I wouldn't bother wasting a mouse click to read this announcement

[bargainbloodhound]

I'm copying and pasting this announcement because someone might care about it.  I could care less, but someone might care...who, I don't know. 

***Answer Center Unavailable Monday Afternoon to Tuesday Morning*** 

March 05, 2006 | 02:24PM PST/PT


Starting during the mid-afternoon PT on Monday, March 6th, the Answer Center in the Community area will be unavailable as we add helpfulness ratings.

The Answer Center should be available again on Tuesday morning, March 7th.

***Coming Soon: Helpfulness Ratings for the Answer Center***

March 03, 2006 | 01:22PM PST/PT

Hi everyone. In the next few days we're going to make some improvements to the Answer Center, one of our member-to-member help areas. In case you've never visited, you can get to the Answer Center from the Community Hub (click “Community” from the navigation bar at the top of any eBay page).

The Answer Center is a place where buyers and sellers can get quick answers to their questions from other more experienced members. To make this area even more useful, next week we're adding a rating system in the Answer Center to make it easier to find the most helpful content.

Give a “Yes” or “No” helpfulness vote
For each answer provided by other members, you’ll be able to vote "Yes" or "No" to indicate whether it was helpful. The results will be shown to the right of each answer (for example, "4 of 5 members found this answer helpful").

Sorting by helpfulness
You'll also be able to search by keyword for information about a certain topic, and sort the results by the ratings so the most helpful answers are at the top.

Launch Plan: Answer Center Unavailable Monday Evening on 3/6 to Tuesday Morning 3/7
In order to add these ratings, the Answer Center will be unavailable from mid-afternoon PT on Monday, March 6th through the early morning on Tuesday, March 7th.

The Answer Center is a great place to get help and advice from some of your most knowledgeable colleagues

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200603031322512.html

[diger7]

I post on the AC 

I can imagine that people who don't like the answers they receive, or don't like a particular poster would give a negative rating....  But it's useless, I don't really care to rate a response.

[bargainbloodhound]

But it's useless

I'll agree it's useless.  I asked an answer on the answer center once. No one helped   

http://answercenter.ebay.com/thread.jsp?forum=22&thread=100009980

[diger7]

THE UPSHOT--I SIGNED UP FOR AUCTIONWORKS TODAY RATHER THAN LOSE ANY MORE MONEY WAITING FOR ANOTHER CANNED RESPONSE AND NO FIX.

 

[amy]

eBay members who volunteer on the site's Answer Center are considering going "on strike" [going on strike??? ] over a new rating system. eBay announced the new rating system on March 3rd...

A volunteer said she was upset that eBay did not consult them before making the change and said they feel "disrespected and commoditized." [eBay "disrespected" you years ago. eBay has been using you, and many others, for years to do its customer service work for free--and you and many others fell for it.  Use the experience you've gained and go get a PAYING customer service job at a company that will pay you a salary and benefits]"No instructions have been given about the new tool, and eBay is now ignoring us."...

eBay's Durzy said eBay consulted with Voices members [i.e. he consulted with Answer Center regulars Bob and Glenda.] - users with whom eBay regularly consults for feedback - on two calls that were very well attended. He said a couple of people were upset, but the new rating system was overwhelmingly well received...

http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m03/i17/s02

[xppman]

I knew it was these idiot puppets called "Voices Members"
who were behind all this carp.

eBay pitches them some laim brain ideas.
They are wowed by being at ebay HQ and getting the
"you are an important sheep today" treatment.

So we get all this useless carp because these fools
walked right in the door and were lead right to the trough full of 
  before even finding a seat to discuss the issues and tell 
ebay what they really thought and had planed to tell them on the plane ride out.

I hear the brownies are laced with the special  too. 


Now I see why they have this holier than thou attitude when posting on the boards.

I can just picture them all smug with their hands on their hips
like they are some sort of BIG ebay executive now on a power trip.




What a bunch of spineless sheep.

[amy]

eBay needs to hire more paid customer support reps.

[xppman]

Sorry about the rant and if I went off topic there a bit. LOL

But when they stated:
"eBay's Durzy said eBay consulted with Voices members"

It just made me think of all the useless mindless carp that has been piled
on over there week after week, month after month and year after year.

And to think they "consulted with Voices members" for all
of this usless carp just makes me see

[bargainbloodhound]

And to think they "consulted with Voices members" for all
of this usless carp just makes me see

I've thought for a long time that they would be better off dumping the Buyer Voices members and instead using people who don't/won't shop on eBay so they could see what needs to be done to make the site more buyer friendly (...and making the site more buyer friendly would be a very seller friendly thing to do ).

They are wowed by being at ebay HQ

A lot of them are...why I don't know.  There are a lot of people on the eBay boards who regard meeting an eBay employee the same way they would meeting a celebrity. 

going on strike???

My first response .  There are a lot of people on the eBay boards (especially answer center, T&S) who seem to regard their forum posting as an actual job. I'm sure eBay is thrilled that its able to save thousands/millions a year thanks to its customers doing free customer service work for it...but I think it should do what every other friggin' company does and hire enough customer service people to meet its users needs

[Anita]

eBay's Durzy said eBay consulted with Voices members [i.e. he consulted with Answer Center regulars Bob and Glenda.] - users with whom eBay regularly consults for feedback - on two calls that were very well attended. He said a couple of people were upset, but the new rating system was overwhelmingly well received...

I can only say so much because I DID sign legal papers a few times... eBay has always had the definititions of majority and minority mixed up.