Recently eBay have changed the way in which customers (eBay members - both buyers and sellers) can find contact information.
Well, I'll be blunt. eBay Australia have made it almost impossible for members in trouble to contact them by phone. Phone support appears to have almost entirely disappeared.
Anyone posting eBay's phone number on the eBay Australia forums is summarily "shut down"; the post is removed, and the poster is apparently given a stern warning of an imminent week-long suspension if they offend again. In case I haven't made my views on this sufficiently clear, I find this ridiculous, childish, draconian, and possibly in breach of consumer legislation.
(We'll be investigating this further.)
There was a 1800 number available... but I've just tested it for checking purposes, and it has been discontinued.
However, I can confirm that the following numbers DO work:
02-8280-6400 or
02-8280-6465. I'm sorry I cannot find a 1800 number that works; perhaps I'll have more luck with further searching. If I do find a current 1800 number, I will add it to this thread.
There is a most confusing and irritating "Contact Us" page (
http://ocsnext.ebay.com.au/ocs/home - for all the good it does) which seems to demand the eBayer specify the issue before there's any hope of finding a number to call. As of today, when I attempted to test this method of contact, it proved to lead to a dead end in terms of being given a phone number to call. In some cases, depending upon the topic chosen, the resulting page didn't even offer an email option.
Instead, generic and unhelpful information was generated. This information included faux helpful suggestions to "contact eBay" if the information wasn't useful, but without allowing the eBay member to know HOW to contact eBay. It's a frustrating loop-de-loop of transparent reluctance to be confronted by customers. I can only imagine how distressing this situation would be for eBay members who are already upset by a problem - such as finding their account has been hacked, or that they have apparently bought something they have no knowledge of buying, or being unable to access their account, or being unable to sell, or finding their financial or other personal information is at risk, and so on.
Perhaps it's only out of business hours that this extreme merry-go-round is presented. Perhaps DURING business hours, eBay members in trouble can actually find a phone number and will be given the option to either call or be phoned back, as was the case not so very long ago. I shall test again tomorrow (Monday morning) and see...
In the meantime, I have found one topic - ONE TOPIC - in which the "Chat with us" option is available. It's for the topic "Closing your account". The link is here:
http://ocsnext.ebay.com.au/ocs/cusr?query=2805&levelHierarchy=3|6|3.
If you urgently need to contact eBay for action NOW rather than in a blue moon when eBay in its graciousness decides to lift the veil on its top secret telephone number, try using the above link, and click onto "Chat with us". Use this for any topic. It will have to do.
