EIS not working on items over $500 technical glitch & runaround-eBay international shipping program

[darenzia]

I opted into the new EIS shipping for my international sales and was told several times that it should work on items that qualify up to $2500.  It works perfectly on items under $500 but on all items over, it displays this in the shipping info if a non-US address is selected: "Will ship to *insert country here*. Read item description or contact seller for shipping options."  It is clearly not working as it should for items between $500-$2500. I have contacted ebay customer service several times, and now, over a month later, I'm still being told this is a "known technical issue" and that they are "working on it" with no idea of when this tech issue will be resolved.  All of my items have the exact same shipping policy so it should work the same for all qualifying items under $2500, and I've been assured the issue is not user error but is 100% an ebay back-end issue.  Does anyone else have any insight or how to escalate the issue with the technical department directly because I keep getting the run around from customer service which is increasingly frustrating. Thank you!

[silverforest13]

i have the same issue.  Anything over $500 will not work with the EIS.  The Ebay representatives were not helpful.  I lost few international customers already.  ESI is a big mess.  

[darenzia]

This is still happening. I've had this issue for over 3 months now, and when I called ebay again last week, I was told "everything will be fixed on July 1st".  Well, surprise! It's still not working for items between $500-$2500.

[darenzia]

Can anyone help with this?  eBay tech support is useless and it's been 5 months of this issue which they last told me is a "glitch" that would be fixed on July 1st which didn't happen.  

@wastingtime101 you seem to have good luck getting answers on here-can you help? Thank you!

elizabeth@ebay ?

[wastingtime101]

Hey @darenzia . I haven't kept up on the latest with this, but last I checked, those items should qualify.

Looks like the 3 affected listings on your account were posted back in December.

Can you try making an edit to one of those listings to see if anything changes? If you're not sure how to check, tag me on a reply with the item number and I can check for you.

Are you willing to end one of the listings and put it back up using 'sell similar' to see if that makes a difference?

The only reason I'm wondering if that would help is because when the limits were first increased, EIS team said that the higher limits would be on new listings, but older listings from before the increase wouldn't necessarily update. Start with revising one of the existing listings to see if that works. If it doesn't (after giving 24 hours for the listing to reindex) you can consider ending a listing and putting it back up fresh.

[darenzia]

Thank you so much for your prompt reply, I appreciate it! I have revised and edited and ended and re-listed those three listings and they even have the same shipping policy as other listings that work that are under $500 but it's still an issue.  I'm just chalking it up to ebay still hasn't fixed the issue for some accounts and that's basically the run-around I'm still getting. 

Hopefully they'll get it resolved I guess!  It's just frustrating!

I'm going to call them tomorrow again if it still doesn't work after I make brand new "from scratch" listings for those items.  *sigh*

[wastingtime101]

Since the start date is listed as December, that tells me you're using "relist" instead of "sell similar". I'd follow through with the idea to start a new listing from scratch (copy/paste title, description, etc) as no old listing data will be carried over on the back end.

If that doesn't work I'll see if I can do some digging this week to find out more, or perhaps Elizabeth will get back to you since she was tagged in to the discussion.

[elizabeth@ebay]

---

@darenzia wrote:

Can anyone help with this?  eBay tech support is useless and it's been 5 months of this issue which they last told me is a "glitch" that would be fixed on July 1st which didn't happen.  

@wastingtime101 you seem to have good luck getting answers on here-can you help? Thank you!

elizabeth@ebay ?

---

Good morning @darenzia. Would you mind trying what @wastingtime101 stated first (ending fully then selling similar) and if that doesn't help, it will provide me with more to give the team I reach out to. 

Keep me posted, thanks! 

[darenzia]

Hi elizabeth@ebay @wastingtime101 , I ended those listings and re-listed under "sell similar" and the same issue remains.  Those three listings have the same business/shipping policy as my $499.99 listing which works, but if I price anything at $500 or above, EIS still does not work.

[darenzia]

elizabeth@ebay I did what was recommended and the problem still persists.  Please help, it's been almost 4 months and it's starting to get frustrating because the issue is not on my end. Thank you.

[elizabeth@ebay]

---

@darenzia wrote:

elizabeth@ebay I did what was recommended and the problem still persists.  Please help, it's been almost 4 months and it's starting to get frustrating because the issue is not on my end. Thank you.

---

Hi @darenzia. I totally understand the frustration, and I appreciate you trying what was suggested. I'll get this passed along to the proper team, so they can dig into this, and I'll follow up with any details I receive. 

[elizabeth@ebay]

---

@darenzia wrote:

elizabeth@ebay I did what was recommended and the problem still persists.  Please help, it's been almost 4 months and it's starting to get frustrating because the issue is not on my end. Thank you.

---

Hi @darenzia. We've located an answer, and our eIS shipping considers many variables when it allows items to be sold up to $2500. Once an account has established a performance history that our eIS shipping program looks for, those transaction limits will be increased from $500 to $2500. As you continue to sell and grow your history, your account will be periodically reviewed, so please keep an eye out. 

[wastingtime101]

Thanks for getting us an answer elizabeth@ebay. A lot of sellers on this board have posted about the problem and it definitely helps to have this info.

The help page does say "transaction limits may apply to some accounts" but that, and the terms of service page, are very vague so coming to the conclusion you posted above is not intuitive.

The terms of service page has a vague statement: "Eligibility: eBay will determine which items are eligible for export and where the item will be eligible for import. eBay will also determine which sellers are eligible for the program."

It also says, "Member Eligibility and Participation Limits You must be U.S. domiciled and your items must be shipping from within the U.S. eBay may also require that you meet certain minimum performance standards before making your listings available to Buyers through the Program."

That does offer a slight clue, but isn't clear that there could be price caps where some items will be eligible while others, based on price exceeding $500, won't be.

Other programs/features on the site like promoted listings and seller initiated offers also require some kind of seller performance standards to be met, but those help pages are more straightforward which causes less confusion for sellers.

Thanks again - very helpful to have this info.

[darenzia]

Hi, elizabeth@ebay and @wastingtime101 thanks for your answer. I've been a steady ebay seller since 1999 with international sales and no issues ever with my account and excellent status and "above standard" performance (and often top seller status at times in the past) with zero complaints and 100% on time shipping, so I still fail to understand why every tech support person has told me for months that yes, I am eligible and approved for the $2500 boost and that's it's simply a "glitch".  I guess I'll just remove those listings (which do fall under the $2500 eligibility umbrella as clothing), as I'm certainly not about to gamble on sales that aren't going to be protected internationally.  It's disappointing and frustrating for sure and eBay has really dropped the ball with clarity while rolling out this program.  Also, sales have been pretty much at an absolute standstill since this program began.  But I do appreciate all of your assistance on this matter.

[wastingtime101]

Nah, you don't have to remove those listings @darenzia . All you have to do is set up international country exclusions on those listings and it'll avoid the risk of buyers with international addresses purchasing them.