Community Chat, December 11 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

[brian@ebay]

Join the Community team here at 1 PM PT on December 11th 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 for you.

*Please note that we're not able to address account-specific queries. Questions regarding your account should be direct to eBay Customer Service. 

[tyler@ebay]

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@dhbookds wrote:

Did we ever find out about why both the Promoted listing and normal listing are showing up in search, whereas it was supposed to be one or the other, as I remember. 

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Hi @dhbookds - I've gotten this reported (thanks again to folks on the thread who got me great screenshot examples!) and am waiting for more information still. Thanks!

[brian@ebay]

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@golfingaddict wrote:

I have questions about the new seller protection benefits introduced in the fall update.

According to the Fall update, Top Rated Sellers were given additional seller protections.

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2019-fall/seller-protections.html

On my first and only time with this new “protection” I have been told that the things that were promised are true with “exceptions” and “caveats” not disclosed to sellers as far as I see.

CASE: buyer opened Not as described case. Buyer said “doesn’t match item or description”, upon asking for clarification, buyer said she got what she ordered but they did not fit. Thus, I filed a report on the buyer, held back 25% because the item was no longer new or in package and could not be resold.

I’ve been waiting for the return shipping to be refunded to me and for the case to be removed from my metrics. It’s been 5 weeks so I had some time today so called to ask if and when this might happen.

To my surprise I was told that it was not going to happen. I was told that the case was reviewed and vetted and I would not get the case removed because for some unknown (to me) reason they found a problem with the case. The CSR did tell me that she would credit me for the return shipping today because I called.

Issues:

1. No where does it say in the seller protections (individual cases) that they are contingent on some “vetting” process by some unknown entity at ebay (what I was told by CS)
2. Until today no one told me that they found my case to have a problem and I would not get the benefits promised. I was waiting for something that would not happen apparently, I was oblivious to this.
3. This is my first time and only case in which I used the new protection policy so I surely have not abused or overused the policy.
4. No one could tell me why it was disallowed, only that those people do not take calls.
5. I’ve read the fall update several times and asked questions several times on the weekly chat about the process and not once do I remember anyone saying that there are exceptions or caveats, only that they would look at sellers that abused the policy and watch for problems that might come up.

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2019-fall/seller-protections.html

If you are a Top Rated Seller and a buyer falsely claims an item was “not as described,” we’ll protect you on eligible transactions. If a buyer falsely claims an item was “not as described,” we’ll reimburse your return shipping label cost up to $6 per return. You’ll receive the return shipping label credit on your monthly invoice. We’ll also automatically remove any negative and neutral feedback, defects, and open cases in service metrics.

Can you confirm or deny what I was told? Did I misunderstand the new seller protection benefits?

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Hi @golfingaddict, you've brought up some good questions! I don't have immediate answers right now. I'm going to reach out to our Seller Protections team to get more information. I'll update you here when I hear back from them 🙂

[Anonymous]

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@fern*wood wrote:

I'm curious as to why sponsored/promoted listings circumvent my choice of search criteria?  I usually search highest + shipping first.  So as I go down the list, out of nowhere, these sponsored listings pop up completely out of order, totally disregarding my search option.   I find it confusing and annoying.

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Hi @fern*wood, this is on our promoted listings team's radar for potential improvements. Currently the promoted listing placements in search will showcase items related the keywords of that search and may not align with any other customizations that you've made. The seller selects an ad rate for a certain level of visibility, and this will determine the promoted listing placement the item receives. Again, our promoted listing team has heard feedback on this and will review for possible future enhancements.

[alan@ebay]

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@mam98031 wrote:

Are there any updates on the progress of the forum fixes in regards to the pesky red error messages.  They are still fast and furious.  Not taking a break at all.  Annoying is an understatement.

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Hi @mam98031, they are pesky. We've been working with our platform provider Khoros to resolve the authentication errors as we know how disruptive they can be. We're treating this issue with high-priority. 

Thanks for your patience while we work this out.  

[vrykalak]

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@fern*wood wrote:

I'm curious as to why sponsored/promoted listings circumvent my choice of search criteria?  I usually search highest + shipping first.  So as I go down the list, out of nowhere, these sponsored listings pop up completely out of order, totally disregarding my search option.   I find it confusing and annoying.

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I am fairly sure it isn't just promoted listings that show up inappropriately in Search results. 
eBay's search engine used to be far and away the best in the universe. 
Now its results are (annoying at least and) outright wrong in many cases.
I have been asking for years: give users a switch they can toggle, saying "don't show me any results that don't reflect all my search terms"...to no avail.

If you have three search terms, and get too many results, then add a fourth term, the number of results SHOULD decrease. In fact, the number of results can double, triple, or more when you add a search term. That's ridiculous.

[automotivepartsrecyclrs]

Your Items are in carts, Drop the price and make the sale? Keep getting this annoying email.  Yes we did drop the price a long time ago and well looks like the cart is awol. Since then we all just laugh and delete. 

Can't put this email in spam or block listed due to its the same email that ebay uses for other things.

[brian@ebay]

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@vrykalak wrote:

re Drafts: I wish to request again that:
- when an item is listed, any drafts for that item go away, and
- when a new draft is saved for an item, previous drafts go away

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Hi @vrykalak, if I'm understanding your comment correctly, it sounds like you are asking that duplicate drafts for the same item be removed when one of those drafts is listed, and vice versa for saving a draft. We do not detect if there are duplicate drafts. One big reason for this is that many sellers want to have duplicate drafts to work with and they do not want them to be removed when one is listed or or a new one is saved. We leave the management of drafts in the sellers hands since each seller prefers to manage them differently.  

[tyler@ebay]

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@ichotboy wrote:

On iOS when creating listings if you enter shipping details prior to pics descriptions or if you have to go back to add something you forgot before listing it its defaulting the shipping back to recommended can you guys fix that? 

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Hi @ichotboy - I'm not able to recreate that from my app (also using iOS) - if I start a listing and change the shipping first it keeps those settings even if I go back through and add a photo once that's done. Are you using the most current version of the app and iOS? If you can get me a few screenshots of what you're encountering I can get it to the mobile team!

[gwzcomps]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@gwzcomps wrote:

When is eBay going to take accountability for their site and its issues? I constantly have to call and report various different things that have been a problem for a while now. Examples:

• Buyers allowed to supply addresses that exceed the character limit.
• Buyers allowed to make multiple accounts to get around site policies and blocks.
• No real way to protect oneself from buyers that make false claims.
• Search engine hiding listings in results.
• Search engine providing inaccurate results.
• Random unresolved glitches like markdown manager problems and buyers having issues paying.
• Other issues I don't remember at the moment.

I do enjoy the new line the support people have been taught.  "We are doing our best"  It does make for a good laugh when some of these things have been problems for years now.  I'm familiar with all the default responses and policies.  Just hoping eBay will step up to the plate for a change 😞

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Hi @gwzcomps, happy to let you know that we already takes steps to be accountable for site issues by investigating problems we identify or that are reported to us and working on fixes. For the specific examples you have provided, I can share the following: 

• Addresses that exceed the character limit is something on our radar for enhancements. If this comes up in a transaction, you can cancel and use the Problem with buyer's address reason, communicating to the buyer that they need to adjust their address accordingly.
• Multiple accounts to circumvent policies and blocks is not allowed and we will take action when we identify this kind of behavior. Sellers can report this to us and cancel the transaction if they have reason to believe the buyer is someone they have blocked previously.
• Sellers who offer 30-day Free Returns or are Top Rated are able to report buyers who make return requests for a reason they believe to be false. If we determine the buyer has been abusive, all sellers who have interacted with that buyer will receive protections.
• Our search results are designed to provide the best possible match for a buyer's search - there is no guarantee that a seller's item will appear in search results. That being said, the only time a seller's items are "hidden" from search are when they have violated eBay policy and the subsequent consequences include not displaying their items in search results. If you feel like you've run into a technical issue unrelated to a policy violation, you are welcome to report the details to us for review.
• Markdown Manager issues have been investigated and while there were reports of promotions not processing within 24 hours as they should in the last few months, it appears that this is working properly. 
• As for buyer payment issues, you may need to provide a more specific example - there are reasons why a buyer would have trouble paying that are related to their payment method, account status, or the settings of the seller. Technical issues with checkout are a top priority when they do occur, but if you are running into something we'll be happy to review.

I hope this helps showcase the steps we take to be accountable and address the concerns you have outlined. You are welcome to contact Customer Service if you run into any specific issues you would like reviewed, or post details to the Technical Issues board.

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•  All you have to do is set a character limit on the address for buyers that matches the limit eBay has set on the seller's side of thing.
• As for cancelling the orders we have to eat the PayPal fees now.  Canceling the transaction is no longer financially viable for problems eBay has created.
• 30-day free returns make no sense for people selling used items.  They are nothing but an expensive liability for sellers like me.
• I have listings that are hidden from search regardless of my standing as a seller.  On top of that as a buyer I will not go to eBay first anymore because I am tired of digging through irrelevant results or paying too much for stuff because of how the search engine works.

[coffeebean832]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

When Ebay redesigned the Feedback Page we seem to have lost an option we use to have.  What happened to being able to view a members ID history for changes.  We use to have a link to that, but not anymore.

Where can we get this information or has Ebay deemed we don't need it?

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Hi @mam98031 - I'm not aware of any change to remove this function, can you link me to an example thread or get me some more detail I can use to look into it further?

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There is not a thread.  And I haven't a clue as to how to get you an example since it no longer exists on the updated FB pages.  I'd have to go out and try to find a member that did not have an updated FB page and I don't know an easy way to do that.

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Here's a screenshot of old FB page on the left and new FB page on the right. Mam is referring to the "view ID history" link.

For privacy reasons I could see why buyers would want that hidden.

As a buyer I can see why it would be helpful if you're trying to confirm it's a seller you purchased from before that changed their name.

As a seller I can see why it would be helpful if you're trying to confirm a buyer on your BBL changed their name.

[maxoptical]

I see the same thing,  I sort distance closes to me and it shows California sellers stating they are zero miles from my Pennsylvania zip code.    For example this seller is not in my little town of Downingtown, PA yet this is what eBay is showing me.

[coffeebean832]

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@automotivepartsrecyclrs wrote:

Your Items are in carts, Drop the price and make the sale? Keep getting this annoying email.  Yes we did drop the price a long time ago and well looks like the cart is awol. Since then we all just laugh and delete. 

Can't put this email in spam or block listed due to its the same email that ebay uses for other things.

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You should be able to filter it to your spam folder based on the subject line- most e-mail platforms have that capability, I think.

[doug@ebay]

Hi @mam98031 do you mean within the Community, or on the eBay marketplace? A bit back we disabled the Community spell checker to default to a user's browser spell checker. What browser are you using?

Thanks!

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@mam98031 wrote:

Hey a curiosity question.

Why after all these years hasn't Ebay added Ebay to the spell checker.  It always shows we are misspelling it.  Just wondering???!?!??  

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[mam98031]

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@coffeebean832 wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

When Ebay redesigned the Feedback Page we seem to have lost an option we use to have.  What happened to being able to view a members ID history for changes.  We use to have a link to that, but not anymore.

Where can we get this information or has Ebay deemed we don't need it?

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Hi @mam98031 - I'm not aware of any change to remove this function, can you link me to an example thread or get me some more detail I can use to look into it further?

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There is not a thread.  And I haven't a clue as to how to get you an example since it no longer exists on the updated FB pages.  I'd have to go out and try to find a member that did not have an updated FB page and I don't know an easy way to do that.

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Here's a screenshot of old FB page on the left and new FB page on the right. Mam is referring to the "view ID history" link.

For privacy reasons I could see why buyers would want that hidden.

As a buyer I can see why it would be helpful if you're trying to confirm it's a seller you purchased from before that changed their name.

As a seller I can see why it would be helpful if you're trying to confirm a buyer on your BBL changed their name.

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Thank you for the assist.  It is appreciated.

It isn't just hidden for buyers, it appears to be anyone with the redesigned page is affected.

As for buyers, over the years I've found it pretty handy to be able to review their IDs.  Mostly when a buyer changes their ID shortly after they purchased from me and I'm having problems identifying payments to things sold.  

[theshoppingmom2]

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@mg152 wrote:

I just stopped by to say Hi and I’m still around. We found out about Rosies cancer Nov 7, she passed that night in bed with her human and dog family. Her and Max’s daughter is 12 and she has cancer too. It’s not life threatening yet but we’ve been busy with vet visits and medications. We will have to draw a line somewhere unfortunately because we are not rich.

Anyway, thank you all for your support. I know I’m annoying with all my dog talk but my kids are grown. I hope to be back selling after the new year. We’ve got another vet appointment today but I wanted to drop by to say Hi and thank you. I ❤️ Every one of you all. 

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@mg152  Patricia so sorry for your loss , and sending you strength for the   other fur baby 😞

Looking forward to you coming back to selling, hugs!!!