Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 07.08.24 @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 anita@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

[johannadee]

Hello all,

This message is for Marco, in response to the below from last week's chat.

‎02-08-2024 12:24 PM

Hi johannadee,

I've just got an update on this, and I've been confirmed that the blocked buyers managed to place the bid/order right before they were added to the blocked list, which is why they were able to place the order. They double checked your account to make sure there is nothing wrong with it, and they didn't find anything either. So, this shouldn't happen to you again going forward.

Thank you,

Marco "

Whoever gave you the update seems to be confused between the Blocked Buyer list and Buyer Requirements. Both buyers did go onto my blocked buyers list after the transactions took place, because it was the only way I could see to make sure they did not buy again. However, the problem is and always has been that they were initially prevented from buying by Buyer Requirements and appear on the Activity Log as having too many unpaid strikes. Then, within an hour so, both managed to circumvent Buyer Requirements and successfully buy.

After I received your update I had another call with customer service and had the problem referred up as a technical issue. The same agent called me back today to tell me that they think it is a technical issue but they still don't know how it happened and it has been referred further up the line. So the saga continues.

Thank you for your efforts on my behalf.

[lincolnshiremarine]

Dear Marco

In response to your reply, have I and many other sellers wasted our time supplying the shipping team with solid evidence to prove otherwise?  This is not fair, and very unprofessional ebays side.

As i am typing this, I have had a message from a buyer asking "Hi can you tell me when can I get the pump thanks", having looked on the tracking ebay have told the buyer it would arrive today.  

That is impossible, so now I have to spend time looking and telling the buyer it will arrive as per the couriers time scale not ebays time scale.

Please can you respond.

Best wishes

[dave@ebay]

---

@bojangled wrote:

Hello community team

I'm afraid I'm banging on about the same old subject, because nothing is being done. 
I've previously said I wouldn't bother reporting these issues anymore, but last week 

I reported a seller last week who has at least 3 shops, all selling similar items, at least 2000 listings in each, is a 'private seller' and doesn't accept returns. 
It is incredibly frustrating that eBay isn't policing their own site, but my question is why do these sellers continue to get away with this obvious fee avoidance? 
Jo

---

Hi @bojangled 

This is something Ive been looking into and reporting internally. I understand how frustrating it can be when you go to the effort of reporting an account and it appears that no action taken. It can possibly be that the policy team reach out to the account and gave them some time to make any required changes or it may be that the action they took isn't visible to non account holders.

If you want to PM me the user ID I'm happy to send it on to the policy team to review. Obviously I wont be able to update you with any action that's taken but I can follow up with it to make sure that the correct action is taken. 

Thanks,

Dave

[anita@ebay]

---

@custom-giftsuk wrote:

Thank you for your reply. These items have been reported, by myself and others several times, yet no action is taken. I know you cannot comment on individual cases but if say, a seller was to list similar items and have them removed yet when others are reported nothing is done about it. I spoke to a customer support person last week in the trust & safety team who told me to be less sensitive and when I explained the rules, as described, she said she did not believe me and hung up. So would you care me to post a copy of the item I  complained about and yet nothing has been done?

---

Thanks for your reply @custom-giftsuk,

I can certainly pass on your feedback about the recent interaction with our customer support.

If you DM me the item number, I can forward it to our trust & safety team for a review.

Thank you,

Anita

[marco@ebay]

---

@johannadee wrote:

Hello all,

This message is for Marco, in response to the below from last week's chat.

‎02-08-2024 12:24 PM

Hi johannadee,

I've just got an update on this, and I've been confirmed that the blocked buyers managed to place the bid/order right before they were added to the blocked list, which is why they were able to place the order. They double checked your account to make sure there is nothing wrong with it, and they didn't find anything either. So, this shouldn't happen to you again going forward.

Thank you,

Marco "

Whoever gave you the update seems to be confused between the Blocked Buyer list and Buyer Requirements. Both buyers did go onto my blocked buyers list after the transactions took place, because it was the only way I could see to make sure they did not buy again. However, the problem is and always has been that they were initially prevented from buying by Buyer Requirements and appear on the Activity Log as having too many unpaid strikes. Then, within an hour so, both managed to circumvent Buyer Requirements and successfully buy.

After I received your update I had another call with customer service and had the problem referred up as a technical issue. The same agent called me back today to tell me that they think it is a technical issue but they still don't know how it happened and it has been referred further up the line. So the saga continues.

Thank you for your efforts on my behalf.

---

Hi johannadee, thanks for your question.

According to our internal tools and activity, we could see that the buyers in questions were not blocked before this, which is why they were able to place a bid/buy the item. Did this happen again? If so, could you please confirm the item number, so we can take a further look for you?

Thank you,

Marco

[yesterdays-child]

Please can you tell me when we are going to have visibility on the full list of new circumstances for feedback removal? It seems a little odd that we've been told there are now "even more" reasons for removal but we don't know what they are and some CS agents don't seem to know about the changes themselves. I have just last week had a neutral from someone who has only ever left one positive feedback and every other feedback is neutral or negative - that is exactly the type of problem buyer who makes it a profession to slate people's businesses and yet they're not being policed and ebay won't remove feedback....nobody can be that unfortunate that every buying experience is a bad one! 

[marco@ebay]

---

@lincolnshiremarine wrote:

Dear Marco

In response to your reply, have I and many other sellers wasted our time supplying the shipping team with solid evidence to prove otherwise?  This is not fair, and very unprofessional ebays side.

As i am typing this, I have had a message from a buyer asking "Hi can you tell me when can I get the pump thanks", having looked on the tracking ebay have told the buyer it would arrive today.  

That is impossible, so now I have to spend time looking and telling the buyer it will arrive as per the couriers time scale not ebays time scale.

Please can you respond.

Best wishes

---

Hi lincolnshiremarine, thanks for your reply.

No, any kind of information/feedback/insights you can share with us, is always highly appreciated, and it is always taken into consideration, which is why the shipping team got involved and looked into all your concerns. So, I wouldn't say your time or anyone else's time was wasted here at all. However, this is the way EDDs are designed to work, and at the moment there are no issues impacting them.

I totally understand where you are coming from, and I see your point. However, no further actions can be taken here, as this is working as expected at the moment.

Thank you,

Marco

[anita@ebay]

---

@yesterdays-child wrote:

Please can you tell me when we are going to have visibility on the full list of new circumstances for feedback removal? It seems a little odd that we've been told there are now "even more" reasons for removal but we don't know what they are and some CS agents don't seem to know about the changes themselves. I have just last week had a neutral from someone who has only ever left one positive feedback and every other feedback is neutral or negative - that is exactly the type of problem buyer who makes it a profession to slate people's businesses and yet they're not being policed and ebay won't remove feedback....nobody can be that unfortunate that every buying experience is a bad one! 

---

Hi @yesterdays-child, thanks for your post.

We are working on a new policy Help page that will be published in the next couple of months.

The new policies are already in place and information available internally, so the teammates are aware of the new policies and these are being taken into consideration when reviewing appeals.

Thank you,

Anita

[lincolnshiremarine]

Hi Marco

Whilst this is not your fault, you are representing ebay and words like "there are no issues impacting them" is totally false.

Can you tell me then, why I am having buyers sending me messages asking me where is the item.  Furthermore if I ignored buyers that sent me messages ebay would be on to me straight away.  Why is it acceptable that the shipping team can ignore my emails.

Best wishes

[custom-giftsuk]

Thank you to Anita & Marco for taking the time to answer my questions. It's really appreciated and I know its a small matter overall in the grand scheme of things but its questions that have really been bugging me and I know that I'll use the advice given here in writing when I'm at the eBay Open UK day in September when speaking to other members of eBay CS team and citing your helpful advice & guidance.

[johannadee]

There haven't been any more occurrences. Just the two item numbers I supplied previously. And you are right, they weren't blocked before the purchases but they were prevented from buying, twice for one of them, by the Buyer Requirements set on my account, i.e. not having 2 or more unpaid strikes and they appear on my Buyer Requirements Activity Log as refused/prevented. This was on the same day that they later managed to buy. Being a blocked buyer is not the same as being prevented by Buyer Requirements and if the latter had worked as it should there would have been no need for me to block them later.

[marco@ebay]

---

@lincolnshiremarine wrote:

Hi Marco

Whilst this is not your fault, you are representing ebay and words like "there are no issues impacting them" is totally false.

Can you tell me then, why I am having buyers sending me messages asking me where is the item.  Furthermore if I ignored buyers that sent me messages ebay would be on to me straight away.  Why is it acceptable that the shipping team can ignore my emails.

Best wishes

---

Thanks for your reply, lincolnshiremarine. 

It is fairly normal for buyers to query on their transactions, and ask for tracking updates, etc, that's part of trading online. I can see why you think this is related to estimated delivery date, but again, no issues are affecting EDDs. I understand this is not the answer/update you were looking, and I understand you are not happy with the way it works, but I am afraid that we wouldn't be able to take further steps here in order to help, as everything is working as expected.

Thank you,

Marco

[anita@ebay]

---

@custom-giftsuk wrote:

Thank you to Anita & Marco for taking the time to answer my questions. It's really appreciated and I know its a small matter overall in the grand scheme of things but its questions that have really been bugging me and I know that I'll use the advice given here in writing when I'm at the eBay Open UK day in September when speaking to other members of eBay CS team and citing your helpful advice & guidance.

---

No problem at all @custom-giftsuk, happy to help.

I also do see your private message with more details, and will get back to you after the chat.

Thank you,

Anita

[marco@ebay]

---

@johannadee wrote:

There haven't been any more occurrences. Just the two item numbers I supplied previously. And you are right, they weren't blocked before the purchases but they were prevented from buying, twice for one of them, by the Buyer Requirements set on my account, i.e. not having 2 or more unpaid strikes and they appear on my Buyer Requirements Activity Log as refused/prevented. This was on the same day that they later managed to buy. Being a blocked buyer is not the same as being prevented by Buyer Requirements and if the latter had worked as it should there would have been no need for me to block them later.

---

Thanks for your reply, johannadee. 

I see where you are coming from here, but this was double checked for you, and no issues were found other than the records showing the buyers being blocked after them placing their bids/orders. If it has not happened again, we wouldn't be able to take further actions. However, if this happens again, please let me know and I will look into it for you no problem.  Please note that you don't have to wait until the weekly chat to let me know, if it happens again, feel free to create a thread and tag me on it, and I will give you a hand no problem.

Thank you,

Marco