. May I ask what you were calling about?" 

[eburtonlab]

what makes you think that is an okay thing to suggest?

It is a good suggestion if you actually want to receive a call back from eBay.

You can turn your assistant back on after your receive the call back.

[cope-18]

so I have to change the way I do things because eBay CS is super impatient even though they're the ones calling me to fix an issue on their platform? That's not customer service, That's what needs to change. They don't even give me a chance to unlock my phone and override the assistant to answer the call they just hang up. So in response to your statement of "it's a good suggestion if you expect to receive a call back from eBay" I see nothing wrong on my end, and no reason to change what I'm doing. I came here to let eBay know of the problem not have a bunch of people tell me to change how I handle my phone calls every time one company wants to call me.

[eburtonlab]

so I have to change the way I do things

Only if you actually want a call back.

[kensgiftshop]

So, you don't want to change what you're doing so you can receive a phone call, but you want Ebay to change what they are doing so you can receive a phone call.

[cope-18]

It's a business account and a business phone. There are spam protections in place to save our time whilst making life as easy for the caller as possible. It's literally no hassle for someone calling in, and it saves us so much time. You really want me to go into our PBX and disable this every time eBay wants to call??? You are really equating something like "not hanging up on an answering assistant after 4 seconds" to "I should go and disable a core phone setting every time they need to call me"? No way did you guys try to flip this on me. I am not customer service in my interactions with eBay, they are... I should not have to bend over backwards and take it in order to get customer service from them. Shame on you guys for blaming me on this issue.

[klhmdg]

@cope-18 

No one is Blaming you! 

SMH!

They are offering ideas so you can get the call you requested.

You dont know it has been 4 seconds. Calls from eBay are automated. Once you are on the line you answer a question them wait for a person.

It does not appear this works with your phone system. 

Maybe chose a different phone for them to call thats not on your core phone system.

[cope-18]

They are blaming me though, by definition.

They are saying that because I have an answering assistant the issue is my fault.

To answer some of the things you said:
I do know its been 4 seconds because the second someone calls and gets picked up by my assistant I get a push notification allowing me to override and answer myself. I can then see the log of what was said and how long it lasted for, literally everything the assistant does. I'm not pulling that number out of thing air.

I have had 3 recent call experiences with ebay, 2 of them are what I've created this thread about and one I managed to answer before they hung up. I know they aren't automated, at least in my case, because when I answered it and said hello a very nice lady's voice was on the other end who proceeded to help me with my issue. Its the CS reps hanging up not any automated system. I have proof of that and that's why I'm here.

My phone system is a completely standard phone line, there's no menu options, no anything that needs to be interacted with. The PBX answers it the exact same way I would and talks/expects responses like any person who answers a phone would. It's not possible for it to be incompatible with eBay because it just simply answers the phone.

I don't have the choice to select a different phone because that number is whats on the account.

All of these reasons are why I'm here. I've exhausted the options that any reasonable person should go through before asking a forum, and I sure as heck understand whats going on in both the phone system on my end and theirs. I can rule out any technology as the issue, it's simply that the CS rep hears a short automated message and hangs up.

All of this is also why I'm getting defensive when users here like "kensgiftshop" say "So, you don't want to change what you're doing so you can receive a phone call, but you want Ebay to change what they are doing so you can receive a phone call." completely invalidating my issue and making me out as the problem. It's a horrible forum experience.

[ebooksdiva]

---

@cope-18 wrote:

so I have to change the way I do things because eBay CS is super impatient even though they're the ones calling me to fix an issue on their platform? That's not customer service, That's what needs to change. They don't even give me a chance to unlock my phone and override the assistant to answer the call they just hang up. So in response to your statement of "it's a good suggestion if you expect to receive a call back from eBay" I see nothing wrong on my end, and no reason to change what I'm doing. I came here to let eBay know of the problem not have a bunch of people tell me to change how I handle my phone calls every time one company wants to call me.

---

Yes, if you actually want to speak to someone from eBay when they call. They are not going to sit around and wait until you decide to answer your phone yourself. They don't have any idea about your answering device. 
You can always turn your assistant thing back on after the call. 

[cope-18]

Read the last message I sent because you are just echoing the same useless information.

[kensgiftshop]

There are a lot of places that will hang up if they call you and get an answering machine, it's not just Ebay.

[cope-18]

That is a good point, it is common place for businesses to do that.

I would expect that if it was ebay reaching out in the case of a sales call where they were trying to sell me something, etc.

Where I would not expect that is when they are handling customer service calls for those who are having issues on their platform, especially if requested to call a specific number. When the customer is having an issue and its the job of CS to help resolve that issue, it's not their place to pick and choose whether they immediately get straight through to the customer right then in that very second or not. That's considered bad CS pretty much everywhere.

[kensgiftshop]

Not on Ebay, but I've talked with other CSR's and they tell me they'll have another CSR call and discuss the problem.

They'll tell you when they call, if it goes to an answering machine, they'll hang up and you have to start all over again.

Why they do it, I don't know, but it can be a pain sometimes.