About PlayerAuctions Customer Support

True. We are in the midst of expanding our marketing efforts as well setting up for big pushes this year. This means that the 10% in commissions sellers pay, means they are buying into a marketing engine that works to bring more purchasers to the site which sellers can compete to win over. Our traffic to the site is roughly 30% higher than it was 12 months ago, and this comes with extremely cost efficient and clever acquisition strategies. We could make larger pushes for short and long term growth, but fixing CS right now is what is in our current sights.

Marketing costs are brutal as Darren mentions. As I said previously, the b2c companies who compete against us in this space operate on anywhere between 37% - 55% profit on a single sale. They have money to spend. Compare that to our 10% margin, we're talking about David vs. Goliath when it comes to spending power.

 

Sorry - As I said I hope it works out for you, Personally I would begrudge paying 15% per trade, but I understand how its necessary.

I'm not familiar with these other companies your referencing, But, I'm assuming there profit margins are so high - As there actually selling a product?

Maybe PA should broaden It's market, and start offering sales of its own, as well as being a 'perfect' auto online MM.

 

The fee isn't that bad. They are a business after all -- how do you expect them to make money not charging a fee? With that 10-15% they have to use i'm guessing the majority of it to deal with disputed payments, some to advertise, staff to pay, etc.

But they need to get their customer service on the site sorted. The people working it are complete idiots or just don't understand enough English to make anything they say helpful. This deters a lot of people away from the site. If I were to use their online customer service when I had low feedback and realized how bad it was, I definitely would have not continued my service with them.

 

The only issue that stops me from using PA is when my order goes into manual review even though I have 28 positive feedback and have been using PA for over 2 years. Also they request an arm and a leg to activate your order once it goes into manual review, I for one will not send out my passport, drivers license or paid bills to anyone, especially a company in the Philippines? Might as well send them my social security #, birth certificate and give them my credit history as well.

What also gets me is that it depends on the time of the day, if I order my gold during a certain time it'll still go through manual review but it'll get accepted, other times it'll need me to activate it by sending them my entire life which I wont. Maybe it all depends on whose working.

Just a suggestion, maybe for loyal PA customers, can you throw out the need for a manual review once we have 10+ positive feedback?

 

Well what can i say about PA, iv had many highs and many lows with them, iv clocked up over 1800 successful transactions on that website, most likely totaling over $100,000 and i have to say it was probably one of the most depressing times in my life.


You are here to ''update'' and make PA a better place, well for alot of people who have already used PA over the years you will never be able to repair the damage on their opinion towards you, because your customer support is just beyond terrible, and i wont even go as far as blaming the live chat hosts of PA, because in all fairness they want to help you alot of the time, it just stems back to what r2 said about the ''powers'' they have, which is virtually nothing, every decision has to ran by the ''higher team'' who work about 8 hours a day and not at all on a weekends, this is not 24/7 support if your issue cannot be fixed until 2-7 days later.

Also your ''late delivery fees'' are just a complete insult to every loyal member of you website, its pure greed wanting that 10% profit regardless if the trade is successful or not.


I could talk about problems with playerauctions all day long but the truth is iv used it for 3 years and i have already wasted all my effort arguing with the live chat and email responses that i just dont have anything left to give anymore.

 

Hi H,

The issue you describe doesn't necessarily have to do with customer support, but actually has to do with our Risk Management department which helps to screen and prevent fraud. Rules apply differently for everyone, as our system is very sophisticated, and even though you may have been with us for two years with positive feedback, the system may have accounted for a huge number of different variables which flagged the order to be on the safe side.

About personal ID's, etc. etc. unfortunately that is the nature of the beast, and people are going to have to live with it. We are PCI DSS compliant, and our business is held accountable to US privacy laws, so no... you won't have to worry about us mis-using personal information. Not only this, but it is a necessary evil with the nature of our business. Because we are involved in the flow of money (unlike eBay where payments happen directly between individuals), we are obligated to be AML & KYC compliant (look it up). People attempting to commit fraud on our platform are not in a very good place since we are obligated to report all instances (including suspicious transactions) to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). They released a guidance in March of 2013 which details the requirements for businesses dealing in virtual currencies.

Hi Oblivion,

I'll respond to your three points in order

1) People who have used PA and impossible to repair perceptions and reputations.
Oblivion, I am fully aware of what I have essentially "inherited" from all of the bad decisions, judgement, or imprudence of my predecessors. No one should envy me, I certainly don't

And while what you say is definitely a sad truth, that it is very well impossible to make amends with some people, this is something that I've acknowledged from day 1 when taking this position, But that isn't any reason for any of us at PA to not try I may not be able to win over the disenchanted, but I will continue to move forward on making improvements, and turn the platform into something that those who continue to stick with us, can all be proud of as a legitimate example of what secured, player to player trading should be like, and in turn hopefully act as an exemplar for legislators to potentially legalize and legitimize secondary market trading, just as has been done in other countries.

2) Late delivery fees
This is something we are modifying currently. It will stay in place to prevent bad behavior from sellers who wish to abuse the system (i.e. posting for sale offers for inventory they don't even have, resulting in cancelled orders, and lost sales that could have been fulfilled by legit sellers), but I agree there should be more intelligence attached to when and how these should be applied. This is on the docket, and I will likely release an announcement on the updated policy later this month.

3) Wasted time arguing with CS, nothing left to give.
I'm not just another "CS agent" am I? If you've truly run out of steam and don't want to be apart of the change, it's completely up to you and I respect that But incase that you do want to be part of shaping us, the opportunity is there and my door is open mate. Reach out anytime, I'd be delighted to hear your thoughts/ideas provided it was constructive, considerate, and respectful

At the end of the day, it's up to you, but you are certainly welcome mate.

A separate note in general.

I very well could re-brand the company, go the whole 9 yards with changing the entity name, and trying to spin everything as "New", but I feel personally inclined to just be transparent about things. People can take it or leave it, but we won't stop at re-vamping and aiming for something legendary. I'd invite people to be part of it.

The past is there for me (us) to learn from, and I feel it is a greater accomplishment to take dust off the old car, give her a good wash, upgrade the interior, and see her race down the race track, than to just take the easy way of throwing it all away and starting new. PA has history for better or worse, but the past should not, and will not dictate what we become in the future. Same with people. All of us have made mistakes in the past, but the best thing about continuing on in life is our ability to change, re-invent ourselves and have that ultimate, intrinsic pride of seeing how far we have come. :idea: ^_^

Cheers,
jake


p.s. A lot of you have PMed me. I might be a little slow in responding, just because I am swamped here in Manila and am trying to wrap everything up before heading back to our head office this week. Bare with me

 

For me player auctions are not helpful at all!
I spent $170, and wanted a refund after. Never got the money back despite endessly contacting their emails and live chat. I have given up, and i am sure they changed around my transaction ids so it looked like they had refunded me. Really angry about it and would like a refund. If i were you I wouldn't use it. Really negative support from me...

My playerauctions name: vengeupbro

EDIT: The livechat isn't very helpful and everyone there lies. I made another account but am not even allowed to be told what the order is on it. Its funny as as soon as i made the order, then decided to cancel my account got banned, not before, even though I had no idea about it.... And I was told that If i wanted the account I would literally have to beg, if evidence is needed i could go and fish it out of my emails. Finally, I got a negative vote from someone who was trying to scam me... which isn't very fair. Also the account checkers need to actually check, considering I bought an account off PA that still had recoveries on last year and was left helpless knowing it would get clawed back, and i would lose $100+ on it..... NEGATIVE FOR ME SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE!

 

Will look it up come thursday. Though, it is stated in our FAQ section, that having multiple accounts is not permitted (hence one of your issues being a ban).

And since you haven't posted the live chat transcript, I wouldn't go so far as saying everyone lies. Let's try not to indulge sensationalism, and wait for my feedback mate. ^_^

 

ok whatever, understand about the ban. However i might have some photos on my other computer, (will check when i get home)..... also have the countless emails i sent, can post those as well if you need.

 

Well, I have to applaud the new management on PA in their transparency on its predecessors downfall and would very much like to affirm that PA is on the right track.

I was previously quite jaded with the lack of professionalism with the livechat agent when I had a simple issue that I honestly feel could have been solved in 1 day. That was like 2 years ago and that sole experience actually did deterred me from using PA until recently.

I am just glad something is being done.

 

I have another thing to add here aswell, I did a trade around a year ago, where I bought some GP.

I bought it from someone that "Guaranteed" Delivery within 20minutes/24hours, I can't remember which one. But there average trade time said 10 minutes or so, so I assumed I would get the GP near enough instantly.

After along wait, I was told they didn't have all the GP in stock, and they paid me around 25%, (I assumed the rest would be coming shortly after) When it didn't I cancelled the order, obviously.

It wasn't until months later I realised it was still "processing" I then Had to contact CS, then email etc etc, after waiting for a few replys (6 weeks+) I had been told It will be refunded, After It was refunded, I still didn't have it in my moneybookers account.

After a month of talking to Moneybookers, apparently, because I paid through my bank with money bookers, my partial refund went back to my bank account instead of my money bookers account. This was a bank account I had already closed, So I just gave up.


This was SO much hassle for me, and after it all I Simply gave up trying to get my money back. What was most annoying for me, was that nothing happened for months until I realised it was still "processing" after I brought this to the attention of PA, it should of been dealt with within hours, or days, certainly not months.

Also, It seemed that all the emails I sent explaining that the seller shouldn't of had his gold up for sale, if he didn't have it in stock, PA took his side and said partial delivery's are valid, and I will only get a partial refund. I was amazed that I waited 3 months, then a further 2 months for a reply to get that answer.

- Don't even think I got an apology along the way.

 

Mate, you have a lot of orders on your account. PM me your order ID# that will be faster for me

Very much appreciated good Ser.

PM me your order ID# mate, I'll look into it.

 

It's fine - what's done is done, The payment has been processed on your end now, just daft that it took so long, and was so tedious to get a refund to an old bank account.

 

Ok, will do on friday. The only problem is on my banned account i cannot see the order id, was wondering if you could look into it please? thanks...

 

Hi, You've still yet to solve the issues I emailed you with. Or give me any updates.

 

Today, three times in a row the Player auctions representative went afk for 10 minutes at a time before he made a response, when the responses could have been made in seconds. Pretty painful experiences with the customer support thus far.

 

I just realized how its now been likely around 2 months since I first started to contact you, and I still have not heard a single word from you. Tried contacting you in every way possible, not once did I get a reply.

If you truly are working on the customer service side of PA, you -really- have a long way to go it seems. If you aren't prepared to reply to the people, then I don't understand why you even try to reach out.

 

Hey Jacob, I've PM'd you about my situation, forgot to add I received 1 negative feedback off a user because he didn't deliver within his guarantee & I cancel'd, hope that can get resolved. Also hopefully it's possible to get my bullshit fine removed and my funds I had on your site I had made from selling accounts disbursed to me.

FYI, I don't blame you in anyway, if all your customer service people were clones of you I have no doubt that it would be great but it isn't these people can barely type in English, except one guy 'Leonard' I always get and he reminds me that I've dealt with him before, he is really helpful. Other times I get a Leonard or whatever and it's a different person .

I totally lost my train of thought and have no idea if what I've said above even makes sense but I hope I can talk to you personally to resolve this issue & the one I've Messaged you about.

Thanks,
Matt.

 

Yay i got charged another $11 by playerauctions for late delivery, what a great website that eats my profits even when i dont make a sale.

back to not using playerauctions again.