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Letter to Ebay Directors

Dear eBay - Whomever is running this company,

 

I have to say I'm not the least bit pleased with how you are handling the changes you are making.  

 

It started a few months back when you removed access to the ability to obtain a printer friendly version of items which had been purchased by someone such as myself.  That is no longer available.  Please explain why.

 

Now, you've decided to make things more complex for the end user.  I have a couple of orders pending resolution.  I was in the process of returning an item, went to my orders page and found the item order in question had been removed.  I could no longer find it anywhere.  It showed up when I went to try and contact eBay about the problem as a possible reason for contacting you, but that was the only place I could find.  

 

I have a second order which was purchased on Oct 11, 2015, and which I am still awaiting arrival.  The seller says it was shipped from Mexico and that it takes 30-60 days to arrive.  I have agreed to wait until November 25 to see if it arrives before requesting a refund through eBay.  This order too is no longer available in my orders section.

 

Finally, and probably my biggest concern, is that there is absolutely no way to contact anyone U.S. based with eBay.  All calls, all emails, all contact period is routed to the call center in the Philippines where the staff is unable to answer questions about the why's and wherefores’ of what is happening.  The only response I could get was that "eBay is making changes...."  Really?  When I asked for any method of contacting someone stateside, I was told there were no numbers or other information available to provide to users.  

 

As much as I use this site, as much as I have enjoyed in the past the ability to find items for my stamp collection through this site, I'm having to seriously question whether I want to continue supporting a site which has decided it no longer needs to make its decisions based upon what THE CUSTOMER WOULD LIKE, but will simply impose its will on everyone concerned.  

 

I haven't used any other site besides eBay for a long time.  Part of it, I suppose, is that I was familiar with the setup and could easily navigate to the pages I wanted; part of it is human laziness.  A large part of it was that I felt I should support a site which provided a service which I wanted to have continued access to and that I felt was at least marginally interested in my opinion.  I'm not getting that feeling that any longer.

 

I had at one time contemplated starting a business selling on eBay and did so on an occasional basis for a year or so.  This was at the time when eBay was making the changes to seller practices more and more onerous, and finally, I decided this wasn't going to work for me.  Please feel free to check my sales record with you; I have an excellent reputation.  What stopped me was when a buyer threatened to leave negative feedback unless I lowered the price of an item he had paid for and provide a partial refund.  EBay stated they could not change feedback.  I get that eBay wanted to protect buyers from unscrupulous sellers, but there had to be a median which could be reached.  It wasn't, so I decided to stop selling.  I gave it one more try and found things had become oriented toward large sellers, leaving the up-and-coming and small time sellers paying the lion’s share in fees, never being able to attain a highest enough rating to be able to enjoy the discounts offered to the larger sellers.  I didn’t find that particularly endearing either.  So I quit selling.

 

Now, under the guise of "new and improved", changes are being made which are not of benefit to the buyer.  I don't know if they are of benefit to the sellers, but I don't see how.  No "beta" testing or proposed change announcements are made to gauge customer interest.  The changes are just made.  At the end of the day, customers have two choices.  They can put up with the changes and adapt to what is being forced upon them, or they can take their business elsewhere.  

 

For those in the upper echelons of eBay's hierarchy, you might want to consider the implications of this letter.  Yes.  I am only one customer.  But if what you have done - and not done - has resonated with me to the point where I'm spending the time to write this letter on a forum, in the blind hopes it will somehow magically make its way up the food chain to the top, then how many customers and potential customers are you losing who did not think enough of what you represent to bother writing to you?  How many other buyers and sellers are moving to other sites which are more user oriented and interested in "taking a piece of YOUR pie?"  

 

Realistically, I doubt anyone of import will ever see this.  I know this in advance.  Even if someone at the top genuinely wanted to hear this, the layers of bureaucracy have developed too extensively for others between myself and the top to allow this to make its way there.  Why do I feel that way?  This company has insulated itself from having to interact with the public in any forum other than of its choosing on U.S. soil.  I’ve already explained this point about the call center.  The removal of any company from hearing from its customers except through filters, such as an internationally located call center, and removal of all other means of rapid communication with that company is indicative of the problem.  This insularity ensures the "Ivory Tower" is fed what those beneath it believe they want to hear, not what they NEED to hear.  At the end of the day, when the shareholders want to know why revenues are down and competition has increased, the board will be left clueless.  Oh, they’ll have all the charts and graphs, data analysis and other whiz-bang business jargon printed by the reams to explain why the fluctuation in business revenues has shifted, most likely passing the blame to governmental regulation and temporary fluctuations in market economies.  The grassroots reason will be much simpler:  They’re losing their customer base.

 

Please don’t ascribe this to an old codger who’s adverse to change; I’m not.  What I’m adverse to is change for change’s sake alone.  There used to be an old adage a lot of people in this country followed:  “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”  The current generation has forgotten this.  Every time a change in personnel occurs, the “old” way of doing things has to be replaced by something new, even if it’s not as effective, just to justify the existence of the person making the changes.  If you’re not producing, you’re not needed, right?

 

You can layer a business with all the mathematically precise models you want.  You can continue to try to dazzle the public with “new and improved” what-ever, but at the end of the day, you’re still stuck with one question you are not answering – what does the end user want?

 

This is a severely complex question for eBay, and one which will have a different answer for each type of item being sold.  What works in the clothing section will not work for collectibles.  Attempting to apply the same business models across the board is what is getting this company into difficulty.  Yes, I said difficulty – again, if I’m writing this, you have problems.  See my point above.

 

If anyone there would like to know what else I could suggest, and I believe they are some good ideas, then contact me.  I’m going to want to be talking with some in the United States, at eBay itself, not some routed call center employee. 

 

While I would hope to hear from you, I’m not going to hold my breath.  Surprise me.

 

Greg

 

Message 1 of 12
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11 REPLIES 11

Letter to Ebay Directors

Please post this "word for word" in the "Tell us What You Think" feature at the top of my ebay page. I think someone reads that.
Message 2 of 12
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Letter to Ebay Directors

Thanks, I'll do that right now.

Message 3 of 12
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Letter to Ebay Directors

Don't get mad, but i think you need to clean it up due to typos so that you look intelligent. 

Message 4 of 12
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Letter to Ebay Directors


@stampman2002 wrote:

Dear eBay - Whomever is running this company,

 

Now, under the guise of "new and improved", changes are being made which are not of benefit to the buyer. 


Believe me ... they are not benefitting the seller either.

I'm ̶p̶r̶e̶t̶t̶y̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶e̶ certain the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
Message 5 of 12
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Letter to Ebay Directors

hello greg...I have just had a look see at your message to directors...you can forget about them ever responding...I have had my seller status revoked for bad seller scores...I have 99.8% feedback and have had my listing removed...I have given ebay a list of fraudulent traders and yet they have chosen to ignore me...I have reported the to the authorities in Australia to investigate...I have pages and pages of details yet ebay refuse to answer my questions..my id has been altered and yet still no answers...except for computer generated messages...and thanking me for choosing ebay...I am sick and tired of their illegal trading member and sick of the genuine sellers being used and abused..the way in which the company is being conducted is no more that crooks and thieves...since they have become a vehicle for the corporate sector...should you wish to have any info regarding this please don't hesitate to contact me...warmest regards jude aka gacster_01
Message 6 of 12
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Letter to Ebay Directors

eBay has gone from great to terrible.  Nothing is easy.  Change for the sake of change is not a reason to change.  How can I allow potential buyers to ask a question.  Used to there wasa link alloowing such activity.  Now it is gone.  Where is it?  What hoops do I have to jump through?

Message 7 of 12
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Letter to Ebay Directors

“Contact seller” link, upper right.

Message 8 of 12
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Letter to Ebay Directors

I agree with every point you've made - ironically, if you want to contact a live human connected with eBay - an internet-based company -  in the U.S. you have to use snail mail - and be creative - you can track down the chairman of the board at Bain Capital.

 

Re: the disappearing "Ask Seller a Question" option: The tools have moved it to the seller's feedback page.

You now have to click on the seller's feedback number and the Ask Seller a Question feature should be listed on the top right hand side of the feedback page.

 

The least eBay could have done was blast a system-wide message telling its customers about the tests being conducted and possible changes.  Instead they chose to blindside its entire customer base: both buyers and sellers leaving us to grope our way to the Community forum in order to find out what was going on.

If you check through Technical issues - you'll find a thread that is fifteen pages and counting regarding the **bleep** tests they've been conducting regarding the Add to List drop down menu on the Watch button.

Message 9 of 12
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Letter to Ebay Directors

“Contact seller” link, upper right, on the listing page.

Message 10 of 12
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Letter to Ebay Directors

thread from 2015.........

 

alan@ebay

Message 11 of 12
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Letter to Ebay Directors

Hello Everyone,

 

Due to the age of the thread, it has been closed to further replies.  Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

 

Thanks for understanding!

Message 12 of 12
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