Community Chat, Oct 3rd from 1:00 PDT - General Topics

[Anonymous]

Hi eBay Community! 

Please join us here from 1:00 PM today for our weekly chat on general topics. 

Below is a live interview with our SVP of Americas, Scott Cutler.  Scott chats about our #Makingithappen campaign. 

[selsa84]

Ive been having alot of technical issues with my store lately and have called ebay cs many times but nothing has been fixed. 

1st i cannot send emails to past buyers

2nd My listing impressions drop severly when i use Promoted listings

3 Cant sign up for GSP because i cant access my shipping preferences

4 gettings offers that when i click to accept they are not longer there.

5 Sales were at $6,000 a month to 3000 a month. 

WHAT CAN I DO?

[abfabvintage]

Sorry, by "same thing" I mean again his iPhone shows No returns.

[mam98031]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

I was recently looking for some books to give my daughter for Christmas.  She is an avid reader so I try to feed that desire of hers with a mixture of books at the holidays.  I found out quickly that it would be very nice if Ebay came up with a filter that could suppress E-books and PDF books.  Way too easy to pick one of those by accident.  It is annoying to have to search through them to find what you really want which is a paperback or hard covered book.

A filter would be nice.  I can see how the lack of this feature can annoy many buyers as it annoyed me trying to find what I was looking for.

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Hi @mam98031! I just did a quick search and see what you mean, a filter option would be really nice, I'll get that suggested. 

In the meantime I found that adding 'paperback' or 'hardcover' to the book title in search tended to get me results that were physical copies. 

I hope you're able to find your daughter some great reading material for the Holidays! If you're looking for a suggestion one of my favorites is 'The Solitaire Mystery', or the classic 'A Wrinkle in Time'. 🙂

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Yes, I did that too.  I eventually found what I wanted.  But as you say, it would be a whole lot easier with that filter.  I hope they listen as I think it would really help.

[tyler@ebay]

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@divwido wrote:

Short of switching to PayPal-How can correct errors like this on my shipping label?

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Hi @divwido - that definitely looks odd, for sure. Will you let me know if you're printing this through a label printer or from a regular printer, and also if you're using the new label page or the classic view?

Either way, it looks like the label is still legible and shouldn't present any issues when going through the USPS, which is a good thing. If you'll get me those other details I'll get the feedback to the right team.

[rosevelyn]

When I called to speak with APPEALS DEPT on a case the automated system asked for the case ID number and did not put me through to an agent. Instead, it assumed I did not get the item back from the buyer even though I did (the delivery scan was not showing yet) and it announced that the case was extended another 5 days.

That resulted in my needing to call in again to talk to someone about resolving the HOLD besides the appeal. The agent was so confused by this.

[mr_lincoln]

Subject: "NEW" Listing identification question

Good afternoon Trinton and other eBay Team Members:

Would you be able tell me how long the "NEW" listing identification remains on a listing once it goes live?  Here are the types I am asking about

1. 30 day Fixed price listing

2. 10 day Fixed Price listing

3. 5 Day Auction listing

4. 7 Day Auction listing

5 10 Day Auction listing

Thank  you,

Mr. L

[mam98031]

I've seen this reported off and on in threads, but I just had this happen to me.

I had a customer that I received their package back in the mail.  Undeliverable as address and no forwarding address on file..

My customer is an active buyer on Ebay and when I contacted her she said that address was over 2 years old and has been receiving packages to her correct address for a long time.  She has no idea why that old address suddenly came back to life.  And of course I certainly don't know.

She is unhappy but understands that it is also not my fault.  But again, what is bring old addresses back to life.  Is it because Halloween is almost upon us???  LOL

[brian@ebay]

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@alcoforever wrote:

A handgun was sold on ebay yesterday, item 332824701469.  Several users reported not being able to report it as a prohibited item as the Report button on the listing gave only one choice:  Copyright infringement.   At the same time, the report button on other items at random worked properly.  What gives?

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Hi @alcoforever, thanks for letting us know! I'll be sure to pass this feedback along.

[uswapl]

@Anonymous

Last week I posted about a hit to my seller performance metrics due to a faulty return.   You answered after the chat was done. 

Hi @uswapl, you are compared to your peers who are experiencing the same number of returns with incorrect reasons as you. We made the decision to compare you to your peer group in part for this reason, as you will only experience consequences when you have a significantly higher return rate than your peers. Returns are normal and expected, which is why we do not have a zero returns threshold for our sellers - each category, item and business model will vary and the expectations will vary based on those factors as well.

We do not think that sellers are evil or wrong; they are hardworking businesses striving to stay competitive in an everchanging market. We support our sellers in this endeavor with initiatives like this one, strengthening our platform and increasing your opportunity for growth. Without a doubt there can be new expectations that add a new layer of stress for our sellers and we are here to help you navigate and manage these changes.

Well guess what?  Another week another faulty return.  I sold an item that was listed as Grays and Blues.  12 photos of the item were included. The item specifics mentioned the colors grays and blues.  The item specifics said that the waistbands were Black.

And of course, the buyer opened a return request "wrong item received" with the message  "I ordered white and I received Grays and Black. 

And I have to pay the return shipping and I  have to take another slam on my service metrics. At this rate, I will be one of those nasty bad sellers that need to be charged an extra 4% FVF's because of course, the buyer is right even when they do not know the difference between black and white..

This is unconscionable on ebays part to not have some sort of appeal or removal when the facts are clear and obvious.  To tell me that it won't hurt because others are getting false claims is just a slap in the face to hard working sellers.  Tell me I need more than 12 photos? Tell me I need to put details in the item specifics? Tell me I have to describe the items?  I do all that and still get these false claims.

At this point losing 10-15 bucks on shipping both ways is going to be the least of my problems.

 Based on what you said above, this is for the good of the site and to bring more buyers?  What? Buyers that lie, cheat and steal?  I don't need those buyers and we should be discouraging the behavior of those that lie and cheat, not punishing the victim of their actions.

I'm almost sure I will be back next week with another tale of a false snad.

The customer support rep this time told me to call after I get the item back and they might be able to help.. I won't hold my breath. 

[vrykalak]

The mention of a buyer being able to set how long a seller has to respond to an offer reminds me of an issue that came up a while ago.
Apparently, if a seller doesn't respond to an offer within 12 hours (or maybe 24) of the 48-hour life of the offer, eBay would label the seller as "Unresponsive" to offers. 
If that is still true, I thoroughly object to it.
Not all sellers live at their computers, waiting to respond to offers. And sometimes a seller has to do some research to determine whether or not to accept an offer.
What good does it do anyone to label a seller as "unresponsive" if it takes a while to respond to an offer?

[lintbrush*]

@divwido

I get that issue from time to time.  It's something with the way the computer/pdf is talkign to the printer - fonts

I use Print Preview first.  If I see that on any of the pages, I close it out and then do Print Preview again.  Usually it's gone on the 2nd try (depending on how many pages I'm printing).

I don't know why it's actually doing it, but I had the issue before the new shipping page too.

[coinslabz26]

This is me trying my absolute hardest to report a major site issue that has been going on for a couple of months. This is like the 4th attempt to report.

Promoted listings are not correctly populating results. In many cases there are blank spots in the pormoted listings results EVEN when there ARE similar promoted items displaying in other listings or even promoted in my own inventory. Here is a quick screenshot of an Ike dollar listing. I have 6 promoted items similar just in my inventory that should have displayed.

HELP!

[mendelsons]

Are there any adjustments coming up with regards to SNAD cases being opened under false pretenses.  Buyers are frequently opening up cases  so avoid shipping cost back to the sellers, even admitting it in their descriptions and we still have to pay for shipping back.  This week we had at least two of them so far and one of them sent us back a new item not in the original packaging when bent speakers.  This is turning into fraud city with no smackdown being placed on the buyers.  I know I'm not the only one getting tired of getting taken advantage of by these crazy policies.

[vrykalak]

I have several nice gift boxes of coffee & tea, NOS but sealed and absolutely in as good condition as when the gift set was made.
But I'm not allowed to sell them as coffee and tea because they either have no expiration date, or the expiration is long ago.
In each case, there are other sellers offering identical items, listed in the tea category, even though those don't have expiry dates either.
Is there any way to offer them for sale, just saying loudly that they are expired?

[tyler@ebay]

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@mam98031 wrote:

An important question came up on a thread that needs some clarification in regards to cancellations and issuing a return label.

Sometimes a buyer will contact a seller with an issue regarding a purchase.  Maybe there is an issue and the buyer wants to return the item.  Through M2M the buyer and seller agree to do the return.  The seller provides a return label to the buyer from whatever source the seller has choosen.  No formal SNAD is opened.

Once the seller gets the item back, what is the next step. 

In the cancellation process we use to have a reason that stated the item was returned for refund.  But Ebay has significantly reduced the reasons for a return and for something like this the only choice would be the buyer requested the cancellation.  Which isn't completely accurate, but the only real option for sellers.

When there is no SNAD in place I've always advised seller that are working directly with they buyers to file for a cancellation once the item was received back by the seller, select the reason that the buyer requested the cancellation [as they did request the return] and issue the refund from the cancellation.

I have recently been told I'm incorrect by a couple of experienced Ebayers.  So I'm just looking for clarification here.  I have not read that we are required to have buyer's open a SNAD, so if that is correct, then why is Ebay REQUIRING a SNAD?  Sometimes buyers don't want a claim for whatever reason they have.  And they aren't in a seller's best interest to have the buyer open a SNAD.  So as long as the buyer is happy, what is the proper process outside of the claims system?

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Hi @mam98031 - this is a good question and I'm happy to clarify that eBay's stance on this is that any full refund must be processed through a cancellation or an eBay Money Back Guarantee request. 

In a situation where a buyer wants to return an item and is communicative with you as a seller you should encourage them to use the Returns flow through their Purchase History section. This allows them to quickly access a label and keeps them accountable to send it back to you in our system.

Intentionally handling a return (remorse or not as described) as a cancellation is problematic and can result in inaccurate seller metrics and performance.

There may be times when a buyer takes things completely out of the loop - for instance, returning their purchase directly to you without any input or communication on eBay. Those should be one off scenarios and we'd want you to reach out to CS for help in navigating the specifics.