eBay & PayPal – Customer Service Gap

I got an email message from eBay this AM that amazed me.  eBay identified fraud – and gave me instructions on all the work I had to do with PayPal to get this cleared up.   REAL customer service would have been for eBay to simply complete the process and not require me to do any work!

Here’s the message from eBay (with minor editing for privacy):

We’re writing to let you know that the listing for the following item you bid on has been removed:

260264719XXX -  Gift Card Certificate with Free Shipping

We strongly recommend that you do not complete this purchase. Purchases of items listed on eBay but then completed outside of eBay are extremely risky. They are not covered by eBay buyer protection programs and are highly susceptible to fraud.

[They have instructions for other payment methods which I deleted to keep this shorter]

If you paid with PayPal, you may be eligible for up to $2,000 USD coverage at no cost.
1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click the “Resolution Center” tab at the top of the page.
3. Click the “Report a Problem” link.
4. Select “Item Dispute” and click continue. Follow the directions to open a dispute and escalate to a claim.

PayPal claims must be filed within 45 days of the close of the listing. It can take 30 days or more to complete the investigation and resolve the dispute.

So here is what amazes me

• eBay knows I paid via PayPal – up until the moment they deleted the posting they had that fact displayed in my eBay summary.
  • So why encourage me not to pay – you know I already paid!
  • So why mention cash, check and Western Union – you know I used Paypal!
  • So why give me instructions on how to dispute the issue – why can’t eBay do that – they have all the data.
  • eBay has facts that led them to turn off the auction – but I have to wait 30 days to get this completed???

Okay fine, maybe there is a chance that eBay is wrong and I will really get the product – but if eBay had done all the work for me – all I would have to do is close the dispute which eBay automatically kicked off.  In that case, I would see all the help eBay gave me and all I would have to do is login once and close the dispute versus all the above steps plus more not even shown!

Very disappointing service – if PayPal and eBay had just merged I could see this – but the merger was years ago.  This separate service approach is far below the standards I have come to expect from eBay.