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. 

[alan@ebay]

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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. 

[vrykalak]

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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.

[fern*wood]

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?

[odditiesandantiquities1]

brian_burke@ebay

Thanks for yesterday and your follow up posts.  Excellent.

[alan@ebay]

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@golfingaddict wrote:

My business is registered in my state and as such, I collect state sales tax for sales to residents of my state.

This week I had an in state buyer purchase and item.  She paid and was charged sales tax.  She then proceeded to purchase another item from the exact same multi variation listing, she paid and was not charged sales tax. 

This was a surprised to me.  Of course my first thought was that I did not have it set up correctly, but quickly dismissed that because the purchase was from the exact same item number/listing.  Both items had the same buyer, same shipping address and both should have been charged sales tax.

When I called Customer Support, the representative  checked to make sure that things were set up correctly (they were) and said she could not explain why the second purchase was not charged sales tax. 

She suggested that it was just a "blip"  or some such word.. She did not say glitch. She also said it was not worth the time to report it because the techs would not be able to do anything about a one time occurance?

To me this is more than a blip and with the upcoming holiday sales season, I do not want to worry about my buyers not being charged for sales tax. 

Is it true that these types of things are not worthy of reporting?  She did give me a credit for the amount not collected but I do think that all issues like this should be reported.  Granted it does not affect ebay, but the money I collect literally is paid to the state I live in and comes out of my pocket if not collected.

What do you think?  Should it be reported to tech? I suppose all glitches have to have a "first" time.

Thanks

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Hi @golfingaddict, 

I am happy to report this our tech team. Please send me a PM with the item number and the buyer ID and any additional info that'll help. 

Thanks. 

[chrysylys]

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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?

[Anonymous]

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@jonathankirkland wrote:

Is there really any need to have a Basic Listing tool and an Advanced Listing tool?

I understand you want new sellers to be able to easily list things without overwhelming them, however the way the Basic Listing tool is setup right now is not very user friendly at all.

For example: for a fixed price listing, the Basic Tool defaults to having a "Best Offer" on it, when many users probably do not realize this or event want it. Not only that, but I don't think you can even select immediate payment required with the basic listing tool.

Also, I really believe that most people nowadays are smart enough to figure out the Advanced Listing tool and would like to have as many options as possible.

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Hi @jonathankirkland, providing tools that are tailored to the needs of our sellers is one of our biggest priorities. A lot of the options available in the Advanced Listing Tool are not utilized by newer sellers, and only serve to complicate the listing process. A streamlined Basic Listing Tool is ideal for those first starting out on eBay or for the occassional seller.

Additionally, some default features such as Best Offer help to introduce new sellers to this option. We automatically deny any offer below 30% of the asking price. Immediate payment is another feature that is usually applied to the types of items new sellers list as the fall under the criteria we have set for this to be included automatically.

Lastly, the Advanced Listing Tool is available to all sellers regardless of the age of their account or their selling volume. If a seller would like to dive in with more options, then they can opt to try out the Advanced Listing Tool 

[jonathankirkland]

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.

[vrykalak]

I used to download a copy of the SOLD and UNSOLD pages at the end of every month, as a record of my activities. I could go back to see when the last time was that I listed a particular item, what I called it, what the main photo looked like, etc.
The new formats of those pages make that impossible.
I would like the old format back OR a way to download some other compact report of that activity.

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@tunicaslot wrote:

Afternoon everyone! I'd first like to ask that you give Brian our thanks for visiting yesterday and staying so late to answer questions posed to him - that goes to you to Alan.

It may have been mentioned already here - but people were not happy with the answers to Ebays new program that is enforcing policy to eliminate sales done outside of Ebay. I understand that this is being maintained by bots. And I understand that an investigation by a person will be done before actions are taken. The fear remains tho - due to buyers who don't know policy or try to circumvent it by suggesting to sellers the transaction take place outside.

Most older sellers know the rules - but are concerned with getting these warnings and are afraid that their selling will be sanctioned through no fault of their own. Can you explain a bit better how the sytem works. Will a seller be notified that the bots have picked up this type of behavior and any more could result in selling privileges being revoked - giving the seller time to call and talk to someone who can actually view the emails before any type of sanction is in place?

Many on the boards feel the warning to buyers may alienate them or scare them from trying to buy on Ebay.

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@tunicaslot Thanks for the remarks, my goal was to address everyone - if you take the time to ask, the least I can do is take the time to respond, even if I don't know the answer. 

Regarding off eBay:

First point -  if you are not soliciting or responding to off -ebay requests or including contact information in emails you have nothing to worry about - so best advice is don't do that.

Bots - not everything we do with off-eBay is algorithmically driven. We have agents who review content for intent. But if content includes contact info we will send a message. Because the rule is no contact info is permitted. There are use cases when someone has included an item number and our filter views it as a phone number - we continue to improve these filters and will continue to improve them to limit the amount of inadvertent warnings. 

Regarding the warnings, they by themselves will not result in a seller sanction (limits on listing, buying etc.) unless an agent reviews the content and can tell the intent of the buyer or seller was to take the item off eBay. We may restirct use of member to member communications. 

So, if a buyer emails you to take the item off eBay you should make it clear you will not do that. 

Thanks for selling on eBay

Brian

[goodluckselling]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@goodluckselling wrote:

eBay messaging to sellers recently change as it relates to outcomes to cases that were settled.  In the past the verbage use to say something like

We ruled in the seller favor.  Your selling standards will not be affected and any feedback left from this buyer will be removed.

Now the verbage says this

We ruled in the sellers favor, and this outcome will not have any affect on your seller standards.

Notice the missing info about any feedback left will be removed in the new messaging from eBay.

____________

Here is my questions and it is fairly easy.

Moving forward: When cases are resolved and settled in sellers favor, does eBay still remove feedback left from the buyer?    Thanks

Good Luck Selling!

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Hi @goodluckselling, happy to confirm you that feedback is still removed when an eMBG case is closed as Seller Wins or if an appeal is granted for a Seller.

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Thank You for your quick response and I also want to thank you also for not using a bunch of eBay speak with tons of different meanings.

Now I would like to officially request you communicate with the proper team to put the verbage back in the outcome message eBay sends sellers for these kinds of instances.

Written words mean a whole lot more to us sellers especially since eBay does not have a very good history of doing what they say.  You are getting much better but not good enough to just take your word.

Good Luck Selling!

[alan@ebay]

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@montelbargain wrote:

My first time in this chat. So PLEASE PLEASE accept my apology for my

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@montelbargain wrote:

252159940950 is my listing. I have sold 724 and that does not appear. How can I fix this?

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alan@ebay wrote:

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@montelbargain wrote:

How do include "see feedback" for this listing at the top of the listing.

321378250481  is an example.

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Hi @montelbargain, 

When a seller has a multi-quantity listing and has received feedback on at least 10 of those transactions, a “See Feedback” link will appear on the view item page.

Thanks!

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ignorance regarding the Quote feature.

Thank you for your reply. I have another listing with the same concern and will anxiously wait your private message. I feel my excellent feedback will be a benefit to sell a few more of these!!

Thank you Alan!!

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No problem! Thank you 

[josjhw9i3fggmrd]

I have been having an issue for a couple of days now. I cannot send an invoice to buyers. Every time I try to send it comes back with this message... “There is some technical error. Please try after sometime “.  Will this be fixed soon?

[Anonymous]

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@leo*spride wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@jonathankirkland wrote:

Will ebay consider implementing a feature that will not allow a shipping label to be printed, or at the very least provide a pop-up warning when printing a shipping label, for a payment that has not yet cleared?

There are way too many people being cheated and shipping items out where they payment has not yet cleared, and there are numerous ways scammers are taking advantage of new sellers (tricking them into providing their Paypal email, e-check scam to name a few).

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Hi @jonathankirkland, the safety of our sellers is a top priority for us! Since we aren't always able to recognize payment, a warning message may at times cause undue harm. When we are able to recognize that a payment is pending, we do display this information. While there has been an issue recently with the Mobile App incorrectly showing these payments as completed, we are here to protect any seller who faces a loss due to an incomplete payment after shipment. 

There may be times where a seller would like to get ahead by printing a label and preparing the package for shipment even when the payment is pending. I can pass along this suggestion, but I wanted to provide some food for thought as to why this may not be implemented.

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eBay not always knowing that a payment has been made/cleared is understandable.

But there's another element that comes into play... buyers have the option of selecting an alternate ship-to address when they make their payments.  Many sellers will eagerly print a label to get ahead of the game, only to find out they spent postage for an incorrect shipping destination.  The current wait period for a carrier refund is between 14-21 days

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Great call out, @leo*spride! When talking specifically about pending payments, checkout has already been completed and the address cannot be changed. There may be times where the payment fails and a seller has to pursue a refund for the label, but these are uncommon. 

[chrysylys]

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brian_burke@ebay wrote:

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my goal was to address everyone -Brian

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The message I mentioned and you asked about was sent to your PMs here, not to your email.