Life as a Work-at-Home Internet Mogul

I think that eBay is run by monkeys.  But let me back up a few hours.

Had a dentist appointment this morning.  Not looking forward to it.  Couldn’t put it off any longer because I lost a filling in a back tooth.  Thank you caramel popcorn…  I was a little peeved that the only day the doctor could see me was today because I was meeting friends for dinner later (I don’t get out much) and I figured that the Novocaine might still be in effect.  I was grateful for the appointment so I took it anyway.

With much dread (yes I’m being dramatic but I’m a big baby when it comes to any doctor visits) I headed to the dental office.  I arrived on time, reviewed the insurance info and was called in less than three pages of US Weekly later. Wow!  This was going well.

The hygienist looked at the tooth, asked me if I wanted Novocaine (YES!) and the doctor came in less than a minute later.  Wow again!  He looked at the tooth, asked about Novocaine (YES!) and poked around some more.

The dentist looked again and recommended an alternate route.  ”A lot of times in this situation I can just sand the tooth down a bit.  There’s no decay and I’d have to take more of the filling to re-fill it” blah, blah, blah.  I started shaking my head “YES!” and told him if that’s what he could do, do it.  We all agreed.  30 seconds later.  Done.  My my my.  No Novocaine required.  We all laughed that this was the best kind of dental visit (for both of us) and I went to the insurance desk receptionist.

The receptionist said the magical words that we all long to hear “Your insurance company will pay for all of this.  No payment is required.”  Happy happy joy joy!  I was put on a list for a cleaning and sent on my merry way.  Nirvana.  Ten minutes total.

I was so happy that my time away was so short that I stopped at the PetSmart down the road because I had printed up some internet coupons that were only good for a few days.  If you don’t know about these coupons, let me just tell you that they don’t come out often and they’re only good for a few days. Inside of PetSmart my day was about to get even better.  Almost all of the cat foods and treats that we buy regularly were on sale and my coupon was for $15.00 off of any purchase over $50.00.  We feed a LOT of cats so that’s nothing for me to spend.  My $63 purchase was just $48.  The leftover coupons were gifted to the young couple who parked next to me.  They had two toddlers and looked like they could use a break.  Maybe Fido got some extra treats today.  I hope so.

Stopped and got Frosty’s and sandwiches at Wendy’s on the way home.  It was back to work I go.  But I was avoiding something and had been for days because I just didn’t want to deal with it.

Should I deal with an eBay issue today when things in general were just going so well?  Why not? I didn’t want to ruin it but I also didn’t want to deal with them on a bad day either.

My issue stems from their Free Store Upgrade Promotion which started on January 26th.  You knew this was coming if you’re a seller too.  We all predicted that this promotion was a bit *ahem* over-advertised – something that eBay does so well, i.e.  the “New store fees are LOWER than ever” BS.  Nobody believes that.  anyhoo…  At the time of the new store promo upgrade no one believed in the FREE part either and I remember making the comment “I’ll be watching my invoices closely to see how free it is.”

On my March 15th invoice I was charged a full Basic Store fee of $15.95 plus $24.17 for the Premium store upgrade.  It’s not even April yet and ebay “promised” that there were no fees until April.  Not really.  I looked on the eBay discussion boards, which I don’t usually do, and it didn’t take long to find this thread:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Clothing-Shoes-Accessories/Heads-Up-Check/520191014&start=0

I was also made aware of this issue in my daily email from AuctionBytes.  Here’s the link to the Letter to Ina Steiner http://letters.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2010/3/1268877033.html.

Both threads indicate that eBay Customer Service admitted to an error on eBay’s part and some sellers received an immediate refund.  Some didn’t.  Some received different amounts.  Odd.

As much as I dislike contacting eBay CS, I bit the bullet and finally found it again (it’s not easy BTW) and did the Live Chat option as I’ve done before.  I dislike the phone, the Muzak, the eBay propaganda, the on-hold-forever-while-my-ear-sweats thing.  Live Chat is direct to the point and I can work while I wait.

And wait I did.  Initial wait was about 20 minutes.  Explained to the rep about the charge and after a few vague stabs in the dark she informed me that I would have to be transferred to “Stores” for an answer.  Ok.  Not sure why I didn’t get there originally because ‘Store’ was in my search query but whatever.  Now I’m in a line of 8 people in queue.  Longer wait.  Finally in.  I explain again.  Was told that the store fees are charged a month ahead.  OK.  That makes sense but why wasn’t the Basic fee pro-rated at the same time since the Premium rate was easily pro-rated to be tacked on.  She couldn’t answer that and just kept telling me that I would be getting a $7 credit.  Next month.  Why next month, I asked?  Why not now?  Couldn’t get a straight answer.   I attached a link to the EBay Discussion Board where sellers were talking about their immediate credits and were being told about eBay’s admitted error.  I mysteriously got transferred mid-sentence and the transfer got cut off.

I was now back to the beginning.  In a queue as if I had never called.  Waiting.  8th in line again.  Now I was in this just to see what would ultimately happen.  Would they give me a credit?  Was there a better explanation?  Would I just hang up and get some productive work done?  What do you think happened?

After I was “in queue” for another 20 minutes, another rep came on and asked (for the 3rd time) for my ID and name.  I gave it to her and told her she was the fifth person I had waited for.  She advised me that there were “system issues” and apologized.  I told her that it wasn’t her fault.  My issue was detailed again.  She was nice and helpful and tried to explain again that the Store fee was billed in advance and pro-rated and that the credit will be issued next month.  I really do understand that part (now) but I still had to ask her why the credit could not be processed this month since there was no problem pro-rating the fee this month.  Her answer was basically “I’m sorry but I can’t issue a credit but if you’d like to talk to Store Billing (or something like that) they may be able to give you one.”

Seriously.  This was when I gave her the link to the Discussion Board.  No answer other than “Would you like me to transfer you now?”

I let her transfer me because this game just wouldn’t get any more fun if I couldn’t get in line one more time.  Now I was 17th in line.  Whoops!  Disconnected.  Back to the eBay Live line that I started with.  This is where the game stopped.  Two hours later.

Yes I’m being charged for a Store and a Half this month.  I shouldn’t, but I will take their word that I’ll get some sort of credit next month.  No one at eBay can explain to me why they have no problem charging an additional fee this month and expecting me to wait until next month for a credit.  That’s the eBay we’ve all come to know.

We all know by now that when they say it’s FREE it’s really not, and when they say that the new fees are lower, they’re really not.  I’ve never been an eBay cheerleader, but I’ve also never felt so adversarial toward them as I have this last year.  I totally understand sellers that walked away.  I almost walked years ago when virtually overnight eBay bulk-changed all of my 1500 book listings to “Acceptable” condition also known as “it has a cover and all of the pages but don’t expect much more” kind of condition.  ”Acceptable” condition is the lowest that Amazon will sell and is one tiny step above Piss “Poor” condition.   Some overpaid eBay executive thought that this change was somehow an improvement.  But that topic is a whole ‘nuther blog post.  If you’ve ever wondered why my “bookstore” on eBay has very few books in it, this is the reason.  I pulled over a thousand listings after my one-by-one hand-graded books were all downgraded to “Crap” condition when, in reality, they were “Very Good” or better.  They’ve been selling quite nicely on Amazon over the years which is where all of my books are listed.

This is turning into War and Peace and “I hate eBay” which was not my intention so I’ll stop here.  I don’t “hate” eBay.  I just don’t trust them.  I don’t feel that they are in any way looking out for sellers, and I do my very best to avoid the drama, their customer service, and their discussion boards.  I really like to sell there and will continue.  But I’ll be looking over my shoulder, adding up my invoices, tweaking all of my listings, and complying with their ever-changing rules.  As long as the bottom line makes all of the trouble worthwhile.  Right now I’m on the fence.