eBay

brittanie@ebay · ‎02-17-2021

Hi everyone! 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!

Brittanie,
Community Team

bouncemobiletech · ‎02-17-2021

Hi - 20 year eBay member and 15+ year seller here, I'm hoping someone can help me out on a case where I have been scammed by a Russian buyer, as eBay customer service has been extremely unhelpful.

The buyer purchased a $770 smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra) on 1/16, with a shipping address in Russia. I thought I was fully protected by shipping UPS International and paying extra for insurance and signature confirmation.

On 2/4, the buyer messaged claiming that he received an iPhone 6S (worth less than $100) instead of the S20 Ultra we sent him. I personally verified the contents of this shipment before it went out, and recorded the IMEI (serial number) on the S20 Ultra I sent. The iPhone 6S is not a phone I even have in inventory, the last one I sold was in 2018. Furthermore, the buyer sent pictures that show a European charger, not a North American one.

This is a clear case of fraud, it is not possible I could have mistakenly sent him a phone that I haven't had in inventory for years with a charger from another continent.

That same day (2/4), I responded to the buyer to let him know I would open an insurance claim with UPS and keep him updated. I wrote to him again a few days later with more details on the claim, and asked him to keep all packaging and respond to any inquiries from UPS as soon as possible. However, UPS told me this claim was closed the next week because the buyer was not cooperating - he did not respond to repeated contacts attempts, and they needed to inspect the package in order to proceed with the claim investigation. I have uploaded documentation confirming this, it states "UPS is unable to investigate this damage claim as we were unable to view the damaged merchandise and the packaging materials. Recommendation: Please contact UPS if you are able to provide access to the package contents and the packaging materials used for the shipment."

On 2/8, the buyer opened a return request. I communicated with the buyer multiple times asking him to contact UPS so they could inspect the package. In one of his messages he claimed that he contacted UPS, but when I spoke with UPS the following day, they told me they still had not received any contact from him. I would have been happy to issue a full refund if I knew I could receive an insurance claim from UPS, but it appears I will not be able to do so without the buyer's cooperation.

I've spent hours communicating with eBay customer service without any kind of resolution, other than telling me I needed to respond to the buyer with either a return shipping label or payment for return shipping, or the case would be automatically closed in the buyer's favor and count as a defect against my account. In order to keep this from happening, I sent the buyer payment yesterday via Paypal for return shipping, then sent him a message with a screenshot of the Paypal payment, plus screenshots from the Russian Post website quoting this amount as the cost for a 500g shipment from Moscow to the USA.

This morning, the case was closed and a full refund issued to the buyer. I am extremely frustrated and disappointed with eBay right now, and hope that someone at eBay reading this message can make this right. Can you please help me to appeal this claim, recover these funds, and remove the defect from this case?

Thank you,

Nick

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Edit: Reply to this post can be read here

jack_bucks_ghost · ‎02-17-2021

hi. I was definitely excited to read the Feb 11 “state of the trading cards” report and to see how that market has grown so much so quickly. But naturally with that kind of growth and that kind of money now involved, there are going to be growing pains. My question/concern regards the one-size-fits-all return policy. The card market has been pretty volatile the past year, with prices jumping quickly and sometimes falling just as fast (when the prices for a particular card raise dramatically, so do the number of listings for that card—which oftentimes leads to a drop in price). this has led to quite a bit of abuse of the 30 day return policy: buyers purchase early when the price is up, then return the card when the price drops. At some time or another, most sellers are getting skewered by this. As with any collectible, there is a certain risk involved in purchasing—that’s the nature of collectibles…it is kind of like gambling, to be honest. Abuses of the return policy have put all risks and onus on sellers, with no responsibility on buyers. Realistically, what are the chances of a reconsideration of the 30 day return policy for the collectible card category?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

treasureeverywhere · ‎02-17-2021

Hello,

eBay's rules state that a watermark that identifies the seller and also protects the photo from being used by others is prohibited. Is there any other method that a seller can use to brand photos? Hoping there is a solution.

Thank you,

Shirley

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Edit: A reply to your post can be found here

nuclearomen · ‎02-17-2021

brian@ebay
Last week I talked about issue where not getting receipts for purchases of shipping labels for Media Mail. That is still happening. It’s now a month and tech support hasn’t fixed the issue. What did you find out about this problem?

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Edit: Reply to this post can be read here

The great truth is there isn't one
And it only gets worse since that conclusion...
...There is something about the rigid posture of a proper, authentic blind
As if extended arms reached to pass his blindness onto others.

carlqsportscards · ‎02-17-2021

I had a buyer email me that he had 6 items in his cart, but it was showing a shipping charge for each, instead of no additional charge for each extra item. I saw a similar complaint on the boards. Is this a known problem?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

tyler@ebay · ‎02-17-2021

@jack_bucks_ghost wrote:

hi. I was definitely excited to read the Feb 11 “state of the trading cards” report and to see how that market has grown so much so quickly. But naturally with that kind of growth and that kind of money now involved, there are going to be growing pains. My question/concern regards the one-size-fits-all return policy. The card market has been pretty volatile the past year, with prices jumping quickly and sometimes falling just as fast (when the prices for a particular card raise dramatically, so do the number of listings for that card—which oftentimes leads to a drop in price). this has led to quite a bit of abuse of the 30 day return policy: buyers purchase early when the price is up, then return the card when the price drops. At some time or another, most sellers are getting skewered by this. As with any collectible, there is a certain risk involved in purchasing—that’s the nature of collectibles…it is kind of like gambling, to be honest. Abuses of the return policy have put all risks and onus on sellers, with no responsibility on buyers. Realistically, what are the chances of a reconsideration of the 30 day return policy for the collectible card category?

Hi @jack_bucks_ghost - I'm glad you're excited by the trading card developments! There's a lot of focus on making sure that this remains a great category for you to both sell and buy in for the long term.

That said, there have been no announcements made about the time frames for returns in those categories changing. However, I know that this category is definitely one that is being looked at to improve the experience all around (with product and initiatives like the eBay Standard Envelope, etc).

Thanks!

Tyler,

donsdetour · ‎02-17-2021

@bouncemobiletech wrote:
Hi - 20 year eBay member and 15+ year seller here, I'm hoping someone can help me out on a case where I have been scammed by a Russian buyer, as eBay customer service has been extremely unhelpful. Item #402642280703 and case #5260917016.

The buyer purchased a $770 smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra) on 1/16, with a shipping address in Russia. I thought I was fully protected by shipping UPS International and paying extra for insurance and signature confirmation.

On 2/4, the buyer messaged claiming that he received an iPhone 6S (worth less than $100) instead of the S20 Ultra we sent him. I personally verified the contents of this shipment before it went out, and recorded the IMEI (serial number) on the S20 Ultra I sent, it is 354088110501712. The iPhone 6S is not a phone I even have in inventory, the last one I sold was in 2018. Furthermore, the buyer sent pictures that show a European charger, not a North American one.
This is a clear case of fraud, it is not possible I could have mistakenly sent him a phone that I haven't had in inventory for years with a charger from another continent.

That same day (2/4), I responded to the buyer to let him know I would open an insurance claim with UPS and keep him updated. I wrote to him again a few days later with more details on the claim, and asked him to keep all packaging and respond to any inquiries from UPS as soon as possible. However, UPS told me this claim was closed the next week because the buyer was not cooperating - he did not respond to repeated contacts attempts, and they needed to inspect the package in order to proceed with the claim investigation. I have uploaded documentation confirming this (Document Uploader SR# 1-306537824313), it states "UPS is unable to investigate this damage claim as we were unable to view the damaged merchandise and the packaging materials. Recommendation: Please contact UPS if you are able to provide access to the package contents and the packaging materials used for the shipment."

On 2/8, the buyer opened a return request. I communicated with the buyer multiple times asking him to contact UPS so they could inspect the package. In one of his messages he claimed that he contacted UPS, but when I spoke with UPS the following day, they told me they still had not received any contact from him. I would have been happy to issue a full refund if I knew I could receive an insurance claim from UPS, but it appears I will not be able to do so without the buyer's cooperation.

I've spent hours communicating with eBay customer service without any kind of resolution, other than telling me I needed to respond to the buyer with either a return shipping label or payment for return shipping, or the case would be automatically closed in the buyer's favor and count as a defect against my account. In order to keep this from happening, I sent the buyer payment yesterday via Paypal for return shipping, then sent him a message with a screenshot of the Paypal payment, plus screenshots from the Russian Post website quoting this amount as the cost for a 500g shipment from Moscow to the USA.

This morning, the case was closed and a full refund issued to the buyer. I am extremely frustrated and disappointed with eBay right now, and hope that someone at eBay reading this message can make this right. Can you please help me to appeal this claim, recover these funds, and remove the defect from this case?

Thank you,
Nick

Hi:

I am a user like you.

eBay has no way to say what you shipped or the buyer received:

The item could have been switched: ( Not that I believe this but no way to prove such) in transit:

You also by selling on ebay agree to the buyers garantee:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy...

eBay can not find in your favor due to the lack of proof.

File theft and or fraud with the federal law enforcement authority in yours and their country.

You may use such a report to try and get assistance from eBay after you get a copy of said report.

Also report the buyer for abuse of the return policy.

coinslabz26 · ‎02-17-2021

I have 2 questions regarding managed payments. I know that calling them is better but managed payment support is unreachable.

The first should be an easier one. When I signed up in managed payments I used the bank login feature. I had no problems and everything went smoothly. My question is though....If I ever change my banking password on my bank website would that sever the "ebay link to my bank account" or do I need to link the account again? Is this a token system? Does the token ever expire? Or was it a one time login for verification of name/address/account/routing numbers?

The second is I keep seeing a message that "you don't have any upcoming payouts" when I have funds available (not on hold or processing). Is this a glitch?

Thank you in advance.

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Edit: A reply to your post can be found here

brittanie@ebay · ‎02-17-2021

@treasureeverywhere wrote:

Hello,

eBay's rules state that a watermark that identifies the seller and also protects the photo from being used by others is prohibited. Is there any other method that a seller can use to brand photos? Hoping there is a solution.

Thank you,

Shirley

@treasureeverywhere Great question! At this time there is not another way sellers can mark their photos for ownership.

If there is a concern of other members using your photos, you have options to report these. Checkout this page for more information on how we protect intellectual property rights.

Brittanie,
Community Team

donsdetour · ‎02-17-2021

@treasureeverywhere wrote:
Hello,

eBay's rules state that a watermark that identifies the seller and also protects the photo from being used by others is prohibited. Is there any other method that a seller can use to brand photos? Hoping there is a solution.

Thank you,

Shirley

It seems a lot of folks do not realize this day an age that photos and descriptions are given to eBay buy using them on their site: It also allows users to use them even though they advise you to use your own photos..... .

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-policies/images-text-policy?id=4240

valueaddedresource · ‎02-17-2021

tyler@ebay brian@ebay payments_team@ebay

There were many reports yesterday of delayed/missing payouts. There was no response or announcement and no updates to the system status page.

I understand Monday was a holiday, so I was not expecting a payout that day. However, in the past, payments continued to be processed over the weekend and on Monday so that most of the money was available for payout on Tuesday. That did not happen this week. Instead, those orders did not move to "available funds" until after the payout on Tuesday and were finally paid out today.

Some sellers on weekly payouts were reporting it skipped the payout this week entirely and is now showing them next payout for next Tuesday.

Was this a "one off" scenario with processing or has there been a change to how eBay is processing payments over weekend/holidays?

Here are a few threads for example:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Payments/No-Payment-Processing-on-2-14/m-p/31618078/highlight/true#M10...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Payments/Managed-Payments-withholding-83/m-p/31621537/highlight/true#M...

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Edit: Reply to this post can be read here

tyler@ebay · ‎02-17-2021

@carlqsportscards wrote:

I had a buyer email me that he had 6 items in his cart, but it was showing a shipping charge for each, instead of no additional charge for each extra item. I saw a similar complaint on the boards. Is this a known problem?

Hi @carlqsportscards - it's hard to answer that definitively without more information. Shipping discounts can display on the 'total' portion of the checkout screen, but not always on the line item section of the screen. So it could be that your buyer was confused by the page layout and there was no actual technical issue at play.

In any case, I'd recommend contacting CS with details of the potential buyer (item numbers, buyer id, etc) so they can review to see if this was potentially user error or something we need to get evaluated as a potential tech issue. Thanks!

Tyler,