eBay

brian@ebay · ‎08-06-2019

Join the Community team here at 1 PM PT on August 7th for our Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. We don't have a set topic this week, so please bring any general questions you may have on buying or selling.

The chat will be open for questions from 1-2 pm PT, at which point we'll close thread. While no additional questions can be submitted after this time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that may still be unanswered.

If you're new to the chat, welcome! Simply Reply to this post with your question from 1-2 PM Pacific Time and we'll be happy to look into it with you

Brian,
Community Team

brian@ebay · ‎08-07-2019

@mdw13 wrote:

My items all ship USPS and I use calculated shipping on every listing. Some items are Priority Mail only, while others (small stuff) has both a First Class and a Priority Mail option. My shipping policies are designed this way so that when buyers want to purchase multiple small items together, the Priority option will become cheaper (the First Class option will charge both full shipping amounts, because they will be too heavy to go First Class together).

Since the beginning of June, when a buyer puts multiple of First Class size items in their cart and go to checkout, they are presented with the two shipping options, but the Priority option is showing an outrageous amount. For example, lets say each item could ship priority for $7 and they can go together for $8; The buyer is being shown $14 in Priority shipping for these two items. IF they actually select this outrageous amount, checkout will correct itself to the correct $9 amount, but meanwhile the default shipping option is First Class (which in this case would likely be something like $10-$11).

Some buyers will pay the high First Class amount, some will message me to ask why my shipping prices are so high, and I'm betting a lot of people just abandon the cart; to them it looks like I don't combine shipping at all!

Over the last 2 months, I have spoken to CS multiple times, during which the CSR has been able to duplicate this problem easily each time. Meanwhile, I have been given no answers at all except nebulous promises to "pass it along to the tech/engineering team." I NEED this to work correctly; it costs me (and I assume others on the site) money every single day it isn't fixed.

Who do I need to talk to about this? I am happy to have a sit-down and present all the information, screenshots from buyers, etc. that I have to share. Please, please tell me there is an actionable solution (not just another promise to pass along the info to a team I am not allowed to interact with directly). Thank you!

Hi @mdw13, this is actually a known issue and our developers are aware of it. I don't have an ETA on when this will be resolved, but it is something that is being investigated further. Thanks!

Brian,
Community Team

vrykalak · ‎08-07-2019

tyler@ebay wrote:
@vrykalak wrote:
I have said several times these last few months that items stay in the "Unsold - Not relisted" list after they have been relisted.
Here is a case where the same two items are in he "Unsold - Not relisted" list twice, once as an auction (that was activated from an Unsold Fixed Price list because of a promotion that only allowed auctions), and once as Fixed Price, ending two days AFTER the auctions ended (so it started 20 days before the auctions started).
That shows beyond doubt that the auctions BEGAN AND ENDED during the same time as the items were Active as Fixed Price listings.
These are #9 and #10 of items I know were in both lists at the same time.

Hi @vrykalak - you are able to list the same item as both an auction and a fixed price listing (there is no policy violation for doing so). If you were to choose the 'send to online auction' option from an unsold fixed price listing it would create a new listing with a new item number that would be your auction-style listing. The fixed price listing would stay in your unsold section because it was not relisted. Thanks!

That is NOT the situation here.
I relisted the items from the UNSOLD NOT RELISTED page.
I would not have relisted them if I had known the items were already Active.
I assumed they were NOT already active because they were sitting there on the UNSOLD NOT RELISTED page.
These are #9 & #10 of items I have discovered in the last few months were on both lists at the same time.
This never happened before this year.
Now I have to check every item on the UNSOLD NOT RELISTED page, to see if it is already active, before I relist it.
I should not have to do that. This is a bug and needs to be fixed.

goosegosnell · ‎08-07-2019

Thanks! I understand all of that completely. But this buyer sent me a return item that weighed less than 1oz (I have proof from USPS). My phone that I shipped him was 1lb 2.2oz. It seems that no one at ebay cares that the buyer returned an apparently 1oz phone to me. This is compelling evidence that the buyer scammed me. Does ebay not take Product Tracking Reports into consideration?

brian@ebay · ‎08-07-2019

@the.curious.fat.cat wrote:

Hi,

The traffic report (and impressions) on seller hub again doesn't update... 😿

Now it's stuck on July 23.

Is this issue known? when it will be fixed?

Thanks in advance

Hi @the.curious.fat.cat, yes, this is a known issue. Our developers are working to resolve this so that the data is current, though I don't have a date on when this will be completed.

Brian,
Community Team

coffeebean832 · ‎08-07-2019

tyler@ebay wrote:
@coffeebean832 wrote:
When a partial refund is issued for combined shipping discount (at the time of shipment) by a seller in managed payments, does that mean the buyer can no longer return the items for any reason?

"Please note: You can only issue one full or partial refund per order, and the refund option will not be available if there's a dispute or claim open against an item within the order."

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/introducing-managed-payments-ebay?id=4795#section2
Hi @coffeebean832 - I can't speak to specifics regarding managed payments. If you've received an invitation to participate you can contact the team directly and they can assist you with those details. I'll see if there's any further information available to us and get you an update if I hear back!

I clarified with them. They said it's one seller-initiated refund per order. A return request that goes through eBay's system is still allowed and they agreed the page could use some clarification, so hopefully we'll see an update there. Just an FYI for anybody interested.

tyler@ebay · ‎08-07-2019

@coinslabz26 wrote:
Another question.

I had a buyer the other day bought and paid for a $3000 coin. He asked if he could cancel the sale to repurchase from a different funding source. I agreed and refunded him and cancelled the sale. The item box was checked to relist but it didn't relist. I then listed the item for the buyer and EBAY LISTED it later (the start time confirms). The ebay relisted item was then removed as a duplicate and I got a violation. Why would ebay relist the item just to give me a duplicate item violation? If I had tried to relist it then I would have gotten an error and the item wouldn't have relisted. Is there anything I can do about the duplicate listing violation?

Hi @coinslabz26 - That sounds unusual. I'll see if I can find out and will be in touch after the chat. Thanks!

Tyler,

vociferous_commenter · ‎08-07-2019

Howdy eBay team!

1/ Thanks for the proactive notice on the GTC billing remedy, hopefully proactive notifications will continue to happen (and more importantly, when situations like this happen in the future any affected customers will be made whole en-masse without having to contact CS individually)

~~~~~~~~~~~~

2/ "SPECIAL SAVINGS FOR SELLERS USING EBAY LABELS"

eBay's help page outlining label savings is significantly outdated by a few years with 2016 & 2017 comparison info:

https://pages.ebay.com/usps/USPSsavings.html

Would it be possible to please pass on a request to the appropriate team(s) to get this info updated?

I did find a homebrew analysis that @mangorunner assembled, and with input from a few others it appears that for Domestic FCP & Priority eBay USPS label costs are a straight pass-through of USPS commercial rates, with TRS sellers getting a 3% savings on specifically on Priority.

Can someone confirm or correct those determinations, and if possible share any additional details or data about eBay USPS label savings (int'l rates, media mail, etc.) in the interim of the savings help page (hopefully) getting an update?

~~~~~~

3/ BEST OFFERS & PROMOTED LISTINGS

Lastly, has there been any timeline progress on eBay's disclosure to sellers utilizing both promoted listings and accepting best offers on whether or not BO acceptance will have PL fees applied?

(as brought up in the March 27 community chat https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Chat-with-eBay-Staff/Community-Chat-March-27-1-00-pm-PT-General...

Alan mentioned "I chatted with the Promoted Listings team, and they advised that both of these are already on their radar and they're in consideration along with other high priority requests from sellers."

Understandably this may not be a "high-priority" request from eBay's perspective, but it is critical that eBay disclose to sellers the actual costs of completing the transaction when accepting BO's, and that's not currently the case.

Thanks!

Anonymous · ‎08-07-2019

@jennieaa wrote:

As a retired quality assurance manager, I find obvious programing errors to be annoying. Here's the latest, in a simplified version:

seller hub, marketing, advertising/ promoted listing sales report.

Qty sold : 5 Total Sales: 34 Fees: .33

Sales 6.5 fee .06 (three of these) 7.85 fee .08 6.65 fee .07 total fees individually .33

My eBay invoice is charging me .07 cents for each 6.5 sale and ends up for these 5 sales at .36 cents

Two different amounts for fees - apparently the sales report does not round up but the invoicing fee does.

Why?

Hi @jennieaa, the sales report page is estimating fees in some instances, and your invoice will give you the most accurate amounts. Our system calculates fees to six decimal places, but we round them to the nearest cent in most places. Since we still have all six decimal places behind the scenes, your invoice would have the final calculations. For example, if you had three fees for $0.334000 each, they'd be rounded down on some pages to $0.33. On your invoice we would use all 6 decimal places available in the system, so when we add them up, the total is $1.002000, totaling $1.00 instead of $0.99.

This all being said, you can use the Give us feedback link on the right side of the sales report page to pass along your insights on the data displayed on this page for potential improvements. Our Seller Hub team reviews the information submitted for future enhancements.

tyler@ebay · ‎08-07-2019

@vrykalak wrote:

tyler@ebay wrote:

@vrykalak wrote:

I have said several times these last few months that items stay in the "Unsold - Not relisted" list after they have been relisted.
Here is a case where the same two items are in he "Unsold - Not relisted" list twice, once as an auction (that was activated from an Unsold Fixed Price list because of a promotion that only allowed auctions), and once as Fixed Price, ending two days AFTER the auctions ended (so it started 20 days before the auctions started).
That shows beyond doubt that the auctions BEGAN AND ENDED during the same time as the items were Active as Fixed Price listings.
These are #9 and #10 of items I know were in both lists at the same time.

Hi @vrykalak - you are able to list the same item as both an auction and a fixed price listing (there is no policy violation for doing so). If you were to choose the 'send to online auction' option from an unsold fixed price listing it would create a new listing with a new item number that would be your auction-style listing. The fixed price listing would stay in your unsold section because it was not relisted. Thanks!

That is NOT the situation here.
I relisted the items from the UNSOLD NOT RELISTED page.
I would not have relisted them if I had known the items were already Active.
I assumed they were NOT already active because they were sitting there on the UNSOLD NOT RELISTED page.
These are #9 & #10 of items I have discovered in the last few months were on both lists at the same time.
This never happened before this year.
Now I have to check every item on the UNSOLD NOT RELISTED page, to see if it is already active, before I relist it.
I should not have to do that. This is a bug and needs to be fixed.

Hi @vrykalak - I don't have any indication that this is a bug, but I'm happy to look into it further if you'll get me the item numbers involved (your screenshot is not something I can blow up and read).

Thanks!

Tyler,

coffeebean832 · ‎08-07-2019

I got a seller update newsletter yesterday titled "{!username}, let's check in on 2019"

Aside from the technical error where my username didn't come through, there were more errors further down in the newsletter. It's telling me I had an average of 131 active listings last month, which is really far off from the actual number- it's not even in the same galaxy. This number is always wrong in the seller newsletter, but this month especially so. Where the heck is eBay getting that number from?

vrykalak · ‎08-07-2019

tyler@ebay wrote:
@vrykalak wrote:
tyler@ebay wrote:
@vrykalak wrote:
I have said several times these last few months that items stay in the "Unsold - Not relisted" list after they have been relisted.
Here is a case where the same two items are in he "Unsold - Not relisted" list twice, once as an auction (that was activated from an Unsold Fixed Price list because of a promotion that only allowed auctions), and once as Fixed Price, ending two days AFTER the auctions ended (so it started 20 days before the auctions started).
That shows beyond doubt that the auctions BEGAN AND ENDED during the same time as the items were Active as Fixed Price listings.
These are #9 and #10 of items I know were in both lists at the same time.

Hi @vrykalak - you are able to list the same item as both an auction and a fixed price listing (there is no policy violation for doing so). If you were to choose the 'send to online auction' option from an unsold fixed price listing it would create a new listing with a new item number that would be your auction-style listing. The fixed price listing would stay in your unsold section because it was not relisted. Thanks!

That is NOT the situation here.
I relisted the items from the UNSOLD NOT RELISTED page.
I would not have relisted them if I had known the items were already Active.
I assumed they were NOT already active because they were sitting there on the UNSOLD NOT RELISTED page.
These are #9 & #10 of items I have discovered in the last few months were on both lists at the same time.
This never happened before this year.
Now I have to check every item on the UNSOLD NOT RELISTED page, to see if it is already active, before I relist it.
I should not have to do that. This is a bug and needs to be fixed.
Hi @vrykalak - I don't have any indication that this is a bug, but I'm happy to look into it further if you'll get me the item numbers involved (your screenshot is not something I can blow up and read).

Thanks!

Thank you!
If I type in the numbers now, I will run out of time, and the attempt will bounce. How can I send them to you afterwards?

Anonymous · ‎08-07-2019

@a_c_green wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi @a_c_green, no update yet. As soon as we have more information we will update the previous chat recaps and ensure you are notified

Thanks! I'll follow up again next week if there's no news before then.

Kinda-sorta along those same lines, do you folks have regularly-scheduled meetings (either face-to-face or video conferencing) with the Engineering people and other teams, or are the different topics discussed here and in the other groups being handled in email day-to-day? Are these issues being tracked by any kind of case number, so that, for example, when you follow up for status on something previously reported, they know which issue you're referring to? I get the impression that at least part of the time, they're leaving you hanging, without a clear idea of when you can expect an update from them on some given topic.

Hi @a_c_green, short answer is yes

We do have regular meetings with some teams, some are face-to-face and others are video conferencing. Other issues are addressed via email, and there is an internal tracking system used to monitor the progress of each issue. Sometimes we don't have an update to share simply because the root cause has not yet been identified or because a more pressing issue is taking precedence. Persistence and patience are key, and we'll be sure to do our part to get more info as soon as we can

papermoneyforme · ‎08-07-2019

@coffeebean832 wrote:
I got a seller update newsletter yesterday titled "{!username}, let's check in on 2019"

Aside from the technical error where my username didn't come through, there were more errors further down in the newsletter. It's telling me I had an average of 131 active listings last month, which is really far off from the actual number- it's not even in the same galaxy. This number is always wrong in the seller newsletter, but this month especially so. Where the heck is eBay getting that number from?

Maybe it belongs to the seller called username

Anonymous · ‎08-07-2019

Hi everyone,

The chat is now closed. We will continue to respond to remaining questions and recap the questions and answers as soon as possible. Keep an eye out for our recap in the next few days and we look forward to seeing you next time!

brian@ebay · ‎08-07-2019

@dtexley3 wrote:

@the.curious.fat.cat wrote:

Hi,

The traffic report (and impressions) on seller hub again doesn't update... 😿

Now it's stuck on July 23.

Is this issue known? when it will be fixed?

Thanks in advance

In addition the impressions on the promoted listings pages are significantly higher (anywhere from 2x to 4x) and don't coincide to the trends for impressions on the performance page. One of these two graphs are wrong, maybe both.

The promoted listings impressions should always be lower than the total impressions on the performance page so this doesn't even pass a basic sniff test.

Hi @dtexley3, it's possible that Promoted Listings impressions are not included in the impressions displayed in Seller Hub - Performance. I'm not sure on this though, so I'm going to reach out to the Seller Hub team to get some clarification. I'll post any update I get in this chat.

Brian,
Community Team