Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 05.02.25 @2pm | Chat with the eBay Community Team | eBay UK

Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 05.02.25 @2pm | Chat with the eBay Community Team | eBay UK

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Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 05.02.25 @2pm

Hi everybody!

The Community Chat will open at 2pm and will remain open until 3pm on Wednesday. After that it will be closed for further questions. Of course, we will continue to take care of answering any questions that may still be unanswered—We’ll get to everything as quickly as possible.

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Many thanks,

Your eBay Community Team

community-team@ebay eBay Staff

eBay Staff

eBay Staff0 View listings

Posted 1 year ago · Edited 1 year ago·Last reply 1 year ago

38 comments

bloozom-0

·1 year ago

@marco@ebay. From kazlgw

item number 365155672483

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@bloozom-0 wrote:

@marco@ebay. From kazlgw

item number 365155672483

Hi @bloozom-0, thanks for your post.

Could you please open a thread in the Postage board, and provide this information there? The chat is closing now, so it is better for you to open a thread, so I can provide you with an update in the thread.

Thank you,

Marco

ducatimondo

·1 year ago

Good afternoon team,

Ofcom have fined the Royal Mail again in December 2024, to the tune of £10,500,000 for failing to meet it's delivery targets in the 23/24 financial year.

This is going on from Ofcom fining them £5,600,000 in November 2023 for the same thing in the previous year.

You can read it straight from the horses mouth here

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/ofcom-fines-royal-mail-10.5m-for-poor-delivery-performance

The metrics they are using for their determination are primarily their Royal Mail tracked 24 and tracked 48 services.
The Royal Mail are now and have been for several years being prioritising these services over and above their Royal Mail 24, Royal Mail 48, 1st class, 2nd class and their signed for alternates. These services are left by the wayside until they get around to delivering them and we have seen a significant reduction in service provided by the Royal Mail as they continue to cut service levels in order to save money. This has been in the national press and even had discussion in Parliament in regards to dropping their standards to not delivering to all postcodes every day.

If they are so bad at delivering the items that they are measured and fined heavily for not achieving, then they are definitely not going to be delivering the services that Ofcom are not monitoring on time, are they.

When will eBay actually react to this and stop this nonsense where sellers are blamed for late delivery by eBay and buyers.

I am sick and tired of messages from buyers stating that we have told them it will arrive blah, blah, blah.

eBay NEED transparency that they control the stupidly short delivery estimates and stop letting the sellers take the flack.

This nonsense "working as it is supposed to" has got to stop.

Ofcom are taking it very seriously with Royal Mail and the shockingly bad service they are achieving.
It is a shame there is no regulator on eBay's back or I suspect the outcome would be different.

I don't know why eBay can't just add a few days on the back of the delivery estimates to save sellers catching so much flack, for NO reason!!

When will eBay actually realise there is a problem and do something about it.

Thank you
Russ

dave@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@ducatimondo wrote:

Good afternoon team,

Ofcom have fined the Royal Mail again in December 2024, to the tune of £10,500,000 for failing to meet it's delivery targets in the 23/24 financial year.

This is going on from Ofcom fining them £5,600,000 in November 2023 for the same thing in the previous year.

You can read it straight from the horses mouth here

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/ofcom-fines-royal-mail-10.5m-for-poor-delivery-performance

The metrics they are using for their determination are primarily their Royal Mail tracked 24 and tracked 48 services.
The Royal Mail are now and have been for several years being prioritising these services over and above their Royal Mail 24, Royal Mail 48, 1st class, 2nd class and their signed for alternates. These services are left by the wayside until they get around to delivering them and we have seen a significant reduction in service provided by the Royal Mail as they continue to cut service levels in order to save money. This has been in the national press and even had discussion in Parliament in regards to dropping their standards to not delivering to all postcodes every day.

If they are so bad at delivering the items that they are measured and fined heavily for not achieving, then they are definitely not going to be delivering the services that Ofcom are not monitoring on time, are they.

When will eBay actually react to this and stop this nonsense where sellers are blamed for late delivery by eBay and buyers.

I am sick and tired of messages from buyers stating that we have told them it will arrive blah, blah, blah.

eBay NEED transparency that they control the stupidly short delivery estimates and stop letting the sellers take the flack.

This nonsense "working as it is supposed to" has got to stop.

Ofcom are taking it very seriously with Royal Mail and the shockingly bad service they are achieving.
It is a shame there is no regulator on eBay's back or I suspect the outcome would be different.

I don't know why eBay can't just add a few days on the back of the delivery estimates to save sellers catching so much flack, for NO reason!!

When will eBay actually realise there is a problem and do something about it.

Thank you
Russ

Hi @ducatimondo

I sent this post over to the shipping team, they were already aware Ofcom fine. They're taking the feedback onboard and will raise it internally for review.

Thanks,

Dave

kazlgw

·1 year ago

I too have been affected by EBAY App's inability to work on older devices, as I mainly use an IPAD Air2 for my ebay account, which will now not work. As others have brought this up, I will leave the answer for them to be replied too. But for anyone else having same issues, it will still work, kind of, if you use your internet browser on your device and sign in there. So far, working OK via Safari for me.

My question relates to the new 'funds on hold' scenario, where an item is paid for along with the postage cost, but then those funds are on hold until after delivery. If we have no balance, (as i have just had because few days before we had finally got my son's bank account to link for payments so decided to transfer the balance!) does ths system still take the postage costs from the held balance or back from the bank account? I ask because I have just posted an item yesterday that is showing on the 'All Activity' page as £2.99 postage charged then £2.99 credit, but doesn't look like its come back in from sons' account. Also, thought Evri 1kg parcel was £2.94 not £2.99?

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@kazlgw wrote:

I too have been affected by EBAY App's inability to work on older devices, as I mainly use an IPAD Air2 for my ebay account, which will now not work. As others have brought this up, I will leave the answer for them to be replied too. But for anyone else having same issues, it will still work, kind of, if you use your internet browser on your device and sign in there. So far, working OK via Safari for me.

My question relates to the new 'funds on hold' scenario, where an item is paid for along with the postage cost, but then those funds are on hold until after delivery. If we have no balance, (as i have just had because few days before we had finally got my son's bank account to link for payments so decided to transfer the balance!) does ths system still take the postage costs from the held balance or back from the bank account? I ask because I have just posted an item yesterday that is showing on the 'All Activity' page as £2.99 postage charged then £2.99 credit, but doesn't look like its come back in from sons' account. Also, thought Evri 1kg parcel was £2.94 not £2.99?

Hi @kazlgw, thanks for your post.

That depends on which carrier you choose, the cost of your labels can be paid from your available funds, PayPal or your on-file payment method. For example, Royal Mail postage label purchases can be paid with PayPal and can now also be paid using any available funds on your eBay account, for Packlink carriers EVRi, Yodel, UPS, InPost and DPD you can purchase labels using any available funds on your eBay account. Also, if you choose to pay using available funds and don’t have sufficient balance to cover the transaction, label purchases will be paid from your preferred on-file payment method.

So it depends on how you set it up, and the carrier you're using.

Thank you,

Marco

kazlgw

·1 year ago

service was Evri and for some reason the account won't let us add a Paypal to it, so would be mainly just using the Ebay Balance. We sent 2 items yesterday both with Evri & bought both labels through the app; 1 is showing £2.94 in the activity as well as in the order details, just as normal. The other has a correct Evri tracking number and was dropped off & picked up as normal (so no chance of selecting a different carrier by mistake) and order details shows £2.99 paid by buyer (kinda strange as not what I normally enter for postage costs) then in the What you earned box, it says ordere total £37.99 Ebay collected from buyer - postage -£2.99, but then at the bottom the postage labels line says 0.00? Although my Son is new to the selling & I am helping him, I have been selling for over 5 years on my own account, and don't think I have seen this before either.

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@kazlgw wrote:

service was Evri and for some reason the account won't let us add a Paypal to it, so would be mainly just using the Ebay Balance. We sent 2 items yesterday both with Evri & bought both labels through the app; 1 is showing £2.94 in the activity as well as in the order details, just as normal. The other has a correct Evri tracking number and was dropped off & picked up as normal (so no chance of selecting a different carrier by mistake) and order details shows £2.99 paid by buyer (kinda strange as not what I normally enter for postage costs) then in the What you earned box, it says ordere total £37.99 Ebay collected from buyer - postage -£2.99, but then at the bottom the postage labels line says 0.00? Although my Son is new to the selling & I am helping him, I have been selling for over 5 years on my own account, and don't think I have seen this before either.

Thanks for your reply, @kazlgw.

If they open a thread from their own account, and tag me on it with the item number only, I'd be happy to take a look for them no problem to see what's happening. 👍

Thank you,

Marco

wintersdawn1

·1 year ago

Hi, has the new change of delayed payments after private sellers make a sale been implemented yet? Thank you.

dave@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@wintersdawn1 wrote:

Hi, has the new change of delayed payments after private sellers make a sale been implemented yet? Thank you.

Hi @wintersdawn1

The update is currently rolling out so you should see it becoming active through the week. to minimise any disruption to the site its rolling out thorough the week. You should start seeing it active in the relevant categories soon.

Thanks,

Dave

auctiongabble

·1 year ago

I noticed the ebay app no longer working on certain mobiles too, a simple message being sent by ebay to its 'USERS' would have been the considerate thing to do and wouldn't exactly be too difficult for ebay to do.

Ebay really are not getting much right at the moment, are they...

So what is the minimum android version that the ebay app will now work with?

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@auctiongabble wrote:

I noticed the ebay app no longer working on certain mobiles too, a simple message being sent by ebay to its 'USERS' would have been the considerate thing to do and wouldn't exactly be too difficult for ebay to do.

Ebay really are not getting much right at the moment, are they...

So what is the minimum android version that the ebay app will now work with?

Hi @auctiongabble, thanks for your question.

There is an AB post announcing this in the Community home page, where you can also see the minimum requirement for Android and iOS versions that support the eBay app.

Thank you,

Marco

auctiongabble

·1 year ago

Thats great, the post gets released today, days after the update which has affected many users.

tpogodin

·1 year ago

The new buyer fee for private sellers was supposed to be introduced, starting with electronics, on the 4th Feb but as yet does not appear to be active anywhere on the site. Can you explain why this is and when it's actually coming into force?

kat@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@tpogodin wrote:

The new buyer fee for private sellers was supposed to be introduced, starting with electronics, on the 4th Feb but as yet does not appear to be active anywhere on the site. Can you explain why this is and when it's actually coming into force?

Hi @tpogodin ,

It is currently being updated into the system and will be rolled out starting with the electronics category. We don't have an exact time as it will be on a gradual basis.

Thank you,

Kat

a45heaven

·1 year ago

It is currently being updated into the system and will be rolled out starting with the electronics category. We don't have an exact time as it will be on a gradual basis.

Will the time scale allow for auction or scheduled items? Scheduling may be 26 days ahead of going live - should seller stop scheduling items now as a precaution?

kat@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@a45heaven wrote:

It is currently being updated into the system and will be rolled out starting with the electronics category. We don't have an exact time as it will be on a gradual basis.

Will the time scale allow for auction or scheduled items? Scheduling may be 26 days ahead of going live - should seller stop scheduling items now as a precaution?

Hi @a45heaven ,

It depends on when the auction goes live. A live auction before the fee going live will not have it. However if the fee goes live before the scheduled date of the action then it will have the fee.

Thank you

Kat

valueaddedresource

·1 year ago

@kat@ebay wrote:
@tpogodin wrote:
The new buyer fee for private sellers was supposed to be introduced, starting with electronics, on the 4th Feb but as yet does not appear to be active anywhere on the site. Can you explain why this is and when it's actually coming into force?
Hi @tpogodin ,

It is currently being updated into the system and will be rolled out starting with the electronics category. We don't have an exact time as it will be on a gradual basis.

Thank you,
Kat

@kate@ebay just FYI - askeBay on X/Twitter is saying it has been postponed until February 6th

sweetcharity.2013

·1 year ago

Further to my question above –

QUESTION #2 As I was not charge VAT correctly. Eg not advised beforehand that VAT was applicable am I in line for a refund? 58p + 46p = £1.04 ? 😉

sweetcharity.2013

·1 year ago

Last week 29.1.25 I questioned as to why I had been charged VAT on postage, for which Marco directed me to an ebay page for explanation & advised that the VAT was correctly applied to the whole purchase on a UK to UK sale.

Upon checking further I see that the in sellers completed listings my purchase states that the postage was £3.49, however the actual listing states postage at £2.91. On a further item I purchased the listing states postage at £2.29 but in the sellers completed listings at £2.75 – which is what I was charged - (£2.29 + 20%VAT 46p = £2.75)

QUESTION: If VAT was applied to the whole transaction as previously advised (at some weird %) why is the sold item updated to show that the postage is £3.49 (£2.91 +20% VAT of 58p = £3.49)?

NOTE: The seller has relisted some unsold items (same category, same condition) & the postage is now showing at the prices I paid including VAT eg £2.75

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@sweetcharity.2013 wrote:

Last week 29.1.25 I questioned as to why I had been charged VAT on postage, for which Marco directed me to an ebay page for explanation & advised that the VAT was correctly applied to the whole purchase on a UK to UK sale.

Upon checking further I see that the in sellers completed listings my purchase states that the postage was £3.49, however the actual listing states postage at £2.91. On a further item I purchased the listing states postage at £2.29 but in the sellers completed listings at £2.75 – which is what I was charged - (£2.29 + 20%VAT 46p = £2.75)

QUESTION: If VAT was applied to the whole transaction as previously advised (at some weird %) why is the sold item updated to show that the postage is £3.49 (£2.91 +20% VAT of 58p = £3.49)?

NOTE: The seller has relisted some unsold items (same category, same condition) & the postage is now showing at the prices I paid including VAT eg £2.75

Hi @sweetcharity.2013, thanks for your question.

Yes, as advised before, the VAT is added to the transaction in general, not postage only. On the link I provided with you before you can see why VAT applies to purchases. For further VAT questions, you can contact a local tax experts, as we are unable to provide further details on it since we are not tax professionals.

Thank you,

Marco

sweetcharity.2013

·1 year ago

Thank you for responding Marco.

However, whilst I can understand that VAT may be applicable in some cases it would appear that ebay experienced a glitch last week & charged only the net postage charge. If you read my post carefully & look at the item/s in question you could see where. I am not the only one who questioned this, other questions were asked last week on the Member to Member Board re sudden additional VAT.

Unfortunately, it is in occurrences such as this, along with the inability to have postage combined on Best Offers, the skewed feedback (most relevant + ebays ‘fake positive’ feedback), plus the roll out of the new BPF amongst other things, that has made me rethink of ebay as a ‘go to’ site for purchases.

In fact I ceased looking on ebay for any of the purchases I have made this week as the only way to have any effect, no matter how small, is not to spend here. 🙁

I thank you all for your time spent on this Weekly Community Board

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@sweetcharity.2013 wrote:

Thank you for responding Marco.

However, whilst I can understand that VAT may be applicable in some cases it would appear that ebay experienced a glitch last week & charged only the net postage charge. If you read my post carefully & look at the item/s in question you could see where. I am not the only one who questioned this, other questions were asked last week on the Member to Member Board re sudden additional VAT.

Unfortunately, it is in occurrences such as this, along with the inability to have postage combined on Best Offers, the skewed feedback (most relevant + ebays ‘fake positive’ feedback), plus the roll out of the new BPF amongst other things, that has made me rethink of ebay as a ‘go to’ site for purchases.

In fact I ceased looking on ebay for any of the purchases I have made this week as the only way to have any effect, no matter how small, is not to spend here. 🙁

I thank you all for your time spent on this Weekly Community Board

Thanks for your reply, @sweetcharity.2013.

Yes, I see what you mean, and I see where you are coming from. I reviewed the transaction for you myself, and I do believe the VAT in that purchase is correct. However, if you think this is wrong and it could be related to a glitch, you're more than welcome to contact customer service to report the transaction in question, so they can double check that for you, that's no problem at all. If they spot anything I didn't, I'm sure they will correct it for you.

Thank you,

Marco

sweetcharity.2013

·1 year ago

Thanks, Marco.

If I was staying with ebay & buying on a regular (daily) basis as I have been, I would be in contact with CS Dublin tomorrow. Unfortunately for £1.04 it is not worth my time & effort to take this any further.

Thank you and all the best.

cobwebcottage

·1 year ago

Can I please ask why Ebay thought it was not necessary to inform 1000's of mobile users that the app would no longer be compatible on some phones?

Did they not think this would not have an impact on us?

What about buyers who. all of a sudden, cannot see the site? This will have an impact on every seller.

Feeling very under valued as a small business seller paying Ebay a good percentage of fees to use the site.

dave@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@cobwebcottage wrote:

Can I please ask why Ebay thought it was not necessary to inform 1000's of mobile users that the app would no longer be compatible on some phones?

Did they not think this would not have an impact on us?

What about buyers who. all of a sudden, cannot see the site? This will have an impact on every seller.

Feeling very under valued as a small business seller paying Ebay a good percentage of fees to use the site.

Hi @cobwebcottage

We need to keep the App up to date to support the latest security and patch updates to keep the site as safe as possible for all users. Unfortunately, this can sometimes mean older operating systems to not support the most current versions of the App.

I understand that some brands no longer offer updates to their older phones. In these cases the site should work through the mobile browser.

Thanks,

Dave

cobwebcottage

·1 year ago

I understand this Dave but a little bit of notice would have been appreciated before we woke up found out that our phones are no longer compatible.

We could have prepared for this if it was communicated beforehand.

I know it's not you fault but I do hope it is fed back to the person (team) responsible for actioning this without any consideration for their users.

direct.gifts

·1 year ago

How long does it take for feedback to be removed when seller protections are in place due to the Weather?

Whilst I was not in an impacted area I had an order sent to an impacted are which arrived late, does this count for seller protection?

I had 3 set of Netural feedback from them same customer due to a Royal Mail delay but it was in the North West of England which was badly impacted by Snow.

It is not desperate to be removed as it has fallen way down my feedback list now but I thought it would have been removed with the announced seller protection in place.

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@direct.gifts wrote:

How long does it take for feedback to be removed when seller protections are in place due to the Weather?

Whilst I was not in an impacted area I had an order sent to an impacted are which arrived late, does this count for seller protection?

I had 3 set of Netural feedback from them same customer due to a Royal Mail delay but it was in the North West of England which was badly impacted by Snow.

It is not desperate to be removed as it has fallen way down my feedback list now but I thought it would have been removed with the announced seller protection in place.

Hi @direct.gifts, thanks for your question.

It normally takes 24-72 hours for feedback to be removed since the moment they are actioned. If other defects or feedback have been removed, but those ones haven't, I'd recommend contacting customer service, so they can review those for you manually.

Thank you,

Marco

ak_craft_crazy

·1 year ago

Hi,

I have a question about a recent transaction where we were charged £4.39 for a Promoted Listings - General fee. However, the listing in question is not part of any promoted listings that I am aware of, so unless you have automatically included it in some sort of ad without my knowledge there should be no ad fees on this item.

The only reason I noticed this one is because a customer asked for a longer length of ribbon on another listing. I then sent them the direct link to this listing, which I have confirmed they clicked on and purchased straight away.

This does not constitute any form of advertising from yourself and should not be included any form of ad. This has happened before, and I raised the issue with customer service who refunded immediately and apologised as they were unsure why it was charged as an ad.

Now I am really concerned that this has now happened on 2 occasions we are aware of but how many times has this happened without us knowing and how many other sellers has this happened too?

It is completely wrong to charge an Ad fee when no ad has even been clicked on, it was a direct link that I sent to the customer.

Please can this be investigated?

dave@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@ak_craft_crazy wrote:

Hi,

I have a question about a recent transaction where we were charged £4.39 for a Promoted Listings - General fee. However, the listing in question is not part of any promoted listings that I am aware of, so unless you have automatically included it in some sort of ad without my knowledge there should be no ad fees on this item.

The only reason I noticed this one is because a customer asked for a longer length of ribbon on another listing. I then sent them the direct link to this listing, which I have confirmed they clicked on and purchased straight away.

This does not constitute any form of advertising from yourself and should not be included any form of ad. This has happened before, and I raised the issue with customer service who refunded immediately and apologised as they were unsure why it was charged as an ad.

Now I am really concerned that this has now happened on 2 occasions we are aware of but how many times has this happened without us knowing and how many other sellers has this happened too?

It is completely wrong to charge an Ad fee when no ad has even been clicked on, it was a direct link that I sent to the customer.

Please can this be investigated?

Hi @ak_craft_crazy

If you want to PM me the item number I'll have a look to see what the charge was from.

Thanks,

Dave

darth_baggins

·1 year ago

Can you explain why with the latest change to sold item emails, the quantity sold is no longer shown, nor is the quantity remaining? If someone buys more than one item, all that's shown is how much they paid, not how many they've purchased.

Is this a glitch or intentional? Because if it's intentional, it's very bad.

kat@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@darth_baggins wrote:

Can you explain why with the latest change to sold item emails, the quantity sold is no longer shown, nor is the quantity remaining? If someone buys more than one item, all that's shown is how much they paid, not how many they've purchased.

Is this a glitch or intentional? Because if it's intentional, it's very bad.

Hi @darth_baggins ,

Can you let me know when you first noticed the change in the sold email and I will follow that up?

Thank you,

Kat

darth_baggins

·1 year ago

I don't know exactly, some time last week, but I've seen others mention it on the other boards.

kat@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@darth_baggins wrote:

I don't know exactly, some time last week, but I've seen others mention it on the other boards.

Hi @darth_baggins ,

I will get some clarification on this being a change. As soon as I have an update I will post back.

Thank you,

Kat

darth_baggins

·1 year ago

Just been through my deleted emails. Seems it changed some time on the 24th January. Please see before and after images attached. It really isn't useful when eBay remove key details from messages like keeps happening.

kat@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

@darth_baggins wrote:

Just been through my deleted emails. Seems it changed some time on the 24th January. Please see before and after images attached. It really isn't useful when eBay remove key details from messages like keeps happening.

Thanks @darth_baggins

The images are helpful. Let me get it checked and I will come back with confirmation.

Thank you,

Kat

kat@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin1 year ago

Hi @darth_baggins ,

After following up with our internal teams for the quantity details amount missing from sold emails its as per design and not a bug. We have made them aware of the need for the detail from users and they advised there will be future enhancements.

Thank you,

Kat