Language and literacy skills of Ebay Customer reps

[bettyboopsadaisy]

I'll start by saying for the past 30 years I have been an English as a Second Language teacher and as a result have developed an great understanding and tolerance for the difficulties and challenges faced by new English speakers in their workplace and in general.

For that reason I don't feel it is fair to either ebay customer reps or ebay sellers and buyers that those who are supposed to be assisting us with emails responses when we contact customer support have such poor Engllish language and literacy skills as to make their responses to our questions often almost incomprehensible.

In many cases its clear that they either don't understand what we are asking or haven't acquired enough English to respond appropriately or grammatically, making the whole exercise of asking for help pointless.

This leads to me wonder why ebay can't bring itself to spend some of what must be its HUGE profits on providing their reps with a  training support program that will equip them better linguistically to do the job they do !!

[Anonymous]

Come on, be reasonable ... profits are for the shareholders (and executive staff for their Grange at lunch) ... not to enhance the ebay experience for members !

[bettyboopsadaisy]

Yeah, I fully appreciate your sarcasm. I don't know why I was SO naive !!!!

[nevillesdaughter]

On a phone call to eBay one day I complained that when using email or live chat (to eBay), the answers often didn't even deal with the issue I was trying to address, but rather seemed like cobbled together responses to some key word. Her comment was that with live chat, the staff are usually dealing with several people/screens at the one time so often don't take the time to read the question properly, and just reply with the stock eBay answer to what they think your issue is!

I haven't used live chat since (I always phone now), and even then, if I get someone whose language skills are not up to the task, I politely get off the phone, and call back to see if I can get someone better. The staff are all unfailingly polite, and trying to help, but if English is their second language, they need to be very highly skilled to deal with often complex issues, and upset eBayers - nobody phones eBay for polite small talk!

Cheers,

Marina.

[master*and*commander]

I don't think that the nuances of language can be learned over a short period of time. Translation and interpretation also differs between countries whose first or official language is English and then further subdivided by class and local culture. (Consider the differences in the terms used and how they vary depending on influences such as age, gender, class, occupation, education and other affiliated cultural  memberships.) (Not even taking into account any learning difficulties or how many Gins have been consumed prior to initiating the message.)

Perhaps the fault not only lies with the eBay rep, but also with the customer initiating the message. Even people whose first language is English seem to struggle with their spelling, punctuation and grammar and applicable jargon (all essential, especially when trying to interpret written communication). Then add that special "aussie vernacular", often varying between locality, which further  compounds the issue.

So when one tries to interpret and translate what is trying to be communicated, it may not present itself with correct grammar etc to begin with, which would defeat even the best rules of grammar and sentence structure for translation available through any part time support program.

I think the answer may lay with total long term immersion in a local culture, something hard to achieve when the call centres are based overseas. But I doubt even that would solve the majority of translation issues because of the different variables which impact communication through the written word.

[kustomizer99]

I tried emailing ebay about some problem awhile back, and it was evident that the people responding were incapable of comprehending my very clear messages. Not only that, but every time I emailed in reply a different (but still sub-literate) person would respond, and in every case they had not bothered to learn or refer to the history of my complaint, even though the trail was embodied in every **bleep** email.

Unbelievable...

Ebay Australia did used to employee English-speaking staff many years ago, but those days are over.

[master*and*commander]

I read here somewhere that eBay staff representatives were not always kept up to date with organisational changes, the incident I read about had been updated 5 months prior and they were not aware. They were also directing the issue to the wrong department.  I would also presume that staff training in general, whether that be in the content or the delivery, despite the language and cultural barriers, may be an issue in need of address and hampering the communication of correct and current information.

Those reps are the last line of defence for the spread of wrong and misleading information. If they don't know what it is they are talking about, then how can they be expected to assist the general public?

[phorum_junkie*]

I have never had a problem understanding or making myself understood by ebay representatives at any time when I have phoned ebay either from within Australia or when I have been in the UK.

I never bother contacting them by email unless it is a TL problem which has a dedicated email address so cannot really comment on how they deal through that medium now, it used to be a bit of a joke back before the days when you could phone them but there was a tried and tested formula for getting an answer...............eventually lol.

There isn't a lot you have to ask them anyway that can't be answered by somebody here usually quicker and more accurate too.

[kustomizer99]

I must admit, eBay employees are no more incompetent and untrained than the people at Telstra.

[ausgeoff1946]

I guess this is a common problem when phoning customer support with most major companies these days—Australian businesses are off-shoring their call centres to Mumbai or Manila.

These reps work from multiple script sheets.  The sheets run in order across their carrel wall.  As your question becomes more detailed, they simply move to the next sheet in the progression.  Although they (may) speak English acceptably, they actually have no idea of the technicalities of your issues.

Which is why their answers sometimes bear little relationship to your question(s).