eBay

Anonymous · ‎04-07-2020

Join the Community team here at 1 PM PT on April 8th 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.

cynthealee2 · ‎04-08-2020

@vrykalak wrote:
@vrykalak wrote:
Sellers should be allowed to send small items using First Class Letter post without being dinged for it. It makes no sense to send a $1 item in a $3 package.
The buyers prefer First Class Letter Post, of course, because it saves them money.
But we sellers are not allowed to provide it, because a demerit for shipping without tracking harms our status for 3 to 12 months.
Hi @vrykalak - you're right that shipping with tracking doesn't always make sense for lower cost items, and I want to reiterate that you are absolutely allowed to offer the shipping options that work best for your business.

However, to be a Top Rated Seller we expect that the majority of your items are shipped with tracking. Being a Top Rated account allows you to qualify for a 10% Final Value Fee discount on the cost of the item, as well as access to the enhanced seller protections. Ultimately, though, it may not make financial sense for you to spend a dollar to save a dime (so to speak). You will need to make that decision based on your business model.
----
Why? Why should eBay care whether or not I ship with tracking, as long as my customers are happy?

If you want TRS that bad open a second account for the ones you ship in the little white envelopes.

BTW the buyers WILL pay the 3.00-3.50 for things like cards if they want that card bad enough. I ship GPK cards that way cause to many kept claiming INR... but I ship rubber bracelets in little white envelopes with no issue (and without tracking).

I hate photobucket right now... PS Answers given years ago may or may not be current now, please check with current posters to the boards to see if the information is still relevant.

coffeebean832 · ‎04-08-2020

I've been dealing with a technical issue on my account. There was a help ticket opened for it a few months ago. I followed up with CS through the e-mail option and provided the SR#, but the reply I got back was the generic "check your settings" kind of message- things I already went through over and over both on my own and with CS which is why the ticket was opened in the first place.

The CS rep who replied did write out a personalized response- but it appears they didn't look at the history before repeating the same things. If it was that easy the problem would have been fixed months ago.

What are the chances I can get a real answer on status or expect this issue to be fixed? Is there a better way to approach this with CS? It's not what I would consider a minor problem and I'm so frustrated. Thanks.

golfingaddict · ‎04-08-2020

And just an FYI, almost all of the websites I have looked at for shopping, including Costco, Amazon, Macys, Eddie Bauer, REI, and others I won't name have a big bold notice that shipping is delayed and order processing is delayed.

But ebay sellers are suppose to refund orders because the order doesn't get to the buyer in 2 days. even when they have 2 day handling time.

go-bad-chicken · ‎04-08-2020

@Anonymous wrote:
@go-bad-chicken wrote:
Good afternoon

On the sellers boards this past week sellers have seen a surge in listings that would generally be considered collectibles i.e. Minnie Mouse Ears, Video Games, etc. and not essential items being removed under the auspices of "Price Gouging"

I have read all of the posted eBay policies regarding Price gouging. But I have found that most of what is stated within those policy pages is very vague.

Price gouging policy
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/price-gouging-policy?id=5106&st=12&pos=2&query=Price%20gouging%20policy&intent=price%20gouging
What is the policy?

- Items that are considered essential must be offered at a reasonable price

- Inflating the price of goods in response to an emergency or disaster is not allowed

- eBay may restrict the sale of items that are susceptible to price gouging behavior - for example, by only allowing items to be sold by authorized sellers

- Sellers must follow all applicable laws and regulations that apply to the sale of their items

In one of the treads from Monday @Anonymous stated "you can contact Customer Service to discuss your concerns."

I am looking to purchase new products to sell here and on other online marketplaces. I primarily sell collectible items. No food, No medical, No personnel protection. Just collectibles.

My question is if I contact eBay customer service either through email or by phone in advance before purchasing these products and discuss and diclose to them what those products are, what categories I am going to want to list them in, and what price I will be asking for these items and am told that yes those items are allowed to be sold at the prices that I stated; will I be able to take that CS reps word to the bank?

Can I be assured that if I were to do this that if those items are taken down after I have made a significant investment that I will be able to have them restored at the prices that I received authorization for in advance from customer service?

I am attempting to be proactive and not waste $1,000's of dollars for items that are not allowed on eBay.
Hi @go-bad-chicken, I want to add the second policy page that was also discussed recently in these discussions, for our Disaster & Tragedy policy: https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/disaster-tragedy-policy?id=5051. While a seller can speak with Customer Service to discuss their concerns in more detail, we are not able to provide definitive pricing guidance for every situation. Various factors will be considered when we determine if a listing is violating our price-gouging policy, and what is considered an unreasonable price may change over time.

That being said, the items you are describing are not something that would be likely to fall under the related policies we've been discussing. While a collectible may become a violation of our Disaster & Tragedy policy if a recent disaster or tragedy has occurred that is related to the item (example: a jersey for a recently deceased basketball player), these situations are few and far between and this has always been a possibility. If you have not run into these issues in the past, this should be an indication to you of how uncommon these types of removals are.

In short, though we cannot provide the item specific type of information you are looking for, if you are listing items at a reasonable price and not seeking to take advantage of others during a crises, you should be fine. If a listing is removed as a violation, a seller is notified of the reasons why. If the removal is done in error, we will review for reinstatement and coaching to the teammate that made a mistake.

Fair enough. Thank you for the candid response.

The only portion of your statement that leaves me feeling a little leery is "if you are listing items at a reasonable price and not seeking to take advantage of others during a crises"

The term reasonable price is very subjective. Whats reasonable for one person is not always going to be reasonable to another. During my eBay career I have always applied a basic formula with regards to what I sell and how much I ask for any particular item, and that is if I purchased the item for $100 I attempt to sell it for $350. It does not always work for every item that I list but it does work enough that I start by applying this basic principle. Then if I have have multiple quantities of that item and that item begins to sell I then begin to slowly apply dynamic pricing (price goes up).

But I am not sure if this type of approach is allowed on eBay at this time. In the past this has never been an issue, at least not for me. In the thread regarding the Video Game listing which was taken down for price gouging the seller received a follow up message from eBay CS stating in post #215

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/eBay-removed-my-video-game-listing-for-price-gouging/td-p/30811117/page/6

"The new policy that we implemented a few weeks ago, price gouging, is ensuring that our community is not being taken advantage of, when they are purchasing items that are not just needed, but also somewhat close to market price. We understand that eBay is meant to be competitive with other sellers, but we will take action on items that are still available for the original MSRP that are marked up more than double that on our platform. You may re list the item, but at a price that is considered fair. I hope this information has been helpful in your current situation. Stay safe out there."

Does this now apply? but we will take action on items that are still available for the original MSRP that are marked up more than double that on our platform.

0netwo0netwo · ‎04-08-2020

thank you for your response

How can someone claim it is NOT AS DESCRIBED when I have proof that it was EXACTLY as described???

I did reply to them and ask them but like with all of the other times i mentioned i tried to get in touch with them they never responded.

The only two times they responded were once i accepted their offer and they asked for the two days to make payment (which they did not) and when i asked if everything was alright once the item was delivered and they responded with only "Looks Different". They are completely vague and short with their messages and it feels like they are abusing your system to get free items or to put competing sellers out when they have the exact same items already in their Ebay shop

It really doesnt feel like Ebay is doing anything anymore to protect their sellers as much as they are doing to protect their buyers.

Ive read posts in this community where buyers have waited until the very last day of the allowed thirty days to open up a return case and 99% of the time Ebay sides with the buyer instead of the seller even though they might have all of the necessary proof and documentation.

Whos to say this buyer doesnt open the request you side with them and force me to give a refund and they dont return anything back to me or they do but they damage my items and then theyre just unsellable trash??

Ebay needs to create a better system to remove these buyers that think they can just buy items and not pay for them because they open a false claim. This is not calming for the sellers. If this happens to me in this case, i really hope it wont because im broke and without a job now, then I will remove all my items and shut down my shop and I will never use Ebay again. I will also make sure anyone i know hears my story and I will strongly advise them to not give any business to Ebay as well. This is ridiculous that Ebay allows stuff like this to happen.

brian@ebay · ‎04-08-2020

@golfingaddict wrote:

Is the shipping team/guru checking in frequently with UPS and USPS and Fed Ex to see how transit times are going across the country.

When inquiring with the USPS in various locations across the country, I am hearing that there are some slow downs due to staffing issues and other things related to the Current health problems.

Are you guys aware of any issues and if so, how are those slowdowns or challenges reflected in our shipping times, expected delivery times and more importantly with that glitch that is telling our buyers that we ship same day, how are sellers going to be punitively damaged because of random shipping issues?

And can you explain to me how and why ebay is ignoring 2 or 3 day handling times when they are giving estimated delivery times to buyers? Thank you.

Hi @golfingaddict, we are keeping a close eye on shipping carrier and anything that may impact sellers. This announcement is regularly updated with new information as it becomes available, so I suggest checking on it often.

If sounds like you recently updated your handling time to be 2 or 3 days when previously it was 1 day? If so, it may take some time for the estimated delivery dates to reflect your new handling time. Our system takes your history to determine the estimated delivery times. If you've historically shipped within 1 day then that is what the estimated will use.

Brian,
Community Team

mvls1 · ‎04-08-2020

Are sellers that use the global shipping program now being forced into managed payments and if so why? We use managed payments on all our accounts and do not want to loose the combined sales that we get from that program. We should be one of the last group moved there.

golfingaddict · ‎04-08-2020

No I did not recently change on this account. I don't know where you got that information.

brian@ebay · ‎04-08-2020

Thanks for joining us today! The chat is now closed.

Brian,
Community Team

tyler@ebay · ‎04-08-2020

@coffeebean832 wrote:

I've been dealing with a technical issue on my account. There was a help ticket opened for it a few months ago. I followed up with CS through the e-mail option and provided the SR#, but the reply I got back was the generic "check your settings" kind of message- things I already went through over and over both on my own and with CS which is why the ticket was opened in the first place.

The CS rep who replied did write out a personalized response- but it appears they didn't look at the history before repeating the same things. If it was that easy the problem would have been fixed months ago.

What are the chances I can get a real answer on status or expect this issue to be fixed? Is there a better way to approach this with CS? It's not what I would consider a minor problem and I'm so frustrated. Thanks.

Hi @coffeebean832 - that's definitely frustrating, to be sure!

I'll reach out for more detail. Thanks!

Tyler,

brian@ebay · ‎04-08-2020

@golfingaddict wrote:

No I did not recently change on this account. I don't know where you got that information.

Thanks for clarifying @golfingaddict.

The historical shipping data is still taken into account. If you have a 2 or 3 day handling time but typically ship within 1 business day then 1 business day is what the delivery estimation will be based on. If you typically ship in 2 or 3 days then that is what will be used when estimating the delivery date. Ultimately, the historical timeframes of when a seller actually ships items will be used to calculate the delivery estimation.

Edit to add:

I meant to add this in my original reply. If the above scenario doesn't cover your specific situation (meaning you ship the majority of your items in 2 or 3 business days) then please let me know by tagging me in a thread and providing more details and/or examples. Thanks!

Brian,
Community Team

Anonymous · ‎04-08-2020

@dgn5009 wrote:

I wanted to thank EBay for monitoring and taking action on price gouging of items like hand sanitizer, masks, etc. I realize you can't catch every item, so I have reported a few. The results are inconsistent though - e.g. a $40+ bottle of hand sanitizer with $20+ shipping was allowed to proceed to auction completion. What can we do to be more effective in reporting these? Stay safe

Hi @dgn5009, thank you so much for your work in helping keep the site safe! We do review potential violations that we identify with our automated filters, reports from the Community, and also perform proactive searches multiple times a day to ensure we are catching everything we can. The reports we receive help to refine our filters so we can improve our identification measures. I don't think you need to do anything different than what you are doing, and rest assured that we are working around the clock to adapt to any changes in how these types of violations are being listed.

Anonymous · ‎04-08-2020

@maxoptical wrote:

I ask questions or report issues almost every week on this platform. The default answer I get on most of my post are as follows.

Thank you for reporting this, @maxoptical. I'll get this passed along to the appropriate teams for review and let you know if we need anything else to investigate.

But there is never any follow up, nobody every contacts me with a work around or fix.

As a seller I feel my technical problems are ignored.

I have emails back to 2018 reporting the time in transit issue , I was told it was a known but an the programers are working on it. 2 years later and still not corrected.

Very frustrating,

John Norman

Hi @maxoptical, definitely frustrating! We will do what we can to pass along reports and follow up if no improvements are seen. While there are certainly some issues that have come up repeatedly over the years, there are also a great number of reports the Community Team has received where we worked with the related teams to resolve outstanding issues. Though it is possible that a problem you are seeing has persisted over the years, a lot of the time these are actually unique issues that simply appear to be the same on the surface. The root cause and thus the solution will differ each time, so they are actually aren't the same problem. I know that it may appear from the outside that we are not making progress towards solving problems, but I can confirm that our tech teams do work hard to resolve issues and create a better experience for everyone.

Anonymous · ‎04-08-2020

@go-bad-chicken wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

@go-bad-chicken wrote:

Good afternoon

On the sellers boards this past week sellers have seen a surge in listings that would generally be considered collectibles i.e. Minnie Mouse Ears, Video Games, etc. and not essential items being removed under the auspices of "Price Gouging"

I have read all of the posted eBay policies regarding Price gouging. But I have found that most of what is stated within those policy pages is very vague.

Price gouging policy

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/price-gouging-policy?id=5106&st=12&pos=2&query=Price%20gouging%20policy&intent=price%20gouging

What is the policy?

- Items that are considered essential must be offered at a reasonable price

- Inflating the price of goods in response to an emergency or disaster is not allowed

- eBay may restrict the sale of items that are susceptible to price gouging behavior - for example, by only allowing items to be sold by authorized sellers

- Sellers must follow all applicable laws and regulations that apply to the sale of their items

In one of the treads from Monday @Anonymous stated "you can contact Customer Service to discuss your concerns."

I am looking to purchase new products to sell here and on other online marketplaces. I primarily sell collectible items. No food, No medical, No personnel protection. Just collectibles.

My question is if I contact eBay customer service either through email or by phone in advance before purchasing these products and discuss and diclose to them what those products are, what categories I am going to want to list them in, and what price I will be asking for these items and am told that yes those items are allowed to be sold at the prices that I stated; will I be able to take that CS reps word to the bank?

Can I be assured that if I were to do this that if those items are taken down after I have made a significant investment that I will be able to have them restored at the prices that I received authorization for in advance from customer service?

I am attempting to be proactive and not waste $1,000's of dollars for items that are not allowed on eBay.

Hi @go-bad-chicken, I want to add the second policy page that was also discussed recently in these discussions, for our Disaster & Tragedy policy: https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/disaster-tragedy-policy?id=5051. While a seller can speak with Customer Service to discuss their concerns in more detail, we are not able to provide definitive pricing guidance for every situation. Various factors will be considered when we determine if a listing is violating our price-gouging policy, and what is considered an unreasonable price may change over time.

That being said, the items you are describing are not something that would be likely to fall under the related policies we've been discussing. While a collectible may become a violation of our Disaster & Tragedy policy if a recent disaster or tragedy has occurred that is related to the item (example: a jersey for a recently deceased basketball player), these situations are few and far between and this has always been a possibility. If you have not run into these issues in the past, this should be an indication to you of how uncommon these types of removals are.

In short, though we cannot provide the item specific type of information you are looking for, if you are listing items at a reasonable price and not seeking to take advantage of others during a crises, you should be fine. If a listing is removed as a violation, a seller is notified of the reasons why. If the removal is done in error, we will review for reinstatement and coaching to the teammate that made a mistake.

Fair enough. Thank you for the candid response.

The only portion of your statement that leaves me feeling a little leery is "if you are listing items at a reasonable price and not seeking to take advantage of others during a crises"

The term reasonable price is very subjective. Whats reasonable for one person is not always going to be reasonable to another. During my eBay career I have always applied a basic formula with regards to what I sell and how much I ask for any particular item, and that is if I purchased the item for $100 I attempt to sell it for $350. It does not always work for every item that I list but it does work enough that I start by applying this basic principle. Then if I have have multiple quantities of that item and that item begins to sell I then begin to slowly apply dynamic pricing (price goes up).

But I am not sure if this type of approach is allowed on eBay at this time. In the past this has never been an issue, at least not for me. In the thread regarding the Video Game listing which was taken down for price gouging the seller received a follow up message from eBay CS stating in post #215

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/eBay-removed-my-video-game-listing-for-price-gouging/td-p/30811117/page/6

"The new policy that we implemented a few weeks ago, price gouging, is ensuring that our community is not being taken advantage of, when they are purchasing items that are not just needed, but also somewhat close to market price. We understand that eBay is meant to be competitive with other sellers, but we will take action on items that are still available for the original MSRP that are marked up more than double that on our platform. You may re list the item, but at a price that is considered fair. I hope this information has been helpful in your current situation. Stay safe out there."

Does this now apply? but we will take action on items that are still available for the original MSRP that are marked up more than double that on our platform.

Hi @go-bad-chicken, I think you've hit the nail on the head when identifying that this is a subjective matter - this is a large part of why we cannot provide the specific guidance that many have requested. Ultimately, while the guidance to remain under double the MSRP may be appropriate on some items, this may not apply to others. I can only reiterate that what is considered a fair or reasonable price will vary on a number of factors, such as the item availability, the relationship of it's current supply to a tragedy or disaster, the condition of the item, etc.

Anonymous · ‎04-08-2020

@mvls1 wrote:

Are sellers that use the global shipping program now being forced into managed payments and if so why? We use managed payments on all our accounts and do not want to loose the combined sales that we get from that program. We should be one of the last group moved there.

Hi @mvls1, I have good news for you! In our recent Seller Update (here), we announced that the Global Shipping Program will be available to Managed Payments users.