Community Chat, Oct 25th @ 1pm PT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Hi Community, 

Please join the Community team here at 1 pm PT on Oct 25th 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. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

The Search Order drop down on the regular search results page includes an option to search by low or high number of bids (if I have first chosen the "Auction" only filter)
It appears that if I am on what I think ebay calls a browse search results page, the option to search by high or low bid number is missing. Any chance the team could restore that? For those who still like auctions, it's a very useful feature.

[mam98031]

I am having an issue with my gallery pics.  The pic I have designated on my listings as the Main Pic is NOT being used as the gallery pic.  On my fragrances it is pretty straight forward, the gallery pic is defaulting to the tester pic if I have a tester on the listing, if there isn’t a tester on the listing, then it will default to the smallest size fragrance I have available on that listing. 

On my craft listing, I’m not sure how it is determining which pic is going to show up as the gallery pic, but it isn’t my main pic designated on the listing.

If you go into my listing, then the proper pic shows up first, but the gallery pics are all messed up and have been for weeks.  I did check with a couple other fellow sellers and they are seeing the same type of problem.

[alan@ebay]

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@chrysylys wrote:

Seeing more threads complaining about multi-variation listings such as this one:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Bidding-Buying/The-item-description-provides-a-price-front-and-center-...

Any update on last week's suggestion to limit them to a single price per listing?

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Hi @chrysylys, 

We did bring this to the attention of the appropriate team; we do not have an update to share at the moment. If one becomes available, we will share.

Thank you.

[fern*wood]

Is it by design for the new feedback page to no longer allow saved comments?  It is a small thing, but still, I am way less likely to want to bother with giving feedback if I have to manually now type out every comment.

I leave the same for every buyer upon payment,  so clicking instead of stopping to type matters to me.

[Anonymous]

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@chrysylys wrote:
If WE are not permitted to even hint at other selling sites, why are listings being populated with multiple off site ad links, including moving ads and videos? The Bidding/Buying and Selling boards have seen a number of threads this week complaining about them.

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Hi @chrysylys, it is a common industry practice to allow for 3rd party advertisements. While the majority of advertised items will be sourced from our eBay sellers, you will still see these kinds of ads from time to time. 

[vrykalak]

Met a vendor at eBay Open who said his people could program my Auctiva store.
I lost track of who that was. Can anyone tell me?

[tyler@ebay]

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@human-i-t wrote:

Hi,

Do you have any tips and strategies for communicating with eBay customers? Are there any unique ways you communicate with them?

Thank you.

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Hi @human-i-t - I like to keep communication personable as much as possible. I use eBay messages exclusively (in case things need to be reviewed later) and I work on matching my customer's tone: if they're chatty I'll chat with them (if I have time). If they're business like I'll work that way. 

Ultimately I think working on 'being your brand' and bringing that tone into your messages only helps differentiate you from other members in your category. Good luck! 

[sarahbru]

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@mcjbob wrote:

I had a problem printing a shipping label through eBay and PayPal for a buyer in Hong Kong, two errors. Address was too long and there was an invalid city code. I tried both eBay and PayPal, and both were not able to print label due to these errors. I deleted part of the address by eliminating commas and reconfiguring the address lines. I did get past the line length error, voiding my seller protection as I changed the address, but the next error I could not get by, invalid postal code. Odd, Hong Kong does not use postal codes.

I then called eBay customer service, and I was told this is a known problem, no solution was offered. I was able to print label through USPS Click n Ship and did not have an issue with line length or city code. The problem is that it was much more time consuming than eBay labels and more expensive as I did not get my commercial discount I get through eBay.

I am out the $$ difference, and lots of time and aggravation dealing with an issue known to eBay. For now, I have blocked shipping to Hong Kong as I lose $$ on shipping, and time dealing with Click n Ship.

Any idea when this will be fixed? When fixed, how will I know so I can again offer shipping to Hong Kong?

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Hi @mcjbob: Thanks for highlighting this ongoing issue. I will contact Jonathan in Shipping to find out the timing on a fix. Thanks. Sarah

[uk197]

Yes, phone call is good option to native or very well speak people, but for others it`s a real hell

[mam98031]

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@uk197 wrote:
Ebay have a live chat? Write and read good but I'm talking badly, support phone call is not a good option for me. Have a problem with the buyer, will be nice if support explain some details

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Just in an effort to help while the CSRs are busy researching questions.  A buyer shouldn't be asked to try and contact Ebay to fix a FB that you want changed.  It is much easier than that.  As a seller you have the ability to send them a request to fix the FB.  The buyer will receive an email in which they can click into and follow the instruction to revise the FB.  Really easy stuff.

But keep in mind that you want your buyer to be agreeing to revise the FB and you want to make sure they know the email is coming.  They have a shelf life and once you issue one, you can not issue another one if it times out.

https://pages.ebay.com/help/feedback/questions/remove.html

[dtexley3]

Lately when I send a counter-offer to a best offer and the bidder declines I get an email titled: Are you still interested in item xxxxxxxxx?  Then in the body it states: Your counter-offer was declined.

I think the wrong form letter is being attached to the action for a declined counter-offer.

[sarahbru]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
The Search Order drop down on the regular search results page includes an option to search by low or high number of bids (if I have first chosen the "Auction" only filter)
It appears that if I am on what I think ebay calls a browse search results page, the option to search by high or low bid number is missing. Any chance the team could restore that? For those who still like auctions, it's a very useful feature.

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Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques: I will pass this feedback along to Shervin on the Search team.  Thank you! Sarah

[craftingsupplies]

One of the things that I do is to thank my buyers who have left a feedback for doing that and taking the time to leave FB. 

[Anonymous]

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@mam98031 wrote:

I need some advice on how to deal with a certain type of buyer.  This situation does not happen often, but when it does it can be very tricky for a seller.

I sold some high end fragrance to a gentleman.  A week or two after he received it he wrote me a simple email in M2M.  He said it’s a fake.  I wrote back to him and assured him that nothing I sell is fake and I apologized to him for any concerns he may have.  I then asked him to further explain whatever he felt the issue was.

I couple days later I got a response.  He said “I have been using this brand of cologne now for months. This cologn u sold me is fake. How can u spray it on a shirt, let it sit for half an hour and go back and smell the shirt, you won’t smell nothing. Again you sold me a fake cologne. And for what I paid is just too much for a fake cologne.”

I then wrote him and again apologized for any concerns this may have caused him and told him that if he would like to return the item I would process his return and give him a full refund upon the return of the item.  That was a few days ago and I have not heard anything from him.

Now it appears this isn’t the first time he has done this.  He has a negative FB he left for another seller complaining about the quality of the product.  The seller responded that he offered the buyer a full refund upon return, but the buyer did not return the item.

I think this buyer is fishing for a partial refund and when he doesn’t get it he retaliates against the seller.  However I know that one bad FB left by the buyer is not near enough evidence for Ebay that this buyer is abusing the system.  This kind of stuff happens all the time for sellers.  How the heck are we suppose to protect ourselves.  I am in no position to be refunding a buyer for a $200 item and allowing them to keep it too.  On top of that, clearly from his emails he has used the product, so there is no way he could ever return it in the condition he received it unless he isn’t telling the truth about his using it. 

If this buyer stays true to form, I’ll be hearing from him in the next day or two.  How does Ebay expect sellers to protect themselves from a buyer such as this?  Just telling us to refund and move on just isn’t good enough.

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Hi @mam98031, when a buyer has used a product beyond what is reasonably considered first time use, we would not expect a seller to accept a return/refund. While offering a resolution is great customer service, for situations like what you have described I wanted to make clear that you would not need to accept this return and we could protect you in a return request by closing the case in your favor. While a buyer can typically leave feedback of their experience, this would not be permitted if the case is closed in the seller's favor. I suggest also reporting the buyer for review as we may have access to more details on our end to warrant action that ensures the safety of our Community.

[doug@ebay]

Hi @uk197-

The U.S. marketplace has phone in and Community help options via http://ocsnext.ebay.com/ocs/home. 

If you prefer to message us online, you can contact our Social Media Customer Service team:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AskeBay
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eBay/

Hope this helps.

Doug

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@uk197 wrote:
Ebay have a live chat? Write and read good but I'm talking badly, support phone call is not a good option for me. Have a problem with the buyer, will be nice if support explain some details