Regards,
Simply-the-best-for-you Volunteer Community Mentor
Sending a partial refund for a Shipping discount was done on one page up until yesterday on my account. Now the process is complicated by making it a multi-page process.
Page 1: This page is only for the Refund amount, the Buyer is their ID, NOT their full name like the old refund page. On this page you enter the amount and then click the Next button at the bottom that turns blue once a value is in the refund field.
Page 2: On this page you select the reason and type a message in the field provided BUT the Buyer on this page on the right is again just their ID, NOT their real name.
Page 3: Here is where you review your Refund ... and oh, the Buyer on the right is again their ID, NOT full name.
Page 4: Your refund is now complete and FINALLY, the Buyer's real name is shown on the right along with their ID (green arrow).
So this was my first time through this new process. It is now a 4 page process instead of two, I will have to remember the Buyer's name BEFORE starting a refund since eBay hides that info now until the end opposed to the old one page process where the Buyer's name was displayed for use in the typing field for a more personalized note. Since none of the pages seem to have a back button I could not go back and correct or change anything.
I am at a loss to explain why the programming department's changes typically mean more steps for simple tasks. The other one that comes to mind is the Feedback flow. We used to be able to get to the full feedback history by simply clicking the FB count number, now that too is a multi-step process.
I just fail to see this (or the Feedback page access) as being any kind of improvement. This is 2024 and making things easier seems to be a lost art for the venue's programmers.
@wastingtime101 wrote:FYI @mr_lincoln eBay has wrecked the process. Below are the 2 other discussions I've seen to date. As eBay rolls this out to more users I expect we'll see a lot more complaints.
devon@ebay has been submitting our feedback on this and hopefully he'll pass on FB based on your OP here. My apologies in advance, Devon, if I become a nuisance but I'm going to keep tagging you on this as more sellers encounter these problems. 😁
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Report-eBay-Technical-Issues/Giving-refunds/m-p/34292304#M122815
devon@ebay As always Devon you are welcome to pass my OP along with the full picture spread. Had I known this change was coming I could have taken screen shots of the easy and older 2 page process for comparison ... if you don't mind, you could also pass along a request to have members review these kinds of changes before they implement them. We see a lot of changes that simply add steps which adds no value.
@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:Not to mention that now rather than entering a whole amount and ebay splits it between the items, they now expect the seller to work it out and apply the amounts to individual items.
This is, apparently, their idea of "streamlining". Someone needs to give them a dictionary.
@toomuchstuffagain35 Maybe that will be the next enhancement (opposed to being standard on the older page) and yes, I refunded ALL the shipping on one of the two items because of the flow's deficiency.
@wastingtime101 wrote:
@mr_lincoln wrote:
We see a lot of changes that simply add steps which adds no value.And we lose functionality in the process. That part hurts even more than the inefficiency of a needless multi-step process.
My clicking finger has carpel tunnel syndrome from all of these changes ... or maybe the cramping is just from overuse?!?
@mr_lincoln- I must not be on the new refund process yet, but I do recognize the screens you shared.
I've never had an issue with Buyer Name, but now I realize it's a dual screen, dual app issue. I track communications on my SixBit order record, so I've got the order record open on that screen. Refunding I do via a web browser, which opens on my second screen. As soon as I finger a few issues out, the system I'm building will have 4 screens, which allows me to share info even more easily.
Not everyone wants multiple screens, and that's cool - it's a personal choice. An alternate option is one of those really wiiiide screens, where you can fit 2-3 readable windows, side-by-side, and do your multi-screen functions that way.
I guess it's just the geek in me (or is it nerd - I think I qualify for both)... I want my computer to do things I don't want to do, and to help me do the things I have to do more easily. Multi-screen is part of that function for me. There's also another demon running around in my head that says if so-and-so can do it, why can't I? That was why I, at one time, had 3 desktop systems running, and a laptop with a dead screen running as my background update processor for what is now SixBit. The neat part of using the laptop was low power consumption, low heat generation, and built-in battery backup. 🙂 I connected all four systems thru a single Keyboard Video Mouse (KVM) switch. "One monitor/mouse/keyboard to rule them all..." 🙂
-Bob.
Thanks for the heads up, I have't seen this yet, but I do fairly often, since I combine shipping. I may just stop. It's like they totally mucked up Packing Slips, make it much more complicated, resource intensive & lost the functionality that had been there before & so many people loved. So frustrating!
@rosachs wrote:@mr_lincoln- I must not be on the new refund process yet, but I do recognize the screens you shared.
I've never had an issue with Buyer Name, but now I realize it's a dual screen, dual app issue. I track communications on my SixBit order record, so I've got the order record open on that screen. Refunding I do via a web browser, which opens on my second screen. As soon as I finger a few issues out, the system I'm building will have 4 screens, which allows me to share info even more easily.
Not everyone wants multiple screens, and that's cool - it's a personal choice. An alternate option is one of those really wiiiide screens, where you can fit 2-3 readable windows, side-by-side, and do your multi-screen functions that way.
I guess it's just the geek in me (or is it nerd - I think I qualify for both)... I want my computer to do things I don't want to do, and to help me do the things I have to do more easily. Multi-screen is part of that function for me. There's also another demon running around in my head that says if so-and-so can do it, why can't I? That was why I, at one time, had 3 desktop systems running, and a laptop with a dead screen running as my background update processor for what is now SixBit. The neat part of using the laptop was low power consumption, low heat generation, and built-in battery backup. 🙂 I connected all four systems thru a single Keyboard Video Mouse (KVM) switch. "One monitor/mouse/keyboard to rule them all..." 🙂
-Bob.
@rosachs Okay, what ere Nerd are you?
-My first computer class in high school back in the 70s was a teletype machine with wide carriage tractor paper and a plug in phone modem. We dialed up the local college's computer to log in, Basic was the language we used. We typed and sent the message to the mainframe. It would send back a response. Back and forth it would go. The best computer game back then was called Lunar Landing ... because we walked on the moon in '69 LOL. You were given so much fuel to fire your retro rockets to slow the Lander's decent to the moon in hopes of landing safely so you could have enough fuel to take off assuming you didn't damage or crash the lander. You would send info the mainframe and it would send back your progress. Of all my attempts I only ever survived one landing ...but damaged the lander so badly I couldn't take off and got stuck on the moon ...
-In college I took courses in Fortran and Cobol ... after that I decided I wasn't going to be a programmer, just a user.
-Installed computer scales throughout north America in mainly the food industry as my first long term full-time job out of college.
-My first office computer was an IBM System II (I think that's the correct name) - yep, monochrome screen, no mouse, navigated by keystrokes -- mid-80s
-I have done drafting my entire adult life, purchased AutoCAD LT in 2000 and self taught computer aided drafting via their help video, I already knew how to draw, just needed to learn how to do it electronically.
-Now to the point of all of this (thanks for patiently reading through this LOL). So I have run AutoCAD LT for about 24 years, below is a screen show of the current program on my computer ... there are pull down menus along the top, quick link icons along the bottom right, a custom tool pallet on the left running vertically down the page. Here's the deal after over 20 years 90% of this program is ... the ... exact ... same ... as what I first learned on in 2000. WHY one might ask? Because NONE of those 90 % functions has changed, NO need for them to be changed. Simple tasks made simple and kept simple. I KNOW what good programming is ... when I see a company complicate simple tasks it points to less than adequate programming and programmers not being in touch with Users ...
@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:Thanks for the heads up, I have't seen this yet, but I do fairly often, since I combine shipping. I may just stop. It's like they totally mucked up Packing Slips, make it much more complicated, resource intensive & lost the functionality that had been there before & so many people loved. So frustrating!
@simply-the-best-for-you There seems to exist a propensity for complicating simple tasks. I believe eBay has a discount off Retail for shipping which would cut down on some refunds BUT I want to see that discount be over our Commercial rates.
As to packing slips ... okay, I am a little embarrassed here but knowing you I don't think you will be too critical of me LOL. On three accounts here and over 9,000 shipments I have never printed a packing slip ... nope, not a single one. So that's what, about 18 reams of paper I saved???
@wastingtime101 wrote:If you ever ship with eBay International Shipping, packing slips are required. They probably don't enforce it, but it's in the policy pages nonetheless. That's pretty much the only time I use packing slips.
@wastingtime101 Hmmm, never saw that ... have shipped less than around 50 items internationally and those were in the early years of selling ...
