Hi everyone! Thanks for joining us for the Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. We don't have a specific topic this week, so feel free to share any general buying or selling questions you may have.
The chat thread will remain open until 2 PM PT at which point we'll close it from additional responses. After that time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that might still be unanswered.
To post your question, click Reply in the lower right corner of this post, type your question, and hit submit between 1-2 PM Pacific Time. The format of our chat mirrors the format of our Community Discussion Boards, where each post will appear in the thread chronologically. The Community Team will review each question as it comes in, and will quote the original question in our reply. This quote and the reply will appear later in the thread, so just keep scrolling down to see our answers.
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@eclecticeducator wrote:
Here is my dilemma. I shipped a set of books to the Virgin Islands. The buyer chose media mail. Needless to say, the estimated time of arrival that ebay gives is inaccurate, especially with the Covid issue. The tracking states that the item has been delayed and will arrive late but is still in the system to be delivered. It has only been 3 weeks, and from what I have read, deliveries to PO boxes in the Virgin Islands are taking 4 to 6 weeks---even, during the best of times, media mail can sometimes take this long. Problem: the buyer has requested her money back because the item hasn't arrived. If it was documented as lost or missing, I wouldn't have a problem refunding the money. However, refunding her now would mean she gets the books, if they arrive, and never paid for them. Ebay's system states I have to refund within 3 days. Should I just refund or should I have ebay close the case with no seller resolution and ebay refunds the money; so that if the books arrive, I can at least try to have ebay refund my money since the tracking only showed books were delayed in transit and not lost?
@eclecticeducator I'm sorry to hear about the delayed shipment 😞 That's a tough spot to be in. If tracking has shown item movement sometime in the last 7 days then customer support can place a temporary hold on the INR to give the carrier more time to deliver it. If tracking hasn't shown movement in the last 7 days and we (eBay) are asked to step in then it's very likely we'd approve a refund for the buyer.
Based on the above information, it may be best to contact USPS to see if the package can be rerouted back to you instead of going to the buyer. Then you can issue a refund. Otherwise, you can continue to work with the buyer to see if they're willing to wait a bit long for the package to arrive. If they don't want to wait then giving a refund will likely be the best route to go since it sounds like we'd approve a refund if we're asked to take a look.
@bimmerpc1 wrote:
Why doesn't ebay VERIFY domestic shipping addresses against the USPS database before processing a transaction?
With some frequency, eBay will provide us with an address from a buyer that is too long or clearly incorrect.
Ebay then expects us to fix it or cancel the transaction. The most likely result? Loss of sale and a bad buyer experience.
This is 2020. We have easy, publicly accessible address verification databases. It should be part of the checkout flow.
Hey @bimmerpc1 - I agree that verifying addresses and removing that friction point for both sellers and buyers would be a great win all-around. I will bubble this up with the correct team for review.
@golfingaddict wrote:
brian@ebay wrote:
@golfingaddict wrote:
I'm hoping someone can answer or at least give an explanation about what is going on with item specifics.
Today, once again, I am getting notice that I need to add "recommended" Item specifics.
In my selling manager, this "notice" is front and center since it is in the middle of my seller manager setup in the same box as "print labels and ship" Not exactly easy to ignore.
But what makes this so annoying is that these are exactly the same items that I added item specifics to at least 3 times. 1. when I created the listing. 2 when they first came up with this notification and 3. approx two weeks ago.
I did check "don't remind me of these again" back when that option was first given. It seems like this item specific thing is trying to nag me to death. What's worse is that the recommendations are stuff that do not even make sense!!! Compression for things that don't have compression. "character" for things that don't have character Theme for things that don't need or have a theme and fabric type, when you already ask for "fabric" What the heck is that suppose to do?
This morning I had 6 items pop up. I fixed those. I went to golf and had 2 more pop up. I fixed those and just a few minutes ago, I had 20, I've gotten that down to 4 now and I am almost done, but it seems that these will get done and you will find another few to annoy me with.
I'm attaching a view of a typical item that "needs" recommended Item specifics. I fill in a lot of stuff, much more than I typically see when I view listings. And this is not enough?
Please end the madness.
@golfingaddict @greg213213 I just looked into this and found it's a known issue with that section of Seller Hub / Sell page. It isn't updating even after a seller adds the recommended item specifics to listings. Our tech team is aware and looking into it, but I don't have any details beyond this.
Thanks but I am not sure you answered my question and I don't understand what you mean by your answer.
1. I did update them and the number went to zero. (four times today with different listings popping up each time)
2. I updated these listings when this first was announced and then several weeks ago, and then again a couple of weeks after that and now the same ones are popping up again today. Each time I clear the number to zero and then a week or so later I have more to update. Some days it will be men's items and some days women's.
Are you saying that the glitch clears them and then puts them back to be recycled and revised again after a week or so? Because that is what is happening.
I only have about 220 listings and I've updated item specifics for at least 1000 listings given the number of times I have done this.
Here it is now after I updated all the items that showed I had at least 20 to do at 1;00 and now have none. Give it a few hours and I'll probably have 20-30 more.
@golfingaddict The issue we're aware of right now is that the recommendations isn't accurately reflecting listings that are missing item specifics. It is still recommending listings that already have that item specific filled out.
As I read your posts again, it sounds like your items are actually losing item specifics that you have previously filled out. Is that correct? (please tag me in another thread and I'll take a close look). Thank you!
@dhbookds wrote:
Tirade ahead...........
It isn't updating even after a seller adds the recommended item specifics to listings. Our tech team is aware and looking into it, but I don't have any details beyond this.
But heaven forbid that anyone could TELL sellers that...........instead they spend hr after hr trying to figure out what THEY did wrong when more and more emails come to tell them to fix IS. And of course, anyone NOT reading this chat will continue to try, time after time.......
This place really is going to the dogs as far as communications are concerned........ I thought JD was bad.......but who cares how much time we waste trying to fulfill Ebay instructions........when the whole process is broken........
@dhbookds I definitely understand why this is frustrating. I'll pass your feedback along.
@fern*wood wrote:
Should I stop looking for my 25th ebay anniversary T-shirt and stickers?
Hi @fern*wood - I don't think so - if you got on the list you should still expect it.
I'll reach out for more info!
@kentgeneralstore wrote:
There is a glitch where Fedex ground to HI is FREE, any word on fixing that?
@kentgeneralstore our tech team is aware that when a seller prints a Shipping label for a buyer in Alaska or Hawaii it is defaulting to free shipping for Fed Ex Ground or FedEx Home and are working to get this fixed. I don't have an ETA or any other updates right now though.
@wesellrimage wrote:
Is there any official announcement on eBay Guaranteed Delivery? I use Door to Door eGD on my main Anchor store and I want to also enable it on my secondary store. The option to enable eGD is not shown under account shipping options. My account meets all requirements for eGD, over 100 transactions this year, Top Rated, Free Shipping and Returns. My items are listed with Zip codes and specified shipping methods.
I fully understand how to use the feature, it is just not avaialbe to activate on my store.
I have called Anchor support numerous times with no resolve. If it is being discontinued please make an announcement, if not PLEASE help me get this enabled on my secondary eBay store.
I have been trying to get this done for 90 days now.
John Norman
Max Optical LLC.
Hey @wesellrimage - I'm sorry to hear it's been taking so long to get this set up. Let's see what we can do to get you there.
Current state- Guaranteed Delivery for Handling time will automatically show on listings that meet the requirements with no need to opt-in. It sounds like you're wanting to use Door to Door on this account though and if you're not seeing that option, we'd need to look at it closer. Can you please start a thread on the Technical issues board and tag me in it, so I can take a closer look?
@bimmerpc1 wrote:
Oh and this lasted for about a second,
@bimmerpc1 Oh goodness, those bandanas as precious! I am very impressed they both did the look back pose at the same time. Thank you for sharing them!
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
acc756,
What I don't understand is, they flat out said it was going away in the podcast. It didn't really seem ambiguous. The reason I questioned it was because I know the podcasts are pre-recorded, and figured maybe they were using the incorrect early version of the Seller Update (which had said it was going away, but then they removed it and said "No, no, that shouldn't have been there." )
I'm with you: If it IS going away, just tell us and take the inevitable heat. This pussyfooting around is like politicians who get in more trouble for trying to cover up something than they would have had if they had just fessed up in the first place. And if it is NOT going away , then they should be JUMPING at the chance to correct this and make everyone happy. Instead, we have uncertainty, which leads to anxiety, which, frankly, we have enough of in the country right now LOL
Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques & @valueaddedresource - we heard back on this earlier this morning:
We apologize for any confusion regarding our current Promoted Listings credits for both Top Rated Sellers and Anchor and Enterprise store subscribers. We regularly review our various promotions to ensure they are providing the best opportunity to help our sellers grow, and we will give you time to adjust if there are any changes made to these promotions, but we don’t have any changes to announce at this time.
