promotional offer vs. monthly free listings...which one takes precedence?

[rshfs]

I just got the offer for 100 free fixed price listings.  So I activated the offer and listed 100 items....ebay took 50 from my free month's worth FIRST and THEN took the remainder out of the 100 free listings.

Shouldn't it have pulled from the free offer FIRST and THEN started eating away at my 50 free monthly listings?????

thanks

[tamaralea]

The same thing happened with my promo, but it sounds like there are several different versions that just came out, and a few sellers had it deducted from the promo first.

[llllady]

Did you fully read the promo before using it?  It all comes down to how eBay worded the promo itself.  Sometimes it is one way, and sometimes it is the other. 

[megadestroyers]

Think it depends on the promo?

I used that one pair of shoes promo.  BAM!!  Now only 49 free this month!!

Of course, I kid.  Have no clue on the shoe promo.

[etvideo1ataol]

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@rshfs wrote:

I just got the offer for 100 free fixed price listings.  So I activated the offer and listed 100 items....ebay took 50 from my free month's worth FIRST and THEN took the remainder out of the 100 free listings.

Shouldn't it have pulled from the free offer FIRST and THEN started eating away at my 50 free monthly listings?????

thanks

---

Basically, this promotion either has a glitch or eBay is screwing with sellers.

NORMALLY, on a special promotion, it would come first as long as you comply with it.  In this case, if you do a Fixed Price listing, it SHOULD come off the promotion as it is a Fixed Price Only promotion and only auctions would come off the 50 until the 100 are gone, but that is NORMAL.

There is nothing in the promotion that says otherwise.

I called eBay CS and reported this glitch, but they say it is not a glitch that the word "ADDITIONAL", means that the 50 come first and THEN the 100.  This, of course was never explained in the promotion, we are supposed to guess that.

Result is that you MUST use up the 50 in the first week of the month because the promotion is only for 7 days.

So, we are screwed if we want to do the 100.

 I will probably do it and then spend the rest of the month at the beach as this has KILLED any desire to create any new listings

[partial*eclipse]

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@megadestroyers wrote:

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 ... I used that one pair of shoes promo.  BAM!!  Now only 49 free this month!!....

The shoes promo is for final value fees, not for free insertion fees.

[ymeagainlord]

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@llllady wrote:

Did you fully read the promo before using it?  It all comes down to how eBay worded the promo itself.  Sometimes it is one way, and sometimes it is the other. 

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I read through all the fine print (as I always do) and there was NOTHING to indicate monthly allotment had to be used before this promo would kick in.

Just more eBay "games".

[lost-lizard-trading-company]

Agree with what previous sellers have said and MAD AS HELL.  Why in the world would eBay make us use our monthly allottment first especially at the beginning of the month?  EBay can't even be nice without screwing it up!  

[muchmerch]

SO SICK OF THESE STUPID GAMES WHEN I AM TRYING TO RUN A BUSINESS....I HATE THIS PLACE.

CS gave me the same answer about ADDITIONAL being in the offer fine print, as if that word alone indicates precedence over one set of offers over another.

Thanks again ebay for the priviledge of dealing with your nonsense.

[ymeagainlord]

You should have rec'd a msge or email about their booboo by now

[berserkerplanet]

Hi berserkerplanet, 

We are reaching out to alert you of a technical issue related to the promotion,
"7 days, no insertion fees: 100 extra fixed priced listings!" for which you recently
RSVP'd (Reference Code 103817). 

Currently, the 100 free fixed price listings offered during this promotion are
applied only after your standard 50 free listings have already been used. This
was not the intent of the promotion. 

To ensure that your free monthly listings allotment will not be impacted as you
list during this promotion, we will be crediting your May invoice for up to 50
insertion fee charges. 

We apologize for any inconvenience this error has caused.
Thank you for selling with eBay. 

Sincerely,
eBay Seller Team 

Why is it seemingly impossible for eBay to communicate the simplest info in plain English?

(ie: this promo, eBay policy pages.....  And the confusion isn't a "technical issue")

I read the initial promo offering, and my read of it led me to believe that it was the same as EVERY eBay promo I have ever received and the 100 free would be used first.

How #$^%! difficult would it be to include a non-ambiguous example in the usual slew of terms, conditions, disclaimers, and caveats in an offer to make it crystal clear what the terms and intent are?

(including an example can also act as a second level check for the promo composer to be certain of his/her intent and the phrasing.)

It would appear that eBay wants everyone not paying attention to burn through the normal free 50 before the first week of the month is over, re-listing/listing items that have low sell-through and won't be shown to buyers anyway, and then presumably pay for listings for the remaining 3 weeks of the month.

"Look Boss! I figgered out how to generate a few million in free revenoo this month!"

Coincidentally, I got a free 3 months Basic Store subscription offer today also. Bah. Not going to get tangled up in that CF and have to remember to and likely fight to "unsubscribe" in 90 days when I have even more items not selling or being seen.

(today's PSA from a Negative Norbert growing more weary of eBay and PayPal every day. Glitches,  non-performance, website changes that break my browsers continually, deflection as corporate policy, disingenuous mind games....)

[tamaralea]

I thought it was a mistake on their part, but I never got that message.  If no one uses the promo, maybe they'll send another later this month.

[ymeagainlord]

If you got the promo but never got the message, makes you wonder whether the 'credit' will be applied as well.

[berserkerplanet]

It appears I misunderstood the email also.

Ecommercebytes article, numerous posts on the issue here in the forums, etc lead me to believe that it was a technical error, but the issue was obfuscated by the talk quoting eBay CS who were saying that the promo was meant to use the normal 50 free first.

I still don't clearly see where the email states that the wat things were supposed to go was, as per usual, the 100 free are used first and then the monthly 50, but whatever.

My current take on it is that my monthly 50 WILL be used first, I can then use the 100 free (before 5/7), and then will be charged 30¢ for the next xx listed, but theoretically will be credited for the first 50 of those. (I haven't listed anything since this mess began, so have yet to see how it is playing out).

In short, I now think I misread both the promo and the email.

I still maintain that eBay needs to hire at least one employee that can read and write coherent English.

"Never attribute to malice what can easily be explained by stupidity" should be applied to my previous post to temper my accusations 🙂

[hauteytoite]

Weird, because when I called the rep clearly told me this was going to be how all the promotions were going to be moving forward. Clearly. 

I called immediately though, so probably before their phones lit up with **bleep** off sellers.