Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 02.10.24 @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, marco@ebay and dave@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

[krafty-kreations]

We are also adding new benefits for business sellers which I'll include below.

• Enhanced seller protections: We’ve expanded the number of credits a seller can receive for the cost of postage if a buyer falsely claims that an item is not as described.
• Free 1:1 support with Seller Clinics: Eligible business sellers can now take advantage of free Seller Clinics for easy access to growth support. Simply book a phone call appointment and you’ll be paired with an expert marketplace advisor, who’ll provide personalised advice on any topics you’d like to discuss.

I would prefer all business selling on private accounts shut down, that would be more useful.

I think the changes are a great, hopefully more private sellers means more buyers, but how many of those buyers will be buying from businesses using private accounts that undercut the genuine business sellers? 

[marco@ebay]

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@kempseykate wrote:

Why are private sellers (and I'm one myself!) allowed to sell multiples? There is a seller that makes copies of craft patterns to sell. They have currently sold nearly 900 identical copies from one listing with a whole load more available.
How can it be possible for someone to be a private seller if they have nearly a thousand (+) identical items for sale/sold?
I would have thought it would have been a good idea in the T&Cs of the new 300 free listings to restrict the number of multiples for private sellers - or stop them altogether.

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Hi kempseykate, thanks for your question.

If you think there is an account that is not in compliance with our policies, you can report them using this link here under the reason The seller has violated one of eBay’s policies. We will then review the report and take actions accordingly.

Thank you,

Marco

[kempseykate]

marco@ebay 

I just tried to report a seller using your link above - when I hit 'submit' nothing happened. There was a flash of blue circle, then it stayed on the form with the 'submit' button still active.

Ignore! The seller had a different ID on the listing to the one shown on feedback. I corrected that and the report has now gone through!

[dave@ebay]

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@pg_kicks wrote:

Hello eBay community team and people reading from Dublin and around the UK and Ireland.

As per the attached file found by another user (sorry for taking the imagine) can you please report to anyone who has some say that communication really needs to be at the forefront of eBays mind when the highlighted issue is discussed anymore.

Also with the revelations that the no fee's for private sellers has been many months in the making and made possible through the hard work and collaboration of teams across the company dont you think it would have been decent customer service to actually let both the customer service team and the community team know some of the points to it so they could answer questions. Leaving everything as a surprise till the day it is released is both terrible planning and not how a genuine business should treat its customers (thats us businesses who actually pay for the site).

Hopefully we can have some (any) communication regarding the buyer fee prior to the day it is launched as with most things eBay launches it will be full of bugs and customers wont have a clue whats happening.

All we need is half decent communication, I cant believe I have to point this out to a company that is turning over billions of dollars but it seems whoever is running that department has taken their eye off the ball massively. Also please please pass onto management that whilst they may be great at creating charts and reports they dont understand how the site is broken, your customers are the ones who see the issues but we are being ignored on a huge scale.

Hopefully you all have a great day and the messages can be passed onto the relevant teams who take it on board and improve.

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Good afternoon @pg_kicks 

I hope you're keeping well. 

We will of course pass on any updates as soon as possible. We've been monitoring the different threads on these updates and have been forwarding the sentiment to various different teams that are responsible for the changes. 

I will add this to the report we send after the chat so it will definitely be seen by the appropriate teams.

Thanks,

Dave

[krafty-kreations]

Hi Marco

If you think there is an account that is not in compliance with our policies, you can report them using this link here under the reason The seller has violated one of eBay’s policies. We will then review the report and take actions accordingly.

I have reported quite a few, all still trading on private accounts, seems pointless.

[kat@ebay]

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@moonspender wrote:

I was told yesterday by one of your consierges that private sellers are not investigated unless they do over 10000 euros of sales a year ... why is this so much more than HMRC's amount that potentially triggers investigation?

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Hi @moonspender ,

There is no set number like 10,000 so I will have that checked for incorrect information. We do have internal measures that we cannot share due to security reasons.

There are other measures such as 

popular and/or high-priced items are subject to sales limits. In some cases, only previously verified sellers or only a certain number of these items can be sold.

We regularly review our sellers’ trading activities. If we have reason for suspicions, we’ll take action. These can vary and are not visible to outsiders.

We have the following options – depending on the severity of the violation and their frequency:

• Ending listings
• The user receives a warning
• The user is faces restrictions (for buying or selling)
• The user is completely suspended from trading on eBay

As I did advise before which I appreciate causes frustration is that action taken is not always publicly visible. 

eBay also cooperates with authorities (e.g. tax office) and supports them in investigations in this regard.

Thank you,

Kat

[marco@ebay]

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@everyfone-uk wrote:

marco@ebay

Marco and Anita,

My late delivery metric has not been adjusted for the 186 late deliveries caused by the recent bad weather in the uk during sept 2024 and now it jepodizes my selling performance in the UK. Please could you bulk remove all my late delivery defects as ebay stated they would- as per link below and havent done. Please help! ive tried calling CS so many times and they only remove 5 at a time! Please help!

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Announcements/Deliveries-impacted-by-severe-weather-conditions-Septe...

---

Hi everyfone-uk, thanks for your question.

Unfortunately, we don't do customer service over here, so this is something we would not be able to help with. However, we have a protection plan announced here. If you contact customer service for the ones that were not removed automatically, they can assist you further.

Thank you,

Marco

[bojangled]

Hello community team

I completely understand the need to drive traffic to the platform, and I really don't have an issue with the free to sell announcements .
Surely an incentive for the backbone of the platform ie business sellers, enabling them to list more for less, a discount in shop fees for Q4 or similar, so they can take advantage of this increased 'footfall' is viable?
Im afraid the 1:1 and the seller protections are fluffy. Having just listened to the R4 piece Kirsty did nothing to  assure me small business are valued.

[dave@ebay]

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@leadhills_scot wrote:

When are business sellers going to get free listings/FVFs?

---

Hi @leadhills_scot 

Im not aware of any plans to offer free listings or FVFs for business sellers. We always looking for new ways to improve the experience and deliver what our customers want so I will pass this suggestion to the relevant teams to review.

Thanks,

Dave

[charleysshop]

Thank you Dave

[jazz_up_your_shop]

It's now 3 weeks since Marco promised me an update on the issue I posted about regarding a delivery 'running behind' when it clearly wasn't. In other words more evidence the EDDs are broken.

I shall consider myself fobbed off. It seems the majority of responses on this board are just lip service with cut and paste promises to pass it on to the relevant team and to come back with an update.

From what I've seen, you rarely come back with an update, if ever.

What's the real point of this weekly chat if nothing every actually gets done?

[returns_andexdisplay]

When ever I go to a ebay roadshow or watch events online we are always told what buyers want to give them great experience. With things like free postage and free returns etc. 

When are ebay going to listen to business sellers and start giving us what we want which is a better shop offering. The latest relase is great for private sellers and hopefully will see some benefit with more buyers coming to the site. ebay should be protecting sellers from fradulent returns as standard, we expect this not think it is some added bonus and some new benefit. 

Real benefits and improvements to a shop would be to have more listings available to match similar shop subscriptions from likes of Amazon and Shopify where I can get unlimted listings all for around £25 - £30 a month. 

[pg_kicks]

Thanks, this is by no means a direct attack on you but that release to the sec clearly states many teams have worked on the free listings for months yet yourself and the person I spoke to who I think we can agree is not entry level at eBay both said that auto relisted listings would count from the 300 as I quote from conversation so might not be word for word but 'it would be stupid if it wasnt' yet eBay have taken that stupid idea and now allow private accounts to have 3600 listings a year with no selling fee's these 3600 can be variation listings so easily have 36000 items. If we (your customers) ever ask about how to alert eBay we get a copy and paste stock answer of please report, yet the reporting system is not fit for purpose otherwise accounts selling food (against eBay policy as a private account) that has sold over 15k items would have been closed as its been reported hundreds of times. 

We are all business owners, yet we get replies like we are in nursery asking us to complete the same task thats been completed hundreds of times before with zero change. Like I say this is by no means an attack on you as I believe we have a decent enough rapport but the constant negative moves from eBay are sadly becoming more often and the failure to mention such a high profile thing like free listings for all at the Open Event just showed how little eBay care about businesses as long as we pay.

[dwtrading2015]

"If we have reason for suspicions, we’ll take action. These can vary and are not visible to outsiders."

Exactly, all the other private sellers see this and know they can act with impunity.  These sanctions are extremly weak and pretty meaningless to those with 20 private accounts already set up ready to switch sales.

There is only one appropriate course of action.  Suspension and then they prove they are legit.  It is very easy to spot a business account - they have identical items for sale in multiple quantities.

[leadhills_scot]

Well as that is the case come Christmas after 24 years I'm leaving ebay.

[renozu]

Hi Marco

Thanks for this  - exactly what I wanted to know.
So ... I will nbe notified when it reaches the collection point, but,
obviously, no cover until it does arrive.

p.s. I cannot see this answer in the Weekly Chat...

pps. *vyolla*
<> on
the forum states that the seller ISN'T notified?!?

David

[marco@ebay]

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@kempseykate wrote:

marco@ebay 

I just tried to report a seller using your link above - when I hit 'submit' nothing happened. There was a flash of blue circle, then it stayed on the form with the 'submit' button still active.

Ignore! The seller had a different ID on the listing to the one shown on feedback. I corrected that and the report has now gone through!

---

Thanks for your reply, kempseykate.

Perfect, that will be reviewed and actioned accordingly. Please note that any outcome taken can only be shared with the account holder for privacy and security reasons.

Thank you,

Marco

[kat@ebay]

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@pg_kicks wrote:

Hi Kat, sorry to jump in but is that really all eBay are using to convince business sellers that its a fair and equal playing field? some extra credit when we are conned by buyers, how many extra credits as I sell hundreds over the year and it happens once or twice so extra credits isnt really what we need and more customer services who any time we have phoned in the past tell us to increase advertising spending?

Also marco just mentioned the open events? seriously the biggest news ebay has had in years yet nothing was mentioned about it at the open event, shows how much they care for business accounts?

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Hi @pg_kicks ,

I completely understand where your coming from on this. eBay announced the information on the day  it was going live as that is how it was planned.  We are taking all of the responses and sentiment from yourself and other users across the boards over the last few days and feeding these back. 

Thank you,

Kat

[marco@ebay]

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@krafty-kreations wrote:

Hi Marco

If you think there is an account that is not in compliance with our policies, you can report them using this link here under the reason The seller has violated one of eBay’s policies. We will then review the report and take actions accordingly.

I have reported quite a few, all still trading on private accounts, seems pointless.

---

Hi krafty-kreations, thanks for your input.

I will be happy to pass on your feedback on this, in the meantime, please continue to report them as usual.

Thank you,

Marco

[everyfone-uk]

I have tried calling customer serices many many times and they WONT REMOVE THE DEFECTS!

Please help! I thought tahts the point of this weekly chat??

Customer Services wont remove the defects despite ebay saying they will.

This is the 1st time ive come on this weekly chat because CS wont help!

Whats the point of this weekly chat if you guys dont help us?