eBay

dhbookds · ‎07-03-2018

During the past few weeks, a number of technical issues have impacted the selling experience on eBay for some sellers. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience these issues may have caused. We have resolved the most critical issues and are working diligently to solve all of them as soon as possible. Please know that we are committed to ensuring a world-class selling experience.

We have been assured of this many times and hope, as much as you, that the issues are resolved. However, since there is no place to view what ebay recognizes as the issues, we have no idea what to expect.

Our goal is to provide you the best platform for your business. In order to reduce the likelihood of technical issues occurring in the future, we are reviewing our testing and implementation practices and instituting an enhanced oversight process for all technical changes that may impact you.

It would be nice to know how and IF you are including sellers in the review process.......too many times it seems there is no real understanding of the selling process and the inherent problems which can vary according to seller practice.....A seemingly innocuous change to the title of a sold or unsold email message can screw up some sellers who use the title information for various reasons..

While many sellers were unaffected by the technical issues, we know any interruption to you is frustrating. We appreciate you letting us know through our community platform.

Perhaps you could return the favor by listing problems of which Ebay is aware and working on and giving up a heads up on tests and changes so we DON"T have to waste our time posting and trying to figure out what is a glitch and what is intended.......

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience the technical issues may have caused you.

That IS appreciated........ but as is so often said in varying ways.....the proof is in the pudding.......and corrections to the way the problems are handled would be much more appreciated....

Thank you for selling on eBay.

Sincerely,

Bob Kupbens and Mohan Patt

Announcements

jennieaa · ‎07-04-2018

I image eBay will choreograph the appearances of senior managment. They will wisk in for their session and whisk out and will not be available for anyone to actually speak directly with them. They know they have a firestorm brewing and will do anything they can to avoid confrontation.

I hope attendees will realize that any eBay employee seen in the hall, at meet and greets, and other events are probably low level management - and have no power to fix anything, explain anything or do anything.

dhbookds · ‎07-04-2018

@jennieaa wrote:
I image eBay will choreograph the appearances of senior managment. They will wisk in for their session and whisk out and will not be available for anyone to actually speak directly with them. They know they have a firestorm brewing and will do anything they can to avoid confrontation.

I hope attendees will realize that any eBay employee seen in the hall, at meet and greets, and other events are probably low level management - and have no power to fix anything, explain anything or do anything.

Have you ever been to one, Jeanieaa? That doesn't square with what I've read from some sellers, small ones, at previous ones.

That said, with 1000's of attendees.........and a relatively few upper management people, obviously they can't speak to everyone.........

lloydsteventaylor · ‎07-04-2018

I recently retired from "corporate culture" and announcements like this were common. The problem with this type of announcement is that it is so vague and general you can't tell what specifically the announcer is referring to or whom it applies to. So that noone feels like their problems are being addressed and everyone feels the statement does not apply to them.

It would have been more beneficial if for instance they would have taken one issue for instance the lost images on GTC and gave us the details, the what caused the problem, how many are affected, and what they are doing to fix the problem and make sellers whole again. If they don't know how many listings were affected and which specific listings were affected then they haven't really fixed anything.

dhbookds · ‎07-04-2018

@gew6463 wrote:
DH, I feel much better now that you posted this. I thought it was another glitch when I read their announcement and there was nothing more than "we're sorry...we are working on it...technical issues...we are reviewing." I thought surely there had to be more detail..?? Now you've clarified there indeed was not. I am really hoping 'they' think the issues needing fixing are the same ones 'we' do. This could take a while.

Yep, I imagine most of us had the same reaction. Too much has/is going on with little or no results or attention other than "we are working on it" to be confident that "everything" will be fixed. As I said in my q/a with him.......that's gotten old.........as more and more stuff piles up..........

lloydsteventaylor · ‎07-04-2018

"While many sellers were unaffected by the technical issues"... II think this is incorrect because they really don't know how many were affected. On some glitches they didn't even know there was a glitch until learning about it from these boards.

brhdiscounts · ‎07-04-2018

First reading the title had me excited, maybe a fix. LOL Actually it tells you knowing of what tech issues they are even talking about. I hope Bob realizes even trying a sale until we know it's fixed is scary. Could knock you back another 14 days. Everyone need to keeps calling as well if you do not call personally, on the promotions page there is a comment link. Please at least bombard the comment link. I'm a smaller seller exspecially in the summer months but my sales have almost completly vanished. I was doing three sells on Monday at different levels according to how old the inventory was.

hillbillymedia · ‎07-04-2018

Ebay users are upset and rightfully so IMO. I`m both a seller and a buyer and these glitches have gotten out of hand. This is the 1st I`ve recalled of so many issues on the site. I`m hoping that they will follow thru with fixing ALL these things before they leap into anymore changes that directly effect so many folks livleyhoods.

"There`s always barber college" - Dalton - Road House

tunicaslot · ‎07-04-2018

@dhbookds wrote:
@jennieaa wrote:
I image eBay will choreograph the appearances of senior managment. They will wisk in for their session and whisk out and will not be available for anyone to actually speak directly with them. They know they have a firestorm brewing and will do anything they can to avoid confrontation.

I hope attendees will realize that any eBay employee seen in the hall, at meet and greets, and other events are probably low level management - and have no power to fix anything, explain anything or do anything.
Have you ever been to one, Jeanieaa? That doesn't square with what I've read from some sellers, small ones, at previous ones.

That said, with 1000's of attendees.........and a relatively few upper management people, obviously they can't speak to everyone.........

dh - you're so right - there are many top level execs there and the vloggers have their ears as Ebay is getting free advertising with them. To have some of their key sellers upset just trickles down and they know they have to do something to mitigate the situation.

It seems - and I may have missed it - but Ebay is on another money grab opportunity as detailed here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkaa3zr_X4s

abfabvintage · ‎07-04-2018

@hillbillymedia

@dhbookds

Thank you both for commenting. I wrote about a month ago, I think on the thread "what do you feel needs improvement", and can't remember the poster. However, I mentioned that since I am now reading these Boards more closely, there should be a running list of just what needs to be fixed. I said I appreciated the Blues participation per thread, but most say "looking into it, getting it to the right team, will reply back to this thread..." which never happens. And on the GTC pix issue, a Blue commented it was fixed, yet it was not fixed. And sellers had and still have to spend a lot of time recreating their photos when they could be listing.

And, yes, seems only way eBay finds out about any glitches is from this Board. And I think I read when either the GTC pix disappeared and/or the missing views/watchers, there was a reply that eBay needed at least 25% of the population to complain/alert. Could have been a CS reply or a Blue. THERE NEEDS TO BE A RUNNING LIST/CHECK LIST CREATED OF THE GLITCHES (and what Beta testing is going on). Even today we still have sellers claiming no views, etc.

Maybe a start would getting from eBay a glitch list where sellers/buyers called into CS assuming they would keep some kind of tally. But probably not.

I ain't got the brains to make this up (Fantastic Beasts)

roadking5555 · ‎07-04-2018

@jaaron7 wrote:
Agreed. It would be extremely helpful to let the community know which "critical issues" have been resolved in their mind and which ones ebay is "working diligently to solve as soon as possible"?

@tunicaslot wrote:
I appreciate the message - but I do wish they'd list what they think the problems are and then we can add to the list as I'm sure they've missed some.

I think it would be easier for them to start a list of what IS working, you know...things like Ad's are correctly displaying everywhere we search or go, eBay monthly invoices are always timely and are glitch free. Just to name a few.

I posted a glitch list in another topic, it got so long I had to stop. I think one thing has been fixed off that list (eBay bucks), only took a couple of weeks.

It's hard trying to keep the faith. But I guess we trudge on.

duggmills · ‎07-04-2018

When I read this it almost looks like a conversation between two people.

"It would be nice to know how and IF you are including sellers in the review process...."

Is this a question and being asked by who to who?

"... we are reviewing our testing and implementation practices and instituting an enhanced oversight process for all technical changes.... "

This is beautiful. It's so eloquently phrased as if it came off a politician's teleprompter.

I'm going to use it somewhere soon. I love it.

E.g. (exempli gratia) Yes I know dear, I forgot to stop at the dry cleaners but.... "I'm reviewing my testing and implementation practices and instituting an enhanced oversight process for all technical changes" and will swing by the dry cleaners on the way home tomorrow.

"Fly the Big Ones"

hillbillymedia · ‎07-04-2018

@abfabvintage wrote:
@hillbillymedia
@dhbookds

Thank you both for commenting. I wrote about a month ago, I think on the thread "what do you feel needs improvement", and can't remember the poster. However, I mentioned that since I am now reading these Boards more closely, there should be a running list of just what needs to be fixed. I said I appreciated the Blues participation per thread, but most say "looking into it, getting it to the right team, will reply back to this thread..." which never happens. And on the GTC pix issue, a Blue commented it was fixed, yet it was not fixed. And sellers had and still have to spend a lot of time recreating their photos when they could be listing.

And, yes, seems only way eBay finds out about any glitches is from this Board. And I think I read when either the GTC pix disappeared and/or the missing views/watchers, there was a reply that eBay needed at least 25% of the population to complain/alert. Could have been a CS reply or a Blue. THERE NEEDS TO BE A RUNNING LIST/CHECK LIST CREATED OF THE GLITCHES (and what Beta testing is going on). Even today we still have sellers claiming no views, etc.

Maybe a start would getting from eBay a glitch list where sellers/buyers called into CS assuming they would keep some kind of tally. But probably not.

I think a list would be a great idea. Maybe it would help identify issues all in 1 place for everyone to access. The GTC picture debacle has happened in the past and as you stated....ebay would not acknowledge the issue or make any attempt at repairing it until enough called in. Luckily I wasn`t impacted as much as many others. People are STILL fixing their listings and just now finding their pictures are missing from their listings. Why? Because ebay never posted the issue.

They can email me to tell me my prices are too high but they can`t email me to warn me my listings may not have pictures in them? If my sales are such a concern to ebay why don`t they fix what is broken instead of emailing me to tell me my prices are over their "trending price"? There seems to be an issue with ebays priorities. What good is lowering my price if the buyer can`t see pictures of the item they are buying?

If a list of glitches and problems was to be started I`d like to suggest the 1st three.

1) NEVER block the "request total" button in the ebay shopping cart for any reason.

2) Fix the veiw counters.

3) Enable ALL buyers/sellers the ability to see the watchers count.

"There`s always barber college" - Dalton - Road House

abfabvintage · ‎07-04-2018

@hillbillymedia

You know, I never go to the "technical Board" or any other Board, only the Active Content where I can contact shipscript who always has great fixes, advice related to Store set ups, https issues, etc. But I don't think eBay believes what is going on now is a Tech problem. That Tech Board should be another source to see just what has been reported there. I said this before, I don't think the Boards are set up here (Selling, Tech, etc.) to intermingle or communicate in order for these glitches to be summarized somehow. That recent post by mczombie started a concise list, but other items need to be added.

Now other issues like Markdown Manager decision (which to me is major for sellers, but I don't use it), the 4%/40 penalty for returns, that stupid Return Button on purchases which I truly believe coerces buyers to cancel after purchase either right before or even after payment/ship and then they buy the ebay offered cheapo referenced on every ebay notice after sale, the search not working (I go to Google to search what I can't find on the ebay sold/completed/active search where I can find the eBay listing), etc. Sellers should keep arguing those issues with eBay. In years past, if there was enough dissension, some things did change in sellers favor. But not sure that will happen with this new eBay.

I ain't got the brains to make this up (Fantastic Beasts)

harleyman49-us · ‎07-04-2018

Thanks to the OP for your excellent points. And also thank you to EBAY for owning up to your mistakes and apologizing. However when we make a mistake that has a monetary affect on our customers we not only provide an apology, but we also provide some form of compensation. While the apology was good, what are you doing to compensate all of your customers that you have monetarily affected?

laurabeardsley · ‎07-04-2018

I agree completely. If eBay knows about these problems and it is aware that it is affecting sales then why continue to charge .35 for listings that may not be seen. I am a long time seller with a very good rating and have not had a free listing promotion in almost 2 years. Where is the reciprocity?