What is wrong with seller customer service?

[supersavingsstore]

Hello everyone,

I know this has been mentioned here a few times before, but I wanted to post about my recent experience with eBay customer service and just my experience with them in general.

Today, I went on a live chat to appeal a defect. I got a defect for 'order canceled due to item being out of stock' but I actually shipped the item and the buyer received it. Anyway, the defect needed to be removed, as it was wrong. The agent I was assigned to took about 15 minutes to find what I was referencing, even though I gave the transaction ID, buyer ID, and detail of the case very clearly. She found the wrong transaction and said she could not find the one I was talking about. Finally, she did and then went on to say she could not remove the defect and would have to submit a request. That was odd to me, as I had an agent remove a defect a week ago. I asked her to transfer me to someone who could, and she said that it simply can't be done over live chat. At that point, I asked to speak to a supervisor, who never ended up coming, as I ended the chat after waiting for almost an hour. To me, it just seemed like the agent would do anything they could to a) get me off the chat and b) NOT remove my defect.

Every time I contact eBay it is like this. The first agent never wants to help and always says they need to transfer you to the correct department. The second agent is always the same, and I always have to ask for a supervisor. They always say the supervisor is busy or just not available, and I often end up giving up if I don't have tons of time to wait or argue. It almost seems as if the agents are motivated to not remove defects, negative feedback, etc. I wonder if they are penalised for this. Transferring between agents is a big thing. I think just to get the caller off of the phone. It almost always works, as I generally have to give up when the call takes more than an hour or two.

What is up with this support for sellers? I want to hear if anyone else has had a similar experience to me. I wonder if there is a pattern of intentionally getting people to hang up due to constantly transfering calls and saying supervisors are busy. There is definitely something strange going on, in my opinion.

Thanks.

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @supersavingsstore - it's not the intent of CS to get you to disconnect or feel hopeless. We've seen an increase in contact volume with fewer contact options, so wait times have increased. Supervisors typically oversee a larger team, so requests to speak with them have a longer wait time as there are fewer of them. 

With that said, your experience sounds really frustrating and unusual. Most concerning is the fact that you received a stock-out cancellation defect for a transaction you didn't cancel. Did you happen to issue a full refund through PayPal without opening an eBay request? If that's the case, because we see nothing opened on our end we assume the transaction was not fulfilled and the defect is applied. If the buyer requested this cancellation you should consider sending an eBay request saying such. That should remove the defect as well as making sure that your Final Value Fees for this transaction are credited back. 

Your time is valuable, and spending excessive amounts of time waiting for a chat reply isn't an ideal afternoon. 

As an alternative, I'd recommend contacting our Social Media team through Facebook or Twitter. You can send them a private message with details and they can work on a resolution and contact you back. While they are also working with increased volumes and there will be a delay in their responses, you can send a message** and then move on with your day knowing they'll get back to you. 

They are highly trained, up to date, and resourceful. For general questions and account specific inquiries they're great and able to help!

**Send a private message that contains a summary of the issue you need addressed, your registered first and last name, email address and Post code on file with us. That will give them everything they need to review your account and help. 

[supersavingsstore]

Thank you very much for your reply. I really appreciate the helpfulness of this seller community.

Unfortunately, this issue is not related to the COVID-19 situation, as it has always been the case for me. I am not sure why, or if it's only my experience and not the same for others.

In terms of the case, the buyer left negative feedback and I sent them a feedback revision request, as they never contacted me for a solution before leaving negative feedback. Their issue was with the item not working as expected. The solution I offered was to give them a full refund and allow them to reorder, since I'm not doing returns due to COVID-19. They were pleased with the idea and revised their feedback, so I left the refund. I didn't think this was a violation of eBay's policy, but please let me know if it is. I guess the system didn't pick up on the situation, as I don't think we ever messaged each other. That was why my situation on the chat was so frustrating, as the issue was so simple, and the agent had no idea what was going on.

I will definitely look into the social media option. I didn't know about that.

Thanks.

[tyler@ebay]

@supersavingsstore - thanks for the clarification, that makes sense. 

Based on what you've said, this is more than likely a defect coming from the full refund in PayPal. 

Because the buyer agreed to it, I'd recommend that you send a cancellation for this transaction through eBay as a 'Buyer requested' one. That will automate your fee credit and should resolve the defect within the next evaluation cycle. Because you refunded through the original transaction on PayPal don't let the wording of the cancellation worry you - there will not be a double refund. 

[supersavingsstore]

I will try this, thank you.

I just thought of this question, which I am afraid to ask, do I get an eBay fee credit when I refund through PayPal? I'm guessing not, which is a bit of an issue since that has been my go to way to refund.

[jarj_ca_npmgb214]

It happened to me last night 4 hours on the phone waiting just to hung up on **bleep**ing idiots so they removed the defect Yayyy right I was below standard but removing the defect would make my below standard in the good. I wake up today lol message saying account may be suspended bc of below standard what a complete **bleep**ing joke they are