eBay

jasmen@ebay · ‎10-27-2021

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!

Jasmen,
Community Team

mightymouse · ‎10-27-2021

please note that under the "NEW EBAY" all item are all thing. So a wedding cake stand can be a plate, bowl, creamer, butter dish, pitcher or what ever Ebay wants it to be.

dhbookds · ‎10-27-2021

tyler@ebay wrote:

@dentalsales4u wrote:

Hi, I asked this question last week and never got a response.

When is the ExperiencedSellers Board going to be fixed?

When you click on a post, it doesn't take you where you left off.

You have to scroll and try to find the last post you read.

Very annoying.

Hi @dentalsales4u - I don't believe the 'jump to last unread' component is available for the ExperiencedSellers Board, but I will work with sheila@ebay to look into whether or not we can make that happen.

Thanks!

tyler@ebay

are you aware it doesn't work on the selling board either?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

a_c_green · ‎10-27-2021

jasmen@ebay wrote:
@dhbookds wrote:
yep, I'm aware of that. Would have been nice to have a direct answer here....... but since there are obviously no updates, I guess I can understand why there weren't............

How long are you going to take this kind of treatment? And how long do you expect us to?
I wish I had more info to give too, I'm hopeful it will be sooner than later!

Well, okay, jasmen@ebay, let's talk about this, at least in a meta sense.

How do you communicate with Khoros regarding problems such as these?
Do you have actual names of contact people at Khoros responsible for eBay support?
Are you sending email, or having actual Zoom-style meetings with them? If email, are you writing to specific people (e.g. joe.smith@khoros.com) or alias lists (e.g. tech_support@khoros.com)?
Are you in regularly-scheduled conferences with them regarding the open issues to review?
When you report a problem, do you get a ticket number or similar in reply, so that you can refer to it later?
In cases like the missing member data on Community posts, where nothing has happened in weeks, are you able to escalate the issue to anyone else, by name? Has this happened yet?

The point here is most if not all of the bullet points above don't seem to have a positive answer. These issues are causing actual problems out here in User Land, and if those responsible for addressing them are not doing so, then there needs to be some alternate path taken to spur Khoros into action, preferably sooner rather than later.

mightymouse · ‎10-27-2021

I have asked this question on "EBAY FOR BUSINESS" and have not gotten any response also. It is like they tried to fix something and broke it and now don't know what to do.

stuff4divas · ‎10-27-2021

@mightymouse wrote:
I worked in the grocery business for 40 years. They keep tiring to change thing when a new person would take over. Most item in a grocery store are grouped by brands. Their are exceptions like canned vegetables. Every so often they want to try and PUSH the whole store to be like the canned vegetable section and every time they have to move it back to BRANDS because of lost sales. If this keeps up with Ebay we will find Apple phones in the produce section of listings.

Apologies mouse, was this post meant for me? If so, I don't get how it relates to either of my 2 posts 😵

tsme35 · ‎10-27-2021

Wish they would hurry, I have combine shipping on some items which does work, its the larger, heavy or long items that have to be figured out which are also my money makers.

As far as the duplicates, from what I read about auctions is allow if the 1st one has a bid, then a 2nd one can start which is untrue, I see them listed at the same time with no bids.

The fixed priced ones are the same item, size color, price but their putting #1 #2 #3 at the end of listing so as not to get flagged but still against the rules. Also seeing listing for items with the same general heading but has different items picture, which could be a different color item.

You'd have to sent me a message to get some examples because I can't put them on here, I brought it up a few months ago and was told I'd get a message but never heard from them

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Edit: A reply to your comments can be found here

velvet@ebay · ‎10-27-2021

@mightymouse wrote:

AS a seller I would like to fine a faster way to list my items again like I could 2 weeks ago. Currently it takes about 10 minutes to list an item in Pottery (dinnerware) or Glass. As I have to change categories with each listing now for the same maker I lose all the item Specifics for the new listing. Also not all the available item Specifics are available for each of the other categories and the order they are and suggested item are different. Because of this issue I see no need to list in most if not any of the new item Specifics when listing new items. As current search’s show that vases, bowls, cups & saucers, mugs, etc show up in EVERY NEW item Specific. And plate s show up in at least 3.

Item Specifics and the new Categories are the same in Pottery & some glass item I would like to edit what shows up as item specifics or at least change the order in how they appear. In some cases the needed Item Specifics needs to be added. Our of the 35 ones listed at least 20 of them make no sense unless at some time you will be doing away with description’s

Hi @mightymouse! I reached out to the listing team to get some info as to how this is all configured and there is a lot that goes into it.

The order of where the item specifics land depend on a number of things. We prioritize the soon to be required specifics, then recommended, and then additional. Within these groups the sort order is set by Buyer Demand Data, which is an aggregated amount of usages on the buy-side supplied by Search results. That looks at the amount of times an item specific has been used to filter results, or matched a search query. You can actually see the number provided as '# Searches" next to the item specifics themselves.

That's a lot, I know, but I hope it helps to give some background info as to what's going on with the listing form and why those item specifics can and will move around, like you've seen. Keep in mind that you don't have to fill them all in and hopefully over time, this newish way of listing will become second nature.

Velvet,

tyler@ebay · ‎10-27-2021

@mightymouse wrote:

Ok that worked. But the real question's are. 1) Why it is so fare down the page? 2) Why are my first choices the new categories which are meaning less if I'm looking for a 1) brand or 2) Guage ?

@mmightymouse - really glad that the workaround at least gives you what you're looking for while the other other search entrypoints are worked on.

'Why' questions when it comes to design and placement are always going to be hard for me to answer for you, but in general I believe the visual elements are prioritized, so that when they work they'll be really prominent and easy to use.

Brand and Gauge are now considered item specifics, not categories, and the hierarchy of this structure is set for you to drill into categories first, and use item specifics to tailor your search.

Tyler,

mightymouse · ‎10-27-2021

It was in response to a response to your original post

jasmen@ebay · ‎10-27-2021

@mam98031 wrote:

@mam98031 wrote:

jasmen@ebay wrote:

@apham201085 wrote:

Thanks jasmen@ebay, I understood that. However if you could look into the issue and send me some info about the issue then it would be really really great on my side.

Unfortunately with payments, for security reasons, only that team can discuss any of that info with you. If it was anything else I always like to recommend eBay For Business, but with payments you have to work with them.

jasmen@ebay

Did something change recently regarding Facebook. A few weeks ago Facebook started turning members asking questions about MP back to Customer Service. They could not answer any MP questions.

If they now can do it again, as the use to be able to, then it was stopped, that would be WONDERFUL news.

jasmen@ebay

Just a little bum for this question in the hopes we can get it answered before the chat closes is about 7 minutes.

Hey @mam98031 the social teams can help with basic sign up and troubleshooting, but anything for verification needs to be done with the payments team directly, Hope that helps!

Jasmen,
Community Team

jamsionline · ‎10-27-2021

Is there any way for us to see what categories and item specifics our listings *used* to have versus where they have ended up after the change? I know there is that big mapping of all the old categories vs new but what about for all the item specifics? Are we just expected to spend the time going through each and every listing individually to ensure they are correct? We have thousands of listings and this will just kill us on time and wages.

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

somanypostcards · ‎10-27-2021

What is the eBay definition of the Postcard item specific Circulated? Do they actually mean Posted, or just passed around?

Why is eBay recommending a Postcard item specific Material be specified as Linen, when linen postcards are called that because they were manufactured from 1930-1956 with a higher rag content, giving their surface a linen-type appearance. They are made of stiff paper (or cardboard), but NOT linen which is a cloth.

Why is a Thanksgiving postcard that contains a turkey by the woods receiving item specific recommendations of Country of Manufacture = Turkey and Material = Wood?

Why do I have 193 recommendations to Unit of Sale = Single Unit when ALL my listings are single unit. I consider this something sellers would enter if the were selling a lot or collection, not for the standard sale of 1 postcard.

And the questions/errors/suggestions go on... and get more complex... Whom do I ask about them other than Customer Support?

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

tsme35 · ‎10-27-2021

Most of the times I get an email saying "oops" I paid, just refund the difference, which I do but I'm not eating the overage in fee's. I've had a couple customers say putting in cart and requesting an invoice was too much work so there's those people, but others are super happy because they didn't know they could put in cart and request total.

But more and more customers are using the app now, of all the useless programs ebay's turning out ya think combine shipping which we've been asking for over 3 1/2 years now wouldn't be too much

velvet@ebay · ‎10-27-2021

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

On Monday the new ebay store features that were promised in the Fall Seller Update finally began rolling out. A few quick questions. The first one, please note, is not rhetorical, I'd really like an answer:

WHY was this rolled out without a concurrent announcement and a tutorial?

Sellers have been begging ebay to announce this sort of thing ,and to include tutorials, for a very long time. The lack of an announcement results in a lot of unnecessary seller anxiety, confusion and often as not misinformation starts to take on a life of its own....this is all self-inflicted damage, and could all be avoided (or, most of it) if ebay would learn to COMMUNICATE effectively. This is a long standing problem (over 20 years), and you guys NEED to do better.

There seem to be two things mentioned in the Fall Update that have not yet arrived: 1. a link in our About tab page for buyers to sign up for our newsletter and 2. it was my understanding that the Marketing Banner would include not just clickable links to categories and listing pages, but also to our Promotions and Sales pages (for example, a Markdown Manager Sales page) Is the absence of such a link going to be remedied soon?

Any chance you can host the Stores team soon to discuss the changes?

And, finally, a big thank you for the changes, better late than never....I believe they are a real improvement (although it will take some time for buyers and sellers to adjust to the changes), and I hope they are only the beginning.

I understand your frustration with the lack of communication and tutorials about the changes made recently to the store. We're happy you're happy to see the changes though. At best I can pass this feedback on and you can use this help page about managing your store here. I will also pass on your request for a Stores guided chat.

As for the seller update concerns, I've reached out for more info and will have to get back to you regarding:

1. Newsletter subscription link missing from the About section.

2. Marketing banner missing Promotion and Sales page links.

Thank you @my-cottage-books-and-antiques

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Edit: Follow-up for 1. and 2. can be found here.

Velvet,

mam98031 · ‎10-27-2021

jasmen@ebay wrote:

@mam98031 wrote:

@mam98031 wrote:

jasmen@ebay wrote:

@apham201085 wrote:

Thanks jasmen@ebay, I understood that. However if you could look into the issue and send me some info about the issue then it would be really really great on my side.

Unfortunately with payments, for security reasons, only that team can discuss any of that info with you. If it was anything else I always like to recommend eBay For Business, but with payments you have to work with them.

jasmen@ebay

Did something change recently regarding Facebook. A few weeks ago Facebook started turning members asking questions about MP back to Customer Service. They could not answer any MP questions.

If they now can do it again, as the use to be able to, then it was stopped, that would be WONDERFUL news.

jasmen@ebay

Just a little bum for this question in the hopes we can get it answered before the chat closes is about 7 minutes.

Hey @mam98031 the social teams can help with basic sign up and troubleshooting, but anything for verification needs to be done with the payments team directly, Hope that helps!

jasmen@ebay

Thank you.

OK so that I'm clear here. Facebook can answer basic sign up questions ONLY.

I just want this to be extremely clear as there are a few seasoned sellers giving advice on some threads for others to contact Facebook with their MP issue. This is mostly for why their money is being held for over 30 days and the such or their Payouts not going through. None of it is basic sign up questions.

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

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999