Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 02.07.25 @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 dave@ebay and marco@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. We understand that certain topics, such as concerns about businesses possibly using private accounts, can be frustrating and important to you. Please refrain from asking the same question repeatedly in our weekly live chats. We assure you that we carefully review all posts in the forum and ensure that your concerns are communicated to the relevant teams for appropriate action.
To maintain a constructive and community environment, posts that repeatedly breach this guideline may be removed. Continued violations could result in further action against your community account. We appreciate your cooperation and understanding in helping us keep our community focused and respectful.

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]

I asked last week if it was a breach of eBay rules for a seller to ask for buyers to contact them in regarding paying for eBay items/services by Bank Transfer or PayPal out with eBay and was told that, no it would certainly be a breach of eBay rules to do so.

Can I ask a follow up question – is it allowed for a seller to request that buyers contact them via phone to discuss any questions or would that be another breach of eBay rules?

[russellmattin]

Hi a few weeks ago I raised the issue of nonsense CATEGORY suggestions being put forward by your system when LISTING ITEMS. Before about Feb/March the system worked beautifully to provide suggestions that must have been about 98% accurate. This suddenly dropped to about 2% accuracy! Whilst there has possibly been a minor improvement recently the vast majority of `suggested categories` are still utter rubbish and bear no resemblance whatsoever to the item title. Typical example….

Item title…

VINTAGE 1962 BOAC AIRLINE SAFETY LEAFLET DC7 BRITANNIA COMET & BOEING 707 vgc

Suggested

Collectables > Kitchen & Home > Barware > Swizzle/Stir Sticks

Stamps > Great Britain > Sheets

Crafts > Needlecrafts & Yarn > Crocheting & Knitting > Patterns

Its so annoying to then have to search through for an appropriate one when the system worked so smoothly before. Please tell me what changed, why and what is being done to put the nonsense right, thanks

[fatbobfan]

I have raised previously my concerns at the increasing numbers of Private Sellers selling products they are prohibited to do so, You advised my 'feedback' was received and guessing passed on but the numbers are still increasing.

To be clear, this is an Ebay policy, selling certain categories requires Business Seller status. Currently just under 20% of sellers selling 'Baby Toys' my example, are private seller status, its an easy enough stat to find out, not made up by a hacked off seller. Thats just under 20% and increasing

My new issue away from the competition that should'nt be, the search results, in some, not all, are now prioritising the categories where private sellers are listing away from the 'Baby' categories, sending buyers away from Business sellers to the collective Private Sellers listings. The 'filtering system' is prioritising where the private sellers are listing and as their numbers continue to increase the bigger an issue this will be

I am very concerned with the search results are sending customers away from me and the problem will only get worse if this is not dealt with.

Additionally, its not rocket science for your colleagues to deal with. Type any prohibited search term for Private sellers and use the filtering system, click seller status and click 'Private Seller' they are all there waiting to be dealt with

Can you please get this addressed, the longer it goes on the worse its going to get, more and more Private sellers are just ignoring the policy and the platforms doing nothing about it and this

[marco@ebay]

---

@custom-giftsuk wrote:

I asked last week if it was a breach of eBay rules for a seller to ask for buyers to contact them in regarding paying for eBay items/services by Bank Transfer or PayPal out with eBay and was told that, no it would certainly be a breach of eBay rules to do so.

Can I ask a follow up question – is it allowed for a seller to request that buyers contact them via phone to discuss any questions or would that be another breach of eBay rules?

---

Hi custom-giftsuk, thanks for your question.

Asking for payments outside of eBay, or arranging the transaction to be placed outside of eBay would be considered against policy, here is the policy in case you need it for further information.

Thank you,

Marco

[custom-giftsuk]

Thank you marco@ebay
Its very helpful to have that in black and white. 🙂

[dave@ebay]

---

@russellmattin wrote:

Hi a few weeks ago I raised the issue of nonsense CATEGORY suggestions being put forward by your system when LISTING ITEMS. Before about Feb/March the system worked beautifully to provide suggestions that must have been about 98% accurate. This suddenly dropped to about 2% accuracy! Whilst there has possibly been a minor improvement recently the vast majority of `suggested categories` are still utter rubbish and bear no resemblance whatsoever to the item title. Typical example….

Item title…

VINTAGE 1962 BOAC AIRLINE SAFETY LEAFLET DC7 BRITANNIA COMET & BOEING 707 vgc

Suggested

Collectables > Kitchen & Home > Barware > Swizzle/Stir Sticks

Stamps > Great Britain > Sheets

Crafts > Needlecrafts & Yarn > Crocheting & Knitting > Patterns

Its so annoying to then have to search through for an appropriate one when the system worked so smoothly before. Please tell me what changed, why and what is being done to put the nonsense right, thanks

---

Hi @russellmattin 

We have passed all suggestions about this to the site team. Unfortunately, we don't have any shareable updates on action that they may or may not have taken based on the suggestions.  

Thanks,

Dave

[marco@ebay]

---

@fatbobfan wrote:

I have raised previously my concerns at the increasing numbers of Private Sellers selling products they are prohibited to do so, You advised my 'feedback' was received and guessing passed on but the numbers are still increasing.

To be clear, this is an Ebay policy, selling certain categories requires Business Seller status. Currently just under 20% of sellers selling 'Baby Toys' my example, are private seller status, its an easy enough stat to find out, not made up by a hacked off seller. Thats just under 20% and increasing

My new issue away from the competition that should'nt be, the search results, in some, not all, are now prioritising the categories where private sellers are listing away from the 'Baby' categories, sending buyers away from Business sellers to the collective Private Sellers listings. The 'filtering system' is prioritising where the private sellers are listing and as their numbers continue to increase the bigger an issue this will be

I am very concerned with the search results are sending customers away from me and the problem will only get worse if this is not dealt with.

Additionally, its not rocket science for your colleagues to deal with. Type any prohibited search term for Private sellers and use the filtering system, click seller status and click 'Private Seller' they are all there waiting to be dealt with

Can you please get this addressed, the longer it goes on the worse its going to get, more and more Private sellers are just ignoring the policy and the platforms doing nothing about it and this

---

Hi fatbobfan, thanks for your question.

I can see where you are coming from, so I totally understand. However, this has been addressed already a couple of times. If you are still seeing this, and you believe this is against our policies, please continue to report the listings in questions. As we've advised before, if the item remains active or it gets removed we won't be able to comment anything on it, as we can only discuss this matter with account holders only. 

Thank you,

Marco

[dantwocats]

Afternoon again i noticed eBay have now spent time redesigning the postage sizes  or package size part of the listing page ? is this some sort of joke as it still has no option for any item over 61cm . ? this large size issue is more important than the design of a page so why have they wasted time doing this and not sorting the large item part +any update please

[ruby*ryan]

Afternoon!

Last week (or the week before?) dave@ebay  confirmed that if I had used the 'recommended' size/weight label, I wouldn't be liable for any overcharges, and this is what it still says on he help pages.

Yesterday when I went to print off a SD label (recommended LL up to 1kg) I noticed that if you click the information button about parcel sizes you get this:

Avoid extra charges by keeping your package within the size limit selected at listing — up to 1 kg, 35 x 25 x 2.5 cm.

Larger or heavier packages will still be accepted by the carrier, as long as they’re within the maximum limit — up to 1.00 kg and 35.3 x 25 x 2.5 cm.

Does this mean now that if I use a recommended LL label, and it just goes over to Small Parcel, I will get an overcharge? New boxes when choosing postage when listing look as if eBay now put 3 size/weight groups (LL, SP, MP) and it very much suggests that if you have used, for instance, the recommended LL label, the item still has to be LL size.

Why are these changes never announced to us? There are so many ongoing changes to SD, that we really could do with something like a pinned thread to notify us about any changes as they happen.
At the moment I am taking a daily screenshot of the help page that (currently) states 'up to the maximum' allowed. I will not be expecting to pay any overcharge payments on items that were listed when this statement applied.

[marco@ebay]

---

@dantwocats wrote:

Afternoon again i noticed eBay have now spent time redesigning the postage sizes  or package size part of the listing page ? is this some sort of joke as it still has no option for any item over 61cm . ? this large size issue is more important than the design of a page so why have they wasted time doing this and not sorting the large item part +any update please

---

Hi dantwocats, thanks for your input.

I will pass on your feedback on this, so this can be noted for future references. However, please note that we don't have visibility on why certain changes are made.

Thank you,

Marco

[russellmattin]

Thanks Dave, surely the communication within ebay should be better than you seem to indicate, if its non existent inside what hope do we have outside the organisation of getting matters resolved after we take the time to report them? Would you be able to chase them rather than just leaving me in limbo please? Many thanks

[ak_craft_crazy]

Hi, 

Hope you are all well.

Im sorry but i have to raise that the EDD as not fit for purpose. This has been ongoing for a number of years now as you will be aware, even emailing the shipping team nothing appears to be done.

Before i get a copy and paste reply about it is working as designed, i am not saying it isnt. I am pointing out the obvious that is NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.

It is not just me it is many many other sellers who have the same issue, some have raised this with you others fear of repercussions should they raise it.

A posted on here a couple of weeks ago with an example where Marco kindly confirmed the common sense dates which were completely different to the EDD ones shown. Albeit he was very very clear that his answer may not be correct but still gave a common sense approach which gave a more realistic delivery timeframe. Why can this common sense approach not apply to the current EDD's?

I have my own theories on this which i have shared in the passed.

The reason i raise this issue again is because we have just had our store in holiday mode which ended yesterday. All items are set to one day processing time meaning they are to be dispatched today the 2nd July. However this will come to now surprise to anyone but the first EDD given to the buyer is today the 2nd July the very same day as it is meant to be dispatched. It is 2nd class postage aswell which ebay even says is a 2-3 working day service. 

This is not a one off this is for every single order that was placed whilst we were away. We now know full well come the weekend we will be answering message after message regarding customers wanting to know where their orders are as the EDD said it was meant to arrive days ago.

We need action to happen now to make EDD's fit for purpose before eBay goes down the pan as it is not really looking good at the moment with this and also the ongoing simple delivery issues. Which from reading the forums are far from simple.

Many Thanks

[ruby*ryan]

Sorry, this isn't really a second question, it's an addition to my previous question.
This is the screen shot of the postage options when I list now - separated into 3 size groups.

[marco@ebay]

---

@ak_craft_crazy wrote:

Hi, 

Hope you are all well.

Im sorry but i have to raise that the EDD as not fit for purpose. This has been ongoing for a number of years now as you will be aware, even emailing the shipping team nothing appears to be done.

Before i get a copy and paste reply about it is working as designed, i am not saying it isnt. I am pointing out the obvious that is NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.

It is not just me it is many many other sellers who have the same issue, some have raised this with you others fear of repercussions should they raise it.

A posted on here a couple of weeks ago with an example where Marco kindly confirmed the common sense dates which were completely different to the EDD ones shown. Albeit he was very very clear that his answer may not be correct but still gave a common sense approach which gave a more realistic delivery timeframe. Why can this common sense approach not apply to the current EDD's?

I have my own theories on this which i have shared in the passed.

The reason i raise this issue again is because we have just had our store in holiday mode which ended yesterday. All items are set to one day processing time meaning they are to be dispatched today the 2nd July. However this will come to now surprise to anyone but the first EDD given to the buyer is today the 2nd July the very same day as it is meant to be dispatched. It is 2nd class postage aswell which ebay even says is a 2-3 working day service. 

This is not a one off this is for every single order that was placed whilst we were away. We now know full well come the weekend we will be answering message after message regarding customers wanting to know where their orders are as the EDD said it was meant to arrive days ago.

We need action to happen now to make EDD's fit for purpose before eBay goes down the pan as it is not really looking good at the moment with this and also the ongoing simple delivery issues. Which from reading the forums are far from simple.

Many Thanks

---

Hi ak_craft_crazy, thanks for your input.

I will share your feedback around this to the relevant team, but as we always say, please note that this doesn't necessarily means that changes will be implemented. As advised before, if you wish to escalate this, you can contact our customer service team here.

Thank you,

Marco

[auctiongabble]

Ebays courier DPD making false claims of attempted delivery, customer service and authenticity team couldn't care.  We are talking of an item worth £2500 now sat in van floating around.  Why is the generic answer that an update may take 24 to 48 hrs ? Your couriers can not be trusted

[dantwocats]

It may help if ebays top brass down to lower staff members tried listing a item and see how it works ,could try something over 61cm and see how it goes ?

[nutrafituk]

Hello there,

just a question about your new Advertising fee structure change. Not about how it works now because we have read it all.

From a business point of view: last week only we had less clicks, less impressions and less sales. You still managed to double the cost of advertising despite reducing our promoted listing on daily basis for 4 weeks now. So, what do you actually offer in return for this compulsory advertisement cost increase please? Absolutely nothing, it seems.

[edwardian-dreams]

But at the moment if you want to list a chair even or a large art print there is no option to chose oversize parcel so how can people list their large items which are not eligible for SD

when I try to list a chair under home furniture and put in dimensions of 100 x 65 x 65 it defaults to SD large letter 😐 with no custom option

theres a workaround of putting over 750£ as the price which triggers custom postage but when price is amended it doesn’t always retain the postage for some people

[dave@ebay]

---

@russellmattin wrote:

Thanks Dave, surely the communication within ebay should be better than you seem to indicate, if its non existent inside what hope do we have outside the organisation of getting matters resolved after we take the time to report them? Would you be able to chase them rather than just leaving me in limbo please? Many thanks

---

Hi @russellmattin ,

As previously mentioned, we cant always share the updates we receive on feedback. Sometimes the reply can contain internal information for example, some upcoming changes or the reason for the change and we are unable to share the information publicly. 

For that reason, we can guarantee a response to all feedback or suggestions we receive. 

Thanks,

Dave