eBay

tyler@ebay · ‎05-26-2021

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!

Tyler,

tyler@ebay · ‎05-26-2021

@coffeebean832 wrote:

A couple weeks ago someone brought up issues with the feedback pop up window. As there are several issues, I wanted to post screenshots for you to escalate. I have used the comments link on the orders page, but we cannot submit screenshots that way.

Issue 1-

Leave feedback for order A. Then go to leave feedback for order B and run into problems. One is that the system tells you feedback was already left for order B when it wasn't-

Another issue is that order B will populate the feedback option, but the leave feedback button is grayed out-

The only way I have found to avoid this is to let more time pass before you try to leave feedback for a second order- but that's not a good solution because it doubles or triples the time it would normally take to leave feedback.

Issue 2-

Feedback windows often appear in Chinese or German-

Issue 3-

When you type a custom comment instead of using a stored comment, you cannot submit the feedback until you click outside the comment box. If you don't click outside the comment box when you're done typing then the submit feedback button will remain grayed out. It's a nuisance.

Issue 4-

You cannot select multiple orders and leave custom comments for each one in bulk. Again- this makes the process take much longer.

Issue 5-

After you submit feedback, the orders page you were on goes back up to the top- losing your place on the page. Yet another nuisance that makes the process take longer.

While not related to feedback, this is an issue related to the pop-ups eBay is implementing across Seller Hub so I'm including it in this post. Pop-ups were recently added to the process of ending listings. Just like the feedback issue, after you end a listing and the pop-up window closes, the active listings page you were on goes back up to the top- losing your place on the page.

Again, while this is not related to feedback, it is related to an issue with the feedback pop-ups mentioned above. The alternate language issue appears intermittently in other areas across the site including the sign-on screen, tracking pop ups, and more. As you can see below- this is on the .com site.

Hi @coffeebean832 - thank you so much for the screenshots! I will work to find the right feedback folks to get this to so that it can be addressed (the Chinese and German bits especially), as well as the Seller Hub teams.

Tyler,

gwzcomps · ‎05-26-2021

@postcardcountry wrote:
Did anyone review the item specifics being created and before they were added to the software?

Does anyone review the data that has been used to establish those item specifics?

Some of the humorous ones I have seen:
Napkin rings - sex   / choice of male or female.     Could you get the IS team to provide a picture?
Shoes - activity - typing
Food container - made of - cashmere   linen polyester alpaca wool

🤣Kinda wonder if a random number generator could go a better job creating IS data. Don't worry though eBay expects us to troubleshoot and maintain their site at our own expense. It isn't bad enough they don't value us as sellers, they also don't value our time. You would think they would be smart enough to recognize that if we spend less time fighting their mistakes we would generate them more fees. I guess being bad at running the company isn't just limited to one aspect.

a_c_green · ‎05-26-2021

@postcardcountry wrote:
Napkin rings - sex / choice of male or female. Could you get the IS team to provide a picture?

Napkins are male. Napkin rings are female. Please don't ask me to explain further.

brittanie@ebay · ‎05-26-2021

@coffeebean832 wrote:

brittanie@ebay wrote:

@bowens wrote:

is there any activity on the current packing slip format? It hasn't been a good change for me.

@bowens - I'm sorry to hear that that is the case. What in particular did you want to submit feedback on for the new packing slips? That team has been working hard on improvements and I'd be happy to get that to them.

I was looking at packing slips a couple days ago and the one issue that stood out to me is that when you include a comment on the slip, it posts the registered name on the account. We should have the option to change that to our eBay ID- or the name of a customer service rep within our company.

@coffeebean832 - Thank you for this feedback! I'll get it passed on to the shipping team!

Brittanie,
Community Team

brian@ebay · ‎05-26-2021

@randomsl wrote:

Has there been any progress creating eBay Standard Envelope labels that can be printed directly on standard size 6 3/4 envelopes (6 1/2" x 3 5/8")? Currently these labels have to be manipulated in photo-editing programs to crop and scale them in order to properly fit on standard 6 3/4 envelopes. It seems like the labels are generated in a 6" x 4" inch format and not to fit the size of actual standard sized envelopes.

@randomsl we had a guided chat on eBay Standard Envelopes a few weeks ago and a similar question came up. You'll find the shipping teams answer here, which I believe answers your question as well.

Brian,
Community Team

a_c_green · ‎05-26-2021

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
One of the most effective ways to sell books on ebay is to lot them together...sometimes by author, sometimes by genre, even the color of the bindings. Now, with the new item specifics, ebay requires "title" and "author", but obviously when selling a lot I have multiple titles and sometimes multiple authors. It has been suggested that we use "Custom bundle" as an item specific, which then provides a certain number of characters to describe the lot But this does not really answer the question: what do we put in the Title and Author item specific? They are required, so we can't simply ignore them and use Custom Bundle.

Might I suggest simply (and literally) plugging in the phrases "Mixed Titles" and "Mixed Authors" in those respective fields? While not the answers for which those fields were intended, those answers are accurate for anyone who sees your multi-book assortment listing, and they would make a valid search specific for anyone who, say, wanted to find more of your listings for that kind of bulk lot, to come back and buy more from you.

randomsl · ‎05-26-2021

With regard to adding new item specifics to trading card listings, is there a way to breakdown the bulk listing spreadsheet download file into smaller manageable pieces? For example, previously when trading cards had sub-categories of baseball, basketball, etc., you could choose to create a download spreadsheet for each individual category. Now that all of the sub-categories have been removed, everything is lumped into "Trading Card Singles". I have over 10,000 listings that need minor updates to accommodate the new mandate. However when I try to download the spreadsheet file I can no longer get it by subcategories. It is downloading an unmanageable sized spreadsheet of 10,000 entries. Can anyone suggest a more reasonable way to update 10,000+ listings?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

lacemaker3 · ‎05-26-2021

@a_c_green wrote:
@postcardcountry wrote:
Napkin rings - sex / choice of male or female. Could you get the IS team to provide a picture?
Napkins are male. Napkin rings are female. Please don't ask me to explain further.

Not in French, so that would create a big problem on eBay Canada (French) and eBay France. Possibly eBay Belgium as well.

English	French	Pronoun/Prenom	Gender
the napkin	la serviette	la =	female
the napkin ring	le rond de serviette	le =	male

c.b. · ‎05-26-2021

brittanie@ebay - yes, i am already working with the bank. umm... you didn't understand the big picture i was trying to convey -- that my question was NOT about me... i am concerned about something else going on that may need to be reported to ebay and investigated ASAP! i don't like giving too much info here publicly, but since i didn't get across the urgency in my initial post, i will add a few more details to stress the importance of communicating this to someone at ebay. the bank account where the money showed up, has NEVER been linked to ebay until THE DAY that charge appeared. i know there are multiple things that can trigger odd entries and reports. however, this one has some very specific and concerning attributes that i believe needs to be reported to ebay. would you rather i report it, and it's nothing... or would you rather i not report it, and are sorry you didn't get the info sooner?

_____
Edit: A reply to your post can be found here

brian@ebay · ‎05-26-2021

@postcardcountry wrote:

Last week there was an issue with printing packing slips. There were at least two, probably three separate threads on the technical board reporting the problem. The problem existed longer than 48 hours and was impacting multiple sellers.

there was no response on the technical board at all to let anyone know the status.

If the board does not get read by technical staff, how do we report not just the problem, but the continuation of the over several days?

By chance, I think I discovered what was causing the problem...a programming change that apparently wasn't well implemented.

But it would have been nice to have our problems acknowledged.

(error message telling us to try again later)

@postcardcountry the best way to report technical issues is by contacting customer service. Go here and select a topic and you'll be given options to contact customer service. They will take your report and send it to our tech team for review.

Brian,
Community Team

tyler@ebay · ‎05-26-2021

@saturdaystoys wrote:

Just a follow-up in regard to Concierge premium service for sellers. I had inquired a month ago and was encouraged to contact Customer support to find out why my account was removed from Concierge level of service that I had received for the past several years.

While I understand that eBay staff monitoring this chat have reported that Concierge service is not going away... I've gotten the exact opposite answer from Customer Support. In fact, I was told that all previously approved Concierge participants would receive a notice (via email and eBay messege) two weeks ago as to the upcoming changes as the existing program is phased out (and that mine was among the first wave of accounts impacted). Bottom line: there was no later communication about the problem; just silence.

My most significant frustration has been that even after a half dozen attempts to work with Customer Support on my question... absolutely no one could tell me why my Concierge service was deactivated over a month ago. They tell me there's not a problem with my account... that my service record is outstanding... and that I should still qualify for the program. However, after several promises of reporting the matter to "the back office" (and other vague references to eBay's Concierge managers)... I still have no information as to what happened.

Isn't there something that we can do to facilitate some kind of communication in this regard. If there's a problem... I want to understand it... and take steps to correct it. I'll sure be grateful for the input...

Hi @saturdaystoys - sorry to sound a bit like a broken record, but there has been no announced deprecation of the Concierge service either internally or externally. I know that Concierge regularly reviews their population and will remove members that no longer qualify for the service (they do not elaborate as to what their criteria for this are).

I will have your contacts to CS reviewed to ensure proper coaching is provided to the teammates you spoke with.

Tyler,

brittanie@ebay · ‎05-26-2021

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

brittanie@ebay I guess I was kind of hoping you would ask them for their suggestion? They set it up, I assume they know what they want us to put in there when we have more than one book and/or author.

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques - Sorry for any confusion. Adding them as a bundle was the suggestion provided by that team, so since you've said it's not adequate for your needs, providing that feedback to them would be the best way forward.

Brittanie,
Community Team

vaydragon · ‎05-26-2021

Since ebay is forcing sellers to give up their banking info i will no longer be selling on ebay. Paypal was easy to use and ebay shouldnt be forcing sellers to use a less secure money to get paid. I've been selling with ebay for almost 20 years and sadly it has to end like this because of ebay's greed. Who wants to wait 2 days to get paid? Nobody!!! especially when you're expecting people to ship something out without being paid which is ridiculous

_____
Edit: A reply to your post can be found here

coffeebean832 · ‎05-26-2021

tyler@ebay wrote:
@coffeebean832 wrote:
While not related to feedback, this is an issue related to the pop-ups eBay is implementing across Seller Hub so I'm including it in this post. Pop-ups were recently added to the process of ending listings. Just like the feedback issue, after you end a listing and the pop-up window closes, the active listings page you were on goes back up to the top- losing your place on the page.
Hi @coffeebean832 - thank you so much for the screenshots! I will work to find the right feedback folks to get this to so that it can be addressed (the Chinese and German bits especially), as well as the Seller Hub teams.

Thanks, Tyler. The above quoted part is the biggest issue for me. If they're going to force a page refresh when you end a listing- then at the very least they need to preserve your spot on the page so it doesn't disrupt the workflow. Scrolling through 200 listings per page to find where I left off is not only disruptive to listing management- but it's inefficient. Tasks like that shouldn't have obstacles to make them take longer.

I really hate this new pop-up system. I prefer to open pages in new tabs.

inceptions · ‎05-26-2021

@coffeebean832 wrote:
A couple weeks ago someone brought up issues with the feedback pop up window. As there are several issues, I wanted to post screenshots for you to escalate. I have used the comments link on the orders page, but we cannot submit screenshots that way.

Issue 1-
Leave feedback for order A. Then go to leave feedback for order B and run into problems. One is that the system tells you feedback was already left for order B when it wasn't-

Another issue is that order B will populate the feedback option, but the leave feedback button is grayed out-

The only way I have found to avoid this is to let more time pass before you try to leave feedback for a second order- but that's not a good solution because it doubles or triples the time it would normally take to leave feedback.

Issue 2-
Feedback windows often appear in Chinese or German-

Issue 3-
When you type a custom comment instead of using a stored comment, you cannot submit the feedback until you click outside the comment box. If you don't click outside the comment box when you're done typing then the submit feedback button will remain grayed out. It's a nuisance.

Issue 4-
You cannot select multiple orders and leave custom comments for each one in bulk. Again- this makes the process take much longer.

Issue 5-
After you submit feedback, the orders page you were on goes back up to the top- losing your place on the page. Yet another nuisance that makes the process take longer.

While not related to feedback, this is an issue related to the pop-ups eBay is implementing across Seller Hub so I'm including it in this post. Pop-ups were recently added to the process of ending listings. Just like the feedback issue, after you end a listing and the pop-up window closes, the active listings page you were on goes back up to the top- losing your place on the page.

Again, while this is not related to feedback, it is related to an issue with the feedback pop-ups mentioned above. The alternate language issue appears intermittently in other areas across the site including the sign-on screen, tracking pop ups, and more. As you can see below- this is on the .com site.

-----
Edit: a reply to your comments can be found here

Thanks for posting these examples coffeebean832 . I'm the one that mentioned the German language on the feedback popup previously, but haven't seen it since to provide screenshots.

The other day, I was trying to add a note to multiple transactions, and the note popup was in German. So was the note label under the transactions after I submitted. Before I could get a screenshot, I started playing with it and it switched to English...once again, I couldn't recreate it to get screenshots.

brian@ebay

Now that we know we have problems with feedback, notes, and tracking appearing in German on what looks to be a random basis, hopefully that will help the developers track down the bug.

Inceptions
Volunteer Community Mentor, buying and selling on eBay since 2004