Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 08.01.25 @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 kat@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

[forestfeline62]

we have been told that sellers will be made to use ebay postage when sending items ,so will have to print out our lpostage abels or get a QR code . Is this true ?as we don't own a printer or a smart phone so would make it impossible to post anything . 

[kat@ebay]

---

@10.20 wrote:

Hi Cat, but we can communicate via eBay's messaging system, it's unnecessary to provide all the information the form requires in the first instance, a phone number is the most that is needed, eBay needs to act responsibly and protect peoples information due to the large number of fake classified ads posted in the vehicles section and financial frauds going on online generally. The form fills that info in and makes you include it when replying to a classified ad. It is completely unnecessary.

---

Hi @10.20 ,

I will share your point as feedback for the forms on classified ads. If you do come across an ad which you feel is fake then you can report it through the site so that it can be reviewed and the relevant action.

Thank you,

Kat

[marco@ebay]

---

@forestfeline62 wrote:

we have been told that sellers will be made to use ebay postage when sending items ,so will have to print out our lpostage abels or get a QR code . Is this true ?as we don't own a printer or a smart phone so would make it impossible to post anything . 

---

Hi leopardlass, thanks for your question.

You will have the option to print it yourself, but you can just go to the collection point with your QR code and they will print it for you no problem.

Thank you,

Marco

[johnwash1]

Has the community team considered getting more senior people to attend these Wednesday sessions sometimes, to short circuit the inevitable "We don't have an answer to that, we'll contact the team, but they may not do anything" followed by tumbleweed?

Or has the community team indeed tried that but found senior management don't fancy sticking their hands in a hornet's nest?

People are in shock that mandatory Simple Delivery was announced by the CEO to investors months ago, yet nothing has been told to us, so conjecture is widespread.  Ebay are missing a chance to defuse this.

[ak_craft_crazy]

Hi,

Please can you provide me the details on how i make a complaint about eBay and how they handled a recent issue i had?

Thanks

[marco@ebay]

---

@ak_craft_crazy wrote:

Hi,

Please can you provide me the details on how i make a complaint about eBay and how they handled a recent issue i had?

Thanks

---

Hi ak_craft_crazy, thanks for your question.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience, but if you wish to lodge a complaint, you can call our customer service team, and they will lodge your complaint no problem.

Thank you,

Marco

[ak_craft_crazy]

Hi,

Tried that but they said they do not handle complaints.

Thanks

[marco@ebay]

---

@ak_craft_crazy wrote:

Hi,

Tried that but they said they do not handle complaints.

Thanks

---

Thanks for your reply, ak_craft_crazy.

I was checking for you there, and you haven't contacted in the last week. How recent was the issue in question? I'm not sure what happened there, but they should be able to lodge a complaint from their end.

Thank you,

Marco

[auctiongabble]

Before christmas i requested a 1:1 with a professional to help with advertising etc, not to my surprise, i didn't get a callback from this department.

I tried various promotion ads, absolutely no improvement in sales or traffic regardless of how much money i threw at it.....no traffic, no sales, no commission for ebay.

How do ebay think adding a buyers fee is going to entice more people to the platform?

To fool people saying it is a 'Buyer protection' fee when they already have that in place with ebay money back gaurantee....so a fee for something already in place by ebay!

Surely you lot have seen the numerous posts on the forum regarding this......

What disatrous decision will be next by the decision makers at ebay HQ?

Below is a few simple suggestions to pass back to the decision makers:-

1. Private sellers should not be entitled to have a shop

2. Private sellers to be limited on number of items allowed to list / sell per year

3. Free basic shop for Business sellers

4. Business sellers to have free listings

5. Same final fee % for private and business sellers, one standard flate rate fee.  No need for different rates depending on catergory.

6. Ebay to get rid of all these 'bolt on fee' they introduced...

7. Ebay to get rid of promoted listings / ads and advertise like they used too.  Better advertising = more sales = more commission for ebay

8. Any private seller selling over the £1k allowance to have their details sent to HMRC for HMRC to deal with.

[bobsbrickstuff]

I'm afraid I have really rather lost faith in the tech team's honesty regarding these matters.

Regarding the issue of international shipping labels being formatted for A4 instead of 6x4, when 6x4 is selected, they got me performing all these tests and going to a cybercafe etc, eventually acknowledged the issue, told me for over a year that they're working on it at the highest priority, then two years after being told of the issue, they tell you that there's no issue and it's working as designed.

I'd really like to raise an official complaint about them lying to me, as I'm at a loss trying to understand why they've done this.

[johnwash1]

How will people with accessibility issues sell, if buyers will be allowed to choose services where Simple (?) Delivery doesn't provide collection?

For years I've been booking direct with RM and my postie collects the next day from my enclosed porch, where I've left the parcel overnight.  What will happen if my buyer selects Evri?

[kat@ebay]

---

@johnwash1 wrote:

Has the community team considered getting more senior people to attend these Wednesday sessions sometimes, to short circuit the inevitable "We don't have an answer to that, we'll contact the team, but they may not do anything" followed by tumbleweed?

Or has the community team indeed tried that but found senior management don't fancy sticking their hands in a hornet's nest?

People are in shock that mandatory Simple Delivery was announced by the CEO to investors months ago, yet nothing has been told to us, so conjecture is widespread.  Ebay are missing a chance to defuse this.

---

Hi @johnwash1 ,

These weekly chats are run by the community team and there is no plans to have other senior people attend them.  We share the feedback and sentiment from these chats along with the discussion boards with the relevant people within eBay. 

If there is information that needs to be clarified we follow this up. Simple delivery has been introduced and currently there is an opt out option. We do not have any further details right now on it being mandatory.  Once there is further updates on that aspect we will share it on the community.

Thank you,

Kat 

[vjbuystuff]

Hi

I use tracked delivery for 95% of my sold items, and i ONLY use royal mail and parcelforce for large items.

I only use collections, not drop offs, especially for parcelforce, as parcelforce drop off depot is 44 mile round trip which takes 2.5 hours.

I cannot book a collection from parcelforce via the ebay postage service on the app or web browser, therefore is use parcelforce website to book collections, it links to my ebay account to collect sales data.

will this be sorted out before simple delivery is imposed, as, otherwise i will no longer be able to sell anything larger than royal mails medium parcel

[exponential_developments]

Simplify your sign-in

I must have been asked 50 times, at what point is it going to stop?

[johnwash1]

kat@ebay 

The CEO told investors months ago that Simple Delivery would be mandatory in the UK at some point in Q1.

I assume you're ebay staff, so why are you not being informed?

[bojangled]

Good Afternoon Team

Following up from @johnwash1‘s question, there is some real misinformation being thrown about on the boards and CS. 

I’ve just read that one seller was told by CS that the new payment process only apply to new or occasional sellers. Well that’s obviously not true.

The mentors fought a firestorm this weekend. Thought they were all amazing.

But to my question, shouldn’t there be a more interactive approach from eBay CS on these boards? For reassurance and damage limitation, some of your colleagues with some real understanding of how this is going to work before February.

Jo

[a45heaven]

You will have the option to print it yourself, but you can just go to the collection point with your QR code and they will print it for you no problem.

No printer and no smart phone - where is a 'collection point' ?- 

[marco@ebay]

---

@johnwash1 wrote:

How will people with accessibility issues sell, if buyers will be allowed to choose services where Simple (?) Delivery doesn't provide collection?

For years I've been booking direct with RM and my postie collects the next day from my enclosed porch, where I've left the parcel overnight.  What will happen if my buyer selects Evri?

---

Hi johnwash1, thanks for your reply.

Simple Delivery is not really mandatory at the moment, so they can still pick the courier and service of their preference, so the items can be collected from them. Even if it was, a collection option would most likely be available to help in those scenarios.

Thank you,

Marco

[kat@ebay]

---

@auctiongabble wrote:

Before christmas i requested a 1:1 with a professional to help with advertising etc, not to my surprise, i didn't get a callback from this department.

I tried various promotion ads, absolutely no improvement in sales or traffic regardless of how much money i threw at it.....no traffic, no sales, no commission for ebay.

How do ebay think adding a buyers fee is going to entice more people to the platform?

To fool people saying it is a 'Buyer protection' fee when they already have that in place with ebay money back gaurantee....so a fee for something already in place by ebay!

Surely you lot have seen the numerous posts on the forum regarding this......

What disatrous decision will be next by the decision makers at ebay HQ?

Below is a few simple suggestions to pass back to the decision makers:-

1. Private sellers should not be entitled to have a shop

2. Private sellers to be limited on number of items allowed to list / sell per year

3. Free basic shop for Business sellers

4. Business sellers to have free listings

5. Same final fee % for private and business sellers, one standard flate rate fee.  No need for different rates depending on catergory.

6. Ebay to get rid of all these 'bolt on fee' they introduced...

7. Ebay to get rid of promoted listings / ads and advertise like they used too.  Better advertising = more sales = more commission for ebay

8. Any private seller selling over the £1k allowance to have their details sent to HMRC for HMRC to deal with.

---

Hi @auctiongabble ,

We are monitoring the various threads on the topic of the buyers fee and are sharing the sentiment back within eBay.  The Buyer Protection provides new benefits to give buyers more peace of mind when shopping. 24/7 customer support where buyers can connect with a real person by phone at any time of day, or start a chat to get quick answers. Sellers will also now be paid after delivery so when buying from private sellers, funds will only be sent once their item has been delivered. This can help with buyer confidence giving them time to raise a concern if they have one.

With regards to your 8 points I will share these as feedback.

Thank you,

Kat

[ak_craft_crazy]

The issue happened over Christmas in relation to a return where the buyer falsely said the item was not as described. I contact customer services via the phone and had issues with them as they said my partner, who is the primary contact on the account, was not able to speak to them as he didn't have authority. This is one issue!

Eventually we spoke to them and they said they would take over the return and to leave it with them. We did and they contacted us back a few days later saying that they have found the case in our favour and accepted the buyer misused the returns, they told us to do the usual report them ETC which we already did. Then said they will refund the buyer from Ebay and not us and that we did not need to do anything and the case would not affect us. 

Now this is also mentioned in the message sent when the return was closed. However the buyer has received a refund, we are still out of pocket for the return and the buyer has managed to leave negative feedback. When we have requested this be removed via the "request to remove feedback" page it was declined for some reason.

So we would like to make a complaint one about customer service refusing to speak to my partner even though he is on the account and even down as the main contact and also how they actually spoke to him. 

Second the way in which the return was dealt with by eBay saying it would not affect us but it clearly has so we have been lied to.