Community Chat, December 8 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

[jasmen@ebay]

Thanks for joining us for the Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. We don't have a specific topic this week, so feel free to share any general buying or selling questions you may have.

The chat thread will remain open until 2 PM PT at which point we'll close it from additional responses. After that time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that might still be unanswered.

To post your question, click Reply in the lower right corner of this post, type your question, and hit submit between 1-2 PM Pacific Time. The format of our chat mirrors the format of our Community Discussion Boards, where each post will appear in the thread chronologically. The Community Team will review each question as it comes in, and will quote the original question in our reply. This quote and the reply will appear later in the thread, so just keep scrolling down to see our answers.

Missed the chat? Send your questions to the podcast by calling  888-723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com and maybe your questions will make it on the air! Or listen to past episodes while you wait for next Wednesday!

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

tyler@ebay   Yes, I think the store video would be a good place to start. They aren't going to get a lot of seller uptake on that if they don't make an effort to provide examples (and not store videos made by ebay, I'm talking about videos made by store owners), and provide advice on how to shoot the videos---Uploading the finished video is easy, and kudos to the team for that, but MAKING the video----some sellers, especially younger ones, making video is pretty much just a basic thing they do every day, but for a lot of ebay sellers, it can sound intimidating. Also, they should stress that videos can be replaced at anytime.....so as a seller improves his video technique, or maybe wants to highlight seasonal merchandise....he can do so...

[theshoppingmom2]

@glgenterprise  Like  I said , I have worked with that team before in the past several years in the past and I seem to remember that if the Vero member did not reply the violation was removed from the seller's account. The seller could not list the item in question but the violation was removed from their account 

[mi-294]

When ebay CS have no idea what they are doing because ebay don't want to pay correct money to agents to offer a real support, this is not a service and you are loosing buyers and sellers.

Yes you are finding ways to get money to cover the holes and make more money but that will not keep forever.

Running a business means to care for your customers and solve the issues, not to say only sorry and the same issues again and again.

No respect to your customers = bad company

[valueaddedresource]

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jasmen@ebay wrote:

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@cstpos wrote:

Can ebay change their practice of telling buyers "You're item has Shipped!" as soon as  label is created? As a buyer and a seller, these notifications are misleading. It isn't accurate until after the carrier scans it in. We had angry buyers rail at us because they kept insisting we told them and item had shipped. I finally took a screen shot for our buyer showing his item under Waiting to be Shipped on our seller hub.

As buyers, we were confused when we didn't see any tracking 2 business days after we received a message that our items had shipped. It's a simple fix that can prevent a lot of angry and/or confused ebay users.

Ty!

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Hey @cstpos if you printed a label it should remove the item from awaiting shipment, is that not happening on your end? 

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jasmen@ebay I think they may be talking about this message.  It used to say "your order has shipped". While "is being shipped" is a little better, it still leaves room for buyers to be confused/angry if there is a lag time between when the label is printed and when they tracking is updated with a carrier scan.

Maybe something more explicit/clear like "the seller has printed a shipping label for your order" would be better? I don't know the best way to phrase it, but can understand how there might be room for confusion.

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

tyler@ebay  Another suggestion for the stores team: how about giving us at least one "row" for the home page that we can provide a customized name for the row?  Yes, there is a "holiday" row, but what if I'd like to highlight lower dollar "Stocking stuffers"...there's no way to provide my own title....

[mam98031]

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@gwzcomps wrote:

If you aren't going to train your current CS agents can you just fire them like you did with your US support?  Despite all the training you supposedly give them they don't know the policies.  I shouldn't have to train your agents on how to do their jobs.  I get that corporations like to exploit overseas workers, but at least have the decency to train them.

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That isn't completely a bad suggestion.

I have been complaining for MONTHS now on ONE subject.  I zeroed in on ONE subject that the entire CSR team on the phones and elsewhere, except here, are misleading New Sellers and sellers returning to selling after 90+ days away.

The CSRs are consistent.  They come up with all kinds of reasons why these sellers have their money on hold.  It could be that the item needs to be received by the buyer and then the money will be released, which is true occasionally but not on the norm.  Or they will say they don't know or they will come up with some other unreasonable reason.  All in all they are consistently NOT telling them the ONE policy that they are likely having to adhere to.

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/service-and-payments/funds-availability

CSR are extremely consistent about this and in all the months that I've been trying to case this down so the correct information could be given to them, it clearly hasn't yet happened as the threads are full of these sellers not understanding why their funds are being held.

[tyler@ebay]

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@gwzcomps wrote:

If you aren't going to train your current CS agents can you just fire them like you did with your US support?  Despite all the training you supposedly give them they don't know the policies.  I shouldn't have to train your agents on how to do their jobs.  I get that corporations like to exploit overseas workers, but at least have the decency to train them.

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Hi @gwzcomps - we have support teammates located all over the world, including the US, and they're all trained. 🙂

If you'll let me know the date of your recent contact with CS where you encountered this I'm happy to have it reviewed for coaching. 

Thanks!

[gwzcomps]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@cstpos wrote:

Can ebay change their practice of telling buyers "You're item has Shipped!" as soon as  label is created? As a buyer and a seller, these notifications are misleading. It isn't accurate until after the carrier scans it in. We had angry buyers rail at us because they kept insisting we told them and item had shipped. I finally took a screen shot for our buyer showing his item under Waiting to be Shipped on our seller hub.

As buyers, we were confused when we didn't see any tracking 2 business days after we received a message that our items had shipped. It's a simple fix that can prevent a lot of angry and/or confused ebay users.

Ty!

---

Speaking for myself only.  When I create a shipping label it is dated the date I will be shipping the item.  While 99% are printed the same day I ship, the labels I create on Sunday are dated for Monday or Tuesday [if a holiday is involved].

So the issue you describe I've never had.  My carrier does scan the same day they get the package, we worked through that years ago on how important that action was.

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That's all good if you have nothing better to do than sit around and hold the carriers hand.  Half the time carriers aren't scanning packages till they get to a "depot" now days.  Not everyone has the time to wait and watch the carrier scan packages though.

I do agree with OP that a carrier acceptance scan would be a more honest way to letting a buyer know when something has shipped.

[velvet@ebay]

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@lamber9347 wrote:

Hello- Is there an estimate on when the item specifics will stop randomly dropping and making adjustments? I ask because I have all categories filled out, including suggested only. Yet every few days something gets "dropped" that was previously entered by me. Then I can see it gets noted as missing info. I make the changes then a few days later "poof" it goes away. 

I understood that there was a period of adjustments but it's been weeks now and still this continues in the doll and doll clothing categories. Thank you. 

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Hey @lamber9347! I'm sorry for the delay. I was trying to reach out for more info and haven't heard back yet. If I don't before the chat ends, I'll follow-up here and will be sure to tag you. 

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Edit: A follow-up to the question can be found here. 

[gracieallen01]

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@gwzcomps wrote:

If you aren't going to train your current CS agents can you just fire them like you did with your US support?  Despite all the training you supposedly give them they don't know the policies.  I shouldn't have to train your agents on how to do their jobs.  I get that corporations like to exploit overseas workers, but at least have the decency to train them.

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Edit: A reply to your comment can be found here

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But .... but .... but .... That would cost money.

[gwzcomps]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@gwzcomps wrote:

If you aren't going to train your current CS agents can you just fire them like you did with your US support?  Despite all the training you supposedly give them they don't know the policies.  I shouldn't have to train your agents on how to do their jobs.  I get that corporations like to exploit overseas workers, but at least have the decency to train them.

---

Hi @gwzcomps - we have support teammates located all over the world, including the US, and they're all trained. 🙂

If you'll let me know the date of your recent contact with CS where you encountered this I'm happy to have it reviewed for coaching. 

Thanks!

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You keep telling me they are trained, but you are clearly not familiar with how the CS department works.  I recently had to link to the seller protections policy and threaten escalation to get support to remove a feedback from a return on my other account.

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Edit: A reply to your comment can be found here

[velvet@ebay]

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@lamber9347 wrote:

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@lamber9347 wrote:

Hello- Is there an estimate on when the item specifics will stop randomly dropping and making adjustments? I ask because I have all categories filled out, including suggested only. Yet every few days something gets "dropped" that was previously entered by me. Then I can see it gets noted as missing info. I make the changes then a few days later "poof" it goes away. 

I understood that there was a period of adjustments but it's been weeks now and still this continues in the doll and doll clothing categories. Thank you. 

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jasmen@ebay Hello, tagging you as my question was posted at the start but never received a reply, and the hour is almost over. Did I ask an incorrect question? Thank you....

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Sorry for any worry @lamber9347! I've replied to your original post as you did everything right. I'm just waiting to hear back so I hadn't replied yet. I'll get back to you here though and will tag you, if I get the response after the chat has closed. Thank you!

[somanypostcards]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@somanypostcards wrote:

Nearly a month ago we were told that to see avatars on the community discussion boards we should click to grant access.  I did this.  Then I found out that I was granting access to my PRIVATE data.  Since I did not want a 3rd party, Khoros, to have access to my private data, I went to my Personal information Sign in and security, scrolled down to the bottom to find Third-party app access and clicked on View to view or edit third party apps with access to my account.  I got the error message:  "We ran into a problem.  Please try again."

I have been trying again and again.  This has also been reported on the Technical Issues and Share Community Platform Feedback weeks ago.  Today it is still broken, giving the same error message.  I consider this a major security breech.  When will this error be fixed so I can revoke the third-party access you told me to grant without telling me it would expose my private data to a non-eBay entity?

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Hi @somanypostcards - there is an ongoing technical issue that prevents you from viewing your third party authorizations. I've added your account as one that is also impacted, and I hope that we see it resolved quickly so that you can manage your authorizations as you see fit. 

I do want to clarify that the Grant Application Access page was not authorizing any additional information other than your avatar photo, profile/feedback page and your currently listed items for sale. I realize that there was a lot of conversation around the topic at the time, but it was not giving any other detail than that. 

Thanks!

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My avatar photo, profile/feedback page and currently listed items for sale are all public information.  Therefore there was no need for your to authorizes access to public information.  Since the third party can access public information without my giving them an access token, why did I have to give them access.  And how can I verify that they do NOT have access to my PRIVATE data?

See this discussion:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Share-Community-Platform/Why-is-eBay-lying-to-us/

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

[mam98031]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

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jasmen@ebay wrote:

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@cstpos wrote:

Can ebay change their practice of telling buyers "You're item has Shipped!" as soon as  label is created? As a buyer and a seller, these notifications are misleading. It isn't accurate until after the carrier scans it in. We had angry buyers rail at us because they kept insisting we told them and item had shipped. I finally took a screen shot for our buyer showing his item under Waiting to be Shipped on our seller hub.

As buyers, we were confused when we didn't see any tracking 2 business days after we received a message that our items had shipped. It's a simple fix that can prevent a lot of angry and/or confused ebay users.

Ty!

---

Hey @cstpos if you printed a label it should remove the item from awaiting shipment, is that not happening on your end? 

---

jasmen@ebay I think they may be talking about this message.  It used to say "your order has shipped". While "is being shipped" is a little better, it still leaves room for buyers to be confused/angry if there is a lag time between when the label is printed and when they tracking is updated with a carrier scan.

Maybe something more explicit/clear like "the seller has printed a shipping label for your order" would be better? I don't know the best way to phrase it, but can understand how there might be room for confusion.

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I'm not sure I understand as this is just not a problem I've ever had.  Why is any seller printing a shipping label days ahead of time without shipping the item?  I understand a one day difference if a holiday is involved but not days.  And if it boils down to a carrier not getting scanning done on time, that can be fixed by contacting the carrier and getting that problem resolved.

Maybe if someone could explain why the seller is printing labels days ahead of shipping [other than for a holiday] this would be more easily understood.

[akoz3857]

What companies does Ebay sell for themselves?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here