Did you ever want to talk to a real person at eBay? Well, all I can say is 'Good luck'. The best you can do is 'talk' to somebody on 'Live Help'. I have tried this a number of times and it is very frustrating. The system is kind of like one of those chat lines you may be familiar with, although it is agonizingly slow! Once one is connected to an eBay live helper, it seems like an eternity between questions and responses.

Each time I get connected on 'Live Help', I ask if there is a telephone number I can call but the answer is 'no'. The reason given is that eBay feels that most people want to have their computer running on eBay at the same time and that most eBayers are on some primative connection that does not allow this. I am one who does have such a connection, called a dial-up, but I would much prefer to be off-line and talking live to a real person. 

I think there are actual eBay telephone numbers out there but they are well-guarded secrets, perhaps just for the top sellers and lawyers. If eBay really feels that people prefer to use the 'Live Help' chat system instead of the telephone, why don't they make BOTH OPTIONS available, and they will see what people really want? It seems to me that this way, everybody would be happy.

Finally, I should mention how inefficient Live Help is. The last time I used it (and it may be the very last time) it took over forty minutes to deal with a question that probably could have been over and done with in less than five minutes. What a terrible waste of manpower! Stockholders should not be pleased with this!

If you feel the same way as I do about this, send an email to eBay (if you can find your way through their contact eBay section) and request that they have phone numbers for REAL Live Help! Perhaps I will buy a few shares of eBay and see how many cages I can rattle as a stockholder.