Happy October! 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!
@friskya wrote:
There seems to be an increasing number of posts regarding "seller initiated" cancellations for reasons other than "out of stock". The most common ones appear to be "problem with buyers address" and "buyer requested".
Why does "buyer requested" even exist as an option for a seller initiated request? I can understand the other two (address and out of stock) being valid reasons, but why is "buyer requested" not something that should be strictly as a response to a cancel request, with repercussions for any buyer who abuses it?
I understand that the sellers don't have to honor a sale cancellation, but it seems that many sellers are using it as a catch-all for cancelling sales (auctions) where they didn't get the price they hoped for and where the buyer did not, in fact, request the cancellation.
Hi @friskya - when this flow changed several years ago it was with the intent of streamlining effort and limiting 'back and forth' between members. We limit the time frames a buyer can request a cancellation to prevent misunderstandings (seller ships item and then buyer requests cancellation mid-stream). So there are situations in which a buyer would need to request a cancellation from the seller after the window has closed for them to do it on their own. That's why the reason code exists.
Abuse of that as a reason code is something we review and take action to prevent- we review trends of seller cancellations and take appropriate action if there is evidence of abuse.
Thanks for joining the chat this week! It's now closed from further replies, but we'll keep working through to make sure that questions get addressed. 🙂
@clarkphilatelics wrote:
Managed Payments reports are not useable if some transactions are posted in non-US currencies. The Payouts report contains three columns: Amount, Fee, and Net.
The Net column contains a foreign currency amount, a US amount, and the currency conversion factor used.
The [Sale] Amount and Fees columns for non-US sales are listed in foreign currency amounts only. The sale amount and fees in the web report and the downloaded reports may contain a mix of dollar and foreign currency amounts that cannot be summed. PayPal entered the foreign currency amounts with an offsetting row followed by a US dollar amount row., allowing the columns to be summed.
More troubling is that the foreign currency amounts when converted to dollars do not add up. An undocumented currency conversion factor is omitted, making total about three percent short. There appears to be no way to verify the amount skimmed by eBay. Because foreign site transactions are not captured by SixBit, it is not possible to accurately post sales amounts, fee amounts into the accounting database to accurately capture income and expenses. Would the IRS accept eBay net amounts without reporting sales and fees totals? It seems doubtful. Last year it was possible to sum Payouts Amounts and match the amount exactly with the eBay 1099-K. What will happen this year?
Also, when will eBay start providing totals for the {sales] Amount and Fees? One Payout with more than fifteen orders took significant time to add correctly. Will someone at eBay look at seller workflow and the necessary information needed to track sales, expenses and cash flow from Payments detail reports?
Hi @clarkphilatelics - I will make sure that the Payments team receives this as feedback for future product enhancement!
@a_c_green wrote:
tyler@ebay wrote:
Hi @a_c_green - sheila@ebay has a regular meeting cadence with Khoros to discuss issues and has been to additional one-offs on the topic of this bug. I don't have any other update past that I'm afraid.Sounds good! Please ask sheila@ebay if she can post the latest news on this problem here, as it's only getting worse in severity.
If she can tell us when to expect news from the next scheduled meeting on this, that will be great, too. In other words, we really need to see the wheels turning. Thanks!
Hi @a_c_green - I'll let her know that's what you'd like to see!
@dryophelia wrote:
How does the new Unpaid Item process go?
Does eBay automatically close it after 96 hours of nonpayment?
What about sellers who previously had the Unpaid Item Assistant set to, say, 7 days?
The Help page says “ If you don't close them within 36 days, we'll close them for you, but you won't be eligible for a final value fee credit…”What final value fees are there if no payment has been received?
So that paragraph says 36 days. Further down on the same page it says “It's important to cancel any unpaid items within 30 days from the day the buyer commits to buy …”
This new process is much better than the previous one, but it is not very clear. Even some of our most experienced Mentors don’t post the same advise. That tells me it’s not clear, because, well, I think of them as the leaders of the rest of us (and I am grateful for each and everyone of them). 🙏🏻 ☮️
Great question @dryophelia! I'm sorry for the confusion about the 36 days. That was placed there to cover the change over but that time frame has passed. We've also passed the feedback on that the 'box' can be removed from the help page at this point.
From here on out, the buyer will get four full days to pay and if they don't, then you will cancel the transaction on day five with the non-payment reason. That immediately cancels the sale, so there's no need to go back in and do anything days later. It also records the non-payment to the buyers account like before, since that's still something we look at.
I'm not sure if you used the Unpaid Item Assistant before but that is still a thing, and you can learn more about this feature by going here and scrolling down to the section that says, 'Using Preferences for items awaiting payment'. I hope that helps!
@glasser wrote:
A couple of questions . We see INR issues on these boards a bit. If a seller has added a tracking number (or auto added since they bought label through eBay) and a buyer file an INR, does eBay check to see if the item has been delivered per tracking number and deny the claim?
If not, there are several services that can track items from nearly every carrier in the world and since proof of delivery via tracking is how these claims are resolved it seems pretty easy to dispose of this in this manner.
Have there been any discussions internally ( I know you won't/can't answer this 🙂 ) about how chargebacks dilute protections for sellers and create opportunities for scammers?
Hi @glasser as long as the seller has uploaded tracking the case will be found in your favor when and if the buyer escalates the claim. If they don't escalate it after the 3rd business day the seller can then request to close it out!
@dhbookds wrote:
tyler@ebay wrote:
@dhbookds wrote:
tyler@ebay wrote:
@dhbookds wrote:
tyler@ebay wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:
For me, I can now see the FB of others. It wasn't limited to just the forums, it was also in the rest of Ebay too or at least that was my experience. It now appears to be fixed again.
@mam98031 - this is what makes it so insidious, the intermittent nature of this bug is maddening. All links and profile photos are gone for me from the Community site as of this morning. But yesterday they were fine, and tomorrow they may be back for me.
It's really frustrating, but I'm glad they're back for you, and I hope they stay a good long time!
Do you still want reports.......per Shelia's request? Seems ya'll can see it, so not sure why they can't?
Yes please @dhbookds - our only recourse at this point is to document as many folks being impacted as possible, which will hopefully help Khoros isolate root cause.
Has anyone given the links to Khoros that Eburton has posted several times..........that they are the ones that aren't working?
Hi @dhbookds - yes, I'm fairly certain they've been added to the ticket (and thanks to @eburtonlab for consistently doing so much heavy lifting!).
Yes, thanks to him........ but I don't understand why you need specific reports "from enough People".....does that mean they won't/aren't able to fix it unless they have 100.....200......300 reports from every state?
I mean, if they have the non working links (that work sometimes), why can't they just test them every hr/20 min whatever........and then go from there....... It just sounds like the other brouhaha....and if you want me to confront one of them to convince him he CAN fix it.........let me know.........getting pretty fed up, if you can't tell.
Whattt, @dhbookds getting fed up? Surely such a thing has never happened ever! 😉
I kid, but also am on a similar page. We're working to get them the info they say they need while also applying appropriate emphasis on how significant an issue this is.
In short: https://youtu.be/daTyrsJyacQ
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
I ask this, hoping for an answer other than "it will be announced".....could we get an ETA on the store changes that were promised in the Fall Update and described as coming "shortly" in the last Seller Check In? Even just a rough estimate like : "by Columbus Day" or "before Thanksgiving"....
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques I wish I had a specific answer for you here, unfortunately we just have to wait till it's announced. If we do get any info beforehand we'll be sure to let you know!
@lacemaker3 wrote:
tyler@ebay wrote:
@soh.maryl wrote:
Do we have any ETA at all on when the being unable to view feedback will be fixed?
It's making answering questions difficult for mentors.
Hi @soh.maryl - no, we don't have an ETA on this, but we are continuing to work with Khoros on what is going on and when it will be fixed.
You're probably already aware that the URLs for the feedback profile page was changed on eBay Core recently, and they didn't get all the links updated on all the pages at the same time. They appear to have made changes to other profile pages as well, possibly including the avatar links. Redirects sometimes worked and sometimes didn't.
It seems likely that this would have contributed to the issues with displaying avatars, and feedback pages in the community. The redirects could be contributing to the intermittent nature. Has this been checked and ruled out?
Hi @lacemaker3 - I'm not certain (though that sounds like it could be intertwined with our issue) but I'll make sure this gets to Sheila and Khoros for review and testing. Thanks for pointing this out!
@stuff4divas wrote:
Apologies tyler@ebay for not greeting you on my other posts, but Greetings!! and I hope you've been well!
There was a post today where a seller said they got scammed from a buyer who altered the return shipping label address to have the package sent to him, the buyer, instead of to the the seller, and therefore showing as 'delivered' (but to the buyer) >
Is this possible to do with a shipping label? If so, SCARY!!
@stuff4divas Thanks for sending this over! Our labels are prepaid so there's no way to change the info on it. If there are examples of this happening we can get it investigated for sure. There was a known glitch where it would just show delivered back to the buyer, but that was an eBay glitch not the buyer doing anything. Also in those cases we have helped the seller out as well. If they see it happening it would be great to get those over to the eBay for Business team for review!
@tincan630 wrote:
Velvet,
I did reply, unfortunately in seems that I posted to the link you provided above so I'm assuming you can find it there. Please take a look as it pretty much sums up my disappointment that there is no acknowledgement that these changes are a horrendous mistake that needs rectification.
I understand this is upsetting @tincan630, but as I shared in the link to your other post, it's not something they plan to reimplement. I did pass your frustration and feedback on and I hope in the meantime you can utilize the Advanced Search for these type of searches.
@mam98031 wrote:
jasmen@ebay wrote:
@ittybitnot wrote:
Good afternoon.
The post by @savannah3 reminded me of a question I had about local pick up. I was wondering if a buyer pays cash at pick up, is the final value fee adjusted because eBay is NOT processing any funds? Is the seller's final value fee now less the money processing portion?Hey @ittybitnot the processing fees are only billed when they send the payment through our system, the final value fee is separate and charged when the buyer commits to buy the item.
How do they [Ebay] do this. The Money Processing fee is NOT separate. It is a Simplified Fee in MP which includes the FVF for the sale and the money processing fee in one.
So how do they separate them and what are the amounts of the two fees?
A link to the policy would be very helpful.
@mam98031 Sorry for the delay, you're totally right! If they don't pay then you're not billed anything. However you'll get billed after the fact for just the final value fee of the item. If for any reason it's ever off please let us know, I will see if I can get content to post on this specific topic in the payments resources!
