Join the Community team here at 1 PM PT on August 14th for our Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. We don't have a set topic this week, so please bring any general questions you may have on buying or selling.
The chat will be open for questions from 1-2 pm PT, at which point we'll close thread. While no additional questions can be submitted after this time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that may 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 with you 
@Anonymous wrote:
@theshoppingmom2 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@theshoppingmom2 wrote:So I have a question.... Ohhh Gasp... LOL
Anyway, I was trying to look in seller hub for the link to opt out of cross promotion but I think it has been removed.
The reason why I was looking for it is because I have several sellers that are also buyers that are saying that when they buy something they also get an email from eBay showing them the same exact item at a lower price.
I think it is because they are opted in the cross promotion but I am not 100% sure... I spend a lot of time yesterday looking for it and I cannot find it... I think is not there anymore ... am I right?
Hi @theshoppingmom2, the similar items on eBay that are shown to buyers in the listings is not something that sellers can opt out of any longer. At the end of the day, we want to ensure buyers find the best match for them here on eBay, as buyers who cannot find what they are looking for may choose to go to another site and we risk losing their business in the future. Rest assured, your items will show up on other listings in the same way and as long as you are providing a great value for what you are selling, you will remain competitive.
The emails that are sent after a purchase would not be related to this kind of cross promotion - when a buyer purchases or looks at something, this is an opportunity for us to show them the variety of options available on eBay. While we understand that this may lead to a buyer wanting to purchase an alternative instead, overall this practice helps to build our brand and encourage those buyers to return to eBay in the future.
@Anonymous Thanks for the response!! These particular sellers were talking about increased cancellation on their sales by buyers and they had seen it on their end when they tried being a buyer to purchase something from the site.They claimed that eBay showed them the same item but cheaper and assumed that their increased cancellation rate from their sales was due to this
Hi @theshoppingmom2, this has been the standard experience for some time now so I would encourage sellers to look into other possibilities and make improvements. There may have been a shift in the average sales price in their categories or some other shift in the market that they can investigate.
@Anonymous Please forgive me but you know me... I am just trying to understand this so I can better explain it to sellers that encounter this.... one thing that has been brought up with this scenario is : Why would eBay want to lose money?.... in all fairness to these sellers... if the item was purchased already for lets say $100 and eBay goes ahead and shows the same item for $25 and the buyer decides to cancel and purchase at the lower price , isn't eBay losing money in FVF?
Thanks for joining us today, everyone! The chat is now closed for replies and we will work to respond to any remaining questions. Be sure to keep an eye out for the recap of the questions and answers from this weeks chat in the coming week 
We'll see you next time!
@b86fiero wrote:
@b86fiero wrote:
tyler@ebay wrote:
@b86fiero wrote:
"The transaction was ambiguous"
This is the reason a buyer claimed when filing a charge back against my account. Another seller posted on the managed payments board that they also had a charge back initiated with the same "ambiguous" reason.
Short history for mine ~ Buyer ordered 2 identical items, paid for them with one payment. I shipped the same day, buyer received before estimated delivery. Buyer then opens a charge back using "the transaction was ambiguous" reason.
Buyer never opened a return request. Buyer never contacted me. eBay sent me a message saying eBay would handle it for me.
Charge back was found in buyer's favor. Why? Buyer kept my merchandise and got their money back. I lost my merchandise plus cost of shipping and shipping materials. Probably a charge back fee will show up on my monthly invoice. I did everything right but still lost.
Is "the transaction was ambiguous" a new means for buyers to open charge backs with automatic wins? What can sellers do to protect themselves from this?
And what exactly does ambiguous mean in this context?
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Hi @b86fiero - I can't speak to account specific activity, but I know that chargebacks are handled directly between the payment processor and the funding source/financial institution. Ultimately the decision on whether or not the money will be refunded lies with the financial institution.
I know that we do everything we can to represent the situation accurately with the financial institution, but I can't speak to specifics of what could have happened with this particular situation. I'd recommend contacting our managed payments team directly by phone so they can review it and get you more insight. Thanks!
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Thanks Tyler for your comments.
I'm in managed payments so eBay is the payment processor. I had never heard of the "transaction was ambiguous" as a charge back reason. I still have no clue what that means. Neither does the OP on the managed payments group board.
My little dictionary defines: Ambiguous - having more than one interpretation.
CS has given me no insight on this claim.
Like mam said, this is scary. And and noted on the MP group board, I'm not the only seller dealing with ambiguous claims.
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Also, I am a top rated seller and as far as I know quality for every seller protection eBay offers.
I won the only charge back filed against me in Paypal. Buyer receieved item.
Hi @b86fiero - I'll see if there's any information I can find on this. Detailed information about managed payments disputes can be found here for your review (including what protections we offer). Thanks!
Top Rated Seller Protections
I saw that there are new protections for sellers to be able to appeal Service Metric dings when a buyer falsely opens an Item Not as Described return, is this true? Would those removals be automatic?
Additional protections are coming October 1st for Top Rated sellers. Those protections do include service metric protection for false claims filed by a buyer. You can review in more detail here. You will need to report the buyer in order to be eligible for such protection, but the removal is automatic once that's done.
Selling Limits
I noticed recently that my selling limits were raised to a very high amount. Is this accurate?
The limits you see in your account are the correct limits for the number of items and the total dollar amount of sales you can have each month. If you have received limits much higher than you had previously, consider this the new goal to reach for!
Responding To A Buyer Question
I've been noticing for several weeks when replying to buyers questions that the page will not load all the way. It will not give me the Enter Text Here so that when you click your mouse on that text it disappears. You can ask me a question on any of our items just to test it.
We'll definitely give this a try after the chat today and see what is going on. Thanks so much for your help in getting to the bottom of this!
Shipping Supplies
Recently they made changes to the envelopes available from the Branded Shipping Supplies store - I like the change, thanks for listening to our input!
Glad to hear that they work better for you!
eBay Upfront
Hey we have another eBay Upfront coming up in Chicago! I highly recommend attending one. It is FREE and there is so much information!
We are super excited about these events, too! For anyone interested, here is the link for the event.
eBay For Business Podcast
Mohan said this about a pilot program eBay is running, which sounds a little like the guides eBay discontinued a while back. Can you get us some more details about this? And, since it is a pilot, can you point me to an example of this actually being used on eBay right now?:
"And then the last thing I want to share, which I'm super excited about and we shared this today, doesn't even have a name. It's a new experience that we're trying to build of bringing content and commerce together. Which is really allowing our buyers to stay engaged on the platform. If you're into comic books, if you are into trading cards, if you're into baseball cards or if you're into clothing, if you're into camping. It is bringing interesting articles, content videos, that's off platform outside of eBay, allowing our buyers to read about it. But then showing items that they read about it in the article. How to have your first camping trip with your son. Great article. Here's 10 things you need. Here are all the items to buy on eBay. Now we're doing this as a small pilot in certain areas, but my ultimate goal is to give that to sellers so you as sellers can write about the areas that you guys are honestly the experts. We're not the experts. You are the experts. You can write about anything out there that you're passionate about, that you know more about. And you can actually say and here are the items that if you really like this you can buy to go learn something or you can put a recipe to go sell the goods that you're selling. That is where I think really the community comes together. The sellers are providing content that points to their items and buyers are coming to eBay because the content is fresh."
Thanks for listening to the podcast! What Mohan showcased on stage was a new category experience that is in the works for to the eBay mobile app. Say for example that you are into comics - you will be able to switch from today's classic view of eBay on your app to a comic focused eBay app, with a totally new look & feel. The comic feed will pull in content and articles, some from eBay staffers, some from outside eBay and it will showcase items that you may find interesting. The new experience is not yet live, so there's nothing that I can point you to today. Keep an eye out on our announcements for more information on this feature
Contacting Customer Service
The Customer Service page that contains the call-in number with code also tiles photos of my recent orders, but when I click on the one I am calling in about, there is no item number with it. This is the first thing the customer service rep needs, so can changes be made to retain this when I click through to the contact page?
Great suggestion! We will get this passed on to the appropriate team
Chargeback Protection
I’m opted into managed payments and received a chargeback with the reason ‘the transaction was ambiguous’. I lost the chargeback - why? I did everything right and still lost. What can I do to protect myself from this?
I can't speak to account specific activity, but I know that chargebacks are handled directly between the payment processor and the funding source/financial institution. Ultimately the decision on whether or not the money will be refunded lies with the financial institution.
I'd recommend contacting our managed payments team directly by phone so they can review the transaction details and get you more insight.
I had a chargeback occur in PayPal and they fought for me and we won. I'm not hearing or reading where eBay’s managed payments team does anything similar - should I be concerned?
We actually do a lot to protect folks in managed payments when chargebacks arise. More info can be found here.
Cross Promotion
Anyway, I was trying to look in seller hub for the link to opt out of cross promotion, but I think it has been removed. The reason I was looking for it is because I have heard several people report that when they buy something they also get an email from eBay showing them the same exact item at a lower price. Has the option to opt out of cross promotion been removed? And are these emails related to cross promotion?
The similar items on eBay that are shown to buyers in the listings are not something that sellers can opt out of any longer. At the end of the day, we want to ensure buyers find the best match for them here on eBay, as buyers who cannot find what they are looking for may choose to go to another site and we risk losing their business in the future. Rest assured, your items will show up on other listings in the same way and as long as you are providing a great value for what you are selling, you will remain competitive.
The emails that are sent after a purchase would not be related to this kind of cross promotion - when a buyer purchases or looks at something, this is an opportunity for us to show them the variety of options available on eBay. While we understand that this may lead to a buyer wanting to purchase an alternative at times, overall this practice helps to build our brand and encourage those buyers to return to eBay in the future.
Thanks for the response! These particular sellers were talking about an increase in cancellations and thought it might be related.
This has been the standard experience for some time now so I would encourage sellers to look into other possibilities and make improvements. There may have been a shift in the average sales price in their categories or some other shift in the market that they can investigate to determine necessary improvements.
Doesn’t eBay lose money if a buyer decides to cancel and purchase the same item at a lower price?
While there may be some short term loss if a buyer cancels an order for an item at a higher price, and then purchases that same item at a lower price, this short term loss prevents a greater long term loss if the buyer chooses to go with another marketplace for future purchases. If we ensure the buyer is shown the variety of great deals available on eBay, they will not only more commonly choose eBay in the future, they will likely begin searching more thoroughly to find a great price before committing to buy. Cancellations for the situation you describe are more common for newer buyers who may still be learning how best to search for items on eBay.
At the end of the day, the practice of showing similar items or other options for something a customer has looked at or purchased is a standard practice in e-commerce. It creates trust in our marketplace, encourages repeat purchases, and ensures buyers are happy with their experience on eBay. Creating the best experience possible for our buyers leads to increased engagement with eBay, thus creating increased sales for our sellers. If a seller is regularly finding that buyers are cancelling orders because there is a better price on eBay, that seller should consider making changes to their business model to remain competitive potentially by lowering their prices or increasing the value of their listing by considering free returns, free shipping, or other discounts and promotions for their store.
Think of it this way: why would a seller put their items on sale if this means the items sell for less money? This is partially to generate more sales overall: first in the short term, then later in the long term through repeat buyers.
