Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 10.07.24 @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

[lincolnshiremarine]

Good afternoon

I have not looked at other shops, it happens on mine.

When I use this to see if I already have a product listed it comes up there are say 2 or 1 but the advert does not come up.  As already said I have to then go on ebays general search bar to see my product along with all other sellers too.  This has been happening for a few weeks now.  

Best wishes

[elsie-louises-emporium]

Hi anita@ebay 

Sorry I used this chat for the first time last week.  Where do I start a thread?  Also I cannot make a video as I do not want to share the details of the charity it incorrectly links me with.

I have been posting to Facebook and Pinterest daily.  Looking at the analytics I am getting item views from Facebook so would really like to link with Instagram.

Kind regards

Rebecca

[marco@ebay]

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@williabaxte7 wrote:

Hi. Just had the confirmation emails come through . Running a bit behind . 

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Thanks for confirming, williabaxte7. If you don't get them at all in the future, please let us know. 👍

Thank you,

Marco

[marco@ebay]

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@lincolnshiremarine wrote:

Good afternoon

I have not looked at other shops, it happens on mine.

When I use this to see if I already have a product listed it comes up there are say 2 or 1 but the advert does not come up.  As already said I have to then go on ebays general search bar to see my product along with all other sellers too.  This has been happening for a few weeks now.  

Best wishes

---

Thanks for confirming, lincolnshiremarine. 

I will report that for you now, and as soon as we get more information on it, I will let you know.

Thank you,

Marco

[dave@ebay]

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@tressygirl wrote:

Good🎾 Afternoon All !

How long is  the period  that a seller  is classed as ' Infrequent' ,  if they have a break from selling, so that  they are not subject to  any payment holds on their return.

Thank you.

---

Hi @tressygirl 

Unfortunately there isn't a definitive answer I can give you. There are a number of different factors that are taken into consideration. For example how long they were trading or the status of the account before the break. Its something that's built into the site so it can be different for different users. 

Thanks,

Dave

[anita@ebay]

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@johannadee wrote:

Twice in the last week I have had bidders blocked by my buyer requirements for too many unpaid items, and appearing on the activity log, then go on to successfully bid and buy the same item on the same day. How is this possible? How are buyers circumventing this useful piece of seller protection? I have not exempted them - my exemption list is empty. I know they are the same buyers because their Member Since date is the same, their feedback score is identical on the day and they are bidding on the same item on the same day. It cannot be a coincidence. You may say, well they paid this time so it doesn't matter. But it does. One of these transactions has resulted in me getting my only and entirely unjustified negative feedback, from a buyer who claims to have been unhappy or disappointed on seven out of her last ten feedbacks, though only mine and one other on red dots - the other complaints were left on green dots. I know the feedback doesn't strictly have anything to do with unpaid strikes, but it may indicate a problem buyer, and if the system had worked as it should I would not have the negative.

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Hi @johannadee , thanks for your post.

I would need to request specific details to review this (item and buyer user ID) to see if the buyer actually met the 'Buyer requirement' criteria set up on your account to get blocked from bidding, which I am unable to do here publicly.

So the best would be for you to reach out to our  customer support , so they can review this for you.

Thanks for understanding,

Anita

[technthread]

I have had a few auctions end recently where the buyer wins multiple items and chooses to checkout and pay for items 1 by 1. Or they group a few together and pay at checkout and then pay for some other's separately. I don't have any problem with buyers that do this as they seem to be showing their willingness to pay quickly and probably don't realise this is costing me more in eBay fees. But it has highlighted that the seller is paying the FVF fixed fee multiple times when it could have been paid once if the buyer had had just waited for all auctions to end and pay for everything at once. 

Is there anything eBay can do to issue seller fee credits here? It is another reason that I wouldn't tick the box requiring buyers to provide a payment method before bidding as it increases the number of single item checkouts.

Regarding buyer management settings, I would prefer to have the option to block buyers who have opened X number of item not received cases in the past 12 months. I imagine eBay may not be keen on that but I'd much rather deal with non payers than people who regularly claim freebies on their orders sent untracked where they know the seller can't defend the case and the temptation to get a refund is too great for them.

[tressygirl]

Thank you Dave I'll pass that message on to the person who asked.

[lincolnshiremarine]

Dear Marco

Can you also add that sometimes it is not finding the part number at all, yet when I enter it on the ebay general search bar and look down all the sellers with the same item, mine is listed.

Will you definitely get back to me please, as it appears there is a running pattern here of the team not getting back to us,  when we have flagged issues up.

Best wishes 

[mteconlineshop]

Hi

When i check our listings, it says i have 3772, but when you go to the shop it says i only have 3105, any idea why as when i search for some of our items they can not be found unless i put in th eitem number

[acurro-tech]

I applied to sell vapes and e-cigarettes about three months ago. Before applying, I asked eBay customer service about the requirements, and they told me my account was good, and I could apply. However, at that time, my account was below standard. Due to the misguidance of the eBay customer service team, the eBay new category team declined my application. After that, I asked eBay support again, and they gave me a list of requirements. I fulfilled all the requirements, including age verification, but my application has still been pending for the past few weeks. It has been more then three months now, and I am still not sure if my application will be approved or if they will reject it again.

[dave@ebay]

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@tressygirl wrote:

Hi Again!

Just a thought ( I don't have many!),  but this thought arose after an issue I came across,  when sending an offer which was accepted.

No payment was coming through,  I don't like or have that immediate payment option switched on,  as I want buyers to have a choice how to pay, then after  a day the buyer sent me a message to say they weren't sure they bought the item as it now says ' Item Not Available'.

I'm sure that rather strange notification causes some issues for buyers ,  not understanding it just means not available to anyone else,  that they have actually bought the item,  and so they either don't pay or pay late.

I reassured this buyer they had bought the item,  they thanked me for the confirmation,  and paid immediately.

Perhaps the  ' Item is Not Available' should be removed?  It just causes confusion for some /  many !

As said,  just a thought.

---

Hi @tressygirl 

I haven't seen it displayed like that before, I can see how it could be confusing to the buyer. I'll pass the concerns back to the site team as a possible improvement. When you have a sec will you PM me the item number and I'll add to my request.

Thanks,

Dave

[anita@ebay]

---

@darth_baggins wrote:

Thanks. Did you even read my question and look at the image?

The fourth item in the list (any fourth item) is cut in half where there is loads of space to show the whole image.

My question wasn't regarding where featured listings are shown, or what position my items come. It was regarding the fact that eBay are showing less than half of the image and title of any item in fourth place.

So in simpler terms so maybe this time you can understand - why is eBay cutting images in half on promoted listings?

---

@darth_baggins , thanks for your reply.

My answer referred to your question explaining why sellers are paying for featured ads, explaining that the reason is because they show in different places on eBay, meaning there is more chance for buyers to see them and sell. Your item may show as a 1st one and have a full photo for this specific section, it may show on different places, like eBay's search with a full photo. Please also note that you are not paying if your item does not sell or buyer has not clicked on it, so you are actually not paying anything if buyer has not seen your listing. The site design is also changing, so this may change in the future.

Thank you,

Anita

[marco@ebay]

---

@technthread wrote:

I have had a few auctions end recently where the buyer wins multiple items and chooses to checkout and pay for items 1 by 1. Or they group a few together and pay at checkout and then pay for some other's separately. I don't have any problem with buyers that do this as they seem to be showing their willingness to pay quickly and probably don't realise this is costing me more in eBay fees. But it has highlighted that the seller is paying the FVF fixed fee multiple times when it could have been paid once if the buyer had had just waited for all auctions to end and pay for everything at once. 

Is there anything eBay can do to issue seller fee credits here? It is another reason that I wouldn't tick the box requiring buyers to provide a payment method before bidding as it increases the number of single item checkouts.

Regarding buyer management settings, I would prefer to have the option to block buyers who have opened X number of item not received cases in the past 12 months. I imagine eBay may not be keen on that but I'd much rather deal with non payers than people who regularly claim freebies on their orders sent untracked where they know the seller can't defend the case and the temptation to get a refund is too great for them.

---

Hi technthread, thanks for your question.

I'm afraid that if the transactions were completely separately, the fees wouldn't be refunded. Regarding your suggestions, I will pass them on, but please note that this doesn't necessarily mean that they will be implemented in the future.

Thank you,

Marco

[anita@ebay]

---

@elsie-louises-emporium wrote:

Hi anita@ebay 

Sorry I used this chat for the first time last week.  Where do I start a thread?  Also I cannot make a video as I do not want to share the details of the charity it incorrectly links me with.

I have been posting to Facebook and Pinterest daily.  Looking at the analytics I am getting item views from Facebook so would really like to link with Instagram.

Kind regards

Rebecca

---

@elsie-louises-emporium , thanks for your reply.

No worries, you can start the conversation here .

Thank you,

Anita

[marco@ebay]

---

@lincolnshiremarine wrote:

Dear Marco

Can you also add that sometimes it is not finding the part number at all, yet when I enter it on the ebay general search bar and look down all the sellers with the same item, mine is listed.

Will you definitely get back to me please, as it appears there is a running pattern here of the team not getting back to us,  when we have flagged issues up.

Best wishes 

---

Thanks for your reply, lincolnshiremarine. 

Will add that to the report no problem. And yes of course, I will let you know more once I get an update on it. 

Thank you,

Marco

[tressygirl]

It does happen  on some items when purchased Dave,   I've seen it on some of my past purchases,   and it is confusing as a buyer goes back to view the item and sees ' Item No Longer Available', so they don't know if they've bought it or not.

If I see it pop up on any of my purchases I'll screen shot  it,  and wing it over for you.

[anita@ebay]

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@mteconlineshop wrote:

Hi

When i check our listings, it says i have 3772, but when you go to the shop it says i only have 3105, any idea why as when i search for some of our items they can not be found unless i put in th eitem number

---

Hi @mteconlineshop , thanks for your post.

Would you be able to share a couple of item numbers that don't show up in the store, as an example, so I can look into this more in detail.

Thank you,

Anita

[dave@ebay]

---

@acurro-tech wrote:

I applied to sell vapes and e-cigarettes about three months ago. Before applying, I asked eBay customer service about the requirements, and they told me my account was good, and I could apply. However, at that time, my account was below standard. Due to the misguidance of the eBay customer service team, the eBay new category team declined my application. After that, I asked eBay support again, and they gave me a list of requirements. I fulfilled all the requirements, including age verification, but my application has still been pending for the past few weeks. It has been more then three months now, and I am still not sure if my application will be approved or if they will reject it again.

---

Hi @acurro-tech,

Leave this with me and Ill reach out to the New Category Team to find out what happened. 

Ill message you directly when I have an update. 

Thanks,

Dave

[mteconlineshop]

Hi

Bit short on time at present but the attached picturs  shows attactive listings and availbe to view in the shop

Meant to show last week but missed the cut off