Community Chat, Nov 8th @ 1pm PT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Hi Community, 

Please join the Community team here at 1 pm PT on Nov 8th for our weekly chat. 

There isn't a set topic this week so feel free to ask us your eBay buying & selling questions. 

Thank you. 

[Anonymous]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

From the Announcement Board:

"Partial Refund Option for Free Returns

Sellers who offer free returns--free return shipping and no restocking fees--now have the option to give less than full refunds. You can deduct up to 50% of the item price if the returned item is damaged, missing parts, or otherwise not in the same condition as when you shipped it"

I offer free return shipping and no restocking fee. Must I affirmatively "opt in" to this in some way, or am I qualified to make the deduction simply because I meet the qualifications?

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No opt-in is necessary, just ensure your listings are set up to offer 30 or 60-day free returns. Go here for more information on the benefits this provides

[dtexley3]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@dtexley3 wrote:

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

From the Announcement Board:

"Partial Refund Option for Free Returns

Sellers who offer free returns--free return shipping and no restocking fees--now have the option to give less than full refunds. You can deduct up to 50% of the item price if the returned item is damaged, missing parts, or otherwise not in the same condition as when you shipped it"

I offer free return shipping and no restocking fee. Must I affirmatively "opt in" to this in some way, or am I qualified to make the deduction simply because I meet the qualifications?

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More importantly, how does anyone PROVE that the item was returned damaged?  How does this intersect with MBG?  

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Hi @dtexley3 - we would want you to use the 'Report a buyer' feature in the body of the return to disclose the damage on the item. This would mesh directly with MBG, meaning a buyer wouldn't have a recourse through us once it was closed. 

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This is new information as far as I know, is it posted anywhere on the site so that sellers know what to do when this occurs?

[Anonymous]

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@wheeledtoys wrote:

Please change the "request total from seller" form to be just a request for a total price, and NOT a commitment to buy.

Requesting a total is NOT the same as saying "I know we're still negotiating item prices and shipping, but I agree to your total price even though I don't know what it is yet".

Thank you 

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Hi @wheeledtoys, I see where this could cause some problems and will pass along the suggestion to our developers for ponential future changes. If you have a specific example where requesting a total did not go as you would have hoped, let me know and I can reach out via email for more details to include in the suggestion.

[alan@ebay]

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@vrykalak wrote:

There are only 14 countries now, where 1st class parcels, and priority mail parcels that weigh 4 lbs or less, can be tracked.

The tracking feature is available for items sent to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, France, Netherlands, Croatia, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, Israel and Brazil.
(https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2013/fs-free-online-tracking.htm)

eBay should have an option--a "switch"--to allow international mailing to just those 14 countries.

(The last time I looked, you still had to block all 220 countries on the list, and then unblock the ones you wanted to ship to.)

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Hi @vrykalak,

Sounds like a good idea, thanks for calling it out. I will contact my friends in Shipping and see what they can do. 

Thank you! 

[*eponymous*]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@dtexley3 wrote:

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

From the Announcement Board:

"Partial Refund Option for Free Returns

Sellers who offer free returns--free return shipping and no restocking fees--now have the option to give less than full refunds. You can deduct up to 50% of the item price if the returned item is damaged, missing parts, or otherwise not in the same condition as when you shipped it"

I offer free return shipping and no restocking fee. Must I affirmatively "opt in" to this in some way, or am I qualified to make the deduction simply because I meet the qualifications?

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More importantly, how does anyone PROVE that the item was returned damaged?  How does this intersect with MBG?  

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Hi @dtexley3 - we would want you to use the 'Report a buyer' feature in the body of the return to disclose the damage on the item. This would mesh directly with MBG, meaning a buyer wouldn't have a recourse through us once it was closed. 

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My memory is that earlier discussions said the buyer would be able to dispute the partial refund, but you say the seller can withhold up to 50% of the purchase price, report the buyer, and the buyer will have no recourse?

[mam98031]

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@golfingaddict wrote:

I did reach out to customer service twice. They said that they would get back to me as well. Re: sales tax. But as this is an issue that only affected a few of us I suppose eBay wants us to go away. 

The sales tax tax glitch was on ebay’s Side. They did not collect the tax as I had it set up in my listings. Yes. I also brought it up in another chat. 

It it appears to be something eBay hopes I will forget about.  It did not cost them anything 

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I had the same thing happen to me a couple years ago.  Suddenly on certain listings, sales tax was not being collected.  I did report it to Ebay, however I wasn't willing to wait for a fix as it was costing me money, so I bulk edited my items and unchecked and then rechecked the box for charging sales tax.  That fixed it for me.  I have no idea if Ebay actually found the problem and fixed it.  I fixed it for myself so as not to lose any more money.

[imakesugar]

On MY Pay Pal account that I use for only buying, Pay Pal said that they were missing several credits and needed to recieve $40.+ dollars from me.  I had nothing to do with Pay Pal Not getting the money something in their system caused an error.Even though I paid them right away for the debits with an eCheck. That should have ended the problem. Then they turned around and canceled pending payment to Sellers that had been taken out of My checking account and just NOT sent to the Sellers yet. In addition to that I paid the Sellers on October 7th and they forward dated the purchases I made, and backdated the day they canceled the orders.

I had won those bids and paid promptly.with an echeck. Now I have No way to pay those Sellers  again on eBay. The Purchase Order routes me to Pay Pal and Pay Pal says they canceled the Order. eBay has No record of the orders being canceled!  I cannot Pay the Sellers now because THEY (Pay Pal) canceled the orders and there is NO way to pay it again in the eBay system.

How can I pay those Sellers

I think (although I know eBay has no control over Pay Pal) this is a BAD THING to do to Sellers. How many Sellers are waiting for a Payment to clear to ship the items, and the order gets canceled BY Pay Pal? I feel embarrased by this move by Pay Pal. I had nothing to do with Not having the money for Pay Pal to take out, something in their system caused an error. When I complained Pay Pal  said just buy it again from another Seller. Then they said quit buying from foreign Sellers! Pay pal's attitude gave me mental stress. Why do I have to look bad? How can they do that? I thought this was a worldwide market and I think that anyone who doesn't pay their Sellers was/is bad. 

This was a very "BED Buyers experience. What kind of letter does Pay Pal send to the Sellers then?

[dtexley3]

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alan@ebay wrote:

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@dtexley3 wrote:

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Hi @dtexley3, 

We're unable to answer that question - our team didn't add it 

I am thinking that the steps here are:

1. Buyer makes an offer

2. You review offer and accept/decline

If the buyer has made "crazy requirements" you are free to decline their offer. 

Let me know if I've got that flow wrong.

Thanks. 

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I can decline the crazy requirements if I see them, but for those that use the apps, you don't see the buyer's message that would contain those requirements.

I know from painful experience NOT to respond to ANY offer via a device.  I always wait until I can pull it up in a browser and verify that the buyer hasn't thrown in "free shipping" or "priority mail".   

Not everyone knows that you won't see the buyer's message aka requirements on their device.  The message would make trying to cancel the order after the fact because they want shipping changes more problematical, we just agreed to "any additional terms".

[Anonymous]

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@vrykalak wrote:

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@dtexley3 wrote:

Bringing up this issue again:

Please consider making the "request total from seller" or "request invoice" always enabled on the Cart page. We continue to run into issues where the IPR settings, seller error (like me), Items on sale, and other reason make it impossible for the buyer to request a combined total with any shipping discounts.

The best outcome would be for the button to be fixed so it works properly, but since this is the holiday sales season, please consider just making this always active and fix the code after the holidays.

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Let me add my "Make it So" to that.
I have many customers who want to buy multiple items, to take advantage of combined shipping, but get forced into paying immediately. If they can buy all the items they want in one day, I can ship them together and not get a defect, but otherwise I have to decide whether to lose the sale or accept a defect.

That shouldn't happen.

I do have a notice in the boilerplate at the bottom of every listing, telling people to put stuff in the cart if they want to get combined shipping, but either they don't see it, or that option doesn't work.

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There are some situations that can prevent requesting a total from being an option. If you have combined shipping already set up on your listings, if the buyer has items from more than one seller or you have immediate payment required then this would not be available to your customers. I do want to let you know that if you did receive a negative impact to your account for accommodating a customer request we could review this should it lead to a loss of Top Rated Seller status.

I think including details on how to request totals in your listings is a great practice! I've gotten suggestions submitted regarding requesting totals and enhancements that have been requested. Definitely keep us posted if you run into a specific issue you feel highlights issues with the request total process.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Thanks Trinton. And just so I'm sure, this is available to ALL qualifying sellers RIGHT NOW, it is not one of the changes that is involved in one of ebay's patented interminable "roll outs" like Guaranteed Delivery?

[brian@ebay]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Excited to talk about what is on your mind and welcome brian@ebay to his first weekly chat! 

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Welcome aboard, brian@ebay! I'm sure they've briefed you on the need for asbestos underwear around here. (Tip: double up for added security on the Wednesday chats following a Seller Update announcement.)

Can you tell us a bit about your own selling experience on eBay? In particular, can you give us an example of how any transaction of yours seemed to be going off the rails in some way, and what you did to save it? Did you need to involve Customer Service for any reason? What was the eventual result? Is there anything that, in hindsight, you would have done differently?

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Hi @a_c_green, I'm happy to be here  I'd love to discuss this further here, as I want to have a lengthier discussion than the weekly chat allows. Looking forward to talking to you later!

[a_c_green]

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@dtexley3 wrote:

The other issue, When a buyer sends a Best Offer and we accept the acceptance page now includes "By clicking the Accept Offer button, I understand that I am obligated to sell the item and that I am agreeing to the buyer's price and any additional terms they have specified."  This contradicts the other statement "Offer is for item only" and "offers do not include shipping".

[...]

Why was this verbage added? 

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I did see the later reply from Alan saying that you may be misquoting the page; a screenshot would be really helpful here. If there is wording there that at least seems to be hinting at that, I'm going to hazard a guess that someone was copying a chunk of buyer-acceptance text from a similar page, and trying to turn it around to be the seller-acceptance text on the page you're looking at there.

For example, in buying terms, it would make perfect sense: "By clicking the Accept Offer button, I understand that I am obligated to buy the item and that I am agreeing to the seller's price and any additional terms they have specified."

I wish I could find the example I'm thinking of, because this is not the first time we've had some buyer/seller copy-and-paste errors, where someone originally codes a selling page, then tries to flip a copy of it into a buying page, and flubs the process in some way, such as leaving a seller term in a buyer agreement or vice-versa. It happens. In your example here, all they really need to do is lose that last clause that you boldfaced, and the rest of the agreement text sounds fine.

[moo*cow*corner]

Hello everyone!

Is there any news on Promotions/Markdown Manager fixes?

Lots of threads with unhappy sellers.

I'd like the ability to add items to currently running promotions, rather than have to start new ones that don't show all my items on sale with a single click.

[tyler@ebay]

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@mam98031 wrote:

I have a couple of questions regarding the Automatic Acceptance for Returns policy.

In the Q&A in returns it states:

If I offer free returns, will a return request be automatically accepted?

If an item has a free returns policy, the return will not be immediately accepted. You have three business days to manually accept the return and select the return shipping label option for your buyer. You will also be responsible for the cost of the label. If you do not approve the return request and select a label for your buyer within 3 business days, eBay will automatically approve the request and provide a label when available.

I’m unclear as to what this means in application.  I would ask so if I’m still negotiating with my buyer or otherwise still working with my buyer to resolve the issue, is Ebay going to step in and force a return when it is in the Request stage because the buyer and seller have not reached an agreement within 3 days? 

If Ebay forces the return while it is in the Request stage, even though the buyer and seller have been communicating, will this count against the seller in their stats?

The other one is this:

When do return requests qualify for automatic acceptance?

To qualify, return requests must meet one of these criteria:

• "Buyer doesn't want the item anymore" (return reason codes include "doesn't fit," "changed my mind," "found a better price," "just didn't like it," or "ordered by mistake")
• Requests meet the seller's listing returns policy
• The return is domestic and will be shipped within the US
• The buyer pays for return shipping
• The return is not an exchange or replacement request

Does that mean, you don’t have to be signed up for the automatic returns?  If it is a buyer’s remorse claim, Ebay will automatically process the return without the seller’s involvement? 

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Hi @mam98031 - great question! When it comes to auto-acceptance of returns it breaks down into two categories:

Remorse returns will be auto accepted if all of the following are true:

• Returns are accepted for the listing
• The request is within both the return window and eMBG window
• The buyer selects a remorse return reason
• The buyer is responsible for return postage
• The transaction was domestic
• US only: The buyer did not choose to have a replacement or exchange in the returns flow

Not as Described (NAD) returns will be auto-accepted if all of the following are true:

• 3 business days have elapsed with no response from the seller (US)
• the buyer opened a return request
• the seller is responsible for return shipping costs
• the seller doesn't respond within the open return
• an eBay label is available based on the item's weight, dimensions, and buyer's address

We would not take automatic action for NAD returns if any of the following are true:

• Action is detected on behalf of the seller. For example: approval, send message, partial or full refund
• The buyer has asked eBay to step in and help
• The transaction was sent internationally or part of the Global Shipping Program (GSP)
• The buyer requested a replacement or exchange

I hope that helps clarify things!

[alan@ebay]

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@dtexley3 wrote:

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alan@ebay wrote:

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@dtexley3 wrote:

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Hi @dtexley3, 

We're unable to answer that question - our team didn't add it 

I am thinking that the steps here are:

1. Buyer makes an offer

2. You review offer and accept/decline

If the buyer has made "crazy requirements" you are free to decline their offer. 

Let me know if I've got that flow wrong.

Thanks. 

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I can decline the crazy requirements if I see them, but for those that use the apps, you don't see the buyer's message that would contain those requirements.

I know from painful experience NOT to respond to ANY offer via a device.  I always wait until I can pull it up in a browser and verify that the buyer hasn't thrown in "free shipping" or "priority mail".   

Not everyone knows that you won't see the buyer's message aka requirements on their device.  The message would make trying to cancel the order after the fact because they want shipping changes more problematical, we just agreed to "any additional terms".

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Thanks for the additional info, @dtexley3! 

I wasn't aware of the apps not showing requests, seems like this should be something we include in an update to the app. I'll contact our mobile apps team to share this feedback with them.