Community Chat, Oct 10th from 1:00 PDT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Hi eBay Community! 

Join The Community Team for a one hour Community Chat here today from 1-2 pm. There is no set topic this week, so feel free to bring your general questions. 💭

Chat with you then! 

[mam98031]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
mam98031, Thanks for your input, but as I stated, I have a one day handling time. And I'm talking about situations where Monday is not a holiday.

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Then the CSR that advised you was incorrect.  It would be by midnight on Monday.

[brian@ebay]

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@vintagedivashop wrote:

Thanks Brian for your answer on the Gallery Plus..  now that I know  about the reason Gallery plus is checked, I will do a new listing or use a sell similar in the the proper category.  Can you just please explain why the "Good til' cancel" or "auto relist this item"??? I just don't understand why all those options are on automatically making it more time consuming to have to turn them off. 

Thanks gain

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@vintagedivashop, I'm glad that info helped  The intent of the changes to the app are to speed up listing times and increase the chances of items selling. Basically, the longer an item is on the site (Good Til Cancelled and auto relist) the better it's chances are of selling. Good Til Cancelled listings in particular index easier into search engines (such as Google and Bing), which can provide more visibility for listings within search engines. 

I think your feedback about the listing process taking longer is valid and I will be sure to let the mobile team know about your experience. Thanks!

[tyler@ebay]

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@wheredidiputthatremote wrote:

Is there any maintenance being done this week that would slow down traffic. My sales hit a brick wall late last week and I've been a listing fool.

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Hi @wheredidiputthatremote - we roll out updates weekly (usually Thursday nights), and try to keep things to that schedule to avoid any other impact to members. There isn't any other major maintenance that was done this week. 

[brian@ebay]

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@alcoforever wrote:

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brian@ebay wrote:

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Hi @gracieallen01, I apologize if my response came across that way. I just wanted to be sure that everyone knows this was an intended change as well as some of the reasoning behind it.

In my previous reply, I linked to a response from the mobile team in which they provide some of the benefits of a longer duration. Those benefits are, " longer durations perform better, provide more buyer predictability, and index more easily in search engines". These amount to more visibility for sellers items which in turn give a better chance for items to sell.

I do want to mention again that I have passed feedback about this change over to the mobile team. They are reading the feedback and taking it into consideration. Thank you for providing your feedback on this!

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Since this change has so many benefits, shouldn't it be applied to the desktop version as well?   Make GTC the only option everywhere.

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Hi @alcoforever, we are testing flows that will make listing faster and search engine indexing more effective. Right now, we’re only testing with a segment of eBay sellers (such as through the mobile app and not on desktop). If we do update our duration policy for all sellers, we will be sure to let you know beforehand!

[Anonymous]

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@golfingaddict wrote:

I have several concerns about service metrics as they relate to Not as described claims or item not received claims.

1.  Claims that are unsubstantiated still count against seller.  For example, Item arrives, tracking shows item arrived and still a customer can open a case and the case counts against the seller in service metrics.

2. False accusations.  Buyer orders blue, seller ships blue, the buyer emails in not as described claims and says "I got blue, I ordered white, you sent me the wrong thing"   Slam dunk? Not on ebay.. Buyer is right, seller should have read their mind, doesn't matter what the claim, the seller is to blame and gets hit on the service metrics.

3.  Buyer sends back item that is trashed, ruined and not in the conditon as sent.  Buyer gets full refund, seller out product, money, shipping both ways AND to add to futher insult the seller, gets slammed on service metrics.

4. Who are my peers? I cannot seem to get a clear answer.  Am I compared only with sellers selling new products in mens underwear, women's intimates?  Or am I compared to anyone selling in the clothing category?  Is the metric based on everything I sell or only in the specific category the buyer falsely claims Not as described?

5.I realize that ebay says that they expect all sellers to get false claims so they think it works out equally for all, but on your scale, there is always a Low, Average and High.    Someone is always going to have a high percentage of claims.  That someone could be someone with a rash of false claims in a short amount of time.

6.  How will charging 4% extra help the seller that is not sending the proper items or has hit the "High" part of the average.  Someone is always going to be high.  Is this a windfall for ebay and still a bad buyer experience for the buyer that purchases from those sellers?  Does it solve the issue?

Thank you.

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Hi @golfingaddict, I understand that you are concerned with the the hypothetical worst case scenario's that could potentially arise from this change and ultimately I can only continue to reassure you that we have designed a peer benchmark system that takes into account the necessary factors to ensure that you are not negatively impacted without reason. Your peers are determined by a variety of factors which include the category, sub category, item condition and your business volume and as such, the likelihood of a seller facing account issues without reason are very low. If this were to occur, we would review the specifics and work with a seller. Sellers who are experiencing a very high rate of returns would be creating a higher than average number of poor experiences, potentially leading to a negative impact to all sellers from buyers leaving the eBay site. This system encourages sellers to improve their business approach and allows eBay to raise the bar in an ever changing marketplace.

If you are personally experiencing the details you have outlined and they have led to a negative impact to your account, I recommend that you contact Customer Service to discuss your options. If this is not the case, then we encourage you to focus on the successes in your business and appreciate your feedback. 

[brian@ebay]

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@abfabvintage wrote:

Hi, I understand we are now talking about Mobile and it will only accommodate GTC. But the statement: 

"These amount to more visibility for sellers items which in turn give a better chance for items to sell."

I am hopeful the visibility is also enhanced for those that use laps/PCs? I wasn't sure what you meant here.

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Hi @abfabvintage! The visibility I am referring to is specific to search engines such as Google and Bing. The longer an item is on our site, the easier it is to index in those search engines which can result in more visibility on those platforms. 

[tyler@ebay]

Thanks for joining the chat this week everyone! The chat is now closed. We'll make sure that questions get a reply over the next little bit. Thanks. 🙂

[brian@ebay]

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@gracieallen01 wrote:

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brian@ebay wrote:

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@gracieallen01 wrote:

Well, brian.t, that really does sound like a, 'so, take your toys and go'.

In regards to generally having more benefits, may one ask what benefits and to whom?  It definitely doesn't sound like they are for the seller.

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Hi @gracieallen01, I apologize if my response came across that way. I just wanted to be sure that everyone knows this was an intended change as well as some of the reasoning behind it.

In my previous reply, I linked to a response from the mobile team in which they provide some of the benefits of a longer duration. Those benefits are, " longer durations perform better, provide more buyer predictability, and index more easily in search engines". These amount to more visibility for sellers items which in turn give a better chance for items to sell.

I do want to mention again that I have passed feedback about this change over to the mobile team. They are reading the feedback and taking it into consideration. Thank you for providing your feedback on this!

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Thank you for the clarification, brian.t

I wonder if your team thought about the fact that not everything is fit or appropriate for GTC?  Simply because it may provide some benefits for a longer duration doesn't always mean that SEO is better, as well as buyer predictability, for millenials in particular, is a very limiting gauge.  And, as far as more visibility and better chance of selling, that still depends on more variables than GTC offsets.

Just some thoughts that you might also pass along. 

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@gracieallen01 we've seen some comments that illustrate situations where Good Til Cancelled may not be the best option. This is the type of feedback the mobile team is looking for and we have been passing it over to them when we see it. While we may not always reply to a thread on the mobile boards, I can assure you that myself and the mobile team do review those boards regularly to collect feedback and suggestions. Thanks for your insights!