Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 20.11.24 @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 @kat@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.
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

custom-giftsuk
·1 year agoCan you tell me when I report listings for breaking eBay rules and I go through the automated report – I get a “this item has not broken any rules” which shows that the “automated response” is extremely limited in its factfinding (ie none), but when I contact eBay CS in regards listings which have broken rules, the eBay CS always understand and have been quite proactive in responding and saying that “Yes these listings clearly break eBay rules and that they will report them for removal”. However both courses of action get exactly ZERO response and the items I have been reporting for months still are on eBay, still breaking eBay rules. So my question is – as a member of the eBay Community Team how would you go about getting someone to action these listings which so clearly break eBay rules that eBay Customer Support wont even say what the item is?
kat@ebay
Hi @custom-giftsuk ,
I understand the frustration with the reports. While we don't action reports here we are sharing the experiences yourself and other users are having reporting those types of accounts or listings. It may be the case that the auto system is not detecting a breach of policy unlike the customer support agent. Those examples are shared with the development team to help make future improvements to the system.
Thank you,
Kat
custom-giftsuk
·1 year agoIs there any update on missing data/listings from the Product Research section of eBay. I have contacted eBay CS and messaged Kat on these weekly chats now for six weeks with zero results apart from "IT are fixing it". So can you tell me if eBay are “fixing” this or if I’m just being left out to dry with missing listings & data because if its not working for me, its not working for everyone.
kat@ebay
Hi @custom-giftsuk ,
There is no current update on it at the moment. We don't get timescales on resolutions but we continue to link in with tech on it.
Thank you,
Kat
lincolnshiremarine
·1 year agoGood afternoon
Can you explain why my feedback counter figure keeps going down despite buyers leaving feedback?
Has eBay decided to mess this up as well?
Best wishes
kat@ebay
Hi @lincolnshiremarine ,
As its a rolling 12 months it may be that as new feedback is being added older feedback is dropping off.
Thank you,
Kat
howmuchtobid
·1 year agoAlso one thing I would add that isn't often mentioned, it isn't just the sales these businesses on private accounts make, it's also the number of listings they have.
The net result is the website is swamped with stuff that doesn't sell and it becomes difficult to find stuff a buyer may actually want. The 300 free listings a month for private sellers is crazy. 10 - 20 is more than enough, if they want more they should pay for it.
Ebay isn't a charity so I don't really understand what is happening as many of the things Ebay are currently doing must be costing the company lots of income.
dave@ebay
Hi @howmuchtobid
Limits for private accounts is a pain point we are aware of, and we have been sending this feeding this back to the limits teams to review.
I'm not aware of any plans to change the limits at the moment but we will let you know if this changes.
Thanks,
Dave
returns_andexdisplay
·1 year agoIn regards to ebay taking action against private sellers, we don't need to be told what action has been taken against a private account running a business. We will be able to see with the information available publicly with business information displayed, buyer remorse returns accepted and the likely hood they have to raise their prices to reflect paying ebay fees.
Is there any plans from ebay to offer businesses who try to offer the service ebay advise to buyers, try to do the right things and pay full FVFs a better business package to be more competitive to your competition?
As currently it is way over priced compared to what is offered by others who offer more listings
kat@ebay
Hi @returns_andexdisplay ,
We don't have any information at the moment on future plans for offers to business sellers. The last announcement of details was here on the business seller update. I'll share your point of the FVF's as feedback. If there is any future change regarding offers for business sellers we will share it on the community.
Thank you,
Kat
*kittylou*
·1 year agoHi,
Has something changed in the way offers are accepted? I am having problems with buyers accepting multiple offers no longer being able to request combined postage and / or having to pay for each offer separately as it needs paid immediately (?) with me then having to go through each transaction and then refund each one on overpaid p&p. Previously buyers could click accept and then move away from the pay screen, I would get notifications and could then send an invoice with combined p&p.
I am truly thinking of giving up. I tried moving to "free postage" which we all know isn't free for anyone but this year's sales have been dire so I have reverted back to adding p&p and being clearer about my charges (and giving better value to those who do buy multiple items). I am now being reminded what a pain it is and can't believe that after selling on here for nearly 10 years that a buyer still can't easily request combined postage on all platforms.
Thanks, Katharine
kat@ebay
Hi @*kittylou*
There was a change made to offers which which is when a buyer or seller-initiated offer is accepted, the quantity on the listing will not immediately adjust. Instead the buyer will see messaging that they need to complete checkout to get the item. This change was implemented to help reduce the number of unpaid item cases.
Thank you,
Kat
a45heaven
·1 year agoRefunds
This was brought up in June - a Mentor confirmed the issues exists - as it is a financial issue, one would have though it mattered in the production of accounts for sellers.
The shown information below is what you show when i refund a buyer £4.00 to offer a postage discount.
Any thoughts?
Review refund
Total refund
£4.00Refund summary
Refund summaryTransaction details Transaction amountAmount you owe
£3.54dave@ebay
Hi @a45heaven
I'm not aware of any tech issues but is you PM me the transaction ID I'll have a look into it after this chat.
Thanks,
Dave
a45heaven
·1 year agoAll refunds show this way with Postage refunds -
As requested previously , wouldnt it be a decent idea to have a log of outstanding issues as the US site has, so they can not be over looked as this appears to have been.
a45heaven
·1 year agohttps://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-Board/Postage-Refunds-Narrative-new-system/td-p/7605692
returns_andexdisplay
·1 year agoThanks for your reply last week. Hi @returns_andexdisplay, just an update on this.
The shipping team has confirmed that the service you used for the transaction in question was 48 hours, so that's why the EDD was showing Monday-Wednesday. Monday being the dispatching day + 48 hours, would give a result of Wednesday max. So that's why the EDD was showing that date. That would confirm that it is working ok, and no issues were found either.
Thank you,
Marco
Whilst I don't disagree the EDD is working as designed. The issue seems to be in the design, when on A Friday evening a item was shown to a buyer with a chance the item may arrive Monday. In my world this is never going to happen, as after 3pm on a Friday nothing is going to get dispatch till Monday.
At what point are ebay taking the data from to show buyers EDD?
If it is when the parcel enters the courier network something needs changing with the way EDD is being calculated to reflect a more realistic EDD to buyers as currently ebay are over promising and underdelivering. I prefer to work on under promise and over delivery as it save the hassle of wheres my item emails or defect which ebay hit sellers with.
If as you claim EDD is working as designed why are Saturday and Sunday orders not showing EDD Monday - Wed as well when they are all being dispatched at the same time?
dave@ebay
Hi @returns_andexdisplay
The EDD is calculated on a number of different factors for example delivery times in a certain area and your past delivery performance.
You can find a more detailed breakdown of the process here.
Thanks,
Dave
returns_andexdisplay
·1 year agoAt no point in any past data have I dispatched via a courier and delivered on the same day.
Even if I dispatched a parcel to my next door neighbour and a courier collected it, they would still not deliver it the same day.
So why is ebay showing this to buyers?
dave@ebay
Hi @returns_andexdisplay
At peak trading times it can take longer for buyers to receive their items. At quieter times of the year parcels can arrive sooner. Rather than using the same flat calculation throughout the year, we adjust delivery estimates dynamically to provide buyers with a more realistic range of dates. It’s possible you’ll see ranges of estimated delivery dates that overlap with dates that are still within your dispatch time, particularly if you’ve set your dispatch time to give you more time to process parcels.
Thanks,
Dave
russellmattin
·1 year agoI`ve been following the chats between members on GPSR but they are no real help as they just seem to be about the ridiculously complex interpretation of how the scheme is supposed to work, so typical of EU legislation you need to employ a team of bureaucrats just to work out what it means never mind actually putting it into practice! For this reason I can understand why ebay have been rather quiet on giving business sellers advice but time is running out and we NEED TO KNOW…..
these are the questions business sellers need answers to, its no good just referring us to various web sites and copies of the regulations they don’t tell us WHAT EBAY WILL DO. We need to know so we can make informed decisions about our future selling methods
kat@ebay
Hi @russellmattin
I understand its a complex policy and alot of instances of being referred to the legislation itself is mainly due to it being EU who have introduced the policy.
Ebay will not be advising which exact listings need the information. Sellers will need to determine for themselves whether they need to add this information to their listings when postage is offered to the EU. All sellers can provide GPSR specifics in the Item Disclosures section and in their item description. Once the GPSR goes into effect, buyers in the EU and Northern Ireland may find non-compliant listings are no longer available to them.
Thank you,
Kat
moonspender
·1 year agoEbay have advised that if an item is excluded from GPSR you just need to add the date of the item in specifics .. i assume this is still correct as ive spent 2 days updating my listings ?
kat@ebay
Hi @moonspender ,
Let me check up on that. I'll follow up offline and come back to you.
Thank you,
Kat
pg_kicks
·1 year agoCan you just confirm if we are still expect to use 'other' as the reason when reporting businesses on private accounts? The one checked by either AI or people who dont know UK law so never actually take action or do we need to tell CS now as last time I spoke to them they told me it had to come direct from them.
dave@ebay
Hi @pg_kicks
At the moment that is the correct reporting route. As you know we are currently working with both the site and policy team to streamline this process and we will let you know about any changes as soon as we have more.
Thanks,
Dave
pg_kicks
·1 year agoThanks, like I said in a previous post, they've been working on it for months and as you can see, theyve failed at every step, its like they dont want to fix it. Let us help, we know the loopholes and tricks they are using, we are here to help please just let us help and make the site safer and eBay will actually make more money.
krafty-kreations
·1 year agoHi Dave
At the moment that is the correct reporting route. As you know we are currently working with both the site and policy team to streamline this process and we will let you know about any changes as soon as we have more.
So it really is a waste of time reporting then, because I have done loads this way who are all still happily trading on private accounts.
I know you can only pass on feedback, but as this topic is mentioned time and time again on here and on the forums shouldn't eBay be more transparent about the situation?
Whilst these sellers are allowed to carry on using private accounts undercutting business sellers as well as filling the site with 300 new listings each month it is a lot more than frustrating!!
At eBay, we are dedicated to ensuring a fair and equitable marketplace for all business sellers.
Seriously!!
maggna
·1 year agoThis morning I received an email from eBay about delivery tips for sellers.
In the email, eBay say "Peak season essentials" "Buyers want things fast" which made me laugh. I would suggest to eBay that buyers who need things delivered fast don't even consider eBay. This is because there is no way to filter search results based on delivery speed. The only way to find out the full delivery speeds and services a seller offers is to go into each listing and go to the postage collection and returns section. No one will spend a long time doing this and will likely give up and shop elsewhere.
This has been pointed out to eBay many times, I can only assume eBay disagrees that a delivery speed filter would be helpful to buyers. Why is that?
kat@ebay
Hi @maggna,
Thanks for raising this point. This does seem like a good idea as a search filter and likely would take some some planning for the functionality to be introduced as delivery speeds are ever changing.
I will give your suggestion as feedback to our shipping team.
Thank you,
Kat
pg_kicks
·1 year agoHi,
Hope all is well within eBay towers.
As 'At eBay, we are dedicated to ensuring a fair and equitable marketplace for all business sellers' I'm just wondering if you have any knowledge of when this will actually happen? Also as this was announced at the same time as the free selling for all private accounts which eBay claimed would bring extra sales for correctly registered business accounts who still pay to use the site, do eBay have any plans to release figures (for the UK not a different country) that will prove this as it seems on these forums, reddit and other social media that in fact the complete is happening and many business accounts are seeing a large drop in sales, more so on eBay than any other platform.
eBay seems to be treating its business customers (the only ones who seem to pay these days) with such little respect and zero loyalty its pretty sickening. For the amount we as a collective pay in fee's surely an hour of Sholto/Eve's time answering questions isnt too much of an ask.
kat@ebay
Hi @pg_kicks ,
They would not be in position to answer questions here on the community. I will share your points and feedback with the relevant department.
Thank you,
Kat
moldosgifts
·1 year agoI bang on about every week it seems
Business sellers masquerading as private seller
Suggestions you can pass on
1 removing the ability to list as brand new, because if your private and selling your own property it is NOT new it is preowned or like new.
2 by removing the ability to sell multiples , so when creating the listing they can only list 1 of instead of 50 of.
3 Second hand restrict them to 100 per month all listing renew every 30 days same as businesses.
kat@ebay
Hi @moldosgifts ,
Thank you for raising these points. I'll share them as feedback for possible future changes on private sellers.
Thank you,
Kat
auctiongabble
·1 year agoI tried booking a 1:1 selling clinic session with an ebay marketplace professional, the first time it came up saying I didn’t qualify and then the 2nd time there was no available dates / times for this month or December and I couldn’t view or book anything after that.
I contacted customer service yesterday who knew nothing about the 1:1 clinic and the support answers provided to me were very blank of ‘I don’t know’ and ‘there is no dept they can talk to’
why keep advertising it if you can’t provide it, I’m interested in what they have to offer and advise to improve sales on here because nothing else is working?
dave@ebay
Hi @auctiongabble
I just spoke to the head of the team running the 121s and it looks like you are eligible. The appointments run on a 30 day rolling window and there is one slot left for the 20th, you can book it here:
https://calendly.com/sellerclinics/book-a-seller-clinic-1-1
If that slot is gone check back first thing tomorrow morning and there will be fresh slots for the 21st.
Thanks,
Dave
a45heaven
·1 year ago1:1 selling clinic
where in the world are these based?
Just wondering if they are refocused CS from Asia?
Have they practical selling experience. As the agents who dealt with Power Sellers here in the past.
Are they comparable with the UK based Power Seller 1 to 1's you abolished years ago. Kat said you hadnt been updated as to the location several weeks ago - maybe you have by now?
kat@ebay
Hi @a45heaven ,
I can confirm that the 1-1 clinics will be based in the Irish office and they will be experienced agents.
Thank you,
Kat
howmuchtobid
·1 year agoWith regards to the ever increasing issue of businesses trading on private accounts.
Firstly when will this be addressed in a fair and equitable manner for the legitimate businesses who keep Ebay UK in business?
and
The current reporting system is not fit for purpose, there is no way to report businesses trading on private accounts, if there is please tell me how you do it?
dave@ebay
Hi @howmuchtobid
This is currently something we are working on and although it may not look it to from the outside there is a lot happening in the background. The action we have been taking is on these accounts in general is only visible to the account holder.
I understand how frustrating this is to many sellers we do read the posts on the different forum. The reporting and how its handled is something that we have passed back to the site team and they are looking into it.
Thanks,
Dave
howmuchtobid
·1 year agoDave,
With regards to this, will these sellers be liable for the final value fees they have avoided paying for months? as it is a real kick in the teeth to think these sellers have gained hundreds / thousands of pounds from acting in a way that violates Ebay policy and breaks UK law.
dave@ebay
Hi @howmuchtobid
Unfortunately, this isn't something I can answer. The policy team have a system in place for dealing with these accounts and they will action them on a case by case basis.
Thanks,
Dave
pg_kicks
·1 year agoSorry for quoting a reply but @dave@ebay this has been the response for months now yet the system is still broken and the site is still overran with accounts breaking UK law and policy. I agree a handful are asked/forced to upgrade but as one is changed another 10 are created, the constant we are trying to fix this for so long is either showing whoever is fixing it is not very good or eBay are not doing enough on it.
Why can't eBay have an open in person forum with us? We can give better feedback and help on how to solve this issue, we use the site every day, know the tricks and loopholes and can help.
Also I know Katie will be busy, we all are, but after 7 weeks do you know if theres been any answer to the questions you sent over to her?
moldosgifts
·1 year agoThank you for that update
BUT if they are a business they should have all listing removed until they can offer evidence they are not a business or register correctly , that would be all the evidence we need.
The crux is it takes far too long for action to become evident to us.
We do monitor these members f we can find them and 90% of the time 2 weeks later they are still trading.
dave@ebay
Hi @moldosgifts
I cant give direct examples, obviously I can't speak about any action taken on another account. In some cases for example, we could put payments freeze on account while they are given time to take any action we take. This could be over any period of time so it wouldn't be something that is visible to non-account holders.
Thanks,
Dave
nutrafituk
·1 year agoWith regards to the last week’s chat and Dave’s bold statement:
We in no way allow traders onsite to break the law and will remove any listings that do so as soon as we are aware of them.
I can’t say why some of the listings you reported were removed and others were not, you will need to speak to customer support. They will have agents trained on the different polices and will be able to better advise you on what happened.
Thanks,
Dave
We contacted Dave via PM with examples of existing listing that had been reported and refused to remove, despite breaching ebay’s policies and UK regulations. Result – no response whatsoever.
The bottom line is that ebay have made it crystal clear that they are not interested in any reports and getting things right. Every single report submitted this week was declined despite being 100% policy breach. Interestingly, those forwarded to a regulator were removed swiftly right after. Having said that, we are not going to file any more due to being accused of false accusations and end up with account restrictions.
Instead, we are taking it all further outside ebay calling out their negligence. So, the question is: do you really think your course of action is acceptable?
kat@ebay
Hi @nutrafituk ,
While I cannot comment on the reports you have sent through as we don't action those accounts here eBay has its own internal processes and procedures for reviewing accounts. There are accounts that have action taken on them for trading on private accounts when they should not be but and as we have mentioned before we do not disclose those accounts for privacy and security reasons.
Thank you,
Kat
nutrafituk
·1 year agoHello Kat,
thank you for your response. We were not referring just to 'so-called' private sellers but also food, controlled substances, duplicated listings, search manipulation and so on. Your only option was to act however ebay decided to ignore.
There is now way we are going to carry on paying pay ebay 100k in fees per annum for that kind of service.
moonspender
·1 year agoHaving followed a number of these weekly chats I see that quite a few questions that you cannot deal with; have to pass on to the relevant departments or ask the individual to contact the relevant department themselves.
That’s fine, you answer loads of questions but I understand you have limited knowledge of areas you don’t work in and specialists should answer for their department.
Do you think it would be a good idea to periodically involve specialists from these departments in these weekly chats? It could be confirmed who is going to be attending these chats in advance as some questions we have might be better placed when that specialist is in attendance.
The benefit to sellers is that we are more likely to get more detailed answers at the time of questioning, I believe people are more likely to submit questions when specialists are involved and I believe it would also help these departments understand better the issues and challenges sellers are having as well as the impact of their decisions.
This would certainly be a good idea just before or after major changes are implemented where you are unable to answer effectively many of the questions we have at such a critical time such as the recent change and issues resulting from private sellers paying no fees.
GPSR is another example where fielding questions relating to GPSR in this weekly chat has added little to no value to sellers IMO; sellers who are taking time away from “selling “ to seek clarity on changes that dramatically impact themselves and their business.
Having come from a banking industry where similar weekly discussions were held it was a given that there would be employees fielding questions from departments who had or were in the process of implementing change that affected others areas of the business.
From my experience these other departments found value from being involved.
I know eBay’s main aim of these chats is that they are useful and I believe doing as suggested is a way of making that so.
dave@ebay
Hi @moonspender
This is one that has come up a few times but unfortunately, it's not something we are able to offer through the community.
We do however run roadshows and seller feedback sessions where we bring in specialists to speak one to one with sellers. I'm not aware of any upcoming events but we will usually reach out through email and the announcement board here to let sellers know of any upcoming events.
Thanks,
Dave