eBay

joe_init · ‎18-03-2024

I just thought I'd share this information as I can't find it anywhere on the eBay help pages. Apologies if you know this already.

If you accept a reduced FVF offer from eBay and list an item, and subsequently want to revise it, you may lose the reduced FVF on it.

In summary, if you change the pricing, you will lose the offer, but you may change photos and description. I'm not sure if any other changes cause loss of offer (e.g. postage, allowing offers, etc.)

Here is an extract from chat with eBay CS:-

11:05:22 UTC joe_init
I have listed an item with 80% off fees offer from eBay. If I revise the text and photos of that item, do I lose the 80% off fees offer?
11:05:52 UTC Md.Washim
As I can understand that you are concerned regarding revising your item which was listed during the offer am I right ?
11:06:03 UTC joe_init
yes
11:06:29 UTC Md.Washim
Thank you for the confirmation, please do not worry I will right away check this for you .
11:07:03 UTC joe_init
the "offer" being from eBay concerning fees, NOT an offer from a buyer
11:07:44 UTC Md.Washim
Yes I can certainly understand your point , Would it be fine if I take 2-3 minutes to check this for you?
11:07:54 UTC joe_init
yes
11:11:30 UTC Md.Washim
I am checking this with my team so , It is taking longer than I had anticipated to pull up the requested information, allow me an additional two minutes.
11:12:43 UTC joe_init
ok
11:14:43 UTC Md.Washim
Thank you for offering enough time with this . Before sharing the details just to confirm are we still connected ?
11:15:25 UTC joe_init
yes
11:16:44 UTC Md.Washim
I have checked this with my team and let me share that you can revise the photos and descriptions of your item however if you revise the pricing of your listing it will become ineligible for the offer .
11:16:58 UTC Md.Washim
Let me also share the link of the terms and conditions page for your future reference :
11:17:00 UTC Md.Washim
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/promos/10059c75
11:20:35 UTC joe_init
Thank you for the link.
11:21:12 UTC joe_init
I don't see anything on that page that confirms what you have told me about changing the photos/descriuption but not the price.
11:21:51 UTC Md.Washim
Please be assured revising your listing will not make your item ineligible except for the price .
11:22:50 UTC joe_init
Thank you. Could you direct me to a page/document on the eBay site which deatils this please?
11:24:17 UTC Md.Washim
I am afraid the only page that states the terms and conditions are the page link which I shared above .

I'd be interested in the experience of others.

btr.style · ‎18-03-2024

Ignore CS and never bother with them anyway because they aren't helpful and aren't even UK based, they really don't know whats what.

Yes indeed you can revise and make changes to a listing that was created during the FVF promo period including changing the price and it will still have FVF discount when it sells.

Many business sellers on private accounts will use this to their advantage, creating lots of dummy listings during the fee promo with a stupidly high price. Then at their own convenience at a later date will revise the listing, make it into an item from their large stock inventory and set the price. It means then can maximise profits from the fee promo by not having to complete all 100 listings over the 3 days.

eastern-lights · ‎18-03-2024

Not my experience. I have in the past changed all sorts and never lost my FVF discount. On a couple of occasions I have combined two listings into one (to save overseas buyers shipping costs through GSP) and kept my discount.

zoomingmouse · ‎18-03-2024

Yep, another fail for customer services.

I too have on occasion altered a listing with no loss of the promo.

*vyolla* · ‎18-03-2024

I agree with everyone else, eBay CS wouldn't know the answer to this one, you should've just asked here in the first place!

Revising your listing (any part of it) will not affect the promotional fee offer.

joe_init · ‎19-03-2024

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and expeiences.

As to "..you should've just asked here in the first place!" the forums were my first port of call, but serarching them leads to ambiguous information (e.g. https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Member-To-Member-Support/Changing-a-listing-after-accepting-reduced-...).

My take-aways from this are:-

Experienced eBay users don't trust Customer Services to know the answers to non-obvious questions.
It is disappointing that, that being the case, there is no canonical source of information, and eBay users just have to experiement and share results.
On the balance of the weight of opinion, it seems like listings can be revised in any way without any loss of promotional fee offers.

Thanks once again, everyone.

btr.style · ‎19-03-2024

On the balance of weight of opinion?

Facts and opinions are different things. An opinion is someone's view. A fact is something that is true and cannot be changed regardless of someone's opinion.

My opinion is once the 3 day promo period is over, no revisions, or at very least no significant changes should be allowed on listings. This would eliminate those business sellers on private accounts abusing the promo from being able to use all the promo quota by creating dummy listings to then turn into real listings over the following week or 2. However, unfortunately the fact is full revisions can be made at any point after the listing is created and it will still be eligible for the fee promo.

It should be well known by now that when any company outsources their support services to overseas countries (or exclusively uses chat bots) then the service will be terrible. I'd not even class it as "customer service" but an "overseas agent". They'll all be sat in some big office providing support for a variety of businesses. They've been known to say what the customer wants to hear just to get them gone and will even start with pointless compliments of how long a person has had their eBay account for.

*vyolla* · ‎19-03-2024

@joe_init wrote:

My take-aways from this are:-

Experienced eBay users don't trust Customer Services to know the answers to non-obvious questions.

Thing is, many sellers here have been using eBay for years and know what you can and cannot do from experience. The eBay CS reps are largely based in the Philippines, probably don't even use eBay and are given a few standard scripts to work from.

For example, eBay's guidance page on Reserves states that you can remove a Reserve under certain circumstances. Unless something has recently changed you can't, and the info on that page hasn't been updated for like a decade. So, a CS rep will tell you that it can be done, which leads to frustration when it can't.

They're great if you have an issue that requires account access and is a pretty standard one, but for anything more complex I'd be inclined to go with the actual users of the platform.

*vyolla* · ‎19-03-2024

@joe_init wrote:

As to "..you should've just asked here in the first place!" the forums were my first port of call, but serarching them leads to ambiguous information (e.g. https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Member-To-Member-Support/Changing-a-listing-after-accepting-reduced-...).

The OP for that thread posted what the eBay CS rep told him, and it's absolute gibberish. Just made up nonsense in the hope that it sounds credible.

books-n-bobs · ‎06-04-2024

Does this work the other way around? I posted during normal fees, I've since accepted FVF offer, would changing the price now give me the FVF offer when it sells?

*vyolla* · ‎06-04-2024

@books-n-bobs wrote:

Does this work the other way around? I posted during normal fees, I've since accepted FVF offer, would changing the price now give me the FVF offer when it sells?

No, you have to list your item after accepting the offer, you can't revise an existing listing.

tressygirl · ‎06-04-2024

Any items listed before accepting a promotion will not comply to that promotional FVF offer when the item sells.

Items have to be listed after a promotion has been activated, and listed during the promotional period.

If it then sells within its first cycle of listing, the promotional offer will be applied.

m25jet · ‎06-04-2024

@books-n-bobs wrote:
Does this work the other way around? I posted during normal fees, I've since accepted FVF offer, would changing the price now give me the FVF offer when it sells?

The only way that I can see to ensure that you get the FVF offer when the item sells in the instance you gave would be to take the original listing down, citing "Error In Listing" as the reason why, then relist the item again, albeit with the revised price showing in the relisted version of the ad. That way, if the item sells, you should get the FVF offer.

eastern-lights · ‎06-04-2024

@books-n-bobs wrote:
Does this work the other way around? I posted during normal fees, I've since accepted FVF offer, would changing the price now give me the FVF offer when it sells?

During the FVF offer period, end your listing or listings. You do not have to cite a reason. Now go to "ended" listings, for each one you are interested in select "Sell similar" and list it. You do NOT need to make any alterations. (I'm not sure, re-list may work but I know sell similar does.)

You can check it has worked by going to "Selling" and looking at promotional offers, you will see how many of the 100 you have used.