Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 13.11.24 @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 kat@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

[nutrafituk]

Concierge service – just a name. Stop using that description as it has nothing to do with the quality of service you provide. The only real difference is the fact we can talk to an agent.

When it comes to support it is a lottery – depending on who you talk to a different answer is given, or none received.

Example: weeks ago, we had reported a big batch of Late Delivery Defects that was caused by Royal Mail. We did dispatch all the items on time, they did not scan any for 48h. Having contacted eBay we were asked to obtain some sort of proof from Royal Mail. It was not easy, but we ended up with 2 confirmations stating it was their fault. So it has been 3 weeks now, and after talking to 3 different agents there has been no action taken whatsoever. Despite booking a callback there was no contact made at all. At least be honest and make it clear that you do not care and stop wasting our time.

Also, that ‘appreciation for 18-year loyalty’ script you start a call with is a farse. A minute later it is clear that there is no appreciation for our business.

[exponential_developments]

Hi, If I do a simple search, then click lowest price, ebay says that it has streamlined the search, ie missed lots of items out, when I have done this lots of my listings get filtered out…..so what am I paying to list for exactly?

[funkybunnie-direct]

Ebay business seller policy states

Business sellers are required to follow all government regulations, including registering as a business on eBay, and providing contact information and a return policy.

An eBay seller must register as a business if, for example, they sell items they have bought to resell, they make items in order to sell them, or if they buy items for their business.

HMRC website states

You need to set up a business if you ‘trade’ in goods or services.

You’re likely to be trading if you:

• sell regularly to make a profit
• make items to sell for profit
• sell items on a regular basis, either online, at car boot sales or through classified adverts
• earn commission from selling goods for other people
• are paid for a service you provide

Also states for business sellers

Before an order is placed

You must provide:

• your business name, contact details and address

If a seller has multiple copies of an item that are NEW, then this seller must have purchased these items to re-sell, so must be a business seller?

[dwtrading2015]

Has a two day delay in payments been neaked in?  I noticed recently with new orders the instruction to ship is sent imediately but the message also indictes funds would be released after two days.  What is the policy, we get the buyer funds straight away or after two days.

[custom-giftsuk]

Is there any update on the product research glitch I’ve been asking about for nearly a month now. I’ve spoken to Kat in regards some of my listings just not showing up on Product Research or the data being incomplete or just nonsense. I have spoken to a few eBay CS team members who pass the information on to the relevant people to “fix” but its now making me unsure about any data on product research as items aren’t showing any sales, yet I know they have sold. Items that have been removed for violations are still showing up on the listings and are apparently still selling. I’m getting completely conflicting data on a lot of listings. Also the issue with the Product Research still defaulting to $ is still there as well.

[marco@ebay]

---

@nutrafituk wrote:

Concierge service – just a name. Stop using that description as it has nothing to do with the quality of service you provide. The only real difference is the fact we can talk to an agent.

When it comes to support is a lottery – depending on who you talk to a different answer is given, or none received.

Example: weeks ago, we had reported a big batch of Late Delivery Defects that was caused by Royal Mail. We did dispatch all the items on time, they did not scan any for 48h. Having contacted eBay we were asked to obtain some sort of proof from Royal Mail. It was not easy, but we ended up with 2 confirmations stating it was their fault. So it has been 3 weeks now, and after talking to 3 different agents there has been no action taken whatsoever. Despite booking a callback there was no contact made at all. At least be honest and make it clear that you do not care and stop wasting our time.

Also, that ‘appreciation for 18-year loyalty’ script you start a call with is a farse. A minute later it is clear that there is no appreciation for our business.

---

Hi nutrafituk, thanks for your post.

We appreciate your input, and I'll pass on your feedback/experience, so this can be taken into consideration. 

Thank you,

Marco

[darth_baggins]

Can someone explain why eBay thinks it's a good idea to remove basic information from the new 'improved' messaging system?

When a buyer sends a message about an order, the order details are no longer available in the message, meaning sellers have to open a new tab and find the order manually. Why?

Before the 'upgrade' - we could see at a glance which messages we'd replied to with a little icon. We can no longer do this. Why?

Please can someone from the team responsible explain why they've removed basic functionality and when they are going to put them back?

[moldosgifts]

The old chestnut of busnissess on a private account

Can we not get an easier way to report them.

And can we stop the AI responses 

If it the same team that did your AI descriptions i dont hold much hope the investigated correctley

[auctiongabble]

I think its terrible service having posted last week raising many valid points  about difference and benefits in service between private to business sellers, loyalty means nothing and no incentives being a business here.

I sent private messages to all 3 of the team members of this group and not received a single reply.

Please can business sellers be treated with some respect and communicated with?

[guymafo]

Hello community team

I have a simple question.

If I make batches of cakes and mince pies in my home kitchen, can I sell them on a private seller account, without any allergen information, ingredients or Environmental Health/Food Standards Agency certification and training ?

Thanks 

GM

[dwtrading2015]

Changes to 'Traffic' graphs.  The solid area under the graph, the new layout, is wholly inappropriate for the data being presented.  It was correctly shown for impressions, views and sale volume as a bar graph before.  If a trend display was to be shown it should have been added as a line over the bars.  Furthermore, why have two of the three graphs been hidden behind tabs?  There is no reason at all to hide them.  This is yet another change that makes the layout of the information worse, less convenient and now unsuitable for the data.

[kat@ebay]

---

@funkybunnie-direct wrote:

Ebay business seller policy states

Business sellers are required to follow all government regulations, including registering as a business on eBay, and providing contact information and a return policy.

An eBay seller must register as a business if, for example, they sell items they have bought to resell, they make items in order to sell them, or if they buy items for their business.

HMRC website states

You need to set up a business if you ‘trade’ in goods or services.

You’re likely to be trading if you:

• sell regularly to make a profit
• make items to sell for profit
• sell items on a regular basis, either online, at car boot sales or through classified adverts
• earn commission from selling goods for other people
• are paid for a service you provide

Also states for business sellers

Before an order is placed

You must provide:

• your business name, contact details and address

If a seller has multiple copies of an item that are NEW, then this seller must have purchased these items to re-sell, so must be a business seller?

---

Hi @funkybunnie-direct ,

Thank you for your post. Yes those are the details required for business sellers. I understand where you are coming from in relation to private accounts trading as business sellers.

Ebay are working on reviewing accounts that are businesses trading as private. If you have accounts that you wish to report please do so through the website.

I will share your points as feedback on the policy.

Thank you,

Kat

[marco@ebay]

---

@dwtrading2015 wrote:

Has a two day delay in payments been neaked in?  I noticed recently with new orders the instruction to ship is sent imediately but the message also indictes funds would be released after two days.  What is the policy, we get the buyer funds straight away or after two days.

---

Hi dwtrading2015, thanks for your question.

No, the processing times are still the same (0-4 working days). Here is the policy in case you'd like to take a further look.

Thank you,

Marco

[guymafo]

kat@ebay how do we report private sellers that are incorrectly registered? And obviously trading as business sellers, avoiding eBay fees.

Thanks]GM

[funkybunnie-direct]

Thanks for your reply. Perhaps you can advise where they can be reported? I have reported 40 since the beginning of October (can only see via listing practices/avoiding ebay fees which is only reporting one item).

[marco@ebay]

---

@moldosgifts wrote:

The old chestnut of busnissess on a private account

Can we not get an easier way to report them.

And can we stop the AI responses 

If it the same team that did your AI descriptions i dont hold much hope the investigated correctley

---

Hi moldosgifts, thanks for your question.

I can definitely pass this on as feedback, I will flag the responses you've been getting as well as part of your feedback.

Thank you,

Marco

[kat@ebay]

---

@custom-giftsuk wrote:

Is there any update on the product research glitch I’ve been asking about for nearly a month now. I’ve spoken to Kat in regards some of my listings just not showing up on Product Research or the data being incomplete or just nonsense. I have spoken to a few eBay CS team members who pass the information on to the relevant people to “fix” but its now making me unsure about any data on product research as items aren’t showing any sales, yet I know they have sold. Items that have been removed for violations are still showing up on the listings and are apparently still selling. I’m getting completely conflicting data on a lot of listings. Also the issue with the Product Research still defaulting to $ is still there as well.

---

Hi @custom-giftsuk ,

The issue with the $ should be resolved as we had other users report this and it was no longer showing $ results for those users as of yesterday.

With regards to the data results its still ongoing with tech at the moment.

Thank you,

Kat

[moonspender]

I reported a private seller selling 100's of identical new items, on the 17/10, they have now had almost another month of selling for free, how can you justify that when ive had to pay just over £1400 in fees in the same period ?

[returns_andexdisplay]

I messaged the other week about isses with Estimated Delivery dates and have a clear example. 

Order number 17-12289-41240 

Buyer buys item at 9pm on Friday evening and ebay are showing an estimated delivery of Monday to Wednesday. 

Item is never going to be delivered on a Monday when the item is not dispatched till Monday. Was told by a custeomer service rep that there is a chance it might get dispatched and delivered on the same day!!!!!

Tuesday possible and Wednesday yes. 

At what point are ebay taking the data from as the courier I use is a local third party and takes parcels direct to Evir hub so parcels often show being scanned late at night or early the next morning.  Starting to think this is where ebay are pulling some of the data from and causing the issues. 

If as we are often told EDD is working as designed then why are Saturday and Sunday orders showing EDD delivery after Tuesday?