EIS is just not working?

[charlesscottgallery]

We've been using GSP for as long as it's been available, in conjunction with business policies - and the GSP program has been basically error free for us.  We've been rolled over into the new EIS program, but we have customers saying that now our items cannot be shipped to the UK.  Here is a sample item # 374288091316.  This does not appear to violate any of the size rules, etc. as far as we can tell.  It does use a business policy for shipping.  Can anyone assist and help us to understand what we might be doing wrong or if, in fact, this is simply an Ebay issue?  Thanks in advance.

[charlesscottgallery]

P.S.  One buyer said when they add the item, it says "ask seller for a postage quote."

[charlesscottgallery]

Is there ANYONE that can escalate this?  PLEASE - I just emailed with Ebay's support and they are completely useless.  They told me that the reason EIS is not working is because I have "No international shipping checked" which is of course EXACTLY what you need to have checked.  

To recap: I am enrolled in the new EIS.  I have an item #374288091316 that customers are saying states, "may not be available for shipment to the UK" and when I go to check the shipping on the listing, it says it's only available in the US AND it has exclusions on it that I did not put there.  It has a business policy that has NO exclusions and has the "No international shipping" radio button checked.

[pjcdn2005]

The posters here are ebay members like yourself and can't escalate any issue. When were you moved to EIS?  Apparently it does take time to have all the listings changed over.  The $1000 and higher listings won't show EIS unless they change the dollar limit but there does seem to be a couple of hundred listings selling for less than $1000 that that are not showing EIS. But the majority of your listings do have it.

@wastingtime101  Any suggestions?

[wastingtime101]

Many of your listings have EIS and a few that I checked don't. I tested based on category but that didn't narrow down the issue.

Can you provide item numbers of other items that use the same business policy as listing 374288091316 ? That can help us check those listings and see if the issue might be settings on that biz policy.

[charlesscottgallery]

Hello there and thanks for the replies :).  We were moved over relatively recently.  Perhaps a week ago.  Happy to provide anything that might help us track it down.  And thanks again in advance for assisting us - it's very generous of you.

I will say that we created an entirely new listing and that new listing still has the same problem.  The most unique part of the problem is that the new and old item says they do not ship to several countries - and there is nothing set anywhere we know of that would do that.  We fear this is something buried in the past with our account.

Anyway -  additional items under the $500 limit on the original business policy include item #373119705880, #373533654102 , #403720845321, #403727314441, 3402335340559, #373128073614, #374131184318.  And here's the item we created from scratch and added to the policy: 374539526415.

One thing to note perhaps - the shipping info does seem to change when viewing the items with an incognito browser window vs our account.  When we look at the items above with our account they show a whole range of DIFFERENT exclusion countries across different items.  Even though they are attached to the same shipping policy.

Charles

[wastingtime101]

Thanks for confirming you created a new listing from scratch because that thought was running around the back of my mind.

additional items under the $500 limit on the original business policy include item

#373119705880, - NO EIS

#373533654102 , - YES EIS

#403720845321, - NO EIS

#403727314441, - NO EIS

3402335340559, - INVALID ITEM #

#373128073614, - YES EIS

#374131184318. - NO EIS

 And here's the item we created from scratch and added to the policy: 374539526415. - NO EIS

Confirming I'm seeing different country exclusions as well, which should not be the case when all listings are tied to the same policy. That's a problem.

At this point, this is what I can suggest:

1. For the immediate sale to this buyer in the UK, would you consider shipping to them direct? If you'll consider that I can offer you suggestions on shipping services. If not, that's understandable due to the value.

2. Contact CS and use one of their social media channels (send a DM to askebay on twitter or ebay for business on facebook) - I suggest that method because it's a snap to upload screenshots plus the reps are US-based which means they're more likely to understand and file the correct info in the ticket.

Put together a bullet-pointed list. Items on the same biz policy, showing different country exclusions (with screenshots), some with EIS some not.

Put together a few examples of items in the same categories where some show EIS and some don't. Get all that together before contacting them.

3. I'm going to tag an eBay rep that's been getting some of these EIS issues to the shipping team for review. I honestly can't pin this down to category or business policy, size or dollar amount, etc so I think the EIS team should review this. Hey devon@ebay - got another one for the EIS team to review. Would really help if an EIS rep would pop in here a couple times a week to assist with these situations as the program is still new and there are problems we can't identify the cause - are they restrictions or errors? We're walking around in the dark and it's frustrating that we can't either help or explain these situations to sellers running into the problems.

4. Back to the OP - eBay is having a chat with the EIS team next week. If you're able to attend you can post questions once the chat is live: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Monthly-Chat-with-eBay-Staff/Monthly-Chat-March-8th-at-1-00-pm-PST/m-p...

They generally don't answer account-specific stuff, but your issue can be presented as a general problem. If you draft it in advance you can post it at any time during the hour the chat is live.

[charlesscottgallery]

Thank you SO much for this.  I'm working on putting together something based on what you said so I can get it to CS directly - (Twitter or FB).  I've been thinking further about it and there's some other evidence that leads me to wonder if my account in general has a problem where items are often associated with old business policies - even new items I create.  I have a separate problem where I move auction items over to a different shipping policy and then when they renew (unsold) they switch back to the old policy upon renewal.  Some very odd behavior.

CHarles

[wastingtime101]

No prob @charlesscottgallery. The one thing I didn't suggest is creating a new business policy, attaching that to the listings, then deleting the old policy entirely. See if it makes a difference.

There's a link on this page where you can express interest in signing up for EIS - it opens up an email that goes directly to the shipping team so maybe that's another path you can try. Lay out all the info and see if they get back to you.

Keep us posted one way or another. As this program is new it's been hard to figure out some of these issues so any info you're able to share will be appreciated and will help others down the line.

[charlesscottgallery]

Thanks!  I just did that (emailing them via the page you sent). 

I don't seem to be able to DM Ebay for Business directly on FB - am I missing a way to do that there?   I did put a random message under one of their posts, hoping they see that.  And it looks like I need to wait for tomorrow's business hours to try on Twitter - so I'll do that as well :).  

I am a tad afraid of trying the other process you mentioned because of that second problem with my account - the policy bounce-back.  I've tried not to delete any policies for a long time because items tend to get disabled when they try to bounce-back after I've deleted the original policy.  But I'll go ahead and see if I have one with only a few items in it that I can try that on!

Charles

[charlesscottgallery]

Hello again!  I just wanted to let you know what we did figure out one thing (on our own, since ebay never did assist us).  It appears that the rules for shipping box size as stated are not correct.  It states that packages must not: "Exceed 42 inches in Length, 79 inches in Length + Girth."  Our package was 34 x 24 x 1.  Once we changed it to a tube sized 24 x 4 x 4, it just worked.  I don't see any way in which our original size exceeds their limit, but there it is.  Perhaps you can pass this on to any contacts you have?  Thanks again!

Charles

[wastingtime101]

Hey @charlesscottgallery. Thanks for the update. Your original package dims 34x24x1 do exceed the max.

Girth = (24+1)*2 = 50

Length = 34

Length + Girth = 84 which exceeds the max allowable 79

[wastingtime101]

Just adding on that even if your original dims had been within the tolerance, they're larger than actual package dims which means the buyer would be overcharged for the international portion of shipping.

With international shipping it's very important to have accurate dimensions in the shipping section of your listing form - package dimensions, not item dimensions.

[charlesscottgallery]

Errrrr - I appear to be lacking in math/spacial skilz here.  Oddly after shipping items for many many decades I was unaware that "girth" meant multiplying by 2.  I apologize for that.  I assumed it was multiplying width x height.  I blame my education.  A Masters in English.  No math...

Either way thanks so much.   

[charlesscottgallery]

What do you mean by "they're larger than actual package dims?"  The dimensions I listed are the actual package dimensions (the package is 34" x 24" x 1" and the item is 24" x 18" paper inside it").  Am I missing something else as well? 🙂