💬 Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 07.09.22 @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. 

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

[addyeddy]

I bought an item and paid a premium for next day delivery with DPD. 

The seller kept their side of the bargain, but DPD messaged me the morning of delivery saying 'there is an issue in your area', there isn't at all, and this is the second time they've done this to me.

I asked the seller to make a complaint, but they seem reluctant to do so, saying it would take too long to resolve, but I've paid for a service I've not received. 

How can I go about getting my money back?

Any advice appreciated. 

[lord_and_lady_m]

Hello,

I had an order, that i only noticed as I saw the sales email. I cannot find it anywhere in orders. Only if i scroll through my transactions. Not sure what to do with it. When I go in the order, I cannot even purchase postage.

Thanks

[lord_and_lady_m]

Hello Again,

I have another question:

About fees for the Home, Furniture and DIY category. If i sell something personalised in this category, UNDER £10, will I be on the personalised variable rate of 8% and the new 10p fixed rate for UNDER £10 in that category?

Thanks

[dave@ebay]

---

@lord_and_lady_m wrote:

Hello,

I had an order, that i only noticed as I saw the sales email. I cannot find it anywhere in orders. Only if i scroll through my transactions. Not sure what to do with it. When I go in the order, I cannot even purchase postage.

Thanks

---

Hi @lord_and_lady_m 

Thanks for reaching out. 

Can you send me the item number and I'll have a look into for you.

Thanks,

Dave

[suema_62]

When will verification be sorted? i have one account that requires verification at every log in and it is my oldest account. I get caught in an edit loop and refusal by ebay to accept a landline that accepts numeric messages. Via previous CS i was told it woud be sorted but may take a few weeks those are past. Close to giving up on that account as it isnt event getting promotion offers unlike other family accounts.

[kat@ebay]

---

@addyeddy wrote:

I bought an item and paid a premium for next day delivery with DPD. 

The seller kept their side of the bargain, but DPD messaged me the morning of delivery saying 'there is an issue in your area', there isn't at all, and this is the second time they've done this to me.

I asked the seller to make a complaint, but they seem reluctant to do so, saying it would take too long to resolve, but I've paid for a service I've not received. 

How can I go about getting my money back?

Any advice appreciated. 

---

Hi @addyeddy ,

The issue with the delivery seems to be unforseen circumstances by DPD.  I understand you paid for a specific service and not receiving it is not a great experience. This issue would have also been outside of the sellers control.

It would be up to the seller to follow up with DPD for not receiving the service that was paid for and you can ask the seller to do this .I'm afraid there wouldn't be any way to force the seller to do this however.   You could try and follow up with DPD directly.

Thank you,

Kat

[kat@ebay]

---

@suema_62 wrote:

When will verification be sorted? i have one account that requires verification at every log in and it is my oldest account. I get caught in an edit loop and refusal by ebay to accept a landline that accepts numeric messages. Via previous CS i was told it woud be sorted but may take a few weeks those are past. Close to giving up on that account as it isnt event getting promotion offers unlike other family accounts.

---

Hi @suema_62 ,

The verification does work on landlines as long as they can accept receiving a text that turns into an call to give you the number. Have you checked with customer service to see the phone number is displaying correctly and checked with your phone company that it will receive the verification code?

Thank you,

Kat

[tandypandyz]

I can't send messages to sellers. On 3rd August 2022 I bought 2 items from an Ebay seller, I then sent him several polite messages to discuss the item - I wasn't having any problems with seller, we were just discussing the items and we had no problems with each other. At some point in that day, Ebay stopped sending my messages to the seller and when I sent him further messages, the message screen said my message was sent yet when I checked my Sent folder, the message wasn't there. 

I reported this to Ebay twice over the phone 1 week apart and they said they were aware of the issue and would fix it and keep me updated. I've never had a response from Ebay and I still can't send messages to the seller. I want to buy more stuff from him but I'm unable to until I can contact him.

Can you please look into this and get somebody to explain what's going on. It shouldn't took 1 month to fix a simple issue like this.

[lord_and_lady_m]

Hello

Question about ebays estimated delivery dates:

How is this acceptable by EBAY.  Please do not tell me the algorithm is working, because my 6 year old could write a better algorithm. Either that or ebay are deliberately doing this to cause sellers problems.

I have on some items, same day / 1  day delivery. Because, I know for that item I can despatch that quickly. However I have selected 5 day courier as I  do not know how long it will take to deliver, but prefer a sensible delivery time. Especially when I know there will likely be delays. 30th was a strike day, following a previous strike and a bank holiday, so common sense says 1st onwards is hell. You don't know what service I use beacuse I do not put tracking into ebay for you to be able to guess how long it should take, so I purposefully choose a longer service to cover myself.

So imagine my surprise and ANGER when this customer opens a case on 4th September, saying they've not arrived and only wants a refund. I'm absolutely steaming with anger as I do not expect anyone to be able to open a case before my estimate. Little do I know, ebay has made up it's own  estimate based on a algorithm that can only guess when my items arrive as i don't have tracking. Also i'm now liable beacuse ebay have over promised the buyer and I have apparantly provided a less that expected service. What will happen with this case is the customer will get to keep their product, as it will arrive after the delays. They will claim it didn't arrive knowing it was a low cost item so won't be tracked, and I have to pay. Yet if ebay had show and estimate based on the service I selected and my despatch time, the customer would have made a decision based on something more factual. They wouldn't have purchase the item OR the would have chosen a faster delivery option and paid extra for it as they were in a rush. Ebay, in fact, showed the same date for all the options. So why would any buyer paid for a faster service when they need it urgently when the free service shows just as quick.

YES I AM ANGRY. I'm very upset and now panicking about Christmas. Most of my products are seasonal, with Christmas being the main selling time. If ebay are showing next day delivery on my free postage at Christmas time, when it generally takes a week+ i'll be spending Christmas day refunding everyone because I ruined their Christmas because it never arrived in time.

So ebay, please explain why this is happening, and how it is going to be fixed. Having seen endless threads about this, it is not functioning as it should.

[eshopforce01]

Hello,

1. Why do i need to login every 5mns ? It's a bit annoying to have to login everytime i want to do an action in ebay.

2. eBay keeps updating the returns as "delivered" when it's clearly not returned yet a bit  misleading.

Thanks

[kat@ebay]

---

@tandypandyz wrote:

I can't send messages to sellers. On 3rd August 2022 I bought 2 items from an Ebay seller, I then sent him several polite messages to discuss the item - I wasn't having any problems with seller, we were just discussing the items and we had no problems with each other. At some point in that day, Ebay stopped sending my messages to the seller and when I sent him further messages, the message screen said my message was sent yet when I checked my Sent folder, the message wasn't there. 

I reported this to Ebay twice over the phone 1 week apart and they said they were aware of the issue and would fix it and keep me updated. I've never had a response from Ebay and I still can't send messages to the seller. I want to buy more stuff from him but I'm unable to until I can contact him.

Can you please look into this and get somebody to explain what's going on. It shouldn't took 1 month to fix a simple issue like this.

---

Hi @tandypandyz ,

I have checked and can see this is a known technical issue. I don't have a timescale for a resolution as of yet. Can I ask you to post this to our technical issues boards and tag me. Just put @kat and my name will come up. I can follow it up so any updates for this issue I can update it there.

Thank you,

Kat

[dave@ebay]

---

@lord_and_lady_m wrote:

Hello Again,

I have another question:

About fees for the Home, Furniture andDIYY category. If i sell something personalised in this category, UNDER£100, will I be on the personalised variable rate of 8% and the new10pp fixed rate for UNDER£100 in that category?

Thanks

---

Hi @lord_and_lady_m 

To qualify for the promotion you will need to have the Personalise and Personalisation Instructions item specifics filled out. There are also some categories excluded from the offer, for example DIY Tools & Workshop Equipment.

You can find the full list of T&Cs here.

Thanks,

Dave

[lord_and_lady_m]

I already qualify for personalisation, however I'm on the low cost rate 15% +5p so then do not qualify. SO if come of Low cost back the normal home and garden rate, not an excluded category, do i therefore get personalised variable rate of 8% and the new 10p fixed rate for UNDER £10 in the home category?

[kat@ebay]

---

@eshopforce01 wrote:

Hello,

1. Why do i need to login every 5mns ? It's a bit annoying to have to login everytime i want to do an action in ebay.

2. eBay keeps updating the returns as "delivered" when it's clearly not returned yet a bit  misleading.

Thanks

---

Hi @eshopforce01 ,

With the new verification step it does mean there are more times it will ask you to log in. It can happen depending on what parts of the account are being logged into. I understand it can be frustrating doing it a number of times and its feedback I will give back to the relevant team.

If you want to provide an item number where this return delivered situation occurred and we can have it reviewed.

Thank you,

Kat

[tandypandyz]

Thanks. Do I just put @kat in the post just like typing any other word in my post or is there a special way to tag you?

Also is there a way to only get email notifications when someone on this Ebay Community board replies to my post instead of receiving notifications when other members of the public create posts?

[lord_and_lady_m]

I tried but I got told off by an ebay mod for posting the item number as you asked. Go figure!

[babybitz08]

Hi, I've just sold an item.  I have to despatch the item by 13th September 11.59pm but the estimated delivery date shown to my buyer is 12th-14th September.  How can this be as I post Royal Mail 2nd class, so an item posted on the 13th won't reach my buyer until the 15th at the earliest.

[kat@ebay]

---

@tandypandyz wrote:

Thanks. Do I just put @kat in the post just like typing any other word in my post or is there a special way to tag you?

Also is there a way to only get email notifications when someone on this eBay Community board replies to my post instead of receiving notifications when other members of the public create posts?

---

Hi @tandypandyz ,

If you type @kat my name should auto populate and you can click on it. If there is any issues with it don't worry you can just write my name and I will keep an eye on the board for the post.

If you go to " my settings" on your eBay community account. Click on your profile and go to my settings and then subscriptions and bookmarks. Here it should give you options for notifications.

Thank you,

Kat

[ukhaberdashery]

Royal Mail are striking again on the 8th and 9th but ebay has nothing on their frontpage to let buyers know this. I guess they are also not altering delivery timescales that use RM as the delivery company. so any items we pack tomorrow wont even be collected till Monday and there will be the inevitible backlog which will mean even more delay. Any item posted tomorrow will most probably be there next Friday and not Monday or Tuesday like ebay are saying to buyers.

Why does ebay not do something more proactive with this situation rather than leave the sellers to deal with the angry customers who are led to believe by ebay that there items would be there on unrealistic dates.