mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
Join the Community team here at 1 PM PT on June 26 for our Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. No set topic for the week, so feel free to share any general buying and selling questions you have.
The chat will be open for questions from 1-2 pm PT, at which point we'll close it down for additional questions and continue to work on responding to any remaining queries.
If you are new to the chat, welcome! Simply reply to this post with your question after 1 pm and we'll be happy to look into it 
@mam98031 wrote:
tyler@ebay wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:
A little clarification please.
In the Spring Seller Update we had a new Seller Protection policy announced. It stated:
New abusive buyer protections and reporting feature update
We're implementing stronger measures against buyers who don't follow eBay's abusive buyer policy. We're introducing new measures to proactively find abusive buyers, prevent them from filing return requests, and in some cases suspend them. When we find that a buyer violated the policy, we will remove any feedback and defects, including opened cases in service metrics.
We've also made it easier for you to report buyers who violate eBay policies. Now when you report a buyer, you can more clearly describe what the buyer is doing to help us investigate potential policy violations and take actions to protect you.
On the surface this sounds terrific. Having the vehicle to report a buyer for what we perceive as an abusive use of the return process is fantastic. That with the ability that if Ebay finds that the buyer has been abusive in the use of the policy the seller can get their ding in the Service Metrics and any related FB removed. Sounds great.
But it appears in application it isn’t quite that way. From what I’m gathering, it really isn’t on a case by case basis. A seller reporting a buyer may have that single transaction deemed by Ebay as abusive, but the Service Metric ding and FB [if any] won’t be removed unless Ebay deems the buyer as abusive. The two NOT being the same thing.
For Ebay to determine that the buyer is abusive, it takes a few [unknown quantity, which is understandable] reports founded to be true before Ebay takes this action. So a seller in a bad situation is going to have to wait and hope other sellers report the buyer for similar issues in the hopes of getting the ding removed from the Service Metrics and any FB to be removed.
This process could take months. In the meantime the seller’s stats could be in trouble. This could be the ONE SNAD that puts them over the edge for the Service Metrics penalty. To later have it removed when enough evidence by multiple sellers is submitted to Ebay for you to rule the buyer as abusive. Then the ding is removed from the seller, but only AFTER the seller has been in the penalty box for a given period of time and paid the additional fees and reduced visibility of their listings.
I do understand that Ebay should never deem any member, buyer or seller as abusive due to one member’s report. I get that and firmly agree with that. But if a seller actually has any new protection under this new rule, it is escaping me at this moment. Please advise.
https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2019-spring/seller-protections.html
Hi @mam98031 - your interpretation of the policies are correct as I understand them. I'm currently working with @coffeebean832 on a similar issue and trying to get additional information. Until such time as I hear differently, that's my understanding.
Then this is NOT any kind of seller protection at all. It was very misleading of Ebay to put this in the Update and call it protection as it offers none.
Stuff like this hurts Ebay's credibility with sellers. It was not a good decision to release this with this kind of a procedure attached to it. While I like the new reporting system, that part is good. But response time and the ability to protect a seller currently just isn't there. It will only protect the seller, maybe, a few months down the road IF the buyer continues with similar behavior.
Not all buyers are repeat offenders. That doesn't make a report by a seller today any less valid that an abuse did happen, yet Ebay still won't help even if they see from the evidence that this buyer did not act in good faith when filing a claim.
Not all of us have deep pockets. Many of us work really hard to keep food on the table and the lights on. We are big retail, Ebay is, but many of their sellers are not. We need some relief here. We need Ebay to step up with REAL policies that do help to protect them from abusive buyers. This policy falls way short of offering any help.
Hi @mam98031 - I hear you, and as I get more specifics on this I'll make sure to share. Thanks!
@fern*wood wrote:Is there still a grace period provided to a seller before losing top rated status?
Your Seller Performance Standards are impacted
Fair performance evaluation
To measure your overall performance accurately, we look at your performance as a whole. We also consider a buyer's pattern for opening cases and protect you when necessary.
Transaction defect rate
- The transaction defect rate won't count in your seller performance status until you have transactions with defects from at least 4 different buyers within your evaluation period
- Buyers don't see your defect rate
eBay Top Rated Seller grace period
If you are a Top Rated Seller and fall below the sales and tracking requirements for Top Rated Seller status, you may qualify for the Top Rated Seller grace period. During the Top Rated Seller grace period you retain your Top Rated Seller status and benefits, and you have two evaluation cycles to get your transaction count, sales amount, and/or tracking requirements back to minimum program requirements.
You're eligible for the grace period if you fall below Top Rated Seller standards due to any of the following:
- You have fewer than 100 transactions with US buyers over the most recent 12-month period
- You have less than $1,000 in sales with US buyers over the most recent 12-month period
- You've uploaded shipment tracking within your promised handling time for less than 95% (but not less than 90%) of transactions with US buyers in the last 3 months
You're only eligible for the Top Rated Seller grace period when:
- You otherwise have a Top Rated Seller performance rating; and
- You've been a Top Rated Seller for the last 3 (or more) consecutive months immediately preceding evaluation
If you don't meet sales and tracking requirements and performance standards after the grace period ends, you will lose your Top Rated Seller status and benefits.
Learn more about becoming a Top Rated Seller.
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/seller-protection-policy?id=4345
@scga912 wrote:
Quick question #1:
If a seller leaves something out of shipment and purchases another label and ships the missing part out (same or next day), since both tracking numbers are active, does eBay go by the first one for Seller metrics for tracking upload and on-time delivery?
Hi @scga912 - really good question!
If the seller uses eBay labels to print the new label it will overwrite the original information with the newest available.
Which means, in that situation eBay would go by the later date for both tracking upload and on-time delivery.
I am still having trouble with my accounts getting logged into the Community automatically when the box in account settings for this is not checked, and has never been checked. Basically, the Community is using the login cookie from eBay when the account is set for this to not be done.
I asked about this several weeks ago, and @Anonymous promised to look into it and get back to me ... I never received any contact, so I started a thread in the Technical Issues board and tagged him there. Still no response, and no fix. Here's the link:
Thanks mam, I just can't find anything in the help pages now and I'm always afraid that google might bring up old information that's no longer valid. 
@Anonymous wrote:
Mid-July brings with it a big summer retail moment. From Amazon’s Prime Day to Target’s Deals Day to eBay’s Crash Day there will be a lot going on.
I read the articles saying that eBay has deals planned on big-ticket items and will be promoting not just those 2 days, but for about 3 weeks.
My question is how will eBay promote the smaller sellers in tandem with the promotion of Deals sellers?
When there are deals on televisions, will eBay include prominent links for accessories like HDMI cables, universal remotes, hot air poppers, blu-rays, etc?
When there are deals on stand mixers, will eBay include prominent links for accessories like kitchen utensils, cake pans, aprons, etc?
When there are deals on large camping gear like tents, will eBay include prominent links for accessories like canteens, hiking boots, lanterns, etc?
If the answer to my above questions is a general “no”, then how exactly will - if at all - eBay promote sales for small sellers along side the mega-Deals sellers?
In addition, what can smaller sellers do on their own to piggy back on the high-end deals happening those three weeks?
Finally, will eBay publish (in advance) a list of items and/or categories they will be featuring so that we can prepare any relevant inventory we have and run our own promotions?
Hi @Anonymous - I don't have answers to those questions, but I'm happy to see what I can find out!
@uniwarehousewares wrote:
sellers are suffering from the orders cancellations initiated by the buyers, paypal do not refund fee to seller once transaction done and reason is many buyers are not aware of it, its keep hurting only sellers, is there something going on from ebay side to notify to buyers about it?
Hi @uniwarehousewares - there is not any current education to buyers about the fees that sellers may incur from PayPal's payment processing when requesting refunds. Depending on the number of cancellations you're encountering, it may be worth considering building that type of loss into your pricing model to see if you can off-set the cancellations you do have with the sales you complete. Thanks!
@gracieallen01 wrote:
brian@ebay wrote:
@roadking5555 wrote:
tyler@ebay wrote:
Welcome everyone - the chat is now open for your questions!
I am following up from the previous two weekly chats on the sponsored (promoted) listings that show up in my search results that have nothing to do with my search parameters. The problem remains.
Is there any update or progress being made on this? I know it was forwarded to the appropriate team via Brain T. on 6-12-2019.
Thanks!
Hi @roadking5555, I don't have an update on this. The Promoted Listings team is aware of the issue though, so it's definitely on their radar to correct.
That term, among others, is frequently used in responding to questions. Does it have ANY actual meaning in a 'time-frame' sense?
Hi @gracieallen01, I'd love to provide a timeframe on when this will be fixed (and other issues we report), but the reality is there are a lot of varying factors at play that can determine and alter those timeframes. A teams current workload, the overall scope of the issue, the time and resources needed to fix the issue, etc. all come into play. All this basically means that specific timeframes aren't always available. This shouldn't be interpreted to mean that a fix isn't being worked on, just that the time of a fix isn't yet known. With that said, anytime we do have a specific ETA we do our best to share that with the Community.
