eBay

Anonymous · ‎07-29-2020

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.

midwestmotoring · ‎07-29-2020

Hey guys, you just announced Monday that you were extending shipping-related defects due to carrier delays. Obviously, everyone knows USPS (due to COVID, staffing shortages, etc.) has been really slow the last month or two.

However, do these protections announced Monday also protect service metrics for item not received cases? The COVID protections that originally ended June 30 were protecting these, as well. I believe they were de-scoring INR defects on service metrics as long as the item was shipped on time and scanned delivered within 30 days of the INR being opened. Lots of these are opened because an item is arriving late and then gets closed out in seller's favor once it was delivered.

Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

gwzcomps · ‎07-29-2020

If eBay is going to blatantly disregard our handling times why offer the option to specify them? Still no defects or late arrival complaints, but I hate how eBay constantly chooses to set sellers up for failure. So many more complaints on the boards about sellers getting hit for late deliveries.

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here.

glgenterprise · ‎07-29-2020

To add to this - if the buyers have 30 days to ship out a return, plus an additional 14 days of transit time, without the return closing out against them, why should we as sellers be out of luck if a package does not show a scan in 10 days during a INR claim? We need either a longer window before being forced to refund a INR claim or eBay needs to make a seller whole if the buyer gets the item and refuses to re-pay the seller.

The answer to this question can be found here

carolynnq · ‎07-29-2020

@gwzcomps wrote:
If eBay is going to blatantly disregard our handling times why offer the option to specify them? Still no defects or late arrival complaints, but I hate how eBay constantly chooses to set sellers up for failure. So many more complaints on the boards about sellers getting hit for late deliveries.

Agreed. I'm shipping within 24 hrs, usually less. But my PO is holding parcel post and media mail for 1-3 days before sending it out. My changing handling times to account for this delay will do no good as ebay will use the fact that I typically ship within 1 day. I wish this historical shipping algorithm would disappear forever, but especially while the PO isn't fully functioning.

carlqsportscards · ‎07-29-2020

I'm "on the list" for managed payments. Does that mean I will have the extra listings for my store on Saturday? Or only if I'm in by then?

Edit: A reply to your post can be found here

carolynnq · ‎07-29-2020

Let me add that as a buyer, I would much rather see the worst-case arrival time shown. If that won't work for me, I'll upgrade shipping if possible or look for a seller with a shorter handling time.

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Edit: A reply to your comment can be found here.

vrykalak · ‎07-29-2020

I sold an item (383525754789) to a buyer at an FPO/APO address.

When I tried to create a shipping label, I got weird messages about dutiable items, and asked if had read some rules about international shipping.

When I tried to print the label, it looked really strange, and had printing on both halves of the page...but too small to read on the screen.
How can I find out whether or not it is legal to send the item?

The answer to this question can be found here

tyler@ebay · ‎07-29-2020

@gwzcomps wrote:

If eBay is going to blatantly disregard our handling times why offer the option to specify them? Still no defects or late arrival complaints, but I hate how eBay constantly chooses to set sellers up for failure. So many more complaints on the boards about sellers getting hit for late deliveries.

Hi @gwzcomps - a specified handling time is what we would take into account when looking at your Tracking Uploaded on Time and Validated metric as well as your on-time shipping metric when evaluating your Seller Performance monthly. Thanks!

Tyler,

glgenterprise · ‎07-29-2020

Has there been clarification about the additional free insertions that start in August regarding how they are being counted. I, once again, have very few listings in the categories that are being included in the additional free insertions. If my GTC listings in those categories renew before I've used up my 1000 listings, will the count against the initial 1000 with my subscription or will they roll to the additional allotment?

And is there any talk of upping the listing allotment at the Premium store level or adding a interim store level between Premium and Anchor? It is a huge jump in both listing allotments and fees associated?

Edit: A reply to your post can be found here

mam98031 · ‎07-29-2020

@carlqsportscards wrote:

I'm "on the list" for managed payments. Does that mean I will have the extra listings for my store on Saturday? Or only if I'm in by then?

Such a good question. And just to add on that. I'm due to be activated sometime next week. If certain new store listing allotments don't start up until you are in MP, will they be active from the time I go in next week or do we have to wait until the beginning of the next month?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

Anonymous · ‎07-29-2020

@glgenterprise wrote:

To add to this - if the buyers have 30 days to ship out a return, plus an additional 14 days of transit time, without the return closing out against them, why should we as sellers be out of luck if a package does not show a scan in 10 days during a INR claim? We need either a longer window before being forced to refund a INR claim or eBay needs to make a seller whole if the buyer gets the item and refuses to re-pay the seller.

Hi @glgenterprise, while I hear what you are saying about wanting more time for delivery, this may be a case of comparing apples to oranges; the time a buyer has to ship back a return is inherently different from the time it takes for your shipment to arrive to them. One is focused on providing time for a return to be packaged and shipped, and the other is related to an item that is already in transit, but has no updates. We are working with the major carriers to ensure that delays are taken into account when an estimated delivery date is provided to the buyer, and a buyer cannot open an item not received request until after the estimated delivery date has passed, so this should serve to minimize the instances of an item that appeared to have been lost in transit later arriving to the buyer after a case has already been decided in their favor. If this does happen to you in one of your transactions, you can contact your customer directly to work out repayment for the order they received and eBay will continue to monitor these situations to determine if additional extensions or other protections are appropriate.

tyler@ebay · ‎07-29-2020

@carolynnq wrote:

Let me add that as a buyer, I would much rather see the worst-case arrival time shown. If that won't work for me, I'll upgrade shipping if possible or look for a seller with a shorter handling time.

Thanks for your input on this @carolynnq - I'll get it shared with the shipping team.

Tyler,

gwzcomps · ‎07-29-2020

tyler@ebay wrote:

@gwzcomps wrote:

If eBay is going to blatantly disregard our handling times why offer the option to specify them? Still no defects or late arrival complaints, but I hate how eBay constantly chooses to set sellers up for failure. So many more complaints on the boards about sellers getting hit for late deliveries.

Hi @gwzcomps - a specified handling time is what we would take into account when looking at your Tracking Uploaded on Time and Validated metric as well as your on-time shipping metric when evaluating your Seller Performance monthly. Thanks!

How does that apply to late deliveries when your systems are guaranteeing delivery before my specified handling time? With 5 day handling that gives me 7 calendar days to ship. Many of my buyers are seeing eBay specified delivery dates in 4 or 5 calendar days. I still don't get what eBay has to gain by constantly working against us. Could have swore you guys claim we are partners?

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Edit: A reply to your comment can be found here.

Anonymous · ‎07-29-2020

@vrykalak wrote:

I sold an item (383525754789) to a buyer at an FPO/APO address.

When I tried to create a shipping label, I got weird messages about dutiable items, and asked if had read some rules about international shipping.

When I tried to print the label, it looked really strange, and had printing on both halves of the page...but too small to read on the screen.
How can I find out whether or not it is legal to send the item?

Hi @vrykalak, I think you should contact Customer Service about this kind of account specific issue, as they will be able to help review the message you are seeing and the shipping label you describe. I can suggest that you look into adjusting your screen resolution or enlarging the image so you can better read the text.

As for legalities of shipping a specific item to a certain location, eBay Customer Service may be able to speak to this but the courier would certainly be able to address your concerns in more detail.