Community Chat Hour - Wed. Sep 5th @ 1 pm PDT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Join The Community Team here at 1 pm today for our chat hour. We don't have a set topic, so feel free to ask us your buying and selling questions. 

Chat with you then! 

[alan@ebay]

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@scga912 wrote:

About 5 weeks ago I posted on the Selling Board about the Buyer Cancellation page. https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Cancelling-an-Order-question/m-p/28814703

Nothing has happened yet, but it needs to be fixed.

From that page:

"If it's been less than an hour since your purchase, and the seller hasn't sent the item yet, you can cancel your order yourself.  Otherwise, you'll need to contact the seller and ask them to cancel it for you.
Depending on how long it's been since you made your purchase, either by selecting Buy It Now or by winning an auction, and whether the seller has dispatched it, you may be able to cancel your order.  If you can't cancel it yourself, you can ask the seller to cancel it for you.

Top Takeaway
If you change your mind within an hour of your purchase, and the seller hasn't dispatched your item yet, you can cancel the order.  If it's been longer than that, or the seller has already sent the item, you'll need to contact the seller." 

The way it is currently written states that they, the Buyer, can effectuate a cancellation on their own within the first hour.  It is 100% wrong.  It's missing a very key word - cancellation "request."  It needs to be clear to buyers that it's only a request and that a seller may not be able to accomodate them.

Repeatedly and recently there are posts on the board from buyers who are angered stating that they cancelled and the seller sent the package anyway.  Also, there are posts from sellers who are suffering because of this inaccurate wording as well.  The most recent is a seller who is wearing a negative now because they had the shipment ready within 15 minutes and dropped it on their way out to work.  https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/I-got-a-Neg-for-doing-the-right-thing/td-p/28925467

Now granted the negative doesn't figure into eBay's metrics for seller standings, but it could play into the decision of future buyers whether to purchase from them or not - which could impact a sellers' revenue.

And then there's this from that page:
"What to do if the seller has already shipped your order
If the seller has already shipped your order or if they don't accept your cancellation request, you'll need to wait until you receive the item and then start a return."

Really?  Tell a buyer to open a return if they don't get their cancellation?   I guess it's fine if a seller accepts returns, but what if they don't?  What kind of return can the buyer open?

This will ultimately cost the seller financially on several different levels.  It could result in a [false] SNAD which puts the seller out shipping both ways.  It could result in a normal return as well, but that could also mean a loss of original shipping, return shipping and/or shipping both ways (depending on the seller's return policy)

However, very importantly, SNAD returns count against a seller, and if this grossly inaccurate cancellation information page puts the seller into a higher return tier than their peers, they will suffer financial damages when eBay imposes a higher FVF.

In summation, there are 3 ways that this causes financial problems for the sellers.
1) Negative feedback which could impact sales to future buyers
2) Returns - loss of initial shipping and/or return shipping
3) Returns - potentially resulting in higher FVFs

eBay has a financial responsibility to its sellers to remedy this.  It is causing sellers financial harm.  They also have a responsibility to the buyers to make this clear as to not create a bad buying experience.  Those buyers may never return and may also tell their friends.

Does posting on this Weekly Chat with eBay Staff forum constitute putting eBay on notice?  If not, where should I post?  Please realize I'm not trying to instigate.  Instead I'm trying to remedy a problem for buyers, sellers, and eBay themselves.

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Hi @scga912, 

Thanks for calling this one out. We did send this over to the Help Hub team for their consideration a couple of weeks ago when you posted about it. We're going to contact them to advise that it has come up again in the Community and see if they are going to update the page. 

I'm hoping that we'll have news on this soon.

Thank you. 

[automotivepartsrecyclrs]

Got a problem with a USPS employee but it has now been corrected BUT scans are not gonna show correct on tuesdays shipment.

It seems a usps employee was not scanning a scan sheet correct. Scans are showing 5 hours later and or nothing at all. USPS could rescan the sheet but that would put us deeper in the hole with Ebay.

Now anyone can look at a map and see how far it is from the east coast to the west coast. Why will I be dinged on late shipments when a label was printed on tuesday on the east coast but the first scan shows anywhere from 400 to 1000 miles away in just a few days. 

Problem has been corrected as I met with my post master to discuss this and this employee was checking NO on the scan sheet after scanning when they should have checked YES and it would then ask them for the number of items on that scan sheet.

[comics-scifi-collectibles]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Thanks Alan. Do ANY of the promotions manager modules work with the app? If so, which ones?

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alan@ebay  I wonder if it has to do with the promotion only showing at the bottom.  On my listings where the promotion is adverstised at the top and bottom of a listing on a PC it shows as a message box under watch on the APP  on Android.    Extra 10% off 2 plus items...  in red writing.  Here's one of my item numbers if you want to see what it look like:

273413485978

[golf-usga]

If someone could please pass on to the team working on the new and improved shipping label page:

It is not an improvement:

To have to change the date on a holiday weekend.  The old page defaults to the "next business day".  For those of us that print labels the night before, it prints the current date as the shipping date.  The old shipping page defaults to the next business date if we print after 5PM pacific time and on Sunday and holidays.

And

It is not an improvement if we cannot use the 15.9 ounce shipping weight.  It only accepts up to 15 ounces.  The old shipping label lets you put in 16 ounces which rounds down to 15.9 ounces on the label.

Could they please "improve" the new improved shipping labels so that it incorporates a date change and the 15.9 ounce shipping.

Thank you.

[tunicaslot]

Hi guys - I'm following up on something someone already mentioned - why when we do a listing description is the description not automatically put into a mobile friendly format. I often forget to check it and then find myself going back to correct that. None of the other venues I sell on have this problem - the listings are already mobile friendly. Is this something a team is working on this so sellers don't have to do an additional step?

[vrykalak]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@rivers9701 wrote:

After I clicked on "Print Shipping Label" for a recent sale, a prominent warning at the top of the "purchase postage" page said "Invalid ship to postal code." If eBay knows there is a problem with a buyer's address, it should help the buyer fix it rather than pass the problem on to the seller. The buyer should not be able to proceed until eBay is satisfied that a proper address was entered. What does eBay expect me to do with a bad address? If a seller corrects a bad address, they risk losing seller protections by not shipping to the address on record. EBay has to take responsibility for providing valid shipping addresses to sellers. Once a buyer pays me, I am usually required to provide next-day shipping, so I don't have time to communicate with buyers or research addresses. And even if I did, I shouldn't have to. When will eBay "address" this problem?

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Hi @rivers9701, ...we do sometimes see this when the buyer's postal code provided is the full 9 digit zip used by USPS, but the shipping method you are using is via another carrier that does not use the final four digits. This may not be the case for your specific example, but is something to consider should you run into this while we work on enhancements.

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Interesting! So if I change the shipping address to remove the +4 of the ZIP code, will eBay still allow me to send it? and will I still have the seller protections as if I had NOT changed the shipping address in this way?

[Anonymous]

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@mendelsons wrote:

So what is the deal with phone numbers now.  Are we as a seller able to provide a buyer our phone number and address in a ebay message if they are looking at coming to pick an item up at our retail store ?  If they are out of state and want our contact information are we allowed to give them that information in messages.  Its in business and industrial category.

Please advise because I thought I saw something that ebay changed their mind again on this but now I cannot find it in the "rule book"  

Thanks,

Rick

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Hi @mendelsons, a seller can provide contact information after the purchase has been made as they see fit. Our concern with contact information is with the possibility of a sale being taken off eBay. If the sale has already occurred on eBay, then we have nothing to worry about. 

Additionally, some sellers can opt to provide their phone number for questions before purchase is made through the Ask the seller a question feature within their listing. While this is not available to all sellers at this time, those who have the option available are able to turn this on through their account settings.

[automotivepartsrecyclrs]

If Ebay is gonna require us to give contact information to a buyer I really think Ebay needs to rethink that.

Today we got a message about fitament of a part and this person wanted contact information.

Now they way I see it is as follows:

Give buyer the information they come here purchase and bypass ebay and paypal.

or

Not give them the information but have them upload pictures of what they have so we can check fitament. They buy thru ebay and all is done.

[brian@ebay]

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@globalautodistributors wrote:

Hi eBay Community Team,

My question is about updating listing descriptions to ensure mobile-friendly compliance. When I use the eBay tool to check for mobile-friendliness, I get the warning: "Viewport Meta Tag Incorrect or Missing". The "Fix it for Me" feature solves the problem like magic.  In the sample mobile view, the font sizes and spacing are corrected for viewer-friendliness.  I'd like to ensure all my listings are mobile-friendly when it comes to font sizing/spacing/layout.

Is there a way to bulk edit all of my current active listings to eliminate the "viewport meta tag" problem? For new listings, it's not a problem, I just use the Fix it For Me tool.  But for all existing listings, it would be great if the fix can be done in bulk.

Thank you!

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Hi @globalautodistributors! The Bulk Edit tool does not support the Mobile Friendly checker. Items will have to be revised individually to get them updated. 

[golf-usga]

It is very disconcerting when looking at the seller dashboard to see that the Tracking uploaded on time and validated has dropped despite shipping on time and having my items scanned at the post office.

Quite often, my percentage drops and when I investigate the metrics tell me that the label has not been validated when in fact, often the package has already been delivered and has 4-5 scans at minimum.

This happens frequently on all of my accounts.  I use ebay labels and my carrier scans on pick up.  It makes me very distrustful of the information in my dashboard when I seem to always get those false "late shipping" or tracking not validated.

If ebay intends to hold us responsible for this information it seems that their process should work correctly. 

[globalautodistributors]

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@automotivepartsrecyclrs wrote:

Got a problem with a USPS employee but it has now been corrected BUT scans are not gonna show correct on tuesdays shipment.

It seems a usps employee was not scanning a scan sheet correct. Scans are showing 5 hours later and or nothing at all. USPS could rescan the sheet but that would put us deeper in the hole with Ebay.

Now anyone can look at a map and see how far it is from the east coast to the west coast. Why will I be dinged on late shipments when a label was printed on tuesday on the east coast but the first scan shows anywhere from 400 to 1000 miles away in just a few days. 

Problem has been corrected as I met with my post master to discuss this and this employee was checking NO on the scan sheet after scanning when they should have checked YES and it would then ask them for the number of items on that scan sheet.

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Thanks for bringing up this issue.  No wonder why I had problems in the past with packages not showing scans when a scan sheet was used.  Instead of risking getting late scans, I decided not to use scan sheets ever again.  I didn't know whether it was an employee issue, or a technical glitch with the SCAN system.  I'm glad to hear the problem has been corrected on your end.  Maybe one of these days I'll give scan sheets a try again ... but I'd test it out if I had only two packages, not twenty, haha.

[alan@ebay]

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@terrycanarsky wrote:

Go to: Seller Hub -> Traffic reports -> Sales to view that information.

Perhaps I'm just a little slow, but all I see is a bunch of graphs on the Traffic page, not anything Sales.  There is no Seller Hub -> Traffic Reports -> Sales within our Hub.  Traffic is a full-stop page as is the Sales page.

Hence the importance and usefulness of the Plus page/reports.

~M

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Hi @terrycanarsky, 

Try this direct link: https://www.ebay.com/sh/prf/sales

Thanks! 

[mendelsons]

@mendelsons wrote:
So what is the deal with phone numbers now. Are we as a seller able to provide a buyer our phone number and address in a ebay message if they are looking at coming to pick an item up at our retail store ? If they are out of state and want our contact information are we allowed to give them that information in messages. Its in business and industrial category.

Please advise because I thought I saw something that ebay changed their mind again on this but now I cannot find it in the "rule book"

Thanks,

Rick

Hi @mendelsons, a seller can provide contact information after the purchase has been made as they see fit. Our concern with contact information is with the possibility of a sale being taken off eBay. If the sale has already occurred on eBay, then we have nothing to worry about.



Additionally, some sellers can opt to provide their phone number for questions before purchase is made through the Ask the seller a question feature within their listing. While this is not available to all sellers at this time, those who have the option available are able to turn this on through their account settings.
____________________________________

Please provide the proper response for a buyer then if he/she is asking for our contact information to aid them in the decision of purchasing the item that they stated in messages that they would pick up.

If I was planning on taking the sales off eBay I would not be asking, I'm just trying to sell the item and we are both happy.

Please advise.

Rick

[mam98031]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@mendelsons wrote:

So what is the deal with phone numbers now.  Are we as a seller able to provide a buyer our phone number and address in a ebay message if they are looking at coming to pick an item up at our retail store ?  If they are out of state and want our contact information are we allowed to give them that information in messages.  Its in business and industrial category.

Please advise because I thought I saw something that ebay changed their mind again on this but now I cannot find it in the "rule book"  

Thanks,

Rick

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Hi @mendelsons, a seller can provide contact information after the purchase has been made as they see fit. Our concern with contact information is with the possibility of a sale being taken off eBay. If the sale has already occurred on eBay, then we have nothing to worry about. 

Additionally, some sellers can opt to provide their phone number for questions before purchase is made through the Ask the seller a question feature within their listing. While this is not available to all sellers at this time, those who have the option available are able to turn this on through their account settings.

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I understand this, but what confuses me is the new program Ebay is offering that allows buyers to have access to the sellers Phone Number BEFORE a sale.  With the restrictions about contact info in emails, why is Ebay allowing buyer's to have access to the seller's phone number if the seller is participating in the test?  Isn't that potentially a sale off Ebay too?

[alan@ebay]

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@comics-scifi-collectibles wrote:

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alan@ebay wrote:

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@comics-scifi-collectibles wrote:

alan@ebay  Is Sales report plus being discontinued?  I know many sellers liked it because it was easy to understand.  

The last report available is from June

Sales Report Plus

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Hi @comics-scifi-collectibles, 

There is a known issue with Sales Reports Plus at the moment. All of the information available through that report should be available in Seller Hub. 

Go to: Seller Hub -> Traffic reports -> Sales to view that information.

Many thanks. 

alan@ebay  The sales report plus provides a quick over view of your total sales $ that includes ebay sellers fees AND paypal fees none of the seller hub reports provide this information.    I hope that ebay doesn't do it away with it.   

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Hi @comics-scifi-collectibles, 

That's a good callout, PayPal fees do not appear on that page. I will share this feedback with the Seller Hub team for their consideration. 

Thank you!