07-18-2017 10:21 AM
Hi Community,
Please join us here for our weekly Community chat at 1 pm Pacific on Wednesday 7/19. There isn't a set topic this week so feel free to ask us your eBay buying & selling questions.
Talk to you then!
Alan - eBay Community Manager
If a member's response helped, please give it a Helpful. If you are the author of a thread and a member's response resolved your question, please click "Accept as Solution." More on Accepted Solutions.
Check out the eBay for Business podcast! For your chance to be featured on the show, call in with a question at 888 723-4630!
07-19-2017 01:34 PM
alan@ebay wrote:
@timemachine777 wrote:I believe it is long past due about having a major community discussion about revamping the Community Guidelines as they are very Draconian, and many of the individual rules are ambiguous and vague at the least. We as a community are affected by these rules that have little interpretation. And any appeal process is pretty well none exist.
So too protect members there should be checks and balances, or some measure of a stop gap, to prevent over reach and an abuse of power. These rules have shed the boards of many good members in the past, and just sends them to post on private forums about eBay issues and out of the reach of any retaliation due too their unwelcome views by a few.
Posting accounts should not be able to be severed due to minor back and forth squabbling, baiting into and argument, joking around, etc. They should be only for severe offenses. Like blatant none stop stalking of members, disgusting and filthy posts that are blatantly vile and vulgar in a more extreme context. An not from a basically tasteless and or contentious position.
Because, if the latter were truly the rule of thumb here, then I could cite close to a 1000 recent posts over the last couple of months that would qualify for removal, and board banning. It just seems that all is not equal when these ambiguous rules are applied or executed. There needs to some form of semblance.
Great examples of Ambiguity and Draconian measures:
4. Be respectful. Content that is harmful, hostile, threatening, abusive, baiting, vulgar, defamatory, harassing, or includes hate or racist speech, name calling or profanity will be edited or removed. Read more about our Profanity policy here; information on our Threats of Bodily Harm policy is available here.
7. No naming and shaming. We will not tolerate posting about listing or member violations. Item numbers, auction links, negative/neutral feedback scores, other members ID or contact information posted for the purpose of shaming another member will be edited or removed. Read more about this policy here. (Note: The wrong link is embedded here. The link is in relation to "contact info".) http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/identity-contact.html
10. Do not discuss or post about moderation actions. Discussion of moderation actions, reposting of deleted posts or discussion of suspended or no longer registered members. It is not permitted to discuss or repost removed content. It is inappropriate to talk about others who are suspended from the community or eBay.
These are the primary topics though the other rules have issues within their group also. I just wanted to highlight the ones that affect the most posts here. If all these rules were enforced equally on these boards. There wouldn't be any members left to post. We'd all be banned forever in less than a month, as the violations would stack up in a good day of posting here, or one good argument,which happens all the time.
There really is no definition as too how any of rules even apply to the context of a typical post. Nothing is defined. Example: Content that is baiting...Define baiting. Same with harmful, hostile, threatening, abusive, vulgar, defamatory, harassing.There are all levels of these examples from minor to extreme that are passed over in loads of posts, by both members and mods, without a care less. Is what defines which terms violate the rules and in what context?
We need to remove the draconian heavy handedness elements of these rules and the ambiguity surrounding the implementation rules and punishment and the terms themselves. I can't even find a reference as to the time frames for each ban in succession.
If a new member or one just not familiar with site gets banned they can't even access the guidelines in the link provided within the ban, nor the announcements pages, which everyone should have 24/7 access too, regardless of being currently banned from posting. The announcements can effect members business choices at the moment of release, and should have no connection with board usage.
We completely rewrote our guidelines in October 2016; there are no current plans to rewrite them again.
I wouldn't agree that they're "draconian." We have thousands of active users in our Community each day who do not experience post removal or moderator action.
Our team has a duty to keep all users in the Community safe, and posters in the Community have a duty to ensure that they adhere to our usage guidelines when posting.
The eBay Community Team regularly meets with the Lithium moderation team to review all moderation action taken.
We do not enjoy moderating, but having a safe and enjoyable environment is very important to us.
If you ever have concerns with moderation action taken on your ID, you can contact me via Private Message, and I will personally review the situation.
Thanks.
I'll do that.
In regards to keeping the community safe...There have been issues regarding over reach and plain overkill.
Lets say a member goes and clicks on a thread to see what it's about, and while doing so, they are redirected to the main posting page without knowing why. So they ask the community if the sites glitching. Based on the current rules...They get a whack for asking that question. That's Draconian.
An that's just one example of numerous ones.
07-19-2017 01:34 PM
As a seller, I encourage buyers to add 2 or more items to the shopping cart and request a revised invoice. When buyers cannot do so, I lose business.
From some experimatation, for those items with the new NOT SELECTED by seller NOT DISCLOSED in the listing IPR, only sometimes can a buyer put a lot of items fixed price items from the same seller into the cart and request an invoice.
Sometimes the "request for invoice" button is missing. Sometimes when it is there it works fine. Other times when clicked the buyer receives a message that they cannot request a total on IPR items (even though this was the ebay induced invisible IPR).
As stated, the program is not rolled out 100%. Thus, users see different results, and communicating about this issue is going in circles of late.
07-19-2017 01:34 PM
07-19-2017 01:35 PM
@Anonymous wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:I have a question relating to the Ebay catalog pics.
There is a series of perfumes that I can't seem to carry on Ebay. If I post them sometime in the near future I will get a Vero violation for my pics. Granted they are stock photos provided by my supplier, but they are the SAME photos that MANY other sellers use, yet in the years that have followed this problem, they are all still using them and apparently not having any problems in doing so.
Now in Ebay's catalog are many of these same pics that I got in trouble for using. How and why is this happening. Why can Ebay and other sellers use the pics, but I'm not allowed. It makes no sense to me.
This is all regarding to a line of perfumes produced by Bond No. 9.
A VeRO related listing removal would be due to the direction we received from the rights owner. I recommend reaching out to the rights owner using the contact information provided when your listings were taken down to discuss these other listings that you feel may be in violation. They also may be authorized by the rights owner to use these photos, as the rights owner can designate authorized resellers as they see fit.
Thank you for the info. I tried that back when this originally happened to me. They were non responsive even after several attemps.
As for others having "permission" to use the photos, while certainly large sellers may have done that, but for most on Ebay, they would not have. I have several friends on Ebay that are perfume sellers and they aren't big nor have they received permission to use the photos other than through their suppliers like I have. Yet they are freely using stock photos without Vero interference.
But really all that wasn't really my question. How is Ebay absorbing these photos for their catalog without Vero issues? So if I use the stock photo from Ebay's catalog, then will Vero leave me alone or am I'm opening myself to more issues with Vero?
07-19-2017 01:36 PM
@mam98031 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@dhbookds wrote:
Relative to the Immediate Payment required by Ebay on items less than $1000.......has that rolled out completely now.......so we can remove our seller IPR to enable the cart "ask for invoice", if we want?
This has not yet rolled out to 100% of sellers. You could test out your listings with a friend or collegue to see if those without immediate payment required by yourself are being pushed into this automatically. If so, then you are a part of the test and could uncheck the IPR box when listing for eligible items.
Oh PLEASE put my name on the list of objecting to the forced use of IPR. If I want to use it I have the option to use it. Why FORCE sellers to use a function that is currently optional? It is NOT in the best interest of buyer & sellers alike.
If Ebay is firm in its belief that it will cut down on NPBs, then do an educational campaign with sellers for the few that may not understand what IPR is. But for most sellers we know what it is and what it can bring to the table. I use IPR on a lot of my listings and not at all on others. It is NOT a good function for many different types of items being sold.
Why doesn't Ebay feel we are smart enough to figure out for ourselves if we should have IPR or not?
Hey @mam98031, I definitely have passed along a variety of pain points from our sellers to the appropriate teams for review. I like your idea of an educational campaign and will include this in the feedback I have passed along. I know you've run into some frustration with this change within your business and appreciate your feedback on this, sincerely.
07-19-2017 01:36 PM
@Anonymous wrote:
@bigmotormania wrote:Hello, Alan.
I have an inquiry in regards to the IPR thing.
Considering only one of my items is actually over $1000, I was curious since I haven't actually been able to ascertain exactly how this works.
So, if an item from a seller like myself (small seller) is less than $1000, then it's eBay that requires the IPR, yes? Meaning I cannot remove this IPR at all, period.
My reasoning for asking this is if I were to start doing lot sales of multiple types of small items (motorcycle parts; o-rings, specialized nuts and bolts, gaskets, piston rings etc) which are generally cheap, but I put them up for say, $15 for a lot of 20 items, for example, and then I get a buyer who wants to purchase for example, 10 lots, but they cannot combine them because eBay's IPR won't allow for them to request an invoice, then that certainly poses a problem, yes?
Basically what I am asking is, is this an absolute requirement, is this how it works, and if the answer to either of those questions is "yes" "for the most part" "pretty much" "something like that" "it can be summed up that way" "essentially" "indeed" "quite so" "basically" or any answer along those lines, is eBay doing anything to fix buyers not being able to use the cart to request an invoice for multitudes of these items?
Thanks.
Hi @bigmotormania - Your buyers are able to request an invoice through the cart when your item automatically qualifies for IPR. If your buyers are asking for more lots than you have in the listing, you shouldn't be including those on an invoice after purchase. Instead, you'll want to list the number of quantities you have available so buyers can select how many they'd like to purchase ahead of time.
I see. Though I should note that was hypothetical and in the event I did do such a thing not all of the lots would be the same items but that doesn't mean they wouldn't fit the same motorcycle.
Hence why I was wondering. I'd be opening myself up for a heck of a lot of SNADs if I listed 10 lots under the same listing and each lot had different items.
07-19-2017 01:36 PM
No problem with the American flag..it's the words on it saying Made in USA. I'm not allowed to put the flag in my image because I'm not selling American flags. Also not allowed to put text of made in USA on my image even though it is. It's not about the flag, it's about rules of what can and can't be in your product image.
07-19-2017 01:36 PM
doug@ebay wrote:Hi @vrykalak, here's the link to your eBay profile:
http://www.ebay.com/usr/vrykalak
@vrykalak wrote:My ISP is going to build a Facebook page for my e-commerce activities. They said they could link it to my eBay ID...Just needed a URL for that. What would that be?
Super! Thanks. (I thought I tried that and it didn't work...but I guess I didn't have the "http" clause on it.)
07-19-2017 01:37 PM
@ittybitnot wrote:
seller central
We don't have a 'Seller Central' board, we have 'Selling, ' and the link there links to this chat.
Alan - eBay Community Manager
If a member's response helped, please give it a Helpful. If you are the author of a thread and a member's response resolved your question, please click "Accept as Solution." More on Accepted Solutions.
Check out the eBay for Business podcast! For your chance to be featured on the show, call in with a question at 888 723-4630!
07-19-2017 01:37 PM
@duchess-at-speakeasy wrote:
Where does eBay publish a complete list of countries associated with the GSP (both U.S. and UK)?
While I don't currently employ the GSP, I would like to know which international destinations are on the list and whether I can be selective. That is, can I block certain countries and limit GSP sales to a limited number of countries?
~~C~~
Hi @duchess-at-speakeasy - The list of countries included for GSP are listed here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/shipping-globally.html#countries for your reference. If you're located in the US, this is the only list you'll need to review as the other is specific to sellers in the UK.
07-19-2017 01:38 PM
@critter_mama_2007 wrote:
thanks, i just sent an email.
Sounds good! They should be in contact soon with next steps. Thanks, @critter_mama_2007!
07-19-2017 01:38 PM
When does eBay plan to archive board posts that originated more than 6 months ago? Lately, the primary boards (Selling, Bidding, Shipping) have been inundated with necro threads from as early as 2012!
Any thread begun prior to February 2017 should be "read only" and any eBay user should be directed to start a fresh thread for a user-specific subject. Even some more recent threads should be archived, but 6 months is reasonable to allow, for example, discussion and resolution of an issue that involves Paypal's 180-day returns policy or updated annual/bi-annual postage increases.
I might add that a few of the Lithium mods have been archiving a few threads -- mahalo, mods! -- but the sheer number of "ancient" threads on pages 1 and 2 of a given board appears to be overwhelming them.
~~C~~
07-19-2017 01:39 PM
07-19-2017 01:39 PM
Good Afternoon!
My question is regarding combined shipping and GSP.
I have recently expressed my frustration with the warning messages regarding offline sales. I have had answers and I have worked out the sales with that specific buyer. However, it has occurred to me that the underlying issue is that not all items can be combined in the cart With GSP. This is not the first time I have run into the issue and have always made it a policy to just make a special listing when requested. Now that Ebay is sending out these messages, I would like to find a way to manage GSP through the cart and avoid the extra listing altogether.
Usually this happens when I have items that would normally ship a couple different methods (ie a large item that ships fedex along with a small item that ships first class)
Is there a way to get around this? If not is there something in Ebay's plans to fix the issue?
07-19-2017 01:40 PM
alan@ebay wrote:
@ittybitnot wrote:Just for your information, the link on Seller Central goes to last week's chat.
Thanks, just looked into it and it's linking here. Is it the post on Selling or on the PowerSeller board?
@ittybitnot, did you try refreshing the page, and/or clearing caches?
Sometimes things in your cache decide to lead to stale links.