Bad customer service cited as #1 reason Chinese auction users hate eBay

[mandy]

Chinese auction users' #1 reason for preferring Taobao over eBay China is eBay's bad customer service, #2 is a preference for Alibaba\Taobao's Alipay over PayPal, the #3 reason for preferring Taobao is that eBay forces all buyer/seller communications to be done through its site  in order to minimize off-site sales.

80% of those surveyed preferred using Taobao over Ebay. And it was not for the reason most analysts have touted as the reason for Ebay’s downfall in China – that Ebay charges while Taobao is free. Indeed, Ebay’s fees were not one of the 5 biggest reasons why Chinese consumers resoundingly chose Taobao over Ebay. In fact, they were “willing to pay” if they felt that they were benefits for doing so.

Instead, the biggest complaint that consumers had with Ebay was the perception that it did not care about both buyers and sellers. They said that Ebay did not have a phone number that consumers could call when they had a problem. Before Ebay acquired Eachnet, sellers and buyers could call a number for service questions. After the acquisition, Ebay brought in the same practices it had in the US and did not offer buyers or sellers a phone number to call, expecting consumers to email questions or join online discussion groups.

Consumers in China view this as a major lack of customer service rather than as an efficient way to get answers and as a way to make friends with others in the Ebay sphere. They said that if they were going to pay to sell their products, they should at least have a number to call if they ran into problems...

full article: http://china.seekingalpha.com/article/19322

[Anita]

Imagine being us and paying for the lousy service!!

[xppman]

[quote author=Anita link=topic=5613.msg29359#msg29359 date=1161949787]
Imagine being us and paying for the lousy service!!
[/quote]

:

[landofsmiles]

You mean ebay can't even afford to pay CS reps in China??

[xppman]

They did have some.
But the all resigned to "spend time with thier families".  ???

I hope this help. 

[thentavius]

I've always thought the eBay customer service area was amazing.

Not that long ago they only gave a phone number to powersellers--and there WAS no live chat. People shared "secret" eBay phone numbers (that got changed all the time) on boards when they had real problems, but no one was there to help.

Imagine if your local utility company did that? if your webhosting company did that? If any large, famous company did that?

[Anita]

My first pink slap was for posting eBay phone numbers on the Stores Board.  I had NO CLUE that a public company would want to keep their phone numbers a secret!!!

I know I have told that story a bazillion times, but it still cracks me up.

[xppman]

I think mine was for posting PP's 800 number.
I was like  :wtf:

[thentavius]

Anita, same here.

I've posted my feelings many times. They still haven't changed.

Their level of secrecy and their tendency to change phone numbers tells all.

[thentavius]

This is one of the major issues I've always had with eBay and PayPal. Above all else, possibly. Even above the SOW crap and fee hikes. The fact that only certain people were privileged anough to get, or to call a constantly-changing number speaks volumes about eBay's "integrity."

PayPal has a phone number on the website now,  but look at how long it took them to add one.

And eBay is still just as bad. I believe they still change phone numbers, but more people are "allowed" to call them. if anything screams "fraud--run away" it's a major, million-dollar company that won't share a phone number.

Since eBay is a "venue" portal, so many things can go wrong. To be confident that your money is well spent, you deserve the right to have on-hand customer support.

In contrast, there's an online bookstore I buy from regularly. They have been in business since the 1920s and were originally mail order. They offer web-based  customer service, mail cs, and fax cs. No phone number. it doesn't bother me that they don't offer it, however, because they're not a venue. Any time I've needed help, the email cs responds within an hour or two (or overnight, if sent late). They also aren't a traded company with a big flagship. They also present their site honestly and they give a REASON why they don't have phone customer service (to reduce costs, they simply provide fast non-phone service, since they don't have an established phone cs department).

Do I buy from them? Yes.

Have I boycotted eBay for not having a phone number? Yes.