eBay

brian@ebay · ‎06-17-2020

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to 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 thread 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 work 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.

Brian,
Community Team

alcoforever · ‎06-17-2020

@gwzcomps wrote:
It is disheartening still seeing posts from less experienced sellers getting scammed or being targeted by scammers. Does eBay have a gameplan on how they are dealing with the current preferred tricks the scammers are using? Even something as simple as making it so non buyers can’t send messages on completed items would be a good step. My understanding from talking to CS in the past is that buyers are allowed to send personal info through messages. Maybe just filter all messages and block known forms of contact info from being shared? It would also be nice to see more aggressive verification of buyer accounts rather than letting buyers run wild.

Along this same line, is it possible to record the mac address and IP address of any member that has been NARU'd? Even though policy says you cannot create a new account to circumvent a ban, it would seem that the scammers create new accounts on an hourly basis. By checking against name, address, mac address and IP address, that would greatly inconvenience potential scammers.

pursesbrasplusmore · ‎06-17-2020

The June 12, 2020 ebay seller update on Google Shopping stated pics need to be 800 x 800 pixels. Is this ebay’s new guidelines for all clothing? I’ve always read 1600 on the longest side. I sell mostly clothing and my pics are mostly closely cropped rectangles. If I need to change a long dress into a square, how would I do that? It completely distorts the picture. Also, is this for the main photo only, or for all ie. 5-10 photos in each listing? Please clarify.
On sending watchers offers, my send offer list has some that say 0 watchers, but when I click on them say 1 interested. I do not want to annoy watchers that aren’t watching my items. Which is it? 0 or 1?

papermoneyforme · ‎06-17-2020

Why do I keep getting It Looks Like you are signing in from a different computer and then asking for an email, phone call, or text for confirmation?

I have been using the same computer for 5 years which the IP address should tell Ebay.

Or is this just another glitch or bug?

brian@ebay · ‎06-17-2020

@gwzcomps wrote:
It is disheartening still seeing posts from less experienced sellers getting scammed or being targeted by scammers. Does eBay have a gameplan on how they are dealing with the current preferred tricks the scammers are using? Even something as simple as making it so non buyers can’t send messages on completed items would be a good step. My understanding from talking to CS in the past is that buyers are allowed to send personal info through messages. Maybe just filter all messages and block known forms of contact info from being shared? It would also be nice to see more aggressive verification of buyer accounts rather than letting buyers run wild.

@gwzcomps the safety of members on our site is always top of mind for us. We're constantly evaluating what steps we can take to keep our platform safe, and this includes the example situation you've mentioned here. However, we don't typically share the methods we use to keep members safe as that information could educate those seeking to take advantage of others on ways of bypassing our methods.

Brian,
Community Team

dtexley3 · ‎06-17-2020

@magsmg101 wrote:
Offensive Materials Policy.
Looks like another case of left hand / right hand fumble,

And help from customer service?? Really??? Rebecca these takedowns are done by an AI bot.
Your phone or chat CS teams have all been properly trained in the nuances of the Black Americana policies announced today?

From the pained cries of affected sellers on the boards I think not.

Listings (as of a couple of hours ago) in Black Americana collectibles…US sellers only…14K available for purchase, 8.6K sold prices realized range from $1.00 to $6,500.00 a nice return for a company that touts its self as a venue only.

I do want to voice my opinion that the rollout was handled abysmally. Thousands of listings being taken down hours before the new policy was announced, just plain wrong. eBay has done this before and can't seem to learn from their mistakes. It shows an ongoing disregard for sellers and their work in creating listings.

While I agree eBay has the right to change policy it should be done in a prospective fashion, ie "on this date we will start removing listings that contain the following...." Posted prominently on the site and sent to the sellers in affected categories multiple times BEFORE the takedowns begin.

If eBay wants to change their relationship with sellers they need to think before they react and plan before they execute.

Member of the Grumpy Old Man crew

bookollections · ‎06-17-2020

Greetings Brian,

Just wondering if there are any plans to offer any additional free listings during this month of June & if not, might you please pass this suggestion on?

Thanks so much!

Be safe, be well, be Blessed...

gwzcomps · ‎06-17-2020

@Anonymous wrote:
@gwzcomps wrote:
I have noticed that recently on Firefox running on Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit that the descriptions have been having a scroll bar show up if there is “too much text”. I was curious why this was happening and if it is a bug. It doesn’t seem to happen on Chrome.

Item # example: 373084608107
Hi @gwzcomps, thanks for sharing an example we can take a look at. I just checked the listing and I don't see a scroll bar when I view the page in Firefox, though I am running Windows 10 on my computer. I'll get this reported to see if there is anything going on, but this may be related to an individuals display settings ie. not a technical issue. Happy to look into it further, though!

Thanks. It has been happening on my two primary machines. The screen resolutions it happens on are 1920x1080, 1200x1920 (Portrait oriented 16:10 display), and 1680x1050.

coinslabz26 · ‎06-17-2020

Is there any way of removing multi quantity item listings from search results filtered by price plus shipping lowest first?

Example. If I need to search ebay for a 32GB Memory card and filter by "price plus shipping lowest first" I will see results "$10 to $50" and it will be like a 1gb card that is $10 and $50 for the 32GB card. Obviously the 1GB card for $10 was not part of my search. There are even worse results where I could be searching for a bike and see price $5 to $500 where $5 is the bike horn and $500 is the bike, yet it still shows that as a lowest price because of that horn option.

How do I remove those results from my search?

tyler@ebay · ‎06-17-2020

@coinslabz26 wrote:
I have a question about the ebay "THANKSALOT" coupon given to us by ebay for our next purchase of shipping supplies.

First of all, that was a very nice gesture and thank you very much!

However, ebay shipping supplies is sold out of all of the most popular shipping supplies. Due the the pandemic they have informed me that it could be up to 5 weeks before they can even take pre-sale orders for many supplies. Can ebay look into this issue and consider extending the expiration date of the coupon?

Hi @coinslabz26 - thanks for this input. I know that when I went to redeem my coupon the airjackets were in pre-sale, so I ended up getting boxes instead - definitely disappointing!

I haven't heard of a plan to extend the campaign, but I'll pass this up and let you know what I hear back. Thanks!

Tyler,

tyler@ebay · ‎06-17-2020

@theshoppingmom2 wrote:

Hi everyone!!

I have a question for brian@ebay

Have you been able to find out why we are not getting notifications ? I used to get email notifications every time someone posted on the boards or in groups. I am signed in to receive them , I just checked so that's not the issue.

In one of my groups several people are complaining of the same.... no notifications.

Please let me know if there is a fix in the near future. TIA

Hi @theshoppingmom2!

Brian and I are working on this together - we're not sure what's happening because your notifications are coming through on the regular site, but the emails aren't sending (even when your settings are set up to have them sent by email).

We haven't heard back on it, but we're hoping to see it resolved quickly. Thanks!

Tyler,

mcdougle4248 · ‎06-17-2020

Any update on a fix for the variation photo glitch?

Anonymous · ‎06-17-2020

@dtexley3 wrote:

On the same note, for a long time potential buyers were blocked from including email or phone numbers in messages or offers for items.

Lately I've seen several fairly new sellers asking if it was normal for them to receive an offer significantly in excess of their asking with an email or phone number included in the message for contact.

Why are buyers being allowed to include email addresses and phone numbers when making offers via eBay? Blocking them would reduce the ability of scammers to try to steer the naive seller into believing they had been paid and shipping their item to the scammer.

Hi @dtexley3, this kind of sharing of contact information prior to completing checkout would be considered a violation of eBay policy and can be reported for review by contacting Customer Service. While we have filters in place to prevent this kind of information from being shared, I'll double check that these apply to offers as well and work on improvements as necessary.

papermoneyforme · ‎06-17-2020

I am still not getting any emails for offers.

Why not?

mam98031 · ‎06-17-2020

tyler@ebay wrote:
@theshoppingmom2 wrote:
Hi everyone!!

I have a question for brian@ebay

Have you been able to find out why we are not getting notifications ? I used to get email notifications every time someone posted on the boards or in groups. I am signed in to receive them , I just checked so that's not the issue.

In one of my groups several people are complaining of the same.... no notifications.

Please let me know if there is a fix in the near future. TIA
Hi @theshoppingmom2!

Brian and I are working on this together - we're not sure what's happening because your notifications are coming through on the regular site, but the emails aren't sending (even when your settings are set up to have them sent by email).

We haven't heard back on it, but we're hoping to see it resolved quickly. Thanks!

@theshoppingmom2

Just so you know there are a lot of us in that boat with you. Tomorrow marks THREE weeks of this issue and many more in the community forums. We can look at our little bell on the upper right side of our screens for some of the details on who has posted to what thread we are following. But that little bell isn't completely accurate either. Not to mention I don't like it. I much prefer the email notifications.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

tyler@ebay · ‎06-17-2020

@papermoneyforme wrote:

Why do I keep getting It Looks Like you are signing in from a different computer and then asking for an email, phone call, or text for confirmation?

I have been using the same computer for 5 years which the IP address should tell Ebay.

Or is this just another glitch or bug?

Hi @papermoneyforme - that definitely sounds unusual. Have you recently changed internet providers, or started connecting to the internet with a VPN or private internet browser?

Tyler,