mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
wooden_flower Volunteer Community Mentor.
Join the Community team here at 1 PM PT on September 11th for our Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. We don't have a set topic this week, so please bring any general questions you may have on buying or selling.
The chat will be open for questions from 1-2 pm PT, at which point we'll close thread. While no additional questions can be submitted after this time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that may still be unanswered.
If you're new to the chat, welcome! Simply Reply to this post with your question from 1-2 PM Pacific Time and we'll be happy to look into it for you 
@vrykalak wrote:
eBay has suddenly decided that five of my listings have external links. They don't. These same listings gave been posted many times, with NO changes. and never had a problem before.
This happened several months ago with a listing that included the words "befuddled expression like Kermit"I realized that eBay was objecting to the word "Kermit" because that is the name of a piece of software. I pointed out that the reference could not be to the software unless it was followed by "(K_" which it wasn't. The algorithm was not interested. I had to removed "like Kermit" to satisfy the algorithm.
With these current five items, I have to insight like that. So eBay will remove these 5 listings, and slap me on the wrist, for non-existent external references.Could you please pass along to the PTB:
- if a link is suspected, tell the seller what it is
- be willing to acknowledge that it is NOT a link when proof is provided
Hi @vrykalak - can you let me know how you received notice of the links violation? Did we send it in an email or was it a pop up? I know that we've discussed the specific 'Kermit' usage before in previous chats and had good input for you. If you'd like to post a few item numbers I'm happy to look into it!
@rosevelyn wrote:Thanks, Tyler.
I would greatly appreciate clarification especially because of this new protection that it will not override any current adequate protections.
Can you be more specific. What current protections are you concerned will be affected by the new ones coming next month?
Hi there,
Just an easy question on managed payments invitations - is there a way to ask a managed payment person some specific questions? I read several pages of info, but every link took me to another page of info.
Or could you just pass my questions to the right person? -
- One of the invitations I received said 'join now to select the start date that is right for your business' - my question - how far out can this date be? What would be right for me is for it to coincide with my store subscription renewal, which is June.
- If June isn't a choice, is there any way to get the cancellation fee waived when I downgrade my store? To deal with the MP fee per item, I am reducing my listing count from 1,000 to probably less than 20. So I will no longer need a premium store.
thanks!
Sue
@vrykalak wrote:eBay has suddenly decided that five of my listings have external links. They don't. These same listings gave been posted many times, with NO changes. and never had a problem before.
This happened several months ago with a listing that included the words "befuddled expression like Kermit"I realized that eBay was objecting to the word "Kermit" because that is the name of a piece of software. I pointed out that the reference could not be to the software unless it was followed by "(K_" which it wasn't. The algorithm was not interested. I had to removed "like Kermit" to satisfy the algorithm.
With these current five items, I have to insight like that. So eBay will remove these 5 listings, and slap me on the wrist, for non-existent external references.Could you please pass along to the PTB:
- if a link is suspected, tell the seller what it is
- be willing to acknowledge that it is NOT a link when proof is provided
You can use this tool to bulk scan your listings, find issues like this, and find out how to fix them. Tool provided by the Community's own @shipscript, eBay Hall of Fame winner.
https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ActiveContentScanner.htm
Here's an example of one of your listings (found through the tool above) which has two non-eBay links in the HTML code. (I did a quick scan of the listing, and couldn't find the links, so they may not be displaying in the description for some reason, but they still show up in the scan, and need to be removed.)
https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ActiveContentSandbox.htm?383145021007
@wooden_flower wrote:
Hi there,
Just an easy question on managed payments invitations - is there a way to ask a managed payment person some specific questions? I read several pages of info, but every link took me to another page of info.
Or could you just pass my questions to the right person? -
- One of the invitations I received said 'join now to select the start date that is right for your business' - my question - how far out can this date be? What would be right for me is for it to coincide with my store subscription renewal, which is June.
- If June isn't a choice, is there any way to get the cancellation fee waived when I downgrade my store? To deal with the MP fee per item, I am reducing my listing count from 1,000 to probably less than 20. So I will no longer need a premium store.
thanks!
Sue
Hi @wooden_flower - if you've received an invite email you should be able to contact a managed payments teammate directly by phone and ask that question to a real-live expert. 🙂 Their phone number is (800) 456-3229. Thanks!
@rosevelyn wrote:CS has had me go into Paypal and deduct the return label cost from the item refund when a case has been decided in my favor.
That would be the appropriate thing to do on a Buyer's remorse return. And you offer 30 day return with buyer pays shipping. So that sounds right to me.
tyler@ebay wrote:
@wooden_flower wrote:Hi there,
Just an easy question on managed payments invitations - is there a way to ask a managed payment person some specific questions? I read several pages of info, but every link took me to another page of info.
Or could you just pass my questions to the right person? -
- One of the invitations I received said 'join now to select the start date that is right for your business' - my question - how far out can this date be? What would be right for me is for it to coincide with my store subscription renewal, which is June.
- If June isn't a choice, is there any way to get the cancellation fee waived when I downgrade my store? To deal with the MP fee per item, I am reducing my listing count from 1,000 to probably less than 20. So I will no longer need a premium store.
thanks!
Sue
Hi @wooden_flower - if you've received an invite email you should be able to contact a managed payments teammate directly by phone and ask that question to a real-live expert. 🙂 Their phone number is (800) 456-3229. Thanks!
Wonderful! - thank you 🙂
Sue
@rosevelyn wrote:
On a recent Community Chat I stated that I had a difficult time when I called in to CS having highly exaggerated neutral feedback removed when I had actual evidence in a simultaneous message from the buyer that did not match her experience as she stated in the feedback.
The following is the response that I received from the eBay Community Team after posting in a recent Community Chat.
RESPONSE from the eBay Community Team:
- The feedback that was removed should not have been removed as it did not violate any eBay policies. The buyer is entitled to their opinion, which includes any exaggeration or hyperbole that they wish to express. The Feedback forum is an opinion based forum, and outside of limited protection options for specific situations, we do not investigate for factual accuracy.
- A feedback revision would be your best option to pursue if a buyer is open to revising the feedback in question.
- Appropriate coaching has been sent to the agent that removed this feedback for you so this mistake is not repeated in the future.
- Even though the feedback was removed in error, we do not reinstate feedback under any circumstances, so the removal will remain in place.
- We wanted to address this topic with you so you had clear expectations for any removal requests in the future.
NOW MY COMMENTS:
Can we at least remove “the begging factor” out of contacting buyers about exaggerated abusive feedback? Can there be a boiler plate statement that we can send the buyer that forces them to at least retrace their steps or else? Why do we have to set ourselves up for more abuse and take on more demoralization?
In my situation, I wrote to the buyer and she agreed that it should be modified, only because I appealed to the fact that she too is a seller. Then when I made that final phone call to ebay the feedback was removed because the rep said she saw I reached out to the buyer. Is that all it takes? To write the buyer even if they don’t respond? That would be so much better.
Finally, how does all this tie into the coming protections? I watched the workshop video from the conference and it appears that submitting a report is supposed to result in the removal of abusive feedback. But does that now fold facts into the decision making process?
Are future protections for sellers going to incorporate “facts” as the basis for removing feedback, especially when they line up so effortlessly?
Hi @rosevelyn, reaching out to a buyer is not enough to have a feedback removed. A feedback revision request would need to be sent to the buyer, at which point they would have to accept it and revise the feedback. Working with a buyer to get a feedback is optional of course. If there is a reasonable solution to their issue then it may be worth going this route. This is something each seller will need to determine on a case by case basis.
The new Seller Protections and how they will cover feedback are outlined here (and in the below screenshot). Feedback will only be removed if the seller reports that their buyer falsely claims the item is not as described or if the buyer returns a used/damaged item.
@jsfindustrial wrote:Can Ebay add Guam to the list along with Hawaii, Alaska and P.R. for a surcharge when listing?
I have to keep cancelling deals with people of Guam because they are recognized as a U.S territory, but in reality It's much more expensive to ship here and is not part of the surcharge list.
On that same note. After all these years, Ebay still labels sales to Puerto Rico as an International sale. I don't think it is unreasonable after all these years to think Ebay could have fixed this long before now.
@papermoneyforme wrote:
Hopefully, not getting myself in trouble or stepping on toes.
Last fall there were some issues with postings on the Canadian boards from a staff member that is not longer with Ebay in regards to changes on the US site and when Canada could expect them.
One in particular concerned the store tier changes that the US got I believe in May of last year.
Canada was told it would be in the fall of 2018 which never happened and then told late January or early spring which also never happened. I could not get anything further and you should know the reason why.
I will ask here, why are we not getting the same updates as the US, and why are we told information that never materialized. Is Canada going by the wayside?
Will we ever get the new store tiers the US has had for about 1 1/2 years and we were told we would get them a year ago and then 9 months ago?
This is only one instance of issues but a very blatant one.
Hi @papermoneyforme - eBay Canada isn't going anywhere. 🙂
I don't have an update on the store tier-rollouts that were announced in 2018. Currently there have been no retractions or announcements that these store levels are not coming to the platform, so I'm hopeful we'll see them in the future. I do not have a timeline or a reason why there has been a delay.
I know that you don't like small talk, so I've kept it brief. Let me know if you have any other questions!
