Community Chat, Feb 21th @ 1pm PT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Hi Community, 

Please join The Community Team here on Wed Feb 21 at 1 pm PT for a Q&A Community Chat. We don't have a set topic today, so please come prepared with your buying & selling questions. 

Thanks & talk to you then! 

[tyler@ebay]

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@mallontown wrote:

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tyler@ebaywrote:

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@mallontownwrote:

Thanks for allowing me to post to this Community Chat.
Devin Wenig, ebay CEO wants to evolve ebay into a company where only 4 choices of a product with 10,000 listings are a shown (1 new, 1 used, 1 refurb, 1 of the items competition product)
Where does that leave the everyday seller and the other 9,996 listing?
Will this 4 item approach be implemented fairly with all sellers being treated equally and ebay not favoring those that pay more (promoted) or those with special pricing/placement (big retailers on ebay)?
What date in 2018 does Devin Wenig want this approach to selling on ebay implemented?
When the change is implemented will sellers with year-long stores be able to cancel with no penalty?
Can the community team please get to the right team to get an answer to these questions?

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Hi @mallontown - Product Based Search, or Grouped Listings, is actually something that has been on the site since October of last year. It's rolled out to nearly all categories (exceptions are Clothing, Shoes & Accessories and Motors)  and allows buyers to group items into product pages as an option when viewing their search results. Rather than search through pages of search results it allows buyers to see product review information and several high level sub categories of item, like Price, condition, buying format, etc. 

This serves to benefit all sellers, as we believe a buyer is more likely to make a purchase if they can find details and more quickly locate the product they are looking for. It's also important to note that it is not a 'locked' result - meaning that while there are certain subcategories visible like 'New', a buyer can then click on an option to view all New results which would take them to an already filtered search result for the product they're looking for. 

There is no current plan to offer members on a yearly store subscription an option to end their commitement early

The largest takeaway as more buyers utilize this filter option is to ensure that you fully utilize available item specifics for each listing, to make sure that items are shown and given the best exposure in search. Thanks!

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When I click on "group similar listings it does not show me only 4 like Ebays Ceo Devin Wenig is stating. So my questions still stand unanswered

I will relist them

What date in 2018 does Devin Wenig want this approach of showing 4 items on ebay implemented?

Will this 4 item approach be implemented fairly with all sellers being treated equally and ebay not favoring those that pay more (promoted) or those with special pricing/placement (big retailers on ebay)?

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Hi @mallontown - I think there may be some confusion, I'm not aware of an announcement that only 4 items will display in search results. Can you provide a link to that source material so I can review?

Without this additional context I'm afraid I don't have any other answers for you. Thanks!

[alan@ebay]

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@mallontown wrote:

Community Manager alan@ebay
@re: Community Chat, Feb 14th @ 1pm PT - General Topics
in reply to mallontown 02-14-2018 01:16:53 PM
alan@ebay
@mallontown wrote:
Thanks you for providing this forum to address issues
There are FREE National Museum of African American History and Culture up for sale on ebay.
Because of demand, the museum has an online form for individuals and families to get the free tickets.
The Museum says in its policies that they are not to be sold.
Ebay was informed in the forums of this practice. Ebay said that individuals may report each individual seller via report item link. That makes it seem if ebay is just trying to get its share of the revenue. Instead of the ebay users reporting can the ebay staff forward this to the correct department and get back to us with what the decision is on the sale of these free tickets that the museum does not want sold?

Hi @mallontown,

Sure, we can do this. Let me look into it and get back to you.
Thanks.

So any word on this from last week? (I used blue this week to show my post seperate from yours Alan, sorry if the red offended you)

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Hi @mallontown, 

Looks like your formatting is slightly off. The blue and black text doesn't make sense, as you have some words in a sentence one color and others a different color.

Thanks for the reminder, I'll update that thread soon. 

[alan@ebay]

 Thanks for joining us today. We'll stick around to answer any questions we haven't got to yet. Have a great rest of the week! 

[alan@ebay]

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@dhbookds wrote:

I see reports that the Promo Notice has been moved to above the listing.........is this a permanent change or another test?

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Hi @dhbookds, 

This is an intentional change. We will continue to monitor the performance of the placement moving forward. 

Thank you. 

[brian@ebay]

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@nc-daydreamer wrote:

What has happened to the purchase section?  I have bought within the last 2 months and the new view is clueless.  This new format is the pitts - thus far.  Is it fixable?

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Hi @nc-daydreamer, if you're having trouble navigating the new Purchase History page then customer support is happy to walk you through each feature and filter. If you have a specific issue that you'd like to report, they can assist with that or you can share screenshots and more details about the problem here on the boards. 

[tyler@ebay]

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@terrycanarsky wrote:

Thank you, but I didn't need the explanation.  As stated,  "Fast N Free is only a feel-good logo eBay puts on any listing which meets certain in-house parameters based upon their own internal metrics paired with the seller's general shipping and delivery history. " 

My apologies if I sound ungrateful, but have I asked you to review that call and provide "coaching" to Merchant Support? 

You answered a concern of mine, I tried on my own to find information on this "program" - unsuccessfully under those terms, I might add - and reached out to Merchant Support for information.  I consider their help to have been just that, helpful.

I find it troubling that you (the generic 'you') are more than happy to "coach" Merchant Support - those individuals who actually know what they're doing and provide aid to their customers - yet the absolute mess that is the general Customer Service is apparently considered fine regardless of the lack of help/passing on of erroneous information.  Remind me sometime to tell you of my more recent calls with them when the automated system mistakenly switched me to them instead of MS.

I don't personally care if the logo is on the listing or not, nor does Terry.  However, it is misleading for buyers because it suggests *we* are promising delivery by a certain date.  THAT is the problem with the logo, not Merchant Support needing coaching to not answer a seller's question.

~M

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Thanks for that clarification. I want to make sure that you get appropriate information whenever customer service is contacted, and there is a way to opt your listings out of Fast N Free. Providing coaching to the teammates you spoke with will help them more effectively address concerns from members in the future and assist you in getting a feature you don't wish to be displayed removed. 

I've sent an email asking for more details - but if you don't wish to provide them I understand, and hope you have a good day. 🙂 

[Anonymous]

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@vrykalak wrote:

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@Anonymouswrote:

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@fuzzymaewrote:

Hello everyone!

I ran into a problem listing a set of ten adult coloring books.  The title of one of them is Amazon Animals.  How can I list the title/name of my item if there is a restricted word in it?  Call it "the South American Jungle that starts with A" Animals coloring book? Who's going to find that.

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Hi @fuzzymae, this would not be considered a violation of any policies as there are numerous products that contain both Amazon and Animals in their title or description. What category were you attempting to list this in? Did you receive an email or notification related to a block? 

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This just started sometime yesterday: you can't use the word "Amazon" in any context in your listing.

It's very similar to the policy change a couple of years ago, that you can't describe ethnic jewelry as Native, African, Tribal, Indian, etc. unless you have a certificate from the maker proving it is from an approved source.
First, you couldn't use the category.
Then you couldn't mention those words in the title.
Finally, a couple of years ago, you couldn't use those words in the Description either. 

This new policy adds "Amazon" to the list of illegal words in a title or description. 

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Hi @vrykalak, this would not be related to any kind of ethnicity policies, but may be an issue connected to our Off eBay Sales initiatives. I will get this reviewed to ensure there is no technical issue present, as there may have been other factors that led to this notification.

[Anonymous]

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@fuzzymae wrote:

When I attempted to re-list the item from my unsolds list I got this message:

It looks like your listing contains a reference to another site. For example, you may be trying to compare prices or mention where this item was purchased. Referencing other sites where items can be purchased, even if you don’t link directly to them, isn’t permitted. Please remove the reference from your listing.

It came up on the ebay site, I have not gotten any other sort of notification.  I only figured out the word through trial and error.  It is a new issue - started last week. 

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Hi @fuzzymae, will definitely take a look at this and contact you via email if I need any further information!

[alan@ebay]

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@mongoose26 wrote:

So now, with the months long continuing problem of receiving timely emails from ebay when an item is listed, ending, relisted, or sold, some taking 18 hours from action to receipt, now some genius at ebay has decided to have the sold ebay title to say,"(some unknow emoji) then Sale Confirmed: Title...  This looks exactly like the item listed email of, "Your ebay listing is confirmed".   What was wrong with a simple, business like email that just said Your item sold.  No stupid emojis, no smiley faces, no hearts, just the facts?

And when can we expect our business partner, ebay, who we pay money to for services, to actually provide those services in a timely manner.  Getting an email 12-18 hours after something has happen, listing, selling, etc, is not what we are paying for.

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Hi @mongoose26, 

I appreciate the feedback on this topic. I can see why we might try to make some of the more admin emails more conversational/fun, but I can also see that this might not resonate well with some sellers. I will share your feedback with the team responsible for those emails. 

Thanks!

[brian@ebay]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@dtexley3wrote:

Hey a bug! Imagine that.  On the seller perfomance page all the stats are now based on a 3 month window where previously some were 1 year and some were 3 months. 

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On a related note (regarding inconsistent interval lengths), I notice that on a user's Feedback page, the Feedback as a Buyer tab shows what is described as the total number of bid retractions over the past 12 months (right side of the page, about halfway down).

However, it shows what appears to be the same number labeled as a 6-month total if viewing the user's 30-day bidding history in an Auction Bid History view. (You have to log out first, so that you can see the 30-day bidding history by clicking on the user's disguised ID on the Bid History page.) One or the other must be mislabeled.

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Hi @a_c_green, I'll need more details and a user ID that I can look at as an example. I'll send you an email shortly to request more details!

[Anonymous]

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@dcintennessee wrote:

Are FedEx Ground, Home Delivery, AND SmartPost rates now calculating correctly all 3 places:

1.  On the shipping tool

2. When the buyer purchases the item

3. When the seller purchases the label

This has been in various stages of messed up since January 1. 

There are examples all over these boards. I can send links to a few dozen threads if you haven't seen them. 

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Hi @dcintennessee, while we did have issues with the shipping cost being displayed to buyers starting on January 22nd, the caculations for when a Seller purchased the label were correct. These issues were resolved and any impacted transactions can be reviewed for potential credits by our Customer Service teams.

[tyler@ebay]

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@shipscript wrote:

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@Anonymouswrote:

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@fuzzymaewrote:
The title of one of them is Amazon Animals.  How can I list the title/name of my item if there is a restricted word in it?  Call it "the South American Jungle that starts with A" Animals coloring book?

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Hi @fuzzymae, this would not be considered a violation of any policies as there are numerous products that contain both Amazon and Animals in their title or description. What category were you attempting to list this in? Did you receive an email or notification related to a block? 

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@Anonymous  Last week I was helping a member on the UK forum whose relist was similarly blocked.

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"It looks like your listing contains a reference to another site.
For example, you may be trying to compare prices or mention where this item was purchased.
Referencing other sites where items can be purchased,
even if you don’t link directly to them, isn’t permitted.
Please remove the reference from your listing.{e56127-975535x}"

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They used the Sandbox scanner tool and it showed no external links. I manually checked the source of several ended listings and saw no links. However, I did see that the description included something like "compatible with Amazon Fire Stick".  The seller removed the brand name from the description and the listing posted.  The filter writers need to work on that one.

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Thanks for this added context @shipscript - I'm going to send you an email to request that example if you still have it. I'd love to get this reported. 

[Anonymous]

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@mallontown wrote:

Thank you for providing this forum to address issues. I am reposting this unanswered question.

I had 19 of 32 items arrive after ebays stated delivery date for December 19th shipping
Ebay decided to use its own shipping metrics over USPS stated holiday delivery dates.
All 32 items were shipped within the 1 day handling.
I previously posted this but did not get an answer from the shipping team explaining how thier metrics were so bad that it caused 60% of items to arrive after the date ebay showed buyers
That is not a good buying experience for buyers and will make people wary of buying from ebay sellers in the future.
Can you forward this to the shipping team and get an answer to why their metric were so bad?

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Hi @mallontown, the shipping timeframe expectations provided are derived from information given by our integrated carriers (USPS, FedEx and UPS are the top examples). Unexpected delays did occur with USPS around the holidays and any sellers who were negatively impacted by these delays received appropriate protections for their selling accounts. Our shipping team keeps a close eye on delivery timeframes around the holidays and works with the shipping couriers to improve for the future.

[Anonymous]

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@critter_mama_2007 wrote:

my question is about Grouped Listings. i do lots of searches for dvds sorted by price.  more than once i have found listings from sellers in the grouped area that are not included in the price sort.  are some sellers displayed by group sort only?

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Hi @critter_mama_2007, definitely want to take a look at an example from you. I will reach out via email to get more details and have this investigated!

[brian@ebay]

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@mallontown wrote:

Thanks ebay for providing this forum to address issues.
This issue is ongoing and ebay has been aware of it for over 1 month. I asked last chat and did not receive a reply
Why does ebay still tell prospective store owners that there are 10+ sizes of boxes available when looking at it today there are only 4 sizes available.?
When is ebay going to either provide the 10+ boxes as they state or change the statement?

Has the shipping Supplies team that you referenced in previous chats replied to your inquiry on this issue or has your request been ignored?

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Hi @mallontown, I'm sorry that we missed your question last week! I'm not finding the page on our site that you are referencing. While our Stores page in the Seller Center does mention shipping supplies, it does not go into specific box sizes that are available. Feel free to tag me in a thread and include a link to the eBay page you are referring to and I'll be happy get the matter reported.