Community Chat, Sept 27th @ 1pm PT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Hi all, 

Please join us for our weekly Community chat this afternoon at 1 pm Pacific on Wednesday 9/27. We do not have a set topic for the week, so feel free to ask us what is on your mind!

Chat with you then 

[alan@ebay]

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@mendelsons wrote:
Hi @bigmotormania,

Thanks for the question. Off-eBay sale violations are reviewed by human eyes before we charge a final value fee for taking the sale off of the site.
Yes but what determines whether something is an off-eBay sale violation or simply an ended listing due to something completely unrelated?

Even if human eyes see it and and review it who's to say those human eyes don't make a mistake? What if I delist a $2000.00 item because I dropped it and broke it and get charged the FVF's for that $2000.00 because a human assumed "Oh well for that price they must have pulled the sale off eBay!"

See where I'm getting at? What's to say that this system isn't just as bad than the people it's proclaimed to punish for violations?

Like I said maybe I'm thinking too far into this but honestly this concerns me.
We do look for messages sent that could lead to a transaction offsite or that contact information was included in the listing. That type of activity is not permitted. More info available here.

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The information available on eBay is pretty vague when it comes to how its going to be monitored and specially how its going to be applied.

We sell freight items most of the messages can be handled by ebay messages sometimes for time sake its easier to talk on the phone which I think is still permitted under the latest guidelines.

This new policy just seems very judgmental based on the individual the puts their eyes on the case. How will sellers be notified that they are being charged these fees and also since you called this a violation earlier are sellers then subject to losing their seller privileges based on these additional fees or violations (not sure what to call them).

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You probably are thinking too far into this, @mendelsons. The best thing you can do to protect yourself is to not exchange contact information in eBay messages before a transaction takes place.

If you have an example of a specific use case where you need to send contact information to a buyer before a sale takes place, please PM me with the use case and I will give it to the head of our Trust team for him to review.

Thanks. 

[hidy-hoo]

Hi, Alan and Heidi...There have been several discussions on the Selling Board lately about sellers and buyers being able to exchange contact information if a transaction has been completed, including a phone number, with some saying that this feature is no longer available.  

The A-Z Help page is still showing this as a valid option ~ can you please confirm if this option is still available...thanks.

[d-k_treasures]

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@d-k_treasures wrote:

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@vrykalak wrote:

All this discussion of how "Best Match" is determined reminds me of an old issue I want to bring up again:  

eBay's search engine used to be the best in the universe. It was one of the first to allow AND, OR, and NOT parameters. And the search results showed exactly and only what I asked for. I loved it. 

Now, though, the vast majority of search results contain only a few--or in some cases NONE!--of my keywords. Some bizarre AI is apparently deciding what I should want to find, and changes the parameters to match. 

I want a SWITCH I can turn on, on the Advanced Search page, that says: give me ONLY results that contain (or don't contain, in the case of a NOT clause) the keywords I specified!

Any chance of that?

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I'd like one that gives me the results I actually searched for - instead of returning nothing and then trying to find the listings under 'related' searches that all contain the search criteria.

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And I never, ever use best match - if I could block that selection thru adblock so I couldn't hit it even by accident, I would.

[mam98031]

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@vrykalak wrote:

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@laylajames9 wrote:

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@vrykalak wrote:

All this discussion of how "Best Match" is determined reminds me of an old issue I want to bring up again:  

eBay's search engine used to be the best in the universe. It was one of the first to allow AND, OR, and NOT parameters. And the search results showed exactly and only what I asked for. I loved it. 

Now, though, the vast majority of search results contain only a few--or in some cases NONE!--of my keywords. Some bizarre AI is apparently deciding what I should want to find, and changes the parameters to match. 

I want a SWITCH I can turn on, on the Advanced Search page, that says: give me ONLY results that contain (or don't contain, in the case of a NOT clause) the keywords I specified!

Any chance of that?

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vrykalak, I do see those options on Advanced Search. Are you seeing something different from this:

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Those options may have meant something once, but they don't now. 
I always select "Exact words, any order"

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I have offered proof in the past that sometimes the search does not work properly just from the order in which we type in the words to the Ebay search box.

The example I used before was:

Burberry Body 1,129 listings returned

Body Burberry 1,564 listings returned

Now that just should not happen EVER!

[doug@ebay]

Hi @bluebird_engineering, thanks for the feedback, we'll share this with the Seller Hub team. You can also share feedback like this through the 'Comments?' link on the Seller Hub pages as well.

As for your country drop downs, it should only be specific to the site you're registered on, i.e. UK in your case.

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@bluebird_engineering wrote:

I don't have America or Canada in Seller Hub country drop down list. Also I need a global option so I can review my total sales 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days... for my total global sales. I need to know exactly what my total is not per country.

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[Anonymous]

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@vrykalak wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@laylajames9 wrote:

I opted in to business policies and the screen updated to say it would take time to process and check back in 8 hours. Days later the same message was appearing.

I called customer service and they told me that this is a known issue and anybody who has signed up in the last six weeks is experiencing the same error.

Going into the holiday season I would like to get my business policies set up now before I ramp up the number of listings. Can you please find out what is going on and when we will see this fixed?

The cs rep said anybody who signed up before this problem began would not have any issues using the business policies.

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Hi @laylajames9 - I'm not familiar with this issue but I'd be more than happy to look into it and see what updates I can find. I'll email you shortly after the chat ends for more info and we'll go from there. Thanks!

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How about providing the answer at the beginning of the chat next wee?
Inquiring minds want to know.

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@vrykalak - We can definitely share what we find on this in next week's chat. Thanks for the suggestion! 

[dtexley3]

Hi Doug,

The comments button on the Seller Hub Overview page doesn't work, it shows a survey.  This has been reported in other threads.  When you click on the comments button you get a multi-item survey style yes/no feedback page.  

All the other pages allow you to enter free text.

[alan@ebay]

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@dtexley3 wrote:

There are several discussions on how shipping deadlines are calculated for 1 day shipping (not same day) for sellers that are not in the pacific TZ.  Different sellers are seeing different behaviors and it makes it uncomfortable for them to offer faster handling when the system gives out disparate answers. Is someone on the eBay side reviewing and following these threads?

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@I am not sure, if you @mention us in the threads we'll take a look. 

Thank you. 

[mam98031]

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@dtexley3 wrote:

Hi Doug,

The comments button on the Seller Hub Overview page doesn't work, it shows a survey.

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Tis true, but there it is brief and there is room to type in what your concern or observation is.

[dtexley3]

We have, nobody has been responding to the majority of @mentions or respond several days later.

Just over the recent few weeks.

[alan@ebay]

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@d-k_treasures wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@d-k_treasures wrote:

Why can't the regular ebay pages stick when viewing frm a full browser from a phone using Chrome?

Every time I click on 'classic site', I do get the page in the regular view as I see it on a normal computer, but any subsequent pages go back to the junk mobile pages.

When will this be fixed?

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Hi @d-k_treasures - I'll send this on to the mobile team to see what needs to be updated to help here. Keep in mind that you can reach out on our mobile discussion boards: Android & iOS where our that team reviews and engages on things like this as well. Thanks for letting us know!

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Does anyone from ebay actually go there or is it like the Technical Issues board, where currently the first page of posts only have 3 threads where an ebay employee actually responded to?

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The Android and iOS boards are monitored and replied to where necessary by eBay staff. 

Thanks. 

[alan@ebay]

Thanks for joining us today! We've locked the thread as the hour is up, we'll stick around and reply to any questions we haven't answered yet. 

Have a great rest of the week. 

[Anonymous]

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@dtexley3 wrote:

I've mentioned this in a couple posts, but wanted to put it here.  I'm not really seeing any benefit from promoted listings.  My sales rate has not risen and i'm not convinced that any of the very few items sold did so because of promoted listings.

When I search and see my own items I see no indication that they are a promoted listing should I?

Back in early August I put a promotion on 250+ items in a single store category that was selling an average if 3-4 items per week  for months.  The sales stopped and I've sold 1 in the last 7 weeks.  It's a holiday category and I would expect to see more sales than I did in spring and summer.  Nothing changed but the addition of the promotion.

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Hi @dtexley3 - I would recommend checking your sales from this time last year and see how they are compared to now. We are entering the holiday season and I would suggest not giving up just yet. Try changing a few of your campaigns and play with different ad rates to see if that helps as well. You might be able to find the perfect balance that will show you the results you're looking for. 

Listings that are promoted in search will show 'Sponsored' on the ad to help indicate the difference and they'll be shown in different in a few different places on the site.

[Anonymous]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Heidi, Thanks. So the sell through rate is NOT a Best Match factor for a seller like me, who sells only 30 day listings of one off type items (no multiple item listings), is that correct?

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques

That is correct 

[alan@ebay]

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@dtexley3 wrote:

@We have, nobody has been responding to the majority of @mentions or respond several days later.

Just over the recent few weeks.

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Thanks for letting me know, @dtexley3. 

Our team has been stretched the last couple of weeks with Seller Update and Tyler and Trinton being out of the office. We get to as many mentions as we can. We should have the guys back in the office posting again very soon. 

Thanks for your patience.