Question
eBay sent me an Invoice for Dec. but never billed my account as they have done monthly for over a year and a half.
The Jan. invoice arrived, showed the total for both months and that no amount was overdue.
Just to be safe I sent the following email to the billing dept., through their webform.
***********************************************
I received my Invoice for December, 2003 but the amount was never charged to the credit card I have on file.
I have now received my Invoice for Jan 31, 2004, the total of which is for both months.
I assume it will be processed shortly but I wonder why no payment was processed last month.
I thought I had better check with you in case there was a problem that needed attention.
Regards Ray Walsh
***********************************************
Tonight I received the following. I may have had one problem and now I may have two problems.
*********************************************
Hello Ray,
Thanks for writing to us. My name is Michael, and I am happy to be of
some assistance to you with your concerns regarding
your account status.
Thank you for contacting us in regards to the one time Direct Payment
you have made to your sellers account.
These one time payments usually take 2 to 5 business days to be added to
the account, however, we have experienced some delay. We apologize for
this and want to ensure you that your payment will be posted shortly.
We appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this matter.
Ray, I hope I have been of some assistance to you in this matter. Thank
you for being part of the eBay community, and have a great eBay day!
With best regards,
Michael Hw.
eBay Billing Support
______________________________
Well I guess I should be thankful that they, at least, got my name right.
Answer
I always follow these up with a
THANK you for NOT reading my email....does ebay hire illiterate people on purpose or are you through some "lower educated person" government sponsored gran.....then there is a cut and paste of the original email.....<copy>
followed by...
when you get back from attending a reading remedial course, would you please READ it and answer the question in that copy of the email...
I can mail it to you on a cd or diskette if you want to send me your address.
thank you
i actually had one person apologize for not answering my questions, most send another canned response, to which I add another sentence and copy something similar to the above email....and toss it back and forth three or four times until I get bored with it then I hit delete....
and that ends the correspondence with no answers, of course I never actually expected one in the first place http://community.here.com/infopop/em...on_biggrin.gif
_____________________
Answer
Gabs
Thank you.
I was very annoyed by this email answer from eBay even though it's not a very important problem and their mistake isn't a significent blunder.
It just reminded me of and connected me to the entire subject of their poor customer service and beyond.
Reading your post, I started to laugh. And continued to laugh, and finished your post and continued to laugh.
Just what I needed to untie the knot I was in and gain some better perspective.
Note now placed above my computer to NOT read your posts if I've worked up a good anger and want to stay that way.
Again, thanks. RR
Answer
There is hope.
I sent them an email.
"Hello Michael
Your response was not relevant to the issue I presented in my email and your mention of a One Time Direct Payment should not be a factor as no such payment was made.
Ray"
I got an answer that acknowledged the problem with the earlier response, spoke to my question and contained within that answer an interesting process from their accounting system.
"Hello Ray,
Thank you for taking the time to write to us with your concerns. My
name is Tyson, and I am happy to assist you with your questions.
Ray, I apologize for the previous response. I see that it had nothing
to do with your question.
I understand that this situation would be frustrating for you. I
reviewed your account, and I see that you were invoiced for $XXX.XX on
Dec-31-03. However, we had a free listing day on the 7th and 8th of
January (UK-FLD). Your insertion fees for those two days were credited back to
you as soon as you listed your items. The total amount of all these
credits exceeded your Dec-31-03 invoiced amount. Therefore, the system
thought your account was already paid and did not charge your card on
file. I apologize for any confusion this situation has caused you.
Your credit card on file should be charged your January 31st invoiced
amount of $XXX.XX in the next few days.
It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing eBay.
Regards,
Tyson P. C.
eBay Billing Support
______________________________
Maybe the dark hole isn't as deep as I believed.
Answer
Given their track record, looks like ebay made a 'mistake' when they hired Tyson!!!!!!!!!
Bill
Answer
Hi,
Ebay will bill you once a month in a MASS billing group. Which I was told, can't be individually fixed because of the billing system. So if you have a balance due, it will come out on the same day each month for you as previous ones have had.
When you run into a problem like this, and they don't take out for one month, it will get billed on the next month, so then you will be paying for the 2 months on one billing.
Whatever you do, don't go in and pay for it separate after they have billed you, because the billing plan will take it out again on you, because it can't be stopped.
Or so, the last email from a ebay person told me. Well anyways, I ended up paying double, but did end up with a positive balance as a credit, so it all ended well. Good thing there was enough in my checking account to cover the 2nd payment they got me for.
Not sure what to tell you, but the last time I had a problem with my account balance, it took 4 emails back and forth to finally make me happy.
I don't think they read our emails very well http://community.here.com/infopop/em...icon_frown.gif
Answer
Hi Ray,
My guess is that they found out they were dealing with the notorious Reston Ray, and they thought they better not screw up! http://community.here.com/infopop/em.../icon_wink.gif
Seriously, this is their modus operandi and has been for years. Almost without exception, every email I ever sent to SafeHarbor was not answered with a relevant answer on the first try.
My theory is that a (less than?) minimum wage lackey in India somewhere answers all first emails according to some keyword formula and answers with the closest canned response. It is only follow up emails that are then sent to someone who can actually think.
(Ok, maybe it is an American lackey, but that is still my theory.) http://community.here.com/infopop/em.../icon_razz.gif
****
Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
Answer
Not sure notorious is the operative word. Maybe something more like smartass.
Here is my reply.
'Tyson
Thank you for your response.
You understood the issues, responded to my concerns and provided answers that were clear and complete.
My only lingering doubt is where did this answer come from, as this is so uncharacteristic of eBay customer service.
Again, thanks. Ray"
I did find the accounting information interesting.
Apparently if there was a FLD early enough in each month, then you could list enough items to have sufficient credits that they would offset previous charges for billing purposes at that time.
There would be an ever increasing debit balance which would come due at sometime.
My calculations show I could do this monthly, if there was the FLD available, until the Fall at which time I would either have to list about 2,000,000 items or disappear.