Customer service on eBay

[kitty-shizz]

Customer Service has always been something I consider to be very important. Customers should feel they're listened to, that they're valued and that they'll have reasonable opportunities for redress, in the event of a problem. It's not a lot to expect . 

In the good old, bad old days when market researchers (clipboard in hand) harangued high street shoppers before dragging them away, into a nearby building to be exposed to the same advert again and again (in a scene reminiscent of a clockwork orange) , I was testing mysterious cosmetics that bured the skin off and even got our household onto the TV panel (how ratings were calculated prior to the digital revolution).

I worked in customer service for House of Fraser & Asda. I'm also a certified mystery shopper and a product tester for a major UK supermarket chain. 

One thing I can say for certain is that people want excellent customer service and will pay for that - whether they're aware of that, or not.

Perhaps they don't expect the free giftwrapping services and personal shoppers of yesteryear, but corporations have to understand this vital truth;

 A bot is NOT customer service.

A bot will never do anything other than annoy, frustrate and insult customers. Upon encountering a bot, the majority of customers (myself included)  choose to end the call and fond somewhere else to shop instead. It tells customers that the company thinks they're unworthy of the cost required to hire a human being. 

eBay!! Please pay attention to this matter 

[lucy_farmer]

Sorry Kitty, but your attitude towards bots and computers sounds a lot  like mine... and I'm 'old woman shouting at clouds'.

I hate all this too, but I'm certain we can't and won't change anything.

The majority of big businesses and services are discovering that they save loadsamoney by dumping humans and using bots/computers/A.I.

These bots etc. will keep >95% of all customers, buyers or service users happy. The few % that aren't happy will be 'kicked to the kerb'.

Ebay (and the rest of the world's companies) have worked out that they would have to spend more solving 'the awkward squad's' problems, than they lose by losing their custom.

(the whole A.I. and robotics developement raises interesting questions for the future: as in.. once all the jobs are done by a.i. and robots, who is going to buy all the goods and services they produce? All normal humans'll have no job and no money.  So the robot factories should all go bust? hmmmm, I can see capitalism going up it's own fundament......)

[the_book_seekers]

The trouble with ebay is that the human customer services aren't up to much (Dublin being the exception).

ebay's training is poor and the staff confuse countries when giving their answers, which are read from scripts and often have little relevance to the reason for calling. Add to that the answers given are frequently wrong, made up and, in some cases, downright illegal in this country. I dislike the bots and being taken around in circles, but I despair of the human services just as much.

[*vyolla*]

Being unable to get through to a human being when I try to contact my broadband/water/electricity provider etc drives me mad too, but I can see why eBay is largely automated in terms of customer service - it would be an impossible task to have an army of call centre staff large enough to deal with all of the phone calls.

It's a shame, because sometimes you absolutely do need to speak with a human being but, having been on eBay Community for a couple of decades I can say that most issues do not require contact with eBay. eBay has numerous guidance pages, people just don't use the 'Help' tab located on most eBay pages and look at them. For example, the number of questions about returns is crazy. All a buyer has to do is to select the 'Return' option in their order or type 'Return' into the Help field and get detailed instructions on how to proceed. In all fairness to eBay, their guidance pages are really well presented and easy to follow. The answer to most questions is there.

The other issue is that you couldn't train CS reps (who likely don't even use eBay) with a couple of days training and a selection of guidance pages. This is where eBay Community is an excellent resource. For example, if there are any technical issues then they'll come to light here first, eBay CS wouldn't know about it because they're not actually using the site to buy/sell on on a daily basis. They don't know how the UK postal/courier systems work, import rates, current consumer regs or tax issues. 

If it's necessary to speak with a human at eBay it is possible, but they are going to try and head anyone off at the pass who can find their answer in their guidance pages. 

[theelench]

According to Elon Musk, when A.I takes over it will herald the dawning of a Golden Age something similar to that imagined by Iain M. Banks in his Culture novels where work is voluntary.  (Which I can highly recommend and in memory of whom, after his untimely death, I borrowed the user name 'the(Zetetic) Elench' from the "Excession" story.  IMHO a masterpiece of Sci-Fi.)  

In them The Culture is 'ruled' or at least run by Minds (A.I) who're (mostly) benevolent towards 'humans' and see themselves as guides/ providers for / protectors of and facilitators of human endeavours, but who also have their own agenda(s).  Whether Humans or the Minds are actually in control is blurred as Democracy is still in operation, but with the Minds having their own ad hoc grouping of Special Circumstances Division who it appears sometimes arrange the 'circumstances' to fit their own agenda.  So the 'partnership' might be less equal than it may seem to the human participants.

Sadly, Banks never wrote anything like Asimov's "Prelude to the Foundation" for the Culture Series, if he was ever planning to.  So we never glimpse what preceded The Culture.  Perhaps Mr. Musk should fill in some of the details of how he thinks we are going to get to the Golden Age and what he, with all his billions, is going to do to pave the way.  I somehow think it will be rather messier and not the quick step-change that he seems to think.

If A.I could lead corporations like ebay et al back to making Customer Service anything like what its name implies, instead of the pointless exercise in frustration it has become, that would be a good first step in the right direction.

[kitty-shizz]

I honestly believe that the reason it's used is because it massively reduces the amount of claims people make and the customer's knowledge of their rights.

It's just too much hard work for most incidents.

Unfortunately, I'm blind, so I find even after spending endless hours reading guides, I still need help. Which is obviously unavailable 

For example, before writing the original post, I wanted a buyers postcode so I could complain to eVri. 

Still haven't got it 

Doubt I will 

[kitty-shizz]

If eBay just connected my buyers straight through to me, I'd be happy to help them in any way I can. 

That is how you get a managerial role in customer service for House of Fraser. 

[selective_distribution]

I owned my own very successful Retail business, but I don`t feel the need to keep telling everyone about it. In my experience eBay provide excellent customer service, and it really does not require any great intelligence to contact them. All you have to do is follow through the `Contact Us` pages, and eventually you will be faced with the `BOT`. As everyone is aware a `Bot` is just artificial intelligence, it cannot think for itself (not yet!). It will try to work out out what you require, but it has only limited responses. All you have to do is enter the words `Talk To Agent` or just `Agent`, and after a few tries you are given the option for eBay to call you back within a minute, which they mostly do. I have had need to contact customer services many times over the years, and have found (with the odd exception) that they have been excellent. The problem is that people these days need instant gratification, and are not willing, or don`t have the patience, to use any ability of their own to work out a solution. The answer as to how to contact ebay customer services and talk to a `Real` person is a 60 second Google search away!

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I have to disagree with you to a degree.

In my experience, customer service with Ebay is very much pot luck.

Sometimes you will get someone who will actually help and other you will get someone that pretends to help, but nothing ever gets sorted.

Overall, I would say that the experience is fairly poor.

The chat bot, is annoying though.  The problem is, that virtually everywhere you go now, it's exactly the same.  Whether that be an online chat or an impossible phone system.  They work for the companies, so they are going to go away.  It's one that you just have to live with I'm afraid.

But none of this is helped by the numpties that refuse to even look up stuff.  So much information (as someone else said), is directly available to you on the help.  So I would imagine, that an awful lot of the calls they get, would have been answered if someone used their common sense.  We see exactly the same kind of things on the forums.  

[c_of_e84]

Customers are like buses, there will be another one along in a minute, they use to say it was more cost effective to keep a loyal customer than advertise to get a new customer, thats long gone.

[c_of_e84]

They need to learn from the marigold hotel.

[fatbobfan]

Agree, poor

Ebay CS can be pot luck and yes, no resolution with no following through to a conclusion and the endless promises of we will get back to you, its just wasted calls and time and a common occurence. Will also add in the CS agents who are not trained and have very limited knowledge of the systems, who make things up and misinform, its disgraceful, this is what worries me for new users of the Ebay CS, they will believe what they are told and in my experience being told twoddle was concerningly often.

AI its the world we now live in, we have to get used to it or change service, looking like its going to be greatly increased on Ebay for many services/decision making

Genuinely suggest to anyone reading this thread, try these forums first, many seasoned posters with years on the platfom, great knowledge and advice, will save youe time and sanity 

[the_book_seekers]

 they use to say it was more cost effective to keep a loyal customer than advertise to get a new customer, thats long gone.

The CEO has stated that they want to keep and cultivate buyers who are considered good spenders, and I haven't read anything that changes this, but their customer services do not match up to his statements. It has long been ebay's ethos that there will always be someone new to replace the leavers, but how true this is at this time of so many alternatives is debatable. 

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"The CEO has stated that they want to keep and cultivate buyers who are considered good spenders"

Yes I've read this too, but the direction in which the site has travelled does not seem to me to be conducive to encouraging high value sales, which is what the CEO meant by "good spenders".  The site has become a mecca for both Chinese "tat" and fraudsters selling fake goods.  These sellers must bring in so much money in fees that ebay can't bear to get rid of them.  On top of that, ebay has spent the whole of 2025 destroying trust and goodwill from its existing sellers, both private and business.  How many of us started 2025 as "ambassadors" for ebay to friends and family, and have ended the year with the opposite sentiment.  I think the CEO's ambition for a site orientated towards high value sales can be no more than a pipe dream whilst ever ebay continues encouraging Chinese "tat" and fake goods from fraudsters.

And to return to the topic of "customer service" in its broadest sense, ebay doesn't exist to give service to customers, it exists only to serve investors, shareholders and top management.  A good company used to grow by providing excellent products or service, thereby growing their customer base through long-standing customers and recommendations to new customers.  Those days are long gone at ebay.

[*devils.advocate*]

The use of the term “customer” - for most sites now including eBay - is a misnomer / contradiction.

Customers are people, consumers are just numbers.

Let's face it, to eBay (and most others), we’re just consumers - nothing else - just numbers.

[suelel1968]

Hi @theelench  I had wondered about the name. I read a book (can't remember the name) where to cut a long story short, the AI learned so fast that it realised the humans were so poor at their jobs that it didn't need them anymore, to the degree that it fired them and got rid of the directors and automatically locked the doors behind them. It didn't end well tbf. 

CS at Ebay is hit and miss. The bot is always a miss.