mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
This week we’re being joined by jen@selling with shipping experts amy@shipping and nate@shipping to talk about the new QR code and shipping during this holiday season amidst a global pandemic.
You can download our holiday shipping guide here and check out the seasonal playbook here for helpful tips to get through peak season.
We’d also love to hear your thoughts and plans about what you are doing or experiencing with carriers.
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 refreshing the page and scrolling down to see our answers.
The chat thread will remain open until 2 PM PT, at which point the thread will be closed from additional responses. After that time, the team will continue to work on responding to any queries that might still be unanswered.
**Please note that while off-topic questions will not be removed, they will be answered after the chat closes, to allow priority to remain on the topic for this week's chat. Thanks!
jen@selling wrote:
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:Do you guys really not understand how bad this sort of SNAFU is for ebay? My God, if we sellers screwed things up as badly as you guys do, we'd be banished from the site. For the Love of God, PLEASE learn to PREVENT errors like this. Jen, I really do WANT to have more confidence in ebay, but when you guys do stuff like this......I'm sorry, but it is just so disheartening to see this sort of thing happening over and over again.
@my-cottage-closet I appreciate the feedback. I was being human, honest, and transparent in my response. The launch of several pages within a website is a heavy lift, and as you already recognize, we have a lot of moving parts. Sometimes we have to address changes after the fact even though we try our best to prevent these types of errors.
I think the point trying to be made was that if this was flip and it was a seller making the mistake of this importance it is likely we would be sanctioned in some way. "Being Human" is often lost in some of these rules that apply to sellers. I don't think they meant the comment as a personal attack on you, more of a general comment.
This gets even more noticeable at this time of year. Hopefully are transactions are increasing which gives us more room to make a mistake because we are ALL mere humans and stuff happens. Having a one size fits all type policies for how sellers are evaluated is often times problematic for the small sellers especially.
@golfingaddict wrote:
nate@shipping wrote:
@golfingaddict wrote:
Could anyone please explain why I am still seeing this type of tracking information on all my tracking/shipping info on ebay. Pre shipment sent to USPS after they already have picked up and processed the package. (these are still happening frequently) Buyers are seeing this and it is confusing and irritating to have false information provided to buyers .
Hi @golfingaddict ,
Thanks for the feedback. This doesn't look right. The pre-shipment even should be coming before the other events. The community team will reach out to see if you can share the specific example tracking numbers for us to dig into. Thanks for sharing!
~Nate
Just to be clear Nate, the pre-shipment is there first, then it gets picked up and then it goes down to the sort facility then EBAY puts in the Pre-shipment info again. It does not show that way on the USPS site.
I will gather a bunch of tracking numbers to show you but they don't show up on the USPS site, it is only shown that way on ebay. Perhaps item numbers would be better?
@golfingaddict Tracking numbers should work best, but the more information you can send us, the better. We'll make sure the team gets the right information and responds. Thank you!
@golfingaddict wrote:
nate@shipping wrote:
@golfingaddict wrote:
Could anyone please explain why I am still seeing this type of tracking information on all my tracking/shipping info on ebay. Pre shipment sent to USPS after they already have picked up and processed the package. (these are still happening frequently) Buyers are seeing this and it is confusing and irritating to have false information provided to buyers .
Hi @golfingaddict ,
Thanks for the feedback. This doesn't look right. The pre-shipment even should be coming before the other events. The community team will reach out to see if you can share the specific example tracking numbers for us to dig into. Thanks for sharing!
~Nate
Just to be clear Nate, the pre-shipment is there first, then it gets picked up and then it goes down to the sort facility then EBAY puts in the Pre-shipment info again. It does not show that way on the USPS site.
I will gather a bunch of tracking numbers to show you but they don't show up on the USPS site, it is only shown that way on ebay. Perhaps item numbers would be better?
Thanks. Yes, that doesn't seem right. If you can share tracking numbers that would be best for us!
~Nate
@ynotmore wrote:
I have a more general question - why are invalid or outright false claims if "I did not receive the item" allowed to stay up?
This results in 3 weeks of harassment to the seller until the case is automatically closed. I have been repeatedly harassed with reminders to take care of a case - even after customer service knows the claim is false.
2 examples:
1) the buyer won the auction but never paid, and after being told that case is closed, the buyer opens a claim against the seller2) the claimant never placed a bid or made a commitment to buy - a case is opened against the seller
I don't need the harassment.
Do I need to repeatedly analyze a claim to make sure it's valid?
Repeatedly being told "don't worry about it" is not an acceptable solution to this problem.
1. If the buyer hasn't paid, then they are not eligible for the eBay Money Back Guarantee and any item not received request they opened would be purely for communication purposes. Neither the buyer nor the seller would be able to ask eBay to step in on the case, and it won't effect a seller's account in any way. In a situation like this, the request would close automatically after 30 days.
2. I would need an example for this one to be certain, but it sounds like my response to the first example you gave would apply here as well.
I understand being told not to worry about a request when they are often times a high priority situation for sellers can fall short of the reassurance we are aiming for, but when a buyer isn't covered and an item not received request is purely for you and the buyer to communicate, then you wouldn't have anything to worry about beyond responding to the buyer.
Sometimes buyers are confused about whether they have paid, sometimes payment was made outside of eBay, and in very rare instances, payment may have been made through eBay but due to a glitch on our site we aren't able to confirm the payment. In any of these situations, we wouldn't be able to step in and close the request because doing so escalates the request into a case with the eBay Money Back Guarantee and the transaction isn't eligible for our protection program. Just double check that you never received payment, explain to your buyer that they never paid for the order, and direct them to Customer Service if they still have question.
@justsc92 wrote:
I think I should complement eBay on drastically reducing the number of counterfeit listings of Patrick Mahomes cards passed off as reprints or RP in October. Way down are the sales and listings for counterfeits; No 20 of 25 : 2017 Panini Cracked Ice Auto, No 62 of 75 : 2017 Panini Optic Contenders Auto, No 17 of 25 : 2017 Panini Contenders Draft Class, and 2017 RC Optic Contenders Auto.
While there were reductions, there are more new of the same counterfeits added each day. There are plenty of sellers to fill the gaps. I do not see how the VeRo program works unless eBay stops listing from being added. Trying to keep up with new listings each day would be a burden for any company.
But while the Patrick Mahomes counterfeit cards stalled, other counterfeits soared. The 2003 UD Game Jersey Michael Jordan Kobe Bryant Combo game jersey No 8 of 10 counterfeited card took off with 24 sales in October and two sales of over $1000. There are currently now approx. 20 active listing of this counterfeit card.
Hi @justsc92 - Thanks for this report, we'll make sure it gets passed on appropriately!
@dhbookds wrote:
The perennial Christmas question............
At one time, if a seller had an ebay message from a buyer asking to change the delivery address for an item for a gift.....it was ok to do it and ebay would back us up with the usual protections.
Then it was NOT ok and we had to cancel the order (pay PP fees, if still in PP, now pay the MP fee), and ask the buyer to repurchase.
What's the rule this year?
@dhbookds Totally get where you’re coming from. Sellers are protected when they ship to the buyer’s address provided in checkout (which is the one that will show in the Order Details page), the current protections are shown here.
If a buyer needs to update their shipping address after they’ve gone through checkout then the order would need to be cancelled on the seller’s end and re-purchased with the correct address by the buyer. We found this was the best way to verify the item is shipped to the right address, because it can be messy when there are several addresses floating around.
