eBay

tyler@ebay · ‎10-06-2021

Happy October! Thanks for joining us for the Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. We don't have a specific topic this week, so feel free to share any general buying or selling questions you may have.

The chat thread will remain open until 2 PM PT at which point we'll close it from additional responses. After that time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that might still be unanswered.

To post your question, click Reply in the lower right corner of this post, type your question, and hit submit between 1-2 PM Pacific Time. The format of our chat mirrors the format of our Community Discussion Boards, where each post will appear in the thread chronologically. The Community Team will review each question as it comes in, and will quote the original question in our reply. This quote and the reply will appear later in the thread, so just keep scrolling down to see our answers.

Missed the chat? Send your questions to the podcast by calling 888-723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com and maybe your questions will make it on the air! Or listen to past episodes while you wait for next Wednesday!

Tyler,

tyler@ebay · ‎10-06-2021

@clarkphilatelics wrote:

Message settings from eBay are ineffective. Messages are posted multiple times for each sale. All I want to see is one message for each order when it is OK to ship. I had turned off sale and order notifications because there were too many. US eBay orders are captured by SixBit, but orders from foreign sites are not. After an order from eBay.au was missed, I turned on email notifications. There were so many sale and payment emails that I missed an order from eBay.de.

My Asks:

1. Please provide a way to limit emails to one email for each order when it is paid. One customer purchased fifteen unique items resulting in a page of emails when the items sold and another when the order was paid.

2. Please provide the means to set preferences to receive order paid notifications only from non-US eBay sites.

Hi @clarkphilatelics - I can see how that would make your life much simpler! I can't make promises but will make sure that the appropriate teams get your feedback!

Tyler,

velvet@ebay · ‎10-06-2021

@somanypostcards wrote:

velvet@ebay wrote:

@somanypostcards wrote:

When I try to print the Purchase History for a combined order of more than 11 items, I go to Order Details and select Printer Friendly Page. This shows ALL the purchased items. However when I click on Print, only 1-page is shown that does NOT contain ALL the purchased items, only the first eleven. How can I print a complete purchase history?

That's frustrating @somanypostcards! I just tried to recreate that with one of your recent larger purchases but when I select the Printer friendly page option, I'm shown all items. I'm on Chrome. How are you accessing the site? What trouble shooting have you already done?

Yes, the Printer friendly page option shows all items. However, when you then click on Print, only some (11) of the items are shown. This is only a problem for combined purchases of 12 or more items.

Ah, okay! Sorry! I tried to print to PDF to see what it looked like and you're right, it only shows about 11 things and it almost looks like the bottom listings has info overlapping it. I'll file a ticket with our tech team.

In the meantime, I tried using the browser print option (I'm in Chrome) and that also cut it off, but when I backed out of the 'Printer friendly page', I was able to see/print all items using the browser print feature. It's not as pretty, but it is a workaround for your record keeping until a fix is found. Thanks!

Velvet,

friskya · ‎10-06-2021

There seems to be an increasing number of posts regarding "seller initiated" cancellations for reasons other than "out of stock". The most common ones appear to be "problem with buyers address" and "buyer requested".

Why does "buyer requested" even exist as an option for a seller initiated request? I can understand the other two (address and out of stock) being valid reasons, but why is "buyer requested" not something that should be strictly as a response to a cancel request, with repercussions for any buyer who abuses it?

I understand that the sellers don't have to honor a sale cancellation, but it seems that many sellers are using it as a catch-all for cancelling sales (auctions) where they didn't get the price they hoped for and where the buyer did not, in fact, request the cancellation.

-----

edit: A reply to your question can be found here

If you have never owned a dachshund, no explanation is possible.
If you have owned a dachshund, no explanation is necessary.
(with apologies to St. Thomas Aquinas)

jasmen@ebay · ‎10-06-2021

@ittybitnot wrote:

Good afternoon.

The post by @savannah3 reminded me of a question I had about local pick up. I was wondering if a buyer pays cash at pick up, is the final value fee adjusted because eBay is NOT processing any funds? Is the seller's final value fee now less the money processing portion?

Hey @ittybitnot the processing fees are only billed when they send the payment through our system, the final value fee is separate and charged when the buyer commits to buy the item.

Jasmen,
Community Team

tyler@ebay · ‎10-06-2021

@valueaddedresource wrote:

tyler@ebay - since the other thread was kind of buried in the forum boards, I just wanted to say thanks again for getting everything sorted out with the Voices:Collectibles section and I'm glad to see steve@collectibles was able to stop by to answer some of the posts. 😊

Any idea when Steve might pop back in over there or when we can expect to hear more about the future of the Voices program?

Hi @valueaddedresource - I'm glad he was able to get posting at last! I know the plan is for him to regularly review and reply to the most 'up voted' comments on a regular basis, but as to the future of the program overall I'm not certain (though we may be able to get some more details from sheila@ebay if we're lucky!)

Tyler,

somanypostcards · ‎10-06-2021

Why does the Purchase History -> Order details -> Printer friendly page show ALL the listings but the

Seller History -> Order details -> Printer friendly page -> Print page only show the first 11 listings?

How can I print ALL my purchase on a combined order of more than 11 items? I am using Chrome on a Desktop computer. Can this "glitch" be reported to eBay as a technical error?

-----

Edit: A reply to your question can be found here.

a_c_green · ‎10-06-2021

@friskya wrote:
I understand that the sellers don't have to honor a sale cancellation, but it seems that many sellers are using it as a catch-all for cancelling sales (auctions) where they didn't get the price they hoped for and where the buyer did not, in fact, request the cancellation.

This is not quite the same thing, but along those same lines:

Speaking as a buyer, I would appreciate some easy way of disputing a seller's claim that I supposedly requested a cancel, in instances where I did no such thing. If the seller claims that a cancel was requested but there is no communication on record from buyer to seller, the buyer should be asked for confirmation.

valueaddedresource · ‎10-06-2021

jasmen@ebay wrote:

@stuff4divas wrote:

RE: New Promoted Program

I don’t do community posts complaining about slow sales bc I know online selling is not what it use to be and sales will go thru phases and generally, sellers get what they put in (hopefully).

BUT, as of about Sept 20, this has drastically changed for me and lots of other sellers according to recent posts. This ‘slow sales’ complaint is very different than the numerous whining posts we’ve encountered over the years. It’s as if our selling accounts no longer exist.

I averaged about 1 sale a day over the last few years, with some upswing during the Christmas shopping season. But not any more.

This phenomena happens to be horizontal to the timeline of the new Promoted Listings Advanced (PLA) BETA eBay has rolled out.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Introducing-Promoted-Listings-Advanced-BETA-for-business...

It’s like: If we don’t sign into this program, our listings will no longer be made as visible as b4, regardless of using the ‘regular’ promoted listings (which all 600+ of my listings have)

Thank you,

Dev

Hey @stuff4divas please know your sales are not impacted negatively if you don't use PL or PLA. That can help showcase an item but if a buyer is looking for your item they will still find it. I'm happy to get eyes on it for sure, and if I get more info to share from them I will let you know!

jasmen@ebay - has there been any deep digging into what impact if any may be coming from the automated click filters?

I understand from eBay's perspective that PLS shouldn't be causing some of these issues people are reporting, and maybe they aren't directly, but I'm wondering if it is possible the changes to how clicks are being counted could be having a wider impact?

-----

Edit: A reply to your question can be found here.

glasser · ‎10-06-2021

A couple of questions . We see INR issues on these boards a bit. If a seller has added a tracking number (or auto added since they bought label through eBay) and a buyer file an INR, does eBay check to see if the item has been delivered per tracking number and deny the claim?

If not, there are several services that can track items from nearly every carrier in the world and since proof of delivery via tracking is how these claims are resolved it seems pretty easy to dispose of this in this manner.

Have there been any discussions internally ( I know you won't/can't answer this 🙂 ) about how chargebacks dilute protections for sellers and create opportunities for scammers?

-----

Edit: A reply to your question can be found here.

clarkphilatelics · ‎10-06-2021

Managed Payments reports are not useable if some transactions are posted in non-US currencies. The Payouts report contains three columns: Amount, Fee, and Net.

The Net column contains a foreign currency amount, a US amount, and the currency conversion factor used.

The [Sale] Amount and Fees columns for non-US sales are listed in foreign currency amounts only. The sale amount and fees in the web report and the downloaded reports may contain a mix of dollar and foreign currency amounts that cannot be summed. PayPal entered the foreign currency amounts with an offsetting row followed by a US dollar amount row., allowing the columns to be summed.

More troubling is that the foreign currency amounts when converted to dollars do not add up. An undocumented currency conversion factor is omitted, making total about three percent short. There appears to be no way to verify the amount skimmed by eBay. Because foreign site transactions are not captured by SixBit, it is not possible to accurately post sales amounts, fee amounts into the accounting database to accurately capture income and expenses. Would the IRS accept eBay net amounts without reporting sales and fees totals? It seems doubtful. Last year it was possible to sum Payouts Amounts and match the amount exactly with the eBay 1099-K. What will happen this year?

Also, when will eBay start providing totals for the {sales] Amount and Fees? One Payout with more than fifteen orders took significant time to add correctly. Will someone at eBay look at seller workflow and the necessary information needed to track sales, expenses and cash flow from Payments detail reports?

-----

Edit: A reply to your questions can be found here

mam98031 · ‎10-06-2021

jasmen@ebay wrote:

@ittybitnot wrote:

Good afternoon.

The post by @savannah3 reminded me of a question I had about local pick up. I was wondering if a buyer pays cash at pick up, is the final value fee adjusted because eBay is NOT processing any funds? Is the seller's final value fee now less the money processing portion?

Hey @ittybitnot the processing fees are only billed when they send the payment through our system, the final value fee is separate and charged when the buyer commits to buy the item.

How do they [Ebay] do this. The Money Processing fee is NOT separate. It is a Simplified Fee in MP which includes the FVF for the sale and the money processing fee in one.

So how do they separate them and what are the amounts of the two fees?

A link to the policy would be very helpful.

-----

Edit: A reply to your question can be found here.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

friskya · ‎10-06-2021

@a_c_green wrote:
@friskya wrote:
I understand that the sellers don't have to honor a sale cancellation, but it seems that many sellers are using it as a catch-all for cancelling sales (auctions) where they didn't get the price they hoped for and where the buyer did not, in fact, request the cancellation.
This is not quite the same thing, but along those same lines:

Speaking as a buyer, I would appreciate some easy way of disputing a seller's claim that I supposedly requested a cancel, in instances where I did no such thing. If the seller claims that a cancel was requested but there is no communication on record from buyer to seller, the buyer should be asked for confirmation.

To add on to that, sellers who abuse the "buyer requested" cancellation should also have repercussions. No proof in the communication records? DING! If cancellations had to be initiated by the buyer (only), with seller response required within a set time frame, a lot more sellers might think twice about cancelling sales that the buyer actually wanted.

If you have never owned a dachshund, no explanation is possible.
If you have owned a dachshund, no explanation is necessary.
(with apologies to St. Thomas Aquinas)

stuff4divas · ‎10-06-2021

@a_c_green wrote:
@friskya wrote:
I understand that the sellers don't have to honor a sale cancellation, but it seems that many sellers are using it as a catch-all for cancelling sales (auctions) where they didn't get the price they hoped for and where the buyer did not, in fact, request the cancellation.
This is not quite the same thing, but along those same lines:

Speaking as a buyer, I would appreciate some easy way of disputing a seller's claim that I supposedly requested a cancel, in instances where I did no such thing. If the seller claims that a cancel was requested but there is no communication on record from buyer to seller, the buyer should be asked for confirmation.

It's been awhile, but doesn't ebay send messages to buyers letting them know that a seller wants to cancel a transaction with them which includes the reason?

It would say something like: "If you agree to this, click here"

tyler@ebay · ‎10-06-2021

@a_c_green wrote:

tyler@ebay wrote:
Yes please @dhbookds - our only recourse at this point is to document as many folks being impacted as possible, which will hopefully help Khoros isolate root cause.

What are they telling you about this issue as of today? They've been aware of it for weeks now, and hopefully working on it for almost as long, so what have they been able to determine so far?

As I said elsewhere already, it appeared that the Khoros link was trying to call the eBay API named eBayISAPI.dll, but getting nothing in return. Perhaps Khoros has removed the dead links to spare us the distraction, though hopefully someone is actually trying to solve the problem rather than hide the symptoms.

Given the size of the customer that is eBay, they should be offering you periodic Zoom status meetings at minimum, say, once a week. Having it on Tuesday afternoons or Wednesday mornings would be ideal, as you would be up to date in time for the Weekly Chat.

I know it seems like I am suggesting some obvious things here, but I'm finding it frustrating when the obvious things don't seem to be actually occurring. Thanks!

Hi @a_c_green - sheila@ebay has a regular meeting cadence with Khoros to discuss issues and has been to additional one-offs on the topic of this bug. I don't have any other update past that I'm afraid.

Tyler,

jasmen@ebay · ‎10-06-2021

@valueaddedresource wrote:

jasmen@ebay wrote:

@stuff4divas wrote:

RE: New Promoted Program

I don’t do community posts complaining about slow sales bc I know online selling is not what it use to be and sales will go thru phases and generally, sellers get what they put in (hopefully).

BUT, as of about Sept 20, this has drastically changed for me and lots of other sellers according to recent posts. This ‘slow sales’ complaint is very different than the numerous whining posts we’ve encountered over the years. It’s as if our selling accounts no longer exist.

I averaged about 1 sale a day over the last few years, with some upswing during the Christmas shopping season. But not any more.

This phenomena happens to be horizontal to the timeline of the new Promoted Listings Advanced (PLA) BETA eBay has rolled out.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Introducing-Promoted-Listings-Advanced-BETA-for-business...

It’s like: If we don’t sign into this program, our listings will no longer be made as visible as b4, regardless of using the ‘regular’ promoted listings (which all 600+ of my listings have)

Thank you,

Dev

Hey @stuff4divas please know your sales are not impacted negatively if you don't use PL or PLA. That can help showcase an item but if a buyer is looking for your item they will still find it. I'm happy to get eyes on it for sure, and if I get more info to share from them I will let you know!

jasmen@ebay - has there been any deep digging into what impact if any may be coming from the automated click filters?

I understand from eBay's perspective that PLS shouldn't be causing some of these issues people are reporting, and maybe they aren't directly, but I'm wondering if it is possible the changes to how clicks are being counted could be having a wider impact?