eBay Response To Site Issues
Q: What is eBay doing to regain the seller's trust they have lost through constant site issues?
A: We're sorry about the disruption and frustration caused by the recent high-impact site issue. We will be posting an announcement soon regarding the item specifics issues and what eBay is doing moving forward to work harder for our sellers. That announcement will go out here. If you subscribe to that board, you'll receive a notification when all new announcements go live.
Immediate Payment Required
Q: My account is not usable due to the Immediate Payment Required issue. When will this be fixed?
A: I know this has been beyond frustrating for you. If we had more updates or workarounds to share with you other than the ones we have for the last several weeks (1 2 3) we absolutely would. I appreciate your patience while this continues to be worked on.
Seller Protection: Widespread Service Outages
Q: I was impacted by the Kinkade fire in California, and my city was without power for four days. I’ve spoken to Customer Service and been assured that the impact this has had on my account is being reviewed, but can the protections offered for natural disasters be applied before my review on the 20th of November?
A: It sounds like you have taken the appropriate steps to have this looked into. We can confirm that we offer protection for transactions that may have been impacted by the recent events and will be able to apply appropriate protections.
Q: Will sellers get any protection for big snow storms? I know it’s not a fire or a hurricane, but sometimes a lot of us are trapped for a day or two due to road conditions.
A: We review natural disasters/severe weather conditions and their potential impact to sellers and shipping carriers on a case by case basis. While we can't say what protections may be provided before an event, we’re happy to review any widespread events for appropriate protections.
If you know in advance that you will not be able to get packages to the shipping carrier due to inclement weather, then you could consider updating the handling time on your listings to avoid any issues and set clear expectations for your customers. Placing your store on vacation and hiding your listings is another option.
Listing Traffic
Q: I am trying to get a better understanding of Outside eBay Page Views. On my current seller hub report I am almost getting as many views from outside as from within eBay. Is there any way to identify were these views are coming from?
A: We don't have a direct way for you to access details on exactly where the traffic is coming from, but we can tell you that we classify the following things as external traffic sources:
- Direct access from a bookmark
- Links from external websites
- Links from social media
- Traffic from search engines such as Google and Bing
Return Requests
Q: Why does a seller have to accept a return request from a buyer who used a brand new item and damaged it? The policy states that all items must be returned unused and in the same condition as received. I have a request open and the buyer admits he wore it and now claims it as defective after he wore the coat, and Customer Service has informed me that I have to accept the return.
A: If you have concerns with a buyer abusing our return program, you can report this to us directly through the site. We will review and take action to protect our marketplace if we find a pattern of abuse is present. Depending on the status of your account there may be additional options available to you for a return like this. Those sellers who offer free returns or qualify for our Top Rated Seller protections can deduct up to 50% of the refund amount based on the state of the return, which would apply to an altered item like this. For other sellers, we would typically expect a full refund be issued when the return is received. We can recommend that you review our Seller Protection Help Page for more information on available protections.
Q: I am also wondering why I’m being charged $4.00+ more for a return shipping label from eBay than what the buyer originally paid for shipping.
A: If a buyer is eligible for an eBay shipping label and the seller will be held accountable for return shipping, the price will not exceed the cost of an eBay label if it was used. If the seller did not use an eBay label in the original shipment, the price of the label may exceed the original shipping cost based on the return service that is used. You are always welcome to provide an alternative label to your buyer if you are able to get a lower price.
Calculated Shipping
Q: I have combined shipping turned on, with the setting selected that says the shipping calculator should combine weights. These items have identical shipping methods and not only are they easily combine-able, doing so should yield a result of 4 ounces, meaning the buyer should literally pay $0.00 extra shipping for the second one because first class mail 4 ounces or less is all the same price. One of my buyers contacted me to let me know they are being charged for the second item, which isn’t how this is supposed to work. What’s going on?
A: We’re going to report this to our developers for further review
Q: I’ve been reporting issues where buyers are not able to select a specific shipping option when checking out that they were shown in the listing, and other issues where the cheapest shipping option that would apply to the transaction is not being shown at all. Can I get an update on this report?
A: The details of your report have been passed along to our tech teams and will be reviewed. Changes during the final part of the year are something we generally avoid unless there is a widespread issue with no available workarounds, so you may not see an update on this specific topic until the new year. I know that we've been investigating this with you for quite some time and can only reiterate our apology for the frustrations this has caused.
Listing Site
Q: On my Seller Hub I see a new option for Listing Site. What do I need to do to have my listings show up on these other eBay sites?
A: In order to appear in other sites' searches you just need to offer a shipping method to that country. For instance, if you offer international shipping to the UK, your items may be surfaced in search on eBay.co.uk.
The drop down you are seeing in Seller Hub is referring to the 'listing site' of the item - meaning which site it was created on, not which site it offers shipping to. The various eBay sites have unique features and policies, so some sellers will elect to list some or all of their items on a different site than their primary registration site and this filter allows you to view your listings by site.
Q: Is there a way to look at a listing and know the listing site, or the site where it was purchased? Questions come up from time to time on the boards about cases that can't be opened because the member is on the wrong site, but it isn’t always clear what site the item was purchased on.
A: Great question! There isn't a specific place on a listing that will tell you what site it was listed on, but there are clues.
If the stated currency for the item is different from yours (for instance, Canadian with a US Dollar exchange rate below it) that indicates it was created on a different site. Item location can also help (but isn't always a good indicator, as members from all over the world can create listings on .com). If a listing appears in Euros, and states they're located in Greece, chances are pretty high that it was listed on a different site from .com.
That being said, there is a tech issue at the time of this post that is impacting a few buyers and incorrectly recording their purchase as being on a different eBay site that does not offer the eBay Money Back Guarantee. The best course of action for members seeing this notice is to contact Customer Service so we can review the transaction in detail.
Markdown Manager Promotions
Q: Delays and problems with promotions continue to be an ongoing issue for many sellers, which is especially concerning with Black Friday/Cyber Monday approaching and the rest of the holidays following soon after. Many sellers depend on running promotions during these peak times and right now the Promotion Manager is not working as it should. Have there been any updates regarding these issues?
A: We know this is an important issue, especially at this time of year. We are continuing to send reports to the Markdown Manager team. While that team is looking into it, we do not currently have an update yet.
Holiday Marketing
Q: At this point in the season, you can't watch TV for an hour without seeing holiday ads for the big other online retailers. Does eBay plan on doing any advertising this holiday season?
A: You can see our current holiday ads here. Any new videos will be posted on the eBay YouTube channel. While we don't usually post marketing campaign updates in the Community, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates.
Q: Is there a reason you don't post them here? Usually, sooner or later, people see the ads and start talking about them on the Boards anyway. Why not post them here when they first go live?
A: We will discuss the benefit of sharing current advertisements here on the boards. Ultimately, the Community is not considered a marketing channel, so the marketing team focuses elsewhere where they will have the biggest impact. Though he Community is a peer to peer support forum and not a marketing channel, you’re welcome to share any new ads you see with others on the boards!
Item Specifics
Q: I'm really annoyed about Item Specifics having to be retyped from scratch every time I change the category. It is especially annoying for clothing, because there are now about a dozen required "specifics" for clothing. Since a lot of Item Specifics exist across clothing categories, there's no reason why they all get erased if I change the category
A: We've discussed why Item Specifics require this re-entry in the past (1 2), and the answer remains the same; Item Specifics are unique and dynamic from category to category. Those fields do not talk to one another, and even though they may be named the same, they are unique factors that build our search results. Our past suggestion to email sdsupport@eBay.com and discuss this with sdsupport@eBay.com is the best course of action for you, as they oversee both item specifics and catalog data. I can't promise you that they will consider changing the architecture of our current system, but you're more than welcome to make your case with them.
Q: When the item is in the catalog, why doesn't the system fill in the Item Specifics that are in the catalog entry?
A: You can email sdsupport@eBay.com with examples of catalog entries that are not populating the listing form with the appropriate item specifics. Our catalog team will be happy to look into this and get back to you with an update.
Q: Since eBay avoids making big changes to the site in the last part of the year, why were there changes made to item specifics recently?
A: This question was raised in the chat with the Structured Data team last month.
Weekly Chat Feedback
Q: I feel like these chats are becoming redundant. Lots of questions with no, old, or obsolete answers.
A: We'd love to hear any ideas for improvement you or others have. Please starts a post in Community Platform Feedback and we'll look for your suggestions:
Often times questions are specific to the poster’s account, and we aren’t able to answer account specific questions publicly. We strive to answer all that we can in the time we have, and if we can't answer live, we follow up after the chat is closed. Sometimes we simply don't have an answer that we can share, or an update to an existing issue.
mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
