Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 01.11.23 @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 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. 

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

[marco@ebay]

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@lincolnshiremarine wrote:

Good afternoon

Will ebay  please please please acknowlege there is an issue with estimated delivery dates you are showing to buyers.

My ebay shop was put on holiday  (TIME AWAY) 30th up to and including 31st October 2023.

A buyer brought something on 30th in the afternoon and the buyer would of seen the banner at the top of the page etc.

I have returned today and sent the parcel off 1st November , the courier collects mid morning, only for the estimated delivery to be 2nd November.  The buyer HAS NOT paid for next day delivery and there is no way it will be delivered to them on the 2nd November which ebay tracking states. It is a free, 3 day delivery service. Furthermore the shop was on holiday.

I spoke to ebay today, and they say there is nothing wrong and despite me having the shop on ebay holiday the delivery date is correct?  How does ebay work that one out, when the shop has been put on holiday by the seller but the delivery dates are not correct.

 The estimated delivery dates are now becoming a nightmare on here, there are posts about this, but this situation has really put the nail in the coffin.

Please do not give me the explanation of we calculate it on  your seller performance, I have heard all of that, and for the life of me still cannot get my head around your reasoning.  Can we not base it on realtime postage delivery times, I would of thought that was the best way to base it on?

In a nutshell, If we do well on performance , then you give us even shorter time scales to get the parcels out, with un realistic delivery dates, then the buyer is upset and makes a case, then you refuse to back the seller.

Thank you 

---

Hi lincolnshiremarine, thanks for your post.

As of now, we cannot see any issues affecting EDD's. We have addressed this query multiple times now, and we have double check it as well, and everything is working as designed. 

Thank you,

Marco

[anita@ebay]

---

@pg_kicks wrote:

I seem to have lost top rated seller status on some listings, this in turn means I lose the badge and the discounts. I have lost this due to eBay forcing the charge on postage for all customers, we were told this would have no negative effects on sellers but it not only have a reputational effect it also has an economical effect. Any reason why this has happened as its not me charging the money but eBay, I'd still be happy to offer free postage.

Regards

---

Hi @pg_kicks, thanks for your post.

Some businesses build the cost of the postage in the item cost and offer free postage. However, it is up to the seller to decide their business plan.

Thanks,

Anita

[contessa35]

Thank you so much!

Another of the posts here reminded me of a different, but related and more long-standing issue, at least 6 months now, I think. I can only see all items on offer to the UK from overseas if I leave eBay.co.uk and go to eBay.com (or the relevant overseas eBay site, but eBay.com seems to work for all of them). For example, I've an Australian seller in my saved sellers list. Around 6 months ago, as her items ended, her entry on my Saved Sellers list gradually emptied and stayed empty ever since. Eventually, I asked her why she'd decided to stop selling to the UK - she was surprised, as she hadn't decided that at all! I then found that if I view my Saved Sellers list on eBay.com instead, all her stuff is there, and once I put things into my Watch List whilst I'm still on eBay.com, those particular items will then be on my eBay.co.uk Watch List too, and will work normally.

Similarly, searches on overseas items available to the UK usually give incomplete results if the search is done on eBay.co.uk. This is all quite generalised - again, other UK friends are finding exactly the same two problems, so all I can say for sure is it's not just me affected!

[marco@ebay]

---

@welshdragon-antiques wrote:

Hi Marco

Thanks for your response, my items are mainly pottery & glass and therefore not customs restricted. If you could have a look I would be grateful

---

Thanks for your reply, welshdragon-antiques.

Yes, no problem, we will send that for review now, and will update you here once we get an update on this.

Thank you,

Marco

[anita@ebay]

---

@louisianna wrote:

Thank you Anita, 

I would appreciate it if you would forward it.  

I know I can appeal, but its highly unlikely to be removed because its the buyers 'opinion'.

But I do think that some buyers presume most sellers are bad or dont offer good customer service, 

Thanks again

---

louisianna, you are very welcome, and I will make sure it's passed on. However, please note that while we pass on all the feedback, we may not guarantee it will be implemented.

Thanks,

Anita

[pg_kicks]

Hi anita@ebay that would be great but it does not answer what I questioned, I may have typed in out in such a way you didn't understand so I will try again with more detail.

eBay have changed the shipping options for all and any items going to the authentication centre (owned by eBay and no way to bypass) prior to this businesses could set their own price, I set mine at £0.00 so all my items were included in TRS programme and I received the discount.

Now eBay have changed this and forced all sellers (we can not not build this into our plan if its forced) to have it as £8.49 charged to the buyer but we were told there would be no charge to sellers, and no negatives to this scheme, infact it would be better. Now it has come into play not only do we not have the TRS badge on our listing we dont get the discount for being a TRS. So I will ask again, is there any plan to change this as its eBays decision to force sellers to have the charge on the listing (we dont get this fee it goes direct to eBay).

If you dont know what I'm talking about please just let me know and I will try and find out myself as it may be quicker than waiting for a reply if you are having to ask other team members. I just thought I'd ask here before doing all the work myself.

[marco@ebay]

---

@contessa35 wrote:

Thank you so much!

Another of the posts here reminded me of a different, but related and more long-standing issue, at least 6 months now, I think. I can only see all items on offer to the UK from overseas if I leave eBay.co.uk and go to eBay.com (or the relevant overseas eBay site, but eBay.com seems to work for all of them). For example, I've an Australian seller in my saved sellers list. Around 6 months ago, as her items ended, her entry on my Saved Sellers list gradually emptied and stayed empty ever since. Eventually, I asked her why she'd decided to stop selling to the UK - she was surprised, as she hadn't decided that at all! I then found that if I view my Saved Sellers list on eBay.com instead, all her stuff is there, and once I put things into my Watch List whilst I'm still on eBay.com, those particular items will then be on my eBay.co.uk Watch List too, and will work normally.

Similarly, searches on overseas items available to the UK usually give incomplete results if the search is done on eBay.co.uk. This is all quite generalised - again, other UK friends are finding exactly the same two problems, so all I can say for sure is it's not just me affected!

---

Thank you, contessa35.

Do you have an item number, so we can review that for you?

Thank you,

Marco.

[lincolnshiremarine]

marco@ebay

With respect, I know that is the script you have been told to tell us sellers, but, ALL seller cannot all be wrong on this.  You are making us look incompetent when it comes to offering our buyers good customer service with the delivery dates. 

The estimated delivery times are not correct.  How can they be correct, if my shop was on holiday (TIME AWAY) how can the delivery dates be right, they are not even right when we are not on holiday.   

The only way I can see this postage issue is by the common sense, calculate it on the actual real time delivery dates given by the people that deliver the parcels.

When I print off the ebay postage label for Yodel it states 72 hours (3 days delivery). 

Best wishes

[bojangled]

I know .com community boards work differently but given the amount of times the EDD questions arise on the forum would it be helpful if the community chat team had some sort of head of dept team on this weekly to visit and answer these questions ?

They do this on the .com with various departments. 
No disrespect to the team but communication directly from these sources would be appreciated.

Jo

[anita@ebay]

---

@pg_kicks wrote:

Hi anita@ebay that would be great but it does not answer what I questioned, I may have typed in out in such a way you didn't understand so I will try again with more detail.

eBay have changed the shipping options for all and any items going to the authentication centre (owned by eBay and no way to bypass) prior to this businesses could set their own price, I set mine at £0.00 so all my items were included in TRS programme and I received the discount.

Now eBay have changed this and forced all sellers (we can not not build this into our plan if its forced) to have it as £8.49 charged to the buyer but we were told there would be no charge to sellers, and no negatives to this scheme, infact it would be better. Now it has come into play not only do we not have the TRS badge on our listing we dont get the discount for being a TRS. So I will ask again, is there any plan to change this as its eBays decision to force sellers to have the charge on the listing (we dont get this fee it goes direct to eBay).

If you dont know what I'm talking about please just let me know and I will try and find out myself as it may be quicker than waiting for a reply if you are having to ask other team members. I just thought I'd ask here before doing all the work myself.

---

@pg_kicks, thanks for your reply and sharing more details.

If you're selling using our Authenticity Guarantee program, we do have a specialized team looking after it, so I won't be an expert on this topic. However, I'm happy to reach out to them and clarify this, and reply back here once I have more information.

Thanks,

Anita

[contessa35]

Again, it's more of a generalised issue than over a specific item, but I'll provide the item number of one of that seller's items which is totally invisible to eBay.co.uk until I go to eBay.com, put it in my Watch List there, and this makes it accessible on eBay.co.uk. The seller is Australian so eBay.com.au also works the same way as eBay.com for this workaround, and the item is definitely intended to be available to the UK (and being not a US item, it's thankfully not affected by the other issue I raised first regarding the disappearance of shipping to the UK. At least, not yet...!)

285519976869

[katie@ebay]

---

@bojangled wrote:

I know .com community boards work differently but given the amount of times the EDD questions arise on the forum would it be helpful if the community chat team had some sort of head of dept team on this weekly to visit and answer these questions ?

They do this on the .com with various departments. 
No disrespect to the team but communication directly from these sources would be appreciated.

Jo

---

Hi Jo,

I've seen this and it works great on the US community. I've spoken to teams in the past about this and do think it would be a great addition for topical conversations we see.

Some differences in how our teams are set up etc but I'll take this feedback on board.

Thanks,

Katie 

[pg_kicks]

Hi,

You can do if you like but from past experience of waiting to hear anything coming back it will be a exceptionally long wait, I have a few emails from other staff members in eBay so I will fire off a few emails, was hoping it would just be an error (one of hundreds currently on the site) that you know of.

Thanks though.

[zoomingmouse]

Hi,

the new page layout seems to have altered the way the zoom function works when wanting to see up close details of the pictures.

I am finding it more awkward too use as you now have to click on each picture & then move the cursor about for an enlarged section view that is contained within the same picture window. 

The previous way, where you got a larger window view that was not contained within the picture box & without the need to click was somehow easier to use/move around.

Is this new version here to stay or just a trial?

Thanks

[anita@ebay]

---

@pg_kicks wrote:

Hi,

You can do if you like but from past experience of waiting to hear anything coming back it will be a exceptionally long wait, I have a few emails from other staff members in eBay so I will fire off a few emails, was hoping it would just be an error (one of hundreds currently on the site) that you know of.

Thanks though.

---

@pg_kicks, thanks for your reply.

I have reached out to them for more info. Either way, you'll hear from me by the end of the week.

Thanks,

Anita

[marco@ebay]

---

@contessa35 wrote:

Again, it's more of a generalised issue than over a specific item, but I'll provide the item number of one of that seller's items which is totally invisible to eBay.co.uk until I go to eBay.com, put it in my Watch List there, and this makes it accessible on eBay.co.uk. The seller is Australian so eBay.com.au also works the same way as eBay.com for this workaround, and the item is definitely intended to be available to the UK (and being not a US item, it's thankfully not affected by the other issue I raised first regarding the disappearance of shipping to the UK. At least, not yet...!)

285519976869

---

Thanks for this, contessa35. 

I've just tried to replicate this, and the items from the seller in questions are coming up, everything was done from the UK site.

Here is a screenshot of the example you provided, just to confirm.

Thank you,

Marco

[rlotech]

There is an issue with Sevice metrics which seems not to be being looked at. I have had a call again with support regarding this. If a return is opened (for whatever the reason) and the buyer does not return the item, the return case s closed, in my favour. Yet the ding in my service metrics is still remaining. 

Should a case closed in the sellers favour still be reflected in Srevice Metrics? I would think not, but they are. 

[anita@ebay]

---

@zoomingmouse wrote:

Hi,

the new page layout seems to have altered the way the zoom function works when wanting to see up close details of the pictures.

I am finding it more awkward too use as you now have to click on each picture & then move the cursor about for an enlarged section view that is contained within the same picture window. 

The previous way, where you got a larger window view that was not contained within the picture box & without the need to click was somehow easier to use/move around.

Is this new version here to stay or just a trial?

Thanks

---

@zoomingmouse, thanks for your post.

I'd be happy to look into this. Since we're closing the chat now, so can you please create a new thread with your question and elaborate more on what page layout is it and share the screnshot showing the issue.

Thanks,

Anita

[marco@ebay]

---

@rlotech wrote:

There is an issue with Sevice metrics which seems not to be being looked at. I have had a call again with support regarding this. If a return is opened (for whatever the reason) and the buyer does not return the item, the return case s closed, in my favour. Yet the ding in my service metrics is still remaining. 

Should a case closed in the sellers favour still be reflected in Srevice Metrics? I would think not, but they are. 

---

Hi rlotech, thanks for your post.

Once a case is filed, you will still see that return reflected in your service metrics. However, if the case is closed in your favor, that is not a defect and it won't count against your performance, but the service metric will reimain.

Thank you,

Marco

[marco@ebay]

---

@contessa35 wrote:

Here's an affected item as an example:

204473980780

Its seller was aware of the problem and unable to fix it themselves. They are a very experienced power seller.

---

Hi contessa35,

Just updating you on this, after reviewing this for you, we can see that the listing in question for the item 204473980780 seems to be ok from our end. The reason why you might not be able to see this item or to purchase is because there is no shipping method to the UK, as in the UK is not listed as one of the countries they ship to.

In this scenario, the seller would need to add the UK, and you will be able to see the item and purchase it in case you wish to do so. If the seller in question is unable to do this, the seller would need to contact us directly for further review.

Thank you,

Marco