Community Chat, September 16 @ 1:00 pm PT - eBay Fall Seller Update

[tyler@ebay]

Hi everyone! Thanks for joining us for the Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. This week our topic is the eBay Fall Seller Update. We'll be joined by an expert to address your questions. If you need to catch up on the Update you can review it in detail here. 

If you're new to our weekly chat, welcome! To post your question, click Reply in the lower right corner of the first post between 1-2 PM Pacific Time, type your question, and hit submit. The format of our chat mirrors the format of our Community Discussion Boards, where each post will appear in the thread chronologically - so if you don't see an answer right away, don't despair! We'll get to it. 

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 refreshing and scrolling down to see our answers.

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. You will get a notification when we respond.

[gwzcomps]

These required item specifics further prove eBay has no regard for their sellers.  The consequences were only mentioned 1 week before the date they started.  The required specifics in my field show that eBay is incapable of doing their due diligence with anything they do.  With the one week notice I have tried to file complaints and find work arounds.  I feel the one week notice we were given was a deliberate attempt to avoid any complaints that would change the decision.  I get that eBay doesn’t want the bad optics of getting rid of small businesses and people selling used items outright.  If eBay is going to pull this bull then quit using us to prop up your company.

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

[hknumismatics]

Today's questions from my side will come as individual posts - of which some are follow-ups on previous topics.

1) There still appears to be a glitch in the eBay app for buyers wishing to switch from a US delivery address to a non-US delivery address at the payment stage. This was reported by me here: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping-Returns/Bug-whereby-the-buyer-cannot-choose-correct-ship-to-a...

Comments: Firstly it should be figured out why the app is giving a faulty error message that the seller does not ship to their destination (when the seller does). Then after fixing this it should be figured out if the checkout shall be able to recalculate postage for international delivery, or if there should be a link to request new invoice with the new delivery address, or maybe an option to "make your chosen address primary address so that the seller can send a new invoice for you to pay".

Also, what can be done about removing my shipping defects (dropping me from TRS as this bug accounts for 3 out of 6 shipping dings) due to this eBay technical glitch?

Edit: Reply to this post can be read here

[unusual_retail]

Based off of my research, I think eBay should update their store subscription pricing/benefits. I decided to break down the price per listing as a value metric (shown as PPL).

It’s hard to try and figure out how the pricing works exactly. For some reason the Basic plan has the least value, with the most value being the Starter plan. I know that there are “features” added to the Basic and Premium, but it hardly adds to the selling experience. Based off of the data, I would assume the subscription plan is designed to have a very low cost for a beginning seller. Then the Basic and Premium scales up in cost significantly in order to grow their business. The discount kicks in at Anchor because your listings increase tenfold. I guess the best way I can draw a comparison is the middle class of eBay is paying the cost to do business.

I think it would be a better service if the sellers had the option to do without Terapeak and Selling Manager and have a lower subscriber cost.

                                    Starter           Basic               Premium       Anchor          Enterprise

Yearly sub                 $4.95             $21.95           $59.95           $299.95        $2,999.95

Monthly sub             $7.95             $27.95           $74.95           $349.95        -

PPL                             0.0198          0.0627          0.0599          0.0299          0.0299

PPL                             0.0318          0.0798          0.0749          0.0349         

----

Edit: A reply to your comment can be found here 

[queen8320]

I had an issue with Ebay where $611 was taken out of my paypal, I posted my issue and they told me this weekly chat might be able to help, below is my issue.

3 years ago I sold an item for $611, the buyer wanted a refund so rather than contacting me they immediately request a refund from Ebay, Ebay does so immediately, The buyer ALSO requests a refund from payal, so they got a double refund. Ebay now wanted $611 from me, they sent me an invoice, My Paypal balance was now ALSO -$611. I make some phone calls and fix this issue, keep in mind this was in 2017.

So everything is normal, I continue to buy and sell on ebay for 3 years, I even keep a LOT of funds in paypal at times, $800+ 2 weeks ago for instance, eBay randomly takes $611 from my papal account, I look at the invoice, its from 2017?! I contact ebay and the phone assistance is not even available, I try chat, and chat is basically an Indian who doesn’t understand my convoluted issue, they just give their case to another department which was supposed to contact me, they never did. Do I have any recourse? Keep in mind I have copies of the emails and banks statements. Which I sent them. I'm furious, this is the worst treatment I’ve ever received from a company in my life. Their costumer support is horrendous and they have literally robbed me out of $611

p.s. I have emails and bank statements saved of the money that I gave to ebay in 2017

Edit: Reply to this post can be read here

[hknumismatics]

2) The INR debacle just continues and continues without an end in sight. Different sellers have different specific issues with carriers and geographical areas, but I believe my bottom line comments and suggestions are relevant regardless of situation.

The reply given to my question about it on Aug 26 thread by Tyler was not satisfactory as shipping estimates are not affected by handling times and cannot at all be affected by sellers (apart from different shipping options rendering different estimates).

I ship some stuff international surface mail (with buyer knowing so either through acceptance in messages, or as a personal comment on the invoice which they may or may not have read), which is the only possible shipping method to a lot of destinations right now. Expected delivery time is generally 60-90 days, but eBay helpfully "estimates" delivery within 3-6 weeks, mostly within 4 weeks. This means that by the time a buyer can open an INR it gets decided for them by eBay. (as if I refund them manually/willingly there is no chance to appeal and recover fund if it is later delivered - This is a serious issue as eBay policy states that sellers should volontarily refund the buyers, but in doing so we have even less chance to recover our funds) Mostly even the appeal period of 30 days expires before the item is even scheduled to be delivered by postal authorities. It is a real problem that sellers have to ship out items with long expected delivery times that are not reflected in the eBay estimates.

There are several possible fixes that can be made independently or jointly.

*Further extending automatic estimated delivery times [I do not think this is particularily meaningful as it will not be very accurate anyway, and it does nothing to items already sent or cases opened/closed]
*Introducing an delivery option called "International surface mail" or similar with a 60 or 90 day expected delivery time window, which I suggested 3 weeks ago. I believe and Brian fed onto the suggestion sheet; but this is needed NOW (or even better 6 months ago when this mess started as an international based seller!)
*Extending the appeal period to for example 60 days, preferrably retroactively back to the spring when these issues started.
*Introducing an appeal/repayment function for refunds that have been made volontarily by sellers in accordance with eBay policy.

The bottom line is that I, as a seller, have zero protection against loss (of funds/item) right now when I sell something that ends up being delivered long after eBay's estimated delivery date, despite in almost all cases having made it clear to the buyer before shipping what the real estimated delivery time is. Even if I have an acknowledgement from the buyer that they accept a delivery time up to 90 days they still file INR after 30 days and get their item for free after 70 days when my appeal period has run out. Similar applies to US sellers that have issues with mail stuck for weeks in sorting facilities.

As a seller I realise that some purchases are time sensitive for buyers, and it would not be fair to the buyer to simply hold them to a purchase that is delivered 2 months late (and they are not as they quickly get refunded once an INR is started). However it makes no sense as a seller to risk losing both your item and the money!

The current protections in place do an ok job for protecting sellers from account defects - but there is virtually nothing being done to protect sellers from losing their goods/money. Now we get paid, ship the items, get our money refunded to the buyer (volontarily or by eBay) and then the items are delivered to the buyer. Of course with couriers and some methods it is possible to intercept items, but for the vast majority it is not possible.

----

Edit: A reply to your comment can be found here

[papermoneyforme]

---

@hknumismatics wrote:

Today's questions from my side will come as individual posts - of which some are follow-ups on previous topics.

1) There still appears to be a glitch in the eBay app for buyers wishing to switch from a US delivery address to a non-US delivery address at the payment stage. This was reported by me here: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping-Returns/Bug-whereby-the-buyer-cannot-choose-correct-ship-to-a...

Comments: Firstly it should be figured out why the app is giving a faulty error message that the seller does not ship to their destination (when the seller does). Then after fixing this it should be figured out if the checkout shall be able to recalculate postage for international delivery, or if there should be a link to request new invoice with the new delivery address, or maybe an option to "make your chosen address primary address so that the seller can send a new invoice for you to pay".

Also, what can be done about removing my shipping defects (dropping me from TRS as this bug accounts for 3 out of 6 shipping dings) due to this eBay technical glitch?

---

This chat is only about the seller update, not individual problems.

You should wait until next week and then post your questions and conderns.

[hknumismatics]

3) The other day I had a buyer whom is on my blocked buyer list buy something with their secondary account. The reason they are on my BBL is an INR claim in accordance with point 2) above and they never repaid me or shipped the items back. Now they have bought and paid for a new item. As it was an auction and they paid almost immediately I never had a chance to block them from buying it.

They messaged me with a shipping request - to which I quickly replied that nothing will be shipped until they fulfil their payment or return of the last goods that they bought. Clearly they are unwilling to try to make it right (despite almost 2000 feedback on their main account and being a dealer themselves!).

As far as I understand I am meant to be able to void this sale and be protected from any repercussions according to this policy https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2020-spring/service.html. 
Is this correct? And more importantly, how do I cancel this sale to not get a defect or any fees coming out of my sale?

I asked here on the forums a couple of days ago and did not receive any advise as what steps to take to cancel this sale.

Edit: Reply to this post can be read here

[mam98031]

Hey, WELCOME back, how was the VACA??????????

----

Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

[blukentucky]

Thank you!  great idea

[papermoneyforme]

---

@unusual_retail wrote:

Based off of my research, I think eBay should update their store subscription pricing/benefits. I decided to break down the price per listing as a value metric (shown as PPL).

It’s hard to try and figure out how the pricing works exactly. For some reason the Basic plan has the least value, with the most value being the Starter plan. I know that there are “features” added to the Basic and Premium, but it hardly adds to the selling experience. Based off of the data, I would assume the subscription plan is designed to have a very low cost for a beginning seller. Then the Basic and Premium scales up in cost significantly in order to grow their business. The discount kicks in at Anchor because your listings increase tenfold. I guess the best way I can draw a comparison is the middle class of eBay is paying the cost to do business.

I think it would be a better service if the sellers had the option to do without Terapeak and Selling Manager and have a lower subscriber cost.

                                    Starter           Basic               Premium       Anchor          Enterprise

Yearly sub                 $4.95             $21.95           $59.95           $299.95        $2,999.95

Monthly sub             $7.95             $27.95           $74.95           $349.95        -

PPL                             0.0198          0.0627          0.0599          0.0299          0.0299

PPL                             0.0318          0.0798          0.0749          0.0349         

---

Again, what does this have to do with the seller update which is the topic of this chat.

You should wait until next week to post your questions or concerns.

[mam98031]

Below is a post I made to the dedicated Fall Seller Update threads that got abandoned for some reason after the first day.  Oddly the threads are still open as they usually aren't after a week historically.  But it really doesn't matter since no one from Ebay is active on the threads.

******************************************

I did start a thread on this board for questions regarding this subject which has remained unanswered and that caused me concern.  brian@ebay  brought to my attention that this thread was were to find the answers.  While I don't really understand why they couldn't be answered on the other thread, I will comply as what is important to me is to get answers.  So here we go.

We're updating how we display email addresses

As part of our ongoing effort to combat spam and phishing attacks and protect the privacy of eBay buyers and sellers, we’re no longer showing buyer email addresses in your orders. Instead, you’ll see an alias email address. Now you can contact buyers using their alias email addresses and your “from” email address will also be hidden by an alias email address.

We’ll continue to provide you with all the information you need to fulfill your orders. The change will not affect your business or eBay experience in any other way, and you don’t have to take any action. Unique alias email addresses will be used for each buyer transaction. The same alias email address will be used for all transactions with the same buyer. Your seller ID will not be impacted.

We recommend that buyers and sellers always communicate with each other using ​eBay Messages​ so that we’ll have a record if any issues occur.

I completely understand why Ebay is doing this and I personally take no issue with that.  However I need a few questions answered.

When we have a current transaction with a buyer and have the need to have their real email address, are we still allowed to send an email to them within Ebay and ask them for their email address?

If so, what is the time frame on what Ebay considers a current transaction?  30 days from purchase, 60 days, or how many?

If not, will Ebay be providing a vehicle in which seller can create an after sale invoice for a buyer that needs to be paid?  Currently we do that through PP but in order to do that we have to have the buyer's email address.

There are several reasons why this may be needed.  The most common would likely be when a buyer gives the seller an incorrect ship to address and the package bounces back to the seller because of it.  When discussing the matter with the buyer, they decide they still want the item and agrees to pay for the reshipment of the package.  The seller then needs to invoice the buyer for that amount, again currently done through PP.

----

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

[renegade-chance]

Tyler... what do YOU like most and least about the Fall Seller Update?

-----

A Reply to your question can be found here

[papermoneyforme]

---

@hknumismatics wrote:

2) The INR debacle just continues and continues without an end in sight. Different sellers have different specific issues with carriers and geographical areas, but I believe my bottom line comments and suggestions are relevant regardless of situation.

The reply given to my question about it on Aug 26 thread by Tyler was not satisfactory as shipping estimates are not affected by handling times and cannot at all be affected by sellers (apart from different shipping options rendering different estimates).

I ship some stuff international surface mail (with buyer knowing so either through acceptance in messages, or as a personal comment on the invoice which they may or may not have read), which is the only possible shipping method to a lot of destinations right now. Expected delivery time is generally 60-90 days, but eBay helpfully "estimates" delivery within 3-6 weeks, mostly within 4 weeks. This means that by the time a buyer can open an INR it gets decided for them by eBay. (as if I refund them manually/willingly there is no chance to appeal and recover fund if it is later delivered - This is a serious issue as eBay policy states that sellers should volontarily refund the buyers, but in doing so we have even less chance to recover our funds) Mostly even the appeal period of 30 days expires before the item is even scheduled to be delivered by postal authorities. It is a real problem that sellers have to ship out items with long expected delivery times that are not reflected in the eBay estimates.

There are several possible fixes that can be made independently or jointly.

*Further extending automatic estimated delivery times [I do not think this is particularily meaningful as it will not be very accurate anyway, and it does nothing to items already sent or cases opened/closed]
*Introducing an delivery option called "International surface mail" or similar with a 60 or 90 day expected delivery time window, which I suggested 3 weeks ago. I believe and Brian fed onto the suggestion sheet; but this is needed NOW (or even better 6 months ago when this mess started as an international based seller!)
*Extending the appeal period to for example 60 days, preferrably retroactively back to the spring when these issues started.
*Introducing an appeal/repayment function for refunds that have been made volontarily by sellers in accordance with eBay policy.

The bottom line is that I, as a seller, have zero protection against loss (of funds/item) right now when I sell something that ends up being delivered long after eBay's estimated delivery date, despite in almost all cases having made it clear to the buyer before shipping what the real estimated delivery time is. Even if I have an acknowledgement from the buyer that they accept a delivery time up to 90 days they still file INR after 30 days and get their item for free after 70 days when my appeal period has run out. Similar applies to US sellers that have issues with mail stuck for weeks in sorting facilities.

As a seller I realise that some purchases are time sensitive for buyers, and it would not be fair to the buyer to simply hold them to a purchase that is delivered 2 months late (and they are not as they quickly get refunded once an INR is started). However it makes no sense as a seller to risk losing both your item and the money!

The current protections in place do an ok job for protecting sellers from account defects - but there is virtually nothing being done to protect sellers from losing their goods/money. Now we get paid, ship the items, get our money refunded to the buyer (volontarily or by eBay) and then the items are delivered to the buyer. Of course with couriers and some methods it is possible to intercept items, but for the vast majority it is not possible.

---

Another post that hs nothing to do with today's chat which is about the seller update!

[papermoneyforme]

---

@hknumismatics wrote:

3) The other day I had a buyer whom is on my blocked buyer list buy something with their secondary account. The reason they are on my BBL is an INR claim in accordance with point 2) above and they never repaid me or shipped the items back. Now they have bought and paid for a new item. As it was an auction and they paid almost immediately I never had a chance to block them from buying it.

They messaged me with a shipping request - to which I quickly replied that nothing will be shipped until they fulfil their payment or return of the last goods that they bought. Clearly they are unwilling to try to make it right (despite almost 2000 feedback on their main account and being a dealer themselves!).

As far as I understand I am meant to be able to void this sale and be protected from any repercussions according to this policy https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2020-spring/service.html. 
Is this correct? And more importantly, how do I cancel this sale to not get a defect or any fees coming out of my sale?

I asked here on the forums a couple of days ago and did not receive any advise as what steps to take to cancel this sale.

---

PLEASE STOP WITH THE UNRELATED POSTS.