Customer Services - Guessing the correct answer to your problem! (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: cdsmiler81

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	19/10/09 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Security good, Ebay as a whole an excellent service

Disadvantages: Customer services don't read properly, or respond quickly enough. Vouchers not giving enough info.

This review, while looking at Ebay a little, will be concentrating mainly on it's customer service.

I've been a very casual Ebay user for many years. I'm more of a buyer than a seller. I'll be honest, it still scares me a little, but over the years I've learnt to trust both Ebay and PayPal with regards to any problems resulting from sales. So I've started to use it a bit more regularly.

Last year when I was planning my wedding, I managed to get some great bargains off Ebay - whether we're talking a made to measure wedding dress, personalised clay cake topper, or swarovski beads for me to make my own tiara. I've also more recently managed to buy some blank cards and cracker making kits for very reasonable prices ready for Christmas.

Within the last week I bought myself a brand new laptop from the Argos Clearance seller on Ebay. Although this is not a review about the seller, I'd like to add that the seller themselves were excellent, the laptop although refurbished was excellent, at a high spec and at a VERY reasonable price. Anyway, I digress. Just before purchasing the laptop I noticed a curious thing. Next to the price of the item, there was a highlighted message saying I could purchase it for a lower price if I used my voucher. Voucher? What voucher? Low and behold at the top of the screen was a little button saying I had a voucher to use. Where it came from, I have no idea, but there it was - an official Ebay voucher offering me £10 off a single item on a single purchase as long as the amount didn't end up more than £70! Oh and it could only be used if I paid with PayPal. (That was all the details it held.) Excellent! Good job I'd noticed it, as it ran out the next day.

So I went ahead and bought the laptop, using the voucher and paid via my parent's PayPal account (there's a long story as to why I used their account instead of my own, but that's for a PayPal review!). Lovely. However, although the PayPal receipt arrived in the email inbox as saying that a certain amount had been paid including a £** discount, when I logged back in to PayPal, or likewise checked "My Ebay", both didn't mention the voucher at all, and the same said voucher was still showing as being available on my account (even though it had only one use!). I was very confused, and very worried that the voucher hadn't gone through properly. So I 'penned' an email to Ebay customer services asking for their advice. I received a very prompt email back (within the hour) - however, on opening it I realise that all they've done is send me a whole lot of 'bumpf' about PayPal (how to set up an account, etc), stating that they hoped this helped with my query and if not to contact them directly back at that address.

Well, it obviously didn't address the issue of the voucher usage, or refer to anything regarding PayPal and Ebay vouchers. So I replied saying it hadn't addressed my query and asked why the voucher was still there when I had used it (hopefully successfully!) and it stated clearly that it only had one use.

In the meantime, I did a bit of detective work through PayPal. I logged onto my parent's account and had a good look as to whether or not they mentioned anything in THEIR information about Ebay vouchers. After a good 20 minutes searching I finally discovered that for an Ebay voucher to work successfully with a PayPal account, that Ebay username had to be registered with that specific PayPal account (you still with me?). So I registered it quickly with PayPal, hoping that I was quick enough that the voucher would still complete successfully. Fortunately, it all seemed to work fine after that, and the voucher showed up properly in the PayPal account - as it hadn't been doing so earlier.

As for Ebay... well, I received a reply 3 days later! They stated that the voucher had multiple usage (which the voucher itself made clear it DIDN'T), and I'd already used it twice! Plus that it was too late now as the expiry date had passed (tell me something I didn't know!). What a waste of time! And how inaccurate!

So I currently have two issues with Ebay and its customer service:
Vouchers - Although I appreciate the unexpected voucher, it would be nice if the voucher contained accurate information regarding not only how often it could be used, but the IMPORTANCE of linking a PayPal account to an Ebay account for it to work properly!
Replying to Emails - My query was a simple. If they had read my initial email, I may have had relevant information sent to me straight away. Likewise, why was the second email response SO delayed?!

I have since received an email from Ebay asking for feedback on my recent customer service experience. They won't be happy with what they've read.

I should say, in Ebay's defence, before this occasion I have never had this type of trouble with them. There was one occasion a few years ago where someone had been trying to hack into my account, and an Ebay representative - through their online chat service - checked all my details and helped me make my account more secure for the future. An excellent service, and I cannot fault them for that.

Summary: Ebay is fine until there's a problem....