Glitch Causes eBay Listing Info to Go Missing

Seriously there is a guy in charge of eBay merchant Development?  I had thought the department was there solely to place road blocks in front of sellers so that no one could sell as effectively as in previous years. 

Another guy and another title and of course inaccesible, as ever, to merchants. This position was once occupied by Dinesh Lathi who was VP in charge of the eBay Seller Experience.  Nothing has changed except the grand title, maybe some more stock options, and the introduction of more buyer protections which encourage buyers to be nastier and more demanding than they have ever been. I do not see Michael Jones the VP of eBay merchant development, as being any different or resolving any of the festering seller resentment.

The only contact point with Mr Jones is via Customer service and you roll the dice to see which call center you get connected to. India, Costa Rica or you may hit the jackpot and speak to someone in the USA that gives a damn and knows what they are talking about. However in common with other eBay personnel, they have no authority to resolve seller problems and have no desire to do so. In fairness it is a miserable job listening to the upset and anger of eBay sellers all day.  You just have to read your eBay script to soothe sellers, think of getting off work, and then pressing the disconnect button if the call goes on too long or requires to be transferred to another eBay department.   In any event you never get to speak with Mr Jones or even his assistant.  You are only a number and when you complain customer service tabulates your complaint and then much later Mr Jones will be able to “feel the pulse of eBay sellers” by calculating how many gripes have been received in any one area of concern.  This presupposes that the Customer Service Rep even understands the cause of the complaint that you have and correctly tabulates it.

I was on a call to the India eBay call center recently and was assured that the disappearance of my Top Seller Status “will not make much difference” and in any event I could slog on for another 12 months and in eBay’s munificence and forgiveness this status would be restored in about 12 months. I attempted to explain that it did make an immediate difference to our sales and that these had completely died after getting poor DSR’s and a negative from a buyer that was unable to read a very simple and clear listing.  This buyer thought he bought a rechargeable shaver when he bought a battery operated trimmer, listed with pictures and text to correctly describe it.  He refused to acknowledge his mistake and responded to our request for feedback revsion by leaving an even nastier falsehood.

Maybe Mr Jones may implement my suggestion to have Braille listing alternatives for some eBay buyers to look at. A further area for Mr Jones to develop that would truly help sellers would be to block any buyers with an IQ of less than 80 and maybe also some discount literacy lessons.

Personally I think the pent up frustrations among eBay sellers was and still is responsible, for many sellers launching their own websites and fleeing eBay.  From my own experience on our own site we deal with a nicer customer, who takes the time to read the product instuctions and description.  We also get a far better price on our website and we do not have to pay fees and submit to the asinine rules developed to protect the increasing number of eBay malcontents.