A few (many?) years ago the customer was always right. It wasn’t necessary for a customer to ever question a company’s policies, because at the top of the policy list was that you gave the customer whatever they wanted (well may be). Things have changed: now there are at least three levels of respect which a company can afford its customers: -

1)      Exemplary: the customer doesn’t need to question company policy because the policy changes to whatever the customer wants it to be. This company has a “no questions asked” return policy. How they do it, I don’t know, but I don’t expect many to be able to operate at this level.

2)      Diligent: this company realizes it has tens of millions of customers and a few thousand employees. The odds are that every now and again a customer may come up with something that hasn’t yet occurred to an employee; it therefore provides the means by which customers can question the company’s policies and receive a considered response.

3)      Derisory: this company doesn’t care what you think about its policy. As a customer you only ever have access to representatives who apply the policy. In the event that the company gets it so wrong that thousands of customers a day are wronged then the sheer weight of negative mental energy (and its potential effect on profits) may nudge them in the right direction, but as an individual you’re screwed.

Which of the above best describes eBay?