10% eBay Buyer AND Seller Promo a bust - sucks for me!

[logan17k_ll]

Just got off the phone with eBay's offshore support team after my recent eBay Bucks cert came in $164 below what was expected.  The Promotion was 10% back for buyers AND sellers up to $100 per transaction, in qualifiying categories.  Two things happened, one much worse than the other:

1. The big ticket item I sold on the 14th for less than I should have - anticipating the $100 refund - turned out not to qualify.  The promotion on the sales end was for items listed between the 12th and 14th AND sold by June 21st.  This was entirely my lack of lawyer-like focus on the fine print, but still a hard pill to swallow.  The majority of the Promotion description made it sound like anything sold between the 12th and 14th would qualify.  Would love it if this were made a little more crystal clear as I'm sure I'm not the only one who got hit by this.

2.  And this is the big one... the second item I sold by the 14th - AND listed on the 12th, did not qualify because, and I quote, "I did not receive the promotion in an official ebay Message".   Okay.   I found out about this promotion by clicking the GIANT CENTRAL BANNER advertising it on eBays home page, which led me to a page describing the promotion and a button to click "Activate the promotion" or some such nonsense.  Anybody would assume that by clicking the "Activate the Promotion" button and getting the confirmation, that they're now eligible for the promotion.  Now, I'm a skeptical person and I do read the fine print on these things because I know there are always 'gotcha's'.  Apparently in my excitement to recover some portion of eBay's fees in my sales I glossed over the one that said 'you don't actually qualify despite all this pageantry unless we've written you an invitation'.  So for that $640 sale, eBay refused to credit the $64 in eBay bucks.    I should point out, and I couldnt see through the blood while I was on the phone still with the rep, that while apparently I didn't qualify for the promotion, I still have two purchase transactions during that time period where I was credited 10% bonus bucks UNDER THE PROMOTION.  Pretty sh#tty ebay.

The fine print:

  Who's eligible? 
Only invited, registered eBay Bucks participants who receive the promotional offer from eBay in My Messages are eligible. Sorry, no forwarding—the offer is not transferable. (I'm sure this must have been in the fine print I read, but man, just, man.)
Promotion details 
The Promotion starts at 5:00AM PT on June 12, 2018 and ends at 11:59PM PT on June 14, 2018 (the "Promotion Period"). The Promotion applies to any qualifying items purchased during the Promotion Period that meet the minimum purchase requirement and any qualifying items listed during the Promotion Period and sold by June 21, 2018. Rewards will be deposited into participants' eBay Bucks accounts by June 30, 2018. You must activate the offer to qualify. 

*Qualifying purchases or items listed for sale exclude all items in the following categories: Classifieds; Business & Industrial, but only for Heavy Equipment within that category; Real Estate; Gift Cards & Coupons, including eBay Gift Cards, Gift Cards, and Digital Gifts within that category; Bullion within the Coins & Paper category; and all categories in Motors, except Parts & Accessories.
Rewards are capped at $100 per transaction (purchase or sale) and $500 per Earn Period. See eBay Bucks Terms & Conditions for other program restrictions. Purchases must be completed during the Promotion Period and paid for before the Promotion ends. eBay reserves the right to cancel, amend, or revoke the Promotion at any time.

[emerald40]

Wait, you misread both promotions, and this makes ebay shady?

[logan17k_ll]

Sorry you must have misread my post - I know, it happens!

eBay credited me bucks as a buyer under the promotion, but refused to credit as a seller for a higher value transaction that met every other criteria.

Also, they listed this promotion on their main page, and apparently allowed anyone to click through and "activate" the promotion, while leaving them categorically if selectively ineligible.  I didn't call them shady, why, does that sound shady to you?

[emerald40]

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@logan17k_ll wrote:

Sorry you must have misread my post - I know, it happens!

eBay credited me bucks as a buyer under the promotion, but refused to credit as a seller for a higher value transaction that met every other criteria.

Also, they listed this promotion on their main page, and apparently allowed anyone to click through and "activate" the promotion, while leaving them categorically if selectively ineligible.  I didn't call them shady, why, does that sound shady to you?

___________________________________________

I used the word shady rather than your term sh**tty.

And the promotions for buyer and seller were different.

For the seller it has to meet every criteria to qualify.

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[logan17k_ll]

I think I see where you're coming from, thing is, I didn't see separate promotions anywhere, all I saw was this 10% buyers and sellers promotion.   

In my eBay Bucks activity under the two Purchases that selectively DID qualify, the popup description when I click "See details" for each transaction is:

"Bonus Offer! : Earn 10% in eBay Bucks on any qualifying item you buy or sell."

It's funny because every transaction I made during those dates was a qualifying item but only the much lower value ones were allowed through this invisible filter of whether or not the transaction qualified for the promotion.

Are you suggesting if you clicked through this promotion on eBay's page and "activated" the promotion, then made sales happen accounting for the discount, then were deemed ineligible for 2/3 of them on a fine print technicality, you wouldn't be even slightly miffed?

[emerald40]

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@logan17k_ll wrote:

I think I see where you're coming from, thing is, I didn't see separate promotions anywhere, all I saw was this 10% buyers and sellers promotion.   

In my eBay Bucks activity under the two Purchases that selectively DID qualify, the popup description when I click "See details" for each transaction is:

"Bonus Offer! : Earn 10% in eBay Bucks on any qualifying item you buy or sell."

It's funny because every transaction I made during those dates was a qualifying item but only the much lower value ones were allowed through this invisible filter of whether or not the transaction qualified for the promotion.

Are you suggesting if you clicked through this promotion on eBay's page and "activated" the promotion, then made sales happen accounting for the discount, then were deemed ineligible for 2/3 of them on a fine print technicality, you wouldn't be even slightly miffed?

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Think of every big purchase you make in life - a house, a car.

All contracts have fine print.  And yes you have to read every word of it.

And if I messed up I would certainly be miffed - at myself for missing it.

[emerald40]

I actually made a big mistake with this latest ebay bucks offer.

It cost me $100 in ebay bucks.

But i made it, and i own it.

[missjen831]

For point #2, that is shady as heck and anyone who is defending this practice has lost their marbles. I bet if this were to go to court, ebay would lose. It was false advertising at best. They really ought to do the right thing and honor the promotion. This is sneaky and underhanded. I bet many other sellers fell for this TRICK.

[luv3labs]

Fell for it as a Buyer...

eBay even showed me the amount of eBay Bucks I'd get for the transaction, on the payment page !!!

However, those amounts have not shown up in my eBay Bucks tally...

I did the rest of my shopping on Amazon for a net savings of about $5 more than the eBay Bucks would have given me.

As a buyer, I'm finding more & more reasons to shop elsewhere, as eBay continues to degrade the Buyer experience in fresh new ways.

[brian@ebay]

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@logan17k_ll wrote:

Just got off the phone with eBay's offshore support team after my recent eBay Bucks cert came in $164 below what was expected.  The Promotion was 10% back for buyers AND sellers up to $100 per transaction, in qualifiying categories.  Two things happened, one much worse than the other:

1. The big ticket item I sold on the 14th for less than I should have - anticipating the $100 refund - turned out not to qualify.  The promotion on the sales end was for items listed between the 12th and 14th AND sold by June 21st.  This was entirely my lack of lawyer-like focus on the fine print, but still a hard pill to swallow.  The majority of the Promotion description made it sound like anything sold between the 12th and 14th would qualify.  Would love it if this were made a little more crystal clear as I'm sure I'm not the only one who got hit by this.

2.  And this is the big one... the second item I sold by the 14th - AND listed on the 12th, did not qualify because, and I quote, "I did not receive the promotion in an official ebay Message".   Okay.   I found out about this promotion by clicking the GIANT CENTRAL BANNER advertising it on eBays home page, which led me to a page describing the promotion and a button to click "Activate the promotion" or some such nonsense.  Anybody would assume that by clicking the "Activate the Promotion" button and getting the confirmation, that they're now eligible for the promotion.  Now, I'm a skeptical person and I do read the fine print on these things because I know there are always 'gotcha's'.  Apparently in my excitement to recover some portion of eBay's fees in my sales I glossed over the one that said 'you don't actually qualify despite all this pageantry unless we've written you an invitation'.  So for that $640 sale, eBay refused to credit the $64 in eBay bucks.    I should point out, and I couldnt see through the blood while I was on the phone still with the rep, that while apparently I didn't qualify for the promotion, I still have two purchase transactions during that time period where I was credited 10% bonus bucks UNDER THE PROMOTION.  Pretty sh#tty ebay.

The fine print:

  Who's eligible? 
Only invited, registered eBay Bucks participants who receive the promotional offer from eBay in My Messages are eligible. Sorry, no forwarding—the offer is not transferable. (I'm sure this must have been in the fine print I read, but man, just, man.)
Promotion details 
The Promotion starts at 5:00AM PT on June 12, 2018 and ends at 11:59PM PT on June 14, 2018 (the "Promotion Period"). The Promotion applies to any qualifying items purchased during the Promotion Period that meet the minimum purchase requirement and any qualifying items listed during the Promotion Period and sold by June 21, 2018. Rewards will be deposited into participants' eBay Bucks accounts by June 30, 2018. You must activate the offer to qualify. 

*Qualifying purchases or items listed for sale exclude all items in the following categories: Classifieds; Business & Industrial, but only for Heavy Equipment within that category; Real Estate; Gift Cards & Coupons, including eBay Gift Cards, Gift Cards, and Digital Gifts within that category; Bullion within the Coins & Paper category; and all categories in Motors, except Parts & Accessories.
Rewards are capped at $100 per transaction (purchase or sale) and $500 per Earn Period. See eBay Bucks Terms & Conditions for other program restrictions. Purchases must be completed during the Promotion Period and paid for before the Promotion ends. eBay reserves the right to cancel, amend, or revoke the Promotion at any time.

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Hello @logan17k_ll, the eBay bucks program is a way of rewarding buyers (and in this promotions case, sellers) for using our platform, so I'm sorry to hear your experience didn't go as you'd expected. If you received the bonus bucks for your purchases then this indicates you did activate the offer properly and should have received bonus bucks for any qualifying sold items, even if you didn't receive an email. It sounds like customer service didn't give you accurate information in that regard. 

While I can't say for sure without reviewing your account, it sounds like you should have received bucks for the one sold item that did qualify based on the information you provided here. I'll send your account over for review to see if anything can to done to help out. Expect an email sometime today or tomorrow with more information 

[logan17k_ll]

Thanks for the look Brian.  I was thinking the same thing re: the purchases showing up.  I do have a number called "selling promotion reward" in my "bucks" activity on the 28th, but the total there doesn't seem to line up math or date wise with any particular sales, and is totally opaque. IE it has no information associated other than "selling promotion reward" and the dollar amount.  

While I didn't present the purchases as evidence I was 'in' the promotion on the phone, the CS guy was taking the absence of an email re: the promotion as the final 'gotcha' that I wasn't eligible.  He did seem genuinely grateful that I didn't start screaming at him on the phone, as I'm sure happens enough over there.  Very interested to see what comes up on review.  

[logan17k_ll · Accepted solution]

All right well Brian cleared things up for me with this particular debacle.

  On my end the brunt of the confusion came from the opaque nature of the 'rewards bucks' number for sales.  Where purchase bucks are called out per transaction, the sales numbers were blocked together and not itemized anywhere.  Coupled with the missing $100 from my transaction which missed the "sales must start AND finish during the promotion period to qualify" followed by the overseas Customer Service guy's errant information, I got a little ahead of myself.

  If I have feedback for this promotion in the future, I'd bolden and highlight the sales requirements, rather than burying it in the fine print, to avoid what is surely hundreds of sellers missing expected 'rewards' at the end of the period.  It's too easy to assume on a "10% for buyers and sellers during the period" promotion that it includes any sales made during the period.  Also, itemizing sales rewards as is done with purchase rewards will save Customer Service folks a lot of time clearing up what's what.