eBay

brian@ebay · ‎09-23-2020

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.

Missed the chat? Send your questions to the podcast by calling 888-723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com and maybe your questions will make it on the air! Or listen to past episodes while you wait for next Wednesday!

Brian,
Community Team

gwzcomps · ‎09-23-2020

brian@ebay wrote:
@gwzcomps wrote:
eBay continues to claim they are committed to its buyers and sellers. We still have yet to see any proof of that commitment when it comes to the CS side of things. When is eBay going to quit hiding behind the pandemic excuse and get their support systems to at minimum par with internet providers? It is pretty sad when my ISP provides better support for a mere $60 a month than eBay does for $1000 a month.

This is especially critical with the MP changes eBay is ramrodding down our throats with no support or consistency.
@gwzcomps COVID-19 has resulted in us having our customer service people move to a work from home setup to ensure their safety (I'm also working from home and am very grateful to eBay for this) and this did change how we service members for some topics. The managed payments team is still available to help members by phone though. You can reach them by going to this page and selecting 'Have us call you' at the bottom. They'll be happy to help you with your payments questions.

For other questions you can go here and select 'Contact us' at the bottom of the. Depending on the topic you will be able to have us call you, chat online, or send an email.

There is a point where it gets unreasonable though. There has been plenty of time now to implement something. Currently with MP the callback button is either greyed out, not working, or the callback time is 400+ minutes. This is 100% unreasonable on the payment processing side of things. If eBay is going to pretend to be a payment processor or financial institution then they need to step up their game. Even now all reputable companies that process money have a real phone number that can be called. None of this we will call you when we feel like it nonsense...

shhboom · ‎09-23-2020

Why are big time sellers given a pass on listing restricted items? For example, lock pick sets...many hundreds are always listed at any given time and thousands sell every year, but if if an occasional seller lists such an item, it is removed almost immediately by eBay. The old "takes time to find and remove" excuse is a joke.

-----

Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

brian@ebay · ‎09-23-2020

@auto_manuals_and_more wrote:

Why does eBay continue to send buyers emails about items that are exactly like what they've bought right after they complete a purchase? It invites buyer remorse.

On a different account I had a buyer purchase a expensive, tough to ship item, and while that item was still in transit, my buyer got a email showing them one that sold weeks earlier for a lower price. Buyer was complaining before they even received it, but while it was already in transit with a freight shipper, so not retrievable without huge fees. Buyer continues to find issues with the one they bought, expecting a discount to get it to the cost of the one that is not even still listed for sale - all the time knowing that I would be out almost $1k if I have them send it back.

As sellers we struggle with inaccurate SNAD claims from buyers all the time to avoid the return shipping fees on buyer remorse purchases, and then eBay makes it worse by showing them what they could've bought.

@auto_manuals_and_more & @carolynnq I know we've received this feedback in the past and it's something the Community team has shared with the relevant team. I'm happy to send your feedback along as well. Thank you!

Brian,
Community Team

gwzcomps · ‎09-23-2020

@mam98031 wrote:
I know I may sound like a broken record, but we are passing the 4 month mark by my notes where we are still not getting email notifications for threads we are subscribing to and following. This is really a huge amount of time. The bell is horrible and frequently inaccurate.

Updates please.

Not gonna lie as an active user I am starting to like the way things are working on the boards. I feel really bad for the new users though since there is no way to notify them if they don't come back. I don't know if I want all those emails, but I would feel better if I can notify someone if I have a good answer to their question.

mvls1 · ‎09-23-2020

Last week I posted this regarding the new shipping label. Every day that this is not corrected it is costing sellers who ship to commercial business addresses more money. I have been sending feedback with every label I print every day on all our accounts, but still they have not added FedEx ground back as a shipping option. Could you update us on the status of this correction?

As part of the recent announced changes to the shipping services offered by Ebay, UPS was added as another carrier option and the shipping label was changed, yet again. The latest iteration is another example of an Ebay misfire. Their are numerous problems with this new version that I will not go into at this time, but there are 2 very glaring issues that need corrected immediately.

First and most important, the new version no longer includes the option to send our packages by FedEx Ground which was available on the previous label version. That option is for use with packages being shipped to commercial addresses such as the Global Shipping Center and is $4.00 to $30.00 less expensive than other options depending on the size/weight of the package. This is a HUGE omission that is costing sellers a lot of money and needs to be corrected pronto.

Second, when trying to determine which carrier service to use the results returned are not sorted from lowest cost to most expensive cost. The result generally start with USPS priority then list all other USPS options not sorted by cost. Then after USPS, the results for FedEx and UPS follow but also not in lowest to most expensive.

Could you please have the shipping team correct this?

Edit: Reply to this post can be read here

tyler@ebay · ‎09-23-2020

@jwbayseller wrote:

I have noticed that lately when I get an offer on one of my listings, I can not readily see the zip code of the buyer. Since I include shipping in most of my listed prices, it does help me decide how deep of a discount I can accept based on how far I am going to have to ship the item. Is this a permanent change? Thank you!

Hi @jwbayseller - well that definitely makes a lot of sense, I'm not sure why we wouldn't provide you that information in an easy to access manner. Just so I'm clear (I don't have any offers on my items for sale at the moment) is this something you can find eventually it just takes time, or it's not part of the offer flow at all that you're seeing?

Tyler,

mr_lincoln · ‎09-23-2020

Good afternoon Brian & the rest of the eBay Support Team!

Subject: New Label Flow - Dimensions

This request is a few weeks old, can you please provide an update from the Shipping & Handling Team on the request to correct the dimensional order of Length x Width x Height of packages. On the listing form and pretty much everywhere else in life we enter L x W x H but the most recent Label Flow has it backwards when it transfers the Listing form dimensions to the label flow ... they are showing H x W x L ...

-----

Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

Regards,
Mr. Lincoln - Community Mentor

mam98031 · ‎09-23-2020

brian@ebay wrote:
@gwzcomps wrote:
eBay continues to claim they are committed to its buyers and sellers. We still have yet to see any proof of that commitment when it comes to the CS side of things. When is eBay going to quit hiding behind the pandemic excuse and get their support systems to at minimum par with internet providers? It is pretty sad when my ISP provides better support for a mere $60 a month than eBay does for $1000 a month.

This is especially critical with the MP changes eBay is ramrodding down our throats with no support or consistency.
@gwzcomps COVID-19 has resulted in us having our customer service people move to a work from home setup to ensure their safety (I'm also working from home and am very grateful to eBay for this) and this did change how we service members for some topics. The managed payments team is still available to help members by phone though. You can reach them by going to this page and selecting 'Have us call you' at the bottom. They'll be happy to help you with your payments questions.

For other questions you can go here and select 'Contact us' at the bottom of the. Depending on the topic you will be able to have us call you, chat online, or send an email.

The point Brian is the length of time many are having to wait for call backs. Often times 300+ minutes. Social media CS are also overwhelmed so often can't help. MP is completely swamped and understaffed as well and the answers or help coming out of that team are slow at best, non existent in too many cases. I realize you have no control over any of this. But it is Ebay's responsibility as a whole.

Not to take away from any issues that non MP members may be having. But MP is critical because it has to do with the sellers Money. And there is thread after thread after thread of members that are 4+ into being in MP with all their deposits being declined, therefore they have received no money. Multiple calls to MP results in no help whatsoever. Somewhere a breach of fiduciary duties are going to play into this. Mp can't keep doing this to sellers and expect them to tolerate it. One seller made over 30 calls with NO resolution to their issues.

While I firmly believer EVERYONE is important, MP or not. I'm just saying this clogged up CS format that MP has is preventing people from LITERALLY being able to get food on the table and their lights on. Something has to give. This is not a new issue. This has gotten worse and worse over the course of this pandemic.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

valueaddedresource · ‎09-23-2020

tyler@ebay wrote:

@valueaddedresource wrote:

Yesterday the System Status page was showing Service Disruptions for Billing & Payouts but did not give any specifics about what the issues were or how sellers could identify if they had been affected.

I noticed that today the status page was updated to reflect the issues had been resolved without any further information.

Can you shed some light on what disruptions/issues were being experienced specifically so sellers know what to look for and report in case we see lingering issues?

Hi @valueaddedresource - we requested more information on the issue from yesterday and have not yet heard back on details. If and when we hear back we will update the chat as well as the threads you've tagged us to on the subject. Thanks!

Thank you tyler@ebay . Please also pass on to the appropriate teams that it would be very helpful to have access to more detailed information about service disruptions when they occur.

Billing & Payouts are both very critical functions of the site - service disruptions to these features should be communicated in detail either as an announcement here in the community or a more detailed email alert should be sent out.

As it is, we are left wondering if this was the cause of multiple reports of sellers having Managed Payment payouts declined, multiple reports of sellers getting error messages when trying to send invoices, multiple reports of buyers not being able to complete check out, etc.

More direct, specific, proactive and timely communication would go a long way toward helping ease sellers' minds about some of these issues - and it would also go a long way toward alleviating some of the extended hold times and reply delays from customer service as well. 😊

----

Edit: A reply to your comment can be found here

golfingaddict · ‎09-23-2020

Is the seller sellebration going to be on the community platform this friday? Is there a special board to link to access the party?

Edit: Reply to this post can be read here

brian@ebay · ‎09-23-2020

@carlqsportscards wrote:

Tried to pay for an order last night on my phone. The circle just kept spinning and spinning for a few minutes. Finally had to close it out. Paid on my computer this morning.

Just a head up, don't know if it's a widespread problem.

@carlqsportscards that's strange. If you run into that same problem again will you tag me in a thread and give me more details, or contact customer service to get it reported? Thanks!

Brian,
Community Team

tyler@ebay · ‎09-23-2020

@mam98031 wrote:

I know I may sound like a broken record, but we are passing the 4 month mark by my notes where we are still not getting email notifications for threads we are subscribing to and following. This is really a huge amount of time. The bell is horrible and frequently inaccurate.

Updates please.

Hi @mam98031 - there isn't currently an update to this other than what you've heard me tell you in the past I'm afraid:

The right Khoros and eBay teams are aware of the situation and they are working to resolve the issue.

Tyler,

alcoforever · ‎09-23-2020

tyler@ebay wrote:
@jwbayseller wrote:
I have noticed that lately when I get an offer on one of my listings, I can not readily see the zip code of the buyer. Since I include shipping in most of my listed prices, it does help me decide how deep of a discount I can accept based on how far I am going to have to ship the item. Is this a permanent change? Thank you!

Hi @jwbayseller - well that definitely makes a lot of sense, I'm not sure why we wouldn't provide you that information in an easy to access manner. Just so I'm clear (I don't have any offers on my items for sale at the moment) is this something you can find eventually it just takes time, or it's not part of the offer flow at all that you're seeing?

I'm not sure a zip code would be of any use. What if the buyer changes his shipping address after accepting an offer based on his home zip code?

redmodelt · ‎09-23-2020

If I have a question to post on the Member to Member forum, it is hard to find a way to post, the route there is not real apparent, make me wonder how questions are asked in the first place. Anybody should be able to ask, correct? Also, I see a number of comments made by members of the that group that ether don't address the question or are just canned replies that still don't fit the question, maybe someone should look at the people that can reply and get an idea if they should be able too.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎09-23-2020

Hi, I asked this question last week, and you said you'd check with the Shipping team. Just wondering if you've heard back from them?:

This relates to the addition of UPS to ebay label shipping:

My local PO is within walking distance, my nearest UPS location is not so near, and could entail difficult travel during the winter. If I offer a buyer both UPS and USPS shipping options, and the buyer purchases UPS but I don't want to risk driving in bad weather but do want to meet my one day shipping promise, can I ship via USPS? And if so, how can I determine which USPS shipping class is equivalent or better than which UPS class?

Edit: Reply to this post can be read here