Tips on Talking to Ebay Customer Service
Keep a notebook or spreadsheet of your conversations for EVERY TIME you call in to Customer Service.
If the CS Rep has given you information on the call such as, "Call us back when you return the item and at that point it will qualify for defect removal" -- Then ask the CS Rep to make a note about their ruling on your account.
Once they've made their notes, ASK THEM TO READ THE NOTES BACK TO YOU. Nine times out of ten the conversation will NOT be recorded properly. (You will shake your head at what they did record in the notes, and wonder if the two of you were having the same conversation.)
At that point, tell them that there is missing information, and tell them what needs to be recorded in the notes. Such as "You said it would definitely qualify for defect removal. But you did not write that. Please write the exact words that this qualifies for defect removal."
Or when ebay CS says, "We've descored the case and removed the defect." If their notes do not accurately reflect what they have done....insist that they write word for word what was done, and for the item number it pertains to.
Then ask them to read it back to you word for word. Keep going over this until you are sure the notes in your account correctly reflect the information you were given by the rep or that the notes accurately reflect the action that was taken. Is this tedious? Yes. But it is super important. Do it. Every time.
VERY IMPORTANT -- Record the name and last initial of the person you are speaking with. Record the date of the call, the beginning time of the phone call, and the end time of the phone call, in case they must pull the tape for review.
VERY IMPORTANT -- When the conversation is over ASK FOR THE REFERENCE NUMBER of the conversation. YOU MUST GET THE REFERENCE NUMBER OF THE CONVERSATION.
Be sure to get this reference number EVERY TIME. If you have to call ebay back, and you have to refer back to a conversation with a different CS Rep, "but this other rep told me something completely different," they can refer to the reference number and see the notes of the conversation.
Note: The notes of the conversation are not always on your account.
But they CAN trace the phone call via the reference number.
I just got a defect descored/removed that the rep argued was not removable. But because I had the date, time, and reference number of the previous phone call telling it was removable and the reasons why, the ebay CS Rep apologized that she had made a mistake, and she was able to remove the defect, and she congratulated me for being so organized and making the conversation much easier by having all the evidence lined up for her.
Of course, I asked her record that action taken on my account....asked her to read the notes back to me. Asked her to make some additions to the notes. Asked her name and last initial. At that point she said to me, "And you want the reference number, too, right?" I told her, "You betchya. You know I do!"
I have been following this procedure for years. I ALWAYS get the reference number of the call, and make sure that the notes accurately reflect our conversation. I cannot tell you how many times this has rescued me from problems in the past. But especially with the new defect system, I highly recommend following this procedure for logging your phone calls to ebay.
Keep a notebook or spreadsheet of your conversations for EVERY TIME you call in to Customer Service.
If the CS Rep has given you information on the call such as, "Call us back when you return the item and at that point it will qualify for defect removal" -- Then ask the CS Rep to make a note about their ruling on your account.
Once they've made their notes, ASK THEM TO READ THE NOTES BACK TO YOU. Nine times out of ten the conversation will NOT be recorded properly. (You will shake your head at what they did record in the notes, and wonder if the two of you were having the same conversation.)
At that point, tell them that there is missing information, and tell them what needs to be recorded in the notes. Such as "You said it would definitely qualify for defect removal. But you did not write that. Please write the exact words that this qualifies for defect removal."
Or when ebay CS says, "We've descored the case and removed the defect." If their notes do not accurately reflect what they have done....insist that they write word for word what was done, and for the item number it pertains to.
Then ask them to read it back to you word for word. Keep going over this until you are sure the notes in your account correctly reflect the information you were given by the rep or that the notes accurately reflect the action that was taken. Is this tedious? Yes. But it is super important. Do it. Every time.
VERY IMPORTANT -- Record the name and last initial of the person you are speaking with. Record the date of the call, the beginning time of the phone call, and the end time of the phone call, in case they must pull the tape for review.
VERY IMPORTANT -- When the conversation is over ASK FOR THE REFERENCE NUMBER of the conversation. YOU MUST GET THE REFERENCE NUMBER OF THE CONVERSATION.
Be sure to get this reference number EVERY TIME. If you have to call ebay back, and you have to refer back to a conversation with a different CS Rep, "but this other rep told me something completely different," they can refer to the reference number and see the notes of the conversation.
Note: The notes of the conversation are not always on your account.
But they CAN trace the phone call via the reference number.
I just got a defect descored/removed that the rep argued was not removable. But because I had the date, time, and reference number of the previous phone call telling it was removable and the reasons why, the ebay CS Rep apologized that she had made a mistake, and she was able to remove the defect, and she congratulated me for being so organized and making the conversation much easier by having all the evidence lined up for her.
Of course, I asked her record that action taken on my account....asked her to read the notes back to me. Asked her to make some additions to the notes. Asked her name and last initial. At that point she said to me, "And you want the reference number, too, right?" I told her, "You betchya. You know I do!"
I have been following this procedure for years. I ALWAYS get the reference number of the call, and make sure that the notes accurately reflect our conversation. I cannot tell you how many times this has rescued me from problems in the past. But especially with the new defect system, I highly recommend following this procedure for logging your phone calls to ebay.
1 comment:
Thanks for the reminder, Beth! There are times that you really have to track your conversation with the reps, due to the miscommunication that may occur on the course of the call. Anyway, I think you can also tape the whole conversation on your own. At the very least, you can have proof that another representative did say the things that got misconstrued. Good luck!
Tom Coshow @ TeleDirect
Post a Comment