Hi everyone! Thanks for joining me for the Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. I 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 I'll close it from additional responses. After that time, I'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!
@cstpos wrote:
Hi. When I click the research pricing link, I've noticed that many times the items they've included in the average price sold are for pricing for multiples or for completely different items. For a while, I was listing in line with the ebay suggestions/results. Then I noticed my items weren't selling, but other, cheaper listings were selling. That's when I started reading and scrolling through every listing ebay uses to determine 'comparable' pricing. The owners here also question why I list some items at a lower price because they look at the ebay comparable pricing as well. It would be nice to compare apples to apples. I just do my own research like I used to. I wish the info was accurate so I could count on it to save me time. Thanks!
@cstpos This is totally valid feedback and I'm sure would be way more useful if it functioned properly. I want to understand a few things to help get to the bottom of this:
- which link specifically are you talking about
- what steps do you take to get there
- do you have a specific example I can take to the team
If you'll go ahead and start a thread here with all that info, I'll get it in the right hands!
Thanks for joining the chat this week! It's closed from further replies but we'll keep on working through to make sure that questions receive a response.
Thanks!
@dhbookds wrote:
Tyler, have we given up trying to get "known" issues posted somewhere? It would sure help with "is anyone else experiencing this" questions, trying to contact CS, trying to find a workaround, etc........
I don't know where "system announcements" went in the last reiteration of boards, but I don't see it around.
Hi @dhbookds! I'm sorry for any confusion surrounding where to post questions about system/site/Community issues. There are actually two boards now, depending on what is going on. If you have site/technical issues you can visit our Share eBay Technical Issues board here and if you have feedback or issues within the Community you can go here to get to our Share Community Platform Feedback board. As for the system status board itself, the link is still on the homepage in the Getting started box to the right of the screen.
@jreeves2017 wrote:
Just recently the Postmaster General announced plans to "slow down" 1st class mail ailing with their 3cent increase in rates beginning the end of August.
How, if at all, is eBay going to communicate with the buyers that the First Class Mail service timetable they've known all their lives is going to be changing.
This could potentially affect buyers with more cases being opened for missing shipments.
Also, our buyers are reacting VERY negatively to the LACK of or TOTAL lack of tracking entries in the new eBay Standard envelope shipping service.
75% of the packages we send by the new method don't even show up as being DELIVERED.
Thanks
Jennifer
@jreeves2017 - Hi Jennifer! We use USPS' stated delivery standards when generating shipping estimates for your buyers, so when their standard changes, our estimates will also.
I'm sorry to hear that you're seeing such a larger percentage of your envelopes not receive any tracking or delivery scans with the eBay standard envelope service. I'll let the team know, as that's definitely a much larger percentage than average.
Thanks!
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
I attended a number of ebay Open sessions, and have watched some of the replays since then. Unfortunately, none of the Category sessions are available for replay. I made the mistake of watching the one on Collectibles (which turned out to be misnamed, should have been "Trading Cards"). Would like to watch the House and Garden , and maybe one or two others. Could you use your enormous influence and charm to persuade the Open team to make the Category sessions available, even if only for those who had signed up....?
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques I can't make any promises but I can see what I can get for you! If I can get anything I'll loop back here to let you know. Also thanks for the feedback on the collectibles session, we got this to the category managers last week and they are fully aware. From what I hear they plan on correcting that in the future, thanks!
@mr_lincoln wrote:
Good afternoon tyler@ebay and the rest of the eBay Support Team!
Subject: Seller Hub - Unsold file functionality
I am not real keen on how the Seller Hub Unsold file works, mainly the display count on the Listing tile. Prior to eBay shutting down the Classic My eBay Selling pages we would Relist from the Seller Hub Unsold file BUT, to get the counter to reset subtracting the items that were Relisted we had to go back to the Classic pages, Unsold file and DELETE the Relisted items. Yes, it was that complex and time consuming.
Now in order to have the counter go down we have to use the Ended listings > Last 90 days selection BUT that file has no way to separate Sold items from Unsold ... so we either delete them all or go through the time consuming process of checking ONLY the Unsold items and leaving the Sold ones there (if we want them there for 90 days).
I posted about this over a year ago and asked that the Unsold file automatically drop the counter based on Relisted items from the Unsold file. This would be a good enhancement to Seller Hub, not to mention a time saver. Below are screen shots where I Relisted items from the Unsold file but the counter did not go down and will not until I go down to the Ended listings > Last 90 days and delete them individually ...
@mr_lincoln I understand you'd like the main Hub page to update the Unsold count when you've relisted some or all of your unsold items; rather than having to go in and delete them out. I know the Seller Hub team always appreciates getting feedback from our members, so I'd encourage you to share this info with them via the Comment link that can be found in the upper right corner of the screen in the Hub. I'm also going to pass this feedback on to them directly.
In the meantime, I have a work around that may help. It's not on that main page but if you click into the Listings section of the Hub, and then Unsold > All Statuses drop down menu, you can select either 'Relisted' or 'Unsold and not relisted'. I'll also include a screen shot of that below and I hope it helps with tracking unsold info for now.
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Edit: Additional info regarding the Seller Hub overview Unsold count
@mr_lincoln Hello! I did some asking around and found out why that number doesn't update on the Seller Hub overview screen when Unsold items have been relisted. That number represents an overview for the Unsold items, meaning it's including both relisted and not relisted items. So even as you relist things, it's still making up a part of that count. If you then want to see a break down of the items that were relisted or have not been relisted from your Unsold list, you would do so via the work around I provided, or where you're currently looking further down in the overview screen.
They made it clear that there is no plan to add a feature like you requested to the Seller Hub overview page. I hope this insight helps to clarify why and I'm sorry you've been waiting so long for some kind of response or confirmation as to why that number wasn't updating.
@coinslabz26 wrote:
Ever since the release of ebay's new messenger I keep getting the message
"There is an active offer for this buyer or limit of offers was reached."
when trying to use the ebay reply with offer function. Chat support says this is a know issue. For a short time it went back to the old messenger but now the new broken messenger is back. Offers still send fine on the IOS app. Is this actually a known issue and is there a fix?
@coinslabz26 Hey there, sorry to hear your running into this! Can you start a thread here with more details?
- what steps are you taking to get this error message specifically
- is this only happening on the desktop version of eBay
- any screenshots of the error are also helpful for reporting
Keep us posted, we're looking forward to hearing from you!
@gwzcomps wrote:
Any chance eBay staff are going to be bothered to fix long standing, known, and repeatable site issues? So tired of your site allowing buyers supply more characters in the address than I am allowed to use.
Hi @gwzcomps - this is a suggestion that's been with the product team for quite some time. I don't have any updates on when or if that will be implemented.
Thanks!
@raggedyland wrote:
Why has the "mark as answered" option been removed? I always email customer to give them shipping info, then they write back and say thanks, so I have to reply again or it shows I have unanswered questions. Even if I send another unnecessary reply, they may send a smile face or something and this can go on unnecessarily.
Hi @raggedyland - oh the perpetual 'no you hang up first' is just so annoying! Sorry you're running into this a lot.
I haven't gotten any notice that that option has been removed, but I do have some step-by-steps for Seller Hub, let me know if this helps:
To remove Answer product questions notifications from your Tasks module on the Overview page:
- Go to the Tasks module in the Overview tab.
- Click Answer product questions.
- From the Manage active listings tab, click the Respond drop-down menu.
- Select Mark as answered.
@coinslabz26 wrote:
Florida residents are still being charged sales tax on legal tender US coins under $500 even though those coins are exempt. Ebay is correctly applying the exemption to coins and bullion over $500, and incorrectly applying that provision to US legal tender coins. There is a subsection of the FL law that exempts US "legal tender" coins entirely. Can we please get some guidance or an ETA on a fix from the tax team on this issue even if a later follow up is required?
@coinslabz26 I haven't heard of any up coming fix for this specific issue, however if you have a buyer running into it they can reach out to CS who can file a request for the credit manually. I totally get this is tedious and extra steps are involved, but the tax team is fully aware of the situation and we have no problem processing those credits. I appreciate you working with us!
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
It was announced at ebay Open that going forward, ebay will be requiring buyers to provide a payment method with ebay before making offers, then, if the seller accepts the offer, ebay will withdraw the amount immediately. I think many sellers would be happy to see this. Any idea when we should be seeing this? In time for Q4?
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques - I was floored when I heard that announcement, SO EXCITED to see it finally happen.
As to timing, I haven't gotten any specifics other than 'this year'. If I were a betting man I'd say next month or early Q4.
@kosmetik.karnival wrote:
I have been trying to set up a promotion for a few months now and have yet to be successful in doing so. I tried again yesterday, but unfortunately no promotion was created.
Thinking that it must be my fault, I contacted support for assistance. After checking with your IT department, the customer service representative advised me that there was a problem that affected more sellers than just me.
Are you aware of this, and do you have a timeframe as to when this problem will be resolved?
Thank you.
Hi @kosmetik.karnival - there isn't a current tech issue that would prevent you from running a promotion via your Marketing tab in Seller Hub. There is a ticket open for the item counter not updating in the 'promotional offers' module of your Seller Hub Overview tab, which may be what the teammate was referring to.
If you have more details to share about the error you're running into when creating a promo please share them on the Tech Issues board (link here) and folks can chime in to help!
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
I know I've brought this up before, but with the Holidays just around the corner, any chance ebay could prioritize making a streamlined way for buyers to request that a seller send to a giftees address? Without the current clunkiness of seller cancelling and buyer re-buying to add the giftee's address. Buyers want that convenience, and we should be able to provide it, instead, it's just a PITA for seller and buyer.
And, as is my custom, I'll add to my Holiday wish list: there should be an easy way for sellers to offer gift wrapping if they wish, and for this to be highlighted (maybe with a search filter and/or an icon in search results page) so buyers can find the sellers easily.
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques If you could provide a little more feedback, or what you are looking for giftee address wise, that would be very helpful. The buyer can currently enter any shipping address at checkout, so the giftees address could be used at that time. If they accidentally use their own address though, and then request an update later, it's not something that can officially be changed in the View Order/Sale Details...outside of a cancelation for repurchase as you noted here. This is a safety measure for our sellers so they can be protected should a buyer claim to have not received an item. If you have some ideas as to how you would like this to look though, we can pass them on to the appropriate teams. There is also a Comment link in the upper right corner of the screen in the Seller Hub and I know that team appreciates getting feedback and ideas from our members regarding sales and how those selling flows work.
I love your gift wrapping suggestion! Tyler said he has bubbled this up in the past but keep sending those awesome ideas our way. You can send things like this here too!
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Edit to update!
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques I had a thought about the gift wrap situation and a few possible workarounds you could pursue to offer this service to your buyers for now.
The first would be to create a listing that solely offers gift wrap options. You could make it multi-variation and offer different types like holiday, birthday, plain, etc. You could even include a note in the descriptions of your current listings about the gift wrap options and then include a link to the gift wrap listing. The buyer could then purchase both the item and a gift wrap option from you.
Another possibility would be to create multi-variation listings for items you sell in categories that allow it, and include the gift wrap options directly in the listings themselves. I'll include a list below as an example:
1. Item
2. Item w/plain gift wrap
3. Item w/birthday gift wrap
4. Item w/holiday gift wrap
I hope either or both of these options are possible solutions for your gift wrap wish for now!
