Online auction giant eBay is shutting down its Vancouver office where about 700 customer service agents are employed.
The closure, which is expected by the end of September, is part of the company’s plans to consolidate its North America customer service facilities. It will compensate by beefing up its Salt Lake City office, which already has more than 900 workers.
Jobs will also be created at other customer service offices around the world, eBay representatives said in a release yesterday.
Chad O’Meara, vice-president, customer service, said customer support operations within its PayPal and Skype businesses will not be impacted.
“While it is a difficult decision to close our Vancouver facility, we believe that consolidating our North America customer service operations will help accelerate our efforts to continually exceed buyer and seller expectations,” O’Meara said.
EBay, which was founded in 1995 in San Jose, Calif., is the world’s largest e-commerce marketplace with 88 million active users.
It has been in cost-cutting mode over the past few months as it grapples with declining sales and profit in its core marketplaces arm.
