Our Countessa received a message from eBay - and has presented the matter in the thread:
MC139 NOTICE: eBay Communication Partner Warning - oh no, you've been TALKING!In it, she has raised some questions regarding the reliability of the eBay messaging system. Considering that eBay are moving further and further towards a forced and total dependency on their messaging system for communication, it would seem that the question of reliability is even more important - and it was
already a 'mission critical' service!
I reproduce the Countessa's points here:
Point 1: If I look through my messages, the strange thing is that I can see no message by the eBayer concerned. That's one problem. eBay's message to me gives me the distinct impression that the eBayer DID contact me.
Point 2: I actually contacted the seller - some time ago. I messaged the seller about an item he/she had listed, on the 3rd June. But I never actually received any reply.
Point 3: I now uneasily suspect that the seller DID reply to me, but that eBay blocked the reply.
Point 4: And if that's the case - that has affected my purchasing or feedback. In other words, I either purchased from this seller (but marked down on communication in the DSRs) or didn't purchase from the seller on the basis that my question wasn't answered and that I felt no confidence in the seller as a result of it being ignored.
Point 5: On the other hand, perhaps the seller never did bother to reply to me, and eBay's automatic "Thou Shalt Feel Suspicious Of This eBayer" spiel has somehow mistaken a message from me to the seller as being a message from the seller to me.
Either way, the average eBayer is going to end up feeling confused and annoyed, not to say suspicious...
Point 4 encapsulates my concerns.
There is also an additional issue: In a classic example - my seller friend got hit by a Neg for an item damaged in the mail, because they did not respond to the buyer's complaints. Now you would think that not unreasonable - except that they did not receive any messages about the problem - not a one. Needless to say, they freaked out somewhat.
Now I cannot verify that the buyer DID actually send any messages - so it must be taken in good faith that they did - but there was certainly nothing delivered.
Did the buyer
actually send a message of complaint? Were they just saying that to get a second item free or, perhaps, to ding a competitor?
Or, as in the point made by Countessa
- (a) did the seller actually get the question?
- (b) did the seller ignore the question? or
- (c) did the seller's reply not reach the buyer?
From the buyer's perspective, ALL these possibilities would look the same - and they would all be interpreted as (b) - because we
expect communication channels to be reliable.
So, with communication being the key to:
- Sales
- Communication DSRs
- Problem resolution
- promoting customer loyalty (and all the things that follow - such as repeat sales, referrals and recommendations, etc.)
... reliability of the communications channel is paramount!
BUT, the question must be asked -
what evidence do we have?
