ShipScript has been an eBay Community volunteer since 2003, specializing in HTML, CSS, Scripts, Photos, Active Content, Technical Solutions, and online Seller Tools.
@threshold.sales.group wrote:
Greetings,
Just a quick question.
It's been my experience using the catalog as a seller that it often contains errors - bad data, so if there are errors in the catalog that directly result in SNAD returns, will sellers be reimbursed by ebay for losses / expenses incurred? Example would be part fitment in eBay motors categories. Will eBay guarantee the accuracy of the item attributes in the product catalog?
As is with the existing policy, sellers must ensure listing details are accurate and up to date. This includes any product information in the eBay catalog that you, as sellers choose to adopt. Seller Hub users can suggest changes to the catalog information for a product while they are listing by clicking a flag icon next to the product in question. In addition, if you spot inaccurate information in the eBay catalog you can email us at sdsupport@ebay.com.
@threshold.sales.group wrote:
As is with the existing policy, sellers must ensure listing details are accurate and up to date. This includes any product information in the eBay catalog that you, as sellers choose to adopt. Seller Hub users can suggest changes to the catalog information for a product while they are listing by clicking a flag icon next to the product in question. In addition, if you spot inaccurate information in the eBay catalog you can email us at sdsupport@ebay.com.
attributes in the product catalog?So the seller in categories where the use of the catalog is mandatory are required to accept even wrong ebay supplied item specifics? I'm wondering why if the catalog is mandatory for sellers to use, that it's accuracy isn't something that can backed up by ebay? Making sure the data is correct prior to rolling out the catalog seems like a logical step to prevent chaos.
Also, it appears the catalog item specifics are locked and cannot be modified by the seller - is that correct? And if a seller spots an error and flags it via Seller Hub will the seller then be informed when the catalog is updated?
Thank you for the follow up question. For the initial set of product lines that were announced with the 2018 Spring Seller Update, eBay hand-curated each of the products for those product lines. We are confident that we have all of those products in the catalog now with correct information per product. As we expand to additional product lines later this year, we will enable sellers to add any missing products to the catalog directly as well as fix or enrich any incorrect or missing information on those products.If you spot inaccurate information in the eBay catalog you can email us at sdsupport@ebay.com.
Someone must flesh out all of those catalog details, and I presume it will be members, not eBay, because I don't think eBay would have the manpower, and I don't think eBay can purchase everything they need from content providers.
Then, members will have the ability to flag an existing catalog entry for revision.
Once flagged, or once a new catalog entry is created, what happens next? Is the entry or correction reviewed by eBay staff?
If eBay decides to make a change or accept a new entry:
1) In the later mandatory scenario, would the seller even be able to list without a matching catalog item? If so, must the seller who recommended the new entry go back and revise the listing to use the new catalog entry that eBay approved?
2) If eBay revises faulty catalog data, what happens to existing listings created with data that is no longer what they started with or that may no longer match their product? Will sellers be notified every time the underlying catalog data is revised?
Here is a book model:
A decade ago, our two university textbooks, published in hardcover only, were appearing under numerous titles, descriptions, and bindings on Amazon, even though each had a single valid ISBN. The bulk sellers were submitting spreadsheets, and then the small listers had to list against one of those false descriptions. Some had photos, some didn't. I contacted Amazon regarding the six variations of title, spelling, and binding, and was asked to submit an author revision request, where I also submitted clean cover art. After about a year, many of the incorrect listings dropped off as new sellers saw the correct title and photo from which to choose, but those from the spreadsheet sellers kept coming back because they had their own database. Ultimately, the crowd thinned down to the basic two books. I haven't looked in several years. I looked again today and the author-submitted specs are gone. There are now "new" titles for those books and, in one case, there is an Amazon ASIN rather than an ISBN, which generates two catalog entries for one title - so there are three catalog entries for the two books. The photos are not the clean ones I uploaded, and I see the same lesser photos now on eBay (in those listings with a photo), although eBay's photo recipe creates a crisper image. Just to let you know that chasing a bad entry seems to be a never-ending task.
@shipscript wrote:
Someone must flesh out all of those catalog details, and I presume it will be members, not eBay, because I don't think eBay would have the manpower, and I don't think eBay can purchase everything they need from content providers.
Then, members will have the ability to flag an existing catalog entry for revision.
Once flagged, or once a new catalog entry is created, what happens next? Is the entry or correction reviewed by eBay staff?
If eBay decides to make a change or accept a new entry:
1) In the later mandatory scenario, would the seller even be able to list without a matching catalog item? If so, must the seller who recommended the new entry go back and revise the listing to use the new catalog entry that eBay approved?
2) If eBay revises faulty catalog data, what happens to existing listings created with data that is no longer what they started with or that may no longer match their product? Will sellers be notified every time the underlying catalog data is revised?
Here is a book model:
A decade ago, our two university textbooks, published in hardcover only, were appearing under numerous titles, descriptions, and bindings on Amazon, even though each had a single valid ISBN. The bulk sellers were submitting spreadsheets, and then the small listers had to list against one of those false descriptions. Some had photos, some didn't. I contacted Amazon regarding the six variations of title, spelling, and binding, and was asked to submit an author revision request, where I also submitted clean cover art. After about a year, many of the incorrect listings dropped off as new sellers saw the correct title and photo from which to choose, but those from the spreadsheet sellers kept coming back because they had their own database. Ultimately, the crowd thinned down to the basic two books. I haven't looked in several years. I looked again today and the author-submitted specs are gone. There are now "new" titles for those books and, in one case, there is an Amazon ASIN rather than an ISBN, which generates two catalog entries for one title - so there are three catalog entries for the two books. The photos are not the clean ones I uploaded, and I see the same lesser photos now on eBay (in those listings with a photo), although eBay's photo recipe creates a crisper image. Just to let you know that chasing a bad entry seems to be a never-ending task.
Thank you for the follow up. We recognize there is a great deal of complexity outside of the first 14 product lines we are requiring catalog association for in May. We will be expanding to product lines with more complexity as soon as we are confident that our tools to create new products and or modify existing details accommodate scenarios like the ones you highlighted.
