What's happening to PowerSeller phone support?

28/01/2010 at 19:42

If you log into the PowerSeller portal today to check your support benefits you might be forgiven for wondering why for some sellers the “Yes” to phone support is missing. I’ve managed to snag screen shots from my Gold, Silver and Bronze PowerSeller log ins, but I don’t have a Platinum or Titanium account so if you are one please let us know what they’re showing.

There’s a thread on the PowerSeller board speculating that it’s the end of dedicated phone support for some PowerSeller levels. There’ll be a general help number, with apparently longer opening hours until 10pm at night.

I phoned a couple of the support numbers and the answer machine message says that eBay are “deactivating phone number you called. For future calls please go to contact page at www.ebay.co.uk/contact where you’ll be given a current phone number and a temporary PIN to use for that call. When you call you’ll be asked to enter that PIN which will allow our CS reps to help you most efficiently”.

That doesn’t sound like the end of telephone support for some PowerSellers. However whether it’ll be PowerSeller support, Business support or general support that’ll be answering the calls is another question.

What’s no surprise is that eBay are moving to a one time PIN system for authenticating calls in the same way that PayPal do already. It wouldn’t surprise me if there are hundreds or thousands of ex-PowerSellers who still have the number and ring in, even if they’re no longer entitled to that level of support.

One things for certain, somethings changing and people are already speculating on exactly what. Quelle surprise – no announcement to let people know what to expect though. It’s business as normal then ;-)