Community Chat, March 4 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

[brian@ebay]

Join the Community team here at 1 PM PT on March 4th 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.

*Please note that we're not able to address account-specific queries. Questions regarding your account should be directed to eBay Customer Service.

[tyler@ebay]

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@rosevelyn wrote:

That happened to me as well the last days of February , and I posted on the Technical Issues page with a screenshot. I made sure I went under so that I would have listings left and it showed me that the listing fees were $0.00 until I submitted, and then I was charged $3.50 and had no listings left. Link to my post. https://community.ebay.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Promotional-Fixed-Price-Listings-Shown-in-Seller-Hub-...

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Hi @rosevelyn - that sounds a bit different from Vrykalak's issue, but definitely one that should be looked into. Have you contacted CS about this so they could review?

[alan@ebay]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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alan@ebay wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques 

Give us some ideas of what he said for those of us that did not attend the Podcast please.

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Hi @mam98031, you can listen to the podcast here: https://community.ebay.com/t5/The-eBay-for-Business-Podcast/Episode-81-Spring-Seller-Update-amp-SVP-...

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I will take the time to listen to it and hope it isn't as disappointing as the first Town Hall meeting or the lack of any attention being paid to seller protection in  the Spring update.  Yet Ebay saw the need to increase a buyer's rights in the return process.  I know that isn't your fault.  Just a little venting.

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Hi @mam98031, 

Please share your thoughts on how we can evolve the Town Hall format to better meet your needs through this survey: https://connect.ebay.com/srv/survey/a/sellerops.sellereng.townhall

Thanks. 

[vrykalak]

Thanks for the links [msg #44].
Maybe I will write a page to compare things, store vs non-store, using this info.
I certainly could have used something like that when I started out, so it is needed.
But I definitely will not continue my store after the two freebie months.
With a store, I have to pay for so many things that I got free before.
(I greatly appreciate the opportunity to try out a store, though. Many thanks. I have learned a lot, and improved my listing Descriptions with keywords I found while creating Categories in my store.)

[rosevelyn]

I only called in, Tyler, and received a credit, but posted to Technical Issues here: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Promotional-Fixed-Price-Listings-Shown-in-Seller-Hub-...

[mr_lincoln]

Good afternoon eBay support team!

SUBJECT:  Excessive Bid Retractions with no penalties

Sellers need a setting in Site Preferences - Buyer Preferences to BLOCK Buyers from bidding on Auctions if they have "X" number of bid retractions in the last 6-12 months.  The reason this is needed is to let Sellers enforce the Bid Retraction Policy that many violate but eBay does not enforce ... if the policy were being enforced I wouldn't be posting this today because the bid retracters I recently discovered never would have been able to place a bid on my items.

I read the Bid Retraction Policy, I have seen Buyers retracting bids typically using the reason "wrong amount" but NOT replacing the bids with another amount.  This is a violation of eBay Policy yet these Buyers are not being restricted, penalized, temporarily or permanently suspended, etc.  I know you guys are not the ones who would enforce this but can you explain why the folks there at eBay who are supposed to enforce it aren't? 

I had this happen last week and checked on the one Buyer and was flabbergasted to see they had 145 retractions in the last 12 months ... another one I checked had 94 ... I have no doubt if I check other auctions I will find similar issues ...

Currently, what is the correct step by step process to notify eBay of Buyers violating the Bid Retraction Policy?

I have absolutely no problem cancelling a bid when asked to but the blatant abuse of the retraction policy really needs to be addressed ... I look forward to a proactive resolution to this situation.

Best regards,

Mr. L

[Anonymous]

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@gwzcomps wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@gwzcomps wrote:
I was wondering regarding using eBay shipping labels, when is eBay going to increase the limit of labels I can print per order? Occasionally the limit of 5 isn't enough when people buy a large quantity of items from me or items that can only go in one box per quantity of one.

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Hi @gwzcomps, great question! I will check with our shipping team on potential enhancements to the number of labels you can for a single order. I'll be happy to update you with more information if it becomes available 🙂

As a side note, I wanted to add that when you are printing labels for more than one order, you can actually print up to 100 USPS shipping labels using our Bulk Shipping Label tool (here). You can review more information on this option here.

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Ok thanks.  Most of my bigger orders go FedEx due to the combination of dimensional and actual weight costs.  If I can print up to 100 USPS labels per order why am I limited to adding 5 (if I remember right) tracking numbers in the order details? 

Also thanks for the update on the search.  I am wondering what other keywords the algorithm replaces when searching.

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Hi @gwzcomps, you are not able to print up to 100 USPS labels per order. You are able to print up to 100 labels at a time for multiple orders. I am going to touch base with our shipping team about the number of labels you can print for a single order, but wanted to add related information in my previous response for anyone else who read your question and was wondering about printing labels for more than one order.

In regards to your search question, I want to be clear that this wouldn't be a situation where a keyword is replaced outright - the search results confirm that no matches were found with Marx, and when the original keywords do not return any results, we will display items that may be similar. The alternative would be to show a blank screen with 0 results, which creates a poor experience for the buyer and fails to provide potential matches from similar keywords.

[tyler@ebay]

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@rosevelyn wrote:

Does the Technical Issues page get looked at? I had the same issue. Here's my post. https://community.ebay.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Promotional-Fixed-Price-Listings-Shown-in-Seller-Hub-...

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Hi @rosevelyn - I know that there are many members who review the tech issues board, but it is not a place for technical support or troubleshooting from eBay. In addition to seeing if other members have encountered things similar to what you're experiencing,  I would also encourage you to report to CS (either by phone or social media) when you encounter errors or unusual billing situations, etc.

You can cast a wider net that way, getting insight from other folks who may have found workarounds and help from CS who can take time to review specifics and file a tech report as appropriate. 

[Anonymous]

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@itscalledapostingid wrote:

This image shows what a buyer sees at 10:51AM. It is very deceiving when I do not have same day shipping. My mail gets picked up at 11Am and the post office closes at 5PM. I can't ship an item then even if I wanted to.

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Hi @itscalledapostingid, thank you for the additional example. This is exactly what I have reported to our tech teams, and will be sure to pass along the information you have provided as a part of our investigation.

[mam98031]

Yes, I did the survey.  And I did a thread on the subject.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Who-Went-to-the-Town-Hall-Meeting-What-did-you-think/m-p/30708...

[vrykalak]

alan@ebay wrote:

@vrykalak wrote:

I signed up for an eBay UpFront meeting, and was perplexed to see that, while Paypal and Paypal Connect were allowed as payment options, eBay MasterCard was NOT. I think that should be fixed.

That does sound odd. I will share your example with the events team and see if there's a possibility of having Mastercard added.  

Just a thought: can you add your eBay MasterCard as a funding source for your PayPal account? That should enable you to go the PayPal route and still have the charge backed by your MasterCard account.

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That's what I did, but it seemed odd not to have that offered as a preferred payment method when signing up for an event that was sponsored by eBay itself.

[rosevelyn]

Shall do, Tyler. Thank you.

[alan@ebay]

Thank you all for joining us today. We've closed the chat as the hour is up. We'll be back same time next week to do it all again. 

Have a great rest of the week. 

Thank you for selling on eBay. 

[brian@ebay]

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@floriantet wrote:

 I can confirm that there is a known issue that is causing a small number of buyers to experience the error message "Unable to process payment, please select another payment method."  Typically if a buyer selects a different payment method then it will go through, so I suggest trying another payment method if this error is encountered.

Thank you for the suggestion but all payment methods have been tried. I mean if PayPal does not work (with all possible sources including PayPal balance), credit card does not work and when I use an eBay gift card I get "sorry you can not use this method of payment" what different method you want me to use ?

I had 5 items from the same seller in my cart, I did check out and 3 went through and 2 did not go through; you realize this is not an issue that will not go away with selecting another method of payment.
It might affect only a small number of buyers on eBay (you make it sound like it is not important, so nothing will be done) but is more than 40% of my activity. What should I do ? stop using eBay ? 

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Hi @floriantet, I reread your original post and found that you and I were talking about two different issues. The main issue you've brought up (that auctions under $1 aren't allowing payment) is something I have reported to our developers, but I don't have an update on the status of it. I can see your recent transaction that has run into the problem so I'll send it over as another example for the team to review. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

Good afternoon eBay support team!

SUBJECT:  Excessive Bid Retractions with no penalties

Sellers need a setting in Site Preferences - Buyer Preferences to BLOCK Buyers from bidding on Auctions if they have "X" number of bid retractions in the last 6-12 months.  The reason this is needed is to let Sellers enforce the Bid Retraction Policy that many violate but eBay does not enforce ... if the policy were being enforced I wouldn't be posting this today because the bid retracters I recently discovered never would have been able to place a bid on my items.

I read the Bid Retraction Policy, I have seen Buyers retracting bids typically using the reason "wrong amount" but NOT replacing the bids with another amount.  This is a violation of eBay Policy yet these Buyers are not being restricted, penalized, temporarily or permanently suspended, etc.  I know you guys are not the ones who would enforce this but can you explain why the folks there at eBay who are supposed to enforce it aren't? 

I had this happen last week and checked on the one Buyer and was flabbergasted to see they had 145 retractions in the last 12 months ... another one I checked had 94 ... I have no doubt if I check other auctions I will find similar issues ...

Currently, what is the correct step by step process to notify eBay of Buyers violating the Bid Retraction Policy?

I have absolutely no problem cancelling a bid when asked to but the blatant abuse of the retraction policy really needs to be addressed ... I look forward to a proactive resolution to this situation.

Best regards,

Mr. L

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Hi @mr_lincoln, I can confirm that we do enforce our Bid Retraction Policy. If you have concerns about a retracted bid, you should report this to us. We will take appropriate action when we find a buyer is abusing our bidding process.

Keep in mind that the number you are seeing for retractions in the last 12 months does not provide you with any context; while it may be easy to assume that 145 bid retractions indicates abusive activity, if all 145 of those retractions were within policy then there would not be a cause for concern. Additionally, the number of bid retractions does not tell you how many items were ultimately purchased - some buyers placed thousands or tens of thousands of bids a year, so numbers like this would account for only a small fraction of their overall transactions (even less if multiple retractions occurred on some auctions).

This is similar to how some buyers report that a "seller has 75 negative feedback in the past 12 months", but the seller has received over 75,000 feedback in the last 12 months (accounting for less than a tenth of a percent of their total feedback). While the context is more clearly outlined when it comes to feedback, the principle remains the same when we are looking at the number of bid retractions.

More information about our invalid bid retraction policy can be found here.