Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 13.12.23 @2pm | Chat with the eBay Community Team | eBay UK

Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 13.12.23 @2pm | Chat with the eBay Community Team | eBay UK

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Chat with the eBay Community Team

Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 13.12.23 @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.

Please ask your questions in the thread below. In order to be able to answer your questions as quickly as possible, we ask you to have one question per post. Of course, you can make as many posts as you like in the Chat- the more the merrier!

Our eBay Community Team is made up of @marco@ebay @katie@ebay and @anita@ebay. Between us, we have knowledge in Buying, Selling, Fulfilment, Payments, and the Community itself. Anything we aren’t sure on we’ll know the people who will be! Please ask us any questions you may have and we’ll do all we can to support.

To ask your question, click Reply in the lower-right corner of this post, type your question, and click Reply between 2pm and 3pm. The community team will answer each incoming question in chronological order, and will quote the original question in each answer. Some questions may not be suitable for this weekly chat, as it closes after 1 hour. If you have a long question or one that requires a lot of investigation please write a discussion post on the boards and tag our team members.

Please note that any reply without a question to the community team or discussion replies may be removed from the chat. We want to keep on track to get through as many questions as possible. We welcome all discussion to be moved to the discussion boards.

If you missed the weekly chat time, please ask your question in the community boards and tag us or we will be back next week with another chat!

Many thanks,

Your eBay Community Team

community-team@ebay eBay Staff

eBay Staff

eBay Staff0 View listings

Posted 2 years ago · Edited 2 years ago·Last reply 2 years ago

44 comments

contessa35

·2 years ago

Hello, I've raised this before, but the problem is still ongoing, so I thought I'd ask in another way. I apologise for the length and complexity, but it's a long-lasting, frustrating issue which is hard to find an explanation for and very difficult to deal with.

I'm a buyer, and I am always running up against a problem regarding items listed using eBay International Shipping by sellers in the US in my category of interest - Dolls & Bears (some other categories are affected too, but by no means all). Although the affected sellers (by now, it's pretty much all of them, and all their listings in affected categories) have always sold to the UK using the Global Shipping Program and continued to do so with eBay International Shipping (which replaced GSP in the US). Howver, about 3 months ago, without the sellers changing anything, the United Kingdom totally disappeared from the country listings in the shipping details of their EIS items - it's not in the shipped-to countries, nor in the list of countries they wouldn't ship to. The effect of this is that eBay International Shipping (EIS) disappears from their affected listings, with no other international shipping offered. The 30-day return facility provided by EIS, along with all the estimates of shipping cost to the UK and VAT disappear, and warnings appear that the seller has not provided details for shipping to the UK and may not ship here, suggesting the buyer contacts them. Contact usually doesn't work when I try though with this issue - eBay blocks it. Very often, but not always, eBay also immediately blocks attempts to bid, buy or make offers too. Once aware, the sellers try to add the UK back in, but can find no way of doing so.

Plenty of US sellers are complaining about this on their community chat, including a 90+ message thread. Every UK buyer I've asked to look sees it too, so it's not some error of my setup. It appears that eBay representatives do not see this issue if they check from inside eBay's systems, but it definitely exists for sellers in the US and buyers in the UK (it appeared gradually initially, on just a few items which corrected themselves an hour or two after listing, but soon escalated to a problem affecting nearly all EIS Dolls & Bears category listings that should ship to the UK, and is permanent). I have watched an unaffected listing change to showing the problem in seconds, whilst the seller had no interaction with it and had made no changes at all, as soon as it auto-renewed for another term, having not yet sold.

Many sellers and buyers remain unaware of this issue until it's pointed out, with buyers assuming it's just the seller's decision not to send to the UK, and sellers assuming all is fine, unless a UK buyer contacts them, or they discover it themselves when they start noticing a lack of UK bidders and buyers. Obviously this is having a very bad effect both on sellers' sales and buyers' attempts to purchase.

Some eBay reps have suggested that US sellers put UK buyers in an exemption list to bypass the problem, but it also bypasses EIS, and many would strongly prefer to use EIS. Another suggested workaround which does seem to work is for the seller to place an affected listing for a UK seller who has agreed to buy it, in an unaffected category instead as a Buy It Now special listing. Is this OK to do in eBay's opinion? The seller may have to cancel the original purchase if the UK bidder was able to bid and win it or complete a buy it now originally (sometimes we are able to, though mostly we're not, where this issue applies, and we're never allowed by eBay to pay for an item affected by the issue anyway without the seller resorting to some kind of workaround!). So sellers typically have to cancel the original purchase in those rare cases that a UK buyer get that far, by stating "something wrong with the buyer's address" as the reason for cancellation. Is there any negative aspect to doing this, for the seller or buyer?

Finally, does anyone at eBay know if there is any possible reason for this actually disappearance of eBay International Shipping from the US to the UK in Dolls & Bears not being a glitch or bug, but by design? That is, is there any reason that eBay has decided it is not suitable for US sellers to offer collectible dolls (vintage ones, and for collectors over 15) to the UK? I can see no statement of such a thing, they don't seem to be restricted items (why would they be? They've never been before) and as far as I know, the incoming UKCA safety regulations are now going to run alongside CE now, instead of replacing them, and CE has never been an issue in this respect. I believe UKCA is pretty much the same standard, just made UK-specific. So I don't think it could be a reason for all this, but one US seller wondered so I thought I'd ask!

Thanks very much for any help or ideas.

anita@ebay

eBay Staff

2 years ago

@contessa35 wrote:

Hello, I've raised this before, but the problem is still ongoing, so I thought I'd ask in another way. I apologise for the length and complexity, but it's a long-lasting, frustrating issue which is hard to find an explanation for and very difficult to deal with.

I'm a buyer, and I am always running up against a problem regarding items listed using eBay International Shipping by sellers in the US in my category of interest - Dolls & Bears (some other categories are affected too, but by no means all). Although the affected sellers (by now, it's pretty much all of them, and all their listings in affected categories) have always sold to the UK using the Global Shipping Program and continued to do so with eBay International Shipping (which replaced GSP in the US). Howver, about 3 months ago, without the sellers changing anything, the United Kingdom totally disappeared from the country listings in the shipping details of their EIS items - it's not in the shipped-to countries, nor in the list of countries they wouldn't ship to. The effect of this is that eBay International Shipping (EIS) disappears from their affected listings, with no other international shipping offered. The 30-day return facility provided by EIS, along with all the estimates of shipping cost to the UK and VAT disappear, and warnings appear that the seller has not provided details for shipping to the UK and may not ship here, suggesting the buyer contacts them. Contact usually doesn't work when I try though with this issue - eBay blocks it. Very often, but not always, eBay also immediately blocks attempts to bid, buy or make offers too. Once aware, the sellers try to add the UK back in, but can find no way of doing so.

Plenty of US sellers are complaining about this on their community chat, including a 90+ message thread. Every UK buyer I've asked to look sees it too, so it's not some error of my setup. It appears that eBay representatives do not see this issue if they check from inside eBay's systems, but it definitely exists for sellers in the US and buyers in the UK (it appeared gradually initially, on just a few items which corrected themselves an hour or two after listing, but soon escalated to a problem affecting nearly all EIS Dolls & Bears category listings that should ship to the UK, and is permanent). I have watched an unaffected listing change to showing the problem in seconds, whilst the seller had no interaction with it and had made no changes at all, as soon as it auto-renewed for another term, having not yet sold.

Many sellers and buyers remain unaware of this issue until it's pointed out, with buyers assuming it's just the seller's decision not to send to the UK, and sellers assuming all is fine, unless a UK buyer contacts them, or they discover it themselves when they start noticing a lack of UK bidders and buyers. Obviously this is having a very bad effect both on sellers' sales and buyers' attempts to purchase.

Some eBay reps have suggested that US sellers put UK buyers in an exemption list to bypass the problem, but it also bypasses EIS, and many would strongly prefer to use EIS. Another suggested workaround which does seem to work is for the seller to place an affected listing for a UK seller who has agreed to buy it, in an unaffected category instead as a Buy It Now special listing. Is this OK to do in eBay's opinion? The seller may have to cancel the original purchase if the UK bidder was able to bid and win it or complete a buy it now originally (sometimes we are able to, though mostly we're not, where this issue applies, and we're never allowed by eBay to pay for an item affected by the issue anyway without the seller resorting to some kind of workaround!). So sellers typically have to cancel the original purchase in those rare cases that a UK buyer get that far, by stating "something wrong with the buyer's address" as the reason for cancellation. Is there any negative aspect to doing this, for the seller or buyer?

Finally, does anyone at eBay know if there is any possible reason for this actually disappearance of eBay International Shipping from the US to the UK in Dolls & Bears not being a glitch or bug, but by design? That is, is there any reason that eBay has decided it is not suitable for US sellers to offer collectible dolls (vintage ones, and for collectors over 15) to the UK? I can see no statement of such a thing, they don't seem to be restricted items (why would they be? They've never been before) and as far as I know, the incoming UKCA safety regulations are now going to run alongside CE now, instead of replacing them, and CE has never been an issue in this respect. I believe UKCA is pretty much the same standard, just made UK-specific. So I don't think it could be a reason for all this, but one US seller wondered so I thought I'd ask!

Thanks very much for any help or ideas.

Hi @contessa35, thanks for your post.

Could you please create a thread on one of the boards and tag me, please also share some item numbers as examples and I will look into this for you.

Thanks,

Anita

j-4-jewellery

·2 years ago

I am reducing my carbon footprint so only using one social media platform, instagram.

Is there any other way to use eBay's new social tool without signing up a Facebook business page?

anita@ebay

eBay Staff

2 years ago

@j-4-jewellery wrote:

I am reducing my carbon footprint so only using one social media platform, instagram.

Is there any other way to use eBay's new social tool without signing up a Facebook business page?

Hi @j-4-jewellery, thanks for your post.

You should be able to sign in using Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest. Can you let me know more, what is happening if you chose Instagram? Does it not allow you to continue without Facebook?

Thanks,

Anita

toolfocus

·2 years ago

Hi I have a question regding the duplicate listings policy. I understand that a seller can only list each item ONE time. However there are many Chinese sellers who are creating multiple identical stores all sellimg the exact same items and uplicating each item up to 20 times in each store. This means they can effectivekly list the same item 500 times and flood the search rresults with their items. I have reported a particular seller nearly every single week for the last 12 months and no tangible action is taken. Does Ebay really have a dedicated department to deal with this? Some searches show the same item from the same seller 50 time out of the first 60 results.

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin2 years ago

@toolfocus wrote:

Hi I have a question regding the duplicate listings policy. I understand that a seller can only list each item ONE time. However there are many Chinese sellers who are creating multiple identical stores all sellimg the exact same items and uplicating each item up to 20 times in each store. This means they can effectivekly list the same item 500 times and flood the search rresults with their items. I have reported a particular seller nearly every single week for the last 12 months and no tangible action is taken. Does Ebay really have a dedicated department to deal with this? Some searches show the same item from the same seller 50 time out of the first 60 results.

Hi @toolfocus, thanks for your post.

We do, please continue to report all items that you think are against our policies and procedures, and our team will review all of them and take actions accordingly based on the result of the review.

Thank you,

Marco

toolfocus

·2 years ago

Well to be honest in my opinion the specialist department is non functioning. I have reported a seller who duplicates maybe more than one hundred items, and each item up to 500 times. I have reported them weekly during more than 12 months and each time the customer suport agent assures me that serious action will be taken. However, nothing tangible happens, the seller in question just keeps creating even more duplicate listings. A search for "216pc socket set" shows the same item from the same seller in one of their 50 duplicate shops about 48 to 53 times out of 60, depending on the week.

ducatimondo

·2 years ago

Am I not getting an answer to my question if those 2 items are duplicates?

I asked you guys to check, as the trust and safety team do not think they or the hundreds and hundreds of the same item they also have listed are duplicates.

ducatimondo

·2 years ago

In last week's chat, more than one eBay team member suggested to make another thread on here, so the discussion could continue after the hour weekly chat was up.

I read those posts and thought it strange, as I have tagged all of the community team in posts on this discussion board and no one from eBay has replied?

Why not?
I have also noticed other members tagging some of the eBay team into posts and they don't often get a reply either.

Why not?

I have also had some discussions with some eBay colleagues in private messages on here and asked them for some more information, yet they do not reply.

Why not?

Thanks

Russ

anita@ebay

eBay Staff

2 years ago

@ducatimondo wrote:

In last week's chat, more than one eBay team member suggested to make another thread on here, so the discussion could continue after the hour weekly chat was up.

I read those posts and thought it strange, as I have tagged all of the community team in posts on this discussion board and no one from eBay has replied?

Why not?
I have also noticed other members tagging some of the eBay team into posts and they don't often get a reply either.

Why not?

I have also had some discussions with some eBay colleagues in private messages on here and asked them for some more information, yet they do not reply.

Why not?

Thanks

Russ

Hi @ducatimondo, thanks for your post.

Can you please share the thread that you created and were looking for a response, so I can review it for you after the chat.

Thanks,

Anita

ducatimondo

·2 years ago

Are these 2 items duplicates according to eBay's polices:

404462608293 and 335006915771

Yes, or no?

Thanks

Russ

anita@ebay

eBay Staff

2 years ago

@ducatimondo wrote:

Are these 2 items duplicates according to eBay's polices:

404462608293 and 335006915771

Yes, or no?

Thanks

Russ

Hi @ducatimondo, apologies I missed your post. I am reviewing it now and will get back to you shortly.

Thanks,

Anita

anita@ebay

eBay Staff

2 years ago

@anita@ebay wrote:

@ducatimondo wrote:

Are these 2 items duplicates according to eBay's polices:

404462608293 and 335006915771

Yes, or no?

Thanks

Russ

Hi @ducatimondo, apologies I missed your post. I am reviewing it now and will get back to you shortly.

Thanks,

Anita

@ducatimondo, I looked into this and because they specify two different models of vehicles that they are compatible with, it would be an exception and allowed. We allow up to 5 separate fixed price listings for identical items designed to fit multiple devices, when each listing is differentiated by spelling out the brand or model the item fits.

Thanks,

Anita

1987liamm

·2 years ago

Hi There,

i recently received the MC011 restriction and have followed advice given, all items posted with tracking added. I'm not too sure why this happened as i have no open cases and buy all my labels through ebay, which always automatically uploads the tracking number / delivery confirmation code.

What is the best way to proceed? Should i wait for ebay to contact me after all items delivered?

Thanks

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin2 years ago

@1987liamm wrote:

Hi There,

i recently received the MC011 restriction and have followed advice given, all items posted with tracking added. I'm not too sure why this happened as i have no open cases and buy all my labels through ebay, which always automatically uploads the tracking number / delivery confirmation code.

What is the best way to proceed? Should i wait for ebay to contact me after all items delivered?

Thanks

Hi @1987liamm, thanks for your post.

When this happens, we normally send you an email with the instructions to follow in order to resolve the restriction. If you go to your eBay messages, you will see it there and then you just need to follow those instructions as that is the only way to get resolved your restriction. Once you proceed in the way we instructed you, we will review the restriction again and you will receive an outcome via email as well.

Thank you,

Marco

1987liamm

·2 years ago

Thanks Marco, obviously lots of internet stories about this leading to a permanent ban, which i would be keen to avoid. Could you tell me why this happened and the timeframe for the restriction to be lifted?

Thanks

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin2 years ago

@1987liamm wrote:

Thanks Marco, obviously lots of internet stories about this leading to a permanent ban, which i would be keen to avoid. Could you tell me why this happened and the timeframe for the restriction to be lifted?

Thanks

Hi @1987liamm, thanks for your reply.

We are unable to review restrictions over this channel, so I wouldn't be able to confirm why this happened. However, this information would also be included in the email we sent you. In terms of time frame, that would depend on how busy our restriction team may be at the time you submit all the information I presume was requested to you. It would typically take 5-10 business days, but sometimes it might take longer.

Thank you,

Marco

Anonymous User

·2 years ago

This weeks glitch/error involved selling an item to someone in the postcode AB54. (Most couriers have AB53-AB56 as part of Highlands and Islnds). I use a rate table for surcharges to these areas, so that should have kicked in. Unfortunately it didn't so the buyer only paid the standard postage - so about £3 short of the postage needed to include the surcharge.

I am awaiting an email from ebay as to why this happened (given past experiences, I doubt I will ever get this!). However, in chat, the agent told me I could inform the buyer and ask them for the difference in postage. I said this would be against ebay rules, but they said again that I could do this.

So, has something changed? If ebay don't automatically use the rate table as I have set out, can I charge the buyer the extra, and will ebay have my back if I do so?

anita@ebay

eBay Staff

2 years ago

@Anonymous wrote:

This weeks glitch/error involved selling an item to someone in the postcode AB54. (Most couriers have AB53-AB56 as part of Highlands and Islnds). I use a rate table for surcharges to these areas, so that should have kicked in. Unfortunately it didn't so the buyer only paid the standard postage - so about £3 short of the postage needed to include the surcharge.

I am awaiting an email from ebay as to why this happened (given past experiences, I doubt I will ever get this!). However, in chat, the agent told me I could inform the buyer and ask them for the difference in postage. I said this would be against ebay rules, but they said again that I could do this.

So, has something changed? If ebay don't automatically use the rate table as I have set out, can I charge the buyer the extra, and will ebay have my back if I do so?

Hi @Anonymous, thanks for your post.

Could you please share the item numbers affected by this and I will report it for you for a review.

In the meantime, if you have any orders that haven’t been dispatched and were affected by the error, you may also cancel those orders if you wish.

We recommend using official eBay channels for all transactions, however we won't prohibit if buyer agrees to pay extra postage, it is up to you and the buyer.

Thanks,

Anita

Anonymous User

·2 years ago

@anita@ebay

Thank you for your reply. As I mentioned in my post, I am waiting for a response from ebay following the chat, but if you want to follow it up as well, feel free - 235329303266.

The question I was actually asking was is it now OK for me to charge extra postage if ebay isn't working as it should? The chat agent told me:

"When a seller faces extra postage cost , can inform the buyer and get that as well."

If that's the case, then surely we don't need to bother with Rate Tables, we can just add the extra charge on when it arises?

anita@ebay

eBay Staff

2 years ago

@Anonymous wrote:

@anita@ebay

Thank you for your reply. As I mentioned in my post, I am waiting for a response from ebay following the chat, but if you want to follow it up as well, feel free - 235329303266.

The question I was actually asking was is it now OK for me to charge extra postage if ebay isn't working as it should? The chat agent told me:

"When a seller faces extra postage cost , can inform the buyer and get that as well."

If that's the case, then surely we don't need to bother with Rate Tables, we can just add the extra charge on when it arises?

@Anonymous , thanks, I will report it from my end as well.

Ideally, rate tables should work as intended and there shouldn't be any extra charge. But if it’s a one time situation, and buyer agrees to pay the extra charge, it is ok. It doesn’t mean that the rate table issue should be happening, so I will make sure it is flagged.

Thanks,

Anita

ducatimondo

·2 years ago

Can someone at eBay explain why we are paying for sponsored listings?

I ask this, as our sales have gone tumbleweed quiet on our other shop and if we hadn't been working our behinds off on this account and the other, then we'd have probably had virtually no sales.

I also ask this as when searching eBay on a PC, we have it set to 60 results per page.

Searching for items as buyer's would and then also searching as a seller would, with part numbers and such shows around the same results. We are showing results as a best match, which is where promoted listings should do the most work for us.

Almost every single time, eBay says, "did you mean (random gobbledygook)" instead of what you searched for.

So I click to say use what I searched for and look down the list.

Hardly any of the top are sponsored, which seems odd.

Then you scroll down and see easily 40 or more in a row that are not sponsored, often with poor feedback, poor photos, terrible descriptions and long delivery times.
Then there is us at position 59 our of 60, with our paid extra for sponsored listing, better feedback, fully populated vehicle fitment too, better photos, full description and offering the full TRS premium service.

So how come we are demoted to the bottom?

How come we are getting no views on our items?

How come we are getting no sales?

How can the items even be promoted when more than 40 not promoted appear above it?

Do eBay seriously expect us to pay the extra fees if we do sell something when they are obviously not been promoted and it would be more accurate to say we are paying to be demoted?

Is it really, really, really broken?

Or are eBay proving that sponsored listings are a 100% waste of money, as we are paying extra for exactly nothing whatsoever?

Please tell us the truth, actually answer the questions and for the love of god, please, please, please do not just put a cut and paste answer!!

Thank you

Russ

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin2 years ago

@ducatimondo wrote:

Can someone at eBay explain why we are paying for sponsored listings?

I ask this, as our sales have gone tumbleweed quiet on our other shop and if we hadn't been working our behinds off on this account and the other, then we'd have probably had virtually no sales.

I also ask this as when searching eBay on a PC, we have it set to 60 results per page.

Searching for items as buyer's would and then also searching as a seller would, with part numbers and such shows around the same results. We are showing results as a best match, which is where promoted listings should do the most work for us.

Almost every single time, eBay says, "did you mean (random gobbledygook)" instead of what you searched for.

So I click to say use what I searched for and look down the list.

Hardly any of the top are sponsored, which seems odd.

Then you scroll down and see easily 40 or more in a row that are not sponsored, often with poor feedback, poor photos, terrible descriptions and long delivery times.
Then there is us at position 59 our of 60, with our paid extra for sponsored listing, better feedback, fully populated vehicle fitment too, better photos, full description and offering the full TRS premium service.

So how come we are demoted to the bottom?

How come we are getting no views on our items?

How come we are getting no sales?

How can the items even be promoted when more than 40 not promoted appear above it?

Do eBay seriously expect us to pay the extra fees if we do sell something when they are obviously not been promoted and it would be more accurate to say we are paying to be demoted?

Is it really, really, really broken?

Or are eBay proving that sponsored listings are a 100% waste of money, as we are paying extra for exactly nothing whatsoever?

Please tell us the truth, actually answer the questions and for the love of god, please, please, please do not just put a cut and paste answer!!

Thank you

Russ

Hi @ducatimondo, thanks for your post.

Promoted listings are for you to get more views/traction on the items you list using this feature, while I understand where you are coming from, you would still get as many results as possible on each search. Please note that we don't guarantee that if you use this feature, your listings will be at the top of each search result or that you will definitely sell the item, which means this is working as expected. Also, this feature is totally optional for sellers, we always recommend to do what you think is best for you to improve your listings, so you can use it or not depending on what you think is best for your sales.

Thank you,

Marco

ducatimondo

·2 years ago

@marco@ebay wrote:
@ducatimondo wrote:
Can someone at eBay explain why we are paying for sponsored listings?

I ask this, as our sales have gone tumbleweed quiet on our other shop and if we hadn't been working our behinds off on this account and the other, then we'd have probably had virtually no sales.

I also ask this as when searching eBay on a PC, we have it set to 60 results per page.
Searching for items as buyer's would and then also searching as a seller would, with part numbers and such shows around the same results. We are showing results as a best match, which is where promoted listings should do the most work for us.
Almost every single time, eBay says, "did you mean (random gobbledygook)" instead of what you searched for.
So I click to say use what I searched for and look down the list.
Hardly any of the top are sponsored, which seems odd.
Then you scroll down and see easily 40 or more in a row that are not sponsored, often with poor feedback, poor photos, terrible descriptions and long delivery times.
Then there is us at position 59 our of 60, with our paid extra for sponsored listing, better feedback, fully populated vehicle fitment too, better photos, full description and offering the full TRS premium service.

So how come we are demoted to the bottom?
How come we are getting no views on our items?
How come we are getting no sales?
How can the items even be promoted when more than 40 not promoted appear above it?
Do eBay seriously expect us to pay the extra fees if we do sell something when they are obviously not been promoted and it would be more accurate to say we are paying to be demoted?

Is it really, really, really broken?
Or are eBay proving that sponsored listings are a 100% waste of money, as we are paying extra for exactly nothing whatsoever?

Please tell us the truth, actually answer the questions and for the love of god, please, please, please do not just put a cut and paste answer!!

Thank you
Russ
Hi @ducatimondo, thanks for your post.

Promoted listings are for you to get more views/traction on the items you list using this feature, while I understand where you are coming from, you would still get as many results as possible on each search. Please note that we don't guarantee that if you use this feature, your listings will be at the top of each search result or that you will definitely sell the item, which means this is working as expected. Also, this feature is totally optional for sellers, we always recommend to do what you think is best for you to improve your listings, so you can use it or not depending on what you think is best for your sales.

Thank you,
Marco

Hi Marco,

Thank you for reply.

I would like to address some of your comments.

How is it working as expected, when there are around 40 non promoted items above it, where the sellers are not offering premium service, are offering longer delivery times (as they don't even stock what they are selling), have worse feedback, have not filled out the vehicle compatibility tool and no previous sales. All of these things are supposed help with organic results on best match.

We then have the issue of paying extra to promote an item.

Dictionary definition of promote:

raise (someone or something) to a higher position or rank.

If we already should be above them in best match, according to eBay's own explanation of how best match should work, then we also pay extra for additional promotion, then how can it be working as expected; unless eBay really do want to be paid extra for actually nothing.

I put it to you that the item is only being promoted in name and not in rank. Literally the only thing we are paying for by promoting them is the word on the listing that says it is sponsored, in order to comply with the Sale of Goods Act 1988, Consumer Contracts Regulations 2018, etc

I do not see anything else that is being shown or otherwise evidence that the item is actually being promoted in listing rank.

The items are not getting any views, so sales are inevitably not going to appear on items eBay appear to be hiding.

So once again, I put it to you, how is this working as expected, unless you are expecting it to get no views or sales?

If paying for a promoted listing is not paying for it to appear higher in the rankings, then what are we paying for?
It is literally in the description of what we are paying for, promoted listings, so therefore they should be promoted, no?

Thank you
Russ

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin2 years ago

Thanks for your reply, @ducatimondo.

Feel free to provide a few examples, and I will be happy to review that myself.

Thank you,

Marco

eshopforce01

·2 years ago

Hello,

Would it be possible to have a themed Wednesday chat once a month or something with an eBay team specialist?

For example: Marketing, reports, listings tools,...

Thank you

anita@ebay

eBay Staff

2 years ago

@eshopforce01 wrote:

Hello,

Would it be possible to have a themed Wednesday chat once a month or something with an eBay team specialist?

For example: Marketing, reports, listings tools,...

Thank you

Hi @eshopforce01, thanks for your post.

This isn’t possible at the moment I'm afraid. However, we do represent those teams, and if there is anything related to marketing, reporting or any other topic, please let us know and we’ll do our best to help you. We can also share the feedback to those teams if needed.

Thanks,

Anita

eshopforce01

·2 years ago

Hello,

It's a shame.

I can see many people here trying to improve their eBay shop and the buyer experience.

That would be a plus to have a bit more technical answers and knowledge from the specialist team.

Thanks

Anonymous User

·2 years ago

For orders awaiting dispatch we use custom sku, print off the order list for product picking and download the csv and update this for uploading into Royal Mail Click and Drop. However the orders listed in the csv and not in sme sequence as the printed order list so we have to go through the csv file and adjust the order position. Before the latest eBay updates this was never a problem.

Screenshot 2023-12-13 141108.jpg

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin2 years ago

@Anonymous wrote:

For orders awaiting dispatch we use custom sku, print off the order list for product picking and download the csv and update this for uploading into Royal Mail Click and Drop. However the orders listed in the csv and not in sme sequence as the printed order list so we have to go through the csv file and adjust the order position. Before the latest eBay updates this was never a problem.

Hi @s2s-shopdirect, thanks for your post.

Just to make sure we are on the same page, the issue is that now you are not able to sort the order of your awaiting dispatch orders?

Thank you,

Marco

Anonymous User

·2 years ago

The problem is the sequence of orders in the csv download is ifferent to the sequence of orders on the awaiting dispatch page. So we have to move orders up and down in the csv file so they do match.

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin2 years ago

@Anonymous wrote:

The problem is the sequence of orders in the csv download is ifferent to the sequence of orders on the awaiting dispatch page. So we have to move orders up and down in the csv file so they do match.

Thanks for your reply, @s2s-shopdirect.

If you create a thread on this and tag me, I can review this myself to see if this related to an update or a technical issue. Once you tag me, I will get back to you there as soon as possible.

Thank you,

Marco

lincolnshiremarine

·2 years ago

Good afternoon

I am yet to hear back with regards an issue I raised on here and told to post on seller central by Marco with regards some of my listings now just saying Evri for economy delivery and Evri for next day. Not all my listings have defaulted to this, but many have. It use to be Evri, Yodel and DPD. No one from ebay has given me an explanation to this.

Please see another issue..................................

Buyer purchased item yesterday 12/12/23 1.20pm via standard 2 - 3 day delivery. Order# 11-10919-15056

Printed off postage label ready.

Looked on the buyers estimated delivery time, it states arrival 13th December - 14th December. This is impossible as the parcel will not be collected by the courier until 13th Dec as it was purchased after our dispatch cut off time 9am.

Looked further down on the page under "Delivery history "

Tuesday 12th December at 6.47am tracking provided. The buyer did not purchase the item until 1.20pm, so how can it state a postage label was created at 6.47am.

This means that ebay thinks we should of posted the item today and this is the issue. How can tracking be provided at 6.47am when the buyer did not purchase the item from us until 1.20pm on 12th December 2023.

Is this one of the reasons why we are all seeing totally unrealistic delivery times for buyers, as purchases made after the dispatch cut off time are actually being classed as purchases prior to the cut off time. Hence why the buyers delivery dates are incorrect?

This is happening with all my postage now, another example order# 05-10928-15259 order placed today 13/12/23 at 8.32am tracking number provided at 1.53am on 13/12/23. How can a tracking number and time be given BEFORE a purchase has been made.

This is why your ebay tracking is wrong and buyer think there parcels are late to arrive when in fact they are not.

Please advise what is happening about this issue.

Best wishes

Buyers purchase time and dateMade up printed label time

anita@ebay

eBay Staff

2 years ago

@lincolnshiremarine wrote:

Good afternoon

I am yet to hear back with regards an issue I raised on here and told to post on seller central by Marco with regards some of my listings now just saying Evri for economy delivery and Evri for next day. Not all my listings have defaulted to this, but many have. It use to be Evri, Yodel and DPD. No one from ebay has given me an explanation to this.

Please see another issue..................................

Buyer purchased item yesterday 12/12/23 1.20pm via standard 2 - 3 day delivery. Order# 11-10919-15056

Printed off postage label ready.

Looked on the buyers estimated delivery time, it states arrival 13th December - 14th December. This is impossible as the parcel will not be collected by the courier until 13th Dec as it was purchased after our dispatch cut off time 9am.

Looked further down on the page under "Delivery history "

Tuesday 12th December at 6.47am tracking provided. The buyer did not purchase the item until 1.20pm, so how can it state a postage label was created at 6.47am.

This means that ebay thinks we should of posted the item today and this is the issue. How can tracking be provided at 6.47am when the buyer did not purchase the item from us until 1.20pm on 12th December 2023.

Is this one of the reasons why we are all seeing totally unrealistic delivery times for buyers, as purchases made after the dispatch cut off time are actually being classed as purchases prior to the cut off time. Hence why the buyers delivery dates are incorrect?

This is happening with all my postage now, another example order# 05-10928-15259 order placed today 13/12/23 at 8.32am tracking number provided at 1.53am on 13/12/23. How can a tracking number and time be given BEFORE a purchase has been made.

This is why your ebay tracking is wrong and buyer think there parcels are late to arrive when in fact they are not.

Please advise what is happening about this issue.

Best wishes

Buyers purchase time and dateMade up printed label time

Hi @lincolnshiremarine, thanks for your post.

Marco is going to address this concern to you in the original post.

Thank for the wait,

Anita

lincolnshiremarine

·2 years ago

Thank you.

Please also see the other issue.

Best wishes

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin2 years ago

@lincolnshiremarine wrote:

Thank you.

Please also see the other issue.

Best wishes

Hi @lincolnshiremarine, thanks for your post.

If you are referring to the issue flagged with me last week, I've advised that I would share an update with you once I have one. If I haven't provided further updates, it's because I still don't have one. I will update the thread in question once I have an update on it.

Thank you,

Marco

anita@ebay

eBay Staff

2 years ago

@lincolnshiremarine wrote:

Good afternoon

I am yet to hear back with regards an issue I raised on here and told to post on seller central by Marco with regards some of my listings now just saying Evri for economy delivery and Evri for next day. Not all my listings have defaulted to this, but many have. It use to be Evri, Yodel and DPD. No one from ebay has given me an explanation to this.

Please see another issue..................................

Buyer purchased item yesterday 12/12/23 1.20pm via standard 2 - 3 day delivery. Order# 11-10919-15056

Printed off postage label ready.

Looked on the buyers estimated delivery time, it states arrival 13th December - 14th December. This is impossible as the parcel will not be collected by the courier until 13th Dec as it was purchased after our dispatch cut off time 9am.

Looked further down on the page under "Delivery history "

Tuesday 12th December at 6.47am tracking provided. The buyer did not purchase the item until 1.20pm, so how can it state a postage label was created at 6.47am.

This means that ebay thinks we should of posted the item today and this is the issue. How can tracking be provided at 6.47am when the buyer did not purchase the item from us until 1.20pm on 12th December 2023.

Is this one of the reasons why we are all seeing totally unrealistic delivery times for buyers, as purchases made after the dispatch cut off time are actually being classed as purchases prior to the cut off time. Hence why the buyers delivery dates are incorrect?

This is happening with all my postage now, another example order# 05-10928-15259 order placed today 13/12/23 at 8.32am tracking number provided at 1.53am on 13/12/23. How can a tracking number and time be given BEFORE a purchase has been made.

This is why your ebay tracking is wrong and buyer think there parcels are late to arrive when in fact they are not.

Please advise what is happening about this issue.

Best wishes

Buyers purchase time and dateMade up printed label time

@lincolnshiremarine, regarding your second question, I looked into these orders and see what you mean about the time-line of the tracking number. I’ll flag this to the tech team for a review.

As for the estimated delivery dates, I wasn’t able to replicate it. The 1st Order was made on the 12th Dec and has estimated delivery date 14-15th December, please see here. The other Order was made on the 13th Dec, estimated delivery date 15-16th December, see here. These are the dates we display to your buyers and will be looking at when it comes to metrics or cases.

Please note that the chat is now closed, if you need any further help, please create a new thread, tag me and will continue helping you from there.

Thanks,

Anita

fatbobfan

·2 years ago

Some feedback, have left using the tools, but adding here

Finding the new 'Best Practices' time consuming, 1500+ listings, Relist/Sell Similar, review performance, price matching, it takes a lot of time, but understand we have to do it, its the current system. We find reviewing approx 40/50 listings a day, easier to manage and use 'Bulk Editing Tool' Its great, but could be improved. We view 'active listings' choose 50 for the day and have/can choose the information I want with 'Customise Columns' tool to make inventory decisions, columns like Views/Watchers/Sales History/Promotion Rates, important information to see how our inventory is performing and the 'Tools' given are performing.

However if I go to bulk edit all the helpful information disappears? and is not a 'column choice'. Having 'Views', 'Watchers' and PL Standard Promtions Rates (ideally editing/changing Promotion Rates) visible in 'Bulk editing' would enable sellers to make nearly all bulk editing decisions in one place. Increase PL rate, review price against competitors, look at listing quality. Currently has to be done individually

These important decisions cant currently be made in the Bulk Editing screen, yes I can carry out 'Sell Similar/Relist practices, change photo's/words/ but not able to review performance. This is a manual time consuming process and the Bulk Editing Tool I really find very good but could make life even easier. It really is a good tool. May seem picky but with 1500 listings the new Ebay way of selling is time consuming

The following has come up recently on the Weekly Chats – just to give another voice

CS Phone calls. As long as I have been selling on Ebay (20 years) there has always been Ebays CS failure to return calls, or a business get called after 10pm GMT, or have ghost calls, heres an email, Its always been an issue.

Business Policies – Again, there are issues. If I change my dispatch time to go away for a day or 2 so go from 1 day to 3 day the majority (1400+) of my inventory gets moved to a new system postage policy. If I end and relist (an ebay best practice) a random quantity will get moved to a system created. Katie investigated Oct 2022 without success, I have learnt to housekeep this problem, but again it is a problem.

Sorry this last ones at the Mods, no offence meant but you need to step up to the plate on some issues. Example - throughout this year a regular posting topic has been posts with concerns of their selling performance, using words like desperate, livelyhood, no income, just my opinion but they need help, not silence, before a blink of an eye there are enough voices condemning this platform and they've not been able to get the help they need, There are important issues especially for small/lifestyle businesses you could quiet easily resolve with a copy and paste reply, guide to the correct places for information, not everyone knows or wants to help when they post (That must be apparent to you) Could your help be done anonymously?

Thankfully for me some top posters on here have helped turn things around (hopefully), I was lucky but they cant be here all the time.

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin2 years ago

@fatbobfan wrote:

Some feedback, have left using the tools, but adding here

Finding the new 'Best Practices' time consuming, 1500+ listings, Relist/Sell Similar, review performance, price matching, it takes a lot of time, but understand we have to do it, its the current system. We find reviewing approx 40/50 listings a day, easier to manage and use 'Bulk Editing Tool' Its great, but could be improved. We view 'active listings' choose 50 for the day and have/can choose the information I want with 'Customise Columns' tool to make inventory decisions, columns like Views/Watchers/Sales History/Promotion Rates, important information to see how our inventory is performing and the 'Tools' given are performing.

However if I go to bulk edit all the helpful information disappears? and is not a 'column choice'. Having 'Views', 'Watchers' and PL Standard Promtions Rates (ideally editing/changing Promotion Rates) visible in 'Bulk editing' would enable sellers to make nearly all bulk editing decisions in one place. Increase PL rate, review price against competitors, look at listing quality. Currently has to be done individually

These important decisions cant currently be made in the Bulk Editing screen, yes I can carry out 'Sell Similar/Relist practices, change photo's/words/ but not able to review performance. This is a manual time consuming process and the Bulk Editing Tool I really find very good but could make life even easier. It really is a good tool. May seem picky but with 1500 listings the new Ebay way of selling is time consuming

The following has come up recently on the Weekly Chats – just to give another voice

CS Phone calls. As long as I have been selling on Ebay (20 years) there has always been Ebays CS failure to return calls, or a business get called after 10pm GMT, or have ghost calls, heres an email, Its always been an issue.

Business Policies – Again, there are issues. If I change my dispatch time to go away for a day or 2 so go from 1 day to 3 day the majority (1400+) of my inventory gets moved to a new system postage policy. If I end and relist (an ebay best practice) a random quantity will get moved to a system created. Katie investigated Oct 2022 without success, I have learnt to housekeep this problem, but again it is a problem.

Sorry this last ones at the Mods, no offence meant but you need to step up to the plate on some issues. Example - throughout this year a regular posting topic has been posts with concerns of their selling performance, using words like desperate, livelyhood, no income, just my opinion but they need help, not silence, before a blink of an eye there are enough voices condemning this platform and they've not been able to get the help they need, There are important issues especially for small/lifestyle businesses you could quiet easily resolve with a copy and paste reply, guide to the correct places for information, not everyone knows or wants to help when they post (That must be apparent to you) Could your help be done anonymously?

Thankfully for me some top posters on here have helped turn things around (hopefully), I was lucky but they cant be here all the time.

Hi @fatbobfan, thanks for your post.

We appreciate your input, so I will make sure to take your feedback onboard and pass it on, so this can be taken into consideration. Any feedback you may have in the future, please do let us know.

Thank you,

Marco

jckl1957

·2 years ago

I have posted my last 2023 sale today and set my time away from today until 5th January 2024.

If I have a dispute opened by a buyer (INAD or INR) while I am on time away what will happen? Are sellers given any extra time to respond when they are, essentially, on holiday or is it just the usual respond in 3 days or Ebay can step in?

Thanks

Jane

marco@ebay

eBay Staff

Admin2 years ago

@jckl1957 wrote:

I have posted my last 2023 sale today and set my time away from today until 5th January 2024.

If I have a dispute opened by a buyer (INAD or INR) while I am on time away what will happen? Are sellers given any extra time to respond when they are, essentially, on holiday or is it just the usual respon in 3 days or Ebay can step in?

Thanks

Jane

Hi @jckl1957, thanks for your post.

The time frames for actioning a case will not change while you're away. Cases are between buyers and sellers, so while you're away, you are still responsible for any case that might come up.

Thank you,

Marco

jckl1957

·2 years ago

Useful to know,

Thank you @marco@ebay

moerugomi

·2 years ago

Hello - This issue was discussed in the past, but the problem still persists:

The eBay item page views are applying a grey color (white level crush) filter to the photos and misrepresenting the item appearance. Below is an example screen shot with the red area highlighting the original photo and intended color as uploaded onto ebay. The original, correct photo can still be seen if users right-click and open the image in a new window, but users are unlikely to do that.

This is detrimental when listing near-white colored items. Already, we have received item-not-as-described claims that items do not match the color shown in photos.

This error occurs on desktop and mobile Chrome and EDGE browsers. Does not occur on the eBAY app.

anita@ebay

eBay Staff

2 years ago

@moerugomi wrote:

Hello - This issue was discussed in the past, but the problem still persists:

The eBay item page views are applying a grey color (white level crush) filter to the photos and misrepresenting the item appearance. Below is an example screen shot with the red area highlighting the original photo and intended color as uploaded onto ebay. The original, correct photo can still be seen if users right-click and open the image in a new window, but users are unlikely to do that.

This is detrimental when listing near-white colored items. Already, we have received item-not-as-described claims that items do not match the color shown in photos.

This error occurs on desktop and mobile Chrome and EDGE browsers. Does not occur on the eBAY app.

Hi @moerugomi, thanks for your post and sharing your experience.

This is something that we already addressed to the relevant team in the past, and were advised it is a test (about 10% of eBay traffic is involved). They are making changes to the overall look of item page, and this is included in that. I will make sure to pass on additional feedback to the team.

Thanks,

Anita