Weekly chat useful or not?

[moldosgifts]

As title says is the weekly chat helpful or not?

So this week we learnt that private accounts from late January will get restricted again.

"I understand the frustration with the reporting.  EBay continue to review accounts and are taking action which is not always visible. In terms of measures being introduced to manage private accounts they have reduced the listing allowance from 1000 to 300 and most recently they are introducing that from 20th of January 2025 the discount tools will no longer be included for private sellers with Shop subscriptions . This  will be Coupons, Sale Events and Order discounts. Additionally, private sellers will no longer have access to the Multi-buy discount tool." ( quoted from the weekly chat)

Sounds good but they still get access during peak selling period so too late for most of us.

Trying to compete with those illegally trading is breaking me slowly.

When you get the non descript answers fobbed off is exactly what i feel.

I dint participate this week thing would have burst a blood vessel if i had.

RANT OVER

[vintique*violet]

Well I'll be blowed ... it does show that - well I have never asked for it or paid for it , I wonder why introduced? Surely not just as  a " gallery window?" Actually I dislike that I have a shop as it implies " business". 

[vintique*violet]

Well if I  click on "shop"  it just takes me to the lists of items  - I do not have any option of " promotional tools" other than to " pay to promote"... no discount codes , buy one get one free  other than multi-list; in fact I cannot even send an offer of my choosing - eBay randomly sends a " send offer eligible" of their choosing. 

[jonat_broad]

At least for business sellers there are other features one is you can advertise to your shop and the store front offers the ability to build out your own categorisation as well as build promotional rows.

it also includes a tab for products on discount and you can also send out emails to those who subscribe to your shop

[thesmi42]

You could always raise those issues at the weekly chat 🤣

[vintique*violet]

Hahahaha...Ugh!  - I feel I do not need those " tools"... I am NOT a SHOP! 

All I need to do is to list it and sell it. Offer postage info etc. But I would like to be able to send offers of my choosing... Oh and get views so that I could at least sell. 

[vintique*violet]

😉 Indeed! 

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Those features mean very little when compared to no final value fees, no fees on postage, no shop fees, no operating fees etc.

[vintique*violet]

Only if you are a private seller as we do not need them... 

Business sellers who are masquerading as private are the ones who are getting away with what you mention and have the advantage... or maybe  they too are experiencing no views and low sales? 

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

They have the ability to pay 10 - 20% for promoted listings though. If you pay the range of fees business sellers do you cannot do this and the old 2 - 3% that many used to pay for promoted listings offers you next to no traffic now so you are caught between not promoting or paying to promote and eroding any margin you have.

That is one of the biggest issues with this whole situation, businesses on private accounts can pay lots more for promoted listings because they aren't paying for anything else, the end result is business sellers will be killed off and by the time ebay wake up from whatever world they are operating in it will be too late.

The destination via the path we are currently on is very clear, I'm not sure how / why ebay don't see it.

[messier44000]

Moldosgifts

I understand where your coming from and get the frustration .  I will share the points you are making as feedback. 

Can not comment on your particular case, but will pass on to the team

As you know it's not something we have any control over.

Happy to escalate this for you. Please PM me the userID and Ill have a look into it

We are sharing the feedback raised with the relevant teams. It doesn't mean an immediate change will happen given that there are various processes and departments involved on the eBay platform. 

If you wish to speak to someone you can do so by going through the contact us option on your eBay account.

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. 

Thank you for raising these points. I'll share them as feedback for possible future changes 

The Chat teams replies are calculated on a number of different factors for example delivery times in a certain area and your past delivery performance.

Hope this helps

Lots of love - the chat team 

[messier44000]

After the private message I just got, I can confirm the above was just tongue and cheek.

Virtually every line was copy and paste from the weekly copy and paste.

[darth_baggins]

It's a waste of time.

Over the past few years I've reported several issues including;

Orders with more than one item not being marked as dispatched.

No formatting on messages within cases.

Not receiving emails when I've won items on auctions.

Receiving emails saying I'm eligible to borrow £ (blank)

I'm sure there are more. All of them have been 'passed to the team' and none of them have been fixed. Either things don't get passed at all, or 'the team' just laugh and bin them.

I recently had a private message exchange with one of the community team about a delivery estimate issue. It took around three weeks to get a response which basically said it was a time zone issue (sure it was, on a UK to UK sale).

It's an utter waste of time, with cut and paste responses and nothing really gets done when eBay customers (we sellers) spend our prescious time highlighting genuine issues on the site.

We continually get told that eBay act on reports but nothing is ever done. I vote to rename it the weekly patronising sellers chat.

[bravergrace]

I admire the stalwarts who still manage to post on the weekly chat.  Personally, I don't dare post there any more.

I suppose it does have a value, in that it's one step up from a chatbot, but the eBay reps are so tightly constrained in what they can say, (and they keep the sellers even more constrained), that it's a stilted and frustrating attempt at conversation.

On the other hand, does anyone remember the good old days when the board pinks were not kept under eBay's thumb?

- the one who opened a thread inviting links to "your favourite pictures", that turned into a pornographic nightmare?

- the one who said if we were worried about being ripped off by collection scams, we should ask the scammer inside for coffee and doughnuts, as no thief would have the gall to scam someone after accepting their hospitality?

- the temporary one who used the board to advertise  his team's eBay account, which was so poorly run it got an automatic ban at the (second?) monthly review - and berated people for leaving bad feedback when their items arrived bent/broken/with no packing/with the address and stamp stuck on the item?

- the one who looked up a seller's private account details and plastered them over the board?

- the one who nearly got sued for defamation after accusing a seller of providing poor customer service?

- the one who gave interviews to eBay and another site, in the same week, which contained contradictory information?

- the one who didn't keep his password private, and got rather publicly hacked?

- the one who decided the word "end" was swearing, and banned it from the forums...

They were livelier boards in those days, but the almost total lack of restraint shown by some eBay staff members wasn't really a laughing matter, and it did seriously upset some dedicated sellers who fell out with the board pinks.

[vintique*violet]

I understand what you are saying about "business sellers with a private sellers hat on " and agree  they can do that more as they are not correctly paying for their business platform,  but is it giving them more viewing and sales?  Have eBay got any stats on that? Because what I have read on here from an array of sellers, many are experiencing the same problem. 

Many true private sellers , I am sure, do not or can't afford to pay to promote listings and yet are dealing with no views, minimal watchers, low or no sales, something which seems to have exaggerated since the no fee  was introduced. 

It's like  eBay is in self-destruction mode? 

[moldosgifts]

I feel would be much more useful to have senior department managers answer our questions.

Leave the mods to the forum queries rather than involve them in the weekly chat.

They (Managers) can never actually answer any questions asked NOT just raise a quivery report to the appropriate department.

One week we could have the idiot that came up with the current messaging system, or the complete tool that decided that free selling for private was a good idea. What did they think would happen? Not that businesses would take advantage and open private account i bet.

[moonspender]

I raised similar in the weekly chat the week before Im finding that the weekly chat is ineffective answering many of the questions we have with the time critical issues we have as business sellers.

In fact they do state themselves " 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! "

So they are unable to answer the questions we have and those people they know dont seem to be forthcoming with answers ... crazy .. there should be involvement of people within ebay who are capable of answering questions business sellers need answers to.

In the past ive found they lack empathy and in doing so some responses in the weekly chat have made things worse ... this has improved a little more recently though.

When ebay launched free fees for private sellers Ebay immediately communicated this with the media however for us other than the weekly chat they suggest going to the roadshow ... what other business would do this to their income generators ?

I find it baffling .... looking at other platforms and one thing ive done as a result of the free fees  is ceased all promoted listings ( i was paying 20% ) and moved to coupons - giving the discount to the buyer rather than ebay and ive found sales down but income the same ( also never going to hit the vat threashold doing this which was a worry a few years ago) .. two can play their game.

[wyntersemporium]

I reported one private seller at 17, 000 items, but eBay said it was ok . Too many private sellers acting as businesses even my sister is private but is buying to sell.

[1956glyn]

I have never ever used any of those tools mentioned......no need to

I would never ever open a shop.    Even business sellers who have a shop.......i understand why but i never look in their shop just "items for sale"

[1956glyn]

Same here to be honest 🙂

[exponential_developments]

I've asked questions 4 times.

1/   got told off because they didn't like the question.

2/  got told off because they didn't like the question.

3/  They couldn't answer my question.

4/  Got a non reply ie wasn't an answer to my question, fobbed off.