Community Chat, February 5 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

[brian@ebay]

Join the Community team here at 1 PM PT on February 5th 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 about buying or selling.

The chat will be open for questions from 1-2 pm PT, at which point we'll close thread from additional responses. After this time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that might 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 directed to eBay Customer Service.

[maxoptical]

Hello eBay,  Ten days ago I received a vero warning on 90 of my 4000 lisitngs.   I  made the necessary changes and emailed vero  within an hour of their email informing them I made the changes.  3 days later all 90 listings were removed even thought the necessary changes were made.  

I have emailed vero and customer service, and messaged on Facebook and I have not received any response about this issue.

3 months ago I had the same issue and Vero apologised and reinstated my listings.    I am at a loss on what to do as they will not respond.

[tyler@ebay]

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@papermoneyforme wrote:

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@papermoneyforme wrote:

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alan@ebay wrote:

Hey everyone! We're open for business. Please post your questions. 

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Why have we been told the Turbo Lister would not go away until Seller Hub could do what TL did?

Obviously, Seller Hub on retaining information for 3 months is no where near the same as TL and will put many sellers behind the eight ball.

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Hi @papermoneyforme - I can't answer a 'why' question like that I'm afraid, as I don't have insight into why that promise was made, nor why it has not yet been fulfilled. 

What I can say is that we're committed to providing you the best tools possible, and teams are working to develop a solution that will offer the same ease of use, offline capabilities and other popular TurboLister features. You'll be contacted as those become available. 

Thanks!

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Will that be before July or after July?

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Hi @papermoneyforme - great question! I would imagine that would be over the course of the next several months.

[alan@ebay]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@papermoneyforme wrote:

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alan@ebay wrote:

Hey everyone! We're open for business. Please post your questions. 

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Why have we been told the Turbo Lister would not go away until Seller Hub could do what TL did?

Obviously, Seller Hub on retaining information for 3 months is no where near the same as TL and will put many sellers behind the eight ball.

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Hi @papermoneyforme - I can't answer a 'why' question like that I'm afraid, as I don't have insight into why that promise was made, nor why it has not yet been fulfilled. 

What I can say is that we're committed to providing you the best tools possible, and teams are working to develop a solution that will offer the same ease of use, offline capabilities and other popular TurboLister features. You'll be contacted as those become available. 

Thanks!

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May I suggest a Weekly Chat devoted to this subject and the team that is developing these feature come and join us.  I think it would be extremely helpful as this is such an important subject for many.  We need time to plan for our businesses and how to best move forward.  A conversation with those in the know would really help to facilitate this.

Relatively soon too as while for some July may seem to be a date that is far away, it is a drop in the bucket when trying to set up a new business process of this importance for sellers.

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Thanks for the suggestion, @mam98031. I will figure out who the right folks are, and I will see if they're available to join a chat. 

[millcreekrescue909]

Thanks, Brian.

[Anonymous]

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@itscalledapostingid wrote:

I have been repeatedly following up with them since November about the "Same Day Shipping" problem. No one will do anything and it is clear that Ebay wants to display Same Day Shipping on 1-day handling time items. This is a general questions forum so I won't bog it down with specific items. I will rephrase the question: Why is Ebay displaying Same Day shipping on 1-day handling time items?

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Hi @itscalledapostingid, without an item number to review, I can only rephrase my previous answer: we cannot discuss this in more detail without an example. If you change your mind about sharing an item number here in the Community, you are welcome to start a new thread on the Shipping & Returns board or the Technical Issues board to provide this and @mention a member of the Community Team so we can look into it further. 

[mam98031]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@coffeebean832 wrote:

On the monthly e-mail summarizing seller protections for the previous calendar month- what qualifies as a "defect" under the defects removed column? There are several ideas floating around including-

- Actual defect removal (case closed without seller resolution, out of stock cancellation)

- Service metrics removal

- Late shipping removal

- Any case that was escalated and found in the seller's favor

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Hi @coffeebean832 - I don't have a specific definition to provide you off hand (I'll see if I can get more detail), but from what I can tell this is looking at transaction defects (those defects that would show up on your transaction defect report).

The number in the email looks at both reactively removed (from Report a Buyer reports) as well as proactively removed (from our own research). Many times proactively removed defects are exempted before they even hit your report, so you may see a total there that doesn't sync with your own records. 

Thanks!

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Except that on the email it defines the column for Defect removal as follows "Feedback and defects removed during the last calendar month. To maintain privacy of the buyer, we cannot disclose the transactions where we removed feedback or defects."  But Feedback is NOT a "defect".

[brian@ebay]

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@mam98031 wrote:

I received my email from Ebay for my Seller Protection Summary.  I really like getting this email but I think it could be more informative and therefore more useful to sellers.

I would like to see a link to the details of what Ebay is reporting as how they protected us.  So if it says they protected me against a couple of defects, I should be able to click on that and see what transactions they are talking about.

I personally think this would be a GREAT enhancement to the email and very useful for Ebay members.

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Hi @mam98031, while I understand why this information could be useful, many of the protections on the monthly email are due to us taking action for violations of the abusive buyer policy. Due to privacy concerns, we can’t state when we have taken action on a buyer’s account, or which buyer's account we took action on, therefore we are not able to provide the exact transactions that were protected.

[brian@ebay]

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@coffeebean832 wrote:

Brian- were you able to find out about the password protection on eBay shipping labels? Is this a site bug or is it an intended change?

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@coffeebean832 unfortunately no, I haven't received confirmation on this yet. I'm still trying to get an answer though. 

[tyler@ebay]

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@klhmdg wrote:

A buyer purposely used an incorrect address.

Requested USPS shipping and not to use Priority.

Because the address is not correct USPS returned the item "postage due"

There needs to be a way for sellers to notify other sellers.

What are my options in this case? I have reported the buyer and added them to the BBL but it will cost me more to get the item back then the item is worth at this point.

What is happening with eBay "helping" sellers and backing sellers with bad buyers?

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Hi @klhmdg  - without knowing the specifics of the situation I can't speak definitively, but generally speaking if a buyer provided an incorrect address a seller is protected in the event of an Item Not Received request. As to the item itself, if you're interested in getting it back the postage due would be a cost you'd need to look at absorbing. There are currently no financial subsidies or protections in place to address this particular, very unusual situation.

Utilizing the 'Report a Buyer' function makes us aware and allows us to review for potential abuse and take action if appropriate.  Thanks!

[mam98031]

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@maxoptical wrote:

Hello eBay,  Ten days ago I received a vero warning on 90 of my 4000 lisitngs.   I  made the necessary changes and emailed vero  within an hour of their email informing them I made the changes.  3 days later all 90 listings were removed even thought the necessary changes were made.  

I have emailed vero and customer service, and messaged on Facebook and I have not received any response about this issue.

3 months ago I had the same issue and Vero apologised and reinstated my listings.    I am at a loss on what to do as they will not respond.

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I am happy to say I have not had one of these in a very long time.  But as I remember the emails received notifying me of the Vero violation, towards the bottom of the email was an email address in which to send in questions or concerns directly to the Vero Member that has caused your listings to be removed.

I remember one time the email didn't contain that and I call CS and they gave me the email address.  

I don't know if this helps, just thought I'd share it with you.  I've always been told to contact the Vero member on these.

I hope things work out for you.  I know how difficult these things can be to work through.

[tyler@ebay]

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@wooden_flower wrote:

I want to second the suggestion on search location - we should be able to set a default location for search. I would expand it to include seller location. We should not have to make this choice every time we search for an item.

There are many times I have given up and gone elsewhere because I got tired of wading through listings from China, even when I said US only.  I do not buy with enough leadtime to wait for items from China - I want to be able to easily buy from a USA seller 😀

Sue

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Hi @wooden_flower - I'll make sure to get your voice added to this too. 🙂

[a_c_green]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Hi @golfingaddict, can you provide the item number for this listing so we can take a closer look?

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The currently-running version of that listing would be this one: 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/383280054389 

I hope that helps...

[coffeebean832]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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Except that on the email it defines the column for Defect removal as follows "Feedback and defects removed during the last calendar month. To maintain privacy of the buyer, we cannot disclose the transactions where we removed feedback or defects."  But Feedback is NOT a "defect".

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Both the feedback and the defect column have the same asterisk for brevity. Instead of having two nearly identical statements such as-

Feedback removed during the last calendar month. To maintain privacy of the buyer, we cannot disclose the transactions where we removed feedback.

Defects removed during the last calendar month. To maintain privacy of the buyer, we cannot disclose the transactions where we removed defects.

- they combined the footnotes for those categories. Feedback is not defined because it's obvious. Defects are not defined but should be.

[Anonymous]

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@wooperwares wrote:

Below is a repost of a conversation I recently had with other eBay community members. Ultimately I decided to venture with starting my own e-commerce store. Up to 350+ items drafted since then. I do wish eBay was more seller-friendly and I hope this changes at some point. That's why I'm still here today. Mostly just want to get this in front of eBay employees, if you have a response I appreciate it. 

I’m in a position where I want to pay eBay $720 for an annual premium store subscription. I cannot commit at this time because I fear eBay will make changes that could ruin me as a seller.

Kindly a little more backstory to help you understand my situation. I purchased over $7,000 in very targeted bulk trading card listings. I’ve almost completed sorting everything and would have around 1,500 buy it now listings were I to commit to a store. My intention absolutely was to start a store here, but I’ve become increasingly concerned the more I learn from other sellers experiences.

Regarding managed payments. My card listings would be primarily $1 each. I’m currently using PayPal Micropayments which equates to 5 cents + 5%, ultimately 10 cents on a standard $1 card. Managed payments would be 25 cents alone per card! 25% of the items value (on a standard $1 card) literally taken for payment processing alone (plus a percentage, 2.7%?) plus FVF, listing fees and promotion fees. All in all about 36% minimum on a $1 card versus 20% now (FVF + micropayment). Nearly double! The greed is unbelievable. There is a market for high volume, low price sellers here. There is also a limit for what reasonable buyers will pay. Other card sites already sell at considerably cheaper prices (TCGPlayer great example), yet eBay has the user volume advantage FOR NOW. Ultimately prices will rise under managed payments on eBay for this niche category, both buyers and sellers will at some point seek other venues. You risk almost pricing this niche category out of existence for what average reasonable buyers would pay. How ironic it is that eBay may undermine one if its greatest competitive advantages, that being the go to source for niche and unique products.

I am not happy with the approach eBay takes regarding almost knowing what is best for me as a seller. It is 100% not eBays place to enable best offer on my listings against my wishes. The annoyance of promoted listings impacting the search when filtered and no intent to change how this works. GTC being forced upon me. It feels my partner in this (eBay) has the primary goal of taking as much as possible from me while providing less and less outlook and stability.

Many are complaining sales are down. I’ve been here off and on for years but have also felt a similar impact in recent months. I’m happy some sellers are having a great start to 2020, the boards are however littered with posts regarding slow sales from frustrated sellers. It seems eBay keeps shooting itself in the foot for short term profits. I find it crazy that as a serious seller I’m afraid to give you $720 to jump in and get started. I just don’t trust the current direction from leadership, be it incompetence or malice. It is an issue though and the disconnect with sellers is unbelievable.

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Hi @wooperwares, thank you for your feedback. While we aren't able to discuss a product or feature offered by PayPal such as PayPal Micropayments, if you have specific questions about managed payments you are welcome to call into Customer Service to speak with our managed payments teams directly. Based on what you have shared here, it sounds like you are asking for more context on how this program could benefit you if they pose an increase in fees for your business model. Though most sellers using managed payments experience lower fees compared to alternatives, the managed payments team can discuss your situation in more detail.

[stuff4divas]

Hello Alan,

Under my 'service metrics' I was hit with 2 NAD returns.

One return was closed in my favor because the buyer told me she would keep it if I gave her a discount.

The other return was closed and refunded by eBay because eBay sent the buyer an incorrectly addressed return shipping label that wasn't even in the same state as mine.

What to do? Can these be removed. Thank you.