💬 Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 07.12.22 @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. 

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

[ravenmoss]

Hi, I have had a missing weekly payment that was due on 6th Dec, after speaking online I was told that managed weekly payments under £100.00 are not paid out and due to payments still processing I must wait another week, Why is this as I have not had any issues before apart from the other year when alot of sellers had a late payment and the total owing is more than £100 ??

[easi-printing]

Hi All,

When I come to print orders, the Personalisation Details (i.e Name and Age) are not printed out, I am forced to write out everyone by hand (in this day and age) on the paperwork. This can and does lead to errors during busy period. I have highlighted this on many occasions to eBay CS, just don't have this problem on Etsy.

Thank You

Look forward to your reply.

[returns_andexdisplay]

Can something be done about the post code in orders please. With the issues with RM and the affect is is having on many other couriers I am moving some items to UPS via Packlink to save late scans and defects ebay are happy to stick on accounts if item is not scanned on time then delivered late. 

Many orders are noting being pulled through and have to be processed manually due to a error with the post code where buyers doesn't leave a space in the post code XX002xx instead of xx00 2xx 

Thanks 

[bravergrace]

With the extended dispatch dates to allow for Royal Mail strike days, you are now extending my working week. For example, if there is a strike on Friday, eBay is telling me I need to dispatch on SATURDAY instead.  Even though my working week on the eBay "Set Your Working Days" page https://www.ebay.co.uk/ship/cutoff is just Monday to Friday.

Is this intentional?  Does eBay seriously think that sellers should be working weekends every time Royal Mail goes on strike?

[spex4you]

Good afternoon,

I, like many other business sellers am suffereing from fallout due to ebay not extending shipping dates in November.

Whilst many customers are happy to wait, some are not, and some are using it as a way of getting something for nothing.

I use Royal Mail for 95% of my orders and use "stamps".

I am not protected as there is no tracking.

My main concern is my metrics which could impact my "top rated seller" rating.

If you an see that a seller has been complying with all service metrics on an annual rolling basis, could we not get a 4-6 week  exemption for service metric INR's and late deliveries? Say from Mid November to start of January?

This would take a great deal of pressure off and I would not deal with my customers any differently.

I note from the discussion boards some sellers are closing their ebay (shops) businesses shortly so they dont have their service metrics impaired!

I dont want to close down and I understand you are extending shipping times, but every day when I open my business I have the threat of INR's which causes extra worry.

As a top rated seller It would really help if i didn't need to worry about my metrics daily for an issue I have no control over.

I want my customers to have the best experience they can from me and ebay but I just need a little more support from ebay to help me acheive this.

Many Thanks

Martin.

Spex4you

[kat@ebay]

Hi @ravenmoss ,

I'm going to have this looked into. I'll need to link in with payments and I'll come back and update you.

Thank you,

Kat

[lord_and_lady_m]

Can you advise, how soon can a buyer open an Item Not Received Case? 

[katie@ebay]

---

@easi-printing wrote:

Hi All,

When I come to print orders, the Personalisation Details (i.e Name and Age) are not printed out, I am forced to write out everyone by hand (in this day and age) on the paperwork. This can and does lead to errors during busy period. I have highlighted this on many occasions to eBay CS, just don't have this problem on Etsy.

Thank You

Look forward to your reply.

---

Hi @easi-printing,

Are you printing the invoice for the order or what page is it you're printing out?

If the option isn't available we can help with alternatives and sharing this idea with the seller hub team.

Thanks,

Katie 

[kat@ebay]

Hi @returns_andexdisplay ,

I'll send this on for feedback. Can you send me a screenshot by private message to show how the post code looks so it can be reviewed.

Thank you,

Kat

[katie@ebay]

---

@bravergrace wrote:

With the extended dispatch dates to allow for Royal Mail strike days, you are now extending my working week. For example, if there is a strike on Friday, eBay is telling me I need to dispatch on SATURDAY instead.  Even though my working week on the eBay "Set Your Working Days" page https://www.ebay.co.uk/ship/cutoff is just Monday to Friday.

Is this intentional?  Does eBay seriously think that sellers should be working weekends every time Royal Mail goes on strike?

---

Hi @bravergrace,

Thank you for your question. I do think this is in place to cover for those striking issues. I understand the issues this would create for your working week and creating a correct expectation.

Could you send me an item number for this example and I'll provide it as feedback in relation to the strike actions?

Thanks,

Katie 

[ukhaberdashery]

I left a message about not receiving all messages and gave and example in this thread here.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Technical-Issues/Some-buyers-smessages-are-not-forwarded-to-my-email...

I have already received a negative as we thought the situation was finished with a buyer as we had heard nothing back.

Yesterday there was another message, on ebay but not sent to us.

Dave@ebay was looking into it and I wondered what time scale in iinvoled in getting back to me or is it going to be fixed with no reply to my querie?

This has been goiing on for a while now and not a recent problem.

[easi-printing]

Hi,

Thank you for the response. 

When I print the order / packing slip or literally anything. There is no personalisation information printed.

You can get the colour if this is added as a variation but you can't do that for the Name and Age. 

[katie@ebay]

---

@lord_and_lady_m wrote:

Can you advise, how soon can a buyer open an Item Not Received Case? 

---

Hi @lord_and_lady_m ,

No changes have been made to the eBay Money-Back Guarantee in relation to timeframes and a buyer can open an item not received case once the estimated delivery date has passed.

Due to strikes we are asking buyers to be understanding of things outside of seller's control and have requested they wait a few extra days to open a case where possible as they have until 30 days after the estimated delivery date to open a claim.

Thanks,

Katie 

[n.e.stickers]

I think it would be good if eBay could have the same system as other sites, where you type your postcode and then choose your address from  a list of options. 

[kat@ebay]

---

@spex4you wrote:

Good afternoon,

I, like many other business sellers am suffereing from fallout due to ebay not extending shipping dates in November.

Whilst many customers are happy to wait, some are not, and some are using it as a way of getting something for nothing.

I use Royal Mail for 95% of my orders and use "stamps".

I am not protected as there is no tracking.

My main concern is my metrics which could impact my "top rated seller" rating.

If you an see that a seller has been complying with all service metrics on an annual rolling basis, could we not get a 4-6 week  exemption for service metric INR's and late deliveries? Say from Mid November to start of January?

This would take a great deal of pressure off and I would not deal with my customers any differently.

I note from the discussion boards some sellers are closing their ebay (shops) businesses shortly so they dont have their service metrics impaired!

I dont want to close down and I understand you are extending shipping times, but every day when I open my business I have the threat of INR's which causes extra worry.

As a top rated seller It would really help if i didn't need to worry about my metrics daily for an issue I have no control over.

I want my customers to have the best experience they can from me and ebay but I just need a little more support from ebay to help me acheive this.

Many Thanks

Martin.

Spex4you

Hi @spex4you ,

There is seller protections in place until 31st of December and the listed protections can be found here. 

This includes INR's and Service Metrics . Protection is for non tracked services also. There was a recent issue with some accounts and their service metrics and I have confirmation from the shipping team that those accounts should be resolved within the next 72 hours.

Thank you,

Kat

---

[katie@ebay]

---

@easi-printing wrote:

Hi,

Thank you for the response. 

When I print the order / packing slip or literally anything. There is no personalisation information printed.

You can get the colour if this is added as a variation but you can't do that for the Name and Age. 

---

Thank you for the details. I'll share this sentiment with the team as it would be a great addition.

I'm not sure if it will exactly do what you need but I do find printing this page of orders is helpful as you can see the yellow box with the details of each other but also the postcode to match to labels. There's an option to print in the top right corner of the results section.

Hope this helps,

Katie 

[lord_and_lady_m]

So basically, ebay tells US SELLERS to set accurate dispatch times etc, ebay then overrides it with their own ideas of estimated dates. Often telling buyers they will potentially receive it before the seller has posted it. Then a buyer can open a request straight after that date despite it being possible the seller is only just posting it within their own chosen timeframes.

When will ebay start listening to sellers, that are doing as they are told by ensuring their dispatch times and postage choices accurately reflect things, to then allow the algorithm to do its own thing and leave the sellers in a INR situation that cannot be resolved as quickly as ebay allows?

Basically ebay is doing what it likes. If a seller extends their dispatch times, because they probably will when it's busier than the norm, the algorithm ignores it. it's literally only time away settings that extend things properly.

[bitznbobs4]

Hi, First time using this as considering closing for forseeable future due to strikes. I use royal mail and do not wish to change as other carriers are flooded with orders and dpd have asked me not to schedule a collection for 10 days at least due to back log. i am concerned that customers will open INR cases as soon as theres a delay with their item and if i have to refund after 3 working days then i cannot make a claim with royal mail for about 10 working days by which time the customer may receive the order and the claim will be void so i will lose product sold and refund. should i just shut shop for a month or is there a way around this without using another carrier?

[petals-and-paws]

I've had 2 buyers open INRs before the estimated delivery date, both have been reported to eBay and I was told it was a 'known glitch' that eBay were aware of. So unfortunately it would seem that in some cases, buyers can open INRs much sooner than they should be able to.