Community Chat, Dec 20th @ 1pm PT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Please join the Community team here at 1 pm Pacific on Dec 20 for our weekly chat. We do not have a set topic this week, so please feel free to ask us your eBay related buying & selling questions.

The thread will open for replies at 1pm and will remain open for one hour. 

 Happy Holidays! 🎄🎅🏽

[sarahbru]

Hello eBay Community. 🙂

This is Sarah from the Community team jumping into the weekly chat with my own topic! HA!

I wanted to let you know that I've decided to take a six month leave of absence from eBay.  I'm going to use the time to write a book that I've been meaning to write for the last FIVE YEARS and just never seem to be able to make the time for. 

What book, you ask? Five years ago I was diagnosed with two different kinds of cancer (one super rare called Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma and one super common called breast cancer) and I had to take a year-long medical leave from eBay to undergo treatments to fight these cancers.  This book will share stories from that year -- specifically sharing some of the cancer terminology, how to wrap your head around a cancer diagnosis, what it is like to undergo radiation, chemotherapy, and the like -- in the hope that sharing this information will help those who have been newly diagnosed (or love someone who has been newly diagnosed).

I love eBay and this community and its been a tough decision to make, but I feel like if I don't prioritize this now, I won't ever write the book -- and it's important to me personally to write the book.  As always, thank you for being part of this eBay community. Sarah  

[golfingaddict]

@Anonymous

Hey! Happy Holidays... Glad to see you pop in and say hi

[brian@ebay]

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@fern*wood wrote:

Love the dog!!!

Based on post on the seller board today I have a question.  If one signs up for guarantee delivery using the handling time option and the package arrives late, will this be reflected on the shipping metrics as late even if a proper acceptance scan was obtained?

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Hi @fern*wood, that's a great question! As long as tracking shows an acceptance scan within your stated handling time then it will not be counted as a late delivery on your Seller Dashboard. 

[d-k_treasures]

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@siayan wrote:

In the past if I did a search for a item all items with the search words would show up in best match.

Has there been a change to search that eliminates some items even if the search term is an exact match?

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In the more distant past, if I did a search for an item on ebay, only the ones that had those words in it would show up.

Now it's anyones guess as to what shows up.

[Anonymous]

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@aluvz2shop wrote:

Happy Holiday to all.

Quick question about a recent promo 

List FREE - 200 auction-style or fixed priced listings Pay no insertion fees on up to 200 listings. Plus, add Buy It Now for free.

12/19/17 00:00:00 PST

12/23/17 23:59:59 PST

0

200

It is listed not once but twice, is this a super bonus or done in error? 

Thanks in advance!

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Hi @aluvz2shop, I've never actually seen this happen before, but I do have a test you can run to determine if there are actually two promotions with the same offer or if this is just a graphical error. Try listing an item within the promotion criteria and check to see if the count of "200" lowers on both or just one. You are welcome to update me with what you find and I can get this over to our tech teams if there is an error present!

[sarahbru]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi everyone! I can't stay for the chat but just wanted to jump in and say hi! I hope everyone has Happy Holidays!!  

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@Anonymous SO MUCH FUN to see you on the Community boards! Please come back soon. 🙂 Sarah

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@siayan wrote:

In the past if I did a search for a item all items with the search words would show up in best match.

Has there been a change to search that eliminates some items even if the search term is an exact match?

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@siayan

Are you saying that you did a search and then a minute later did the same search and received different (noticeably) results?  We haven't altered best match.  It's important to remember though that items end, are cancelled, etc. so the search results are ever changing - by the second. 

See the following for Best Match factors  - see http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/searchstanding.html

If you use the left hand navigation to reduce a search (e.g. new only, or model), the results will be very different than Best Match from the home page search, and if the item doesn't match criteria that you used, even an exact keyword match will not return the item. 

I would have to see the exact search you did - feel free to send it to me at bburke@ebay.com

Thanks for selling on eBay

Brian

[mallontown]

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@mallontown wrote:

usps holiday shipping deadlines 12/19 for first class mail

Why does ebay show buyers false delivery times for usps deliveries? This effects millions of people , buyers and sellers who use usps.

I included an example of an auction today 12/20 with delivery date of 12/23 to compare with usps saying all first class needed to be shipped 12/19 for Christmas delivery. 

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[tyler@ebay]

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@carlqsportscards wrote:

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@carlqsportscards wrote:

I just started trying variation listings. I can't seem to add best offer to them. Is that a glitch, or how it is actually set up?

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Hi @carlqsportscards - currently Best Offer is not available on listings with variations. Thanks!

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I seem to be missing something about ebay's logic.

All those people that complained about ebay adding best offer to listings when they didn't want it, while I want to add it but can't.

Can you fill me in on the reasoning?

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Happy to clarify - this is a system limitation. We would love to have you be able to put Best Offers on your variation listings, but at this point in time you cannot do both. 

[golfingaddict]

alan@ebay

I have a few packages that appear to be delayed.  I shipped them in my handling time, and validated by post office.

How is this reflected in Guaranteed delivery and my shipping time metrics.

They seem to be delayed due the current heavy shipping volumes.

 And yes, volumes this year have been very heavy.

[odditiesandantiquities1]

This is more of a comment than a question. 

Recently I had a situation where a customer want to buy some earrings, but didn't need the backings. I sent a best offer less $20 and also noted in the offer that it was for the earrings without the backings. 

After she paid, she emailed me that she wanted the backings. Let's just say I wasn't in a Christmas mood at the time (10 days ago). I contacted Customer Service and was told that I could use the "out of stock" cancellation and she would record the circumstances so if a defect happened, it would be removed. I did say twice that I wasn't sure that was the right idea, but she assured me. After I had done as per instructed, she said why don't I pass you over to the resolution center and they can reassure  you. 

When I spoke to the woman in Resolutions, she was shocked and said that certainly wasn't the avenue to take due to the negative I would be hit with. Obviously I said it was per the CS instructions and she could see that was in the case in the notes.

Maybe some instruction is necessary for that CS person. I know there are a few notes that have been taken during this event. Not a good idea to tell a seller to use something that will give them a negative and a nasty out of stock one to boot.

[siayan]

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brian_burke@ebay wrote:

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@siayan wrote:

In the past if I did a search for a item all items with the search words would show up in best match.

Has there been a change to search that eliminates some items even if the search term is an exact match?

---

@siayan

Are you saying that you did a search and then a minute later did the same search and received different (noticeably) results?  We haven't altered best match.  It's important to remember though that items end, are cancelled, etc. so the search results are ever changing - by the second. 

See the following for Best Match factors  - see http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/searchstanding.html

If you use the left hand navigation to reduce a search (e.g. new only, or model), the results will be very different than Best Match from the home page search, and if the item doesn't match criteria that you used, even an exact keyword match will not return the item. 

I would have to see the exact search you did - feel free to send it to me at bburke@ebay.com

Thanks for selling on eBay

Brian

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What I have found is I have several searches set up with minimial key words. While I am searching I will tweek the search in different directions by adding words and I will see items I didn't see before but have the same original search words as my original search. 

[golfingaddict]

@sarahbru

It sounds like an important and courageous thing to do. Good luck! 

Let us know when it is published and be sure to sell it on ebay!!

[vrykalak]

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@d-k_treasures wrote:

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@siayan wrote:

In the past if I did a search for a item all items with the search words would show up in best match.

Has there been a change to search that eliminates some items even if the search term is an exact match?

---

In the more distant past, if I did a search for an item on ebay, only the ones that had those words in it would show up.

Now it's anyones guess as to what shows up.

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Agree! eBay's search engine used to be the best in the universe. 
It allowed AND, OR, and NOT clauses, and showed exactly and only results that matched the search terms. 
As soon as eBay invented Best Match, their search algorithms went nuts. 
Now I'm lucky if half the results contain all my keywords.

And I NEVER use Best Match. I always search for Price + Shipping.

[roadking5555]

Earlier this week I had offers on a BIN with Best Offer enabled but with an automatic bid rejection below a specified amount.  The first 2 offers were auto-rejected, they were well below my cost of the items and unreasonable.

I recieved a new  3rd offer, which when I reviewed the offer it was less than the other 2 offers that were auto rejected. Did not make sense...

I had read on the boards about eBay changing BIN listings and allowing best offer so I double checked my listing by doing a revision to see what my auto reject offer setting  price was at, it was changed to allow ALL OFFERS, eBay changed my listing while it was active!

This does not promote a "good buyer experience", or good seller experience for that matter.  In my collectable category of coins it's apples and oranges, there is condtion, grade, rarity of dates ect. eBay should not be determinig a "market price" based on history since these are not standard widgets, each is unique in it's own way.

Is this going to be addressed or is this the new standard operating procedure? I am not a "new" seller. I do not need help in determining a fair price range.

I know I can just reject the offers, thats not the point. It is wasting a buyers time and mine.