💬 Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 01.02.23 @2pm

[community-team@ebay]

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 , dave@ebay  and katie@ebay . Between us, we have knowledge in Buying, Selling, ProTrader, Fulfilment, Parts & Accessories, 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

[kat@ebay]

Hi @ducatimondo ,

I understand the frustration with this.In response to e-braker's query from last week I am already following this up internally as I have provided all examples he gave for the VAT invoices. . Once I have more information on it I will provide the update.

Thank you,

Kat

[ducatimondo]

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@ducatimondo wrote:

‎25-01-2023 2:20 PM

@e-breaker wrote:

Hi Team, What are the chances of eBay making some changes to the current system not providing printable invoices from our purchase history section that include VAT information where applicable. It is a right royal pain having to request them direct from sellers who may or not respond, and it is also time consuming sending them out as a sleer when we get asked for one. I honestly don't see how it's been without such info for so long, and if things don't change then I will certainly have to start sourcing many of my supplies and miscellaneous purchases elsewhere. 

Hi @e-breaker ,

There is an option to print these showing the VAT information on orders. If you go to your purchase history and click on one of your orders " view order details". On this page there is a " printer- friendly page" icon on the top right. Click into this and it opens up the order information showing VAT details if it was applied. Then click on the printer icon on the top right of that page and it will show all the information in one page ready to print. You can print it or save it as a PDF.

Thank you,

Kat
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Following on from the discussion last week where another member asked about printing VAT invoices for order when you are using eBay as a buyer, the answer from kat@ebay does not show any VAT details of the seller or the VAT rate or even if there is VAT applicable or not and also does not show a VAT breakdown.

So this is not a VAT invoice by any of the metrics HMRC require and stipulate must be present before any VAT can be reclaimed from said purchase.

I to am infuriated with how difficult it is to get a VAT invoice from some sellers, which the seller is legally obligated to provide under provision of VAT rule 700.

If the seller fails to provide a VAT invoice, there's a possibility that seller is also in breach of the Fraud Act 2006 as the link below:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/35/section/3

This, I suspect, is a lot more serious than eBay seem to show consideration for, aside how much it will stop me using the platform to place orders as it literally is not worth the hassle of trying to obtain these invoices for any orders we place.

I suspect a lot of other business buyers may be in the same situation, as they will also likely feel the same frustration and either not order or order elsewhere.

If I order on Amazon, I can go and request an invoice from the seller and I always get one.

If I use Amazon Business, they are always automatically provided without me even asking and I can just click to download or print one whenever I want, even from orders years ago.

Can eBay take this with the severity that is duly needed and sort something out, so we can either report sellers for failing to provide the information they are under a legal obligation to provide or by providing a mechanism that buyers can actually just print what you should be able to just print?

Thank you in advance

Russ

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This is all you see when you go to print the order, I have redacted sensitive information for obvious reasons



There is no seller address, no seller business name, no VAT number, no VAT breakdown, no VAT rate shown
All the stuff HMRC need you to have is not there, you only have a total, an item number and the eBay user ID?

[dave@ebay]

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@mysterious_cities_of_mold wrote:

When using the Pale Moon browser, I can no longer bid on auction style listings. When I click the “Submit Bid” button on an item listing page, a box appears which says “Oops! Looks like we're having trouble connecting to our server. Refresh your browser window to try again.” The button works normally when using other browsers.

This need to be fixed so it works when using the Pale Moon browser.  Pale Moon is regularly updated by its developers to ensure it is safe and secure so it is not a problem with it being "outdated".

---

Hi @mysterious_cities_of_mold 

I'm not familiar with that browser but I have seen a couple of posts where it doesn't seem to be compatible with the site. We would always advise where possible to use Chrome or Safari as the site is optimised for these browsers. 

I'll pass your concerns on the development team to be reviewed.

Thanks,

Dave

[wildgiftsuk]

Thanks Dave,

The advisor I spoke to today I think was Potta, the reference was 1-459646310032. The Roadshow was the Plymouth one some months back, but I hadn't heard back - if there had been even a short message regarding the upgrade to Anchor store that would have been really brilliant, as the suggestion today was I could possibly do a new subscription to Anchor store again once the current subscription ends and see if the promotion still worked.  I'd rather just carry on but when I phoned eBay I was told that nothing could be done!

I was hoping that as the initial offer was set up and started in eBay remotely it could maybe be done again?

Any help would be much appreciated as it would make a huge difference, 

kind regards,

Will

[kat@ebay]

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@crawf4e wrote:

Hi everyone 🙂 Is there anyone in Northern Ireland offering eBay fulfillment services? If not, then any recommendations for mainland GB operators? Thanks for your help.

---

Hi @crawf4e ,

Orange Connex the fulfilment service offered by eBay operates for Northern Ireland. Please see more details on it here.

Thank you,

Kat

[ducatimondo]

Thank you Kat and Dave for your quick responses, I don't often get time to post a thank you as the thread is only open for an hour and usually closes before I get time to say this.

So that was it, literally wanted to say something that often goes unsaid, as I fully appreciate how difficult it is to try and reply to so many different and incredibly varied queries in such a short timeframe

[rainbowtrax]

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@sundae4 wrote:

Hi,

I'm searching for items near me & used to see the seller's username in the list of results, their feedback, & the distance from my postcode. I don't see these any more - is there a way to add them to what I see?
Many thanks

---

@sundae4 have you checked your customisation options? Next to the sort order at the top right of the search results, click on the dropdown arrow, select "Customise" and make sure the "Seller information" box is ticked. Then click on "Apply changes".

[kat@ebay]

Hi @ducatimondo ,

The vat details are only there if the seller has included VAT. The sellers that provide invoices separately don't show the VAT details which we are aware is the issue raised.  Its been raised on this side so once we have more information I will update.

---

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Thank you,

Kat

[dave@ebay]

---

@contessa35 wrote:

Hello - when did the new-style eBay Nectar interface come into use? I only discovered it today. I see it is rather simplified looking, though with lots of detail on the items I earned Nectar points on. When and what I've used them on isn't at all obvious any more though, and it says I linked my card in December 2022 when it's been linked for years... All a bit strange! I'm feeling nostalgic for the tabulated points tally and the box indicating my recently generated and used Nectar coupons.

---

Hi @contessa35 

We finished migrating to the new page on the 31st of January so different accounts were opted in at different times over the last few months.

The card only showing as linked from last year is most likely part of this changeover. You can try unlinking and relinking the card. This usually forces the site to refresh and can update any missing information.

Thanks,

Dave

[williabaxte7]

Hi Katy have tried clearing cookies and cache etc . Still does not open the nectar tab 

[contessa35]

Thank you Dave, that's really useful and much appreciated. 👍😊

[ducatimondo]

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kat@ebay wrote:

Hi @ducatimondo ,

The vat details are only there if the seller has included VAT. The sellers that provide invoices separately don't show the VAT details which we are aware is the issue raised.  Its been raised on this side so once we have more information I will update.

---

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Thank you,

Kat

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I bought this item, there is a VAT number in the listing and the prouct would be applicable to VAT

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321326312078

[kat@ebay]

---

@ojewellery wrote:

As a jewellery seller on eBay can you explain why the fees in this category are going up and so much higher than other platforms and other categories on eBay?

I've seen a decline in jewellery traffic on eBay when with same stock I'm seeing expansion and sales elsewhere. 

I'm finding the cost of eBay sales was already high.  On EBay there is a necessity to have more promotions, use promoted listings and drive my own traffic to maintain reasonable sales.  As a result, the profit per sale is a few percent less on eBay than its nearest competitor.

What are you offering in return for the extra fee? 

Are you going to review the jewellery policy and have something relevant (LEGAL) for the UK and UK legislation?

Please tell me there is some exciting news about investment in the category to offset and justify this increase.

---

Hi @ojewellery ,

I understand any increase in fees is not going to be welcome news. We made alot of progress in 2022 including launching video enhancements, increasing the number of free photos for your listings, adding new features in Shops to attract buyers and increase traffic, enhancing the messaging experience to make communications with buyers and improvements to eBay fulfilment by Orange Connex to name just a few. We will continue to make investments to improve the experience as we strive to make eBay the most vibrant and trusted marketplace for both buyers and sellers.

Thank you,

Kat

[dave@ebay]

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@wildgiftsuk wrote:

Thanks Dave,

The advisor I spoke to today I think was Potta, the reference was 1-459646310032. The Roadshow was the Plymouth one some months back, but I hadn't heard back - if there had been even a short message regarding the upgrade to Anchor store that would have been really brilliant, as the suggestion today was I could possibly do a new subscription to Anchor store again once the current subscription ends and see if the promotion still worked.  I'd rather just carry on but when I phoned eBay I was told that nothing could be done!

I was hoping that as the initial offer was set up and started in eBay remotely it could maybe be done again?

Any help would be much appreciated as it would make a huge difference, 

kind regards,

Will

---

Hi Will,

That's perfect I know the team that were there, I'll reach out to them now. 

They usually follow up with an email after the roadshow to confirm any actions taken, sometimes this can go to the trash or junk folder. It possibly happened in this case. Either way, Ill look into it and see what I can do to get it reinstated.

As soon as I have an update Ill PM you.

Thanks,

Dave

[kat@ebay]

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@williabaxte7 wrote:

Hi Katy have tried clearing cookies and cache etc . Still does not open the nectar tab 

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Hi @williabaxte7 ,

You might need to try a different browser if clearing cache and cookies doesn't work.

Thank you,

Kat

[kat@ebay]

Hi All,

Providing an update here regarding the VAT invoice for business buyers topic that was raised on our last two weekly chats.

1. The information provided on the current printable document from order history is what eBay can provide. If VAT is on the order it will show. There are no plans for changes to be made currently. We have provided users previous feedback for future improvements.
2. If a business seller provides invoices separately it is their obligation to follow that through by providing the invoice at the buyers request. eBay has no control over the invoices that are provided outside of the platform.

 Thank you,

Kat