For a long time it seems as though the whole world loved eBay. Millions from around the world rushed to join the online auction site and everything in the garden was rosy. Then a couple of years ago everything changed and suddenly eBay was no longer the flavour of the month.
Like many big companies it had stopped listening to its customers and decided that it knew best about everything. Even from the early days its customer service rattled along between the non existent and the not very good. Customer e-mails were either ignored or they were belatedly answered with a standard reply often note related to the original question.
Behaviour like this will be tolerated as long as everything else was going well. But not inconsiderable fee increases and an impression that eBay was courting the big businesses at the expense of the smaller players helped to cause further dissatisfaction.
If anything since the departure of Meg Whitman a year ago matters have become worse. We have seen online businesses leaving eBay in droves claiming they can no longer make a profit selling through the online auction. With these warning signs and the current world wide economic climate eBay are going to have to go on a huge charm offensive if they are to regain the trust and loyalty of its customers. Lehman Brothers has shown that no company is immune from the current situation and eBay should take note.
The first major change eBay should make is in its attitude. The sale of counterfeit goods has been a major problem on the site. Whilst they may for all we know have been very active behind the scenes their public attitude of “It’s nothing to do with us we are just the market platform” has done little to win it friends. Only by really clamping down on the sale of pirated and counterfeit goods can they show they are serious about getting on top of the problem.
Initially eBay was purely an online auction site but then it introduced the Buy It Now concept. The instant sale has proved popular and seems to dominate the site to the detriment of the auctions. Perhaps it is time now to separate the two entities and have dedicated sites, one for auctions and the other for BIN sales.
My own current beef with eBay is over their attitude to postal charges. I admit that until a few years ago some unscrupulous sellers did charge excessive mounts for postage. However, their solution to the problem has resulted in many sellers receiving negative comments if the postal charges are a cent above the actual stamp cost.
Shipping and postage costs involve more than just purchasing a stamp. The cost of wrapping materials, the time spent packaging and taking to the post office also have to be equated into the shipping costs. eBay should seriously consider going back to the old feedback system that worked so well for years and forget this over buyer orientated system it introduced a couple of years ago.
I did have one silly thought, could you imagine having an eBay customer care telephone number that you could call. What is even harder to imagine is that when you called you got some saying, “Hello, this is eBay. Can I help you?”
Dave Bromley has been a registered member of eBay since 1999 and has written extensively on the subject. He currently runs his blog at www.ukonlineauctionnews.com
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