Here is my postings and short story why I am DONE with EBAY
ok everyone, I
am done for the time being with ebay. I was a member since 1999 and had over
10000 positive feed backs.
Not to go into it , but everyone here knows that I have had a flood and that
fema has been involved.
So, as this was all happening, I was still selling on ebay. It took time to get
to everything as the inventory was all over the house and my shipping office was
underwater 3 times. So, with the inception of the ratings for a seller. No only
can you leave negative feedback, but also give him poor ratings in specific
area's. Kind of like double jeopardy. Not only can you lower his feedback %, but
you also can hit his seller ratings. Which both have a effect on your fee's that
ebay charges.
So, my rating in the shipping time goes below the standard, so they lowered my
store rating and my listings that were just in the regular auctions as well as
fee's once sold. Now Since December I had 11 people say I took too long out of
the 400 + things I shipped.
Prior to that from December to June I had 12. 4 in July when my one son had just
been diagnostic with juvenile diabetes and my oldest was in and out of rehabs,
which carried over to 3 in august.
So, what I asked them to do is reverse the 11 that had been effected by a
natural disaster. This would make it easier for me to up my score mathematically
with those removed.
They refused to do so cause my overall rating had shipping time trouble anyway.
Ok, I get that I know I have family issues that's why I did not ask for the ones
prior to the flooding.
I asked what the policy was for helping sellers that have had a natural
disaster. There is only suggestions of what to do, not a set policy to go by. So
the women I spoke to said they take it on a case by case basis. I then asked for
her supervisor, which she told me she was a senior member of the customer
service staff and refused to give me anyone else. I told her it was unfair that
one person has the right to effect my income without someone over seeing the
decision she made. She refused and she ended the call, hung up on me.
I called back figuring I may get another person. NOPE, got same women, who
admitted she put a routing feature on my account so that she would get my calls.
SO, I was polite and asked for a copy of the policy for handling a disaster
effected seller. She said she would
I asked her to email me the policy which there was none, but she sent a copy of
the three suggestions of what to do after. No where did this tell the customer
care representatives what to do with a situation like mine. Here is what she
sent
( ( Dear Milton,
Below is the information that you requested regarding our Natural
Disaster Process.
If you're a seller residing in an affected area, we recommend the
following:
If possible, contact your buyers. Let them know that there may be a
delay.
If you have an eBay store, consider turning on the vacation
settings of your Store. This will allow you to make listings
unavailable, display a message in your Store, etc.
If you need further help, we can ask a specialist to work with you.
Depending on what you need, we'll get back to you via email or via
phone. ) )))
If you look at this it is good information, but has nothing to do with what I
asked about. Here is my response.
(((( Charity,
Thanks for your time and effort. But this is not a policy for
handling sellers that have had a natural disaster. This is merely
suggestion for a seller to follow, and good suggestions might I add.
These are recommendation that I should have looked for and did not. But
when dealing with the stress I had already was all I could handle.
I am going to make a note on my store about the flooding and the
effects so someone can make there own minds up to bid or not to bid,,
lol, I am a poet,,,
So, is there a policy written that gives guidelines for ebay handling
sellers that are effected by disasters? If so, I would like to see this.
I would also request a copy of any policy that covers handling a
seller that has a situation like mine, where your allowed to use
information about the sellers performance prior to a disasters
I would also request a copy of any notations that are on my account,
including but not limited to notes added to my account for the purpose
of advising an ebay employee what was the overview of the previous calls
dating back 1 year from today.
Thanks again for your time
Milt )))))))
I thought I was within my right to ask for these items. Here is her response
(((( Dear Milton,
Thank you for responding to my email. You are correct that the
information that I provided to you is not an outline of policy. The
reason for that is because we handle each situation according to the
effect that it is having on our members. We look at each natural
disaster and assess what actions we can take or if we will need to take
any actions. Because natural disasters range in their devastation we do
not have a policy that we use to dictate how we react to each
situation.
I am pleased that you found the information helpful and that you will be
implementing some of the suggestions that were provided. Below is a
link to our "Seller Performance Standards" policy that outlines the time
frames that we will use in determining a sellers performance with us.
This guideline is applied to all sellers equally. If we need to make
special considerations it must fall within this criteria. We are able
to look at the overall picture of your account not just a portion of
your selling history.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/seller-non-performance.html
You may request a copy of any notations that have been placed on your
account. You will need to contact your attorney to have this
documentation requested. Your attorney will have our legal contact
information and will know how to request this information.
Please don't hesitate to respond to this message if you have any
additional questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Charity D.
eBay Customer Support ))))))
LOOK OUT here I come again......................
(((( Since the request the information would be in a civil court matter and
the amount would be a small claims court for sure , I have the right by
law to represent myself and I have the right to request what I have ask
for without a attorney. HOWEVER, do we really need to go this route?
Since what your telling me is on a case by case basis , I am now
requesting two things in addition.
First is what we spoke of in our first conversation. It's yours and your
opinion alone that is the basis for not removing the 11 comments, giving
me a better starting point to correct what's happened to my rating. So,
some other customer service representative might have a different
opinion than yours, which clearly could make a difference. So each time
someone gives a seller who has gone through a disaster a different view,
it becomes that persons and that persons alone opinion in a case by case
process that you are speaking of.
Second, as you have clearly use past practice against me, I would like
to see the past practice of your department on the handling of the
sellers who had issue's with a natural disaster and requested some type
of assistance from ebay. I would like this information from today back
one year. In a court proceeding in civil matters past practice is a big
issue that a judge or arbitrator will want to know. I have first hand
knowledge in this area as I was a contract negotiator for our police
union. We had 10 different cities police departments in our local with
over 400 officers so I had the chance many times to deal with the type
of legal process that I am making you aware of.
> > >
Thanks
Milt )))))
And the final nail from Charity D...
((( Dear Milton,
Thank you for your response to my email. I received the pictures that
you attached to your email and I thank you for sending them to me.
I would like to address the two requests that you had in your email.
The first request is for review of your account by a different
agent/representative. In your email your concern is that you feel that
my opinion of the situation is preventing me from making the best
decision possible for your account. The decision that is being made on
your account is not based on my opinion of your account in any way. We
(as a company) are looking at an over all picture of your account and we
are seeing that prior to and after your experience with the natural
disaster that your account is not able to perform at the level required
to be a seller on our site.
This is not a fact that will change in having your account reviewed by
anyone else. This is criteria that has been put in place and at this
time your account does not meet the criteria to remain a seller on the
site.
In regards to your second request you are asking for information on how
we handled situations where sellers experienced a natural disaster going
back one year. I have included a link to the discussion boards where we
have created a spot specifically for members that are impacted by a
natural disaster. As I stated before each situation is looked at
uniquely and we will act accordingly.
At this time I want you to start to focus on making the changes
necessary in your business so that you can start to see high Detailed
Seller Ratings being left on your account. We will not be removing the
11 low scores so I want you to start to focus on what you can do to
positively impact your business.
One of the first suggestions that I would like to make would be to take
some time to properly evaluate your inventory. I recommend this so that
you will have a better idea of what items have been damaged and what
items are still viable for sell on the site. This will allow you to
effectively manage your active listings so that you do not have items
listed on the site that you can not complete the transaction with.
I know that you have already implemented some of the suggestions that I
sent to you yesterday and I think you are going to see some positive
changes from taking those steps. I want to encourage you to take some
time to evaluate your business so that you can continue to be a
successful seller on our site.
At this time I will not be responding to any additional communication
via email. You are more than welcome to send a response however please
note that a reply will not be issued.
Sincerely,
Charity D.
eBay Customer Support )))))
_____________________________________________
So giving this some thought today I ended over 5000 auctions and letting another
100 end on there own within 5days, which will end my selling on ebay.
SOOOOO,,, I call today after doing so and get someone other than Charity,,
YESSSS..... This representative tells me that she see's what Charity is saying,
but also see's my point of view. HOWEVER she, nor Charity have the ability to
reverse these 11 comments. Which is something that Charity never said. Had she
said that I would have asked to speak to someone in that department.
Well, I am next told that she will send my file to that department with a
recommendation to review it for the possibility of removing those 11 comments.
This is all Charity had to do, get someone else opinion. Now had this new rep
sided completely with Charity, I would have ended it at that point, but she is
sending my file for review. That's all I asked in the first place. I just wanted
a second opinion.
With all the natural disasters all over the world that ebay has sellers in you
would think they would have had some kind of policy. Even the rep today agreed,
they had millions of people, just with Katrina effected, but nothing written for
helping the sellers in these case's.
GOD forbid a BUYER complains about someone in this type of situation. There is
no protection for a seller at all. It's left up to the judgement of Customers
Service reps that have no guidelines or training to render a opinion about these
situations.
Thanks for listening