💬 Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 08.03.23 @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

[ducatimondo]

The eBay search is not fit for purpose and does not work properly.

We have chain links for motorcycle chains that are all very specific.
Each chain link only fits the specific chain to match it's model variant.
This is already complicated enough, with many buyers not reading them properly and/or eBay not displaying them correctly.

I discovered a new issue to this yesterday.
We have received some stock of the new version of chain links from DID, the new for 2023 ZVMX2 series, that replace the existing ZVMX series.
When we list them, they come in different sizes, 525 and 530 and also different colours, black or gold and also hollow rivet or solid rivet.

When I was trying to search eBay for them yesterday to see if we were the first to have these new links and therefore first to list them, I was stuck in a loop of eBay's search interfering and blocking from finding anything. So I can't answer that question and if I was a buyer, I also could not have bought them if they were listed.

If I search for "did 530 ZVMX2 rivet link", I get the older chains and eBay instead saying "Showing results for did 530 zvmx 2 rivet link. Search instead for did 530 ZVMX2 rivet link"

That is not what I wanted.
So I click the link that says "Search instead for did 530 ZVMX2 rivet link" and instead I get no results and that "we have streamlined results, click here to see all results"
So I click there and instead get the first search results saying "Showing results for did 530 zvmx 2 rivet link. Search instead for did 530 ZVMX2 rivet link"

Why do eBay insist on interfering, can eBay please just show me what I am search for instead of guessing and blocking any results.

The whole thing is important, it has to be shown verbatim ZVMX2 and not anything else.

ZVMX is not ZVMX2 and vice versa

We have listed one of the links to start tonight, so it will be interesting to see if I can find it tomorrow...

Regards
Russ

[drymartini*]

Hi

There is a glitch on ebay where items listed on ebay.co.uk are not displaying on ebay.com. It happens when you have several items listed for sale and when someone clicks on ‘Visit Store’ or ‘See other items’ only a small fraction of the items you have for sale then appears. For instance, I currently have 277 items listed for sale in my shop.  On ebay.com it appears as though I only have 15 items for sale.  So any potential buyer using ebay.com has no way of knowing that I actually have hundreds more items for sale.  My customers simply cannot find them and I am losing out on sales because of this.

I first reported this glitch to both ebay.co.uk and .com back in October last year and was assured on numerous occasions that this would be resolved on a priority basis.  However, nothing has ever been resolved and the problem still persists, five months later (it could be much longer, this is only since I first discovered it) with devastating consequences for sellers.  I feel that I have been fobbed off by ebay, I have heard nothing further and I feel this matter is not being treated with the urgency and gravitas that it clearly deserves. 

I used to sell a large proportion of my items to America and other countries, but since this glitch I have only had a few international sales.  Many different categories are affected - including ‘Vintage & Antique Jewellery’, ‘Books’, ‘Fashion’ ‘Collectables & Art’ ‘Home & Garden’ etc (more and more categories are coming to light all the time). This is Huge – it also affects other countries which interact with ebay.com, not just .co.uk.  

To see the problem for yourself - go to ebay.com (don’t log in) copy and paste one of your item numbers.  Click on the item and then go to ‘visit store’, (it also does the same thing on ‘see other items’) scroll down to the bottom of the page and click ‘See All’.  This should then show you all the items in your shop, however, it is only showing a fraction of them, depending on what category you listed in.  It is not just business sellers with shops who are affected - private sellers are also affected, with and without shops. 

My business has suffered dreadfully because of this, and I know that other sellers are in exactly the same position.  I would appreciate a reply from ebay as soon as possible please, to inform me what steps they are taking to resolve this issue, including a timescale.  I do also feel that some sort of compensation would be in order, given the gravitas of this situation, the loss of sales and the length of time it has been going on.

I posted regarding this same issue last week https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Technical-Issues/Ebay-Glitch-Vintage-amp-Antique-Jewellery-ebay-co-u...

[ducatimondo]

A slightly annoying one that would be easy to change if eBay wanted to change it,

When you order labels through Packlink, it always defaults for A4 labels and every single time we create one, we have to burn time in a rinse and repeat groundhog day of changing it to 4x6

Why is the default set for most likely a private sellers that use it once in a blue moon?

Yet business sellers that use it a lot have to constantly waste time changing it 50 times a day!!
It is almost like eBay don't want business sellers to even use it.

Can you either make it a default that just gets left to what ever you pick or just set it to 4x6 at the risk of a private seller wasting 1 min twice a year rather than business sellers wasting 1 min per label 50 times a day.

On the same note, when you book a label with Yodel and change it to 4x6, it gives you an A4 sheet anyway that you have to copy into a photo editor to crop it to 4x6 before you can print it.

I just think it is lack of foresight from the eBay developers about who might use features and what impact it has when they do make changes.

It is very time consuming and pretty annoying too.

Cheers

Russ

[wdwel_45]

Hi

I am a new business seller and was wondering to try and increase confidence and possibly sales, have none yet in saturated market, would it be acceptable on my About Me and possibly listings to write something about referring to my personal EBay account for feedback and reputation.

Wanted to ask first as wouldn't like to transgress policies on account if possible.

Many thanks for your help

Dave

[kat@ebay]

---

@drymartini* wrote:

Hi

There is a glitch on ebay where items listed on ebay.co.uk are not displaying on ebay.com. It happens when you have several items listed for sale and when someone clicks on ‘Visit Store’ or ‘See other items’ only a small fraction of the items you have for sale then appears. For instance, I currently have 277 items listed for sale in my shop.  On ebay.com it appears as though I only have 15 items for sale.  So any potential buyer using ebay.com has no way of knowing that I actually have hundreds more items for sale.  My customers simply cannot find them and I am losing out on sales because of this.

I first reported this glitch to both ebay.co.uk and .com back in October last year and was assured on numerous occasions that this would be resolved on a priority basis.  However, nothing has ever been resolved and the problem still persists, five months later (it could be much longer, this is only since I first discovered it) with devastating consequences for sellers.  I feel that I have been fobbed off by ebay, I have heard nothing further and I feel this matter is not being treated with the urgency and gravitas that it clearly deserves. 

I used to sell a large proportion of my items to America and other countries, but since this glitch I have only had a few international sales.  Many different categories are affected - including ‘Vintage & Antique Jewellery’, ‘Books’, ‘Fashion’ ‘Collectables & Art’ ‘Home & Garden’ etc (more and more categories are coming to light all the time). This is Huge – it also affects other countries which interact with ebay.com, not just .co.uk.  

To see the problem for yourself - go to ebay.com (don’t log in) copy and paste one of your item numbers.  Click on the item and then go to ‘visit store’, (it also does the same thing on ‘see other items’) scroll down to the bottom of the page and click ‘See All’.  This should then show you all the items in your shop, however, it is only showing a fraction of them, depending on what category you listed in.  It is not just business sellers with shops who are affected - private sellers are also affected, with and without shops. 

My business has suffered dreadfully because of this, and I know that other sellers are in exactly the same position.  I would appreciate a reply from ebay as soon as possible please, to inform me what steps they are taking to resolve this issue, including a timescale.  I do also feel that some sort of compensation would be in order, given the gravitas of this situation, the loss of sales and the length of time it has been going on.

I posted regarding this same issue last week https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Technical-Issues/Ebay-Glitch-Vintage-amp-Antique-Jewellery-ebay-co-u...

---

Hi @drymartini* ,

My colleague Dave is currently looking into this issue as its been reported on this thread here. It's currently being investigated and once he has an update he will update that thread.

Thank you,

Kat

[dennyscot503]

Hi wanted to sell item on eBay, first time but having trouble verifying identity. Can eBay still verify my identity without passport etc? Have sent passport photos but told verification failed. Thanks 

[kat@ebay]

---

@ducatimondo wrote:

A slightly annoying one that would be easy to change if eBay wanted to change it,

When you order labels through Packlink, it always defaults for A4 labels and every single time we create one, we have to burn time in a rinse and repeat groundhog day of changing it to 4x6

Why is the default set for most likely a private sellers that use it once in a blue moon?

Yet business sellers that use it a lot have to constantly waste time changing it 50 times a day!!
It is almost like eBay don't want business sellers to even use it.

Can you either make it a default that just gets left to what ever you pick or just set it to 4x6 at the risk of a private seller wasting 1 min twice a year rather than business sellers wasting 1 min per label 50 times a day.

On the same note, when you book a label with Yodel and change it to 4x6, it gives you an A4 sheet anyway that you have to copy into a photo editor to crop it to 4x6 before you can print it.

I just think it is lack of foresight from the eBay developers about who might use features and what impact it has when they do make changes.

It is very time consuming and pretty annoying too.

Cheers

Russ

---

Hi @ducatimondo ,

Thank you for the feedback on this point for the labels through Packlink. I'll feed it back to our shipping team to review for a future process improvement.

Thank you,

Kat

[messier44000]

Thought I would ask about something mentioned on a few posts.

The amount sold on each listing is no longer clickable.

Is this a glitch or has it been removed .

Thank you 

[gorgeousgalz]

I see to have a problem with my account updating .

My feedback does not match what is showing on eBays website .

I am luck if I got one feedback a week now adays ,so it has nothing to do with the daily feedback updating .

I have also noticed that some of my listings with variations are showing only  1 product and you can not click on the listings.

I did report this before Christmas still waiting on an answer .

[simas-stuff]

Late delivery defects on untracked large letters.

I have two more late delivery defects on untracked large letters that are being scanned on delivery and showing as arriving late. I have brought this matter to your attention before but it remains unresolved. As they are untracked items when they are scanned as accepted at post office it does not appear on RM's system but RM are scanning them at delivery which if they are delivered late gives the seller a defect unfairly when the seller has a proof of posting to prove that the item was posted on time. 

When will ebay accept a post office proof of posting as evidence that the item was posted on time.

Imagine if a sellers late delivery rate went over the threshold and they were charged higher fees through no fault of their own. Would this scenario be acceptable? One could even think that it is in ebays interest to ignore proof of postings so they could charge higher fees!

[dave@ebay]

---

@ducatimondo wrote:

The eBay search is not fit for purpose and does not work properly.

We have chain links for motorcycle chains that are all very specific.
Each chain link only fits the specific chain to match it's model variant.
This is already complicated enough, with many buyers not reading them properly and/or eBay not displaying them correctly.

I discovered a new issue to this yesterday.
We have received some stock of the new version of chain links from DID, the new for 2023 ZVMX2 series, that replace the existing ZVMX series.
When we list them, they come in different sizes, 525 and 530 and also different colours, black or gold and also hollow rivet or solid rivet.

When I was trying to search eBay for them yesterday to see if we were the first to have these new links and therefore first to list them, I was stuck in a loop of eBay's search interfering and blocking from finding anything. So I can't answer that question and if I was a buyer, I also could not have bought them if they were listed.

If I search for "did 530 ZVMX2 rivet link", I get the older chains and eBay instead saying "Showing results for did 530 zvmx 2 rivet link. Search instead for did 530 ZVMX2 rivet link"

That is not what I wanted.
So I click the link that says "Search instead for did 530 ZVMX2 rivet link" and instead I get no results and that "we have streamlined results, click here to see all results"
So I click there and instead get the first search results saying "Showing results for did 530 zvmx 2 rivet link. Search instead for did 530 ZVMX2 rivet link"

Why do eBay insist on interfering, can eBay please just show me what I am search for instead of guessing and blocking any results.

The whole thing is important, it has to be shown verbatim ZVMX2 and not anything else.

ZVMX is not ZVMX2 and vice versa

We have listed one of the links to start tonight, so it will be interesting to see if I can find it tomorrow...

Regards
Russ

---

Hi @ducatimondo 

It looks like adding rivet link to the search term is changing the search results. I did a search for the chain itself and it shows the newer chains:

This could be because the listings for the older chains have the type of link in the title or when buyers use the link type in search they are purchasing the older chain. 

Its definitely worth having a look in Terapeak to check if people are searching for clips or rivets types and adding it to the specifics. 

Thanks,

Dave

[kat@ebay]

---

@wdwel_45 wrote:

Hi

I am a new business seller and was wondering to try and increase confidence and possibly sales, have none yet in saturated market, would it be acceptable on my About Me and possibly listings to write something about referring to my personal EBay account for feedback and reputation.

Wanted to ask first as wouldn't like to transgress policies on account if possible.

Many thanks for your help

Dave

---

Hi @wdwel_45 ,

We normally wouldn't recommend having links to other eBay accounts as this may cause confusion for buyers. However you can provide information about yourself as long as the information doesn't link to sites that take the buyers off the eBay platform.

Thank you,

Kat

[kat@ebay]

---

@messier44000 wrote:

Thought I would ask about something mentioned on a few posts.

The amount sold on each listing is no longer clickable.

Is this a glitch or has it been removed .

Thank you 

---

Hi @messier44000 ,

This has been a design change to the site.

You can still view the sales on your own listings through the Orders section in Seller Hub. You can research competitor's sold data through Terapeak.

Thank you,

Kat

[dave@ebay]

---

@dennyscot503 wrote:

Hi wanted to sell item on eBay, first time but having trouble verifying identity. Can eBay still verify my identity without passport etc? Have sent passport photos but told verification failed. Thanks 

---

Hi @dennyscot503 

We only accept driving licences or passports for verifying you ID.  If the verification failed it could be because the photo wasn't clear or possibly doesn't show the full document.  The response you received should tell you what the issue was.

You can find more information on the process here.

Thanks,

Dave

[kat@ebay]

---

@gorgeousgalz wrote:

I see to have a problem with my account updating .

My feedback does not match what is showing on eBays website .

I am luck if I got one feedback a week now adays ,so it has nothing to do with the daily feedback updating .

I have also noticed that some of my listings with variations are showing only  1 product and you can not click on the listings.

I did report this before Christmas still waiting on an answer .

---

Hi @gorgeousgalz ,

It may be that the system took abit of time to update the feedback. When we check on our side the scores are showing the same

Can you provide the item number for the issue with the multi variation listing?

Thank you,

Kat

[duguptreasure]

I would very much like to simply use ebay directly to do my shipping, using Royal Mail for simple items (I don't sell anything overly large or complicated). I can get ALL my mail collected if I use the royal mail website to purchase my shipping, but collection is only available on a very limited number of shipping options when trying to purchase shipping labels via ebay. Is this deliberate or an oversight?

[dave@ebay]

---

@simas-stuff wrote:

Late delivery defects on untracked large letters.

I have two more late delivery defects on untracked large letters that are being scanned on delivery and showing as arriving late. I have brought this matter to your attention before but it remains unresolved. As they are untracked items when they are scanned as accepted at post office it does not appear on RM's system but RM are scanning them at delivery which if they are delivered late gives the seller a defect unfairly when the seller has a proof of posting to prove that the item was posted on time. 

When will ebay accept a post office proof of posting as evidence that the item was posted on time.

Imagine if a sellers late delivery rate went over the threshold and they were charged higher fees through no fault of their own. Would this scenario be acceptable? One could even think that it is in ebays interest to ignore proof of postings so they could charge higher fees!

---

Hi @simas-stuff 

Our system can only use the information provided by Royal Mail, as their system doesn't provide a proof of posting we have no way of verifying this. 

At the moment there are no plans to change this because we cannot verify the information provided without an update from Royal Mail. 

I will as always pass your feedback on to the shipping team. 

Thanks,

Dave

[rainbowjam]

When are ebay going to take notice of the fact the estimated delivery dates they are providing to buyers are completely ridiculous? I know they're allegedly "dynamic" and "based on a number of factors" but short of inventing a time machine to despatch items before the buyer has bought them, the earlier end of the estimate is impossible to achieve.

You are misleading my buyers and creating completely unrealistic expectations. I know this has been raised numerous times but it's going to keep being raised until you take notice and fix what is a totally broken set-up. I know that it's "working as intended" but "working as intended" clearly means it's intended to lie.

I have a one-day despatch time currently set on my listings - NOT same day. I don't have Saturday set as a working day for the simple reason that I'm not available to post on a Saturday. This is one of my items: Howlin' Wolf Smokestack Lightnin'-Best Of 2-CD NEW SEALED Blues Spoonful/Evil+ 5060143496141 | eBay . I sold it on Friday 24th Feb so I would despatch it on Monday 27th in accordance with when I say I will send it. So WHY is my buyer shown this: 

They can't possibly expect to receive it on Monday 27th as that's the day I'm posting it! WHY? Ebay are driving sellers to lie about their despatch time and delivery service just to get ebay to set a realistic EDD for the despatch time and service that they really use. Is that what ebay wants - all sellers to lie to all buyers because of this ridiculous state of affairs?

[wdwel_45]

Hi Kat

Thanks for your reply.

I wasn't thinking of adding any links, just typing something like 'For confidence please see feedback on personal account at XXXXXX' maybe on just my About Us. Or as a seller is this not a good idea, customer wise I mean.

Thanks

Dave