mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
ShipScript has been an eBay Community volunteer since 2003, specializing in HTML, CSS, Scripts, Photos, Active Content, Technical Solutions, and online Seller Tools.
Hi everyone! 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.
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@gwzcomps wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:
@gwzcomps wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:I know I may sound like a broken record, but we are passing the 4 month mark by my notes where we are still not getting email notifications for threads we are subscribing to and following. This is really a huge amount of time. The bell is horrible and frequently inaccurate.
Updates please.
Not gonna lie as an active user I am starting to like the way things are working on the boards. I feel really bad for the new users though since there is no way to notify them if they don't come back. I don't know if I want all those emails, but I would feel better if I can notify someone if I have a good answer to their question.
Receiving the emails is a CHOICE. You don't want them, fine. Make sure your community preferences are set not to receive them. Some of us prefer to have the emails, I'm one of many. I'm glad things are working well for you, they aren't for me and others. There is room for both types here and choices you can make in your preferences to keep things as you like them.
I'm not sure about the last part of your comment. That is simply resolved by tagging them on your posting. They should get notification in the bell or email when it comes back, that you have tagged them.
Tagging doesn't send emails. That was the point of my last part.
If emails were working, yes it does send an email.
@valueaddedresource wrote:
tyler@ebay wrote:
@valueaddedresource wrote:
Yesterday the System Status page was showing Service Disruptions for Billing & Payouts but did not give any specifics about what the issues were or how sellers could identify if they had been affected.
I noticed that today the status page was updated to reflect the issues had been resolved without any further information.
Can you shed some light on what disruptions/issues were being experienced specifically so sellers know what to look for and report in case we see lingering issues?
Hi @valueaddedresource - we requested more information on the issue from yesterday and have not yet heard back on details. If and when we hear back we will update the chat as well as the threads you've tagged us to on the subject. Thanks!
Thank you tyler@ebay . Please also pass on to the appropriate teams that it would be very helpful to have access to more detailed information about service disruptions when they occur.
Billing & Payouts are both very critical functions of the site - service disruptions to these features should be communicated in detail either as an announcement here in the community or a more detailed email alert should be sent out.
As it is, we are left wondering if this was the cause of multiple reports of sellers having Managed Payment payouts declined, multiple reports of sellers getting error messages when trying to send invoices, multiple reports of buyers not being able to complete check out, etc.
More direct, specific, proactive and timely communication would go a long way toward helping ease sellers' minds about some of these issues - and it would also go a long way toward alleviating some of the extended hold times and reply delays from customer service as well. 😊
Hi @valueaddedresource - I don't disagree with you there at all! Transparency is important, especially with reported technical issues. Hoping I get more information to share soon!
@golfingaddict wrote:
Is the seller sellebration going to be on the community platform this friday? Is there a special board to link to access the party?
@golfingaddict it won't be on the Community boards. Instead, the Sellerbration will have it's own page and location here: https://ebay25.com/
I encountered the same lack of info last weekend when trying to decide about an offer (desktop), and I had remembered how easy it was before. I did find the zip code by doing something like "counteroffer", I think, where it did appear. Then I could cancel and get back to calculating a decision.
@mvls1 wrote:
Tyler, this has been a problem for quite a while. The zip code used to be shown at the bottom of the message with the buyers offer. Now it is not showing half of the time and the only way to get it is to send the buyer a message asking for it which delays the whole process.
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Edit: A reply to your comments can be found here
@a_c_green wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:
@mr_lincoln wrote:Good afternoon Brian & the rest of the eBay Support Team!
Subject: New Label Flow - Dimensions
This request is a few weeks old, can you please provide an update from the Shipping & Handling Team on the request to correct the dimensional order of Length x Width x Height of packages. On the listing form and pretty much everywhere else in life we enter L x W x H but the most recent Label Flow has it backwards when it transfers the Listing form dimensions to the label flow ... they are showing H x W x L ...
Standard on this kind of stuff is usually width by height by depth. That is standard in so many industries and I'm not sure why they are bucking the system on this one. It only creates confusion and mistakes.
For clarity (especially since the fields aren't even labeled on the Shipping form, as seen in the screenshot, I think we should describe the order of values as Longest First and Shortest Last. Length x Width x Depth is also a common description, but for Girth calculations (Longest dimension, followed by distance around), there has to be either an assumption that the Longest value comes first, or the coding has to be smart enough to see which of the three values is the greatest, and then treat the other two as Width and Depth.
Frankly, I don't trust the coding seen to date in the new Shipping form, and having the dimension fields come up both unlabeled and in the reverse order that they were entered by the user does not inspire confidence. Can we get whoever is does Shipping form coding these days to correct the order of the values to be as entered by the user, and label them for clarity? (I did submit this as a request via the link on the Shipping form some time back, but have seen nothing in response. I also pointed out some bad grammar in the form that needed fixing, and that is not fixed either.)
Except that would be different than the way it is often done. Even USPS goes width, height, depth. To do something different than that seems to be to add unnecessary confusion.
Thanks for joining the Chat this week. It's now closed, but we'll continue working through it to ensure that all questions receive a reply.
Thanks!
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Hi, I asked this question last week, and you said you'd check with the Shipping team. Just wondering if you've heard back from them?:
This relates to the addition of UPS to ebay label shipping:
My local PO is within walking distance, my nearest UPS location is not so near, and could entail difficult travel during the winter. If I offer a buyer both UPS and USPS shipping options, and the buyer purchases UPS but I don't want to risk driving in bad weather but do want to meet my one day shipping promise, can I ship via USPS? And if so, how can I determine which USPS shipping class is equivalent or better than which UPS class?
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques sellers should honor the shipping method their buyer selected. My understanding is that if a buyer selects USPS the options to print UPS or FedEx won't be available during the label printing process. If the seller and buyer agree to a different shipping service via eBay messages that should be fine, though we don't have a system in place to show sellers equivalent shipping services so that is research they would have to do on their end.
@mr_lincoln wrote:
brian@ebay wrote:
@gwzcomps wrote:
eBay continues to claim they are committed to its buyers and sellers. We still have yet to see any proof of that commitment when it comes to the CS side of things. When is eBay going to quit hiding behind the pandemic excuse and get their support systems to at minimum par with internet providers? It is pretty sad when my ISP provides better support for a mere $60 a month than eBay does for $1000 a month.
This is especially critical with the MP changes eBay is ramrodding down our throats with no support or consistency.
@gwzcomps COVID-19 has resulted in us having our customer service people move to a work from home setup to ensure their safety (I'm also working from home and am very grateful to eBay for this) and this did change how we service members for some topics. The managed payments team is still available to help members by phone though. You can reach them by going to this page and selecting 'Have us call you' at the bottom. They'll be happy to help you with your payments questions.
For other questions you can go here and select 'Contact us' at the bottom of the. Depending on the topic you will be able to have us call you, chat online, or send an email.
Hey brian@ebay ... perhaps its time to revisit my suggestion to allow pre-registered questions for the Weekly Chat ... considering how thin eBay is spread right now it might enhance the eBay Community experience by letting members send questions in Monday & Tuesday and then have the answers (if possible of course) posted with the original question on the Weekly Chat when it opens.
This doesn't have to be a permanent change but maybe its a good idea for the Covid-19 world we live in right now ... for myself, I might come up with a good question during the week or weekend but may not be able to hit the 1 hour time slot on Wednesdays ...
Best regards,
Mr. L
@mr_lincoln we can run this by Rebecca to get her thoughts. I'm definitely not opposed to this as it would give Tyler and I more time to look into questions and get answer 🙂
@tsme35 wrote:
When is ebay EVER going to put request invoice on its app, I've been losing sales because buyer has no access to a computer, this has been going on for years. When I can't combine shipping they don't buy, esp. since 40%+ sales are happening on cell phones.
Hi @tsme35 - we'll make sure to get this to the mobile team. You're right that mobile devices are a huge portion of usage on eBay, and getting you as much functionality as we can from the full site to the app is important. Thanks!
@mam98031 wrote:
tyler@ebay wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:
I know I may sound like a broken record, but we are passing the 4 month mark by my notes where we are still not getting email notifications for threads we are subscribing to and following. This is really a huge amount of time. The bell is horrible and frequently inaccurate.
Updates please.
Hi @mam98031 - there isn't currently an update to this other than what you've heard me tell you in the past I'm afraid:
The right Khoros and eBay teams are aware of the situation and they are working to resolve the issue.I know and I'm not shooting the messenger, but clearly they don't see it as an important issue. 4.25 months is a LONG time.
Hi @mam98031 - I don't disagree with you there. Tracking tech issues and response times is something that we're working on to ensure things don't fall between the cracks.
