posted on February 24, 2006 03:53:03 PM new
You may recall I mentioned last week being invited to a focus group in San Jose. I went today, and spent 90 minutes with a useability engineer and a PP product manager. Small room, just me and them, three cameras on me the whole time. (Were they afraid I'd start picketing again?)
I signed an NDA prior to this so I can't tell you what they told me, but I can tell you that I let them have it about my three eBay suspensions and the freezing of my PayPal account a few weeks ago.
At the end, they gave me $150 in American Express Gift Cheques. Hunh. I was expecting cash or a company check. So I get home and try to find out what these things are good for.
First of all, I cannot use them to pay my eBay seller fees. From the Chat of the Living Dead:
clearance*clarence: Hello. I recently received $150 in American Express Gift Cheques. Can I use these Gift Cheques to pay my eBay seller fees, and if so, how?
Tracy: Welcome to eBays Billing live help.
Tracy: I apologize for that long wait time and thank you for your patience.
Tracy: I invite you to please share your feedback with me about our chat today by filling out a brief survey when we are finished.
Tracy: My name is Tracy.
Tracy: One moment while I review your message please.
Tracy: eBay accepts payment by PayPal, Checking account, Credit card, and check or money order in the mail.
Tracy: I don't believe you can use a gift cheque to pay your selling fees.
clearance*clarence: Thanks for your response. On the American Express website, it says you can use gift cheques any place that accepts American Express. eBay does accept American Express for fee payments, is that correct?
Tracy: You can try it, however if it is like a pre paid credit card it is not accepted on the eBay site.
Tracy: To make a payment, please follow these steps.
1. Click on the "Site Map" link located at the very top of most eBay pages. The Site Map link is located right above the My eBay, and Community boxes.
2. In the center column choose "Make a Single Payment", this is located under the 'My Selling Account' heading. You may need to scroll down to see this.
On the next page you can choose from the following payment methods:
PayPal
Pay with your credit card
Make a Direct Pay payment
Mail in a check or money order
clearance*clarence: I think I understand now. American Express must mean only retail merchants. Oh well. Thanks for your help.
Tracy: You are welcome, please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
Tracy: Thank you for visiting us here in live help. Have a wonderful evening!
There's no question of using this to pay PayPal fees, since the cheques can't be cashed, only "spent". I suppose one could make a 99 cent purchase at a merchant that accepts them. They're supposed to give the balance in cash.
I'm just amused that eBay found yet another way to screw me over. It's me against them, it seems -- and there's a lot more of them.
posted on February 24, 2006 04:14:21 PM new
God oh god, what I would have paid to be a fly on the wall in that room. Was there anything left of them when you got done with them
Hmm, funny money. You would think they would have least given you something you could have paid your ebay fee's with like , ohh, I don't know, A EBAY FEE CREDIT. They probably got them as a gift and just passed them along to you (no money out of their pocket type deals).
"Small room, just me and them, three cameras on me the whole time. (Were they afraid I'd start picketing again?)" They were probably afraid you would try to kill them if you thought you could get away with it.
You should have taken a little tape recorder with you and then mysteriously somehow the audio track got released online. That would have been just to funny.
Well, hope you got some point's across to them. Just hope they didn't go in one ear and out the other.
They say your memory's the second thing to go, I just can't remember what the first thing is.
[ edited by mikes4x4andtruckrepair on Feb 24, 2006 04:14 PM ]
posted on February 25, 2006 08:13:46 AM new
But contract labor workers usually have a contract before they start working.
What did they promise you before you go?cash,check,gift cards or nothing??
/ lets all stop whining !! /
[ edited by hwahwa on Feb 25, 2006 08:14 AM ]
posted on February 25, 2006 08:42:56 AM new
The invite said:
"HONORARIUM: $150"
Truthfully, though, I would have done it for free if I thought my participation would do any good.
I'm just amused they gave me something that is essentially worthless. You can't use these things to pay for services or at airlines, hotels, car rentals, etc.
I'm thinking of selling the gift cheques (where else?) on eBay.
posted on February 25, 2006 09:06:59 AM new
LTRAY - I love ya to pieces but Math must NOT be your strong suit (Mine either for that matter)!
"They gave you $50 an hour funny money for providing ideas that their $75/hour, full-benefits engineers could not come up with on their own.
*For the eBay pinks reading this, contract labor is usually paid at least 1/3 MORE than in-house labor.*
They did pay her (had the funny munny been worth anything) $100/hour ($150/90 mins) which is 25% more than the engineers. Of course the point is that the "Payment" ain't worth anything.
I agree though Fluff - I think I would PAY $150 to get ebay to listen to me for 1.5 hours!
posted on February 25, 2006 09:13:09 AM new
Hmmm...I didn't realize eBay doesn't accept pre-paid credit cards. Learn something new everyday here.
American Express certainly touts those Gift Cheques as being "Easy to use and accepted virtually anywhere - use them for almost anything and anywhere". They even promote using them for incentive and reward programs. If you can't use them to pay for services or at airlines, hotels or car rentals, then exactly where can you use them?!?!
That really bites. Leave it to eBay to give you something you can't even use.
posted on February 25, 2006 09:53:06 AM new
I'm curious to. Can they be used at locations that do accept AE credit cards? Maybe they figire since they have run you through the hoops alot recently they could at least keep you from starving.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. - Albert Einstein
posted on February 25, 2006 12:26:05 PM new3 cameras-
1 for legal 1 for eBay engineering 1 for PayPal engineering
Chuckle. Good try but no. One camera on subjects face for facial features when responding to the script... "thoughtful, incredulous, WTF...". Second camera on keyboard and third on screen. Probably have a data recorder on the computer too.
They gave you $50 an hour funny money for providing ideas that their $75/hour, full-benefits engineers could not come up with on their own.
No. They were getting responses to their new interface, enhancements or features. Or testing ease of use or other psychometric data. Fluff can't tell us as she under NDA.
When we did software usability or market testing we always paid subjects in cash and got a receipt for same. That way they can't break the NDA since they entered into a contract when they were paid. Fluff however only really enters into the contract when she encashes the American Express Gift Cheques (and thus receives value for entering into the contract). IANAL
posted on February 25, 2006 10:13:56 PM new
Well, we can all have that pleasure in June at eBay Live, should we choose to brave Las Vegas heat.
If you've never been to an eBay Live it might be hard to believe, but eBay spends far FAR more per person than can possibly be made up by the paltry $50 early-registration admission fee.
This three-day exercise in groupthink does remind me a bit of the classic Apple 1984 commercial, though.
posted on February 25, 2006 11:04:22 PM new
Fluffy, I remember recieving one of those in my dot com days. Instead of a bonus, they gave us all one of those. I used it to pay for groceries and things like that. I don't know too much about who accepts them nowadays.
[ edited by mikes4x4andtruckrepair on Feb 24, 2006 04:14 PM ]
especially the first line!
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. - Albert Einstein
Not been having my best week, lol. Thanks for setting me straight.