eBay Doesn't Read Your Email
April 15, 2002

Ever gotten spam that pretends to be from another company, but isn't?  Sometimes they're trying to trick you into "verifying" your information, so they can grab your account.  Other times, though, they're just trying to get you to click on a link or sign up for something - through their affiliate link.  They pocket a bit of change (multiplied by the thousands of people who fall for it), and the company they're defrauding is none the wiser.

Last Friday, I got an email from "editor@email-4-prizes.com", with the subject "important news from eBay" (come on, guys, at least use some capital letters...make it look somewhat official...and put something in the Name field so the email address doesn't show!).  The email (which I won't reproduce here, since it was HTML and JavaScript and I can't be bothered to cut & paste the source), basically contained an eBay banner, followed by a search box, followed by another banner.  They all linked through to eBay via an affiliate link at qksrv.net.  At the bottom, in small print, were the words: "You have received this email by requesting to receive offers from one of our opt-in or affiliate sites. If you no longer have an interest of if perhaps someone submitted your email address erroneously and would like to be removed, simply CLICK HERE. Your email address will be removed immediately."

I won't even bother to go through what's wrong with that message.

Anyway, being the nice guy that I am, I decided to let eBay know of this little scam.  Not knowing who to send it to, and being too lazy to look it up, I forwarded the email to support@ebay.com, abuse@ebay.com, and webmaster@ebay.com.  My email was as follows:

I received this spam today...I'm sure this isn't how you like your company to be promoted.  I'll leave it to you to take whatever action you feel appropriate - spam like this doesn't look good on you!

Darryl Ballantyne

<spam forwarded below>

The next morning, I received the following reply from eBay's Safe Harbor team:

From: eBay Safe Harbor [mailto:SafeHarbor@ebay.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2002 9:39 AM
To: Darryl Ballantyne
Subject: Re: FW: important news from eBay (KMM49004773V5167L0KM)

Hello Darryl,

Thank you for writing to eBay with your concerns about the email you received.

Several eBay users have notified us about this type of email solicitation made to appear as if it is originating from eBay. This email did not originate from eBay, nor is it endorsed by us.

We are currently investigating the source of the email. Although we are unable to provide specific information regarding the result of our investigation, we do take these offenses very seriously and will make sure that appropriate action is taken against those responsible.

We apologize for any confusion this created for you and we appreciate your efforts in helping keep eBay a safe trading place.

Regards,

Kara
eBay SafeHarbor
Investigations Team

Good!  They're paying attention to this sort of thing, and they're happy I've informed them (even though they already knew).  I'd done my good deed for the day, and receiving the reply made me feel like it was actually appreciated.  Score one for eBay.

That was the last point they'd get.

Late that same night, I received another email from eBay - this time, from the Customer Support team.  It read:

From: eBay Customer Support [mailto:Support@eBay.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2002 2:40 AM
To: Darryl Ballantyne
Subject: Re: FW: important news from eBay (KMM49048531V64919L0KM)

Hello,

Thanks for writing to eBay. I certainly understand your concern about this, and I will be happy to help you with your questions.  If you are not receiving the notices that you would like, or you are receiving notices that you do not want, you can change or review your preferences by following the steps below:

- Click on the "site map" link located at the top of any eBay page.
- Scroll through the "Services" column and click on the "Change my notification preferences" link located under the "My eBay" heading.
- Follow the directions found on that page.

Please keep in mind it can take up to 14 days for your new preferences to take effect.

I wish you luck with your future transactions, and thanks for being a member of the eBay community!

Regards,

Sarah M. J.
eBay Customer Support

Memories of eFax flashed through my head - they hadn't even read my email!!  It had absolutely nothing to do with my Preferences or email I was receiving from them.  How could they even call this Customer Service?  What the Support people should have done was forward it to Safe Harbor - where they would have realized they'd already dealt with it.  But, that was apparently expecting too much.  (As a side note, what kind of archaic system are they using that it takes 14 days for your Preferences to change?  Or is that just so they have one last chance to harass you?)  I angrily fired off a reply - but not before CC'ing it to both the Safe Harbor team, and Meg Whitman, eBay's CEO.  My reply follows:

Do you realize how much of a moron you are?

Did you bother to read either what I wrote, or what I forwarded to you?  Obviously not. A simple skim of the contents of the email would have revealed that my email had *NOTHING* to do with notices I've received from eBay - in fact, I was notifying you of emails being sent from another party being fraudulently represented as being from eBay.

You should be ashamed of the level of support you are providing. It's nothing short of atrocious.

For the record, though, I did receive an excellent and timely reply from the Safe Harbor people - they've informed me that they're aware of the particular issue and are taking action, and thanked me for my concern.

Perhaps you should take the next step in your support efforts and actually read the emails that are sent to you.

Sincerely,

Darryl Ballantyne
AdProject.net
http://www.adproject.net
(519)897-7321

Feeling somewhat satisfied, I went back to my work, hopefully that the proper action would be taken - and maybe, just maybe, they'd improve their "Support" as a result.

This afternoon, I received another reply.

From: eBay Customer Support [mailto:csme@eBay.com]
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 5:20 PM
To: Darryl Ballantyne
Subject: Re: FW: FW: important news from eBay (KMM49172228V5325L0KM)

Hello,

Thank you for you recent email. Meg has asked me to respond to your email as she is unable to do so at this time.

I am very sorry to hear you are less than happy with the customer support you have recently received from eBay. It would appear as though your previous emails did not receive the attention your situation warranted. I will share your email with the appropriate customer support supervisors for further review.

Best Regards,

David Smith
Office of the President Representative
Customer Experience Team.

<lots of footer crap snipped>

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

Another goody for ya..

Patrick Keller
Team eWatch

-----Original Message-----
From: Whitman, Meg
Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2002 10:59 AM
To: DL-eBay-CS-eWatch
Subject: FW: FW: important news from eBay (KMM49048531V64919L0KM)

Ahhh, it's good to see it travel through the eBay system like that.

Still, I couldn't help feeling a bit empty.  The reply is vague enough that even this person might not have read my emails.  And what's with the line "Another goody for ya.."?  Do people complain directly to Meg often?  Maybe their support is a bigger problem than I thought.

It would seem, though, that another reply is in order.

Hi David,

Just to clarify: My email *DID* receive the proper response, from the Safe Harbor team. However, I also received a response from the Customer Support team, who obviously did not even come close to reading my email (and it was only two sentences!). I can forward you a copy of the original message if you'd like.

Actually reading emails should be a high priority in the Customer Support group. I sincerely hope that this is not a regular problem (Though Patrick's comment leads me to believe otherwise...) - and if it is, that you will take the necessary action to solve the problem. Maybe put Kara from Safe Harbor in charge of customer support.

And please, send me something that doesn't look like a form letter.

You may also want to read:

http://www.darrylballantyne.com/Articles/ebay.html

...which is currently chronicling this conversation.

Sincerely,

Darryl Ballantyne
AdProject.net
http://www.adproject.net
(519)897-7321

So, now we wait...should be interesting to see what (if any) reply I get this time.

UPDATE (April 16, 2002): I've received another reply from David.  Here it is:

From: eBay Customer Support [mailto:csme@ebay.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 6:52 PM
To: Darryl Ballantyne
Subject: RE: FW: FW: important news from eBay (KMM49181075V14773L0KM)

Hello Darryl,

Thank you for the clarification on the support you received from eBay.  You did make it clear in your initial email that Safe Harbor had responded appropriately to your concern. You are welcome to forward the inaccurate response you received from our support team so I can make the appropriate customer service representative accountable for the error.  Customer Service is a high priority at eBay. I do appreciate your intervention in this situation, as it will help us to identify and remedy errors within our Customer Service department.

Best Regards,

David Smith
Office of the President Representative
Customer Experience Team

I'm happy now - it looks like something will be done, and eBay will become a better company for it.

I've forwarded the initial response to David, and thanked him for his attention.  I'll leave it to them to take whatever action they deem appropriate.  I'll sleep well tonight.

I'll bet "Sarah M. J." will be pretty pissed off at me, though.