Community Chat, Jan 3rd @ 1pm PT - General Topics

[Anonymous]

Please join us today at 1 pm Pacific today for our weekly chat with the Community Team. We don't have a set topic for this week, so feel free to ask us your eBay buying & selling questions.

The thread will open for replies at 1 pm and will remain open for one hour.

See you then! 

[alan@ebay]

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@odditiesandantiquities1 wrote:

Is it just me or is it awfully quiet right now? Are you the only one on today Trinton?

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@Anonymous wrote:

The chat is now open! Looking forward to talking to everyone here in the New Year 🙂

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Hi @odditiesandantiquities1! 

There are few of us here today: Brian B, Brian T, Doug, Trinton & Tyler are here! Happy New Year 

[tyler@ebay]

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@odditiesandantiquities1 wrote:

Well I also throw in another issue for you all. Castlemagic was asking about the process of sending messages to customers that an item has been shipped, when the only thing that happened is the label has been printed.

In my case, we can only ship every 3 days. I used to like getting things done ahead, but it was causing problems with my customers, even though I told them the date we were shipping. Now I have to wait to print the labels until the night before.

Can't you consider changing the code to send the message to the customer based on the shipping date not the printing date?

Thanks so much.

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That's a fair call out @odditiesandantiquities1 - right now when a label is printed through eBay the buyer is sent a shipping confirmation email, letting them know it's been shipped. I can't make promises about change, but I can definitely make the suggestion. Do you think it would be a better experience for buyers to see the seller designated 'ship date' or just a more general one that the 'shipping label has been printed'?

[mallontown]

this is a follow up to previous community chat.
Has ebay shipping team got back and explained why  there delivery dates were wrong and what ebay is doing to protect sellers from ebays erroneous shipping times during the busy holiday season.

Also these false delivery estimates will discourage buyers who were affected.
I've included all comments on this subject for transparency

alan@ebay wrote:

@mallontown wrote:

usps holiday shipping deadlines 12/19 for first class mail

Why does ebay show buyers false delivery times for usps deliveries? This effects millions of people , buyers and sellers who use usps.

I included an example of an auction today 12/20 with delivery date of 12/23 to compare with usps saying all first class needed to be shipped 12/19 for Christmas delivery. 

Hi @mallontown, 

Thanks for sharing this, I'm going to contact our Shipping team to have them review, I'll get back to you when I know more. 

Hi @mallontown, 

Our shipping team wrote back on Wednesday after reviewing your listing to advise: 

"When USPS publish their holiday calendar they are stating the most conservative date that would work for the longest possible delivery for that carrier service – ie from east coast to west..

When eBay makes a delivery prediction we are looking at the actual distance between seller and buyer and historical data for that carrier, at this time of year between those two zips. We are a lot more specific and therefore accurate.

It seems here that the seller is checking their own listing – and the delivery estimate algorithm is, therefore, showing the ship speed from and to the same zip code. On top of this, the seller offers same day handling so it's completely realistic that if it shipped today (Wed 20th) it would be delivered on Saturday.

When I check this listing now (Wed 20th) i.e. after their same day cut-off – the estimate is now Dec 26th."

Thank you! 

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Hi Alan

Thanks for getting back to me.

There are major flaws in the shipping teams response.

First they assume I only checked my zip code 17929 when in fact I checked multiple zip codes including

04569 Christmas Cove, Maine

47579 Santa Claus, Indiana

32709 Christmas, Florida

97641 Christmas Valley, Oregon

All of these showed delivery before Christmas

99705 North Pole Alaska and 00901 San Juan Puerto Rico were the only 2 that I checked that had an extended delivery with multiple dates as the estimate (shown on ebay as expected delivery between X and Y dates which included a date after Christmas)

Second is what historical data are they using? Data for the 4th quarter,data starting 1st week of December? Since I checked on this issue on the 20th only data from that date should apply and USPS informs everyone that delivery takes longer than usual. Did the shipping team only use data from 12/20 of the previous year(s)?

Third is the shipping team erroneous statement about same day handling by me. I researched the various zip codes as shown above and posted the question between 4:00 and 5PM EST . Since the shipping department researched my items and saw that I offer same day shipping they should also know that my cut off time for same day shipping is 8:15 am EST Which is a full 8 hours after my checking delivery times and posting the question. So the statement  "On top of this, the seller offers same day handling so it's completely realistic that if it shipped today (Wed 20th) it would be delivered on Saturday." is an unrealistic statement.

Here is the true question on this issue.

Is ebay providing buyers with unrealistic ship arrival dates in order to compete with other venues that have fast shipping.

Thanks again Alan for addressing the issue and if you can forward this back to the shipping team it would be appreciated.

Since I can't post to a locked thread I will start a new one and reference the original community chat

Happy holidays

Deb

[chrysylys]

When will Hawaii be admitted to the Union as a State?

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Bidding-Buying/Shipping-to-Hawaii-International/td-p/27940903/jump-to/...

[disneyshopper]

Happy New Year to everyone!

I have run across several posts from sellers stating that some of their listings are stating the listing is of an adult nature, and verification is needed, and there is NOT an adult item in what they are selling.  

I have suggested they post in the Technical Issues board.  Do you know anything about this?

[alan@ebay]

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@vrykalak wrote:

[eBay chat, follow-up 160928] wish to propose a pagefor people to request system changes. Maybe part of the Community pages. Where people can propose changes to any aspect of eBay, and others can comment, and VOTE on the idea...eBay staff can comment, of course, including saying a request is not feasible, or against policy [must give ref URL]...but no one can remove a request except the proposer!
How can we make this happen?

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Hi @vrykalak! 

LOVE the idea! Funnily enough, we are currently looking into introducing something like this, hopefully in the coming months. Keep an eye out for more information on this topic.

Thanks.

[rock4best]

New Year and new eBay problems:

Yesterday I found out that my listings after somebody buys one item from multi variation listing become Adult only, require verification. (We sell music bands t-shirts). Instead of getting more visibility for that particular listing I am losing every possible visibility at all. Those listings do not show up in search (regular and sponsored listings), you can even find it by full title. What else can eBay do to kill small business like mine?

[castlemagicmemories]

Just want to jump in here, Trinton, and say that the shipping label has been printed has been proposed.

I started a thread on both the Buying and Selling Boards for both perspectives on this message since you asked for links and I could not locate any.  Had read several threads from buyers that felt the seller was scamming when they got that message but the item clearly had not shipped, and I felt badly for them.  It hurts both Ebay and Ebay sellers when buyers think they are being scammed.

I believe I called you and Alan to the threads.

[vrykalak]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@odditiesandantiquities1 wrote:

Well I also throw in another issue for you all. Castlemagic was asking about the process of sending messages to customers that an item has been shipped, when the only thing that happened is the label has been printed.

In my case, we can only ship every 3 days. I used to like getting things done ahead, but it was causing problems with my customers, even though I told them the date we were shipping. Now I have to wait to print the labels until the night before.

Can't you consider changing the code to send the message to the customer based on the shipping date not the printing date?

Thanks so much.

---

That's a fair call out @odditiesandantiquities1 - right now when a label is printed throughu eBay the buyer is sent a shipping confirmation email, letting them know it's been shipped. I can't make promises about change, but I can definitely make the suggestion. Do you think it would be a better experience for buyers to see the seller designated 'ship date' or just a more general one that the 'shipping label has been printed'?

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I think eBay should just stop sending the message at all.
It's meaningless, and could be harmful.
I send an email to my buyers AFTER I have actually sent the package
...telling them how to track it, and how to communicate if anything goes wrong.

[thegreenhouse2]

Hello and Happy New Year,

In Seller Hub, under manage active listings, one data item that you can customize on your list is "Shipping Cost".    This either shows as "Calculate" or "Free".  This is very helpful information (at least for me and especially for help in planning markdown or other promotions).  BUT, the "Free" is not accurate as it only shows "Free" if flat rate shipping is selected when you set up the item for sale.  The programming should be such that if calculated or flat is selected and free is ticked off on the first shipping option then it should show "free" as the shipping cost.    Could this please be fixed, it would probably only be a few lines of code that the tech team would need to remove.    I have attached an example of calculated with free ticked and an example of free with flat ticked.    

Thank you,

Lisa

[Anonymous]

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@rock4best wrote:

4 months ago I asked here if eBay team can fix for us this situation:

"

Problem with new Promotions interface.   When you ebay started to farce everybody in Seller Hub interface they changed Promoted Listings interface (nothing bad) and Promotions interface, which is really bad. I understand that people do not like changes, I don't like too. But this is not about just interface. You took our important functionality. I need to be able to have $1 or $2 off from like every $20 customer spend in our store. It wasn't a problem until you took our old interface. Some programmer would like to make life easy and they started from $5 off without any ability to put anything smaller. It was an option "OTHER", which were giving us that option. Now, $5 is the smallest possible. Old Interface New Interface   After more than a month and few calls to Dedicated Support I almost lose my hope anybody even cares about small seller problem. Is there any possibility you will be able to let those programmers know about our situation so they will be able to make that small change for them but crucial change for us?   Thank you very much in advance for your help."

It was a promise to forward it to the appropriate team.

After four months we still with the same interface and I feel like nobody cares about the situation that we couldn't create any new sales for 4 months just continue run the same sale over and over again. Why it is not important for eBay to help us?

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Hi @rock4best, while we are happy to pass along any suggestions or feedback we receive here on the Community Boards, changes and possible enhancements are never guaranteed. We will consider the impact to our Community with the cost of the proposed developments to determine if a potential improvement is the right decision. We aren't always able to give an update on these suggestions, even when they are a part of future plans. We absolutely value your opinion and encourage you to share any ideas you have!

[mam98031]

Last week we were chatting about INRs.  There were suggestions on how some of us feel we can make the process better and less expensive to process for both Sellers and Ebay.

Now there is reality on how the INRs are currently processed.  This particular story is not mine, but of a friend that asked me to share it here because she was unable to attend today.

She had an INR from a customer, normal stuff.  In researching the problem she found that this was being shipped to a reshipper [typically not a problem] and the buyer apparently didn't know the reshipper was no longer at the address the buyer provided, therefore the item was returned to sender.

The INR was updated by the seller with both the tracking and a note to the buyer regarding the incorrect address as well as the item being returned to sender.  In the meantime of corresponding with the buyer regarding the claim the item arrived to the seller's address in good order.  The buyer was informed.

The seller notified the buyer via the claim that they would get the INR closed and then issue them a refund for the item, but not the original shipping.  The buyer responded that this was acceptable to them.  The seller did this because she felt it was fair even though the Ebay rules do not require the seller to refund anything.  

The seller then called Ebay to get the claim closed.  The seller informed the CSR as to what she intended to do and that the buyer had agreed inside the claim to the partial refund.  The CSR stated that the claim could not be closed yet and to call back in a day or two.  The seller didn't understand why the claim could not be closed and asked again.  The CSR stood his ground so to speak and was being rather forceful with his voice according to my friend.  So she hung up and called me.

I suggested that she call again as all to frequently this is necessary to get the attention needed to a problem.  I know it should not be that way, but it is the reality of things.

The next CSR was much nicer to my friend and she explained that there was a 3 day waiting period for closing the claim.  So she would need to call back after that period had lapsed to get the claim closed even though the tracking shows that it was returned to sender due to a bad address.  She got off the phone with the CSR and then called me again.

I was surprised.  Has something changed.  I know that I've closed INRs on the same day I've received them with no contact with my buyer and with the tracking showing delivered.  Has this processed changed?

My friend called back late the next day and got the INR closed.  She then went into PP and processed a partial refund to the buyer [holding back original shipping].  She was happy and the customer was happy.  Yet the story isn't quite over.

The next day she went into her PP account and noticed that the $$ balance on this transaction was still on hold.  She couldn't get to PP yesterday via phone for answers as PP was having phone issues.  I haven't heard from my friend today as to why this happened.

The claim was not opened in PP!  The claim was closed by Ebay!!  Why in the world would PP have the right to continue to hold funds on a transaction Ebay deems to be complete???  I know you may not have these answers regarding PP, but I find this very strange.  Would they old it forever since the seller had not intended to refund the original shipping?

[tsme35]

Another postage increase in Janaury, I see ebay notigated better discounts but when are the gonna make it a fair international selling market for the US. International rates going up another $.75, so I'll have to charge $13.50 now to just cover shipping but China sellers pay pennies. I'm about to stop selling international all together just because if a item gets lost or broken I'd lose more in shipping then the item.

 Seriously ebay, you need to get your lobbyist on this or I'll most likely have to just close all international business for the lack of profit. I sell fishing items, which do slow down this time of year, winter and all, BUT ,  I use to make it up with Japan, Austraila and New Zeland buyers because its summer there, which adds up to thousands of dollars to cover the slow down. Not for a few years now, when shipping doubled I lost 95% of my international business and every year keeps dropping 8-10%.

 They are just not buying, their not bidding on auctions either so prices drop on actions too, which I almost don't do anymore.

 Don't even get me started on dupliate listings, fixed and auctions. I've reported and called and nothing is every done.  I guess ebay doesn't get it that when you flood the market with hundreds of duplicate listings from the same person, prices drop.

[duchess-at-speakeasy]

Why is Lithium pushing so many necro threads to Page 1 of a board? Even I fell for one of them the other day -- and there was no recent comment that would have bumped the thread. While I'm on the subject, why does Lithium prevent use of the Options menu to report such threads? The only method of alerting the Mods is to add a comment, which only makes the problem worse. It's a brand new year -- please, let's clean up the boards and archive threads from 2017 and earlier. Thanks! ~~C~~

[chrysylys]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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Do you think it would be a better experience for buyers to see the seller designated 'ship date' or just a more general one that the 'shipping label has been printed'?

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That, until it's actually in posession of the carrier.