Community Chat, Oct 18th @ 1pm PT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Hi Community, 

Please join the Community team here at 1 pm PT on Oct 18th 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. 

[chrysylys]

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alan@ebay wrote:

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I'd love to review the article, @odditiesandantiquities1. 

Can you share a link to it? I'll take a read and let you know. 

Thanks. 

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There are a couple of threads on the Selling board that contain the link.

Many of us have asked for a return to the focus of how this site started and a move away from trying to compete with sites selling new items.  This site should focus on being different instead of trying to keep up with the others.

[Anonymous]

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@vrykalak wrote:

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@chrysylys wrote:

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vrykalak wrote:

AND show UPI strikes and other defects on the buyer's page.
I can't think of any good reason why sellers are denied access to that information.

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That's been sugegsted before.  But I'd have to add that seller defects should also be shown; cancelled, not shipped, etc.

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Absolutely! Both buyers and sellers deserve to know these things about their transaction partners.

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We have strict guidelines regarding UPI levels and defects where we will take action on a member's account, potentially removing site priveleges. Providing this information publicly is not only a violation of our privacy policies, but it also would serve to seed distrust in our community. 

Imagine a buyer has a family emergency one week and this results in a dozen unpaid item cases. The emergency resolves itself, and they return to purchasing on the site without issue moving forward. Providing this information publicly could make it difficult for them to make purchases, generate poor service from their sellers or even drive them away from using the site altogether. 

The members of our Community are people, and as such, they may make mistakes from time to time. We are here to protect our buyers and sellers, and we take action when abuse is identified. There is a balance to be struck within our platform and rest assured that we take this topic is very important to us.

[siayan]

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@goodluckselling wrote:

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@siayan wrote:

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I had a question in relation to this question.

If a seller has feedback removed is it removed from view but still included in the Best Search (cassini) seller standard or is it totally removed from the system.

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@siayan Feedback is not part of the seller standards any longer

Good Luck Selling!

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Are you saying feedback is not a factor in casinni best match calculation? How about star ratings?

[jonathankirkland]

Regarding the forums here on ebay...

Every single day there are posters commenting on really old threads. I understand how this happens, as when you go to put in a title for a topic on the forums it will bring up suggestions of threads in the past, and you can then click on one and go read it.

I think what is happening is people go to create a topic, see the suggestions, and simply just go to that topic to comment rather than create their own.

This causes A LOT of confusion as posters will then start replying to that one comment and will get the thread going again, which often leads to a lot of out of date information being mixed with new inform ation or inquiries.

Could you PLEASE suggest to whomever is in charge of this kind of thing that threads be AUTOMATICALLY purged/locked after say, 2 months, 3 months, even 6 months??? Threads constantly op up that are years old and this is just a waste of everyones time honestly.

And in the mean time, could someone please direct the mods to try to lock all of these old threads? I see it is done occasionally but not nearly often enough...

[vrykalak]

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@chrysylys wrote:

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@goodluckselling wrote:

OTHER SELLERS  -  If you will PLEASE VOICE your demands to have this changed back by creating your own post making the same demands I just did.

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I do NOT agree that should be removed.  I think the FB should remain since it's still the buyer's evaluation of the transaction as a whole.

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I disagree with the disagreement. If the Buyer didn't complete the transaction, and eBay recognizes that and resolves the issue in the Seller's favor, the Buyer should NOT be allowed to leave feedback. If the Buyer is allowed somehow to leave feedback, even though sie defaulted in some way and didn't complete the transaction, that feedback should be removed.

[alan@ebay]

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@chrysylys wrote:

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alan@ebay wrote:

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@chrysylys wrote:

What can be done about the abuse of multi-variation listings?  They may have 10 or 20 items at $40.00 or more and one barely related item at $1.00 or so.  It's clearly about gaming search placement when people search by 'lowest first'.

It's often found in clothing and electronics.

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Hi @chrysylys,

I agree this is a bad buying experience, we do consider this behavior as a listing violation. We will float this to the team that enforces the policy for their attention. 

Thank you. 

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Perhaps restrict it to all items have to be the same price and variations can only be for color or size?

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That could work - thanks for the suggestion! 

[Anonymous]

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@fern*wood wrote:

It appears there has been a bit of a change on how remorse returns are processed now.  I just had one and the refund was the purchase price plus my handling fee.   I also noticed after I issued this refund that my fvfs were refunded on the purchase price only (not the shipping fvf) so I lost the handling fee which covered my shipping materials and the fvf on the shipping cost.   Is this new?

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I want to take a closer look at this for you as there are a variety of factors that may be at play. I will send you an email after the chat today to look over the return. If there has been a change, I will be sure to update this thread as well.

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@vrykalak wrote:

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@mpjsales wrote:

Will eBay ever enforce sellers to use the proper "Item Condition" for their listings?  The one thing that bothers me is people listing items as "Used" but in their description they state the item is sold "as-is" or "only tested for power-on" without guaranteeing full functionality. These types of disclaimers/statements are misleading to buyers. If a seller cannot guarantee their product meets the "Item Conditions" set by eBay they should not be able to list them as "Used" or should be forced to list them as "Parts".

This hurts the buyer and seller market in different ways. 

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The problem is: in most categories, the ONLY options for condition are NEW or USED.
Even if it's NOS, it has to be listed as USED. 
Or it's broken, or parts missing, it has to be listed as USED.

The other problem, for OOAK and collectibles sellers, the item has to be listed as USED unless it's new and sealed in the original packaging. The item has probably never been used; it may have been in a display for years or decades. The condition is NEW, but eBay requires us to list it as USED...there are no other choices.

I have asked many times to have PRE-OWNED as an availabl condition code on every listing. That way, a potential buyer knows to look carefully at the description to see exactly what is being offered.

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@vrykalak So, if we defined "new" as you have described it, buyers would have no idea what they were buying. 

New = new in box, never used, with tags, etc. this includes New Old Stock (NOS) items - as long as it includes everything that was included when it was originally going to be sold.

There are many examples of "new" items that don't have everything that comes with the new item, but that isn't what a buyer thinks of as "new".

Our categories have appropriate item descriptions for each. If you believe a category should have another item description, send it along and I will pass it to the structured data team.

Regarding pre-owned, we have it in some categories - tell me which category you think it should be included in - and please do not say "all of them". It's not appropriate for all categories. Utimately pre-owned is used, so we are talking about framing, not condition.

Thanks for selling on eBay

Brian

[chrysylys]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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Providing this information publicly is not only a violation of our privacy policies, but it also would serve to seed distrust in our community. 

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While there is some validity to that for buyers, I don't believe there is for sellers.  Especially the larger corporate sellers who tend to make a habit of such things.  I had a large seller cancel an order this week without any contact or explanation at all.  Their FB indicates a pattern of this.

[automotivepartsrecyclrs]

When will ebay allow us sellers to print labels thru the day then print a final scan sheet at the end of the day?

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@jonathankirkland wrote:

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brian_burke@ebay wrote:

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@mpjsales wrote:

Will eBay ever enforce sellers to use the proper "Item Condition" for their listings?  The one thing that bothers me is people listing items as "Used" but in their description they state the item is sold "as-is" or "only tested for power-on" without guaranteeing full functionality. These types of disclaimers/statements are misleading to buyers. If a seller cannot guarantee their product meets the "Item Conditions" set by eBay they should not be able to list them as "Used" or should be forced to list them as "Parts".

This hurts the buyer and seller market in different ways.

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@mpjsales It's not in the sellers best interest to overstate the item condition. Since we do not have possession of the item, item condition is something we have to rely on sellers to accurately disclose.  The vast majority of sellers are accurate with their item condition and those that aren't will be impacted by returns, item not as described claims. This impacts their Search placement. 

I agree with you that sellers should accurately disclose item condition. 

Send me an example and I will send it to the structured data team to determine if they can do something to parse the item description and item condition to look for inconsistencies. 

Thank for selling on eBay

Brian

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A big example is cell pones wiht CRACKED SCREENS.

I cannot tell you how many people simply list their phone as "used" when it MUST be listed as "as is, for parts repair" due to the cracked screen.

People assume that since the phone actually functions that listing it as used is acceptable, but in my opinion this is extremely dishonest and deceptive.

Not sure what ebay can do about it, but you asked for an example... I could provide many specific links to these if you need.

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@jonathankirkland In your example the buyer would win a not as described case since the item has a functional defect. There a many phones listed with "cracked screen" in the title and it is clear the item is pre-owned. 

I agree if the seller doesn't include that the screen is cracked in the title it should be prohibited, but a seller will learn quick that they are spending a lot on shipping cost as the buyer could return the item. 

Brian

[Anonymous]

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@jonathankirkland wrote:

Another interesting topic that has come up recently is in regards to mistakenly listing prohibited items.

Would ebay consider adding a warning popup that would flag certain words, for instance the word "gun" if someone tried to list any type of gun, that would alert them they are possibly listing something that could get them into trouble?

I realize people should do their own research and that common sense should prevail in a lot of instances, but there are times when people truly do not realize something is prohibited and should not be listed here. (An example of this is a flare gun that is obviously an emergency item used for saftey for hikers, boaters etc, but an item that can also be very dangerous when misused and is probably prohibited from being sold on ebay for that reason among others.)

I believe it would be beneficial for some type of popup to be displayed that would then allow someone to click a link taking them to the area where the list of prohibited items are.

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Hi @jonathankirkland, I can see your line of thinking here and for the most part I'm a fan of providing as much information as possible to our Community. There is an inherent risk, however, that sharing details may coach those who are trying to commit fraud on how to circumvent our filters further.

Imagine someone playing around with the title for an item that is against our policies until they no longer receiev this popup - they may then be aware of what we look for and be able to abuse our site. As such, while we do make our listing policies available on the site for review, having them appear when some kind of keyword has been triggered may not serve the safety of our Community overall.

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@odditiesandantiquities1 wrote:

brian_burke@ebay

Thanks for yesterday and your follow up posts.  Excellent.

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Thank you for selling on eBay!

Brian

[vrykalak]

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brian_burke@ebay wrote:

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@vrykalak wrote:

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@mpjsales wrote:

Will eBay ever enforce sellers to use the proper "Item Condition" for their listings?  The one thing that bothers me is people listing items as "Used" but in their description they state the item is sold "as-is" or "only tested for power-on" without guaranteeing full functionality. These types of disclaimers/statements are misleading to buyers. If a seller cannot guarantee their product meets the "Item Conditions" set by eBay they should not be able to list them as "Used" or should be forced to list them as "Parts".

This hurts the buyer and seller market in different ways. 

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The problem is: in most categories, the ONLY options for condition are NEW or USED.
Even if it's NOS, it has to be listed as USED. 
Or it's broken, or parts missing, it has to be listed as USED.

The other problem, for OOAK and collectibles sellers, the item has to be listed as USED unless it's new and sealed in the original packaging. The item has probably never been used; it may have been in a display for years or decades. The condition is NEW, but eBay requires us to list it as USED...there are no other choices.

I have asked many times to have PRE-OWNED as an availabl condition code on every listing. That way, a potential buyer knows to look carefully at the description to see exactly what is being offered.

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@vrykalak So, if we defined "new" as you have described it, buyers would have no idea what they were buying. 

New = new in box, never used, with tags, etc. this includes New Old Stock (NOS) items - as long as it includes everything that was included when it was originally going to be sold.

There are many examples of "new" items that don't have everything that comes with the new item, but that isn't what a buyer thinks of as "new".

Our categories have appropriate item descriptions for each. If you believe a category should have another item description, send it along and I will pass it to the structured data team.

Regarding pre-owned, we have it in some categories - tell me which category you think it should be included in - and please do not say "all of them". It's not appropriate for all categories. Utimately pre-owned is used, so we are talking about framing, not condition.

Thanks for selling on eBay

Brian

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Yes, I do think Pre-owned should be allowed in all categories.
Most of the things I sell are truly neither new nor used. 
A few categories allow "New-Other" and that works. 
Otherwise, yes, that option should be in all categores.

[goodluckselling]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@vrykalak wrote:

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@chrysylys wrote:

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@vrykalak wrote:

AND show UPI strikes and other defects on the buyer's page.
I can't think of any good reason why sellers are denied access to that information.

---

That's been sugegsted before.  But I'd have to add that seller defects should also be shown; cancelled, not shipped, etc.

---

Absolutely! Both buyers and sellers deserve to know these things about their transaction partners.

---

We have strict guidelines regarding UPI levels and defects where we will take action on a member's account, potentially removing site priveleges. Providing this information publicly is not only a violation of our privacy policies, but it also would serve to seed distrust in our community. 

Imagine a buyer has a family emergency one week and this results in a dozen unpaid item cases. The emergency resolves itself, and they return to purchasing on the site without issue moving forward. Providing this information publicly could make it difficult for them to make purchases, generate poor service from their sellers or even drive them away from using the site altogether. 

The members of our Community are people, and as such, they may make mistakes from time to time. We are here to protect our buyers and sellers, and we take action when abuse is identified. There is a balance to be struck within our platform and rest assured that we take this topic is very important to us.

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You probably will not get any one here to believe you when you say you are here to protect buyers and sellers and here is why.

Many sellers come to the forum and report to us that they have been suspended because they had a (insert problem) Heart attack, emergency room visit and hospital stay whatever they issue is and because of this they could not complete the orders until they were released at which time cases were opened and closed without resolution from the seller so seller is suspended.

The example I just explained does not sound like you really are trying to protect sellers.

Question  -  When an event like I just explained happens, how does eBay want sellers to handle any outstanding transactions that are gong to be delayed because of unforeseen health issues?

Can we call CSR and have them refund or communicate with the buyer without a seller getting suspended?

Please help us sellers out with your best version of what eBay would like to see happen.  Remember when a seller has to go to the hospital and stay that is not something we can predict and as sellers who are very tightly vetted based on the strength of the eBay seller standards,  Should eBay think about stepping in and helping sellers who reach out to them with these kinds of issues and delivery ot them a solution that will prevent them from being suspended.

It is time for eBay to work out details and then also share them with us so we can become even better than we already are.

Good Luck Selling!