Weekly Community Chat, June 14th @ 1pm PT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Hi Community, 

Please join the Community team at 1 pm Pacific today for our weekly chat. We do not have a set topic this week so feel free to ask us your buying or selling questions or share what's on your eBay mind. 

Talk to you at 1 pm!

[tyler@ebay]

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@coinslabz26 wrote:

Any update from the shipping team on my post from last week about getting the option to use padded flat rate envelopes added to ebay shipping?


Extremely frustrating issue too. So I discovered yesterday that paypal shipping does have a priority mail ex[ress padded flatrate option. So yesterday when I sold a $3750 coin I though what a wonderful time to try this out. Come to find out there is no way to add signature confirmation to any EXPRESS label in the new paypal shipping. There is an option to add signature to every other class of mail including media mail but NOT for express mail. Then the labels print "waver of signature" by default with no way to select add signature. I was absolutely floored. Now I have to wait a month for my postage refund, and my poor buyer is now confused with 2 tracking numbers since I had to print another though ebay shipping to get signature confirmation. Very frustrating! Someone should probably inform paypal since most people are not using express mail to ship cheap stuff!

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Hey @coinslabz26 - I did hear back from the shipping team that 'that didn't sound right' and they would be in touch with more specifics. I didn't update you because I wanted something a bit more substantive before I did. 

I'll request another update to see if I can light a fire under them. As for the PayPal label, I'm just as floored as you, as Express typically automatically requires a signature. It's confusing to me that they would default to 'waiver of signature' as well, as that's less helpful. I'll see what I can do to get the feedback to PayPal's shipping people. Thanks for the update, and I'll let you know when I hear back. 

[Anonymous]

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@b86fiero wrote:

Hello Everyone,

Please explain what "Bundle Listing" means on the Sell Your Item form.  Seller chooses yes or no.  Just popped up today for me.    

Thanks!

Bonnie Jo

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This would be a way of indicating that your listing is a bundle of multiple different items. If you are selling a few different items together as a bundle, marking "Yes" in this item specific field will assist in search results.

[fashion-junquee]

Could you clarify something with regards to late shipping defects? Previously, Alan has stated that as long as tracking was uploaded on time, a late delivery would not count against us. Was that correct? Or is it an acceptance scan that has to be shown in the uploaded tracking within the handling time?

Also, can you point me in the direction of ebay's official definition of a business day? I recently had an auction that was won on the 11th. The winner did not pay until today. The ebay note states that it must be shipped by tomorrow. My handling time for this listing was 2 business days. My choices are same business day (which would be today), 1 business day (tomorrow), 2, 3 ,4, etc. Why wouldn't it be required to be shipped by Friday the 16th, which would be 2 business days?

[dtexley3]

Marketing Promotions and Sales.

Bit of a gripe, I tried to create a sale in one of my store categories.  I selected Marketing | Promotions | Create a Promotion | Sale Event.  I proceeded to add a 15% promotion and when I got to the inclusion / exclusion rules I selected the store category.  At this point I selected "Preview", no items appeared, odd.  I selected Auto Select a picture and a red box appeared at the top of the page stating I had no items to select from.   Read the notice at the top that I needed to do something in Markdown manager as well?  What the heck?  I'm creating a sale but it doesn't really create a sale?  Hit the help link at the top, the help doesn't supply ANY useful information.  

Why have a Create Sale Event that has you select items for sale if it's not going to actually do anything?

[Anonymous]

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@vrykalak wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@vrykalak wrote:

Someone asked for examples of search issues:
search: "Star Trek" (episode 14, Galileo 7) got 28 results
search: "Star Trek" Galileo 7 got 65 results

Another thing that is happening more and more often:

a search gives, say, 101 results, but only 18 are displayed

and there's no way to go to another page, or ask for more.

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Hi @vrykalak - The more keywords you add to the search bar, the more refined the search results will be. With that working as is, the behavior in your first comment seems to be working as intended. 

As for the second point, search results will show a total amount of items within the search. So if 18 listings appear but they have multiple quantity available, it will calculate that into the total search results shown. 

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In olden days, putting options in () was an OR function. 
Usually, it works that way. 
Your claim that it's now an AND function is not logical, 
because none of those 18 displayed responses contained both terms.

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Hi @vrykalak - I did some more research on this and I apologize for any wrong info given here. Boolean logic should work in results which wouldn't explain the different results you're getting (http://pages.ebay.com/help/search/advanced-search.html#using). It seems this is a different issue than we were already investigating and so I'd recommend reaching out to our Customer Service teams to have it reported.

[janet9988]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@ittybitnot wrote:

Hello all. 

With regards to returns, I have been reading of late that for a US seller that ships internationally, and cannot provide a return shipping label to a buyer out of the US,  ebay is saying to send "cash" via PayPal.

This is sort of unbelievable.  Suppose the buyer simply keeps the cash and does not return the item? Is there any recouse for the seller should this happen? 

Thank you  in advance. 

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Sending money is only one option; the seller can also provide a prepaid label for the buyer to use.  It is up to the seller to select the option that will work best for them. We don't offer protection for the situation you describe and would recommend providing a label if you are concerned.

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So technically, it would be better for the seller to do a partial refund as the buyer could still claim the seller did not supply them with the return funds ( If a foreign label can not be produced online) as sending cash has NO protection. Ebay will just refund the buyer automatically for refusing to pay the  return shipping costs. With a partial refund, the buyer would only be able to claim the rest of the full amount paid originally.

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[ittybitnot]

The steps would depend on the courier you are using; not all couriers are able to provide you with a label for international shipment, however I have heard sellers frequently discussing DHL as a good international option and can suggest you start there. The label could be emailed to you and you could forward this label to your buyer or you could save the image of the label for your buyer to print out and attach to the package for return shipment.

Thank you for the answer. Fortunately, I will not have to deal with this since I no longer ship out of the US for ebay sales.  I was asking due to questions on the community boards.   The "sending money" option seemed rather silly/risky and is confirmed by the fact there is no seller protection for sending funds in this manner. 

Will look into DHL....and apprecaite your response. Living in the everglades, I  have not seen a DHL place in the last 20 years...LOL....maybe they are just around the corner from the gator's nest?   

[panhandlesurplusllc]

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@dtexley3 wrote:

This issue came up on one of the boards.  When you relist an item it resets the quantity available to the original quantity, not the remaining from the listing.  For example if I have a listing with 3 items and I sell 2, there's 1 left.  Relisting the item resets the quantity availble to 3!  This is NOT noted ANYWHERE expect in a couple posts in the community.   I never noticed this was occurring as I seldom have multiples of the same item.  This does explain 2 of my "item not in stock" cancellations where I could not for the life of me figure out how the buyer could purchase more than I had left.  This is VERY frustrating and should be part of the tutorials and documentation for sellers, especially new sellers.

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@dtexley3- are you referring to listings with variations or regular multi quantity listings? We discussed this on the powersellers board, last year and the answer @Anonymous got for us was that the quanities are supposed to reset for listings with variations, but are supposed to be preserved for regular MQ listings.

[mam98031]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@this4chris2012 wrote:

I have been selling on eBay for more than 15 years. I am TRS on two of my id’s and have two stores. I usually have a combined total of 200-300 listings running.

It’s the middle of June and the month is shaping up to be my worst ever. So far this month I have had three sales.

Like thousands of other sellers, I have experienced steadily declining sales for years. But this is unbelievable.

What’s wrong?

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Hi @this4chris2012 - I'm not showing any listings on this account to provide suggestions which could help. Without that, I'm not able to provide much info on what could be happening. If you haven't already, check out this blog by Griff: http://community.ebay.com/t5/eBay-for-Business/In-a-Slump-Griff-s-Tips-for-Stimulating-eBay-Sales/ba-p/26163675 for best practices which could turn things around. 

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There isn't any new information in Griff's page.  Certainly all good advice, but for a seasoned seller, there is nothing new.  There are other issues at play.  It isn't just a few sellers, there have been many knowledgeable sellers that are having their sales significantly affected.  For me, the slow down in sales started in February and Each month thereafter has been a little worse than the previous month.

There are problems with the search engine, people have posted clear evidence on various threads.  And there may be other issues at play here.  But they aren't the seller's issues, it is the site having issues in various ways.

[this4chris2012]

Now that Promoted Listings is available on single items, I tried it. What I saw in my listings was the item listed twice, with the second listing saying "sponsored." Does having it listed twice like that mean it can be purchased twice, i.e, a buyer could buy either listing and the second one stays viable, thus creating a scenario for the seller to receive an out of stock defect?

[alan@ebay]

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@llllady wrote:

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alan@ebay wrote:

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@ymeagainlord wrote:
Any chance of getting a "heads up" on what the new shipping supplies sizes will be and when they'll be available?

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We're very close, we have multiple variations that are ready to launch! When we can share more information, I will post about it. 

Thanks. 

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Oh, Alan, Alan, Alan!  You forgot to say SOON!  😉

Just poppin' in for a hello. 

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Hey, good to see you!

I try not to say soon, I know how it irks some people! 

[Anonymous]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@vrykalak wrote:

Someone asked for examples of search issues:
search: "Star Trek" (episode 14, Galileo 7) got 28 results
search: "Star Trek" Galileo 7 got 65 results

Another thing that is happening more and more often:

a search gives, say, 101 results, but only 18 are displayed

and there's no way to go to another page, or ask for more.

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Hi @vrykalak - The more keywords you add to the search bar, the more refined the search results will be. With that working as is, the behavior in your first comment seems to be working as intended. 

As for the second point, search results will show a total amount of items within the search. So if 18 listings appear but they have multiple quantity available, it will calculate that into the total search results shown. 

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With respect Heidi this is not necessarily true.  Just recently I reported some strange issues with the search and it just makes you scratch your head.  Not always, but sometimes the ORDER in which you have your words in the search box makes a different in the return.  EXACT same words, just a different order.  That is NOT an issue of the user, that is the program.

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Hi @mam98031 - It seems the issue reported above has more to do with Boolean logic than the order of keywords. I corrected myself on the issue being reported in this conversation and @Anonymous has reported the issue you've brought up. Thank you!

[b86fiero]

Question about eBay staff having the ability to read my messages from buyers.

A new eBay member purchased a hardcover novel from me.  I shipped immediately.  Buyer received it - plus other books written by the same author from another seller.

Buyer opened a case against me in the Resolution Center claiming the book I sent her had water damage to the last 100 or so pages.  The book I sent her was in Like New condition.

Buyer then sent me a message through the Contact Seller link telling me that she got me mixed up with the other seller and that the book I sent her was in "EXCELLENT" condition.  (Her words exactly).  She has actually sent me 2 messages now both stating the same thing and apologizing profusely.  They are both in My eBay Messages Folder.

I called eBay to inquire how to resolve this false SNAD claim.  eBay customer service employee told me there is nothing I can do about it.  He told me that no eBay employee is allowed to read our messages.  The buyer is afraid of the Resolution Center and will not add any message to the open case.

How are seller's supposed to defend themselves if even when given permission from the account holder they are not allowed to read proof of innocence?

[Anonymous]

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@dtexley3 wrote:

This issue came up on one of the boards.  When you relist an item it resets the quantity available to the original quantity, not the remaining from the listing.  For example if I have a listing with 3 items and I sell 2, there's 1 left.  Relisting the item resets the quantity availble to 3!  This is NOT noted ANYWHERE expect in a couple posts in the community.   I never noticed this was occurring as I seldom have multiples of the same item.  This does explain 2 of my "item not in stock" cancellations where I could not for the life of me figure out how the buyer could purchase more than I had left.  This is VERY frustrating and should be part of the tutorials and documentation for sellers, especially new sellers.

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This was discussed a little more in detail on a thread earlier this week. See: http://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Tired-of-the-wonkiness/m-p/27090505#M981427 for the full details. I've gotten this reported on for enhancements and encourage you to review the details of the listing when you are relisting in the meantime.

[dtexley3]

I second this, especially the part about Acknowledgment!   With all the issues people are having, especially the wonkyness of the searching, having someone at least acknowlege that these issues are being tracked would go a long way.  I realize customer service is hard, most of the time you're dealing with someone who's  already unhappy and it's unlikely that you have a quick fix, but a simple ack will make a difference to most.