eBay announced today that it is closing its Burnaby customer support centre and cutting approximately 700 jobs as it consolidates customer service operations in Salt Lake City. The office will be closed by September 30th as the company tries to “capture efficiencies” and expand its customer support efforts. According to an eBay spokesperson, the departing employees will receive a “comprehensive severance package,” and outplacement services to help them find new work.
When eBay opened the 70,000 square-foot centre in 2003, eBay’s CEO Meg Whitman said Burnaby was chosen from 100 possible sites because of the region’s skilled and educated workforce and its quality of life.
It will be a shame to see eBay exit British Columbia's tech community after such a short stint. The strong online community values that made the auction marketplace an industry leader could be seen in the culture of its Burnaby facility in everything from their dedicated work to reduce the number of employees commuting in single occupant vehicles to their employee driven charity work.
eBay marketplaces has been struggling for some time, even prior to Whitman leaving. Down economies were always great times on eBay for sellers, so it's not surprising that since its still doing poorly they've decide to look for "efficiencies". If they had worked hard to fix their pricing structure to make it more palpable for sellers and attracted that portion of the population that's nervous to buy on eBay, they might be doing better.
I'd love to hear what the comprehensive severance packages are...and if they go beyond just your standard BC company's package.
Rob Lewis
Rob is the President of Techvibes Media and Editor in Chief of Techvibes.com.
His diverse background includes stints with International Trade Finance, Web Development, and Enterprise Software and he is a graduate of the University of British Columbia, British Columbia Institute of Technology, and Simon Fraser University.
