Serious mistake on ebay.ca implies people who speak French aren't Canadian

[canadiandave10]

I am shocked at the ebay.ca  language selection to toggle to change from English and French, and vice-versa.  That itself isn't a problem but if you take a closer look, eBay has placed a Canadian flag beside "English" and a Quebec flag beside "Francais".  This is incredibly offensive and I'm surprised that such a large company as eBay could not realize how large of a mistake this is.  The implications are rather serious, implying that people who speak French must be from Quebec (which is not true), and that only people who speak English are Canadian, based on the flags that eBay has used.  This makes eBay look really bad and makes the company seems as if that they do not understand what it means to be Canadian.

[pocomocomputing]

The point with the flags was brought up in the weekly eBay session on WEd last week.

http://community.ebay.ca/topic/Weekly-Board-Hour/May-15th-Weekly/3000009540

post 18 has the reply from eBay that they will be revising the flag icons.

[lady.stark]

I must be the only one, but it doesn't offend me at all. However, I understand that it can offend other persons.

[toby_le_pue]

  This makes eBay look really bad and makes the company seems as if that they do not understand what it means to be Canadian.

Being an american company they probably don't realize what it means to be a Canadian.

[thebarterersdog]

Human's incessive nature to constantly label people... To avoid any issues, eBay needs to focus on the seller's base location and if needing to 'label" add the caption "Canada Based", or USA based, or UK based, etc. using the appropriate flag to represent the location and adding the word 'based' after the flag. No loop hole left to question "what it means to be" anything...

Let the individual's profile outline what languages are spoken by the seller to better the transactions. Besides, if we keep flagging every languages, they'll run out of room to post flags for those who are multi-linguistic 🙂 😉

[pierrelebel]

eBay.ca is available in two languages: English and French

eBay.be (Belgium) is also available in two languages.  This is how they solved the language issue:

http://www.ebay.be/ 

If you are working in one language and wish to switch to the other, eBay offers a link (near the top): (for example) Homepage in het Nederlands - no flags needed.

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

Human's incessive nature to constantly label people

And that inevitably causes......problems of all sorts.

[koolcanuck]

I don't like it either......... I was born and raised in Quebec, yet I only speak English....Which flag do I choose????  lol

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

Switzerland

[art-in-the-making]

I've always wondered how ebay gets away without charging and remitting GST and PST on their fees.

Perhaps this incident serves to prove that they couldn't possibly be operating in Canada - anyone who was would never make the multiple errors entailed in this!

As a matter of fact - I noticed that some poor young girl who messed up the U.S. national anthem at a junior hockey game last night got her mistakes splattered all over TV and the internet.

I bet eBay would move a whole lot quicker on this issue if it got some national/international press attention!

[canadiandave10]

I do believe that this was likely just a mistake on eBay's part but how in the world did they allow this situation go on for this long?  Something so serious needs to be fixed immediately.

Many would consider implying that French speaking Canadians either aren't Canadian or to be less of Canadian to be outright racist.  eBay really dropped the ball on this.  Even in the official reply by eBay in last week's hourly session, there was not as much as even an apology. 

I would be very surprised  if someone doesn't get fired over this incident, not just because a mistake was made, but because of the length of time that it took to correct, and because of the nature of it.

[dipmicro]

Anybody else thinks a minor ignorance is being blown out of proportion in here ?

Due to their ignorance, people often label me as Czech/Russian/Polish/pick-your-favourite-eastern-nation. Perhaps I should be raving 🙂

I cannot say this is even ignorance. There is a flag of only Canadian province with 80% French speaking people while other provinces beside New Brunswick are under 5%, it's kind of obvious choice if someone want's to make graphical distinction for dyslectics. How would you graphically present French of Canada without actually offending them ?

[pjcdn2005]

Many would consider implying that French speaking Canadians either aren't Canadian or to be less of Canadian to be outright racist. 

I don't think that it implies either of those things.

Anybody else thinks a minor ignorance is being blown out of proportion in here ?

YES

[nuvistors]

A small vocal minority in Quebec do not believe they are Canadians, but   residents of the country of Quebec.

123

[i*m-still-here]

Anybody else thinks a minor ignorance is being blown out of proportion in here ?

I sure do.

I'm on eBay to buy and sell....  Internationally.

I could care less about languages and borders and barriers and nationalities.

Some little glitch about French vs. English Canada.............. who cares?

It's an honest mistake and not some kind of underhanded insult.

Man, a lot of sellers still think that selling to Canada from the US means they'll be shipping overseas, and so some little glitch with flags or whatever......

Who Cares?

[pierrelebel]

The problem has been corrected and eBay.ca now offers links to both English and French languages sites showing the same Canadian flag.

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

Must be confusing for all the sellers on Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Practically attached to Canada, but part of France.

[rose-dee]

The problem has been corrected and eBay.ca now offers links to both English and French languages sites showing the same Canadian flag.

Which is exactly what they should have done in the first place. 

Are these people truly that ignorant, in this day and age?  Surely it's precisely because eBay is an international site that they should have people who are sensitive to such issues.  Did some over-zealous 20-something unilingual English-speaking suit at eBay think he was being clever to give the French site a flag of their own (symbolizing Québec).  Wrong, wrong, wrong. 

Whether this appears to be just a tempest in a teacup depends upon your background (or perhaps your education on the subject).  It makes me recall how unimportant an issue black segregation was for whites before the 1960's -- people often don't see there is a problem if it doesn't affect them personally.  As a bilingual person who grew up in Ontario (where there is a large French-speaking population), lived for years in BC (where, yes, believe it or not, there is a significant number of people who speak French), and now living in Nova Scotia (where there is a vibrant, historic, French-speaking community), my initial reaction when I first saw the flags was dismay -- frankly, I was offended.  Exactly which flag were we to understand was intended for people outside Québec who wish to use the French language site? 

I consider myself a bi-cultural, bilingual Canadian who has lived and traveled in many parts of this country.  It was insulting to see such a large entity as eBay make such a hugely stupid move.  What it said loud and clear was that someone at eBay had concluded: oh, if they're French-speaking, they must be Québecois; if they speak English, they're Canadian.  

They really needed to correct this quickly, and I'm glad they did so.  I can only hope this bit of supreme ignorance came from an office at EBay.com, and not EBay.ca.   In any event, a brief but open apology by eBay to all Canadians would be appropriate...(right, not going to happen).

[pierrelebel]

"Which is exactly what they should have done in the first place. "

I agree

"Are these people truly that ignorant, in this day and age? "

Not really.  Someone just a mistake.  It happens. No big deal.

It has been fixed.  Life does go on.

[rose-dee]

"Are these people truly that ignorant, in this day and age? "

Not really.  Someone just a mistake.  It happens. No big deal.

There is a difference between an inadvertent error by some poor schmuck at the bottom of the office ladder who doesn't know any better and a gross mistake made through ignorance and carelessness on the part of someone who is being paid a handsome salary to make changes to a major international site, particularly since that error will be seen by thousands of people. 

If I were in charge, either heads would roll or there would be some pretty intensive re-education going on at the moment.  How about a field trip to Clare, N.S.? :8}