Community Chat, March 23 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

[jasmen@ebay]

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! 

[tyler@ebay]

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@tomatoortomato wrote:

Hi Jasmine and team,

I am brand new to eBay (just retired so trying to clean stuff out of my house).  I sold my first item today and everything went smoothly.  I printed the shipping label and got the item sent. When I came home, I discovered my account was permanently suspended.  I initially believed it was because I owe $3.42 for the postage? I chose to have it deducted from the purchase price. I tried to change it to the card on file but it wouldn’t let me do it.

Then, I discover my card had been compromised, which may be a factor? I have a new card that I will try to add.

I have not been able to reach anyone to try to clear this up. I know this isn’t the right venue, but really hope you will help me.  I’m still not 100% sure what I did wrong and would really like to fix it.

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Hi @tomatoortomato - congrats on the sale, and welcome to the weekly chat! I'm sorry to hear that your account was suspended. If you haven't already I'd strongly recommend you contact our Customer Support teams so they can review your account and let you know what options you have (we aren't able to provide that level of support via the community boards). 

You can reach general CS here, but I also think highly of our social media teams as well - I come from their department and I trust their expertise, training and response. Plus - you can send a message and not have to worry about chats timing out, phone calls dropping or anything else (no hold music)! You can send them a private message on Facebook or Twitter. 

[mam98031]

YES @clarkphilatelics I too fully agree with you.  I've tried to get them to realign this report for 2 years.  I was so happy to see that they finally did it.  However also when I was advocating for this I was also advocating for the correct summary numbers to appear on this monthly statement so that you could actually balance your own records to it.

That would require summary numbers for all categories of money in and money out.  The current report is selective on the information given and is not all inclusive, while improved because it is on a calendar month now, it still needs to improve to be useful for most sellers.

[clarkphilatelics]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@condoghost wrote:

His Jasmen, Grateful to you for this Weekly Community Chat.

I've bought seeds in the past and by the time we see they haven't produced anything, eg sweetcorn, it is too late to provide feedback or get a resolution as the feedback and contact seller are no longer available after 60-days.

I appreciate there isn't an 'answer' right now.. This needs to be escalated within ebay as it is a continuing problem with eg vegetable seeds and other seeds for growing. The orders I placed last week I won't know until June/July/August/September if the seed has grown and I have cobs of sweetcorn. I asked this be escalated and addressed within ebay so that I am not faced with the same issue in July/August/September 2022 as I did back in 2018/2019.

The agent thanked me for my "valuable suggestion", "I have now escalated this to our dedicated team, they will review the details again and take this into consideration in next evaluation".

The 'link' provided took me to "Unsolicited idea suggestions policy" from where there is the option "Sending us suggestions" yet when I submit the "suggestion" I am informed "We received your suggestion. Thanks for sending us your suggestion. We appreciate your input. However, we can’t respond to suggestions like this because we may have been working on a similar idea internally already, and we want to avoid any potential misunderstandings around the ownership of the idea."!

I can see I may well go round-and-round in circles again later this year if I have issues with any of the seed items I have bought last week same as I did back in 2018/2019.

We need more than an assurance "dedicated team will review the details again and take this into consideration in next evaluation". we need this to be actively looked at, resolved, and be notified the outcome as often some specialist seeds are only easily available through ebay and poor quality needs to be rectified. Thank-you.

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Hi @condoghost - thanks for joining the chat, and I appreciate your suggestion and input. It sounds like you've done a lot already to share what you feel the best solution is for us in this area. 

I want to be entirely transparent and say that I will not be able to provide you a follow up with exactly what is done with your suggestion, or if a similar idea is already in the works. However, I will make sure that it is shared. 

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Expertizing stamps often takes longer than 90 days, especially if multiple experts must examine the item. How do buyers, and sellers resolve hidden defects found after 90 days?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

[coinslabz26]

In the past buyers spoke loudly that they do not want any part of the "view store" and wanted the "see other items" view. Ebay acknowledged this and reversed course.

Buyers still hate it and it is extremely confusing. It doesn't remember search parameters such as list view or time ending soonest. The main search bar searches all of ebay and not the store. The page is busy and sales are once again dropping as a result.

Why did ebay bring this unusable store page back? Why can't buyers who want the store view just click "view store" and the ones who just want to see the listings click "see other items"?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[velvet@ebay]

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@clarkphilatelics wrote:

Are sellers expected to work seven days a week?

Why do Best offers expire after twenty-four hours, especially on a weekend? When did eBay shorten the time to respond to Best Offers? It is difficult enough to respond to Best Offers on consigned items during the week. What happens when sellers take the weekend off or consignors are not available outside of normal work hours? Why not make Best Offers remain open until the end of the next business day?

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Hi @clarkphilatelics! I can appreciate where you're coming from. You work hard and if you take weekends off you should enjoy them. Our research shows that buyers on the site strongly prefer a quick response, which is why we have a 24 hour expiration on those offers.  It's important to note that we don't penalize sellers with expired offers.

I see what you mean about maybe expanding the timeframe on weekends though, and will pass on your suggestion to have an end of business day timeframe considered going forward. 

[tomatoortomato]

Thank you 😊 

[coinslabz26]

Ebay's new shipping labels page is no longer functional.

Example - If I view shipping labels from last month. Page 1 displays Feb-28th labels to Feb-21st. Then when I go to page 2 it shows Feb-9th to Feb-1st. The rest of the pages are blank and all the other dates are misting. How do I see my shipping labels from the 10th-20th?

Is this a known issue and when is the ETA on a fix?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[moretreasures4you]

Not sure why this is happening, but twice when I have used the "Send Offer" option, and the buyers accepted, they were both in countries I don't ship to. So why are they allowed to purchase from me when I do not ship to their country? I assume it is because they were watchers, and got my offer, but it is disheartening to have to cancel the sale for both them and myself. Any advice on how to make sure this doesn't happen?? Thanks!

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Edit: A reply to your report can be found here

[mam98031]

Likely because they have a US ship to address.  That is usually why it happens.

[coinslabz26]

When a buyer sends me a message offering me an amount for an item and the offer is acceptable I always reply with "reply with offer" I had noted a previous issue where I would get an error that stated the limit of offers was reached. I posted many screenshots in the tech support forum as previously discussed.

This issue is now made worse. When I try to use the "reply with offer" feature it redirects to a page that says "Error".

Is ebay phasing out the ability for buyers and sellers to make a deal? If not then is this a known issue and is there an ETA on a fix?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[moretreasures4you]

No, they both asked for an invoice to their country?

[jasmen@ebay]

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@coinslabz26 wrote:

Ebay's new shipping labels page is no longer functional.

Example - If I view shipping labels from last month. Page 1 displays Feb-28th labels to Feb-21st. Then when I go to page 2 it shows Feb-9th to Feb-1st. The rest of the pages are blank and all the other dates are misting. How do I see my shipping labels from the 10th-20th?

Is this a known issue and when is the ETA on a fix?

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Hey there @coinslabz26 sorry to hear this is happening, is it the same on different browsers too? 

[a_c_green]

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@gracieallen01 wrote:

@a_c_green 

Are you sure it was fixed and not just a newer bug?  j/k, I think.

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Yes, it's fixed. I looked at the source code, and the stored Length value now really does go into the dimensions.length variable, and the stored Height value now really does go into the dimensions.height variable, so all appears to be as it should.

As I said, having the package dimensions handled properly is going to be really critical in the near future, when surcharges will apply based on the stated dimensions of the package (not to mention a Noncompliance Fee of $1.50 if you fail to state the dimensions accurately). Googling will turn up more details, such as this below:

The surcharges start at any package longer than 22 inches, with a $4 fee for any package that exceeds 22 inches in length but is less than 30 inches. For packages over 30 inches in length, the fee goes up to $15. You will also have to pay an additional $15 if your package is greater than 2 cubic feet in volume.

"A piece may be subject to both a length and a cube dimension nonstandard fee," the Federal Register warns. "The nonstandard fees do not apply to Flat Rate products, Regional Rate products or returns."

Regarding the Noncompliance Fee:

The agency will charge you $1.50 on Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, and Parcel Select packages that are greater than one cubic foot or longer than 22 inches if you did not provide dimensions or if they are incorrect [...]. Unlike the nonstandard fees, "a mailpiece is only subject to one dimension noncompliance fee" however, per the Federal Register.

Ref: https://bestlifeonline.com/usps-new-shipping-fees-news/ 

I can see sellers getting dinged for that if they don't bother to enter any dimensions at all when shipping a porky package. While it's been said (in an unsigned reply from someone on the Shipping team, quoted in a previous Weekly Chat) that you cannot print a Shipping label without stating the dimensions, it appears that something in either the listing process or the Shipping process puts in default values of 1"x1"x1" if the seller does not enter values of his own, and thus the Shipping form can allow a label to be purchased with totally fictitious dimensions if the seller does not notice the error. 

(I should say here that I cannot test this myself, because my listings have their dimensions already in place. I'm going off of experiences and screenshots from other sellers. It's possible that this has also been fixed in the update of late last week, but I have not seen any notifications or Release Notes from eBay of exactly what all has been fixed or revised now.)

[clarkphilatelics]

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@mam98031 wrote:

Just as an update for those still waiting for certain categories to allow for Media Mail shipping when you create the shipping label in Ebay.

I've been trying to get certain categories in Crafts correct, ie Pattern books in various subject matters.

Ebay has determined we do not qualify to use MM.  This decision was made with flawed information from people that did not understand what was being sold.  They made the determination that the books we were selling were Picture books.  Which anyone that has actually looked at a pattern book on crochet, knitting, cross stitch, plastic canvas, tole painting etc. know that is not true.

These books are considered Educational material and if they are 8+ pages, they ARE eligible for MM.

But because someone at Ebay in the position to make this decision did not understand the product being sold, this decision was made.

For what it is worth I am still trying very hard to get this looked at again.  But it goes to reinforce how important it is to have at least one person on a team that is making a serious decision like this that actually knows the product intimately and well.

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I would rather use a USPS bar code label and stamps at the US Post Office than to move collectible books from a collectible category into the books category. The last time I tried to list a book in an eBay book category, eBay would not accept the title and kept changing the name of the author until I gave up. I mail books at retail rates. Postage stamps can be purchased at a discount on eBay or from a dealer and can easily be used on larger book packages. Stamp dealers pay 40 to 60 percent of face for unused US postage stamps and may sell at between 60 to 80 percent of face. Because there is a glut of lower denomination postage, lower denominations may cost even less.

[mam98031]

In your site preferences for your Buyer Requirements there is an option to require buyers in countries you do not ship to, to have a ship to address in the US.  I'm not sure I got that wording right, but it is something close to that.   Do you have that option selected?