I suppose over the years I have received hundreds of letters asking about eBay's customer service issues. I managed to witness this first-hand recently when I tried to log into my eBay account and found an "account suspended" notification.

The notice when I logged in just said my account had been suspended and if I wanted to appeal my suspension I could write eBay.

Surely there had to be a mistake as I couldn't imagine any issue with my account. The notice said an e-mail had been sent to my address on file to explain the suspension. Turns out I hadn't received any mail.

So I turned to the customer service page, thinking I'd give them a call and all would be explained. Turns out eBay has no telephone number. (CEO Meg Whitman probably has one but it is likely unlisted, probably to her employees, too.) I try to handle things like consumers would (without calling the PR people for help) so I kept looking on the site for a way to contact eBay customer support. Turns out, based on my own research and comments on eBay's own message boards, there simply isn't one.

Try for example the new "Live Chat" feature on some of eBay's pages. Wait around and eventually you'll be connected with an off-shore employee who can answer basic questions about the service but answer no questions about customer service or accounts. (Some of the transcripts of these chats are being posted on the Web by disgruntled users.) Even questions about ongoing fraud have to be reported to eBay via an e-mail form.

I tried this live agent a few times . . . none of them could tell me why my account had been suspended. When I asked for a telephone support number, they said there wasn't one.

To me, this is unacceptable for a company the size and success of eBay. Even the behemoth Microsoft offers free customer service for billing issues and free support for the installation of its product and a $35 per call telephone line for consumer repairs.

The company is simply too big not to start offering some kind of support on the phone, especially for major issues involving suspension or fraud. If not, they have to empower the Live Chat folks to actually DO something. (As to calling the PR office, I never found that number, either.)

Oh, and six days after I e-mailed the customer service department I was told the reason for the suspension of my account: my credit card on file had expired. (The best part is, once eBay locks you out of your account, you couldn't change those settings even if you tried.)

My advice: make sure you keep the e-mail address on file with eBay current (some people report never being able to use their accounts again if they change e-mail addresses, then contact eBay to change it afterward). If eBay is your sole source of support, make sure your e-mail address does not filter eBay mail as spam.

WEEKLY WEB WONDER: Google's shopping service is called Froogle. It's located at www.froogle.com. Give it a try and let me know if you find it helpful.

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James Derk is co-owner of CyberDads, a computer repair company, and a computer columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. His e-mail address is jim@cyberdads.com.