Auctions soon to be automatically relisted too?

[moldy5]

This morning after 10 weeks of no extra free listing offers (besides the 50 each month) finally got a 100 free auction listings offer. Thrilled! Then read their paragraphs of fine print. This is frightening: "qualifying listings that do not sell during their first listing duration may automatically renew/relist outside the Promotion Period, and will be subject to standard insertion fees."     Not so thrilled anymore. What does "may" mean? Like they might relist & charge me, or they might choose not to relist?  Do we take a chance on this? If true then the baloney in their announcement about how the fixed price items will eternally relist & we will pay 35 cents each unless we cancel ahead of time includes ONLY those BINs & Fixed Price was a lie. Holy cow, really need this clarified before listing any more "free" items.

[mam98031]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Just a guess, but ebay tends to use templates/forms for these promos. My guess is, the "may renew" is actually for FP promos....since all FP listings are going to become GTC listings, it makes sense to warn the seller that listings (GTC) that are free on the first go-round (because of the promo) will not be free indefinitely)

I doubt that ebay is going to make auction listings GTC. But you can try to get a blue to clarify this.

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IDK, but I can tell you it is different from some auction promos I have from 2018.

[mam98031]

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@moldy5 wrote:
You did fine, and thank God Yankeebob1951 replied right after you! He did the work for me! Thank you for taking the time to write all that info. Hubby has tried to teach me but crud, brain just goes into hiding so he ends up doing it for me!

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Well when you are ready, come on over, we'll have a glass of wine or a beer [your call] and I'll show you how to do it.  It really is a whole lot easier than you might think.

[fern*wood]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Just a guess, but ebay tends to use templates/forms for these promos. My guess is, the "may renew" is actually for FP promos....since all FP listings are going to become GTC listings, it makes sense to warn the seller that listings (GTC) that are free on the first go-round (because of the promo) will not be free indefinitely)

I doubt that ebay is going to make auction listings GTC. But you can try to get a blue to clarify this.

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That is what I thought too, but if that wasn't just a "form letter" list of rules made to cover all promos, then I really need to know.  I'm not going to list anymore and may end the ones I've already done.

They specifically stated in their discussion of the new GTC rules of auto renewal that it did not apply to auctions.  They didn't say "may".

[medontmind]

For me the statement is not in the e-mail version of the offer that I got in My Messages at all, but it is there in the online page you go to when you click the "learn more" link in the promotional offers box at the bottom of the page. I still use the old selling page. I think this is just another case of poor wording on Ebays part, since the offer was for auction or buy it now listings. I used some of the free listings today for 7-day auctions and checked that the auto relist box is still unchecked.

[yankeebob1951]

-I was kinda thinking the same thing fern*wood... that maybe someone wrote up an edit to cover the new fixed price GTC update & it just got stuck in all promos right away whether it applies or not.

- ha-ha!...Hope springs eternal, eh? 

[mam98031]

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@yankeebob1951 wrote:

-I was kinda thinking the same thing fern*wood... that maybe someone wrote up an edit to cover the new fixed price GTC update & it just got stuck in all promos right away whether it applies or not.

- ha-ha!...Hope springs eternal, eh? 

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That is a heck of a risk to take without clarification.  For myself.  I wouldn't use the promo without further clarification.

[yankeebob1951]

Same here...the link I posted was from the "learn more"... haven't listed any using the promo yet, so I couldn't check the auto relist thing...thanks, medonmind!

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

fernwood, right, that's why I suggest asking a blue, such as trinton, to check into this.

mam, Yes, I think it's different from 2018 promos. But I think that's probably because theyonly recently made this change with the new GTC rule in mind. It doesn't say will renew, it says may renew....I agree, that's probably poor word choice, but based on past experience with ebay's inability to use precision when writing these things, I suspect someone thinks by using "may" they are covering all their bases. In other words, it "may" renew if the promo is for renewable (ie FP) listings, and it may not (more accurately, will not) renew if it is for auctions. So, in eBayspeak, "may" covers all promos, those for auction, those for FP, and those which give the seller the option of using auctions or FP.

But, as I said, this is just my guess, based on long experience with ebay's poor communication skills. If I had received the promo, I'd want clarification from eBay.

[mam98031]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
fernwood, right, that's why I suggest asking a blue, such as trinton, to check into this.

mam, Yes, I think it's different from 2018 promos. But I think that's probably because theyonly recently made this change with the new GTC rule in mind. It doesn't say will renew, it says may renew....I agree, that's probably poor word choice, but based on past experience with ebay's inability to use precision when writing these things, I suspect someone thinks by using "may" they are covering all their bases. In other words, it "may" renew if the promo is for renewable (ie FP) listings, and it may not (more accurately, will not) renew if it is for auctions. So, in eBayspeak, "may" covers all promos, those for auction, those for FP, and those which give the seller the option of using auctions or FP.

But, as I said, this is just my guess, based on long experience with ebay's poor communication skills. If I had received the promo, I'd want clarification from eBay.

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I understand that.  HOWEVER this promo has nothing to do with GTC listings or even any kind of Fixed Price listing.  It is solely for Auction listings with or without a buy it now.  

So why would any clause pertaining to a GTC listing be relevant.

Maybe a mistake, likely a mistake, but are we willing to bank on it without verification?

[luckythewinner]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@yankeebob1951 wrote:

-I was kinda thinking the same thing fern*wood... that maybe someone wrote up an edit to cover the new fixed price GTC update & it just got stuck in all promos right away whether it applies or not.

- ha-ha!...Hope springs eternal, eh? 

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That is a heck of a risk to take without clarification.  For myself.  I wouldn't use the promo without further clarification.

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Not a huge risk if you simply manage it wisely. 

1) Start one auction one day before all the others - one that you are pretty sure will not sell. 

2) When that auction ends, see if it relists or not. 

3) If it does relist, then simply end any other auctions that they do not have a bid. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

mam,

As I said, it's because ebay tends to use some of the same language in all their promos.....they've been doing that sort of thing for years. You are absolutely right, if auctions don't auto-renew, this language is unnecessary. BUT, if you take "may" to mean what I think it means, which is : "If a listing is GTC, it will renew as usual, and if it isn't, it won't renew. " then you can use this for auction only promos, FP only promos, and promos permitting auctions and FP.

I do NOT think it is good word choice, I do NOT think it is the best way to phrase this, but I DO think it's just typical ebayspeak.

And....one more time....if it were me, I'd probably want to get clarification from ebay, just in case my guess is wrong. So, yes, someone should probably try to check with trinton or whoever....

[magsmg101]

Just adding on to the last post.

I did get that auction/fixed price promo and that message had 4 bullets under restrictions & exclusions.

When I activated the offer there were 7 bullets.
Terms and categories changed.

I am not a frequent poster but I will give it a go anyway.

@Anonymous 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Yep, and note this:

"The Promotion applies to new Qualifying Listings that are created during the Promotion Period, as well as relists and renewals of existing Qualifying Listings that occur during the Promotion Period."

So again, I think this is ebay's attempt at saying: IF a "qualifying listing" auto renews during the period, it counts as one of the promo listings. IF you manually relist an ended listing, it also counts towards your freebies. Since auctions are the only type of listing that qualifies for THIS promo, there's no need to worry about auto renewals, just manual relistings.

I see nothing in any of the wording that actually suggests that auctions auto renew. What I see is wording designed (poorly, I admit) to be used whether the promo is for auctions or FP or both.

Still just my opinion though, until we hear from a blue.

[ersatz_sobriquet]

Good grief!

I received the offer and now I'm going to use a BIG FAT ZERO of those "free" auctions.

I'm also going to opt out of automatic acceptance of promotions (my current settings).

So we have to watch our listings like a hawk? 

What a big time waster. Thanks ebay, NOT. 

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

My daughter got the promo and used a few and none of her listings have the relist box checked.

I'm with those who think it's just another example of ebay's poorly written boiler plate terms.