How's this for customer service?

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Posted By: Gene Palmer

I wrote Ebay regarding the hoard of reprints showing up in the vintage category. Here's the reply I got...

"Thank you for writing eBay in regard to searching for the sportscard
category.

eBay welcomes comments from members of our Community, and we appreciate
your suggestions. This type of communication helps us improve our
services and meet your needs.

However, our company policy doesn't allow us to accept suggestions
unless we specifically request them. We hope that you understand that
this policy can avoid future misunderstandings if new products,
services, and features developed internally by eBay employees seem
similar or even identical to a member's idea."

If I wasn't bald I'd tear my hair out.

Gene

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Posted By: Matt

Crazy as it seems, ebay has no real motivation for removing those listings - they get all the fees.

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Posted By: Zinn

Sickening!

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

April Fools, right?

"However, our company policy doesn't allow us to accept suggestions
unless we specifically request them."

Think of the focus group meetings they held to craft this non-response response. Kind of like the way you can report a bad listing by item number, but they allow no space in which to explain WHY it's a bad listing.

We think it's about weeding out the crooks.

They think it's about who gets the credit.

As we all know, they aren't going to do anything that cuts down the total number of listings.

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Posted By: Gene Palmer

Bruce, I couldn't agree with you more. I wish it had been an April fools joke. I've never run a business, but a monkey on crack would have a better business sense then those over at Ebay!

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Posted By: DMcD

Kind of like Lily Tomlin's Ernestine the Operator: "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the Phone Company!"

-

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Posted By: Jim VB

<<However, our company policy doesn't allow us to accept suggestions
unless we specifically request them. We hope that you understand that
this policy can avoid future misunderstandings if new products,
services, and features developed internally by eBay employees seem
similar or even identical to a member's idea.">>


This sounds to me like lawyerspeak for "If we implement one of your ideas, don't come looking to us for credit or money." They don't want to be badgered by people claiming that any improvement was their idea and they are owed something.

Now... I'll go away and let the real lawyers respond.

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Posted By: Rawn Hill

It is my understanding that unsolicited advice is not in any way legally withholding to the party that gives said advice................I'm not a lawyer, but have spent countless hours on the wrong side of the bench.

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Posted By: Dan Koteles

my opinion is that ALL reprints should be in a cateorgized reprint section. This would weed out the our grief.

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

How about any seller who puts any reprint in the wrong category pays triple the normal fees? That should appeal to ebay's greed and solve our problem. Too bad they don't accept suggestions.

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Posted By: Gene Palmer

LOL Bruce that's brilliant! All this time I've been looking at the wrong end of it.

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Posted By: JimB

They won't care until they have competition.
JimB

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Posted By: Bob

Hey Gene, at least you got a response. I wrote a couple of lengthy emails about the reprint situation and never heard squat back.