[Karunamon]

They don't need to even do anything new feature-wise; they need CS that doesn't suck goat cheese through a coffee stirrer.

If I call in with a problem, give me someone that can both answer my questions and put fingers on the keyboard and fix said problem.

Not really that hard. No more indian call centers, no more useless CS, no more hiding need-to-know information behind the all-consuming veil of "fraud protection" (something its competitors don't seem to have that much of an issue with).

That's 90% of your problems fixed right there. The other 10% would be the inconsistent enforcement of rules.

[001sky]

CS is expensive and the margins on micro-transactions is small.

Think about the order of magnitude:

(1) An average 2.5% transaction fee on a $100 dollar e-bay transaction is US$2.50 in revenue.

(2) The cost of sending someone a "paper bill" in the mail (fully amortized) is approximately US$2.00, or 80% of the revenue from a $100 sale.

(3) at $8.50/hour, a minimum wage worker would expend >80% of revenue by spending 15 minutes to help you.

(4) A "quick fix" with a paper-trail (2+3 above)quickly turns the transaction negative ($2+2=$4>$2.50) at the margin.

(5) Since every fix is an instant loss, profit maximization implies "fix minimization"--at least as one component of strategy.

(Disclaimer: This is all made up math.)

[tehwebguy]

I assumed your parent was talking about customer service from a vendor perspective, which makes more sense. At a certain volume threshold ($5k / mo? $10k? I forget) the customer service experience absolutely improves, but not enough.