Community Chat, March 27 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Happy Wednesday! 

Join the Community Team here today at 1 PM PT for our Weekly Community Chat. Bring any general buying and selling questions you might have to discuss 

Thanks & see you then. 

[brian@ebay]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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brian@ebay wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

I’d like to share some ideas on potentially making GTC listings Better and/or more Palatable for those that are skeptical about using this format as well as those of us that have used them for years.

GTC listings don’t currently state the time left on the listing before it ends its current duration [one month].

The 30 day FP listings had this date showing in a listing when a buyer would view the listing.

IMHO it would help many with this transition if Ebay were to insert this into all GTC listings.

When a GTC renews, it currently will not appear as a newly listing item.  This one has pros and cons to it.  There is good argument for keeping it this way as buyers will be able to see what is truly a new listing.  But there is also good argument that it may bury listings as well as sellers lose the ability to have repeating GTC listings be seen if searched by Newest listed.

Granted we would all be in the same boat as we are all running GTC listings but are there any tips or options to utilize the GTC in a more effective way?

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Thanks for the suggestions, @mam98031!

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I appreciate the reply and that you will hopefully pass this information on to the appropriate team.  But I had a questions too.  Do you have anything to share that may assist sellers that may be new to GTCs.

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Sorry I missed that, @mam98031. The same tips we offer for non-GTC listings would apply for GTC. Basically, make sure listings have great pictures, competitive pricing on the item and shipping, a competitive return policy, and clear titles / descriptions. Focusing on these area's is the most effective way to improve Best Match results. 

[papermoneyforme]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@papermoneyforme wrote:

Is it possible for a Canadian registered in Canada to open their store on .com, and vice versa, can an American registered in the US open a store on .ca

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Hi @papermoneyforme - yes, though there are some considerations. The largest is that a store subscription would apply only to listings created on that site, so if you have existing listings on .ca that you'd like to be covered under a subscription on .com you would need to consider ending them and relisting them directly on .com after you open the store subscription. Thanks!

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So a store on .com will only allow you to list on .com whereas a store on .ca will allow you to list on both .ca and .com, or am I missing something.

[disneyshopper]

I did a search for  NTSC/PAL DVD PLAYER WITH HDMI

and got 4 results:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_armrs=1&_sofindtype=0&_from=R40&_nkw=NTSC%2FPAL+DVD++PLAYER+WITH+HD...

[windhaze]

There are major problems using your eBay gift cards-they ar basically useless plastic since March 15th.

I did send a message to the Community email that was refused as being "unsoliciated from you" ?

Fortunately I did also send a copy of it to Griff who forwarded it to Corporate who did respond back.

I just forwarded that on to the Community email as well-hopefully his response will be read. Thanks.

[tyler@ebay]

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@carlqsportscards wrote:

The item specifics for sports cards changed a little while back.

The specifics for autographs are now under "modified item". This makes sense for cards that people get autographed in person.

But it makes no sense for cards that come autographed out of the pack. These aren't modified items, but I can only enter the specifics about the autograph (hard signed, sticker, etc.) after clicking "yes" on "modified item".

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Hi @carlqsportscards - thanks for this input, I'll get it to the right team!

[cookiecookie55]

In the ink cartridge listings this week I noticed that items that had no box--no manufacturer's box and had the  previously condition new other now have changed in the condition field to OPEN BOX.  This change was made automatically by ebay. 

This is wrong.  An open box implies that an item has a box.  A box that will accompany the item to the buyer.

This is misleading. 

New other is a better description of an ink cartridge that doesn't have a box but still has the inner foil sealed.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for joining us, folks! The chat is now closed for replies and we will work to address any remaining questions.

[tyler@ebay]

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@wooden_flower wrote:

Everyone has ideas of what might help GTC.  My idea - show me days since last sale.  This is what I look at to determine if the item needs my attention.

Since there's lots of variations you could do on math with the dates, maybe they could make a bunch of them options for the active item display page in seller hub.

thanks!

Sue

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Hi @wooden_flower - That's an interesting sorting idea! I'll see if I can find the right ear to put this into. 🙂

[Anonymous]

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@midcentureager wrote:

Could eBay clarify their policy on buyer privacy during a transaction? I had unwanted contact from a seller who somehow obtained my unlisted home number and called early in the morning on a weekend, left a message and asked me to call him back. It was about a question he could easily have answered himself on Google in less than a minute. No seller has ever called me at home before, which I consider a breach of privacy. I reported this to eBay by phone but am unclear if any action will be taken. Surely eBay does not allow sellers to call buyers at home? Did eBay give this seller my phone number? Did eBay also give him my home address? I would appreciate clarification.

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Hi @midcentureager, happy to elaborate! In an effort to keep transactions and communication on eBay we've taken steps to minimize the amount of contact information that is available between a buyer and a seller. This even extends to the PayPal transaction details for eBay purchases, which previously contained the buyer's email but no longer provides this. Though a buyer and seller can share contact information after a purchase is made, some categories require seller contact information be provided, and some shipping methods require a buyer's phone number, I won't know for sure what is going on without looking at your account. I will take a look into your specific transaction and see what may have happened and address any concerns that have arisen, no problem!

[Anonymous]

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@vrykalak wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@vrykalak wrote:

"There are eyes on your item! Go for the sale." No way!
Sometimes the person buys it, at the very last second.

Sometimes they make an offer within a few hours of the end.

If they don't, I RAISE the price when I relist it.
I can't think of any scenario where it would benefit me to lower my price just because someone is watching.

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Hi @vrykalak, the choice to lower the price is yours to make. If you find that an item has watchers, but hasn't sold for some time, your buyer's may be holding back because of the price. Lowering the price by 5% or more results in a message being sent to your buyers to prompt a purchase. If you raise the price and get a sale afterwards, that is great! If you raise the price and continue to not sell the item, you may want to consider adjustments that entice your customers to buy.

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In my 15 years selling on eBay, I seem to see that watchers who come back to a relisted item, and find the price raised instead of lowered, are more likely to buy ... often after making an offer at or below the previous price.

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Hi @vrykalak, if this works for you and your business that's fantastic. This is not the typical experience for other sellers, as usually raising prices results in reduced sales. That being said, sometimes the starting price is too low for buyer's comfort and a raised price can instill confidence in the quality or condition of the item being sold. Either way, the choice is yours 

[tyler@ebay]

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@mg152 wrote:
First as far as sales go, I’ve had a great couple of weeks. Not a ton of money but a lot of sales for me so thank you Ebay.

My question is, why not let those of us that want managed payments in?

I’m very small potatoes but I want in. If you all knew how PP did me recently as a very long term member, credit card holder, buyer you’d understand. I won’t get into the details but they cost me $119 and my word as a longtime member meant nothing. The loss has 0 to do with selling.

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Hi @mg152 - congrats on a good couple of weeks! That's always nice to hear. 😄

When it comes to managed payments, I know there are a number of things that limit their decision - most of them around not wanting to disrupt your business. As an example, because payments currently can't handle different currencies sellers who do a large amount of business internationally (shipping direct or with GSP) weren't asked to join. 

I think it's always worth reaching out and letting them know you're interested! Give them a call: 800-456-3229 and see if you can give it a go!

[Anonymous]

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@mg152 wrote:

I happened onto a disturbing post in the community today.

The seller sold a car for right around $10,000. The buyer paid by PP, had the car shipped, got it and was happy. No problem right? Well, the buyer filed a unauthorized charge claim with PP, got the money back then had the car and the money. Ebay said “we are out of this”. The buyer eventually repaid the seller after threats of the FBI but how can Ebay be out when the sale took place on the site? How can this happen?

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Hi @mg152, while this is a very difficult and stressful situation for anyone to go through, the answer to your question is actually very simple; we are not able to offer protection once a Chargeback or PayPal dispute has been open. When a third party dispute has been opened, it takes the transaction out of our hands and the seller would need to work with the third party to reach a resolution. I wanted to add the link to our Vehicle Protection Program for reference (here), as it's protections do differ from those of the eBay Money Back Guarantee.

[Anonymous]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@krazzykats wrote:

Is there anyway to keep the original shipping screens? The new ones are cumbersome and confusing.

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Hi @krazzykats, while we won't be reverting to the previous versions, we are happy to pass along any feedback you may have. Can you elaborate on what you like, don't like, and would like to see added/changed?

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While I have previously listed many problems in gory detail (here), I think I could give a quick summary of the most frequently seen complaints in the Selling or Shipping and Returns groups:

• Waste of space: The new form has items spread all over, requiring much scrolling around or paging up and down to cover everything. The old form is concise, compresses more options into pulldown menus, and takes just a little over one screen (depending on monitor resolution) to cover everything.
• Oddball, irrelevant Shipping options: the seller is presented with a litany of shipping options that may be unsuitable for the item and (in the case of non-Free Shipping items) not what the buyer paid for anyway. If the buyer pays for Priority Mail but the seller gets lured into cheaping out with Parcel Select instead, for example, things will not end well.
• Fumbling the addition of Ship-From-ZIP functionality: The Ship From ZIP field on the label is used to indicate the shipment origin from which the postage was calculated, when doing a Calculated shipment from somewhere other than the Return Address. The first effort at the new Shipping form left it out entirely. Later, it was introduced as a kind of alternate Return Address instead, demanding a full mailing address for the Ship From ZIP location, when in fact all that was needed was the origin ZIP itself. 
• State Abbreviation capitalization bug: If a buyer provides a Ship-To: address with an improperly capitalized state abbreviation (e.g. "Ne" instead of "NE" for Nebraska), the new form has a complete conniption fit, putting the seller into an editing form to try to correct the problem, without clearly explaining what the problem is. The old form simply folds the abbreviation to capital letters first before testing its validity, something that the new form could do equally well, and doesn't complain at all. (The USPS will correct the abbreviation anyway during printing.)

Those are the biggest issues that come to my mind for now. I would summarize by saying that your new programmers should be using the old Shipping form as a guide. It was concise, compact and correct, three points that the new form cannot claim yet. Even if, as someone at eBay said last year, they cannot figure out how to modify the coding of the old one, they should still be using it as a guide to Best Practices. It's intended to be a useful utility, or a toolbox for shipping, so the goal is to able to get through it as quickly and efficiently as possible. Good luck.

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Hi @a_c_green, happy to pass along this feedback. One point I wanted to touch on is the capitlization issue you raised - this was brought to my attention a few weeks ago and has been addressed by the shipping team. If you have any recent examples, please @mention me in them so I can investigate.

[alan@ebay]

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@datea_90 wrote:

Hello Alan,

I'm new to ebay, relatively speaking, and I am not a seller but I hope that isn't held against me. I shop ebay, or try to, because I walked away from Amazon years ago. I won't bore you with the details but suffice it to say, my money wasn't green enough for them.

I posted this topic last week and was invited to participate here with my concerns. Here is a link to my post:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Bidding-Buying/Vendor-Places-Order-with-Amazon-Without-Notice-or-Permi...

TL;dr nutshell: Concern #1: how can I get a vendor to reply to my queries with responsive answers in a timely fashion, because so far, I can't find a vendor who will. I have been trying for three weeks to buy a region free NTSC/PAL DVD player with HDMI. Concern #2: I do not want my name and address given to anyone else, especially not Amazon. I'd like to know up front, before I order, if the vendor uses the FBA warehouse.

I'd appreciate any workarounds, tips, tricks of the trade, whatever, that can help me shop ebay toward satisfying results.

Thanks and regards. "datea_90"

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Hi @datea_90, 

Welcome to eBay and the eBay Community! 

#1 Most sellers respond promptly to messages. It sounds like you've been unlucky if you've encountered a couple of sellers that are not responding. One tip - you can check sellers communications ratings on their feedback page.  

#2 This sounds like a form of drop shipping. Our drop shipping policy doesn't permit sellers to list an item on eBay and then purchase the item from another retailer or marketplace that then ships directly to the buyer. In such cases, we may remove sellers listings from search, display them lower in search results, or remove them entirely from the site.

I feel your frustration on this one. My advice on this topic is to contact the seller before purchasing to ask them. 

Best of luck on the DVD player search, if I see one I'll let you know

Thank you. 

[tyler@ebay]

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@theseatshop wrote:

Thanks for doing this!

Can you clarify the process for eBay's efforts to eliminate listing duplication? We have been suspended based on a duplication that is allowed within eBay's policy (up to 5 duplicates in eBay motors based on Make/Model), while it appears our numerous competitors have been allowed to duplicate hundreds of times for a single part number with no action from eBay, even after multiple reports of policy violation. It is frustrating for both us as sellers and your retail customers, who get confused by the multitude of options that are actually all the same.

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Hi @theseatshop - there are a number of things we do to reduce the amount of duplicate listings on the site. While some of those things are proprietary, in general we take action on items we find to be duplicates by removing them administratively and issuing warnings up to and including account restrictions. 

If your duplicate listings were allowed by policy I'd encourage you to contact CS to review the removal for any options you have!