Below you will find a recap of our Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team for May 8, 2019. We hope to see you at our next chat!
Images and text
Is another seller on eBay able to use the photos from my listing?
Our image and text policy states that images listed on eBay may be used in our catalog and other members. Our VeRO team can look into taking action when images from outside of eBay are used on our site, and the right’s owner contacts us to investigate. More information can be found here.
Why does eBay have this policy?
While sellers do need to describe their items accurately, which includes photos and text that properly represent what they are selling, many times the photos and text already available on eBay will correctly match the item being sold. If a seller on eBay is using your intellectual property and you have never uploaded the photos or text that you own to eBay, our VeRO team will be happy to review. Go here for more information on how to report violations of your intellectual property rights.
PayPal Fee Credit
I heard a rumor that PayPal is reversing their decision to not credit the transaction fees when a seller issues a refund. Do you have an update on this?
We don't have any information or insights regarding this. It could just be speculation or misinformation shared, so recommend you contact PayPal for up to date details.
Top Rated Seller Requirements
I offer several shipping options and when my buyer selects a cheaper option with no tracking, eBay counts this against me. Why is this?
In addition to buyers wanting to see the status of their order, shipping with tracking is a way for you to protect yourself against any Item Not Received requests that may come up, and is also a requirement to be considered Top Rated (tracking uploaded and validated metrics). Offering a service that does not provide tracking/delivery confirmation can help you to reduce your business costs, but would mean you take responsibility for any items that your buyer report never arrived. Additionally, if more than 5% of your transactions do not have tracking uploaded on time and scanned by a carrier you would not be eligible to be a Top Rated Seller.
You would need to weigh the pros and cons of not offering tracking on your items to determine what is the best decision for your business. If you feel you make more money when you have a cheaper shipping option or offer free shipping that does not require you to cover the cost of tracking than you would from the Top Rated Seller discount and associated benefits, then you may not need to worry about this metric. If you feel the Top Rated Seller program provides you with benefits and savings that offset the cost of tracking, then you may want to cover this cost yourself to grow your business overall. Only you can determine if this is right for you based on the cost of your items and overall profit margin.
I still feel that I am not supported. Why am I being penalized for offering options to my customers?
Definitely want to clear this up; the Top Rated Seller program is an optional program with incentives for those sellers who are utilizing practices that create the best possible experience for their customers. Though tracking is considered a best practice for sellers, it is not required, and that status is not necessary in order for you to run a successful business on eBay. Some items and business models may not benefit from the added cost of tracking (ie. low weight items such as baseball cards, stamps, etc), and a seller would need to determine what is best for them. While you can't be a Top Rated Seller if you don't use tracking, there is no negative impact or defects associated with not providing tracking information.
Reviews
I’ve left a review recently that has been removed by eBay. Why is this?
We will look into your specific situation for an update. You can review our community content policy for more information on what is allowed in a review and what is prohibited.
Clothing Category Suggestions
Clothing categories should be by type of item, and subtype if applicable, then by adult or child, then by men or women, boys or girls. And it should be possible to choose adult or child without specifying gender. Can you pass this feedback along?
We can look into how changing the category tree may be of benefit and pass along recommendations that would enhance the buyer’s experience. As far as gender goes, while there may be some reasons why being able to not specify a gender could be an improvement for some members, the majority of buyers search for clothing by selecting a specific gender category. Removing this option could make it more challenging for most buyers to find the clothing they are looking for.
Easy Relist Option & Out Of Stock Feature
The text for this option says it applies to single-quantity listings, but it doesn't say anything about sellers who use the out of stock option. When I have a single quantity listing and the buyer requests a cancellation, will I have a pre-selected checkbox to relist?
Great question! We'll reach out to the experts and update you as I hear back.
Waiting In Cart Notifications
I have received messages from eBay that prompt me to lower the price on items that are in buyers carts. Why am I getting these messages for items have that already sold?
Often times the process to gather information and the process to send emails are separate and subsequently there may be a delay between the first step and the second. This may result in some messages being received after an item has already been purchased. You are welcome to disregard these messages when the item has already sold.
Can you add a column in Seller Hub that shows what items are in buyer’s carts so I can use this information for sales and offers to watchers?
This is a fantastic idea and we are happy to pass it on to the Seller Hub team!
Listing Revisions
When I edit a listing either individually or in bulk and I see the changes reflected on the site, is this what everyone else will see or is there a delay before my buyers see updates?
Sometimes when a revision is submitted either for a single listing or in bulk, the change can take up to 24 hours to update, but you wouldn't see this yourself until this happens. If you are revising a very large number of listings at once, these adjustments may be staggered in multiple batches over the following 24 hours. When you see an update take effect on one of your listings, all other members will see the same thing.
What about if I put my items on vacation, effectively hiding the listings. Does this change happen immediately too?
Putting your store on vacation and effectively hiding your listings is immediate, though their reappearance in search may take up to 24 hours once you return and take your store off of vacation.
If a seller needs to make changes to a Fixed price listing that result in the listing being re-indexed, is it better for the seller to create a new listing or make changes to the existing listing?
Anytime an item is listed, relisted, listed via sell similar, or revised it may go through an indexing process before being visible in search results. We moved to the Good Til Cancelled duration to maintain listing URLs, sales history, and overall engagement from buyers. The more engagement a listing has (such as views), the more prominently the listing may appear in search results both on and off eBay.
If you need to make updates to an item you are selling, we recommend you use the revision process to ensure the listing’s history and URL remain the same. This will ensure the best visibility and increase your chances of a successful sale.
Recently I updated the handling time in all of my listings at 7:30PM, but Customer Service said I changed them around 3:00AM the next morning. Why the discrepancy?
Our internal tools are primarily set to reflect the UTC time zone and this may be why you were given a different time for the revision. We will review your conversation with Customer Service to ensure any appropriate coaching is provided.
Unpaid Items
Can you add to buyer’s best offer page a disclaimer that lets them know they are entering into a legally binding contract by either accepting the offer or if the seller accepts their offer?
Happy to let you know the best offer submission/acceptance page already informs a buyer they are entering into a contract to pay for the item if the offer is accepted.
Shipping
I’ve run into some issues with the new label process. Can you bring the old flow back?
While we have no plans to go back to our previous tool we will continue to monitor for any issues and work on refining this tool to be the best for our Community.
I’ve noticed sometimes in the “Your item sold” email from eBay that the ship-by date in the message will change if I change the handling time in my listing. Can someone look into this?
The emails we sent should not be updating if changes are made to the listing. We’ll look into this and see what might be going on.
Frequently the display in Seller Hub that sales from Friday, Saturday or Sunday will show that I need to ship by Tuesday. I know this is supposed to say Monday, but other sellers may be confused and ship late. Can you look into what might be going on?
We are aware of this issue and are currently investigating.
Seller Hub
I have a few suggestions I would like to have passed on to the Seller Hub team:
- When buyers purchase multiple items (not multiples of the same item) and a seller combines shipping the delivery status is not updated on the Seller Hub Orders page. I can click on the tracking number to see that all items were delivered, but the status on the Orders page is stuck at Shipped. This started a couple of months ago for all multi-item orders.
- Please submit feedback to add a search filter showing all orders that do not have a delivered status. It will help to manage any orders that have shipping delays.
- On all other Hub pages (like active listings) we can show or minimize the search filters at the top of the page. On the orders page the ability to minimize the search filters went away when the new reports feature was added. Can you ask them to add back the ability to hide the search filters on the Orders page?
Thank you for the suggestions! We'll get it to the Seller Hub folks, no problem.
The new orders page in Seller Hub does not have an option to cancel the order within the dropdown for each order. Can you pass this feedback on to the right team?
We can definitely get that feedback to the right team. Thanks!
Some of my accounts can send offers to watchers and others cannot. Is this rolling out slowly? Can I do anything to get this option on all of my accounts?
This should be rolled out to everyone by now - we’ll reach out to the appropriate team to get this addressed for you.
Search Results
I’m searching for a 100% leather wallet and my search results are filled with PU leather. What’s going on?
Without knowing the search terms you used it's difficult to determine why you are seeing the results you are seeing. Since the term 'leather' is present in PU leather items, those listings will show up when using 100% leather in the search field. With that said, using the filters on the left side of the screen (such as the specific “Leather” filter for Material) can help narrow down results. An Advanced Search can also help fine tune search what you are shown. If you find listings that describe the item as 100% leather but are actually selling PU leather, please report them to us for review.
Variation Listings For Books
Please consider allowing variation listings in the Books category.
Happy to pass along this suggestion!
