Below you will find a recap of our Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team for May 15, 2019. We hope to see you at our next chat!
Item Not Received Requests
In addition to being at a loss for the cost of the transaction, why do I also get a defect and lose my final value fees when an item goes missing on it’s way to the buyer?
A seller will not get a defect and will receive a Final Value Fee credit when they refund their buyer before eBay is asked to step in on an item not received request. While you will need to compensate your buyer for the lost item, shipping insurance is a good way to better protect yourself from loss if an item goes missing or is damaged in shipment.
In this particular case, I had another of the same item, and I just sent it out. Can I get a Final Value Fee credit for providing this resolution?
If a refund is issued through a return then a credit will be automatically applied. If you choose to arrange a different resolution with your buyer then we recommend you contact Customer Service to see what options are available.
I didn’t know there was a problem until I saw there was an item not received request opened and a negative feedback was left. How is this fair?
An item not received request is one of the ways buyers can let sellers know there is an issue. Your buyer is not expected to contact you in any other way, and these requests should be viewed as a form of communication. The buyer is also free to leave feedback when they feel it is appropriate. When a buyer has a negative experience, such as when they don’t receive their item, they are entitled to leave feedback that reflects how they feel about their purchase.
Can anything be done about the feedback now that I’ve replaced the item?
When you have taken steps to resolve their concerns (such as the replacement you sent) you can ask your buyer if they would be willing to revise their feedback (more info here). Remember, while you may have addressed the problem that arose, this does not invalidate the buyer’s feelings about the transaction.
Guaranteed Delivery
I’ve had some of my transactions split into two orders - one for items that are not guaranteed to arrive by a certain date, and one for those that are. What is going on?
This is an issue we are currently investigating to see what might be going on.
I’m not opted into the Guaranteed Delivery program, but eBay is guaranteeing a delivery date on some of my transactions. How can I prevent eBay from putting a delivery guarantee on my items?
The guarantee eBay provides for Fast 'N Free shipping eligible sales will be placed anytime the transaction meets the following criteria:
- Both you and your buyer are located in the 48 contiguous US states
- We can estimate the item's delivery date as four business days or less based on your handling time, the delivery service you've offered, your location and the buyer's delivery address
- You offer free shipping as your first (default) shipping option
- You don't offer local pickup or freight as your first (default) shipping option
- The listing isn't in Classified Ad format
If there is an issue related to late delivery and you shipped within your stated handling time, eBay will make it right for your buyer with one of these options:
- Shipping cost reimbursement
- Voucher for a future eBay purchase
- Free return label if the sellers accepts returns
Additionally, eBay will also remove any negative or neutral feedback left by the buyer regarding late delivery.
While there is an issue with purchases splitting into two separate transactions and this is creating additional fees with PayPal, I still want to find a way to remove this guarantee. If I change my shipping from first class package to the generic 'standard shipping', would that make my items ineligible for this program?
At one point a specified shipping option was required for the guarantee to display, but this may have changed. Historical data, your location, the buyer's location, and the shipping service all factor into our estimate, so moving to a longer shipping service may not remove the guarantee on your items if we can determine the item will arrive within 4 business days.
Item Specifics And Categories
I have a large number of t-shirts I would like to list, but don’t see a way to have variations of the same shirt across men’s, women’s, and children’s sizes in a listing. Is there a way to do this?
While there isn’t a way to do this currently, we can definitely pass along the suggestion. For now, if the clothing you are listing is unisex, you can put it in the unisex clothing category.
Example: Clothing, Shoes & Accessories > Unisex Clothing, Shoes & Accs > Unisex Adult Clothing > T-Shirts
If I use sell similar to create a listing in the men’s clothing category to the women’s clothing category, why do the item specifics need to be re-entered?
Item specifics are category dependent because the vast majority of categories vary greatly. Currently, we do not have any categories that retain the item specifics when using Sell Similar or moving an item from one category to another because we want to ensure that all of the item specifics in your listing are accurate and retaining item specifics between similar categories may lead to incorrect info.
Estimated Delivery Dates
I have an order where the estimated delivery date is the final day I have to ship based on my handling time. What is going on?
The estimated delivery date is calculated in part based on your historical shipping data. You do have the full duration of your handling time to ship the item out and while you won’t have any negative impact recorded on your selling account if you wait until the last day of your stated handling, there may be times the estimate provided to the buyer for delivery is within that time frame when past shipments have shown a pattern of delivery sooner.
Mobile App
Why doesn't the mobile version of selling on eBay include the Time Left Until Renew for listings? Can we expect this feature to be included on our mobile devices soon?
No update to share at this time, but we’ll get this to our Mobile & Product teams for their consideration.
Seller Initiated Offer
I still don't have the offer to buyers feature that was supposedly rolled out to all sellers. Any way I can get that added to Seller Hub?
We will contact the appropriate team for this tool and see what we can do!
