Why Do eBay Customer Service Reps Lie?

[ten_o_nine]

Hello Everyone,

I have been selling on eBay for the last 18 years, I experienced the good, bad, and ugly, but it was quite a journey and I learned a lot in the process. I will be winding down my operations as we start 2022 in order to finally retire by end of 2022.

The one thing I want to share about my experience with eBay CSR's for the few times I called them, is they have a culture of lying to sellers to end the call. They tell you you're on a recorded line for training purposes and after you explain the situation, they will agree with you and promise to refund your account or remove a negative but they never do.

Last one was a negative I received because buyer wanted a partial refund but will not return item, and stated that in 3 messages on eBay that they will give me the worst review if I didn't refund.... HAHA I thought eBay would defiantly remove, so I called eBay and the CSR told me what they did is against eBay policy and would be removed in 24 to 48 hours.. HAHAHA eBay, go listen to your own recorded line...

For all the new sellers. record your conversations with eBay CSR to train other sellers about this lying eBay culture

[sin-n-dex]

I sub in a customer service queue once or twice a week when someone on the queue is away, and I hear all sorts of things from customers about what they were "told" by the previous person they talked to, and how nothing happened.

For example, we have an "escalations chat" where we can post a problem and have a supervisor take the call. 9 times out of 10, the supervisors are all on calls and no one replies. The agent is frustrated and takes a message from the caller and promises a call back, but before long the "message" they took and posted in the escalations chat has scrolled off the page and is forgotten about.

I covered someone's lunch on Friday and got a mad customers who told me he'd called 7 times and been lied to each time, by having a supervisor call back within 48 hours, but no one does. Telling him he'll get a case handler assigned right away, and that doesn't happen. He wanted to speak to "a supervisor". I told him that a random supervisor who doesn't know his claim and isn't managing that case handler, isn't going to be able to do anything to help him. I told him they will listen to your complaints, write them all down, send off an email to the case handler and their manager and request the manager call back.

I told the caller if he would like, I will do just that (listen and send a message with the complaints) and I listened to him for almost half an hour as he detailed all the issues he's having with his file for me to write them all down. Then I made notes on his file and told him if he didn't hear from someone by his lunch break the following day, call back, and then I told him what to tell the agent who answers.

I consider myself to be actually good at the job dealing with customers, as few of my calls actually results in speaking to random supervisors who are just going to do what I can do. But because all the new hires (who were hired less than 3 months ago and then thrown on phones) tell the callers what they want to hear to get them off the phone, they're really mad when they reach me.

C.

[luckythewinner]

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

For all the new sellers. record your conversations with eBay CSR to train other sellers about this lying eBay culture

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How will recording my calls with eBay customer support "train other sellers"?

Is there some secret website where these calls are available for other sellers to listen to? 

[ten_o_nine]

hmmm, on the lies of eBay , get it?

[ten_o_nine]

And right here, you sound like a cheerleader? are you?? 

[fashunu4eeuh]

I wonder if it’s because, with the overseas employees, they are  untrained or under-trained, and only have so much time to address each call. They likely are told to handle each call not to exceed a certain time limit. So they are doing the expedient thing in order to put bread on the table. 

[ten_o_nine]

I understand, but why not say it can't be done per eBay policy, but to promise and no deliver is bad.

[wastingtime101]

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

I understand, but why not say it can't be done per eBay policy, but to promise and no deliver is bad.

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Because right after you hang up, you get an e-mail to rate the CS rep. They want to leave you happy so they get a good rating. If they say it can't be done then that leads to a longer call with the customer arguing and probably leaving the rep a bad rating because they're unhappy with eBay's policy.

[ten_o_nine]

You know, I am happy with eBay policies, they just need to enforce it, but as big of a company as eBay to hire such reps that would lie tells you about the culture of the company, that's all I am saying. Cheers!

[chapeau-noir]

It's actually the call center that is supposed to record calls to train staff - it won't do anything if we do it.

As for CS - the answers are what experienced people like Sin-n gave.  Customer service is considered 'overhead' (it should be an integral part of operations) and like other 'overhead' that may impact profit, shareholder disbursements and the bloated C-suite salaries, it's sacrificed for short term profit. We do not have a very smart corporate culture in this country.  I speak as one who has been at the effect of outsourcing and seen first hand the degradation in quality it has (I was a quality assurance manager in tech documentation for years).  Oh, and it really doesn't save much in the long run but again, corporate culture, etc., etc. 

[sin-n-dex]

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@fashunu4eeuh wrote:

I wonder if it’s because, with the overseas employees, they are  untrained or under-trained, and only have so much time to address each call. They likely are told to handle each call not to exceed a certain time limit. So they are doing the expedient thing in order to put bread on the table. 

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Before our mass hiring when I had to take phones several days a week (not just an hour here and there) we had 40 people in the queue waiting for an agent, probably about 8-10 agents at any given time, customers said they waited 45 minutes to speak with someone (and complained about that for five minutes making my next call wait). When we've been busy our team lead has pushed us to "hurry up with the call" and "transfer them to voice mail and get them to accept this".

I discovered whenever I wanted to get off the phone to get the next call, customers were subconsciously aware of this and the call would end up taking longer than if I dealt with it the way the customer wanted me to. I told my boss I will not hurry calls, they are upset, they're calling for a reason, we need to address this reason so they don't keep calling back.

Anyway I'm not saying how eBay should or shouldn't deal with their CSRs, this is just my inside look at what goes on, on the other end of the phone, so you know what's really going on.

At my work if there are no notes on the file, it didn't happen. We're encouraged to make notes, but most of the agents don't. I keep them on the phone while I make my note to ensure it's not forgotten when I get the next call (sometimes there's no gaps in time between calls, always someone waiting to speak to me).

Perhaps being effective at dealing with customers as a CSR myself helps me steer the eBay CSRs in the right direction to get things done. It's not too often that I have to call a second time to follow up on something that's supposed to be done. (And I have posted in the forum many times what sorts of things to say and how to deal with eBay CSR).

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

I understand, but why not say it can't be done per eBay policy, but to promise and no deliver is bad.

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Because right after you hang up, you get an e-mail to rate the CS rep. They want to leave you happy so they get a good rating. If they say it can't be done then that leads to a longer call with the customer arguing and probably leaving the rep a bad rating because they're unhappy with eBay's policy.

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We don't do ratings on the CSRs where I work, and that's in part because there are some unhappy people who will never get what they want (because the purchased the wrong coverage, or didn't have coverage on that thing, or were found at fault for the accident).

We're rated on how much time we spend in "wrap up mode" between calls (they give us 5 minutes before it forces me into ready mode again). I've decided all notes and actions will be done with callers on the phone so that I can use my wrap up time to get a snack or use the restroom. We're also rated on how many breaks we take and if we are answering phones during the times we're supposed to (ie did we log in late).

C.

[ten_o_nine]

If they can lie to a customer like me, a TRS with proven record, and experience, what would they do to a new seller, thus my post. I don't want anything from eBay other than to create a culture of trust that they are lacking.

[iart]

So, you speak with a CS Rep and they say someone will get back to you. Do you think they make this up or do you think that's what their boss tells them to say?

Do you expect CS Reps to risk losing their jobs by not doing what their boss orders them to do?

How come people are so quick to attack people working for a paycheck while ignoring the bosses who run everything?

[coolections]

What if the told you they would not remove the feedback as that was the buyers experience. I only see a negative about scratches cd's. If the buyer does not mention anything about wanting a partial refund then it would not be removed.