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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@mazdatrix1 wrote:

EBay USPS flat rate shipping on size versus weight.---

Item weighs 8 pounds and ONE fits in large flat rate box fine -- but two WILL NOT fit.

EBay will let the customer put as many as they can -- up to 70 POUNDS WITHOUT INCREASING THE SHIPPING!!

Needles to say we lost $$ when we found the problem!

Only tempory solution we came up with was to limit the # available to ONE to prevent multiple quantity purchase.

What can be done?? 

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Hey @mazdatrix1 - if you do Flat Rate Shipping within a listing and select a service the listing will not typically take item measurements into account. You may want to consider a Combined Flat Rate Shipping rule (Home>My eBay>My Account>Preferences>Combined Payments and Shipping Discounts), and instruct that an additional amount be added for each additional item. 

You can then revise applicable listings to apply the combined shipping rule and it will charge the stated amount for each quantity item. 

[Anonymous]

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@this4chris2012 wrote:

I've read Griff's blog a number of times. How do I contact you to tell you my ids that are TRS with stores and maybe you can look at my listings and tell me if the problem is me, or is some kind of glitch keeping my listings from being seen?

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Hi @this4chris2012 - Going forward, if you want advice on a specific account, you'll want to post here using that ID. That said, with multiple accounts, I would encourage you to reach out to our customer service teams: https://ocsnext.ebay.com/ocs/cuhome?from_ocs=1 so they can do a deeper review and provide info there.

[Anonymous]

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@do.you.read.me wrote:
While you're at it, It would be great if all the dead links could be fixed.
It would also be great if you'd impress upon your higher-ups that the internal messaging system is one INFERNAL mess. All those warnings about outside selling are a slap in the face to honest sellers and buyers alike.

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Thanks, @do.you.read.me! We've sent this feedback on 

[copper.boom]

It would take me too long to dig up the reference post right now, but I remember it being said in one of the chats that the shipping team was looking into finally(!) add USPS Reg Rate A & B boxes as an option on the listing form (not just the print shipping label form). Is there any update on this?

[ittybitnot]

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

Perhaps many buyers of a below board  nature would be happy with a refund in cash for thier shipping.  They might not, and apparently there are no provisions in place to indicate the buyer must return fhe item  after the shipping money has bee sent.    If a seller can print a DHL return shipping label, that might be good.   Seriously  I doubt that can happen.  We have not been informed as of yet as to how it works when a "signature confirmation" viewable online by anyone is required for the return. 

[mam98031]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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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!

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I would need someone to explain Boolean logic to me.  I did look at the link, but I don't understand it.  To me it makes no sense at all if you are using only two words in your search, the simply act of rearranging the two words result in a different search return.  That to me has NO LOGIC to it at all.

Yes, Trinton is aware of this as I reported it a few weeks back.

[automotivepartsrecyclrs]

When will the Apps ebay has on the site be updated to not have the Active content?

[tyler@ebay]

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@dtexley3 wrote:

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?

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Hi @dtexley3 ! Promotion Manager promotes an already existing sale with fancier verbiage and coloring, but doesn't create the sale itself. In order to create a sale you need to do so via Markdown Manager, which will allow you to select categories or items individually, as well as set up the terms of the sale itself. 

I realize it can be confusing, and the goal is to someday combine both tools into a single one, but at this point in time you need to create the sale in Markdown Manager, and then promote it to potential buyers via Promotions Manager.

[Anonymous]

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@copper.boom wrote:

What is the status of mobile view being updated with the "read more" link next to the description summary?

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Can you give me an item number as an example? I've reveiwed a few listings and see "See Full Item Description" under the description text. Happy to look into this further with an example!

[Anonymous]

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@fashion-junquee wrote:

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?

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Hi @fashion-junquee - For Late Shipment, a scan would be needed within your handling time to prevent a defect. That's the one out of the three checkpoints that's 100% in your control as a seller. Here is a link to the definition for handling time (under the Tracking Requirement section): http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/top-rated.html#what

It seems that the auction you sold yesterday hasn't updated because if it's 2 business day, you would have until Friday to ship that item out on time. 

[Anonymous]

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@janet9988 wrote:

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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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A partial refund is not an option as there would be no way to ensure the buyer is fully compensated if you send a partial refund of the original transaction. Return shipping compensation needs to be separate. There is always an option to send a label, you simply will have to research and find a shipping courier that can provide this to you.

[dtexley3]

This is for regular multi-quantity listings.  Are you saying that the quantity is designed to reset to the original qty, or that the quantity at the end of the listing should be carried forward at relist?

My issue is that this is NOT stated anywhere and it results in sellers having to cancel sales for "out of stock" gaining a defect in the process.  It's not intuative (to me at least) that relisting a multi-quantity listing with only 1 of 3 left would reset the quantity available back to 3!  I have 2 seller defects because of this exact issue and never knew how the buyer could purchase more than I had on hand.

Here's the odd piece.  I just went and checked two listings of mine where I originally had 1 of the item and later updated the quantity to 2 because I got another.  I use 30 day fixed, so these items have been relisted more than once.  Guess what the current qty available is?  If you said 1 you would be wrong!

[doug@ebay]

Hi @do.you.read.me, please provide more detail on dead links, where they are, and we can look into them. You can respond here, or PM me.

Thanks for the feedback on the internal messaging, I see that @Anonymous responded that this feedback has been passed on to the appropriate team.

Thanks!

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@do.you.read.me wrote:
While you're at it, It would be great if all the dead links could be fixed.
It would also be great if you'd impress upon your higher-ups that the internal messaging system is one INFERNAL mess. All those warnings about outside selling are a slap in the face to honest sellers and buyers alike.

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[coinslabz26]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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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. 

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Thanks for the reply!!

What didn't sound right? That there is no option for us to use padded flat rate?

As for paypal. USPS started a few months ago requiring no signature by default but no additional charge to request it, but you have to request it. Ebay shipping auto checks the signature box for all items over $750 so that is not an issue here (and I love that you guys do this it prevents me from forgetting!!)! With paypal it looks like they never updated their system and express is just shipping with signature waiver. I still have the label sitting on my desk with bold letters "WAIVER OF SIGNATURE" displayed between the address and return address and the tracking number was 9471 2096 9993 7668 2901 65 and there is no way to select "add signature". The tracking does not show waived online but you can clearly see that "signature service" is not in the list of servces as it should be if a signature was required.

[bruce.carlson]

hi Alan - My name is Bruce and I am an avid ebay fan and seller!  I have a new business opportunity that I think will improve the ebay community while generating significant recurring revenues for ebay.  I have tried to contact ebay multiple times through multiple avenues, but have never gotten a response.  Normally I would have given up by now, but I really think this idea has great potential for ebay.  I would really appreciate it if someone from ebay could contact me to further discuss this opportunity.  I have sent you a private message with my contact information.  Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you!

bruce carlson jr.

ebay ID: bruce.carlson