Ebay CS BAD advice again

soolin

I can only ever marvel at the absolutely awful advice some ebay reps give - if you followed their advice in some instances you could easily lose your account.

I am selling off a large collection of widgets- all BINs and the system requires immediate payment (I cannot over ride this) due to it being a vintage collectable category I get a lot of buyers buying several items and always refund the overpaid postage which can really mount up.

Today the system says I can't. I've tried and tried- and just get a blank screen when I confirm

I used live chat, got a load of nonsense telling me how to refund (which is what I am already doing), then was told because I didn't have a payment card registered, which I do. Got transferred to a supervisor who told me it might be a problem with my card- even though it isn't coming from my card as I have available funds easily large enough to cover the refund. They persuaded me to add another card and that didn't work and then I got disconnected.

Got onto a different rep who suggested I contacted the buyer and asked her to send me her bank or paypal details so I could refund her, which I refused to do as that leaves the original payment open to be chargebacked if it goes astray, I'm also nervous about trying to exchange bank or paypal details on a posted item - assuming it goes through the system. If ebay bots think I'm trying to make a private sale then my account is at risk.

Their latest gem is to tell me that buyer can contact them and they can assist her easily with the refund - but they can't explain how that can work since there is no 'official' refund to be claimed. I asked them how much they were going to refund - since they don't know what my postage costs were - and rep just keeps saying not to worry and trying to get me to disconnect.

I have no idea where to go from here , I suspect I will get disconnected soon . It might be easier if I just apologise to the buyer and try again tomorrow.

soolin

I got a bit cross and told them they were not being helpful at all and I would try a different rep tomorrow (I'm hoping if it is a glitch that it sort itself out overnight) and this was their last message 

'Perfect, It’s been a pleasure chatting with you, and I’m so glad I could get this resolved for you today!'

I do hope they ask me for feedback on the chat ......

BlueonBlue

Ebay frustration is a thing that might make the dictionary one day ...not that it would help you here .

If you were not listing in the vintage catagory are you saying refunding postage on multiple BIN listings is no prob ?

soolin

BlueonBlue said:

Ebay frustration is a thing that might make the dictionary one day ...not that it would help you here .

If you were not listing in the vintage catagory are you saying refunding postage on multiple BIN listings is no prob ?

The category was not a vintage one as this collection is not quite old enough to qualify yet. I think there is a glitch in the system, I’ve sold dozens of widgets from this collection before and have always managed to just hit the refund button to return excess postage. This time the system just accepts the refund request then goes to a blank page. 

For the sake of my blood pressure I’ve left it now and will tackle it again tomorrow, I have apologised to my buyer meanwhile. 

prowla

ISTR posting a while back that I didn't like the way they've changed it so you have to enter payment details when making an offer; a few folks argued here that I was the one at fault.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6465589/ebay-offers-want-payment-up-front/p8

However, it occurs to me that it could lead precisely to the scenario described in the OP.

In my case, I've just stopped making offers and if I miss out then too bad.

As an aside, I've also started cutting down on items I'm watching, as I'm fed up of being bugged that they're going to end real soon.

Sometimes it seems that eBay are doing their level best to make using eBay unattractive!

Oh, and I recently received their extra sales admin tax too.

Yep - things are not all well on the eBay service to their customers front.

soolin

prowla said:

ISTR posting a while back that I didn't like the way they've changed it so you have to enter payment details when making an offer; a few folks argued here that I was the one at fault.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6465589/ebay-offers-want-payment-up-front/p8

However, it occurs to me that it could lead precisely to the scenario described in the OP.

In my case, I've just stopped making offers and if I miss out then too bad.

As an aside, I've also started cutting down on items I'm watching, as I'm fed up of being bugged that they're going to end real soon.

Sometimes it seems that eBay are doing their level best to make using eBay unattractive!

Oh, and I recently received their extra sales admin tax too.

Yep - things are not all well on the eBay service to their customers front.

Mine is nothing to do with the immediate payment issue. I am used to selling 5 or 6 widgets to a person and then having to go in to refund 5 lots of postage. I did a refund yesterday, it’s just todays one that I can’t do. They even told me at one point that the buyer obviously had an expired payment card, but then couldn’t explain how buyer managed to pay with it! I suspect yet another eBay glitch. 

TimeLord1

I believe if you phone Sundays you get Reps from Ireland most other days it's a global team but basically they read the screen to you. 

FFHillbilly

it's not just ebay, it's the majority of big companies that sub out there call centres to the far east, the people you speak to are barely literate in English and are reading off a script.
just had it with my insurance company yesterday, it was like talking to a 10 year old, the whole thing could have taken 5 minutes but it took 45 minutes 

soolin

This is still un resolved. My buyer contacted ebay as requested and they told her firstly to open an INR (no) and then a SNAD (again no) and then finally said - there must be a case you can open for overpaid postage- you just need to find it!  My Buyer is quite savvy and told them they were talking nonsense, and they told her it was the sellers problem then.

I went back to CS and was told there is a way of claiming back overpaid postage, but that rep can't find it either....so told me they would manually arrange the refund for me which will take 4 -5 working days. I am still waiting.

I have meanwhile managed to do 3 other refunds of excess postage with no problems at all.