Live Broadcast & Community Chat, May 2nd from 12:30 PDT - Retail Revival & General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Hi Community! 

Join us here tomorrow from 12:30 PDT for a live video broadcast and chat hour.

We'll kick off at 12:30 PDT with a live video broadcast where we'll chat about our Retail Revival program. 

From 1-2pm, we'll have a general topics chat hour. Join The Community Team to ask your eBay buying & selling questions. 

See you then! 

[dtexley3]

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brian@ebay wrote:

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@dtexley3 wrote:

Hi Alan,

About 2 weeks ago the FedEx SmartPost calculations stopped applying the dimensional weight correctly again.  This was reported and we were told it would be addressed.  However, we have never received any feedback regarding when or if this will be fixed.

Not a big deal for me as I no longer use SmartPost, but there was no notice made to other seller's.  They may not be aware that the buyer is being undercharged since they are quoted the same estimated price and the final adjustment only appears in the next month's invoice.

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Hi @dtexley3, can you tag me in the specific threads you are referencing? I want to be sure that I fully understand the issue with SmartPost to get you the correct answer. Thanks! 

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You mean I gotta go find it again???  Sheesh!  

[tyler@ebay]

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@cainlabs3d wrote:

Here is my question.  I have any number of items that are available in a multitude of colors.
Is is better to show each color on its own page, or to have the customer flip through pictures of  one listing for the items .

http://stores.ebay.com/cainlabs3d

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Hi @cainlabs3d - you have some great looking items with cool variety! For your items that are the same except for color, consider a multi-variation listing! That will let you set up a single listing with drop downs for color your customers can choose from. 

I was looking for a help page that walked you through setting up a variation listing and all I could find quickly was one from the UK, but the principles are the same. 

It can take some time to set up, but can be a great tool for you to save money on insertion fees and get better exposure for your listing as it gathers sales. 🙂 

[tyler@ebay]

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@dtexley3 wrote:

There's a hot thread out there about a CC chargeback on a GSP sale that really needs to be reviewed for the appropriate handling.  Trinton is aware of the thread, but I think it needs handling at a higher level as it involves contractual relationships between eBay, Pitney Bowes, Paypal, the Seller and the Buyer.  Bottom line, regardless of how the money is being clawed back it should come from the GSP bucket, not the seller.

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Hi @dtexley3 - I can clarify that eBay doesn't offer protection for a credit card chargeback under any circumstances. A seller would need to work with PayPal and the financial institution if a chargeback is filed. 

There isn't a contractual agreement between the card issuer and eBay or Pitney Bowes, a chargeback is a direct dispute between financial processors. 

[Anonymous]

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@mam98031 wrote:

Email notification of a sale has appeared to be MIA for a couple weeks now.  What I find odd is that I get them for any fragrance I sell, but if it is a craft pattern, supply or my beads, I do not receive the notification.  I know this has been reported and I've seen threads on the issue, but for me, it appears to be certain categories.

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Hi @mam98031, sorry for the delayed response in getting back to you on this. I can confirm we've received your email report and will be touching base with you this afternoon! Thank you for your patience!

[mam98031]

I received this email regarding a product I sell.

I am in-house counsel for xxx., the parent company of xxx, the owner of the xxxbrand. xxx holds numerous trademark registrations for its xxx trademarks, including U.S. Reg. Nos. xxx and xxx for various personal care and fragrance products.

You have a listing for a xxx fragrance. The photo looks like product previously manufactured by an Italian company called xxx under a license agreement from xxx that ended in 2004.

Therefore, either your products are unauthorized or they are at least 14 years old. Yet they are identified in the listings as "Brand New." We trust that you do not want to sell counterfeit or outdated products. Please remove your eBay listings, agree to not sell such products again, and identify your supplier to us. If so, we will consider purchasing your remaining inventory.

Thank you for your assistance.

xxxx
Senior Corporate Counsel, IP

This was NOT coupled with a Vero violation.  Which I find odd.  Not only that, much of what this person is saying is NOT true.

1.  Labeling something Brand New does not mean it was manufactured on any given date.

2. This product IS still in production.

3.  The assumption this is extremely old stock is just not true.

4.  The photo is accurate for currently produced product.

5.  It is manufactured by the company in which I state in my listing and this person states in this email as being incorrect or it would have to be 14 year old product.  And on top of that there are other websites and sellers on Ebay that sell the same product, labeled the same way.

I'm not trusting this email to be accurate or proper.  There are holes in what they are saying.  But with that said, I don't want to cause issues with the health of my Selling account on Ebay.  But there is something wrong with this email.  In all my years I've never gotten anything like this and I have had Vero violations in years past.  But the mere fact of a Vero violation does not mean they are accurate, it only means I got one.  Nothing more.  They are next to impossible to fight.

[tyler@ebay]

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@dtexley3 wrote:

There is an increasing number of sellers that are listing with Local Pickup Only, but in the description state to contact them for shipping rates.  This is search manipulation and I've reported as such, but there's too few hours in the day for buyers or sellers to be expected to chase this. eBay should have a team in place that reviews sellers with multiple "local pickup only" listings to make sure they are not violating the rules.

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Hi @dtexley3 - thanks for the suggestion, and for reporting those listings you find when you see them! We'll review and take action if appropriate.

[lacemaker3]

Another general question.

Why have collections been removed from eBay.com?

The help page about collections still says they are available, and gives instructions for using them, but none of these instructions work any more. 

Create and view collections

There are no "Add to collection" links or buttons on listing pages any more.

It has not been possible to create any new collections for months. I tried to create a new collection for my 2018 purchases several months ago. Although it appeared to create the collection, and at that time I was able to go through the motions to add items to it, I was never able to access the collection itself so it was useless.

At that time, I was still able to add items to other collections, but now even that doesn't work any more. For a while it was still possible to add fixed price items to collections but not auctions, now you can't add anything to a collection.

Collections are a very useful way to maintain records, they used to be more reliable than the Purchase History, which has had several long-term and poorly-responded-to glitches, as well as never accurately showing the price of international items. Also, many buyers used Collections to organize items that they were considering purchasing. They are more functional and effective than the watch list, or other lists.

I have asked about this before, going back at least a year IIRC, and I have been told that alan@ebay and other blues are contacting the team involved and will get back to me with the response. But, you have never shared any information or response, just the promises.

Collections are very useful. Please bring them back. If they are not going to be available, then at least acknowledge that, make an announcement, and remove the help pages that say they are available.

[bubbleman2010]

The Akron Oh. sellers that you've invited to this discussion are they mass merchandise sellers or OOAK sellers?

[Anonymous]

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@mam98031 wrote:

I received this email regarding a product I sell.

I am in-house counsel for xxx., the parent company of xxx, the owner of the xxxbrand. xxx holds numerous trademark registrations for its xxx trademarks, including U.S. Reg. Nos. xxx and xxx for various personal care and fragrance products.

You have a listing for a xxx fragrance. The photo looks like product previously manufactured by an Italian company called xxx under a license agreement from xxx that ended in 2004.

Therefore, either your products are unauthorized or they are at least 14 years old. Yet they are identified in the listings as "Brand New." We trust that you do not want to sell counterfeit or outdated products. Please remove your eBay listings, agree to not sell such products again, and identify your supplier to us. If so, we will consider purchasing your remaining inventory.

Thank you for your assistance.

xxxx
Senior Corporate Counsel, IP

This was NOT coupled with a Vero violation.  Which I find odd.  Not only that, much of what this person is saying is NOT true.

1.  Labeling something Brand New does not mean it was manufactured on any given date.

2. This product IS still in production.

3.  The assumption this is extremely old stock is just not true.

4.  The photo is accurate for currently produced product.

5.  It is manufactured by the company in which I state in my listing and this person states in this email as being incorrect or it would have to be 14 year old product.  And on top of that there are other websites and sellers on Ebay that sell the same product, labeled the same way.

I'm not trusting this email to be accurate or proper.  There are holes in what they are saying.  But with that said, I don't want to cause issues with the health of my Selling account on Ebay.  But there is something wrong with this email.  In all my years I've never gotten anything like this and I have had Vero violations in years past.  But the mere fact of a Vero violation does not mean they are accurate, it only means I got one.  Nothing more.  They are next to impossible to fight. 

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Hi @mam98031, while we do encourage a seller to work with the rights owner of a product if they reach out to you, we have a process in place for concerns to be submitted with verification of the intellectual property the other party has concerns with. I recommend you reply to the message and instruct them to review the Verified Rights Owner program to submit formally so we can confirm that this party owns the rights and has the authority to make this request. Feel free to share this link for them to review.

[alan@ebay]

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@mylittlegeneralstore wrote:

What is the best way to clean up my business policies? We wnt thru the process with eBay at one of the meetups and I am still not able to delete or edit the policies. Would it be better to opt out and begin all over again?

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Hi @mylittlegeneralstore,

Good question! I wouldn't recommend opting out, I would try to refresh what you've got in place. 

You cannot delete a policy if there are live listings or templates associated with that policy. We do encourage you to periodically review your existing policies and consolidate them whenever possible, to keep listing quick and easy. 

• To view which of your listings each of your business policies apply to, you have to be opted into Seller Hub. The right-hand column in the Manage Business Policies table shows the number of active listings associated with each policy. 
  
  

• Note that the column that indicates the number of listings that have a policy applied to is updated once every 24 hours.

  • Clicking on that number will open the Listings tab in Seller Hub showing the listings associated with that policy.

Let me know if you need anything else! 

[mam98031]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

I received this email regarding a product I sell.

I am in-house counsel for xxx., the parent company of xxx, the owner of the xxxbrand. xxx holds numerous trademark registrations for its xxx trademarks, including U.S. Reg. Nos. xxx and xxx for various personal care and fragrance products.

You have a listing for a xxx fragrance. The photo looks like product previously manufactured by an Italian company called xxx under a license agreement from xxx that ended in 2004.

Therefore, either your products are unauthorized or they are at least 14 years old. Yet they are identified in the listings as "Brand New." We trust that you do not want to sell counterfeit or outdated products. Please remove your eBay listings, agree to not sell such products again, and identify your supplier to us. If so, we will consider purchasing your remaining inventory.

Thank you for your assistance.

xxxx
Senior Corporate Counsel, IP

This was NOT coupled with a Vero violation.  Which I find odd.  Not only that, much of what this person is saying is NOT true.

1.  Labeling something Brand New does not mean it was manufactured on any given date.

2. This product IS still in production.

3.  The assumption this is extremely old stock is just not true.

4.  The photo is accurate for currently produced product.

5.  It is manufactured by the company in which I state in my listing and this person states in this email as being incorrect or it would have to be 14 year old product.  And on top of that there are other websites and sellers on Ebay that sell the same product, labeled the same way.

I'm not trusting this email to be accurate or proper.  There are holes in what they are saying.  But with that said, I don't want to cause issues with the health of my Selling account on Ebay.  But there is something wrong with this email.  In all my years I've never gotten anything like this and I have had Vero violations in years past.  But the mere fact of a Vero violation does not mean they are accurate, it only means I got one.  Nothing more.  They are next to impossible to fight. 

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Hi @mam98031, while we do encourage a seller to work with the rights owner of a product if they reach out to you, we have a process in place for concerns to be submitted with verification of the intellectual property the other party has concerns with. I recommend you reply to the message and instruct them to review the Verified Rights Owner program to submit formally so we can confirm that this party owns the rights and has the authority to make this request. Feel free to share this link for them to review.

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So I should invite them to give me a Vero violation?  What kind of damage will that do to my account?  

[alan@ebay]

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@bubbleman2010 wrote:

The Akron Oh. sellers that you've invited to this discussion are they mass merchandise sellers or OOAK sellers?

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Hi @bubbleman2010, 

You can check out all of the inventory from the sellers in our Retail Revival on this page: https://www.ebay.com/rpp/Retail-Revival

Thanks! 

[cainlabs3d]

There are actually both.

Some are mass merchandisers, as we are a manufacturing town.

Many, many are original one of a kind, or artwork that is miminally mass produced from local artists.
We are the Art and Maker hub of Ohio, and we love art here, so its in our culture.

I am mixed.  I manufacture every order I get custom, with the exception of the 3d printer filament, that is manufactured in a factory here locally.

[brian@ebay]

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@lacemaker3 wrote:

alan@ebay

Good afternoon Alan. I hope you are doing well.

I have a General Topic question today. 

I would like to know why this seller is able to, and is permitted to, post listings with a banned payment method. Since this is not permitted, I would have expected these listings to be removed after they were brought to eBay's attention. This shooting star seller still has 741 listings up that do not accept a safe online payment method as eBay requires.

You can contact me for the seller's ID. Or, you can ask Brian.T. who posted on the thread after I tagged you guys. 

Since this is a shooting star seller, they really should be aware that this is not allowed. They insisted to the OP that this was an allowed payment method, and started an unpaid item case when the OP, quite understandably, refused to share their cc information with a potential scammer.

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Hi @lacemaker3, thanks for reporting this to us! Sellers can accept credit cards through a merchant account. When they do this, they do not need to accept PayPal. However, if a seller doesn't link a payment gateway to eBay then the "Pay with Other: Card payment by phone/in-person" options will appear. Since the seller doesn't accept PayPal this is the only option buyers will be given. This doesn't seem to go along with our accepted payments policy.

I've sent all of these details onto the appropriate teams for review.

[dhbookds]

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@cainlabs3d wrote:

Here is my question.  I have any number of items that are available in a multitude of colors.
Is is better to show each color on its own page, or to have the customer flip through pictures of  one listing for the items .

http://stores.ebay.com/cainlabs3d

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Not quite sure what you mean by each page........  if you mean the flashlight holder.......I would put them all together in one listing with the color options in that one listing.  You have each one listed with the color options so I'm not sure why you are running more than one listing for it.

On the other listings, you don't seem to be showing any color variation in pictures, tho there are color choices.  I would show some of the other combinations in your pictures for interest and to show the other colors.  Obviously you can't show all the color combinations.

I'd also be careful about asking people to contact you for special requests.  It can get hard to keep up with requests as well as "translate" the color they see in their mind to reality.  Your stuff would lend itself to personalization........but unfortunately no good way to handle it on ebay........  you spend too much time chasing buyers for the info.......  lol, perhaps you could drop a hint to the ebay people who are working with you about that.

Welcome to Ebay!!......looks like you are cashing in on a 3d printer......something I've always wondered about.......  Good Luck!!