6-Hour Wait Times to Get eBay Payments Support

eBay sellers being forced into Managed Payments this month are experiencing 6-hour wait times for phone support at times, according to an eBay moderator. He related the information matter-of-factly, adding that at times, eBay has to shut off the option to call because of spikes in volume.

This was the exchange between a seller and the moderator on today's eBay Weekly Chat:

Seller: "So eBay is well aware of the MP deadline yet they can't seem to manage to have enough support staff.  Why is it that eBay continues to hide behind the pandemic excuse yet sellers are expected to keep trucking along like everything is normal?  My understanding is there are no extensions for us yet your MP team lacks the bodies to do their job..."

eBay Moderator: "I'm not sure what you are referring to in regards to the pandemic, but I can confirm that recently our managed payments teams have experienced an incredibly high increase in call volume, which has led to long wait times (sometimes exceeding 6 hours) and resulted in us having to shut off the option to call us or have us call you at times. This is something we have had to do from time to time for various topics when the number of calls for that topic result in excessive wait times.

"Obviously we strive to maintain staffing at a level that meets the needs of our customers, and we are working to address any spikes in volume at this time. We appreciate your patience while we support our Community through this transition and recommend that you continue to check the related help page for your question to see available contact options."

It's not surprising sellers have a lot of questions, it's just not clear why eBay hasn't adequately prepared its customer support operations.