Per “The Chatter – eBay’s Blog About The Company and the Community”, changes have been made to eBay’s “Resolution Center” and PayPal’s “Dispute Console” that integrates the two dispute processes for those applicable transactions. PayPal policy changes also offer buyers more incentives to use PayPal for payment on eBay. This is further evidence of ongoing efforts and trends in which PayPal as a method of payment is becoming ubiquitous with transactions made on eBay, PayPal’s parent company.
Full details of the eBay announcement can be found at eBayChatter.com:
Changes to the Resolution Center and Dispute Console
Posted by Colin Rule on July 25, 2008 at 03:59 PM in Musings from Colin Rule
It’s been said that the dispute resolution process on eBay and PayPal is kind of like the dentist’s office. No one gets excited thinking about the dentist’s office every day (well, except for dentists, I suppose). But if you have a toothache, it’s all you can think about. The same holds true with dispute resolution: you probably don’t think about it every day, but if you do have a problem (which can be as annoying as a toothache) you want the resolution process to work smoothly and efficiently, so you can get the issue resolved quickly and get back to business.
New drill for dispute resolution
Well I’m very pleased to announce some big improvements in the dispute resolution infrastructure at eBay and PayPal. To take the metaphor a bit further, imagine your local dentist’s office upgrading from foot powered pumps and buzzing film-based x-ray machines to diamond tipped ultrasonic drills and computerized 3-D tooth scans.
The first change is a huge upgrade to the PayPal Resolution Center, which is the hub on PayPal where buyers and sellers can work out all their transaction and account problems. The Resolution Center was launched in 2004, and though many new dispute resolution “flows” have been added to it over the years, up to a couple of weeks ago it pretty much looked the same as it did when we turned it on four years ago. The new redesign has updated the Center and optimized everything in line with how we’ve learned people use it. For example, low volume users (e.g. buyers or occasional sellers) see a custom view with more help content and filing assistance, but as volume increases (e.g. professional sellers) the Resolution Center changes the view to make actions more streamlined. We’ve also cleaned up the tables and actions to present the most important information in an easily understood way.
But the improvements don’t stop at just the front page. We’ve also launched wholly new dispute and claim flows, with major upgrades there as well. For instance, buyers and sellers can now negotiate partial refunds directly in the dispute phase of the process, and if both sides agree, the dispute is automatically closed and the agreed upon money moved from one account to the other. We’ve made the whole process much easier to follow, with clearer indications of where users are in the resolution process and simplified indications of what actions they need to take. In addition, we are now offering projected times for when each step in the claims phase will be completed, so users won’t feel like their process is open-ended. We’re also going to start communicating the reason for decisions much more clearly, so you’ll know the rationale behind any outcomes you achieve.
Real-time dispute data automatically in eBay
However, the improvements aren’t only on the PayPal site. We’ve also achieved something I’ve wanted to do ever since the first day I joined the company almost five years ago. We now have created a channel that exposes real-time PayPal claim and dispute data to eBay, and that has enabled us to put information into the eBay Dispute Console showing the current status of all PayPal Disputes and Claims currently in progress regarding eBay items. In the past, buyers have sometimes been confused when they tried to file an Item Not Received or Not as Described dispute on eBay and were then pushed to PayPal to complete the filing process. When they went back to eBay, there was no indication that a dispute was ever filed. Now eBay will know in real-time the status of the PayPal dispute and claim, and will be able to display it to the buyer right in their eBay Dispute Console. This should minimize confusion and improve response rates to disputes for both buyers and sellers.
I know you’re curious to see the new processes, but let me be clear: I don’t want everyone to intentionally create a transaction problem to check them out. As most everyone on eBay and PayPal knows, an occasional transaction problem is inevitable, so keep trading as much as you can and maybe (if you’re lucky? unlucky?) you’ll get a chance to see these new tools in action.
Kudos go in particular to Scott Loper and Ted Fong, who lead the eBay Resolutions team, and Chris Wang, who runs Resolutions at PayPal, as well as Naresh Narwani, who led the console-linking project on the PayPal side. But these efforts involved dozens of engineers, usability designers, web developers, and quality assurance people, all working in concert around the world for more than a year. The successful launch of these improvements represent the end of this particular marathon effort, which we should acknowledge and celebrate, but it should be noted we’re already hard at work on our next set of improvements.
As I said at the beginning, no one walks around thinking about the dentist’s office every day except for dentists. The same is true for dispute resolution: as a resolution geek, this is what I love to think about all day and all night. And my focus on this area makes me doubly proud of all the great progress that has been achieved with these new features. These changes represent huge leaps forward in minimizing frustration and preserving trust. I hope you’ll never have to take advantage of them, but they’re there for you if you do.
If PayPal users log into their accounts, and click the “Policy Updates” link in the bottom of the column on the left, there is an “Amendment to the PayPal User Agreement” that goes into effect September 30, 2008. The following excerpt pertains to Buyer Protections (click for full resolution):
For more coverage of ongoing eBay and PayPal policy changes and related stories, see the PayPal & eBay Policy category. Thanks to Rick Spector of Stairway to the Stars for alerting me to the eBay Chatter announcement.
Jason De Bord