The eBay online auction service Friday was the target of stinging criticism from customers who said site managers quickly deleted complaints they posted about problems they experienced after the auction system crashed on Wednesday.
Customers posted messages to a Q&A bulletin board complaining that the crash cut short their auctions and prevented them from getting their highest prices for their goods.
The auction system was off line for nearly 12 hours Wednesday, after technicians discovered a bug during a routine software upgrade that required an immediate fix and extensive testing. The site was gradually returned to full service by mid-afternoon Wednesday.
An eBay executive denied that it was trying to censor customers or keep critical comments from circulating within the auction site's community. However, the executive confirmed that it was possible that some customers might have been suspended for posting critical or abusive comments on the Q&A bulletin board.
"We have a policy that we do not monitor content on any board except the Q&A board which runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Brad Handler, director of public policy at eBay. This board is only supposed to be used to post questions about "buying, selling or bidding in eBay," Handler said.
Every e-mail posted to this site is supposed to receive a response within 24 hours, Handler noted. "The customer is important so on the one board where we provide live support it is important that the board is used for questions related to buying and selling."
The site has multiple boards where users can register their complaints. Handler said, so customers do have an opportunity to share their criticisms with the company and other customers.
Suspensions possible
However, he said, customers could be suspended if they kept posting critical comments to the Q&A board. "If people continue to abuse the system they receive a 24 hour suspension," he said. "No one gets suspended for content they put on a board without first being warned. However, once someone is warned and continue to abuse the system they may receive a temporary suspension." During that time, he explained, they can't post new bids, but their current auctions will still run and existing bids will still be valid.
"If someone comes back and continues to abuse the system it's quite possible they could be permanently suspended," Handler said. However, he did not say whether any customers had been suspended in the wake of Wednesday's system crash.
During Wednesday's crash, eBay posted notices that all auctions that were in force during the outage would be extended for 24 hours free of charge. It also temporarily reinstated a "free relisting" policy under which it agreed to relist for free a product that didn't sell during the outage, whether or not the item sold when it was relisted.
