eBay is begging buyers to have complaints

[so544116]

I'm just a small seller on eBay, and an occasional buyer. I received a message from eBay about a recent purchase that has me alarmed. The subject line was "Need a hand with [my item]?"

The first line in the body of the message was "We’re sorry that things may not have gone as planned and recognize how frustrating this can be." The message ended with two big colored boxes of text — one telling me about eBay's money back guarantee ("Get your item or your money back"), and the other asking me to start a return ("not happy with your purchase? Send it back. Start a return.") See the screenshot below, with my personal info blacked out.

The seller shipped my item promptly, via FedEx with tracking. I received my item in perfect condition, and I had already left positive feedback shortly after receiving it. I've done nothing to give eBay or the seller any reason to think I wasn't happy with my purchase.

Why on earth would eBay assume I had a problem with my purchase and practically beg me to return it? I hope my own customers aren't receiving messages like this.

[so544116]

You would think that once this has been brought to their attention, they would stop these from being sent out while they "investigate" and "review" and take a "closer look."

[bxm6306]

I too received the same type of email for an item purchase that completed without a hitch and for which I too had left positive feedback. I spoke with Ebay customer support on the phone and the rep asked me to forward the email to spoof@ebay.com for investigation.

[jnmcnally]

I got that email and message too, but without mention of a specific item.  Of course, like an idiot I also took their little survey about whether that message satisfied my concern, and was faced with a "pick one" list of options that couldn't be interpreted to encompass my confusion.  Their survey left me confused AND upset with their programmers.

[dbfolks166mt]

     Maybe eBay should include a couple of links to YouTube videos on how to run a successful scam as a buyer on eBay. Maybe they should send a note to every seller at the completion of every sale stating they don't offer you very much protection. They may have your back but it's to plunge a knife into it. Before anyone over reacts this is a joke and I am kidding. However the note the OP received is just stupidity on eBay's part. 

[evry1nositswindy]

@bxm6306 The one the OP is showing is an official eBay message, not an email.  That sounds like a whole other issue to me--emails too?

[bxm6306]

An hour or so after receiving the eBay email I received the same identical message in my eBay message inbox - so it was an official ebay message. Seems like a wider whoopsie on their part - I'll be surprised if they own up to it as most companies won't think much of it, or even realize it happened/is happening in the first place.

[68goodyear]

Thank's for sharing this Post.  I'm an Ebay buyer and (occasional seller) who just received this message, out of the blue.  There were no problems, with any of my recent sales, or purchases, and there was no negative feedback, on any of my recent transactions.  I retracted OFFERS, a couple of times, but this was all legal, by Ebay. The seller had an auction, with a best offer option. I submitted two separate offers, and because no one had as yet offered an opening bid, Ebay informed me that I was allowed to retract my offer.  I made an offer on something that was rare, and with no response from the Ebay Seller, I felt that bidding would eventually go sky high, on this item.  This type of bidding is out of my wheel house, so that's why I retracted the offer.  Also, I sent a nice, professional Ebay feedback/suggestion, a few weeks ago.  With literally hundreds of thousands of DOLLS for sale, I told Ebay that I didn't think that it was a good idea that they removed the DOLL filter parameter of DOLL  SIZE check off box, from their choice of DOLL category filters. I don't know if either of these actions could have triggered the -Do you need a hand with your purchase?- message, and -We're sorry that thing may have not gone as planned- message.  I just posted this, in case this information might be helpful. Thanks for your time.

[bill.purvis2012]

Don't like the sound of this. Imagine being in a restaurant and the waitress coming up to you while you're enjoying your meal and telling you that you can send it back to kitchen, etc.  Don't think I would take another bite assuming there was something going wrong behind my back. 

[so544116]

Yes, this is what really bothers me about that email. As the buyer, I was perfectly happy with my purchase, but that email strongly suggests that eBay thinks there was something wrong, and .... you know, eBay probably knows better than me if the seller's a scammer or something, so if eBay thinks there's a problem, there probably is and maybe I should just return it & get my money back.

[d-k_treasures]

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@so544116 wrote:

Nope. I think it was one of those that I could only leave a star rating in one category, and I gave it 5 stars. I know I left 5 stars in every category that I was allowed to leave a star rating. The guy shipped fast, with tracking, and the item arrived in perfect condition and exactly as described. At risk of outing my other ID, the text of my feedback read "Adorable bakeware set, shipped fast, packaged well."

There was absolutely nothing about the transaction that was anything less than 5-star worthy, and there was nothing about it that should have suggested to eBay there was any sort of problem.

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Maybe  whoever wrote the bot for this thought 'adorable' was a bad thing .... ?

[glasser]

These communications are very troubling. If you click on ask an expert it takes you to the expert forum not CS as would be expected. If you click on not happy it takes you to all your recent purchases.

This is yet another example of eBay's deeply flawed communications efforts. It is an extremely poor attempt to market their expert advice service. Quite frankly if this were given in a marketing class as an assignment it would be graded an F

[68goodyear]

Thank's for posting. That's what happened to me. I'm "message # 52", on the reply list, for this topic. Maybe a computer, or an algorythym is falsely sending out this type of message, to buyers, and/or sellers. Thanks for your time!

[fandomocity]

I just got one of these emails too (as a buyer who left 5 star feedback on every category). From how many posts there are about this, it seems like it's a pretty big problem!

Pretty embarrassing that a big company like Ebay's user communication is so horrible that they have a system in place to inappropriately send out emails apologizing for...... presumed problems despite good reviews? "Thanks for shopping here, we're sorry!" Maybe they should fix that and stop relying on clearly massively buggy "problem detection" algorithms! Just an idea though.

[luk-sozxozp]

I just got one of these emails too. I left positive feedback for the seller weeks ago and was completely happy with my purchase. As a buyer it was alarming because I thought the seller has raised a dispute or something. Did something happen with my payment, etc..? I'm don't frequently purchase things on eBay so I had no idea what was going on until I searched and found this topic. Good to know it's just a bug.

[ittybitnot]

velvet@ebay 

Apparently, they are still sending these to otherwise satisfied buyers.  (Post #59 here, and a couple of threads on the buyer board over the last few days as well. 

Since your last post was on the 1st of the month, can we assume this is some sort of enhancement here to stay?