February monthly chat?

Posted 2 years ago·Last reply 2 years ago

53 comments

bennotbill

·2 years ago

1023 View listings

Maybe for general questions you'll have to ask on the UK forums weekly chat.

Though I wouldn't be surprised for that to disappear as well considering the change here.

valueaddedresource

OP2 years ago

Thanks for asking but nope sorry....definitely have not gotten the answer I needed. ðŸ˜’

a_c_green

·2 years ago

4168 View listings

@valueaddedresource wrote:
Thanks for asking but nope sorry....definitely have not gotten the answer I needed. ðŸ˜’

@devon@ebay @kyle@ebay @elizabeth@ebay: This could not possibly be that difficult to answer. Are you not permitted to, you know, just have the chat? Seems like you have all the tools to do so via Khoros as usual, and if there's no predetermined theme for the Chat, so what? There are all kinds of topics out here that can be discussed. Please let us know when we might expect the next one.

go-bad-chicken

·2 years ago

1462 View listings

@a_c_green wrote:
@valueaddedresource wrote:
Thanks for asking but nope sorry....definitely have not gotten the answer I needed. ðŸ˜’
@devon@ebay @kyle@ebay @elizabeth@ebay: This could not possibly be that difficult to answer. Are you not permitted to, you know, just have the chat? Seems like you have all the tools to do so via Khoros as usual, and if there's no predetermined theme for the Chat, so what? There are all kinds of topics out here that can be discussed. Please let us know when we might expect the next one.

Amen to that! ^^^^^^^^^^^

I now have some advanced EIS questions I'd like to ask and have answered, and was looking forward to this month's monthly chat.

valueaddedresource

OP2 years ago

Maybe this is the new community manager.

dhbookds

·2 years ago

I'm beginning to wonder if Monthly Chat has been discontinued and nobody told us...

my-cottage-books-and-antiques

·2 years ago

3637 View listings

And maybe nobody told the Community Team either.... It sure is an odd situation.

dhbookds

·2 years ago

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Monthly-Chat-Update/m-p/34294883#M2356950

@dhbookds wrote:
I'm beginning to wonder if Monthly Chat has been discontinued and nobody told us...

looks like I guessed correctly............

valueaddedresource

OP2 years ago

Thanks @dhbookds! At least I can now mark something as a best answer...though it's still incredibly disappointing that none of the community crew who were tagged repeatedly here were able to provide it directly. ðŸ˜ž

My guess is the evolution from here will be moving to more and more vague "post and run" situations from faceless general IDs like seller_team, community_team etc. and less direct engagement from any dedicated staff members....but I sure would love to be wrong about that.

a_c_green

·2 years ago

4168 View listings

@valueaddedresource wrote:

It's still incredibly disappointing that none of the community crew who were tagged repeatedly here were able to provide it directly.

I'm afraid it speaks volumes... ðŸ˜•

dhbookds

·2 years ago

@a_c_green wrote:
@valueaddedresource wrote:
It's still incredibly disappointing that none of the community crew who were tagged repeatedly here were able to provide it directly.
I'm afraid it speaks volumes... ðŸ˜•

Yep........no acknowledgement, no "engagement", no common courtesy.........

bennotbill

·2 years ago

1023 View listings

@a_c_green wrote:
I'm afraid it speaks volumes... ðŸ˜•

Yes it doesn't give you much confidence in the statement.................

" As always, our Community team will be focusing on keeping you updated and addressing any questions or concerns you may have in the meantime."

dhbookds

·2 years ago

@brian_burke@ebay any reason we can't seem to get a simple answer to a simple question? at least an acknowledgement?

â€Ž02-13-2024 12:54 PM

@devon@ebay @kyle@ebay @elizabeth@ebay - I see no monthly chat topic has been posted for February.

Should we assume that means the winter update will be tomorrow or are y'all just running behind?

@devon@ebay @kyle@ebay @elizabeth@ebay - is there going to be a chat today? Even just an open topic session or "bon voyage" party for @brian_burke@ebay ?

mr_lincoln

·2 years ago

@valueaddedresource , @my-cottage-books-and-antiques , @dhbookds , @wastingtime101 , @12345jamesstamps

I suspect that there might be some internal reorganizing and restructuring with regard to the eBay Support Team for The Community pursuant to the group that has been let go from the company.

February may wind up being a wash for some things ... we're still waiting for confirmation on the February Mentors meeting. It may wind up getting pushed to March, who knows.

valueaddedresource

OP2 years ago

@mr_lincoln wrote:
@valueaddedresource , @my-cottage-books-and-antiques , @dhbookds , @wastingtime101 , @12345jamesstamps

I suspect that there might be some internal reorganizing and restructuring with regard to the eBay Support Team for The Community pursuant to the group that has been let go from the company.
February may wind up being a wash for some things ... we're still waiting for confirmation on the February Mentors meeting. It may wind up getting pushed to March, who knows.

@mr_lincoln I totally get that but to my knowledge, the main community staff were not impacted by the layoffs and are still part of the community team.

While it's completely understandable that reorganizing and restructuring may be causing internal disruption, which could be limiting access to people on other teams to show up for specific chats or ability to get answers from those teams etc., I don't see any reason that any of them who have been logged in and/or actively posting in other threads in the last 24 hours couldn't at least put up a post in the chat section saying sorry for the short notice, no chat this week, we're rescheduling for next week or just skipping this month and will be back in March or we'll provide more details later or...something.

Same with the mentors meeting. I think the vast majority of us would be very understanding of things being postponed or delayed if there was just some basic communication about what is going on.

valueaddedresource

OP2 years ago

To add to this - on the podcast yesterday (which is recorded in advance), Griff said he had known about Brian leaving for months. Presumably the rest of the community crew were informed sometime before yesterday as well.

Considering all of the well wishes I've seen shared in my post about it yesterday as well as across multiple facebook groups and other places...it would have been a super easy positive seller engagement opportunity (not to mention convenient workaround for any internal reorg disruptions) to have put up a notice yesterday after the podcast aired to say this month's chat will be a farewell party of sorts, feel free to stop by and share your favorite memories from past events etc.

And if they really were planning for an update today and have had to punt...they could have easily pivoted to that "backup" this morning and we'd all probably never be the wiser and just assume that was the plan all along.

mr_lincoln

·2 years ago

@valueaddedresource wrote:
@mr_lincoln wrote:
@valueaddedresource , @my-cottage-books-and-antiques , @dhbookds , @wastingtime101 , @12345jamesstamps

I suspect that there might be some internal reorganizing and restructuring with regard to the eBay Support Team for The Community pursuant to the group that has been let go from the company.
February may wind up being a wash for some things ... we're still waiting for confirmation on the February Mentors meeting. It may wind up getting pushed to March, who knows.
@mr_lincoln I totally get that but to my knowledge, the main community staff were not impacted by the layoffs and are still part of the community team.

While it's completely understandable that reorganizing and restructuring may be causing internal disruption, which could be limiting access to people on other teams to show up for specific chats or ability to get answers from those teams etc., I don't see any reason that any of them who have been logged in and/or actively posting in other threads in the last 24 hours couldn't at least put up a post in the chat section saying sorry for the short notice, no chat this week, we're rescheduling for next week or just skipping this month and will be back in March or we'll provide more details later or...something.

Same with the mentors meeting. I think the vast majority of us would be very understanding of things being postponed or delayed if there was just some basic communication about what is going on.

@valueaddedresource

No disagreement here. But within each organization it usually comes down to one person who has final say on the "when" something might happen in their area of responsibility. And yes, most of the eBay "Team" is still active but the Manager of that Team may not be OR they may be in the process of selecting a new Manager for the group. The "Team" members may be keeping a low profile waiting to see what shakes out OR the Team is in the process of being restructured and reorganized so that when they finally do re-engage it is with a specific support structure with defined responsibilities.

I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and doing the wait and see thing. Nothing we can do about whatever decisions are made.

Who knows, they may also be taking a hard look at how relevant some of the regular meetings are here on The Community. Monthly Chat, monthly Mentors meeting, the Mentor program, etc.

I stopped using the Chat for a number of reasons ... the biggest one was that most things I presented were passed on to the Team that handles that and in most cases nothing would happen, other than a follow up status request followed by circling back if there was any news ... which rarely happened.

With the loss of 1000 employees I suspect that the process will not improve in that regard, just different people to pass things on to and possibly different people to do the circling around and back function.

There was a time when I was hopeful that Members here, primarily Sellers, would morph into a group of Influencers able to affect policy and other programs. I think many of us are just part of a loosely knit Focus group acting as a sounding board for certain topics.

In any event, change is in progress so we will have to wait and see what happens.

zamo-zuan

·2 years ago

@mr_lincoln wrote:
@valueaddedresource wrote:
@mr_lincoln wrote:
@valueaddedresource , @my-cottage-books-and-antiques , @dhbookds , @wastingtime101 , @12345jamesstamps

I suspect that there might be some internal reorganizing and restructuring with regard to the eBay Support Team for The Community pursuant to the group that has been let go from the company.
February may wind up being a wash for some things ... we're still waiting for confirmation on the February Mentors meeting. It may wind up getting pushed to March, who knows.
@mr_lincoln I totally get that but to my knowledge, the main community staff were not impacted by the layoffs and are still part of the community team.

While it's completely understandable that reorganizing and restructuring may be causing internal disruption, which could be limiting access to people on other teams to show up for specific chats or ability to get answers from those teams etc., I don't see any reason that any of them who have been logged in and/or actively posting in other threads in the last 24 hours couldn't at least put up a post in the chat section saying sorry for the short notice, no chat this week, we're rescheduling for next week or just skipping this month and will be back in March or we'll provide more details later or...something.

Same with the mentors meeting. I think the vast majority of us would be very understanding of things being postponed or delayed if there was just some basic communication about what is going on.
@valueaddedresource

No disagreement here. But within each organization it usually comes down to one person who has final say on the "when" something might happen in their area of responsibility. And yes, most of the eBay "Team" is still active but the Manager of that Team may not be OR they may be in the process of selecting a new Manager for the group. The "Team" members may be keeping a low profile waiting to see what shakes out OR the Team is in the process of being restructured and reorganized so that when they finally do re-engage it is with a specific support structure with defined responsibilities.
I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and doing the wait and see thing. Nothing we can do about whatever decisions are made.
Who knows, they may also be taking a hard look at how relevant some of the regular meetings are here on The Community. Monthly Chat, monthly Mentors meeting, the Mentor program, etc.

I stopped using the Chat for a number of reasons ... the biggest one was that most things I presented were passed on to the Team that handles that and in most cases nothing would happen, other than a follow up status request followed by circling back if there was any news ... which rarely happened.

With the loss of 1000 employees I suspect that the process will not improve in that regard, just different people to pass things on to and possibly different people to do the circling around and back function.
There was a time when I was hopeful that Members here, primarily Sellers, would morph into a group of Influencers able to affect policy and other programs. I think many of us are just part of a loosely knit Focus group acting as a sounding board for certain topics.

In any event, change is in progress so we will have to wait and see what happens.

Is anyone even in charge or "managing" this place anymore? Rather than a focus group, it's felt more like a support group meeting with how we gotta look out for each other. Dealing with issues on eBay is like being in a toxic relationship, where you get gaslighted and then dealt the silent treatment.

With how obsessed eBay is with 'tech-led reimagination' it's only a matter of time until speaking to an AI is the best they will be able to do. At least an AI will have an excuse for not being able to speak about certain subjects and won't have to resort to ghosting you.

mr_lincoln

·2 years ago

@zamo-zuan wrote:

"Is anyone even in charge or "managing" this place anymore? Rather than a focus group, it's felt more like a support group meeting with how we gotta look out for each other. Dealing with issues on eBay is like being in a toxic relationship, where you get gaslighted and then dealt the silent treatment.

@zamo-zuan Well, consider the dynamics leading up to a mass release of 1000 employees. I am sure within eBay THEY knew it was coming long before we did and I am sure many were scrambling trying to figure out if they were going to get the axe or not. Having to change jobs is no fun.

AI may have actually contributed to letting some of that 1000 go ... we don't know that but I've learned that in this day and age nothing is off the table ...

valueaddedresource

OP2 years ago

@mr_lincoln I understand wanting to give the benefit of the doubt, and don't get me wrong, I believe the community crew is doing the best they can within the structure and constraints they've been given.

But to your point about "they may also be taking a hard look at how relevant some of the regular meetings are here on The Community. Monthly Chat, monthly Mentors meeting, the Mentor program, etc. " - I personally firmly believe any lack of relevance or waning member participation or any other reason that might be tossed out as to why it may not be worth eBay's time and resources to continue the meager seller engagement efforts that are still left around here is by design, not accident. As we are so often told, "it is working as intended."

Even trying to take the most charitable view of things and assuming it wasn't the intent of someone at eBay (again likely much higher up than the community crew stuck with the fallout) - this is 100% the predictable outcome of moving from a weekly open chat to monthly limited topic chats and many other changes that have been implemented to the community in the last few years.

It's been said "when someone tells you who they are, believe them." eBay continues to show/tell sellers through their choices and actions exactly how much they value seller engagement and if they don't like the story that tells, they have many options at their disposal to start changing it - even in the midst of layoffs, reorgs, macroeconomic headwinds, Mercury being in retrograde or whatever else.

"If you can't do the little things right, you will never do the big things right." ~ Admiral William H. McRaven

It's far past time for eBay to start grabbing some of those little low hanging fruits and make "seller engagement" more than just lip service.

mr_lincoln

·2 years ago

@valueaddedresource

I think with the advent of other avenues to interact with eBay, like Facebook and others, The Community involvement has shrunk. While I haven't taken down a count of names (IDs to be more specific) that post most often here the number of actively engaged members is small in comparison to the total eBay account membership of Sellers and Buyers. So I think by shear numbers the opportunity to influence policy is slim.

Screenshot (548).png

valueaddedresource

OP2 years ago

@mr_lincoln I don't disagree...I think I just have a slightly different take on whether the chicken or the egg came first. ðŸ˜‰

Would there naturally have been a thinning of the herd or at least some turnover around here over the years just due to the nature of forums falling out of favor vs other social media, less users overall and other reasons? Sure, I think that's fair.

But is the shrinking number of once very active users who are no longer active also very much the obvious and possibly even intended outcome of choices eBay has made about how to run this place? I also think that is more than fair.

Long ago perma-ban purges to more recent (last few years) changes including chat schedules, official staff interactions, moderation activities and more have set the tone and course for what this community has become.

I absolutely agree the opportunity for this forum to influence policy these days is slim, but I don't believe that's a "sheer numbers" game. While the active and engaged sellers here may be a small percentage of total user base, what we lack in numbers we more than make up for in knowledge, experience, diverse backgrounds and most importantly caring, concern and desire/willingness to engage with each other and with eBay to help improve the platform for all users.

eBay had/has 100s or even 1000s of highly engaged sellers here they could have viewed as "valuable resources" and used them exactly like the influencer focus group you suggested earlier in this thread. The fact that the community holds little to no influence at eBay is 100% the result of choices eBay leadership has made and continues to make.

I see it a lot like much of the criticism a certain occasional world's richest man gets for what has become of Twitter - that platform (for better or worse) is largely a reflection of decisions current ownership has made just as this forum, any influence it may or may not have, and eBay's seller engagement overall is reflective of eBay management's priorities, internal policies, and strategic decision-making - or lack thereof.

mr_lincoln

·2 years ago

@valueaddedresource

Loved that last post and am looking forward to replying, this has been a great exchange but we have some plans and I will be out of pocket part or most of the evening ... but did not want you to think I was ignoring it by a delay in response.

mr_lincoln

·2 years ago

@valueaddedresource wrote:
@mr_lincoln I don't disagree...I think I just have a slightly different take on whether the chicken or the egg came first. ðŸ˜‰

Would there naturally have been a thinning of the herd or at least some turnover around here over the years just due to the nature of forums falling out of favor vs other social media, less users overall and other reasons? Sure, I think that's fair.

But is the shrinking number of once very active users who are no longer active also very much the obvious and possibly even intended outcome of choices eBay has made about how to run this place? I also think that is more than fair.

Long ago perma-ban purges to more recent (last few years) changes including chat schedules, official staff interactions, moderation activities and more have set the tone and course for what this community has become.

I absolutely agree the opportunity for this forum to influence policy these days is slim, but I don't believe that's a "sheer numbers" game. While the active and engaged sellers here may be a small percentage of total user base, what we lack in numbers we more than make up for in knowledge, experience, diverse backgrounds and most importantly caring, concern and desire/willingness to engage with each other and with eBay to help improve the platform for all users.

eBay had/has 100s or even 1000s of highly engaged sellers here they could have viewed as "valuable resources" and used them exactly like the influencer focus group you suggested earlier in this thread. The fact that the community holds little to no influence at eBay is 100% the result of choices eBay leadership has made and continues to make.

I see it a lot like much of the criticism a certain occasional world's richest man gets for what has become of Twitter - that platform (for better or worse) is largely a reflection of decisions current ownership has made just as this forum, any influence it may or may not have, and eBay's seller engagement overall is reflective of eBay management's priorities, internal policies, and strategic decision-making - or lack thereof.

@valueaddedresource

Key points and spot on in many regards. I have read quite a few suggestions from members here that would absolutely improve both Buying and Selling experiences and subsequently allow growth for both Sellers and eBay. So it does beg the question as to the relevance of the community of members here, both Buyers and Sellers.

My view is that the company is still in a state of flux with many internal uncertainties on levels below upper management. What will emerge on the other side of this latest change is also uncertain.

zamo-zuan

·2 years ago

@mr_lincoln wrote:
@valueaddedresource

I think with the advent of other avenues to interact with eBay, like Facebook and others, The Community involvement has shrunk. While I haven't taken down a count of names (IDs to be more specific) that post most often here the number of actively engaged members is small in comparison to the total eBay account membership of Sellers and Buyers. So I think by shear numbers the opportunity to influence policy is slim.

This raises another question, though. How much has activity decreased on these forums *by design*?

For awhile they were guiding sellers to the forums here when CS couldn't help. But as sellers came here and tried to participate, they begun being given the run-around, having their posts moved to impossible to find subforums, and a lack of enforcement of the board rules allowed those posting their honest experiences to be harassed or have their experiences diminished.

I know quite a few people who stopped coming here simply because it never does any good, and by posting any factual evidence on here, you have to deal with an unreasonable about of flak for telling the truth.

I also know quite a few people who have been banned for speaking the truth, without any way to appeal, especially as new leadership came in. Many of these were unfair, such as them responding to someone who was clearly trying to get a rise out of them/baiting, and of course that (which is against the rules) was allowed but the ones being harassed being the ones to get punished.

Truthfully, out of everyone I spoke to on here directly over the years, more than 75% of them have been banned. Which is insane. Especially since most of the few major rulebreakers that push the boundaries I've seen over the years are *still* here.

This place used to be good for getting help and making a change. But it slowly turned in to a place where things were sent to keep things quiet... And then the changes seem to indicate that participation is less and less important.

So I think it could be argued that having so few numbers here to influence policy is by design. Look at what happened in the past when eBay had determined people had too much of an ability to influence policy. And look at the timeline of when they started making these changes...

mr_lincoln

·2 years ago

@zamo-zuan

I want to reply to that but we have some plans and will be out of pocket part or most of the evening. So a delay in response is not intentional ... good post and discussion in my mind.

mr_lincoln

·2 years ago

@zamo-zuan wrote:
@mr_lincoln wrote:
@valueaddedresource

I think with the advent of other avenues to interact with eBay, like Facebook and others, The Community involvement has shrunk. While I haven't taken down a count of names (IDs to be more specific) that post most often here the number of actively engaged members is small in comparison to the total eBay account membership of Sellers and Buyers. So I think by shear numbers the opportunity to influence policy is slim.

This raises another question, though. How much has activity decreased on these forums *by design*?

For awhile they were guiding sellers to the forums here when CS couldn't help. But as sellers came here and tried to participate, they begun being given the run-around, having their posts moved to impossible to find subforums, and a lack of enforcement of the board rules allowed those posting their honest experiences to be harassed or have their experiences diminished.

I know quite a few people who stopped coming here simply because it never does any good, and by posting any factual evidence on here, you have to deal with an unreasonable about of flak for telling the truth.

I also know quite a few people who have been banned for speaking the truth, without any way to appeal, especially as new leadership came in. Many of these were unfair, such as them responding to someone who was clearly trying to get a rise out of them/baiting, and of course that (which is against the rules) was allowed but the ones being harassed being the ones to get punished.

Truthfully, out of everyone I spoke to on here directly over the years, more than 75% of them have been banned. Which is insane. Especially since most of the few major rulebreakers that push the boundaries I've seen over the years are *still* here.

This place used to be good for getting help and making a change. But it slowly turned in to a place where things were sent to keep things quiet... And then the changes seem to indicate that participation is less and less important.

So I think it could be argued that having so few numbers here to influence policy is by design. Look at what happened in the past when eBay had determined people had too much of an ability to influence policy. And look at the timeline of when they started making these changes...

@zamo-zuan

I think in a lot of instances it's not what is said but how it is said. And even being careful with that there is no guarantee something won't be taken out of context. The suggestion that the decline in The Community is by design may also point to the natural progression of other public forums growth and popularity as well as a decided change by the company to move in a different direction.

Most of my involvement here lately is answering questions on the AAM board but I still read threads and like this one post on them from time to time. I also think that as AI and Chatbots continue to expand their effectiveness public forums as a whole will continue to diminish.

You mentioned knowing a lot of people who stopped coming here. Well, I think it's not limited to here but also those who stopped using the sales venue. I won some inventory lots Tuesday on an online Auction and it was the first time buying from this particular auction house. I had reason to contact them yesterday regarding my Tax ID and spoke to the owner. We had a really nice chat and I learned that at one time they actually used eBay to move many of their items and they were involved here too. They cited some changes in eBay upper management, site changes and elected to stop using eBay for selling. They apparently were a rather large Seller in vintage, antique and collectible categories and in a very short period of time completely changed directions.

simply-the-best-for-you

·2 years ago

This One Goes to Eleven - Nigel Tufnel5947 View listings

@mr_lincoln wrote:
@valueaddedresource , @my-cottage-books-and-antiques , @dhbookds , @wastingtime101 , @12345jamesstamps

I suspect that there might be some internal reorganizing and restructuring with regard to the eBay Support Team for The Community pursuant to the group that has been let go from the company.
February may wind up being a wash for some things ... we're still waiting for confirmation on the February Mentors meeting. It may wind up getting pushed to March, who knows.

@mr_lincoln @valueaddedresource The last couple of Mentors meetings have had a whole 1 day notice. Then last month's, the notice was sent out DAY OF the meeting with approx 2 hours notice. I'm sorry, but people have lives, ya know? I know you do ðŸ˜‰ Granted, I have missed many meetings due to the death in my family & subsequent hell I've been in since, but I actually could have made last month, if only the announcement had not come out that morning, while I was still asleep & the meeting was over before I woke up. Had I known, I would have been there.

I do realize they are supposed to be on a regular day & time, but between the holidays & the changing of the TOD for various reasons, it's hard to know if/when they are happening. Honestly, it's just feeling like an afterthought for eBay these days ðŸ˜ž It's hard to feel valued, when you feel like an afterthought & I think we can all relate to that, Mentor or not ðŸ˜ž

valueaddedresource

OP2 years ago

@simply-the-best-for-you condolences on the loss and I hope things start looking up for you soon.

" It's hard to feel valued, when you feel like an afterthought & I think we can all relate to that, Mentor or not" - I couldn't have said it better myself. ðŸ‘

simply-the-best-for-you

·2 years ago

This One Goes to Eleven - Nigel Tufnel5947 View listings

@valueaddedresource Thank you, that is very sweet of you! I hope so too, I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

mr_lincoln

·2 years ago

@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:
@mr_lincoln wrote:
@valueaddedresource , @my-cottage-books-and-antiques , @dhbookds , @wastingtime101 , @12345jamesstamps

I suspect that there might be some internal reorganizing and restructuring with regard to the eBay Support Team for The Community pursuant to the group that has been let go from the company.
February may wind up being a wash for some things ... we're still waiting for confirmation on the February Mentors meeting. It may wind up getting pushed to March, who knows.
@mr_lincoln @valueaddedresource The last couple of Mentors meetings have had a whole 1 day notice. Then last month's, the notice was sent out DAY OF the meeting with approx 2 hours notice. I'm sorry, but people have lives, ya know? I know you do ðŸ˜‰ Granted, I have missed many meetings due to the death in my family & subsequent hell I've been in since, but I actually could have made last month, if only the announcement had not come out that morning, while I was still asleep & the meeting was over before I woke up. Had I known, I would have been there.

I do realize they are supposed to be on a regular day & time, but between the holidays & the changing of the TOD for various reasons, it's hard to know if/when they are happening. Honestly, it's just feeling like an afterthought for eBay these days ðŸ˜ž It's hard to feel valued, when you feel like an afterthought & I think we can all relate to that, Mentor or not ðŸ˜ž

@simply-the-best-for-you

I've missed meetings too from time to time. My schedule is often dictated by other commitments. I keep certain slots open each month for different things but there is never a guarantee that I can keep those slots open if something else comes up that requires my attention.

I think we are in a state of flux here and it is uncertain what will emerge on the other side of the recent changes at eBay.

dhbookds

·2 years ago

weird, no answer?

dhbookds

·2 years ago

agree with you............there's a chat scheduled in the UK for today.........

mr_lincoln

·2 years ago

@dhbookds wrote:
agree with you............there's a chat scheduled in the UK for today.........

@dhbookds

Go join that one ... nothing stopping US members from logging in to the other domain boards ... It's been a while but I have posted on the UK board in the past ... nice folks over there too.

bennotbill

·2 years ago

1023 View listings

@dhbookds wrote:
agree with you............there's a chat scheduled in the UK for today.........

You haven't missed anything. Just the usual "it's working as designed" cut and paste answers to any questions about the estimated delivery date. No matter how silly the examples shown to them are.

valueaddedresource

OP2 years ago

All quiet on the western front and also in Australia, UK and Canada so....doesn't look like there is going to be an update today.

@devon@ebay @kyle@ebay @elizabeth@ebay - is there going to be a chat today? Even just an open topic session or "bon voyage" party for @brian_burke@ebay ?

wastingtime101

·2 years ago

0 View listings

I believe it's reasonable to assume there will be a seller update tomorrow.

The eBay team is highly unlikely to give us advance notice on a seller update. Not since the days when Alan was managing community did we get a heads up a week or a few days before. The reason Alan did that is because they used to lock the seller update discussion board after a day or two - and often times lock it after business hours - so any seller that had a day job was out of luck when it came to asking questions. That's why we started getting a heads up. But when Sheila came on board they stopped locking those discussion threads and left them open Wed-Fri. We also stopped getting a heads up to clear room in our schedules.

If the eBay team responds to your post at all, history tells us they say they don't have info to share at this time and to look for Announcements. I know you already know that, Liz.

I speculated 2 weeks ago on the Seller Calendar posted here (link) that we'd see a Winter Seller Update in February. History indicates the lack of a chat generally means there's a seller update or event on the horizon.

valueaddedresource

OP2 years ago

@wastingtime101 wrote:
I believe it's reasonable to assume there will be a seller update tomorrow.

The eBay team is highly unlikely to give us advance notice on a seller update. Not since the days when Alan was managing community did we get a heads up a week or a few days before. The reason Alan did that is because they used to lock the seller update discussion board after a day or two - and often times lock it after business hours - so any seller that had a day job was out of luck when it came to asking questions. That's why we started getting a heads up. But when Sheila came on board they stopped locking those discussion threads and left them open Wed-Fri. We also stopped getting a heads up to clear room in our schedules.

If the eBay team responds to your post at all, history tells us they say they don't have info to share at this time and to look for Announcements. I know you already know that, Liz.

I speculated 2 weeks ago on the Seller Calendar posted here (link) that we'd see a Winter Seller Update in February. History indicates the lack of a chat generally means there's a seller update or event on the horizon.

@wastingtime101 yeah, but you can't blame a girl for trying. ðŸ˜‰ Definitely agree - I've been expecting it this week any way due to historical trends and I suppose we'll find out soon either way.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques

·2 years ago

3637 View listings

Just tossing this into the mix: Seller Check In, apparently the first of three this year (remember when they were monthly?) is March 7th. No detailed agenda just yet, but it does say:

"Weâ€™re kicking off our seller event series with a focus on product updates that make your eBay business more efficient.

Plus, the fashion team will be here to discuss trends and some exciting customer experience enhancements."

So, presumably between now and March 7th, there might at least be some product updates and "customer enhancements", at least in the fashion category (perhaps the next Focus Category?). My guess is, any Winter Update will be sometime between now and the 7th. But who knows?

As I've been saying for years, it would be much appreciated if ebay would give us some advance notice for the Updates, so we could set time aside to review it the day it comes out.

valueaddedresource

OP2 years ago

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Just tossing this into the mix: Seller Check In, apparently the first of three this year (remember when they were monthly?) is March 7th. No detailed agenda just yet, but it does say:

"Weâ€™re kicking off our seller event series with a focus on product updates that make your eBay business more efficient.
Plus, the fashion team will be here to discuss trends and some exciting customer experience enhancements."

So, presumably between now and March 7th, there might at least be some product updates and "customer enhancements", at least in the fashion category (perhaps the next Focus Category?). My guess is, any Winter Update will be sometime between now and the 7th. But who knows?

As I've been saying for years, it would be much appreciated if ebay would give us some advance notice for the Updates, so we could set time aside to review it the day it comes out.

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques I was thinking the same after reading the description of the check in. I'm with you that I can't really see any good reason for eBay to keep the update date a secret....and can see plenty of good reasons and benefits to giving advanced notice, like you mentioned allowing sellers to set aside time to review it and participate in discussions.

At the very least, it would be nice to get an answer about the chat today - that is something that is not normally "secret" and usually planned in advance with a consistent schedule (with the exception of last month.)

The blues have been active and responding to other threads in the community in the last 24 hours so it would seem unlikely there is some emergency or something that has caused all of them to be unable to either answer here or post an update in the chat section to advise whether or not there will be a chat today.

Even if they had originally been planning for an update today and it got postponed for some reason....no reason they can't just open the chat up to general discussion or post a notice saying there won't be one today.

As usual, the choices eBay makes about "seller engagement" continue to baffle me when there is so much low hanging fruit/little things they could do to improve the dialogue and seller trust.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques

·2 years ago

3637 View listings

@valueaddedresource

"Even if they had originally been planning for an update today and it got postponed for some reason....no reason they can't just open the chat up to general discussion or post a notice saying there won't be one today.

As usual, the choices eBay makes about "seller engagement" continue to baffle me when there is so much low hanging fruit/little things they could do to improve the dialogue and seller trust."

Yep, and if it was planned for today, but ahd to be postponed, well, that's a great opportunity to say : "We were going to release it today, but we had to postpone it until (fill in new date)"

As you say, there are all these little, easy things ebay could do to improve seller trust and enhance dialogue, but this company seems determined to do the opposite. Given the highly competitive environment existing today, you'd think the sensible approach would be to do everything they can to engage their sellers in a positive way.

a_c_green

·2 years ago

4168 View listings

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
As you say, there are all these little, easy things ebay could do to improve seller trust and enhance dialogue, but this company seems determined to do the opposite.

I've noticed that for some time. This company demonstrates an aggressive stranglehold on communication between employees and users (and even employees with other employees) that I have not seen anywhere else. The simplest questions go unanswered; releases are dumped into Production with no announcement or even in-house training (e.g. for Customer Service or community reps, who are often as baffled as everyone else); problem reports go unacknowledged (notice how few topics in the "Report eBay Technical Issues" group show the little logo of an eBay reply). Even the Community contacts here who forward user issues to the various "teams" get stonewalled when it comes to followup or resolution.

zamo-zuan

·2 years ago

@a_c_green wrote:
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
As you say, there are all these little, easy things ebay could do to improve seller trust and enhance dialogue, but this company seems determined to do the opposite.
I've noticed that for some time. This company demonstrates an aggressive stranglehold on communication between employees and users (and even employees with other employees) that I have not seen anywhere else. The simplest questions go unanswered; releases are dumped into Production with no announcement or even in-house training (e.g. for Customer Service or community reps, who are often as baffled as everyone else); problems reports go unacknowledged (notice how few topics in the "Report eBay Technical Issues" group show the little logo of an eBay reply). Even the Community contacts here who forward user issues to the various "teams" get stonewalled when it comes to followup or resolution.

Even in the best cases, eBay's communication has been horrible. I could tell the stories of the ridiculous experiences we've faced for days.

Way back in 2018 when eBay started making changes we saw major issues, we got escalated to the supervisor of the Utah office at the time, who said 3x in a row someone was gonna contact us within 24 hours and it never happened. Then he just stopped replying. We were lucky enough to find an outgoing rep that actually returned calls. He volunteered and added himself to our case bc he was able to see the problem. After weeks of working together he calls to let me know "he found something" - going to have his analyst call me Monday.

We were excited that after so long eBay had FINALLY had found the problem (and hopefully a solution).

.... And then we never hear from him. No call on that day. I call in, they tell me he's working but not able to speak. I leave a message, he doesn't return it. Suddenly he disappears, after communicating on his own accord for weeks. Then the Utah supervisor got on the phone and said he "already told us the problem personally" - meanwhile this is the same guy that said he'd have someone contact me 3x and stopped replying. I let him know he NEVER replied to us or had anyone contact us to 'tell us any problem' and he claims he told it to another employee here, and claimed he talked to someone at our company - who unbeknownst to him has a hearing problem and doesn't answer phones, and doesn't even speak English. I posted about the experiences on here, and then the supervisor informs me that he's no longer allowed to speak to us.

In other words, the rep who FOUND SOMETHING got shut down and silenced, no longer allowed to speak to us. Then the supervisor who was the person with the highest seniority on the phone support at the time wasn't even allowed to speak to us.

Around a year ago with major issues again, the 'seller advocate' reached out to us (on his own). Seemed as if maybe he was going to help. On a phone call he seemed really understanding and made a ton of promises of connecting us to different places, including the VP and various leadership. But then in email, he had a completely different tone, seeming as if he was someone more worried about not putting anything in writing. He said a "Motors expert" is going to contact us, then had a "growth advisor" contact us - who wasn't even from Motors. She said she needed evidence of our problem, to which I sent a file that had 10+ folders of different issues, and I shared instructions on how to reproduce the issues. She asked for permission to contact us with further questions from the other departments, which of course I agreed to.

.... Then she disappears, never to respond to messages again. I try contacting the 'seller advocate' again, and he no longer responds to messages either. Once again it seems things got silenced - which is apparently the trend/pattern of how it goes whenever tech issues are found.

I've had zoom meetings with the VP of Motors, as well as other leadership members/etc. The glitches I shared with them are STILL not fixed, including the easy to reproduce ones (such as the vehicle fitment bug I shared like 5+ years ago now).

Then there's the times eBay management have come out to our warehouse to meet us in person, since we were such a large seller. And they obviously didn't even know how their system works and/or eBay's policies. One amusing highlight was how they had a segment of the meeting to discuss how "once a customer buys from you, they're no longer and eBay customer and are YOUR customer as a seller! And you can be free to sell to them outside of eBay all you want!"

I've said it before on here, eBay's communication is nothing more than PR. It's a joke on any other level. None of them know how eBay functions. Even the tech team doesn't know what is going on since it's all outsourced to different countries (confirmed by their Jira logs they mistakenly forwarded to me when conversing). And it is proven to be PR without a doubt when they will literally work to silence reproduceable issues rather than get them addressed and/or be honest and up front about them.

mr_lincoln

·2 years ago

@a_c_green wrote:
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
As you say, there are all these little, easy things ebay could do to improve seller trust and enhance dialogue, but this company seems determined to do the opposite.
I've noticed that for some time. This company demonstrates an aggressive stranglehold on communication between employees and users (and even employees with other employees) that I have not seen anywhere else. The simplest questions go unanswered; releases are dumped into Production with no announcement or even in-house training (e.g. for Customer Service or community reps, who are often as baffled as everyone else); problem reports go unacknowledged (notice how few topics in the "Report eBay Technical Issues" group show the little logo of an eBay reply). Even the Community contacts here who forward user issues to the various "teams" get stonewalled when it comes to followup or resolution.

@a_c_green

I just posted right up thread about some of this ... I have begun to question the relevance of members here as it relates to what eBay is going to decide to do regardless of our input.

zamo-zuan

·2 years ago