Community Chat, Aug 16th @ 1pm PT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Hi Community, 

Please join us here for our weekly Community chat at 1 pm Pacific on Wednesday 8/16. There isn't a set topic this week so feel free to ask us your eBay buying & selling questions. 

Speak with you then! 

[mam98031]

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@golfingaddict wrote:

I purchased a very large bulky item on Friday the 11th.  I paid immediately.

The seller had one day handling TRSplus on the listing.

The seller entered shipping information tracking on Monday the  14th.  I then got an email from the seller on Tuesday saying that the item had not shipped yet and he was checking something.  He then emailed me today (Wednesday) telling me that it was now OK to ship.

In my book, that does not equate to one day handling and the issue I have is that I need to be home to accept this bulky/large item and it is now going to be delivered a few days after the estimated delivery time.  

What are my options as a buyer? 

And let me say, the purchase is not on this account AND this happens quite frequently.  Normally not a big deal because the packages are small, but this one is going to be an issue because of the size.

Sellers are still uploading/adding tracking and then holding off on shipping. 

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While I certainly understand your concerns over this happening, especially on an item you need to be home for the delivery, it is NOT the act of uploading tracking that keeps the seller stats in good standing.  It is the TRACKING showing it was shipped on time, delivered on time OR during the FB process the buyer checks the box that it was delivered within the ETA stated on the purchase.

So your buyer is NOT helping themselves in any way to print a label days ahead of actually being able to ship the item.  They need to keep their fingers crossed in the hopes that one of the other two ways on time delivery can be recorded for the seller will happen.

[Anonymous]

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@golfingaddict wrote:

I purchased a very large bulky item on Friday the 11th.  I paid immediately.

The seller had one day handling TRSplus on the listing.

The seller entered shipping information tracking on Monday the  14th.  I then got an email from the seller on Tuesday saying that the item had not shipped yet and he was checking something.  He then emailed me today (Wednesday) telling me that it was now OK to ship.

In my book, that does not equate to one day handling and the issue I have is that I need to be home to accept this bulky/large item and it is now going to be delivered a few days after the estimated delivery time.  

What are my options as a buyer? 

And let me say, the purchase is not on this account AND this happens quite frequently.  Normally not a big deal because the packages are small, but this one is going to be an issue because of the size.

Sellers are still uploading/adding tracking and then holding off on shipping. 

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Hi @golfingaddict - We would agree, this would not be considered one day shipping. While tracking was uploaded on time, we'll be able to confirm through scans that it wasn't physically shipped when it was supposed. The seller may receive credit for validated tracking at some point, but ideally this would count as a Late Shipment. 

I would suggest leaving appropriate feedback in these situations to alert other buyers but know we will hold them accountable through their Seller Dashboard.

[carlmarxx]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Welcome to today's chat! The thread is now open  There's not a set topic for the day so let us know what's on your mind!

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Hi: Heidi  I got off the phone yesterday  with nice CSR  Rep.   Well she said ebay is rolling out  IPR on all BIN's  Because of small number  of experienced sellers some newbies don't know how to call up or will not  ebay seller support  on how to deal with NPB's  And they don't know how or will not use Buyer preferences settings too lower chance of getting NPB ,Or even will not  check of in payments in item listing THE IPR  !   It doesn't Make since  to screw  the rest of sellers  by forcing how fast we want are payments !, Just because of a small number sellers  that  don't  know  or have a clue on how to sell . Not everyone  is seller 

[bigmotormania]

Hello Heidi, Alan.

The other day I encountered what I consider to be an issue, one of my listings had had it's description condensed into a single paragraph and everything was all jumbled together. I was able to fix it by revising the listing, and I didn't see any other of my listings do that but I also haven't been able to go through every single one of them yet.

It seems to be an isolated incident from what I can see, have you ever heard of this and/or has this ever been reported that you know of and if so can you pass this along as a possible glitch?

Thanks. 

Also just for reference here is the discussion I started about it the other day, it has screenshots in it that show you what I mean when I say my description was condensed, and how it's normally supposed to look (it's fixed now, also note that the examples are two different listings one was just being used for reference).

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Description-Super-Condensed/m-p/27354850

[tunicaslot]

no disrepect dk - but every article I've read about the new goole security features says the same thing as Trinton does. If you google it there are many articles pertaining to this change coming up and why google is doing it. If they don't feel the web site is secure - they'll tell you that and Ebay could lose a lot of new and old buyers.

[Anonymous]

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@dtexley3 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@dtexley3 wrote:

Many of the pages that the seller hub links to have no link to go back to Seller hub.  You have to either use the back button (not always advisable) or click on the eBay logo and then menu your way back to where you were.  All the sub pages should have a link to go back to at least the parent page if not to the seller hub overview.

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The link to get back to Seller Hub would be under My eBay > Selling. This should redirect you right back to the Seller Hub landing page. If you have an example where you are running into issues, don't hesitate to share the details!

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Most of the pages don't have ANY of the menus just an eBay logo.  Have someone start following each of the links and document which pages are missing the menus.   I'm not getting paid to do UAT/UI/Code Review etc for eBay, I do enough of that for my own job.  

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I apologize if I misunderstood - I've been double checking the Seller Hub and am not running into the issue you are describing. Additionally, the My eBay link is in the upper right corner of most pages on the site and will get you back to Seller Hub. If you have an issue you would like us to address, we can do so with the specific details but are not able to investigate if we are not running into the same problem on our end. Feel free to elaborate on the pages you are concerned with 🙂

[duchess-at-speakeasy]

Why am I seeing my own listings -- this ID, using a desktop PC and Chrome -- with an abbreviated description followed by the dreaded "See full item description" button?  When I view other listings, I can see the seller's full template.  (Some listing content is woefully inadequate or poorly constructed, but that's another matter.)  My template contains simple HTML and embedded images hosted on a secure server; there is no active content.

Why does the abbreviated description (abstract) appear in the upper right quadrant of some listings but not in others?  Sometimes it appears briefly above the Shipping line and then disappears. 

Why are sellers not warned that, if they do not designate specific text for up to 800 characters, the default is a random selection of sentences, phrases and words often out of sequence -- therefore a total mish-mash that makes no sense?

One of my listings (sheet music) displays gallery images correctly within the listing -- but in Search, the first gallery image (full view of cover) is replaced by the second image (partial view of cover).  Why?

When I view listings from my secondary selling ID, logged in or not, I see the full template, whose format and construction is very similar to that of my primary selling ID.  (Except no tiled background image and no GIF's.)

Bottom line:  What's the deal with such variable display and when will eBay fix it?

Thanks!

~~C~~ 

[carlmarxx]

Also IPR blocks echeck payments ,So ebay will chase off more buyer traffic if they force IPR on BIN Items

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

ebay's policy page about "immediate payment" was recently changed to state:

 "Immediate payment is automatically required on items priced below $1000, that have a specified shipping cost, and where PayPal is the only payment method offered."

This seems to be a "phased rollout", so not all qualifying listings have had the IP rule imposed. But ebay somehow puts it on the listing, it is not a choice the seller makes.

For fixed price listings to be eligible for the Guaranteed Delivery program, they must be "immediate payment"  Some sellers have said they will stay out of the program because they do not want to add immediate payment to their listings. But according to this, they might as well opt in to the GD program, because all their listings will soon  be immediate payment by default.

The reason sellers don't want to use immediate payment is because (in my experience)  the "request invoice" checkout box is grayed out if the items have IP chosen by the seller (and the items do not have free shipping)  But ebay has said that it is NOT grayed out if the IP is the result of the rollout (ebay imposed IP).

IF that is true, then presumably once the roll out has been completed, a buyer should always be able to request a combined shipping invoice for IP items under $1000. This would eliminate an objection some sellers have to using GD: because they sell multiples to many of their buyers, and so they don't use IP to avoid the grayed out checkout problem, and so they don't qualify. But soon their items will all be IP whether they like it or not. And as long as the buyer can request a combined invoice, that won't be a problem, and they can use GD. 

So, my question is: 

1. When will the new $1,000 be rolled out to all qualifying listings?

2. Once it is rolled out, will buyers be able to request an invoice for multiple purchases from the same seller through the checkout's "request invoice" button?

This question was asked during the recent GD program webinar, but neither Griff nor the GD team member knew the answer. In fact, Griff admitted he had never heard of the $1000 rule, which has never been the subject of a formal announcement on the Announcement Board.

[tyler@ebay]

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@d-k_treasures wrote:

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@d-k_treasures wrote:

What is an 'Ebay Collective dealer'?

Is this sponsered by ebay?

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Hi @d-k_treasures - similar to the 'curated collections' from several years ago, eBay Collective is a network of high end furniture, fine arts and antiques dealers that offer their items for people looking for unique styles and items. 

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So that gives them (even a new 28 FB seller) carte blanche to include their phone # in the listings, allow for wire transfers and checks, and select freight for shipping a small item - most likely so that its a separate PP invoice for shipping?

And also list repops in the antiques category? Is this sending a wonderful message to a new buyer on here? (the question is rhetorical, since no, the message is don't bother looking here).

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That shouldn't be the case - I'd encourage you to report the sellers you find that are in violation of policies, and we'll get it reported from our end too. 

[bigmotormania]

Changes that make sense, sure, but taking away my ability to relist through the unsold page simply to force me into the overly conveluted seller hub (which is not my landing page by the way) is not one I would consider to be a convenient or even a good change.

It's just annoying, a feeling which I have already expressed in a weekly chat.

[bigchief2472000]

I run across quite a few counterfeit products when I'm searching ebay, several from one particular seller.  I've reported the listings and the seller has several negative feedbacks left stating that his items are counterfeit.  Why are sellers like that allowed to continue selling here?  I've even reported the listing to the manufacturer that's being counterfeited and they said they've reported the listings to ebay as well, which may have resulted in those listings getting pulled, but the seller puts the same things right back up for sale.

[Anonymous]

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@carlmarxx wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Welcome to today's chat! The thread is now open  There's not a set topic for the day so let us know what's on your mind!

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Hi: Heidi  I got off the phone yesterday  with nice CSR  Rep.   Well she said ebay is rolling out  IPR on all BIN's  Because of small number  of experienced sellers some newbies don't know how to call up or will not  ebay seller support  on how to deal with NPB's  And they don't know how or will not use Buyer preferences settings too lower chance of getting NPB ,Or even will not  check of in payments in item listing THE IPR  !   It doesn't Make since  to screw  the rest of sellers  by forcing how fast we want are payments !, Just because of a small number sellers  that  don't  know  or have a clue on how to sell . Not everyone  is seller 

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Hi @carlmarxx - Thank you for the feedback on this. This change is for both buyers and sellers. Sellers have told us they don't like opening Unpaid Item cases, and new buyers don't return if they've had one opened against them. This is something that's becoming industry standard and we would encourage all buyers to rely on the cart feature when shopping.

[mam98031]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

ebay's policy page about "immediate payment" was recently changed to state:

 "Immediate payment is automatically required on items priced below $1000, that have a specified shipping cost, and where PayPal is the only payment method offered."

This seems to be a "phased rollout", so not all qualifying listings have had the IP rule imposed. But ebay somehow puts it on the listing, it is not a choice the seller makes.

For fixed price listings to be eligible for the Guaranteed Delivery program, they must be "immediate payment"  Some sellers have said they will stay out of the program because they do not want to add immediate payment to their listings. But according to this, they might as well opt in to the GD program, because all their listings will soon  be immediate payment by default.

The reason sellers don't want to use immediate payment is because (in my experience)  the "request invoice" checkout box is grayed out if the items have IP chosen by the seller (and the items do not have free shipping)  But ebay has said that it is NOT grayed out if the IP is the result of the rollout (ebay imposed IP).

IF that is true, then presumably once the roll out has been completed, a buyer should always be able to request a combined shipping invoice for IP items under $1000. This would eliminate an objection some sellers have to using GD: because they sell multiples to many of their buyers, and so they don't use IP to avoid the grayed out checkout problem, and so they don't qualify. But soon their items will all be IP whether they like it or not. And as long as the buyer can request a combined invoice, that won't be a problem, and they can use GD. 

So, my question is: 

1. When will the new $1,000 be rolled out to all qualifying listings?

2. Once it is rolled out, will buyers be able to request an invoice for multiple purchases from the same seller through the checkout's "request invoice" button?

This question was asked during the recent GD program webinar, but neither Griff nor the GD team member knew the answer. In fact, Griff admitted he had never heard of the $1000 rule, which has never been the subject of a formal announcement on the Announcement Board.

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An additional question I would have by the way they reworded this policy.   "Immediate payment is automatically required on items priced below $1000, that have a specified shipping cost, and where PayPal is the only payment method offered."  So does this mean that if we offer Free shipping that the IPR will not be forced on our BIN listings?

[carolynnq]

I know many people have complained about Immediate Payment Required being mandatory on fixed price listings. I really wish it would be possible to opt out of it. I have a huge lot of printed material from the Spanish Civil War that I've started to list. Many of the buyers are in Spain, the UK, and Australia. It costs about $13.50 to ship a small booklet. When buyers want to get more than one item, I'm having them tell me which items they want, then combining those items into one listing. That works, but it's time consuming and exchanging emails with people halfway around the world often means there's 8-12 hours between responses. I want to spend my time listing and shipping, not trying to figure out ways to give buyers a fair deal on shipping.