eBay, Etsy, and Amazon Customer Service Pet Peeves

by: Leebot

I have sold on eBay since 1998 and on Amazon since 2011 or thereabouts. While seller support has problems on both sites, Amazon is by far the WORST.  Part of the problem is that they have made so many changes to the way their site operates, that problems with listings are numerous and almost impossible to resolve. Most cases I open go UNRESOLVED, and of those, most not on the first contact.

There are multiple issues:

1. First level agents are basically given a script to respond to e-mail queries at a most basic level. There are times I wonder if my "agent" is actually an A.I. Chatbot. The agents almost never seem to actually read e-mail messages fully, in order to understand the nature of the problem, so they reply with cut-and-paste boilerplate responses based on keywords. If I follow up with clarifying questions, I often get the exact same boilerplate response, as if coming from a robot ... not a real human being that understands and actually engages with their sellers. There may be performance quotas that disincentivize them from doing anything but closing a contact as quickly as possible.

2. First level agents do not have the tools to actually solve problems. Seller support is extremely compartmentalized, so when there are problems with listings (and over the years Amazon has made it very difficult to make changes, even to correct wrong information or bad images supplied by some other seller). It is like pulling hen's teeth to get something escalated to the right team who can make necessary changes.

3. Amazon has many systemic problems that negatively affect a seller's ability to list their item. I can't tell you how many times I've had to list on eBay, because a listing page was so problematic I could not get my item listed. It's too difficult and too exhausting to get help solving some of these problems, even though Amazon is a better marketplace for some types of items.

4. Phone support is not much better. At least I get a live person, but it's still often only after an extensive wait listening to terrible hold music (the same music they've been using since I started selling on Amazon, probably), and again I get connected to someone who doesn't have the tools to problem-solve.  

5. Amazon is too compartmentalized. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. I once had a case where I think I had about 5-6 different responses from different agents, none of whom actually knew what they were talking about.

What would I like to see changed? I would like to see Amazon completely overhaul their seller support experience, get rid of their A.I/Chatbots if that's what they are using, invest in creating an old-school type customer service department where agents are empowered to interact with sellers (especially those of us who have been selling long enough that when we do need help, it's not because we need a simple explanation of how the site works). I'd like to be able to instantly connect with agents who have the tools to make quick and necessary changes to bad information on listing pages. (For instance, I recently opened a case because a main image was rotated sidewise and my much better, correctly rotated contribution was not supplanting the bad one. The response? A boilerplate letter explaining that Amazon's pages reflect contributions from different sellers [duh, I know that] and that a lot goes into choosing the best. In other words, too bad, so sad, the bad picture is what we're going with. Seriously? How hard can it be for Amazon to have available an agent capable of independent thought and critical thinking skills, to quickly come to the conclusion that one picture is better than another and make it happen?)

I would like to see Amazon have a much more robust escalations team who can handle stubborn problems that may plague a listing. Right now, dealing with Amazon's seller support is a colossal waste of time for just about any issue.

Thanks for asking.  

by: Snapped

“ How hard can it be for [fill in the blank] to have available an agent capable of independent thought and critical thinking skills, to quickly come to the conclusion that [fill in the blank]?”

That one sentence encapsulates the entire CS experience for almost every issue and service provider (and not just eCommerce) on the planet in the 21st century.  

It’s not about a solution anymore. There is no continuity or consistency anymore.  It’s about metrics and money.  Their metrics, and how little they can spend on this overhead function.  Moreover, even when one does overcome the obstacles placed to bypass personal contact, the agent one may eventually speak to now is likely located in a different hemisphere, and speaks a native language different from yours, with wholly different cultural norms and references that may confuse the issue further.  

They don’t really care, and never really will.  And don’t you find it interesting that EVERY time a change (to service, process, whatever) is made accompanied by some declaration of how much ‘better’ or ‘easier’ it will all be now, it never actually IS - and it’s often worse?  

Not for them of course.  For you.

Imagine that.

by: Rexford

These companies don't want to give customer service. They don't want to pay workers to give customer service.  So many companies are making billions of dollars and you can't even call in for help if you run into an issue.  Their automated customer service is not helpful at all--too generic.

I fear that it will only get worse.  As if it could.  In past decades companies prided themselves on giving great customer service.  They knew that stellar customer service would make customers happy and make them want to do business with them.  Word of mouth of those experiences would attract new customers.  Their reputations would benefit from giving great customer service.

Current day companies don't give a darn.  In their minds they think that people are dying to do business with them or that they are the only game in town.

by: Montage Decor

I’ve been an Etsy seller for many years. In the beginning the customer service was like calling a friend, it was great (other than the horrible folk song about Etsy- glad we don’t have to endure any more. When it changed for a while not so smooth. Now it is good again. You can request a call and it tells you 2 minutes, sometimes they call immediately. I am star seller and had one person badgering me about an expensive item for a year. Every few months they’d pop up. So recently they tried to get me to go lower so I ignored them, figuring that’s their answer. They bought it, I know they’re making money on it that’s what business is supposed to do. It’s the idea of beating on someone. I didn’t know anyone to sell to myself. Because I ignored them, it was a “non response” I told Etsy I was doing that.
The other day they reinstated my star seller.  The person I talked with was great.  

by: Gumball

It has been my experience, and I know I am going against the grain here, that Ebay's help line has almost always solved my problems with one call. I have sold on Ebay since the 1996, and so over the years have had to get them to help me quite a few times. Hopefully, they keep humans representatives and not chat bots. Bots are no help at all because whatever my problem it is not cut and dried problems. Those I can fix myself.  

by: banda

Leebot, years ago after I got the exact same script reply to my original message to CS and my two replies, I suggested on an Amazon seller forum  that the first level Amazon customer service reps were actually bots with Indian names that just replied with a script that matched the most likely keyword in my message.  I asked if other sellers agreed.

The mod got really mad at me, which I took as confirmation.
---
Back in the '90s, I had an eBay customer who ran an ISP.  He was using his ISP computer system with its infinite number of email addresses on his domain to harass me. At that time, a domain cost thousands of dollars.  

I called eBay and talked to a real person.  The real person blocked the guy's entire domain.  That closed his eBay account along with any eBay accounts held by his ISP subscribers.  That was in the early days before everyone heard of eBay, but I bet he had some explaining to do to his customers when eBay became popular soon after.

by: Jono77

If you can eventually get through to a eBay customer service agent 90% of the time they say wheel get back to you and nothing happens. Working as an eBay CS agent getting paid peanuts is hardly a decent job. Why would you expect them to care if you're paying them the lowest possible price?

Thing is... eBay doesn't care.

They probably have ways of passing the interview with flying colors which is why most of them are are untrained. More than 50% of the time I am educating them.

I actually know more than most eBay agents. I only call them when something goes drastically wrong like product images not displaying in search until you click on them which I have constantly reported for the last 2 years.

I've probably called them about this 20 times. I've asked to speak to managers who assure me they will get it fixed. They just don't care and that's that.

In fact it was all down to the pathetic customer service, constant worthless changes, annual fee hikes and John Donahoe that I started my own website long before the Devin Wenig years when he took eBay snorkeling down the sewer.

by: COVID-19

Customer Service "agents" / "representatives" / whatever you want to call them, they lie all the time. This is endemic to this industry. And now with the rise of AI, this will only get much worse.

by: I_Fix_Dolls

I generally don't use CS, I am a "Low volume seller" I have used etsy in the past and most of the time got the problem resolved fairly but it may take weeks. I hear horror stories on the Etsy forums though, especially since they started using bots. The generic phone CS can't really DO anything that is not on their script, and say the will refer it to a "Specialist". which you may never hear from. The advice on the forums is keep replying to the Etsy email, until you get a "Real" person to look at your case. Again it takes weeks.

by: CrookedRiver

Leebot is entirely correct, but too generous to Amazon. Amazon support has been beyond terrible for several years and top management must be aware of it.  The logical conclusion is that horrible support causes sellers to stop bothering to call or open cases, and that lessens the demand for support, and that lets Amazon lay off staff (or unplug the bots). That's a win for the managers, and nobody gets blamed for the slow process of corrosion of seller loyalty and system functionality.

by: ScottLBrown

Once you outsource customer to Philippines, India or Argentina, each worse than than the next, they are not allowed to think out of the box.  Many do not understand the "business" they are representing.  No better than BOTS that only follow very specific directions. I had a 100 page manual that I wrote for a team in Manila.

As someone mentioned above, compartmentalized or incapable - yes and no.  All of that is by design.  Very poor design.

by: Just Great

Amazon is the worst. I stopped selling there because of this reason.