"Jon Yaeger" wrote in message
...
Richard,

You cite some very interesting and valid points.

Sometimes I try to put myself in eBay's shoes and think what it must be
like
to try to discern truth from noise. It's probably not easy. However,
IMHO,
they don't want to be an arbitrator and take a "wash our hands" approach
to
most problems.

I've encountered real weakness among the 200 or so transactions that I've
made there. For example, eBay requires that you wait 30 days to file a
formal complaint, but PayPal won't give you a refund after 30 days! Nice
way to avoid giving refunds . . .

In another case, I paid for some stuff from a "Power User." They never
shipped the item and lied every time I contacted them. Of course I gave
them negative feedback, and they simply retaliated, ruining my perfect
score. As a buyer my only obligation is too pay, which I did within 24
hours. Like you, I became quite annoyed with the boilerplate responses
and
the "we won't do anything" attitude.

A few years ago I was VP for a new software company. The management team
was unusually bright (myself excepted, perhaps). However, they wanted all
transactions to be internet based with no contact number for presales or
problem calls. I managed to convince them otherwise.

I'm afraid the trend now for companies is to distance themselves from the
customer, and eBay is a perfect example of this folly.

The very nature of the internet encourages this from a cost perspective.
The net levels the playing field to where the key consideration for most
people is price alone. If a business wants to compete, they usually can't
afford to have a great customer service staff. People want the lowest
price
on anything including customer service and don't grasp that good service
has
a real cost. This doesn't excuse eBay from their unfriendly policies but
unfortunately they aren't alone in this bad behavior.

Off of soapbox for the moment . . .


Jon


I'm curious about one thing.... there can be some misunderstandings easily
answered or worked out between parties, so do you suppose E-Bay wants to
allow that to happen as a first line of action before they jump in? I've
never had a "real" problem dealing on E-Bay so I can't say you guys are
wrong. The only situation where I did contact them was when a buyer reneged
on a deal - so I thought. I had e-mailed him the total, boxed it up ready to
go out the door. No payment, no replies. I went through E-Bay. Still no
action from the buyer after they sent him and I the notice of his failure to
complete. Finally the guy wrote me out of the blue to tell me his computer
crashed and he was sorry. He still wanted the item if I had it. He overnight
mailed the payment at considerable expense to himself. I sent him the item
and still had time to go back and adjust the negative feedback. I believe he
had to reply to mine, then I had a last retort, which was favorable. Since
then, I've had other deals which didn't go sour with the seller, but the
shipping times came into play to make it "appear" the item wasn't shipped.
Taking considerably more time than normally expected. So.... my point is
"misunderstandings". Though I believe E-Bay SHOULD get involved to help out
however they can, they may have the wait and see approach at the onset for
just such reason as I stated. Otherwise, their reasoning could be the same
as for any other corporation. They protect the stock holders. They won't
risk chasing clients away to lose money... So who suffers? Other customers.
Seems to be the way of Corporate America anymore. Aside from all that, my
E-Bay experience has been pretty decent to date. I really can't complain.
One thing I do, is IF NEEDED - take a photo of the money order receipt being
sent to seller or of the shipping receipt if to a buyer and if any questions
arise, send them the photos. I also provide any tracking numbers. Maybe this
isn't a cure all for all woes of E-Bay sales, but it sure has worked for me.
MNS.