mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
Join the Community team here at 1 PM PT on April 1st for our Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. We don't have a specific topic this week, so please bring any general questions you may have about buying or selling.
The chat will be open for questions from 1-2 pm PT, at which point we'll close thread from additional responses. After this time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that might still be unanswered.
If you're new to the chat, welcome! Simply Reply to this post with your question from 1-2 PM Pacific Time and we'll be happy to look into it for you.
tyler@ebay wrote:
@coinslabz26 wrote:Ebay was somewhat cryptic on the fact that they were giving protections during the current pandemic spreading like wildfire around the nation.
Ebay has stated they will not down grade sellers status during this time, but are they counting late shipments against us? The only way I can have packages scanned is at the counter and it feels unsafe to wait on line.
My regular mail carrier has not been working and the floaters do not always scan packages when pickup is requested. Similarly when packages are dropped in the collection bin they don't always get scanned on time, even though transit times aren't typically effected in either case.
Is the only way to ensure on time delivery to take my chances and wait on line as usual or are we going to be protected from late shipments during this time where I can drop packages after hours in the collection bin?Hi @coinslabz26 - happy to clarify! On-time Shipping as a metric has not been suspended. This means you can still get credit by either getting an acceptance scan within your handling time, having the item scan as delivered within the estimated delivery date given to your buyer or having the buyer state they received the item on time when leaving feedback.
With that being said - if your Late Shipment Rate does increase, it will not impact your seller level, per our announcement from a few weeks ago (link here).
But wasn't that stated to be for a period of time. The announcement said we are protected until the June 20th eval. But what happens after that. For sellers that are on the 12 month eval period. Do the all come back into consideration on the July 20th eval. By putting that timeframe in the announcement that is what it appears to be say. Or at least that is my interpretation.
@mam98031 wrote:
It appears to me that Ebay has changed the process on refunding buyers when sales tax is part of the transaction. I’m not sure when it changed.
It was that if I refunded a buyer in full, the sales tax was auto added to the refund that the buyer receives and Ebay of course took care of that sales tax portion. It was also true that if I did a partial refund that the appropriate portion of the sales tax was auto added to the refund and Ebay again covered that portion.
But now it seems to have changed for partial refunds. If we want to partially refund our buyer how are we going to get this to work right. For example in the pic below. I want to refund my buyer $45 out of the money they paid me for the product. But if I put that in, as you can see, their total refund is $45 with the sales tax being part of the $45. It should be a refund of $45 PLUS sales tax. In other words the buyer should be seeing a refund of $48.42 [45.00 + 3.42].
Hi @mam98031, it looks like you are doing a partial refund through PayPal (correct me if I'm wrong). This is the correct way partial refunds work through PayPay, which is that the seller will need to calculate the tax and include the appropriate amount of tax in the 'Total Refund Amount' field.
@nomatchingshoes wrote:
Why and is it possible to change or defend yourself as a seller against a buyers return request claim when buyer clearly states in the written part of the return request that the item was "not damaged" as was stated in the initial reason for the return, but it just isn't what they were expecting? This would seem to breed abuse of a seller. What is the best way to protect yourself as a seller from these things happening?
Hi @nomatchingshoes - if you run into situations where you feel a buyer is misusing the return system I encourage you to report them through the return itself. That will alert us to review their behavior for patterns of abuse and take action if necessary. In most cases, however, we would still expect you to handle the return request as normal if we were asked to step in.
The best way to protect yourself is to consider offering Free 30 day returns, which will allow you to issue a less than full refund as well as receive a return shipping credit of up to $6 per return. You can also access these protections if you are a Top Rated member and offer 30 day returns.
@carlqsportscards wrote:
How long do drafts last, and does revising them restart the clock?
Hi @carlqsportscards - a draft listing remains for as many as 30 days from the last time you edited it, after which it expires.
However, the more aged a draft becomes the less likely it will be to work properly when you go to finish it. For that reason it's suggested that you use the drafts feature as a temporary tool - not a long term storage solution.
@nomatchingshoes wrote:
Seller Performance Questions: Does it hurt my seller performance/ratings to revise listing under Buy It know listings for things like,: changing max/min offers or lowering the actual BIK (Buy It Know) price, or shipping costs or options?
Hi @nomatchingshoes, making revisions to a listing, whether it's Auction or Fixed Price, will not impact your Seller Performance. This help page explains the criteria that is reviewed when determining Seller Performance. If you are referring to a listings Best Match search results then I suggest reviewing this page for more details.
