As we wrote in September, eBay is trialling a new customer support programme called “eBay Concierge”. You can read about it here.
We’ve heard from sellers who started using it last week and, over those few days, we’ve heard some interesting reports: do keep your impressions of the trial coming our way. As far as we can see it’s being targeted at quite a small number of bigger sellers and most of the feedback is positive.
One seller has been in touch saying that some of the online selling tools, including seller templates, are good and useful. Another comment from reader Nick was complimentary: “I spoke to them today too, about a rather complex fraud issue/buyer. I was fully prepared for an hour of being passed from pillar to post and not getting the outcome I desired. I was most surprised when my issue was dealt with conclusively in my favour, within two minutes of dialling the number. Very impressed. Let’s hope it’s here to stay?”
If you been offered the eBay Concierge service we’d love to hear your opinions.
14 Responses
Asked a really straight forward question via email on Saturday, 96 hours later, nothing. Off to a great start.
We are on it, but I have heard nothing……am I suppose to. So far I haven’t seen anything that we have been given for it.
Well it was bound to happen eventually CS would be able to deal with an issue with the first attempt eventually meanwhile the CS service in general is still very poor and waiting times on the phone is still in the hours for most users
I spoke to them firstly on Sunday. They have been fantastic with me.
They want to listen and help. These guys are very good at what they do (the creme de la creme of support agents) and finally I think eBay wants to help.
One major issue has been passed up to the top of eBay’s legal team already and I am passing on ideas for site improvement as I feel these may actually get implemented.
they all seem really nice and genuinely want to help.
10/10 on initial review.
Absolute garbage
First call to ebay as a Concierge customer went to the philipines.
Had to repeat my details several times despite entering it into the phone system before hand.
Absolutely useless, they speak english but do not fully understand english.
Same old ebay as far as i am concerned.
I thought i would ring them for an issue to try but i will now revert to never ringing them because it is a complete waste of my time trying to get help from the Philipines.
Nice friendly people, they just do not really understand what i need help with 99% of the time.
Phoned concierge for the first time today. Very impressed. Phone answered in minutes . Very knowledgeable and pleasant chap called Jonathan was able to deal with my problem exactly. From this first experience I couldn’t have been more impressed.
eBay concierge has been fabulous! It’s like after yelling and screaming for years about how EBay should empower their staff to be allowed to make decisions based on the sellers reputation-someone FINALLY listened!! I am thrilled and reinvigorated as an eBay seller because with concierge eBay is treating me like I treat my customers!! I have always said that there was a disconnect- if I treated my customers the way eBay treats me…that I would be out of business.
A few examples in the last two days of this ground breaking new “How can eBay help you” attitude:
1. Talked to the same person two days in a row and they remembered me.
2. Gave a concierge a list of things that were hanging in my dashboard. Some unpaid items, a final value fee not received, a negative feedback I felt should be removed (said I never gave a refund which was a lie and they were scammers but it’s the cost of doing business) and a case to close. Literally 5 minutes and all those things were resolved. With 1 phone call.
3. This was unbelievable and is a bit long but worth reading. Last night a buyer opened a case for a $130 ring that they had not received because they never updated their address in the eBay system. I have not yet received the ring back. “What do I do?” I asked the concierge. His response floored me. “If you trusted the buyer and eBay backed you so that you would be protected, how would you handle this?” he asked sincerely. I quickly checked my stock and replied, ” Well I have another ring in stock in that size, so I would send the customer out another tomorrow and wait for the post office to return the undelivered package to me.”
His response: “Ok great; I’m issuing you a credit for the full amount of the ring as well as the shipping cost for the second package right now.” I kind of stammered and said , ” Do you need me to give you the tracking number?” “No- we trust you. It’s obvious you try to do the right thing by your customers so we want to help you do that.” was his response.
WOW!! Finally eBay is getting it right! Trust the seller to do the right thing; look at the sellers history and see that they try to take care of their customers and FINALLY be there to help and support sellers as we do that! Concierge rocks! Every person I have spoken to has excellent customer service skills.
NOW….they need to empower every customer service associate to have that power to help ALL the sellers not just those of us selected for this program. I’m not saying to just cave and always take the sellers side but each associate should be allowed a certain number of “overrides” each month to allow them to use their discretion when they think that the circumstance trumps what the policy is. Then they can do what is RIGHT not just be bound by “I’m sorry but policy says that I can’t help you.” It would help EVERYONE’s morale!
Keep it up eBay! This is ground breaking and so different from me screaming on the phone “eBay sucks and I am going to Etsy!” I feel like eBay genuinely wants to help me be successful running my business the way I want….by allowing me to provide top shelf customer service and having MY back when the occasional scam artist comes along.
It is the exact opposite of how I have been feeling lately and came along just in time. The few times that I needed eBay to back me up…they always took the customers side, even though I have been on the site since 1999 and that infuriated me!! “We don’t look at the sellers history when we decide a case.” I was once told. “How stupid is that?” I yelled at the guy.
WELL…. it seems like someone listened to all my rants and cursing and crying over the last two years and put into effect just the level of support and customer service that I have been asking for!
Thank you eBay! A sincere, genuine thank you. Keep this up and I will ROCK Christmas on your site! And sell nowhere but eBay. So we all win.
I’ve used the concierge system a lot this week because one of my clients has had numerous listings cloned.
At first I wasn’t too impressed but today found out that when you call in the system recognises the phone number and uses that to direct you straight to concierge service in Dublin
As my number is not registered to the client account I was sent instead to the standard CS. They are supposed to connect you straight away to concierge once they realise the account is eligible but surprise surprise that didn’t happen.
However, once I got through to concierge they were brilliant and remembered the previous calls and deleted bogus listings immediately.
So if you phone them use a number registered with eBay and if you are calling from a different number ask immediately to be transferred to the concierge service.
Very impressed!
could it be expectations are so low from past experience of ebays support, that anything near reasonable is considered good?
A competitor that I am friendly with is saying how good ebay concierge is. Thing is, how can he be chosen as one of eBay’s glitterati sellers yet the rest of us condemned to the dustbin? He can get negatives removed and unreasonable buyers dealt with, yet the rest of us struggle on with the day to day grind of the usual problems that the platform brings.