Come chat with the eBay Community team this month as the chat will be an open forum for you to ask questions. Get all of your questions ready for the us, so we can make the most out of this month's chat on October 11th at 1:00 pm PT!
Thanks for joining us for the Monthly Chat with the eBay Community team.
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Missed the chat? Send your questions to the podcast by calling 888-723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com and maybe your questions will make it on the air! Or listen to past episodes while you wait for next month!”
Devon,
@postcardcountry wrote:
I discovered on Monday I now face the fact I will need to re-plan how to package 3,685 items currently listed.
Because eBay has said “don’t stock that item anymore” in coupon shipping supplies store.
My shipping coupon loses value again, this time not because of inevitable rising prices but because 1 of the 2 main items I purchase has been discontinued.
Do “they” ever look at seller needs before making a decision?
There no longer is offered a stiffened paperboard mailer that can be used to mail a COMIC BOOK or 8x10 autographed PHOTOGRAPH of a sports personality. To use a polymailer or a bubble envelope requires the addition of a backing, thus increasing the price of shipping and materials. The inserts needed to use these envelopes are not offered – sending me off eBay for a purchase.
Ground shipping criteria for under 1 pound is the same as First Class Parcel was previously. Boxes are boxes. Flat mailers must be stiffened or it gets classified as priority mail.
So….not only more time, but more expense.
I repeat once again my shipping coupon loses value.
On 10/9, there were 44 different items for sale. I base my percentages on that number. I discovered on 10/10 another item was dropped, making it 43. I remember (not so long ago) when there were a lot more choices than 44 items.
37% (more than one third) of the items are tape, tissue paper, stickers or thank you cards)
25% are boxes.
25% are polymailers (with no backing)
10% are padded bubble mailers
.07% are paperboard mailers. Sizes 6X8, 4.5X9.5 (#10), 5X7
I know others have complained on the eBay boards and in Facebook groups about the steadily decreasing value of the shipping supplies coupon. The lack of choice of items and higher prices all contribute to this shrinkage.
Any suggestions on how to wake up executives and decision makers to the fact AI and a wonder listing tool isn’t going to help with this very basic aspect of selling? And that this part (and the cost savings involved) are part of what makes that AI research possible?
Hey @postcardcountry thanks for the feedback and suggestion. We'll be glad to pass this along to the appropriate team.
Kyle,
@clarkphilatelics wrote:
If an insured package is lost or damaged, in DMM 609, the US Postal Service requires “Proof of value” before processing an insurance claim. USPS Ground Advantage, unlike First Class Package that it replaced, includes $100 insurance.
For eBay transactions, the applicable part of Section 3.2 “Proof of Values”:
“f. For Internet transactions conducted through a Web-based payment network
that offers payment services through a stored value account, provide a
computer printout of the online transaction identifying the purchaser and
seller, price paid, date of transaction, description of item purchased, and
assurance that the transaction status is completed. The printout must
clearly identify the Web-based payment network provider through which the
Internet transaction was conducted.”
Is there a single eBay webpage that displays acceptable ”Proof of Value”? Ideally, the page would be entirely visible on one screen, allowing screen capture, or a pdf download.
Hey @clarkphilatelics! You can go to the order history page and from there you should be able to see all of the information needed for Proof of Value.
Devon,
@oaktoncardinal wrote:
First let me state I do not shop Amazon, I TRY to purchase from eBay members or occasionally purchase from Walmart. eBay has made finding anything almost impossible. As an example I am looking for 'womens boots 8.5 western' eBay returned to me me 5 listings, 1 or 2 were western and then the remainder of results were 7, 7.5, not western just a miserable mess of listings that in no way met my search criteria. I did numerous searches to turn up other results... let's just say I am still looking for boots. I am not the only buyer that is frustrated with trying to find something on eBay and just can't. Today, FEDEX delivered items I had to purchase from Walmart.
This search mess we all see on eBay is probably responsible for my (our) poor sales. I had 2 sales over the recent holiday and had a Markdown Sale. I can't tell you how very disappointed and frustrated I am with eBay. I don't sell sneakers or trading cards, auto parts or expensive handbags.
I imagine this interaction with eBay will cause me to have absolutely no sales for 7-10 days as is my experience when I contact support. Please fix eBay Search.
Hey @oaktoncardinal thank you for this feedback. We'll be glad to share it, along with your particular example, with the proper team!
Kyle,
@shimmer-and-relic wrote:
Hi! Cant find a direct answer anywhere, so….. My question(s) is, I recently formed an LLC & want to upgrade my personal ebay & bank account to a store using the new LLC name/LLC bank account, but I’m not sure which order to do things so I don’t get stuck with a URL that doesn’t reflect the store name or a bank account that gives me an error msg because I didn’t change the name/bank account FIRST. I also can't tell if I should change my decades old username BEFORE opening the store or after as I DO want to keep the limited number of good reviews I have!, but think that I should probably change that old username?! And, should I also change the bank account BEFORE or after subscribing to a store? I would think it should be before so they can withdraw the subscription fee, but then it won’t match my current account name & as I understand it, the name on the bank account HAS to match my account precisely right? (meaning my real name, not the store name? or is it the store name??) Maybe I’m overthinking this, but don’t want to screw it up lol. TIA for any/all responses!, and yes, I know I only have a few listings currently but I intend to change that very soon!
Bonus points if someone can advise/explain the benefits of if my new LLC store name should ALSO be my new username or just the store name (with or w/o the 'LLC') or does it matter? Keeping in mind, I want the LLC busines name to be the URL name. Clear as mud? 😊
Hey @shimmer-and-relic. For the majority of your questions you will want to speak with our Payments teammates here. They'll will be able to guide you through the steps you're inquiring about. To answer your question on the store URL however, it is not possible to change the name in your URL. This was a feature removed quite long ago as buyers often save the URL to access later, and we found the changing of URL's didn't allow this. Definitely get in touch with the Payments team though so they can help walk you through the rest.
Elizabeth,
@a_c_green wrote:
Hello! Can you please describe for us how the problem-solving Support flow works?
For example, someone will post a report of a problem in either the Selling group or the Technical Issues group (and elsewhere). One of the Community contacts may respond to say that they have referred it to the appropriate team... but after that, it's a complete carp-shoot as to whether they will ever get an update from that team.
Most of the time we don't even get an ALERT case number to refer back to later on. The Community contact person will often say that they're checking back with the team again (devon@ebay, you and the others have been very responsive), but that does not seem to light a fire under anyone who is supposed to be fielding these problems and dealing with them.
Similarly, if something does get fixed, it's never announced; it's just sort of quietly dumped into Production and left for someone to notice. If there's a new release with a bug fix, can't that be announced?
Focusing on the Technical Issues group in particular: it's possible to scroll through page after page of topics, but see only one or two that show a reply by eBay. Granted, a lot of the topics may be repetitive, incoherent, or attributable to User Error of some sort, but still... there should be someone whose assigned task is Front Line Response. Give the impression that there's someone on your side of the wall who's able to respond. Some topics can be resolved with one or two responses that way.
It would be helpful if we could get more consistent responses of "This case has been opened as ALERTnnnnn" or similar. Those of us who are frequent responders in the Community can use those case numbers to point others to a particular topic thread and case, if we recognize their complaint as being the same as one previously reported.
So getting back to my question at last: When you get a problem report, what happens to it? What steps does it follow? Why do the Community contacts seem to have so much trouble getting a useful answer back to update us on progress or resolution? Thank you.
Hey @a_c_green! For the steps that follow once there is a problem is reported is one of us from the Community team will have it reported to the Tech team for an internal ticket. In order for their to be an external ticket that we can share with members here on Community, there would need to be enough volume being reported through customer support and depending on how much volume there is will determine the priority status of the ticket. The higher the volume leads to a higher ticket priority and bumps it up in the que for a faster resolution.
Devon,
@jansencomputers wrote:
eBay stated at the end of August that: In September 2023, shipping costs for UPS & FedEx would be charged immediately rather than after the package arrives.
Why did this never start? We are two weeks into October 2023, and I am only now being charged for packages that were sent in the middle or near the end of September 2023.
If you are going to announce something like you did with banners all over the site, then you need to actually follow through and have it go into affect in September 2023.
When is this actually going to go into effect? Since the original announcement about it lied about when it was going to start.
Hi @jansencomputers. We did pause this feature, and are unsure of when it will be coming back officially. However, I'll be sure to get this feedback passed along to that team.
Elizabeth,
