eBay's Power Seller Support Failure
eBay's Systems Fail Yet Again!
Today we tried to edit one of our "Shop Inventory" items listed on eBay. This was for a 2005 gold proof Nelson crown. The change we wanted to make was to revise the Royal Mint's retail price from £575 to £675, as they have now increased their selling prices in view of the increased cost of gold bullion.
We keep all our eBay listings in .html files on our own computers, so we made the changes on own own system, then used the "Revise Your Item" link on eBay, although we were slightly concerned that the usual "Edit Description" link said "Add to Description", so we added the completely revised listing below the original with a comment that eBay's system would not allow us to "Edit". Having pasted in the changes, we then hit the "Submit Changes" button, only to be told that we could not do so as our item had either received bids while we were editing it, or had less than 12 hours to run. Neither of these statements were true. Not for the first time were eBay's systems failing to work properly.
Don't Phone Us!
We picked up the telephone and tried to call "eBay Power Seller Support". As a PowerSeller, we get certain privileges:-
Welcome Platinum PowerSeller
As a Platinum member, you have the advantage of using the PowerSeller icon next to your user ID, which is an acknowledgement of your accomplishments within the eBay Community.
Dedicated Customer Service
We provide Platinum members with personalised phone support and dedicated "priority queue" email support.
As a Platinum member, you have the advantage of using the PowerSeller icon next to your user ID, which is an acknowledgement of your accomplishments within the eBay Community.
Dedicated Customer Service
We provide Platinum members with personalised phone support and dedicated "priority queue" email support.
Except that they change the telephone numbers every five minutes! We have long suspected that this is part of their firewall, so they can continue to be almost unreacheable for most human beings.
The voicemail answering machine told us in a very charming and pleasant voice that the numbers had changes 3 months ago, so we hardly plague them with problems, but that if we clicked the Power Seller icon on our "My eBay" page, then clicked the "Benefits" link, we would find the numbers listed there. We did so, and were not at all surprised to find no telephone numbers whatsoever, and that eBay was lying to us yet again.
International Help
Fortunately as a "Platinum Power Seller", i.e. a seller who generates several thousand pounds per month in fees paid to eBay, we get a hotline number for a "Manager", who we must say is always very friendly and helpful whenver we call him. This does entail making an international call to Ireland, adding to the cost of doing business on eBay, but at least it gets results. Sometimes when reporting Intellectual Property Rights infringements, we also find it necessary to telephone or fax eBay International A.G. in Switzerland.
Our man was busy, but did return our call. It seems that after the "Benefits" link, we have to "Sign In", and then find another link to "Click here for details on email and phone support", which does list the number we need, although the answering machine message omitted to tell us that.
We will not embarrass our Support Manager by naming him, but A.M. told us that there were some changes which could not be made to "Shop Inventory" listings, which should be allowed, depending on the exact status of finishing time, purchases, and the desired edits. He did say that every point we mentioned had been noted and would be reported or passed on.
Locked In
As the listing currently looks rather silly, we decided to alter its "Duration" parameter from "Good 'Til Cancelled", so that it would simply expire at the end of its current 30 days. Guess what! The eBay system will not allow you to do this. Talking to A.M. it seems the only way to do this is to cancel the listing, and then re-submit it. Now the cost of a 30 day "Shop Inventory" listing is very low, it's currently one of the only "bargains" on eBay, although they do claw it back by charging a slightly higher "Final Value Fee" if the item sells. this increase is almost £2, which is almost exactly the saving made on the initial listing, meaning the only way you get a good deal is if the item fails to sell.
Give and Take
It may be incredibly tight of us, but we don't feel happy cancelling an existing listing which we have already paid for, and replacing it with another, incurring two lots of charges, when it is eBay's crappy system which is at fault in the first place. Why put our money in their pocket, when it's thier fault in the first place that their systems don't work. Actually they do seem to work very well in eBays' favour when it comes to eBay taking money off us, but there seems to be very little ever flows in the reverse direction, even when eBay screw up quite badly due to their incompetence and negligence.
Transient Error?
A few hours later, we tried the "Submit Changes" button, and it worked!
Words, for once, fail us.
Questions
We intend to include an FAQ page. Although we try to cover most questions on our items listings, there is always somebody out there who manages to think of a question that either we hadn't thought of, or considered too obvious to mention without insulting anyone's intelligence.
An Example of the Economics of Selling A Krugerrand on Ebay
This page may help to explain some of the calculations we make when selling an item on ebay, just hw little profit we make, why we charge extra for credit cards, and more besides.
Ending Auctions Early and Cancelling Bids
We sometimes cancel ebay items if it appears they are not going to reach a sufficient price. This is entirely legitimate, but please read this page if you are in any doubt.
How to Retract a Wrong Bid
And why you should so promptly if you have made a mistake in bidding.
Starting Prices & Reserve Prices
We explain the difference, and tell you which we use and why.
Free Gold Sovereigns and Krugerrands
Sounds too good to be true? Yes, of course it does, but it was only one of hundreds of dodgy offers we have seen on ebay and elsewhere.
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