posted on September 14, 2001 05:59:14 PM new
Can you possibly make requesting a credit any more difficult??
First I have to search my eBay account for No-sale Credits. When I find one I jot down the eBay auction number, and I check for the date of the auction ended because the date of the eBay credit is not relevant.
Armed with the auction number and ending date of the auction I then browse my AW account to find the ebay auction number using the end of auction date as a guide to which page of my AW account I need to look on.
Note that I must find the AW entry that shows the FVF and not the listing fee, so sometimes I must look for the second occurrence of the eBay auction number which could be a page or two apart.
Once I locate the correct entry for the auction number I can then copy the AW reference number and head on over to the AW credit request page and enter that number in the box, I press enter and on the next page I select the reason I want credit.
In this case it's a NPB so I choose that option and oh yea, you want proof, so I go back to my eBay account (I'm smart enough to have at least three browser windows open by now) and I copy the entire line for that auction no-sale credit and I go back to the AW credit request page and paste that information into the AW text box.
I then click enter and I get a new page telling me that you will process my request within three weeks??!!
I notice that there is no link to take me back to the beginning page should I want to actually request more than one credit so fortunately the "back" button works and I can click it twice to get back to the beginning remembering to erase the previous AW reference number from the box so I don't use it again by mistake. I'm now ready to get the next credit....
Total time to do this for 6 auctions: 23 minutes. Net credit: $0.65, about $1.80 an hour, and I now realize that I goofed and entered the AW reference number for the listing credit for two of those auctions.
Since I don't believe the billing department is going to cross reference the number over to get the FVF for those auctions, (I'd be really surprised if the did) I'm going be out of luck unless I spend another 10 or more minutes looking up the correct AW reference number and submitting them again for those particular auctions.
I think I'll quit while I'm ahead.
Unfortunately I bet about 2/3 of the sellers here will do just that.
So why would AW want to make it any easier?
They get a windfall if they leave it as it is, frustrating enough to make sellers give up trying to get their credits. This is exactly what makes me angry about the AW credit request process.
I'm being blunt because it's my money too.
If they truly had the interest of their members in mind they would streamline this process.
Here are some suggestions:
One way, if it's possible, and I don't know if eBay will allow it and make it possible, is to tap the members account through the API to automatically receive the No-Sale credits as eBay issues them. Should be made optional by each seller who decides if he/she wants AW to access their account. I for one would have no problem with AW getting a notice from eBay that I had a No-Sale credit issued on eBay knowing that AW will use that notice to issue me a credit from AW.
Or AW could use the unique (eBay or other auction site) auction number rather than make us look up the AW reference number. At the very least AW could provide a way to search our AW account for a group of auction numbers copied from the eBay account pages. Or provide a box to enter an auction number and press a button to provide the AW reference number(s) that pertain to that auction.
I understand the need for unique and referenceable record numbers that a database requires but there should also be a way to translate them to/from auction numbers since we sellers usually base our reference to a particular auction by it's assigned auction number and not the (eBay or AW) assigned reference numbers.
In the good 'ol days of less complicated programming requirements (pre Windows) some third party would have whipped up a little DOS program to take the text file of both the ebay account page and the AW account page and output a new page with the No-Sale credit information all layed out to use for inputting into the AW credit page..
In any event AW needs to make getting a credit as close as possible to easy (and fraud resistant) as getting the debit is now. To not do that while reaping the profit from frustrated sellers shows little respect for the AW community.
posted on September 14, 2001 06:06:18 PM new
While I agree that obtaining a credit for NPB is a tough one, perhaps you might take a look at the end of this thread.
posted on September 14, 2001 06:10:52 PM new
Hi Kahml,
Thank you for your suggestion, we appreciate it. I will make sure that your feedback is passed along to our Product Development department for evaluation.
posted on September 14, 2001 06:22:47 PM new
Yes a check box & mass credit request would be really great, and I overlooked making that suggestion.
But Aw still want's "proof" in the form of copying the entry from the ebay account page and all that back and forth searching for auction reference numbers and cutting and pasting is what really makes it a hassle.
How about the check box - mass credit request combined with some sort of automated proof from eBay? Surely there must be a way to obtain this information from eBay. they send me a copy of the non-Paying bidder email that they send to my bidder so there must be a way behind the scenes..
Anyway as important as this is to me, my other complaint in another thread is one I would like AW to address first.
posted on September 14, 2001 08:34:54 PM new
I had to request a credit for 48 auctions that launched in error. We are talking about 48 nickles. NO WAY was I going to spent all the time to get back $2.40.
Let me just say after a thread I started here, an email to billing, 2-3 days later I final got them to give me credit. The person in billing then sent me an email explaining that AW had to do the work for me. I got 96 emails - 1 for each request entered and another for the acceptance.
Certainly seemed like a lot of waste of time to give me $2.40.
And the email I received telling me it was done was not a very nice one. I think the billing department needs to learn who is providing them a pay check.
