eBay

velvet@ebay · ‎10-20-2021

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!

Velvet,

savannah3 · ‎10-20-2021

Hi Velvet;

Thank you for your follow up reply (message 76) to my posting of 10/6/2021. You suggest that “If you offer a shipping option and local pickup, and the buyer happens to select the local pickup option, then you can get that shipping metric defect removed if it's what's causing you to lose your Top Rated status.”

On July 26, 2021 I received the notice from eBay that I was no longer a Top Rated Seller due to too many items without tracking. That day, I contacted Customer Support and started the appeal process. It was assigned SR# 1-356411617226. The email from Jessia T of Trust and Safety said she would send an appeal to her supervisor. No reply. I sent follow up messages asking about status but no reply.

On 9/12/21, I received a message from Maria of Trust and Safety which stated in part “…please understand that for tracking uploaded on time and validated, we don't have an option to remove individual defects as the defects we can only removed are defects for cancelled transactions and cases closed without seller resolution but if we can see that it's the only requirement that was not met to be a Top Rated Seller and the defect should not be counted, we are overriding the seller status of the member. No worries as I will have this escalated for a review for possible adjustment and this will reflect on the next evaluation once reviewed and confirmed that the transactions shouldn't be recorded as tracking not uploaded”.

I sent follow up messages asking for status dated 9/28/21 and 10/10/21 but have not received any reply.

It seems that the appeal process doesn’t work. Waiting three months for eBay to correct its error is not a practical solution. And the lack of replies by Customer Service doesn’t speak very highly of the system.

I could go on detailing how frustrating this has been but at this time I beg you to help get a response from Customer Service that will restore my Top Rated Status.

-----

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

kilyana78 · ‎10-20-2021

Hello!

Please answer the questions about the postcards. Thank you!

Circulated - My colleagues and I do not understand this characteristic. What is meant by this? The postcards can be unposted and posted.

Original/Licensed Reprint - there are a lot of variations for vintage postcards - a local edition, a museum edition, an author's edition, a hand-made postcard. I have postcards with one scene, printed in the 1910s, 1932, 1965, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1984 years. They were published by the state printing house (there were no others in the Soviet Union). How do I determine if this is an original or a licensed reprint? This may be relevant for modern postcards, but not for antique ones (no data available) and not for vintage ones. Please add Unknown or N/A in this IS.

Era - how do the war periods relate to collecting postcards? There is a traditional division of periods for postcards, but it is not related to the war. http://www.chicagopostcardmuseum.org/postcard_era_history.html
No one will search White Border Era (1915-1930) or Early Divided Back Era (1907-1914) as war period Pre-War (Pre-1914).

Subject in Non-Topografical postcards - I counted it on purpose. There are 237 subjects! It's too much. Put yourself in the buyer's shoes. Will you read 237 specifics to find what you need or outter? No more easy shopping!
This is inconvenient for the buyer, as it is very difficult to choose from such a quantity. This is very labor-intensive for the seller, the time of listing postcards is doubled. Grouping with Theme is required.

Otherwise, it will just be a hodgepodge that will make it difficult for buyers to find. And this is lost money for Ebay and sellers.
At the same time, many Subjects are duplicated as
Battle Ship
Boats & Ships
Ship
Cargo Ship
Passenger Ship
Steam Ship

Or, for example, postcards with different animals in one picture: cats, dogs, horses. What should I choose in this case? And if it's a girl with a kitten and a puppy?

Please think about grouping. None of the buyers will read all 237 subjects. While you read the whole list, you will forget what was at the very beginning.
Look at other sites selling postcards and their grouping, such as Delcampe.net This is a well-thought-out scheme - convenient for both the buyer and the seller. We need subcategories in Non-Topographical Postcards and grouping of subjects by subcategory.

Please help us! Ebay has gathered a huge number of collectors among his buyers and sellers. But these changes will lead to an outflow of buyers to other sites where navigation is easier and clearer. The collectors category is one of the most conservative and changes should be very careful. I believe Ebay has not decided to support his competitors in this way. With redirecting disappointed buyers and sellers to other sites.

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

partsaholic · ‎10-20-2021

Three questions:

1) Is the "Does Not Fit" return reason still considered buyer's remorse? When a buyer selects "does not fit" as the return reason and the seller's return policy is buyer-pays, is the buyer responsible for return shipping?

2) How do returns work through the Global Shipping Program? There is nothing in the help documentation about it. There's an episode of the eBay for Business podcast about it from earlier this year that says GSP returns are to be handled the same way as regular returns, and then Griff/Brian Burke launch into a long-winded thing about how a seller pays for return international shipping. What happens when it's a buyer's remorse return and the seller is not responsible for return shipping costs?

3) The new categories in Motors Parts & Accessories are messed up. Most do not have return policies turned on, so listings can only be made WITHOUT a return policy. I know the stock answer is "wait a few weeks for the new categories to be sorted out" but when will this actually be fixed? It is a huge problem that has been present for over a week now.

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

jasmen@ebay · ‎10-20-2021

@kilyana78 wrote:

Hello!

Please answer the questions about the postcards. Thank you!

Circulated - My colleagues and I do not understand this characteristic. What is meant by this? The postcards can be unposted and posted.

Original/Licensed Reprint - there are a lot of variations for vintage postcards - a local edition, a museum edition, an author's edition, a hand-made postcard. I have postcards with one scene, printed in the 1910s, 1932, 1965, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1984 years. They were published by the state printing house (there were no others in the Soviet Union). How do I determine if this is an original or a licensed reprint? This may be relevant for modern postcards, but not for antique ones (no data available) and not for vintage ones. Please add Unknown or N/A in this IS.

Era - how do the war periods relate to collecting postcards? There is a traditional division of periods for postcards, but it is not related to the war. http://www.chicagopostcardmuseum.org/postcard_era_history.html
No one will search White Border Era (1915-1930) or Early Divided Back Era (1907-1914) as war period Pre-War (Pre-1914).

Subject in Non-Topografical postcards - I counted it on purpose. There are 237 subjects! It's too much. Put yourself in the buyer's shoes. Will you read 237 specifics to find what you need or outter? No more easy shopping!
This is inconvenient for the buyer, as it is very difficult to choose from such a quantity. This is very labor-intensive for the seller, the time of listing postcards is doubled. Grouping with Theme is required.

Otherwise, it will just be a hodgepodge that will make it difficult for buyers to find. And this is lost money for Ebay and sellers.
At the same time, many Subjects are duplicated as
Battle Ship
Boats & Ships
Ship
Cargo Ship
Passenger Ship
Steam Ship

Or, for example, postcards with different animals in one picture: cats, dogs, horses. What should I choose in this case? And if it's a girl with a kitten and a puppy?

Please think about grouping. None of the buyers will read all 237 subjects. While you read the whole list, you will forget what was at the very beginning.
Look at other sites selling postcards and their grouping, such as Delcampe.net This is a well-thought-out scheme - convenient for both the buyer and the seller. We need subcategories in Non-Topographical Postcards and grouping of subjects by subcategory.

Please help us! Ebay has gathered a huge number of collectors among his buyers and sellers. But these changes will lead to an outflow of buyers to other sites where navigation is easier and clearer. The collectors category is one of the most conservative and changes should be very careful. I believe Ebay has not decided to support his competitors in this way. With redirecting disappointed buyers and sellers to other sites.

Thanks for reaching out to us about this @kilyana78 once I can get a specific description for you I'll let you know. In the meantime, I appreciate your feedback an I'm happy to pass it along!

Jasmen,
Community Team

mightymouse · ‎10-20-2021

So here is the biggest issue in this category. Most of all the Item Specifies are already there. Someone in their great wisdom relabeled them.

Object Type is now just Type

Type of glass is now Material

Original/Reproduction is now Original/Licensed Reproduction

Glassmaking Technique is now Production Technique

Featured refinement has been removed

If they wanted to change the names they needed to do that "After the fact" not before. Anyone who knows a spreadsheet knows that if you change the header none of that information moves.

Also You are using what should be and is Item Specifies as Category’s (cup & saucer, plate, bowl, vase, candlestick, etc) and should be using “brand”( lenox, mikasa, Waterford, Franciscan, Etc) as the Category with the other items as Item Specifies.

nuclearomen · ‎10-20-2021

velvet@ebay (or others)

Hi
My topic is simple, since ebay created huge mess with category changes/eliminations, and then adding/activating PLA’s (promoted listings advanced) sales are completely in the toilet for tons of sellers, sellers who have been selling longtime and experienced and sell every day and multiple orders. Yes, economy has some to do with it, but sales on ebay are really bad, and it’s what ebay has created that is causing a lot of it. When do we see ebay taking commitment to fix all the issues they created? End of the year, xmas is right around the corner, sellers are turning to other platforms and sales are going decent for most but still in the trash here. Read the boards, pick from hundreds of threads.

The great truth is there isn't one
And it only gets worse since that conclusion...
...There is something about the rigid posture of a proper, authentic blind
As if extended arms reached to pass his blindness onto others.

mightymouse · ‎10-20-2021

I would say the biggest problem for sellers is when I list a dinner ware set as items I have to jump to 15 different categories and all the Item Specifies are gone for each listing because they change for category’s. In the past I could list (Lenox, Mikasa, Wedgwood, etc) and the only Item Specifies I would have to change is (dinner plate, salad plate, cup & saucer, etc). What use to take 20-30 minutes now takes up to 70-80 minutes.

To put this it terms you might understand better.

If you go buy a car you go to Toyota or Subaru and are looking for 4 door SUV do you expect to see the same car for every maker on the same lot (search). Or would you look at a van, truck Etc while you are there. While looking you found a larger SUV but it did not fall into the standard SUV smaller 4 door you were looking for but thought this would work better! Now Ebay has removed that choice for you when buying. You buy the smaller SUV and the dealer misses out on a better sale and you miss out on a better fit, but that is all good because the dealer made his money on the sale.

So a better fit would be as follows;

Current Category is Pottery & Glass > Cookware, Dinnerware & Serveware > plates

New should be Pottery & Glass > Cookware, Dinnerware & Serveware > Brand

The reason for this as a seller is both brand and plates are listed as item specifics but when I list an item say Wedgwood dinnerware I currently have to jump from dinner plates. Platters, serving bowls, mugs and cups & saucers. Every time I do this I lose all the item specifics. Now going back to dinner plates there is the option for about 20 different plates only 1 of which is a dinner plate. But in this said set I have a small, medium and large dinner plate, plus round and square plates.

Now if the subcategory was Brand as I list an item ALL I would need to change in item specifics is TYPE and all the item specifics would carry over no matter if it is a plate, bowl, mug, etc. Also giving us the option to remove or reorganize the item specifics would be of great help also as out of the 35 currently available 25 of them I would never and I mean never use. Don’t get me wrong You added item specifics 2 years ago and it was an issue and took a while to add them but this is a MAJOR issue both for sellers and buyers.

So to save myself time in listing All future listings for dinnerware will be going into plates and All glassware will be going into Barware. By doing this it will save me about 20 hours a week and triple my listings.

Just remember all shoes are not NIKE

Hope you understand, Mightmouse

-----

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

velvet@ebay · ‎10-20-2021

@savannah3 wrote:

Hi Velvet;

Thank you for your follow up reply (message 76) to my posting of 10/6/2021. You suggest that “If you offer a shipping option and local pickup, and the buyer happens to select the local pickup option, then you can get that shipping metric defect removed if it's what's causing you to lose your Top Rated status.”

On July 26, 2021 I received the notice from eBay that I was no longer a Top Rated Seller due to too many items without tracking. That day, I contacted Customer Support and started the appeal process. It was assigned SR# 1-356411617226. The email from Jessia T of Trust and Safety said she would send an appeal to her supervisor. No reply. I sent follow up messages asking about status but no reply.

On 9/12/21, I received a message from Maria of Trust and Safety which stated in part “…please understand that for tracking uploaded on time and validated, we don't have an option to remove individual defects as the defects we can only removed are defects for cancelled transactions and cases closed without seller resolution but if we can see that it's the only requirement that was not met to be a Top Rated Seller and the defect should not be counted, we are overriding the seller status of the member. No worries as I will have this escalated for a review for possible adjustment and this will reflect on the next evaluation once reviewed and confirmed that the transactions shouldn't be recorded as tracking not uploaded”.

I sent follow up messages asking for status dated 9/28/21 and 10/10/21 but have not received any reply.

It seems that the appeal process doesn’t work. Waiting three months for eBay to correct its error is not a practical solution. And the lack of replies by Customer Service doesn’t speak very highly of the system.

I could go on detailing how frustrating this has been but at this time I beg you to help get a response from Customer Service that will restore my Top Rated Status.

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you're having with this @savannah3. I would encourage you to private message our Facebook team here. Be sure to include your full name, email address, and postal code that's registered to your account and you could just copy/paste the above message to save yourself time from typing again. Hopefully a teammate there can help you to get this resolved once and for all.

Velvet,

egnatz1 · ‎10-20-2021

For years we have been told there would be no major updates to effect anyone's business in the fourth quarter yet this insane category removal was done now . Why would you do this now? Also in 2004 I was there this category roll up was attempted in pottery and glass and we told them antiques and collectible are browsed not searched . For two weeks they tried to change item specifics and fix what they broke and the sell through rate bottomed out and it was changed back to categories. Nothing has changed since 2004 antiques and collectible CATEGORIES are browsed and no matter what you do to the item specifics you cannot browse with no categories. Basically you have pretty much told anyone who sells in these categories we know better than you and if you don't like it go away.

spinach-eater · ‎10-20-2021

Why doesn't ebay have expert panels that can be consulted and listened to when major changes are being considered? Never in the over 100 years of postcard collecting & selling has anyone ever classified postcards as Topographical and Non-Topographical. Era's have long been established, yet changed on a whim by ebay. Ebay needs to listen to experts in the collectible fields.

valuetrendz · ‎10-20-2021

My question has to do with item specifics. It is my understanding that eventually, most item specifics if not all will require a value other than "NA", "Does Not Apply", etc. With that in mind, what will happen to listings that do not have completed item specifics? Is this the same for "required" vs "recommended" item specifics?

I ask these questions as there are MANY items on ebay where it would be nearly impossible to track down correct item specifics on a particular item. Any insight you can give on this would be appreciated. Thank you.

Jon

-----

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

jasmen@ebay · ‎10-20-2021

@mightymouse wrote:

I would say the biggest problem for sellers is when I list a dinner ware set as items I have to jump to 15 different categories and all the Item Specifies are gone for each listing because they change for category’s. In the past I could list (Lenox, Mikasa, Wedgwood, etc) and the only Item Specifies I would have to change is (dinner plate, salad plate, cup & saucer, etc). What use to take 20-30 minutes now takes up to 70-80 minutes.

To put this it terms you might understand better.

If you go buy a car you go to Toyota or Subaru and are looking for 4 door SUV do you expect to see the same car for every maker on the same lot (search). Or would you look at a van, truck Etc while you are there. While looking you found a larger SUV but it did not fall into the standard SUV smaller 4 door you were looking for but thought this would work better! Now Ebay has removed that choice for you when buying. You buy the smaller SUV and the dealer misses out on a better sale and you miss out on a better fit, but that is all good because the dealer made his money on the sale.

So a better fit would be as follows;

Current Category is Pottery & Glass > Cookware, Dinnerware & Serveware > plates

New should be Pottery & Glass > Cookware, Dinnerware & Serveware > Brand

The reason for this as a seller is both brand and plates are listed as item specifics but when I list an item say Wedgwood dinnerware I currently have to jump from dinner plates. Platters, serving bowls, mugs and cups & saucers. Every time I do this I lose all the item specifics. Now going back to dinner plates there is the option for about 20 different plates only 1 of which is a dinner plate. But in this said set I have a small, medium and large dinner plate, plus round and square plates.

Now if the subcategory was Brand as I list an item ALL I would need to change in item specifics is TYPE and all the item specifics would carry over no matter if it is a plate, bowl, mug, etc. Also giving us the option to remove or reorganize the item specifics would be of great help also as out of the 35 currently available 25 of them I would never and I mean never use. Don’t get me wrong You added item specifics 2 years ago and it was an issue and took a while to add them but this is a MAJOR issue both for sellers and buyers.

So to save myself time in listing All future listings for dinnerware will be going into plates and All glassware will be going into Barware. By doing this it will save me about 20 hours a week and triple my listings.

Just remember all shoes are not NIKE

Hope you understand, Mightmouse

Thanks for reaching out with all your feedback @mightymouse I'll make sure to pass along your feedback for sure!

Jasmen,
Community Team

clarkphilatelics · ‎10-20-2021

If the cost of shipping First Class Mail and small packages continues to outpace the cost of living, what future, if any do small sellers have on eBay? Does eBay itself have a future? Also, when will eBay address the imbalance between high shipping costs from the United States to foreign countries and lower cost shipping from foreign countries to the US.

somanypostcards · ‎10-20-2021

Back on Oct. 11, 2017 there was a Community Chat on the topic of Structured Data (and its item specifics). Is it possible to have a Community Chat in the near future on the topic of Structured Data so sellers can get questions answered? This would be very helpful before making the myriad recommended updates by February 22, 2022.

Also, where should we go if we have questions about item specifics. For instance, if I want to fill in the item specific for postcard, do I enter Paper, Cardboard, or both? Should I also enter Linen, though linen postcards (manufactured from 1930-1956) are NOT made of the material linen; they just look like linen due to the extra high rag content in their making. Where do I ask this question?

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