Weekly Community Chat, May 24th @ 1pm PT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Hello! 🙌

Please join the Community team at 1pm Pacific this Wednesday 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. 

Last week I shared a link to a survey we're currently conducting regarding the weekly chat format. Thanks to everyone that has taken the time to give us feedback, we've received some great insights and suggestions for improvements already! If you haven't yet taken the survey, please do so via this link.

Talk to you tomorrow! 

[vrykalak]

---

@carlmarxx wrote:

---

@vrykalak wrote:

bought insurance for a Media Mail package [ebay seller / process / shipping]

among other things, the "contract" said:
- void if any label on the box indicates what's in it

...useful, but not scary

- void if the carrier is not liable for damage or loss

...scary, because the insurance is not with USPS, and USPS is NOT liable for damage or loss of Media Mail.

Is that true: that buying eBay's insurance for Media Mail is a complete waste of money?

---

---

@vrykalak wrote:

bought insurance for a Media Mail package [ebay seller / process / shipping]

among other things, the "contract" said:
- void if any label on the box indicates what's in it

...useful, but not scary

- void if the carrier is not liable for damage or loss

...scary, because the insurance is not with USPS, and USPS is NOT liable for damage or loss of Media Mail.

Is that true: that buying eBay's insurance for Media Mail is a complete waste of money?

---

The USPS is Liable  for lost or damge  for all parcels ,if you bought USPS shipping insurance .  As for the ship cover insurance offered by ebay,  I don't know their  policy's  for media mail  . 

---

Er...that's why I asked.
Will Ship Cover pay if a Media Mail package gets lost, or won't it?
If not, eBay should warn sellers they need to use USPS insurance for Media Mail.

[Anonymous]

---

@vrykalak wrote:

Another search issue:

If I use the "or" function (i.e., several keywords in parentheses), I often get far FEWER results than if I ask for just one of the keywords.
That makes no sense...but it keeps happening.

I have mentioned it to CS reps several times, and I'm sure others have as well.

Is eBay trying to fix this?

---

Can you give me an example to look into?

[lintbrush*]

Hi alan@ebay

Thanks so much for that @ notice follow-up with infomation on last week's chat regarding potential new shipping supplies being added to the offerings 'soon.'  Yeah, I know we boardies hate the word, but I really hope it is soon.

I shouldn't have to buy so many boxes from other suppliers when I'm already paying for them here with my store fees.

I gave away almost all of my voucher last quarter because I couldn't use it.

[carlmarxx]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@carlmarxx wrote:

Hello Trinton ,  I ran to some issues with search system even after I used a key word  for the item . After item came up  other stuff showed up  that  had not thing to do with the item i was looking for  when it came up .

---

Can you give me the specific keywords and the item you were looking for? Happy to look into this with examples.

---

Yes I can  ,    I was Looking up   Retro Mego  star trek   ,those are action figures .    

[tyler@ebay]

---

@vrykalak wrote:

bought insurance for a Media Mail package [ebay seller / process / shipping]

among other things, the "contract" said:
- void if any label on the box indicates what's in it

...useful, but not scary

- void if the carrier is not liable for damage or loss

...scary, because the insurance is not with USPS, and USPS is NOT liable for damage or loss of Media Mail.

Is that true: that buying eBay's insurance for Media Mail is a complete waste of money?

---

From what I can see there are some caveats to your statements (http://pages.ebay.com/insurance/shipping/coverage.html) - mainly that you can't indicate contents unless required by Postal Law and shipped Parcel Post. Additionally, from what I can see the specific wording is 'coverage is contingent upon the Carrier being liable for loss..'. For me that indicates that if it's a carrier loss, damage situation, your insurance through this program would be covered, but an Act of God would not be. However, for specific coverage questions regarding the program I'd encourage you to reach out to Shipcover directly (http://www.pipinsure.com/ShipCoverContacts.aspx). Thanks! 

[Anonymous]

---

@upscale_shop wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

 If an item that has been marked down with one of the promotion tools meets one of these two criteria, it may show up in this filter. This filter is designed to help buyers find great deals on the site and I will be sure to pass along your suggestions 🙂

---

Thanks, Trinton.

The keyword is "May" I'd assume. Not to sound cynical, but I tested it yesterday with prices below average selling price, and none of the items showed in the search using "deals and savings".

---

Correct - as I mentioned, this search filter uses an algorithm to display results and does not automatically show every item that may be under the average price on eBay. This is in part because ti is looking at average sales prices outside of eBay as well. You may be under the average sales price on our site, however still not be beating the price point of other locations.

[vrykalak]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@odditiesandantiquities1 wrote:

Second item  I said to other sellers I would bring up is the problem with getting US eBay reps on Customer Service VS overseas US reps and the problems that occur, whether it's a problem with communication, understanding or generally just not beingpleasant.

---

eBay is a global marketplace and as such you are likely to speak to our customer service agents around the globe when calling in. Some topics are the same from country to country and as such, are handled by all of our customer service teams around the world. Appropriate coaching can be provided for any specific issues if the sellers that voiced these concerns would like to reach out 🙂

---

How does one "reach out" when the CS rep obviously doesn't understand the question.

[carlmarxx]

---

@vrykalak wrote:

---

@carlmarxx wrote:

---

@vrykalak wrote:

bought insurance for a Media Mail package [ebay seller / process / shipping]

among other things, the "contract" said:
- void if any label on the box indicates what's in it

...useful, but not scary

- void if the carrier is not liable for damage or loss

...scary, because the insurance is not with USPS, and USPS is NOT liable for damage or loss of Media Mail.

Is that true: that buying eBay's insurance for Media Mail is a complete waste of money?

---

---

@vrykalak wrote:

bought insurance for a Media Mail package [ebay seller / process / shipping]

among other things, the "contract" said:
- void if any label on the box indicates what's in it

...useful, but not scary

- void if the carrier is not liable for damage or loss

...scary, because the insurance is not with USPS, and USPS is NOT liable for damage or loss of Media Mail.

Is that true: that buying eBay's insurance for Media Mail is a complete waste of money?

---

The USPS is Liable  for lost or damge  for all parcels ,if you bought USPS shipping insurance .  As for the ship cover insurance offered by ebay,  I don't know their  policy's  for media mail  . 

---

Er...that's why I asked.
Will Ship Cover pay if a Media Mail package gets lost, or won't it?
If not, eBay should warn sellers they need to use USPS insurance for Media Mail.

---

I did some checking . Yes Ship cover will cover you , but you would have much quicker time with USPS insurace  , since their Pay out time frame is little faster .

[bigmotormania]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@upscale_shop wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

 If an item that has been marked down with one of the promotion tools meets one of these two criteria, it may show up in this filter. This filter is designed to help buyers find great deals on the site and I will be sure to pass along your suggestions 🙂

---

Thanks, Trinton.

The keyword is "May" I'd assume. Not to sound cynical, but I tested it yesterday with prices below average selling price, and none of the items showed in the search using "deals and savings".

---

Correct - as I mentioned, this search filter uses an algorithm to display results and does not automatically show every item that may be under the average price on eBay. This is in part because ti is looking at average sales prices outside of eBay as well. You may be under the average sales price on our site, however still not be beating the price point of other locations.

---

If you don't mind my asking, what is the point then? If a deal isn't showing up when you search for deals, then why have a feature designed to show deals?

Savings are savings, omitting certain deals because of some abstract algorithm that decides willy nilly which deals it's going to show based on something unrelated to eBay kind of defeats the purpose, does it not? 

10% below average is a deal, 50% below average is a deal, but if someone loads up another site with items at 50% their value but not on sale then wouldn't that cause cassini to pick it up as being the "average"?

[golfingaddict]

More details about the guaranteed delivery program were announced this week. 

I have more questions about this program.  I've read the FAQ's but I still feel that I am missing a bit. 

Would it be possible to have the "team" in charge of this program hold a Q and A before it is time to sign up?

Thank you.

[tyler@ebay]

---

@upscale_shop wrote:

Tyler - I only ran Firefox when it was happening. Have not listed anything since 2pm EST, so I don't know if it continues. Clearing cache and all made zero difference. Downdetector had a huge areas lit up around the sme time, mainly in New England, DC, UK, and Australia.

---

Thanks for this - I'll get it reported. 

[lintbrush*]

Oh - is Best Offer the default setting on the quick listing form still?  and it's not shown on the form to remove/add it?

There are posts from buyers who are making best offers to sellers who are turning them down outright and saying their price is firm.  While it may be convenient to eBay and keeps the quick form simple, it's not good for eBay as a whole.  Sellers are upset because they didn't want it in the first place and can't get it off easily - but it's ticking off buyers. 

We need to not tick off buyers over something like this.  Bad buyer experience.

This is also how I feel about the automatic renewal (GTC) on the quick form with no duration available.  Lots of sellers are going to have to end their item early and buyers will start wondering where it went.

[alan@ebay]

---

@lintbrush* wrote:

Hi alan@ebay

@Thanks so much for that @ notice follow-up with infomation on last week's chat regarding potential new shipping supplies being added to the offerings 'soon.'  Yeah, I know we boardies hate the word, but I really hope it is soon.

I shouldn't have to buy so many boxes from other suppliers when I'm already paying for them here with my store fees.

I gave away almost all of my voucher last quarter because I couldn't use it.

---

Believe me, we'd love to be able to break news here first! However, we've got to wait for it to go out through our official channels first. Thanks for your patience, good news is on the way. 

[mam98031]

---

@golfingaddict wrote:

More details about the guaranteed delivery program were announced this week. 

I have more questions about this program.  I've read the FAQ's but I still feel that I am missing a bit. 

Would it be possible to have the "team" in charge of this program hold a Q and A before it is time to sign up?

Thank you.

---

@golfingaddict

I didn't see that notification, would you please share a link to it.  Thank you in advance.

[vrykalak]

"As I'm sure you are aware, the feedback has no impact on your seller performance rating"

Since when? 
My status went down from Above Average to Below Average when I got 2 negs in a 3-month period, and only crawled back to Above Average six months later.