eBay Improves on Top 20 NRF Ranking for Customer Service in 2009

4 Permanent link to eBay Improves on Top 20 NRF Ranking for Customer Service in 2009 eBay Improves on Top 20 NRF Ranking for Customer Service in 2009

FEATURED POSTRichard Brewer-Hay / Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

eBay Improves on Top 20 NRF Ranking for Customer Service in 2009

According to the fifth annual NRF Foundation/American Express Customers’ Choice survey, eBay is ranked #12 overall for customer service in 2009 (up 2 from #14 in 2008).

The NRF Foundation/American Express 2009 Customer Service survey was designed to gauge consumer attitudes toward retailers’ customer service and to provide a listing of the top customer service retailers. The survey, which polled 8,600 consumers, was conducted by consumer marketing intelligence firm BIGresearch in September 2009 The consumer poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.0 percent.

Consumers answered the open ended question, “Thinking of all the different retail formats (store, catalog, internet, or home shopping), which retailer delivers the best customer service?”

Like I said when I wrote about this last year, it is the individual sellers on the eBay marketplace that should be commended for achieving this high ranking. After all, they’re the ones providing the customer service to consumers on a daily basis.

Congratulations!

Cheers,
RBH
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James Simmons / January 19th, 2010 at 3:35 pm

The sellers may be performing better customer service, but I have noticed in the past few days, that eBay’s own help paths have gotten MUCH more complicated. If you MUST contact eBay personnel directly, such as to report errors in eBay’s own systems, there is no definitive link at the bottom of the page for that. You have to navigate through many, many pages of canned help, and even then, you may never find the email us link. The question arises as to whether the emails ever even are read by a human being, because they have a disclaimer saying that they cannot give their customers individual attention. That is not customer service, in my book.

Users may have noticed that in at least the past few days, the message service on eBay does not capture the emails you send to sellers anymore, and vice-versa. Has anyone been able to report this failure in eBay’s systems? If so, has a human read the report, and have the programmers looked at the problem? There is absolutely no way to know.

Anyone else out there missing that “warm and fuzzy” feeling about making contact with eBay customer service personnel?

Consignment Pal Resale Directory / January 22nd, 2010 at 9:20 am

I agree that the eBay customer service award goes to the sellers!

I know many antique dealers and eBay Trading Assistant consignment sellers who “treat customers as they would like to be treated” and their sales volume and number of followers reflect their top notch service.

Linda

Mary Elston / January 22nd, 2010 at 11:03 am

James Simmons, I feel your pain. Although I LOVE eBay, and have found the sellers I’ve worked w/to be exceptional, I’ve just experienced my first problem w/a seller, and the inability to access a human is frustrating. Not everything neatly fits into generic FAQS or five or six limited choices on a pulldown menu. To their credit, the ebay response time has been swift and courteous; however canned. Bravo, I was issued a postage paid label to return the item to the seller, but…to an invalid address (Boo)!! If I had been able to speak w/someone this minor issue would already be solved, and I would have my money back. Sorry, it may be better than most, but customer service still has a way to go! I was a csrep all through school, I know the drill.

Scammed in San Diego / January 31st, 2010 at 10:14 pm

I was the unwitting victim of a scam. I received my NIB KitchenAid Mixer that actually was shipped from Target.com, and had been purchased using a stolen credit card of a 70something woman. I was suspicious when My name was not on the shipping label, nor the packing slip, hers was. The eBay seller had likely had his accounts hacked as well, since the email, PayPal and eBay accounts all behaved as though the real seller was behind them, yet I cannot fathom the real owner of the accounts having the idiocy to use his real name and commonly verified email address to pull this scam off.

After much verification, the sellers account was no longer active, and while I waited for instructions, the timer was ticking… eBay finally got back to me, telling me to contact Target about returning the item, once it was too late to file the claim via PayPal or eBay. T&S Cust Svc is useless in actually forwarding my email to a supervisor or manager for assistance in getting a refund so I may legally purchase the item from Target. I cannot fathom how they can sleep at night, allowing long term users with 100% feedback be defrauded and given the runaround. I did everything I could to notify all the appropriate parties, and in return I have been shafted.

In all of my conversations with the T&S department while I reported this fraud, they were barely intelligent enough to follow the typed scripts in front of them, so I have been trying to get a response via email versus calling live help, which was sooo very frustrating, just like the chat help was. I now await possible response yet again thru direct email addressing I located online… we shall see if I get a human with compassion and authority to help me finally.

eBay Improves on Top 20 NRF Ranking for Customer Service in 2009

James Simmons / January 19th, 2010 at 3:35 pm

Consignment Pal Resale Directory / January 22nd, 2010 at 9:20 am

Mary Elston / January 22nd, 2010 at 11:03 am

Scammed in San Diego / January 31st, 2010 at 10:14 pm

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