Promoted Listings fee added 7 minutes after sale info provided, sellers should be aware of this...

[masterblasterplanet]

9/12/2023 

I know this probably won't be all that surprising to veteran eBay sellers but did you know eBay is tacking on promoted listings fees several minutes after a sale shows otherwise in your eBay Seller Hub including the order details?

I always wondered why eBay wouldn't just charge every sale a promoted listing fee? After all how would a seller prove it? Recently almost all of the items I sell on eBay are sold via promoted listings. They've increased the "suggested ad rate" over 15% on some categories and items. Just one year ago 54% of my sales were through promoted listings. Now it's around 98% of all of my sold items. I'm not doing anything different but obviously eBay changed something on their end.

Today I was able to document and prove that eBay is adding promoted listings fees several minutes after they showed me something different in my Seller Hub and order details. I thought I had noticed this situation the other day when I had looked at an item shortly after a sale but then later on when I printed out the shipping label I noticed it said the item was indeed sold via promoted listings. But I couldn't prove it. I just chalked it up making a mistake on my end. So I made a mental note and figured I'd keep a close eye on it. So today I sold an item at 7:14am PST and when I took a look in my seller hub @ 7:21am PST (7 minutes after the sale) I was excited because I noticed it was not sold via promoted listings. Sure enough when I took another look at 8:03am PST (42 minutes later) eBay had tacked on the promoted listing FEE and added another $9.90 in fees which was visible in my order details as well as on the "Awaiting Shipment" page. 

So this prompted me to reach out to eBay Concierge aka customer service. I was told by a somewhat rude CS rep that this is how eBay has been doing things for awhile now. She couldn't give me an exact window of time in terms of how long after a sale it takes eBay to add a promoted listings fee to the order details but in my opinion it should be immediate. She gave me several examples of other times when my items had sold and eBay came in several minutes after the sale and tacked on the promoted listings fee.  In most cases it was around 2-3 minutes after the sale. But this time was at least 7 minutes after the sale and I had it documented with screenshots.

How about some transparency with your sellers? Just let us know how long we have to wait to see if eBay is going to add an additional fee. I feel like all fees should be shown immediately in the order details. If not give us a timetable in terms of how long after a sale eBay can take to tack on yet another fee. It seems shady to me. I thought other sellers might be interested in this this suspicious practice and if you feel compelled reach out to eBay CS and let them know what you think about it.

[sumsum70]

This isn't exactly related to your post, but since you have been here 20+ years and sell a fair amount:

If you did not have to or feel like you have to use PL, would you sell for a lower price? 

If I wanted to buy some Shadow Conspiracy axle nuts, I can find them off-eBay for less than on-eBay, and that includes shipping. eBay is not helping buyers consider eBay a "go-to" place to buy things when PL is making things more expensive here than elsewhere.

[iamalwaysright]

Took me a minute or two to understand what the OP says, frankly because it was quite lengthy and I just tried to read the main points and I think I got the jist.

Yea we all realize that there's no way to validate what sales ebay deemed as a promoted listings sale. So that's why we go under the assumption that all of them typical get that charge.

Also, ebay Concierge is not the same as ebay customer service. I have only found one Concierge agent to ever be rude to me from the numerous ones (probably triple digits) I've spoken to. And to their defense, that agent was taking concierge calls because of volume, she said she was actually in the Merchant Accounts dept.

[luckythewinner]

I always wondered why eBay wouldn't just charge every sale a promoted listing fee? After all how would a seller prove it?

Because that would be fraud.

They've increased the "suggested ad rate" over 15% on some categories and items.

Suggestions can be ignored.

Today I was able to document and prove that eBay is adding promoted listings fees several minutes after they showed me something different in my Seller Hub and order details

So your issue is the timing of the charge? I would assume this was due to the having to figure out whether the sale has halo charge applies or not, which is a complicated calculation because it involves looking at the buyer's viewing behavior over the past 30 days.

[valueaddedresource]

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@masterblasterplanet wrote:

9/12/2023 

I know this probably won't be all that surprising to veteran eBay sellers but did you know eBay is tacking on promoted listings fees several minutes after a sale shows otherwise in your eBay Seller Hub including the order details?

I always wondered why eBay wouldn't just charge every sale a promoted listing fee? After all how would a seller prove it? Recently almost all of the items I sell on eBay are sold via promoted listings. They've increased the "suggested ad rate" over 15% on some categories and items. Just one year ago 54% of my sales were through promoted listings. Now it's around 98% of all of my sold items. I'm not doing anything different but obviously eBay changed something on their end.

Today I was able to document and prove that eBay is adding promoted listings fees several minutes after they showed me something different in my Seller Hub and order details. I thought I had noticed this situation the other day when I had looked at an item shortly after a sale but then later on when I printed out the shipping label I noticed it said the item was indeed sold via promoted listings. But I couldn't prove it. I just chalked it up making a mistake on my end. So I made a mental note and figured I'd keep a close eye on it. So today I sold an item at 7:14am PST and when I took a look in my seller hub @ 7:21am PST (7 minutes after the sale) I was excited because I noticed it was not sold via promoted listings. Sure enough when I took another look at 8:03am PST (42 minutes later) eBay had tacked on the promoted listing FEE and added another $9.90 in fees which was visible in my order details as well as on the "Awaiting Shipment" page. 

So this prompted me to reach out to eBay Concierge aka customer service. I was told by a somewhat rude CS rep that this is how eBay has been doing things for awhile now. She couldn't give me an exact window of time in terms of how long after a sale it takes eBay to add a promoted listings fee to the order details but in my opinion it should be immediate. She gave me several examples of other times when my items had sold and eBay came in several minutes after the sale and tacked on the promoted listings fee.  In most cases it was around 2-3 minutes after the sale. But this time was at least 7 minutes after the sale and I had it documented with screenshots.

How about some transparency with your sellers? Just let us know how long we have to wait to see if eBay is going to add an additional fee. I feel like all fees should be shown immediately in the order details. If not give us a timetable in terms of how long after a sale eBay can take to tack on yet another fee. It seems shady to me. I thought other sellers might be interested in this this suspicious practice and if you feel compelled reach out to eBay CS and let them know what you think about it.

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@masterblasterplanet hate to be the bearer of bad news but that CS rep isn't wrong.

For years now eBay has said it may take up to 72 hours for ad attribution to reconcile - it even says it in multiple places on the ad dashboard reporting page.

Not saying it doesn't sting when it changes afterwards, nor am I defending eBay for the practice, but it has been happening for a long time and is within the eBay marketing terms you agree to when opting to use eBay Promoted Listings ad products.

[masterblasterplanet]

Shadow has a MAP price set for everything we sell. The MAP price for the Shadow Conspiracy axle nuts is $15.99 which is what we sell them for. Axle nuts are one of our best selling items.

[masterblasterplanet]

Of course I can and do ignore their suggested ad rates but many people don't and the fact they've gone up over 10% in one year from what they used to be for the same item when there's less of these items being listed has me questioning eBay's suggestions and practices.

Yes my issue is the delay in showing the promoted listings fee. eBay uses equally complicated software to determine if a listing qualifies for the promoted listings fee which is based on the link itself which contains code which shows how the customer landed on your item that is automatically detected.

[masterblasterplanet]

"For years now eBay has said it may take up to 72 hours for ad attribution to reconcile".

That sounds extremely nefarious IMO. The rep I spoke with said nothing about that.

I attempted to look for info about how long it would take for promoted listing fees to show up but maybe I wasn't searching for the correct terms. I'll do some additional research on that. That said if it's posted on eBay, the rep could have simply explained to me this was a stated eBay policy, and either read the policy or preferably sent me in the proper direction where I could read that info for myself. Thanks for info.

[valueaddedresource]

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@masterblasterplanet wrote:

"For years now eBay has said it may take up to 72 hours for ad attribution to reconcile".

That sounds extremely nefarious IMO. The rep I spoke with said nothing about that.

I attempted to look for info about how long it would take for promoted listing fees to show up but maybe I wasn't searching for the correct terms. I'll do some additional research on that. That said if it's posted on eBay, the rep could have simply explained to me this was a stated eBay policy, and either read the policy or preferably sent me in the proper direction where I could read that info for myself. Thanks for info.

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@masterblasterplanet 

[masterblasterplanet]

"metrics are reported in near-real time, allow aprox 72 hours to reconcile". It could be instant, or it could take up to 3 full days? 72 hours is an extremely long time for a computer system to figure out code.

Thanks for pointing that out. I've seen it before but my mind didn't compute that to promoted listings fees being charged up to 72 hours after the payment had been received.

I wonder how many items I've sold over the past couple of years were unknowingly sold via PL where I was charged after I had created the shipping label for the order? Now I know.

Thanks for the knowledge.

[masterblasterplanet]

According to eBay: "eBay Concierge gives members access to dedicated, specialized experts within our customer service organization, with minimal wait times."

[blingfling123]

While frustrating, this would be a time issue, as in the time it takes to review the transaction. When it gets busy at the end of the year, it can be as long as a day for it to show up.

Think of all the active listings out there and all the views that have happened on all of those listings and they have to comb through all of them to find your listings and the sale and views to verify if the buyer clicked on a sponsored listing, and then again for the HALO specifications. 

It is not as simple as "go look at bubba's listings and check" They first have to find bubba's listings, then check any views and then verify that against the buyer blah blah. 

While I would love for it to be real time, I understand the complexity of the query and the time it takes to run said query. 

[mantle1951]

What I have seen happening is that when the buyer buys the item the promoted charge does not appear until the buyer pays. 

[masterblasterplanet]

All of our listings are set to "immediate payment required".

[masterblasterplanet]

There's nobody reviewing transactions one case at a time. It's completely automated. eBay uses designed software to determine if a listing qualifies for the promoted listings fee which is based on the link itself which contains code. The code shows how the customer landed on your item and is automatically detected and determined to be qualified for the PL fee.