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Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

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!

Velvet,
eBay
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Re: Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

eBay is trying to pretend they are "the" place to go for new and certified refurbished items.  Yet despite all this eBay is literally the worst place to buy said items.  In a recent purchase from a major retailer, eBay has proven eBay isn’t the place to go.

 

I purchased a quantity of 3 items (Not a lot of 3) and only received 1 item.  This was due to the carrier opening the package in transit.  When opening the appropriate return case for “missing parts and pieces” the seller told me they would only help me if I opened an “item not received’ case.  Not only is that the wrong option, but would be a violation of the policy regarding filing false claims.

 

The seller has refused to resolve my issue and I was forced to escalate the claim.  Now eBay’s automated system is telling me to send back the two items I never received?!?!  Seems if I open a “missing parts and pieces” common sense would dictate there is nothing to send back.

 

Now I don’t know what to do.  Also I am not sure how this aligns with eBay’s goals to be "the" place to go for new and certified refurbished items.

 

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

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Re: Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

hi velvet@ebay  - I know this isn't really an eBay issue specifically, but just wondering if you could check with the shipping department or any other relevant departments to see if they've heard anything from USPS about what is going on with Priority Mail Flat Rate Padded Envelopes?

 

They have disappeared from the USPS site and there's concern they may be discontinued or possibly on a very long backorder.

 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/Are-USPS-Padded-Flat-Rate-Envelopes-out-of-stock-or-no-longer...

 

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

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Re: Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

I know I come here with regular complaints about the shipping module – but here is yet another example of one of my issues. The buyer has once again used more than 40 characters in a single line. This has caused the shipping module to fail for years.

 

Since I do not necessarily open/look at the shipping information until I’m printing labels, I often do not get notice about this until I’m attempting to print labels. So, now I’m looking at attempting to get in contact with the buyer with little time before my next day shipping handling time is up or canceling the sale - which considering this is an eBay problem doesn't seem fair to my buyer (and leaves me out $0.60 on the transactions). Or hoping that CS will remove the late shipping ding for a eBay issue.

 

Why is eBay STILL allowing buyers to enter ship to addresses with too many characters???

 

 

address fail example.png

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Edit: a reply to your question can be found here

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Re: Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

Does ebay accept acceptance scans from self service kiosks (SSK's)? On ebay it appears to accept the package as accepted but on usps.com it says ("USPS expects item for mailing (SSK) "). Is this a valid on time scan for late shipment purposes assuming it still completes the transit and gets delivered etc. If you don't know the answer to this question please feel free to follow up later.

 

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

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Re: Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

Hello all,

 

I'd like to follow up on a reply by velvet@ebay in last week's Chat, concerning the USPS pricing changes for larger items: 

 

>> @michigan_tactical wrote:
>> how is ebay going to handle the new USPS additional postage rates for larger items?
>
> Good question @michigan_tactical! Basically, how you list shouldn't really change.
> They'll work similarly to the holiday surcharges buyers just experienced. If you're
> using calculated shipping and everything is entered accurately in the listing
> (dimensions/weights), then the buyer should be charged the correct amount
> (including any qualifying surcharge) at the time of purchase.

 

Ref: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Discussion-with-eBay/Community-Chat-January-5-1-00-pm-PT-Genera...

 

This might be a good time to bring up (again) the fact that the Shipping form is getting the dimensions wrong. A long-standing coding bug is bringing up the item's stored package dimensions in reverse order. The package Length is erroneously going into the Shipping form as its Height, and the package Height is going into the Shipping form as its Length.

 

When you upload your package dimensions in the listing form, the first field is stored as pkgLength, the second is pkgWidth and the third is pkgHeight. (You can see this coding in the Chrome browser by right-clicking your cursor in each field and selecting "Inspect" from the menu choices.) Easy-peasy.

 

However, when you've sold the item and go to print the Shipping label, the values come up backwards. The Shipping label form variable named dimensions.length is now showing the Height value, and dimensions.height is now showing the Length value. It looks like someone forgot that popping values off a stack in memory brings them up in Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) order, not First-In-First-Out (FIFO) order.

 

This is easy to see and should be equally easy to fix, though for the past two years or more, no one has bothered to do so despite constant reminders. This will have no effect on calculations of Volume that simply multiply everything together (L x W x H), but calculations of Girth (L + 2W + 2H) will come up wrong, as will any test that looks at the current value of, say, dimensions.length, and thinks that that's the package Length, which it isn't.

 

With the USPS not only raising prices but also applying surcharges under some conditions involving package size, it's long past time for someone to go into the Shipping code and get this properly fixed.

 

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

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Re: Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

eBay literally doesn't care.  I have complained to support, complained in eBay's relevant focus groups, and even to actual eBay leadership about this same issue.  eBay has no intent on fixing this issue. 

 

The only excuse I have gotten from eBay is some buyers have "legitimate" reasons on why they need to exceed the character limit the sellers have to deal with. Also that we don't have to use eBay's shipping system despite it being to eBay's advantage that we use it.  Not to mention we are paying for that site functionality through our fees.

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Re: Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

Why is the error "There is an active offer for this buyer or limit of offers was reached." when trying to send offers still not fixed? What exactly did the respective team say are they ignoring the reports? Are they not going to fix it? I know from me personally I have lost $1000's of dollars in sales for no reason.

 

This is been posted with screen shots like 100 times in the tech support section. For a quick recap though this happens any time a buyer has received an offer to watcher that has expired and they ask to resend it, they decline but ask for a better price, or the first one timed out and it is a month later and they are ready to buy.

 

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

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Re: Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics


@coinslabz26 wrote:

Does ebay accept acceptance scans from self service kiosks (SSK's)? On ebay it appears to accept the package as accepted but on usps.com it says ("USPS expects item for mailing (SSK) "). Is this a valid on time scan for late shipment purposes assuming it still completes the transit and gets delivered etc. If you don't know the answer to this question please feel free to follow up later.


Hi @coinslabz26! That's a great question. If I understand what you're asking, the kiosk where you purchase shipping does not count as an acceptance scan. You can liken it to a label that's printed on eBay. It's noted but it's not an official acceptance scan until scanned by USPS and recorded as such in the tracking info. Ultimately, what you're suggesting, would not afford protection in a late shipment scenario. 

 

Velvet,
eBay
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Re: Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

How do I report or block a specific ebay'er that is spamming me in retaliation for not giving them a discount?

 

Example. There is a buyer with multiple different accounts and keeps going to the same item "Take $15" over and over and over and over. I know I can block all messages from all blocked bidders but I don't like to block those messages where some blocked bidders and I can find common ground and I can give them a second chance, so I don't want to block messages from all blocked bidders.

 

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Re: Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

This question is regarding buying.

 

I search ebay "500 4x8 bubble mailers" and like everyone else I sort by "price plus shipping lowest first" to ensure I get the best deal.

 

All of the results show something like .99 to 39.99. Obviously the .99 one is not for 500 qty. How do I remove the variations from search so that I only see the lowest price 500 qty without the lower priced variations unrelated to my search?

 

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Re: Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics


@gwzcomps wrote:

The only excuse I have gotten from eBay is some buyers have "legitimate" reasons on why they need to exceed the character limit the sellers have to deal with. 


Another instance where this problem crops up is when an international buyer has prepaid the duty charges on the package, and the software then brings up the buyer's address with the necessary PAID codes added on the second address line. If the buyer is already using the second address line for something else, the big long PAID string gets hung on the end, such as this example (partially redacted) that I had for a sale last week: 

 

123 Main Street ABN#64nnnnnnn81 Code:PAID

 

I had to do some manual rearranging in order to get everything to fit.

 

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Re: Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics


@valueaddedresource wrote:

hi velvet@ebay  - I know this isn't really an eBay issue specifically, but just wondering if you could check with the shipping department or any other relevant departments to see if they've heard anything from USPS about what is going on with Priority Mail Flat Rate Padded Envelopes?

 

They have disappeared from the USPS site and there's concern they may be discontinued or possibly on a very long backorder.

 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/Are-USPS-Padded-Flat-Rate-Envelopes-out-of-stock-or-no-longer...


No worries @valueaddedresource! I reached out to the shipping team and they weren't aware but will try to bring it up the next time they meet with USPS. Thanks for the heads up. If they come back with anything I can share, I'll let you know.

Velvet,
eBay
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Re: Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics


@gwzcomps wrote:

eBay is trying to pretend they are "the" place to go for new and certified refurbished items.  Yet despite all this eBay is literally the worst place to buy said items.  In a recent purchase from a major retailer, eBay has proven eBay isn’t the place to go.

 

I purchased a quantity of 3 items (Not a lot of 3) and only received 1 item.  This was due to the carrier opening the package in transit.  When opening the appropriate return case for “missing parts and pieces” the seller told me they would only help me if I opened an “item not received’ case.  Not only is that the wrong option, but would be a violation of the policy regarding filing false claims.

 

The seller has refused to resolve my issue and I was forced to escalate the claim.  Now eBay’s automated system is telling me to send back the two items I never received?!?!  Seems if I open a “missing parts and pieces” common sense would dictate there is nothing to send back.

 

Now I don’t know what to do.  Also I am not sure how this aligns with eBay’s goals to be "the" place to go for new and certified refurbished items.


Hi @gwzcomps - that's a really frustrating experience. Based on the information you have shared with me, an INR is the more appropriate route to go. To recap:

 

You purchased multiples of the same single-quantity item number (ie: the listing was for one widget and you purchased quantity 3) and received some, but others were missing. An Item not Received request for the missing items is the correct way to go in that scenario. 

 

Because you've already opened a return request for a different reason I'd strongly recommend working with CS on the situation so they can review and resolve it for you. 

 

I realize that this process is confusing and I've shared this input in the past, but will do so again using your example. Thanks! 

Tyler,
eBay
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Re: Community Chat, January 12 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics


velvet@ebay wrote:
No worries @valueaddedresource! I reached out to the shipping team and they weren't aware but will try to bring it up the next time they meet with USPS. Thanks for the heads up. If they come back with anything I can share, I'll let you know.

There is a recently-posted screenshot from USPS.com (here) in which USPS have labeled those envelopes as "Discontinued" and "Not Available." They also appear to have been removed from the USPS website altogether now.

 

Given the waste of them that I've seen in packages I've received where multiple new Flat Rate Padded Envelopes had been mashed up as stuffing, I can't say that I am very surprised (except perhaps that it took this long for the USPS to notice).

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