About PlayerAuctions Customer Support

So that this discussion can remain constructive, I will here state the obvious so that we can avoid rabbit trails and beating a dead horse:

-PlayerAuctions Customer Support at present is not what is should be-
(We can even say it sucks, I'm fine with that).

As most of you know, I (Jacob) took over as Managing Director of both PlayerAuctions' offices back in October of last year (few months ago). Incase some of you don't know, I've actually been with PA since it re-launched back in 2008, started at the bottom and worked my way up. There is far more to the story than that, which I think quite of few of you would be interested in the drama over the years, but rabbit trails aside:

What have I done these past few months since I took over?
1st order of business was to clean up and BEEF up the head office in Shanghai. This meant re-organization of departments, letting some people go, and bringing in fresh blood, turning over retarded policies, get the engines started of engaging our community (like being on Sythe), and generally just some much needed spring cleaning. I am really comfortable with the progress our head office has made, and the direction it is now heading.

-NOW- I am out here in our Manila office, which is our headquarters for front end operations (Risk Management & Customer Support). I fully agree with everyone that there is a lot of work to be done.

In defense of our current agents, a lot of them really care about the company, and about our customers. It was a very big discussion internally, but we finally decided to move forward with our Manila operations under the conclusion, that they +CAN+ become legendary if only they have the right leadership. Both myself, and Sarah are here in a city of eternal summer, conducting high level interviews to replace the previous CS manager.

This is in addition to all of the CS rep interest we received from Sythe (thank you guys). Myself, having come from Starbucks of 5 years, with the last two as a trainer, I understand the harm that bad customer service has on a business. I also understand fully, that if CS is to actually turn into a profit center, then good, great, and super customer service just isn't enough. Customer support needs to be legendary, especially for a business like ours that a) has such small revenue margins and b) has someone like me at the helm who scrutinizes even the simplest dinner parties and how they could be made better ^_^

Here are some of the things on my agenda:

1. Find someone top notch, who is willing and brave enough to suffer for a good 6 months to bring our CS operations up to legendary levels.
2. Create proper incentives for agents to go above and beyond the call of duty for our members
3. Develop a culture in which people who trade on our site are not "clients, or customers" but rather "members of a valued community"
4. Implement Quality Assurance programs that coach and develop agents professionally AND personally.
5. Focus and reinforce positive performance. I'm a dog owner, and while I feel it's important to remain the "alpha" in the household, I also prefer positive reinforcement training, because I value work environments where people feel comfortable. This is important, because as CS reps, they will ALREADY deal with the pressure of angry, impatient, rude members, and so this needs to be balanced with a positive atmosphere, so that this energy can be easily channeled towards our members
6. Develop and document ALL standard operating procedures (SOP's)
7. Develop a net promoter score (NPS) system to track customer feedback

My ultimate goal in the future:
Customer Support is our "Final Frontier" so to speak (not really, we still have a lot of things to work on), and once it is at a level that most can agree is above and beyond competitors, then we will move on a path towards finding ways to involve the community even further.

I'm an EVE player, and perhaps some of you are familiar with the EVE Council for Stellar Management (or something like that, I can't remember). I'd love to do something like that, and bring some of our own community out on a trip to one of our offices to meet, get feedback, hang out, and develop more "organic" ties to people who love to trade gaming assets.

If you guys have additional ideas on how the community can be more involved in helping us to improve, let's talk. And if you guys have some additional ideas on how we can further help to legitimize and legalize secondary market trading for gaming assets, post here. We're on the same team, and I'd like to stay that way for as long as I am at PA.

One last note. For the most part, I am really impressed with the Sythe community and how you guys have really taken to support the changes we have been working on. I can not express my gratitude for some of the conversations I've been able to have with some of you. So, at least in part, I try to repay you guys by giving visibility into what we're working on.

Rock it.

 

Maybe hire some people from America.
Honestly, it's really a tough time when you have somebody who is from a different country, and also using automated messages instead of actually processing thoughts to help you, "CUSTOMER SERVICE" reps at least my experience from purchasing from you guys was horrible because the accounts were recovered and none of the reps told me what to do about the situation at hand .. just some automated messages and a click good bye.

 

BigJoe you are right. With finding the right person to manage the team, one of my aims is to have service lean more towards "organic" service, and move (far) away from scripted responses.

As for hiring people from the states. I've already posted elsewhere in this community and a few others about anyone who might be interested in working with us.

I actually still have PMs in my inbox of people who have expressed interest that I need to get too.

 

Had a really bad experience with your customer service a few weeks back under your new management. Sold a runescape account with over 600m worth of items/gold on and untradeables etc many many months of work e.g all chaotics and PoP gear 100's of overloads. So buyer comes and buys it (new buyer with 0 feedback) but anyway never had problem with playerauctions before so I was fine with it. Anyway trade goes through guy logs on account as per typical without me getting money or him saying accept. The guy then cleans the account and completely destroys the account dropping even the untrade-ables which are 100% no gain for him other than the fact of destroying the account.

So after about 7 hours pass and the guy has had access to the account and i'm still yet to receive a confirmation that he wants it, He's been online for over 3 hours.

I then get worried and think the worst and go into a live chat and get promised if anything happens I will get compensation for any damage caused which gets rid of my worries. I then get message from the buyer saying he wants to cancel order and that details I give where not correct. Which they was correct because I created the account. So this is where I get worried even more and recover the account to notice it has been completely wiped.

After complaining numerous times and getting 0 help from about the 10 emails I received, Playerauctions decided to insult me with a $5 voucher off a future purchase.

Bare in mind I have 114 feedback and been using PA for over 3 years and that's what happened to me and will be the last time I ever use PA. Will also continue to tell my friends how poor I was treated by PA customer service. Will also never use your services again.

 

Here's a few pointers for an old PA seller:

1. If I accidentally miss the delivery time on 1 order out of 100, you guys should waive the fee. I had thousands of dollars sold on your site and probably made you guys over 3K in fees. The little 5-6$ fee you charge your most reliable sellers really ticks us off, and giving my honest opinion: If there was a competing site, I would change just from that.
2. Your livechat agents should all have basic powers (for example: removing the negative balance). Many times I go onto livechat and then they tell me they will "forward my concern to the appropriate department." This message = I'm just not going to bother myself with your request. I have to come back to your chat multiple times in order for them to finally remove the balance.
3. When it comes to recovered accounts, your live chat agents are horrendously bad at customer service. They always tell me they will email me regarding the issue, but they never do. Buying an account of playerauctions has no more security than buying from a random person on sythe.

These are just a few of the things that have really pissed me off recently and if you fix these I think Playerauctions can become more user and seller friendly.

 

I've experienced horrible customer service from PA when selling gold. The seller denied receiving $300 worth of gold which I had photo evidence of. It took 2-3 months to have the issue resolved. After the first six weeks I even went to the extent of contacting you, Jacob, on your personal twitter. All you did was tell me to email someone else who I had already contacted with little success.

Considering the fees, PA sucks!

Damn, I wish I received a $5 voucher, lol.

 

It's totally okay to vent mate. But if you read my post carefully, you'd notice two things:

1) I acknowledge that our customer support has many opportunities for improvement

2) When the new management was implemented (i.e. myself), I first had to tend to things on the operations side of things. I am now moving on to work on CS issues.

I really appreciate if you guys think we are supermen, but the reality of the matter it that we can't fix everything all at once. In fact, sometimes I think of doing this, and I honestly become very overwhelmed. It takes constant reminders from someone who provides business mentorship to me: One step at a time.

So while your issue may have taken place under the "new management", I apologize, but I have to re-iterate that these past few months the focus has not been on CS but on other operational issues (such as removing retarded punishment fees, modifying support for certain games/markets, adding support for new products, re-organizing internal structures, fixing risk management rules to cut down on cancellations that take place during manual review, and a ton of other things).

We have been working. On average myself and several other team members, on the order of 60hr work weeks. If you wanted to realistically judge the efficacy of the new management, then I would have heard of this particular issue, and I would have been delighted to help you. Unfortunately, it didn't end up on my desk, and I am sorry you had to continue with the old system and that I couldn't get to fixing CS sooner.

If you are able to take my words to hear, you are welcome to get in touch with me via a PM and I'd be happy to discuss one on one on how I might be able to show our intentions to really help out, and do what I can to potentially restore faith in us and the efforts I am working hard to move forward But it's up to you mate. My PM box is open.

This is excellent feedback and exactly the sort of stuff that is helpful. Thank you so much. :love:

I'll put the actual correspondence here since you bring it for public consumption:

Seems a little hot & cold Anthony. It appears that I didn't tell you to email someone else, but I told you to wait. I checked on the progress of the case and it just so happened that mediation team were closing in your favor regardless, so I realistically did not need to do anything.

The several weeks it took to solve your issue is not excusable, but hence, this is why I am here posting in the first place. That my next step and efforts will be to fix our CS issues.

 

From what I've heard about the customer service on PA so far, it really makes me hesitant on using the site. I've used it like once to buy gold off a trusted member on both Sythe and PA. But honestly for the time being, I'd rather not use the site until the customer service has been improved upon. Hopefully once the customer service area has been improved I'll begin to use PA. From the sound of things, the CS on PA is not much different than that of any chinese gold site lol. But hey, I do hope everything improves.

 

I've personally never had a single problem with PA (over 50 feedback), and I take my hat off to you Jake for what you're doing.

Good luck!

 

I've been in a few situations on PA where I've had to refer to the live chat, there is nothing more frustrating than going over to get help, and basically talking to a brick wall. These agents are not only unhelpful, it's as if there trained to wind people up. Also, when being referred to email a department directly, this can take up to WEEKS to get a reply.

Your here trying to deliver customer service, above and beyond expectations, whilst on this thread here, your obviously not.

If I ran a company, trying to deliver amazing customer service, and I had feedback of people being scammed after being reassured by my live chat, I would fully compensate them, not just say 'I know we have issues' That is just as unhelpful as your live chat are.

Furthermore, I'm at a loss to how your company makes such small profit margins, as the fees on PA are high.

 

The main problem with your customer service reps is that they are powerless. The ones on live chat have the ability to do absolutely nothing. When you give support no tools to actually fix problems, then what use are they?

It seems to me like PlayerAuctions does not trust their own support to make any decisions.

 

Exactly, And if there's no immediate supervisor there to make the decision for them (if your not going to trust the livechat operator themselves) then they will have to pass it on to another department, which is just such a long winded process for what could be such a simple task.

 

All I can say is, that is very perceptive of you R2.

It would be a lot to get into, but I will keep the focus on the future and say that this is exactly why I am in Manila presently to address this specific issue. There are a lot of things I have to consider and weigh on any given day, but I do not believe there is any other issue for which I have greater sensitivity towards (CS). It is the "foyer" of our community, the first impression, and the first point of organic contact between "entity" and "individual". Each one of you is so important to the bigger picture, that we ultimately have to be "shy" of aspiring towards critical mass, until our first point of contact is solid, and polished. There is something so important and comforting about knowing that when you guys enter into the realm of our CS that you will be cared for, valued, and that there is the finesse and expertise there to be able to sufficiently resolve any issues you have.

And so, the "guns" are now turned on our CS. The last "holdout" of ours needing a great deal of tender loving care (and our website design, but that's another thread).

But to give you an update:
I wouldn't want to jump the gun, but so far the interviews that we've had so far have been immensely encouraging, several people from high profile companies such as Hewlett Packard, Google, PayPal, Citibank, DirectTV, SPi, Convergys, Sykes, IBM, and many others. Some with six sigma certification, and others with backgrounds in operations, quality assurance, etc. etc. I can say that I'm encouraged right now, and the main problem moving forward will be to select one person from a large pool of really rad people. A future team leader that will be qualified and up to the task of accomplishing "first contact resolution".

If ever I had the chance to sit down with you guys face to face, I could talk about the "history of PA" and why things like CS became the way they are. I think it would be fascinating for some of you, but perhaps some of that can come up in interviews in the future or something. Forum may not be the best place to hold that type of pow-wow.

Man, I'm exhausted. Turning in now guys, any PMs sent, I'll get to tomorrow

 

I'll comment on this last part super quick. Read this VERY carefully, as you will learn quite a bit here.

We are a consumer to consumer trading platform. That means: we have nothing to do with production, distribution, supply chain, etc. etc.

>>>Google "wow gold" or "runescape gp". All those listings that come up... they make on order of 37% - 50% profit on a single transaction.

That is what we have to compete against. But let's go a little closer to home, and compare PA with other trading platforms:

eBay & Amazon have fees ranging between 6% - 25% depending on product types. If you were to do an equivalency, I guess it'd be safe to say they'd peg digital assets at around 10-15%.

But what is it about PA, that makes us a better deal?

- PA does not charge premiums for additional uploads. You can upload as many photos/for sale offers as you want.
- PA does not charge subscriptions for having a personal storefront.
- PA does not charge for listings that do not sell
- PA takes payment on behalf of the seller, and make's sure it is secured (does eBay do that? Does Amazon?)
- PA absorbs fraud on behalf of sellers (does eBay or Amazon do that?)


Unlike them, this is what we do.
- Secure payments, flesh out suspicious or unauthorized charges, weed out stolen credit cards, keep out black listed IPs, devices, card numbers, etc. etc., and we remain compliant with AML/KYC policies.

This takes time, effort, and technology. From the looks of it, it seems like eBay and Amazon have higher margins because of all the "Extra" things they charge for.

But let's take it a step further. A $100 order passes through our platform. We get $10, you get $90. Let me repeat that. We get $10, and you get $90.

Your Alternative that everyone is welcome to
Try trading offsite, you deliver $100 worth of product, you receive payment. And a few days later, you receive a chargeback. You've lost your payment, and your product.

Now, since you say you are hard pressed to imagine why we may not be hugely profitable. Let's do a little more math. In addition to a) all of the fixed costs associated with keeping a transaction safe and b) receiving a smaller margin than other c2c sites, we will also TAKE the loss.

So, a $100 transaction passes through our system. You get $90... and we get a chargeback for the full $100. This is a $90 loss for us... for an order that we originally would have received.... $10.

A tiny bit more math. To recover from that loss of $90... we'd need to transact an additional...... $900... just to break even.

Let's take this one more logical step, to something perhaps a lot of you smaller sellers might not even consider. Many of you may be fine handling your own transactions, and taking a loss here or there of $100. You're margins are higher than ours after all. But what are you going to do in this scenario:

You've had a loyal buyer trading with you since 2011. He is good with his payments, you have a decent rapport with him. You develop trust, since you've traded with each other for so long. Then, all of a sudden, last week, you receive a chargeback for $4,000, for all of the items he purchased Nov - Dec. The bank is saying, that the charges were not authorized. A few days ago, the bank notices you again, and says more chargebacks were issued dating back 180 days totaling $14,000. It turns out, that the ID the guy gave you, the utility bill, the copy of the credit card... everything... it all belonged to his father.

I guarantee you would fight for your life to win this chargeback, but when you are dealing with merchant acquiring banks, unfortunately in the west, the issuing bank (buyer) controls the outcome. You are S.O.L.

It's stuff like this, that you guys don't even consider, or hear about, because we are busy bees in the background protecting you from all of these possibilities.

So, in conclusion, I'll ask:
- PA takes $10 out of $100
- PA doesn't charge the extras like other c2c markets (and has arguably lower fees anyway)
- PA has fixed costs associated with transacting each order (remember, eBay and Amazon stay out of the flow of money)
- PA absorbs fraud in order to keep sellers like you safe

Are you still "at a loss" at how a company like ours might be absent from rolling around in wads of cold hard cash? Hope this brings greater understanding to all.

We can, but this is contingent on critical mass.

 

This means nothing to me really, It was Sarah who dealt with the case and I'm still down 600m worth which is about $240 and months of labour due to your faults. Not to mention the amount I've pumped into PA with GP/ACC sales. Easily $1000+ in charges and to get offered a $5 voucher was an embarrassment. Not sure what you mean, By showing your intentions to help... Help with what? Your idea of help was a $5 voucher. The only way I'd restore faith in Playerauctions would be if there was justice to the user who scammed me and I got my losses back. Just the overall experience I've had with old PA and the new has been poor. Also as for what R2 said was true, I've been in live chat many times and never had a situation been resolved it's always email this email that, You will get a reply within 48Hours. 1 week passes back into live chat and same thing. There have been times where I've been in live chat 5-6 Times just to get my disbursement method changed.

Also I received negative feedback off A guy because he went over his delivery time and I cancelled the order so I left him negetive. The user is now a -2 feedback not sure if this means banned or no longer a user? But I asked for it to be removed and they said it can't be removed because the user is no longer active. He left me negative feedback for nothing I did wrong, I bought GP and waited for his 20minute delivery then about 5 hours later decide to cancel and find another seller. But still receive bad feedback off him because I sent him bad. Now i have 3 negetive feedback for no reason and it can't be removed apparently.

 

You aren't selling any products, so your 10$ is alot for you for a MMing service, Also, It's more like 15%, so 15$.

Further more, if you are the CEO of this company, I'm sure it has no hope of succeeding in the future, with your poor ability to not be able to do high school math.

If the sale is 100$, and you take 10%, you have 10$, and the seller receives 90$. Then IF the buyer claims back, you have to pay them back the 100$, leaving you at a loss of 90$, not 190$.

In my opinion, PlayerAuctions has many flaws, which you openly admit, and I hope you succeed in detecting them all and fixing them so people continue to use your trusted site. Maybe once the site is running smoothly, your fee's may be able to lower.

As for your maths.. I don't have much to say, other than the fact, you've just tried to talk down to me and give me a patronising speech whilst being embarrassingly wrong.

 

Now it seems like PA is getting defensive... Honestly i don't know where PA will go to in the future...

 

You're forgetting about advertisement. Which I am sure costs a fortune. They don't only mm. They get you a customer as well. With google adwords you can pay as much as $5-10 just for a visitor in the runescape niche. Some of these smaller shops spend $1000s monthly on advertisement. MMO gold keywords are ranked among the hardest keywords online to rank for. The competition ranking is maxed out.

 

and if you're looking for customer service reps from the states who are online 24/7.

I'm your guy.

 

My intention was not to be patronizing but to shed a greater understanding about our fees. However if it was perceived as such, I apologize. I also do not think the tone of you response was entirely warranted, but... this is the internets, so I'm not going to cry a river either

It was very late last night when I made that response and I was tired, and I stand corrected. I have modified the post accordingly.

The point of my response was not to antagonize or get defensive, but to outline in greater detail what the fees accomplish, in addition to how PA is more cost efficient than other c2c businesses. Apparently I failed at that, because the point is lost and the focus is instead drawn to my "inability to do high school maths". I do believe however that it can be understood as a simple mistake of adding a "1" and could be a mistake anyone could make under the duress of fatigue. Perhaps a little grace is in order? (i.e. cut me some slack. are my intentions to distance ourselves from the community, or to bring greater understanding to our business model?).

Hey Trkz, I responded to your PM, not sure if you received it, but if you prefer to keep correspondence in the thread, that's fine.

Send me the order numbers in question, and this will allow me to have a greater depth of detail to sort through the issues and identify the best course. At this point, I do not know who the user is who scammed you, so, you're order numbers would help me a great deal. Sarah happens to be with me, so once I receive this info, I can talk with her about it directly.

As for the feedback, yes that can also be changed, again, get in touch with me.

Defensive, how so?

- One response, agreement with Bigjoe
- One response, thanks Lalapo for his feedback
- One post responds to Trkz basically saying I hear ya, and get in touch and I'd be happy to help
- One response agrees with R2 about his perception
- One post discloses correspondence between myself and Anthony just to set the record straight since he brought it up
- One post describes our fees, and is merely an explanation of what they accomplish and how it compares with other c2c markets
- Most recent post I stand corrected by MMU for the mistaken maths I made

I'm not really sure how we are coming across as defensive? If anything, I am bowing to the statements of the community, giving explanation, and offering help