posted on August 27, 2000 07:34:43 PM new
Ray has asked to have his thread about Voices closed, and asked that others start threads.
Were eBay asking me about ideas for Customer OUTREACH, what I would make clear to them is that I believe it would be very wise for such a successful corporation to stay on top of community issues to the degree that the services they provide to their customers are SO topnotch, that they are SO responsive to what their customers ACTUALLY need that they design & develop them, ..... so that, in the future, there would not be the perceived need for actions typified by the apparent need of some eBay'rs for the MAM.
But, as I presume eBay has figured out that some form of outreach should be developed which works differently than their quarterly voices, I don't feel any need to email them on this.
posted on August 28, 2000 03:32:06 PM new
Must be a full moon....Another thread poster is now calling US, collectively, pigs... while another repeatedly calls us stupid...
How wonderful to have such an ego that one can float above EVERYONE...But...It must be LONELY up there...
******************** Shosh http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/rifkah/
posted on August 28, 2000 03:34:54 PM new
As to Ebay, I am all thought/talked out...I'll just wait and see...Can't figure them out anymore..
******************** Shosh http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/rifkah/
posted on August 28, 2000 07:13:07 PM new
Gosh RADH, I would have expected more response to this question. Guess there are more folks who'd druther belittle the Voices members than come up with constructive suggestions for improvements.
eBay is both a corporation and --perhaps by happenstance more than anything -- a government in a way. Therefore I'd like to see them do more "Town Hall" type meetings. They have done one or two of these in the past which were issue-driven, but I think they worked out reasonably well. People were notified of the topic ahead of time and invited to post to a specific board that had been set up for the occasion. eBay staff was on hand to respond, listen, answer questions. I would like to see more of that -- as well as "town hall" meetings where the participants set the agenda.
posted on August 29, 2000 05:12:38 AM new
Hi radh,
I think that until the PTB at eBay start actually communicating with their members, programs like "voices of the customer" will ring hollow to the community and I really can't blame them.
Brian Burke and/or Jeff Taylor should have openly participated in the thread I started. Brian is head of the Voices program and he could have filled in the blanks and given the insights that only eBay can really give. The program was eBay's concept afterall.
I do think that some productive comments came out during that thread and I want to thank those of you who sincerely tried to come up with some answers. In retrospect, I don't think I ever should have started that thread because without being able to openly discuss everything due to confidentiality issues, and without eBay's direct participation, how could I expect any of us to fine tune the program?
I think a lot of the hostility that appears to be directed at Voices group members is really aimed at eBay. I think we all want to be heard and the voices groups seem like a "short circuit" of sorts. A few of us have actual communication lines with eBay while the rest of us don't even have a phone number to call. This is where the eBay PTB need to fill in the blanks and so far they haven't done it.
posted on August 29, 2000 08:54:47 AM new
Ray, it seems obvious to me that had you and Dottie posed your question over at otwa, instead of here, that your messagethread would have been entirely different. AW messagethreads are all supposed to be derogatory of eBay; there are many reasons for this, not least among those many reasons, that AW has deals with trillions of B2C online auctions. They think these deals are worth trillions of dollars. All that RE-tail etail stuff auctioned off online by those eBizzes will be in the same universal search as your and my items. LOL
I will never buy anything ever again online, unless if it is from a small seller.
I don't see any eBay PTB ever posting on AW again.
You've gotta remember the Michael Wilson days?
From what I've observed on the boards there aren't too many folks who can stand up to hard direct questions without taking things personally. I know for a fact that I can't! Skippy had a knack for it on the Q & A Boards. He would address the issue not the person. Of course if the person got out of line they got WOMD'ed, and I suppose knowing he wielded that power helped to keep folks in line. Lot's of times too he'd ask, "Okay, what can we do to make it better ... what do YOU want?" We would respond ... and then he'd do it, or explain what was involved and why he couldn't. I didn't always agree with his reasoning (boy did we go head to head about transactional feedback!) but he was open. We communicated.
I think all things considering Michael did admirably well. I truly appreciated when he'd log in on AW and explain the latest system failure.
Sometimes we were so argumentative and abusive as a host we didn't let him speak, and instead forced him to continually be on the defensive. When he didn't show up until hours after a system crash he'd get reprimanded big time. (Of course he was probably busy trying to get the system up and running ... but hey ... we had auctions closing!) LOL ... see what I mean? It's ALL about communication. When he was addressing a downtime issue folks would pop in and demand answers about rules and policies in areas that he wasn't qualified to respond to. Sparks would fly, tempers would flare.
I was as guilty as anyone.
I'm not sure that it would be any different for another eBay PTB today, unless they have a staff member who enjoys being mauled.
We seem to be filled with so much frustration and indignation (which I believe to a large extent is justified) we can't pause long enough to listen. When we finally have someone in our midst (hey ... it's been a long time!) we all want our platform.
As it is now, unless we had one darn good 24/7 moderator it wouldn't work.
The live support board used to work as a means of communication. When you are frustrated with an issue, you need acknowledgment. You need at least an inkling of empathy. You don't get that from hitting the submit button on an e-mail.
eBay made a decision that seriously fractured their line of communication with the eBay Community. When they retired the live support board they didn't replace it with a better more interactive forum. The soap box just doesn't do it folks. If they had town hall meetings on a regular basis, with an eBay PTB person who was given the authority to answer questions on a regular basis, they hostility wouldn't have the chance to build up. A more open line of communication would develop.
posted on August 29, 2000 01:48:24 PM new
Ray, with all due respect -- you might have had better luck getting ebay folks to participate if you hadn't blindsided all of us with the thread.
while another repeatedly calls us stupid...