eBay

Anonymous · ‎03-17-2020

Join the Community team here at 1 PM PT on March 18th for our Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. We don't have a specific topic this week, so please bring any general questions you may have about buying or selling.

The chat will be open for questions from 1-2 pm PT, at which point we'll close thread from additional responses. After this time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that might still be unanswered.

If you're new to the chat, welcome! Simply Reply to this post with your question from 1-2 PM Pacific Time and we'll be happy to look into it for you.

tyler@ebay · ‎03-18-2020

@dhbookds wrote:

As an aside...........

Hope the earthquake didn't harm ebay people (or anyone for that matter)...........have spoken to some at the answer center there and nice people.......

Hi @dhbookds! Yes, everyone out here is safe - a few hospitalizations (from secondary accidents, not the quake itself) and no fatalities. It's been a bit of a crazy day - aftershocks are no fun at all. 😖

Tyler,

Anonymous · ‎03-18-2020

@mam98031 wrote:

I realize that it takes Ebay time and labor to locate and close listings that are banned due to price gouging. There is much talk about it on many threads as I'm sure you are aware. And I'm aware that Ebay has closed 10's of 1,000's of listings that were breaking policy. But more keep cropping up.

I had thought Ebay was going to prevent listings on banned items from getting posted at all? What happened with that? Is the problem that some sellers have gotten pretty creative and open new selling accounts and post the banned item in categories they don't belong?

What is Ebay's process for locating and closing these types of listings? A better understanding of this by the community would really help in my opinion. But please do not take me wrong. I know Ebay has their hands full with this and I commend all of you for all of your hard work.

Hi @mam98031, preventing listings from being published that may violate eBay policy is already something we have in place, and we are continuously working to improve the processes we have in place to identify these kinds of problems. As you can imagine, as we improve our ability to identify these violations and take action, those who seek to circumvent our policies adapt and find new ways to get around the processes we have in place. To address this, we have teams of agents working around the clock to proactively scan for potential violations that may have slipped past us as well as review the reports from our Community. Though you may see hundreds or thousands of potential violations in a day (and we of course work towards the goal of preventing or removing these before they go live to the site), keep in mind that what you see is only a small fraction of the overall listings.

Reporting items helps us to catch anything we've missed, identify new trends on policy circumvention, and improve our identification process overall. We work to find these examples ourselves, of course, but I wanted to share some action you can take on your end if you would like to help us get these addressed 🙂

tyler@ebay · ‎03-18-2020

@inceptions wrote:

Hi brian@ebay

@Anonymous

Does that mean eBay is diligently working to resolve the bug that is causing the estimated delivery dates on my listings to be wildly overstated and inconsistent? I first reported this last summer and have reported many times since to CS and here on the boards.

I have a same/one day handling time and have never failed to meet top-rated metrics.

For example, this is what I see on my listings today:

To my own zip code:

First Class package is showing estimated delivery on Mon, 3/23.

(USPS shows Sat. 3/21)

Priority Mail package is showing estimated delivery on Tues, 3/24 (slower than first class?).

(USPS shoes Fri, 3/21)

To a zip code across the country:

First Class package is showing estimated delivery on Tues, 3/24.

(USPS shows Sat, 3/21)

Priority Mail package is showing estimated delivery on Tues, 3/24 (same as first class and same as to my own zip code?).

(USPS shows Mon, 3/23)

Each week that goes by is another week with lost sales due to these inaccurate delivery estimates. Some sellers have been reporting this issue for over a year.

It's hard to believe that eBay's developers are not skilled enough to find the source of this problem and fix it within the year or more that sellers have been reporting it. So it makes me think no one is actually working on it. How to get this escalated?

Thank you!

Hi @inceptions - yes, they're still working on that one too.

Tyler,

Anonymous · ‎03-18-2020

@golfingaddict wrote:

In the seller performance service metrics, there are "best practices" for sellers to take to prevent "item not received cases.

When a buyer opens a request and the seller can prove that the item was shipped on time, tracking was used, the item shows delivered.. the seller can have the request closed in the seller's favor.

And yet the service metrics are affected and makes it look like the seller is not doing their job.

Why are these metrics not removed when the case in closed in the sellers favor? The best practices seem to be ironic when you are the seller that is following them. Does ebay have any other suggestions to prevent these hits to our metrics?

Hi @golfingaddict, these are the best practices we would recommend. If a buyer is aware of when their item is to be delivered, they are less likely to report delivery issues. Best practices are recommendations to minimize the chance of issues or increase your chances of success, but would not necessarily guarantee protections for every issue that may come up - sometimes a seller can take every reasonable step to ensure a successful transaction and do everything right, but your buyer's experience would still be less than they desired. This is what Service Metrics monitor and would include all opened item not received requests, not just the ones that are closed in the buyer's favor. That being said, eBay has protection options available to ensure our sellers are not adversely impacted by widespread events outside of their control in addition to the protections we offer for any service metrics issues that are linked to abusive buyer behavior.

Anonymous · ‎03-18-2020

@nuclearomen wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

@nuclearomen wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

@nuclearomen wrote:

tyler@ebay

I need my listings/store refreshed, I emailed ebay CS yesterday the response I got was:

“I apologize Kevin, refreshing an account is not available as of the moment. Normally, we talk to the account owner over the phone but since phone call is not available we really cannot take actions.
Thanks for choosing eBay. We appreciated your business. You take care always and enjoy the rest of your day!”

Can someone please refresh my store? Takes few seconds and isn’t hard for ebay to do!

Hi @nuclearomen, I'm glad you brought this up so I can address a common misconception. We’ve seen this topic come up in the forums a few times, and it has caused confusion for some. To be clear, there is not a special method or button that we have to help give someone a boost in sales. We want all sellers to be successful and have control over their success. The main factors for improving sales are closely tied to the main factors for Best Match. While you may have had discussions in the past with Customer Service about "refreshing" your account, this would have been rooted in a misunderstanding by the agents you spoke with.

Though it might seem like an easy thing to do, pushing a button to refresh some listings doesn’t actually change the characteristics of the listings. The things that we encourage all sellers to do is what has the most impact on listings – a competitive price, free shipping whenever possible, quality pictures, a well thought out title, etc. The store refresh process does exist, but it only address some very specific technical issues (such as when a revision is not processing as it should). This option is not capable of boosting sales or improving Best Match results. This has been misunderstood and we are working to make sure everyone understands this. If you can tell me dates and approximate times of when you were given misinformation about this topic, I will be happy to address any training or coaching needs those agents may have.

@Anonymous
it's not about boosting sales... it's about my listings being "froze" for 4 days now most to all listings have just stopped views/watcher counts..which yeah, I actually keep track of on over half of listings. I know there isn't a "button", but there is a refresh process ebay can do and doing it in bulk editor isn't the same. I already have free shipping/returns, lowest price on most all items to competitor prices (go ahead check them yourself), 100% feedback, top rated seller... If ebay doesn't want to help then ebay then forward me a month store fee credit.

Hi @nuclearomen, it is quite possible your views and watchers are down because of the current events that are impacting a large portion of not only the United States but also the entire globe. To reiterate, the refresh process you are referencing is specifically for technical issues related to listings not updating properly after revisions and would not impact the situation you are detailing. It's great to hear you've already taken steps to remain competitive and I can only encourage you to keep in mind that the current state of the market may result in unexpected changes to buyer behavior.

@Anonymous
yeah, dude, this is what has been happening on my account for months...it happens when I make revisions or add new item...I reported this several times for tech support and ebay has done nothing...so now maybe you understand better why I need the refresh(?)

Hi @nuclearomen, I can only continue to clarify that you've been given incorrect information. The issues you are perceiving are not something that would be addressed by any form of refresh. If you would like to provide dates and times for when you were given wrong information, I will be sure to have coaching provided to those agents.

Anonymous · ‎03-18-2020

@picknparley wrote:

"...You are welcome to report any concerns you see directly from the listing. You can use the following options to get these reported with the appropriate priority: Prohibited and restricted items> Illegal items and items encouraging illegal activity> Other illegal activity concerns..."

Many of us sellers have spent considerable time trying to help ebay out by reporting, but listings we report are still up and selling days later.

Regular sellers get their hands slapped for policy infractions sometimes resulting in immediate shut down of our account. Why are you not just shutting down the accounts of the gougers instead of going after individual listings?

Hi @picknparley, we will take action on violations we review that may range from hiding a listing, removing a listing, restricting a seller's account or suspending them altogether. The severity of the policy being violated and the history of the account would be factors on what action is taken, with the ultimate goal of ensuring balance protecting our Community with giving sellers a chance to improve/correct any prohibited behavior.