eBay

spacecoastparts · ‎09-26-2025

There is literally no point in having customer service anymore. The outsourced reps will tell you anything to get you off the phone, put you on hold repeatedly so they can get to their prompt on the script, transfer you to other reps so you have to start all over, and tell straight up lies against policy. They have zero power to change anything. Everything requiring a decision is handled by some "back shop" that's incommunicable.

So what is the point of customer service if eBay is all about policy? Just replace them with AI and it'll never give wrong info or false hope. It can tell you that there's no chance you'll win an appeal instead of someone on the other side of the world working out of a call center with zero accountability telling you to appeal and everything will be taken care of, because it's in their script.

It's time for this outsourced garbage customer service to go.

jerseyboymusic · ‎09-26-2025

How about USA based Ebay employed customer service reps like the old days?

View Best Answer in original post

gurlcat · ‎09-26-2025

We've all experienced that nightmare and read plenty of others' similar experiences posted here. But what we don't see is how often people get exactly the help they need from them, because why would they write a post about it?

Anonymous · ‎09-26-2025

@spacecoastparts wrote:
There is literally no point in having customer service anymore. The outsourced reps will tell you anything to get you off the phone, put you on hold repeatedly so they can get to their prompt on the script, transfer you to other reps so you have to start all over, and tell straight up lies against policy. They have zero power to change anything. Everything requiring a decision is handled by some "back shop" that's incommunicable.

So what is the point of customer service if eBay is all about policy? Just replace them with AI and it'll never give wrong info or false hope. It can tell you that there's no chance you'll win an appeal instead of someone on the other side of the world working out of a call center with zero accountability telling you to appeal and everything will be taken care of, because it's in their script.

It's time for this outsourced garbage customer service to go.

@spacecoastparts

You want AI in charge?

The same AI that recommends glue be added to pizza to keep the cheese from sliding off?

spacecoastparts · ‎09-26-2025

AI is already in charge of many important areas. It's deciding feedback removal requests, combing listings for policy violations and suggested improvements, tailoring search results. eBay policies are not rocket science, yet the human beings employed to interpret them can't get it right.

jonathanbrightlight · ‎09-26-2025

@spacecoastparts wrote:
AI is already in charge of many important areas. It's deciding feedback removal requests, combing listings for policy violations and suggested improvements, tailoring search results. eBay policies are not rocket science, yet the human beings employed to interpret them can't get it right.

What policy have you had them not understand or interpret properly?

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spacecoastparts · ‎09-26-2025

Take the hypothetical anecdote in my post. Seller calls customer service to navigate an issue to resolution. Customer service rep convinces seller that if they do X, eBay will do Y for them and everything will all work out. Seller believes rep because they're representing eBay, know what they're talking about, and have the authority to make it happen, so how can things go wrong. Oh but then reps don't actually have authority and don't know (or don't care) what they're talking about (cause policy doesn't actually allow for Y to happen) and give false hope to seller. Seller's X action then goes to a "back shop" that was passed only the information the rep chooses to, and Y doesn't happen as promised. Seller then gets some generic broken English denial message that may not even address their original request. Seller is probably then out money and account defects for following bad guidance.

You think this hypothetical situation actually plays out with some regularity or no?

Anonymous · ‎09-26-2025

@spacecoastparts wrote:
Take the hypothetical anecdote in my post. Seller calls customer service to navigate an issue to resolution. Customer service rep convinces seller that if they do X, eBay will do Y for them and everything will all work out. Seller believes rep because they're representing eBay, know what they're talking about, and have the authority to make it happen, so how can things go wrong. Oh but then reps don't actually have authority and don't know (or don't care) what they're talking about (cause policy doesn't actually allow for Y to happen) and give false hope to seller. Seller's X action then goes to a "back shop" that was passed only the information the rep chooses to, and Y doesn't happen as promised. Seller then gets some generic broken English denial message that may not even address their original request. Seller is probably then out money and account defects for following bad guidance.

You think this hypothetical situation actually plays out with some regularity or no?

@spacecoastparts

And this hypothetical cannot happen with AI?

meme6253 · ‎09-26-2025

Have you read the posts about AI here?, You really don't want your customer service coming from an AI program, Just ask your questions here on the forum & someone should be able to help you out.

tobaccocardyahoo · ‎09-26-2025

Often the wrong answers provided by customer service are to questions which should not be asked of Ebay, are not Ebay's responsibility, or sellers seeking an exception to Ebay rules or policies for which there are no exceptions.

Since these are not questions which are appropriate to ask Ebay, AI will likely return garbage results just like some CSRs.

jonathanbrightlight · ‎09-26-2025

@spacecoastparts I didn’t ask for a hypothetical. I asked what experience you have had with them making a mistake.

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quadcitypickers · ‎09-26-2025

As someone who has had no Facebook account for over a week now due to their crappy AI suspending both my personal AND business accounts for bogus reasons due to their AI falsely flagging hundreds of thousands of accounts, trust me, you don't want AI in charge.

All these companies want AI so they can make more money having less people on Payroll, but AI is nowhere near fine tuned enough to be used for that yet, especially when FB has zero human contact points to appeal your suspension whatsoever. No email, no phone number - NOTHING.

A company worth $1.9 TRILLION DOLLARS has no human contact center.

Imagine being one of the medium sized eBay sellers making $50-$100k a month on eBay and eBay's new AI falsely thinks your listings are all counterfeit due to a programming bug and your account gets permabanned and you call only to find out the same exact AI is in charge of customer service, and you can't get a hold of a human to appeal.

Computers can't make mistakes, but the humans programming them can, basically it's called "garbage in, garbage out".

For now AI should only be in charge of positive result decisions, any decision that can have a negative choice is not to be trusted in the hands of AI, for the foreseeable future.

chapeau-noir · ‎09-26-2025

Just replace them with AI and it'll never give wrong info or false hope.

::wheeze::

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