eBay

tyler@ebay · ‎11-26-2019

Join the Community team here at 1 PM PT on November 27th for our Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. We don't have a set topic this week, so please bring any general questions you may have on buying or selling.

The chat will be open for questions from 1-2 pm PT, at which point we'll close thread. While no additional questions can be submitted after this time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that may 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.

Tyler,

brian@ebay · ‎11-27-2019

Happy day before Thanksgiving everyone 🦃🦃🦃🦃 The chat is now open for comments

Brian,
Community Team

vezzex · ‎11-27-2019

I ordered an item for $160.00 on October 11. The seller scammed me and sent the incorrect item. I sent the item back, but Ebay's automated system failed to issue a refund. I opened a case with Ebay which was rules in my favor, but still didn't receive a refund. I've called ebay around 10 times now and have spent several hours dealing with this issue. They've told me they are doing a manual correction that could take up to 10 days to process; however, it's been over 30 days now and I still haven't received a refund. Even the supervisors I've spoken to aren't able to complete the refund for me. This is ridiculous. I'm out $160.00 for over a month, Ebay associates keep stalling, and they have not offered any compensation or a reasonable solution. Can someone please look into this or get me in touch with someone who can actually complete this refund? I don't know where else to turn. It shouldn't take over 30 days after the item has been returned to issue a refund. I fear that I will never receive it. Please help me. Thanks, Josh

dentalsales4u · ‎11-27-2019

Hi, and Happy Thanks Giving to everyone.

I was wondering why I have to verify who I am every time I log into one of my eBay accounts.
This has been going on for a couple weeks now???

vrykalak · ‎11-27-2019

The "external links" warning has truly gone nuts.
On Friday, Nov 22, only 1 listing claimed to have external links: 1 of the 8 (nearly identical) listings for "Man from UNCLE" shirts.
On Saturday, Nov 23, 11 listings suddenly developed external. links, including all 4 "Man from UNCLE" shirts, plus 2 books and an art print.
Items listed, relisted, or renewed in that 24-hour period? None.
And all of these items had been posted, unchanged, dozens of times.
The shirts were posted November 10th & 11th, and only one of them was flagged as having external links before November 23rd.
The books were posted on October 9th (#383203090009) & 10th (#383204934824), and had no external links until November 23rd.
The art print suddenly sprouted external links when it was posted September 12th (#383150068873). But it was taken down and reposted November 11th (#383262908569), and was "clean"...until November 23rd. when it suddenly developed an external link again.
eBay professionals have examined several of these listings, and found no external links.
Fortunately, these listings have not been removed by eBay, or caused any defects (AFAIK), but the claims continue to be annoying.

tree*fern · ‎11-27-2019

tyler@ebay Hi Tyler, I noticed that the Variations option has been added to the Book category listing form. Thank you! And please thank the others responsible for this change.

(Now if only all the book warehousers can be persuaded to create single Variations listings. . . )

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Chat-with-eBay-Staff/Community-Chat-May-8-1-00-pm-PT-General-To...

tree*fern
Volunteer Community Mentor

thevintagesilvershop · ‎11-27-2019

The Facts re: my Issue:

Long -time Ebay seller, almost 24 years, long-time Paypal user, almost 20 years. Have had thousands of transactions and lots of refunds over the years. Important: I do NOT keep money in my PP account, I sweep it automatically to the business bank account that is linked to Paypal. Anytime I make a refund, it comes as an e-check from Paypal from my bank. Never ever had a problem with this. So don't tell me to put money in my PP account.

Yesterday, I got a return that I knew was coming. TX resident, sales tax payer. It was a "fit" return which means I don't have to refund original shipping. I go to process the refund on Ebay per usual and get the error message from below (which tells me to try again).

I tried 6 times last night and as many times this morning, always getting the same error message.

I call Ebay CS early this morning. He tries to tell me it's because I don't have money in my PP balance. I explain to him I NEVER have money in PP, it's automatically swept to my bank and then an e-check issued from there for the refund. He then tells me to "try again later". He then tells me to call Paypal. He then agrees with my solution to perhaps just do the refund from PP. I ask him if the information will flow from PP to Ebay and close the case, give me my FVF back, and refund the buyer their sales tax paid. He says "I think so" after putting me on hold to consult with someone else.

So, I call PP this morning. The support guy talks to someone, comes back and says it's an Ebay problem and that I should call them and talk to a Supervisor. Agrees that I should try to refund from PP and that I would have enough proof if the buyer tried to get Ebay to refund, etc. No mention of getting FVF back or the buyer's sales tax refund. I did try to initiate the refund via PP but the first screen showed "sales tax to be refunded by Ebay as -0-" so I stopped.

I need to refund my buyer. What do I do?

carlqsportscards · ‎11-27-2019

For years I've been getting emails about new items from my saved sellers, even though I don't have any. When I hover over "my ebay" and click on "saved sellers", it says I don't have any.

Then today I clicked on my user name, and lo and behold it says I have 4 saved sellers there.

Why are they there but not under my ebay? And how do I get rid of them? I clicked on settings, but didn't see a way to do it.

hebertsusedautoparts · ‎11-27-2019

Hi,
I have a question about service metrics. I have called in a few times about this and keep getting conflicting answers and no results.

We sell auto parts which is a category that is tricky on line because not everybody reads a listing or looks at the list of options to see if the part will fit their model vehicle. We are a top rated seller, offer free shipping, free returns, automatic returns and never give anybody a hassle about a return.

Our issue is that there are 5 returns counting against us in service metrics that we have messages from eBay telling us they will not be counted against us but they are being counted. There are 3 more returns being counted against us where we took a return from a customer and they state in the return that they ordered the wrong part.

When I called and talked to one rep she said she would have them removed and that they should not be there, but it would take 24-48 hours. I waited until the next roll over on the 20th thinking it would update then, but it didn't. I called back and talked to another rep., that told me she was wrong and that she sits next to her but was out that day and that she will let her know that they can't be removed?

The second rep I spoke to also said to not worry about it as eBay is not really doing anything with that until you reach the very high but when marks that shouldn't be there are being added it's only a matter of time.

If even just the marks against us that should never have gone on the metrics were removed, we would be out of the high category and if those plus the items where the customer sent a message in the return that they ordered wrong were removed we would be where I feel we should be. Below the average for our group.

We realize we are not always perfect but we strive to be and a look through some of our feedback shows this, but being penalized for issues that are stated we will not be penalized for?

There is a return that was started just yesteray that would be another one where the customer picked wrong item sent for the return and then in the message states that the part id number doesn't match but you can look at the listing and the interchange shows the possible id #'s for that part and we have a picture of the part ID number and it is the same?

It is very frustrating to be penalized when customers choose to just pick the INAD or Wrong part because they have been programmed to know that they will not have to pay for return shipping that way, even if it is a false claim. We will take it back and pay the return shipping regardless.

Can some one please explain why these are counted against us when the update said they would not be?

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎11-27-2019

Hoping you can clarify something for me regarding a Seller Hub unit. I've been watching two different units for a week or so now.

One is named simply "Sales" and includes information about sales including the percentage increase or decrease in my total sales over the last 31 days "compared to the prior 31 days" It does not, so far as I can see, provide an easy way to compare the last 31 days over the same 31 day period last year.

A different unit, entitled "Sales (last 31 days)" provides a comparison "compared to prior 31 days" AND a comparison "compared to same period a year ago". That last part would seem to be exactly what I'm looking for. And, indeed, when I have looked at the percentage shown for the "Compared to prior 31 days" period, the percentage has been the same every day for the last week or so in both units. So, it would appear both units are measuring my TOTAL SALES.

Now, here's where it gets confusing. In this unit, ebay's informational note says:

"Market comparison based on sales in Ties and Hats. We chose these categories because you've had the most listings here in the last month."

That may indeed be what this unit USED to measure. But, as my week-long comparison appears to demonstrate, it NOW appears to be measuring my TOTAL sales, not just my tie and hat sales.

So, my question is:

Am I correct, and this is indeed measuring TOTAL sales (I hope so, because that information is FAR more useful than measuring just two categories, especially for someone like me, who sells a variety of long tail stuff)

And if I am correct, perhaps it is time for ebay to remove the information claiming that it is measuring only two categories?

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎11-27-2019

Just a suggestion for an improvement ebay could make next year (BEFORE Q4). ebay allows us to link YouTube videos demonstrating, say, a music box. But I see no easy way to highlight this in search except to put something like "Watch Video" in my title, which takes up precious title space and might mislead search bots into thinking the item itself is a video DVD. I'd like to see ebay :

1. Make it easy to add a video link right in the listing flow, in such a way that ebay's software would recognize that the listing has a video link, and

2. Highlighting the presence of video in search results in some way

3. And perhaps ebay could add a filter for listings with video.

Please suggest this to the appropriate team if you believe it has merit.

tyler@ebay · ‎11-27-2019

@dentalsales4u wrote:
Hi, and Happy Thanks Giving to everyone.

I was wondering why I have to verify who I am every time I log into one of my eBay accounts.
This has been going on for a couple weeks now???

Hi @dentalsales4u - that doesn't seem right (or convenient!). Is it asking you to go through one of the 'Captcha's? Or is it asking you to do phone verification?

Tyler,

rosevelyn · ‎11-27-2019

This is not right.

Within minutes of purchasing an item from me I was asked to cancel and got hit with a fee from Paypal. I didn't even get a chance to send the item out , in which I would have at least made up the cost of the Paypal fees through a discounted USPS label. Their new policy of keeping fees on refunds is lousy enough, but they should at least require that the item be sent out and returned before putting the seller in a situation where they make negative profits.

The manager I spoke with told me that ebay's selling platform will be following the same policy.

Anonymous · ‎11-27-2019

@vrykalak wrote:

The "external links" warning has truly gone nuts.
On Friday, Nov 22, only 1 listing claimed to have external links: 1 of the 8 (nearly identical) listings for "Man from UNCLE" shirts.
On Saturday, Nov 23, 11 listings suddenly developed external. links, including all 4 "Man from UNCLE" shirts, plus 2 books and an art print.
Items listed, relisted, or renewed in that 24-hour period? None.
And all of these items had been posted, unchanged, dozens of times.
The shirts were posted November 10th & 11th, and only one of them was flagged as having external links before November 23rd.
The books were posted on October 9th (#383203090009) & 10th (#383204934824), and had no external links until November 23rd.
The art print suddenly sprouted external links when it was posted September 12th (#383150068873). But it was taken down and reposted November 11th (#383262908569), and was "clean"...until November 23rd. when it suddenly developed an external link again.
eBay professionals have examined several of these listings, and found no external links.
Fortunately, these listings have not been removed by eBay, or caused any defects (AFAIK), but the claims continue to be annoying.

Hello @vrykalak,

I want to clarify that the notice you receive of an external link in your listings does not indicate that the external link was not present before you received the notice.

Item: 383203090009 contains a link to a Wikipedia for the book. If you go to revise your item and go to the "Additional item description" section and select the HTML tab, you will be able to see this for yourself.

We've discussed your listings in the past and provided tools to help you find the external links you need to remove. I encourage you to review the responses we've provided in the past for further assistance.

tyler@ebay · ‎11-27-2019

@tree*fern wrote:

tyler@ebay Hi Tyler, I noticed that the Variations option has been added to the Book category listing form. Thank you! And please thank the others responsible for this change.

(Now if only all the book warehousers can be persuaded to create single Variations listings. . . )

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Chat-with-eBay-Staff/Community-Chat-May-8-1-00-pm-PT-General-To...

Hi @tree*fern - thanks for the great suggestion! I'm glad we could get it rolled out at last.

Tyler,