💬 Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 14.12.22 @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

[jckl1957]

I don't know if this issue has been raised before but I see a lot of posts about double payments - Ebay take a payment from a buyer's bank account and then a duplicate, identical payment appears as pending.  The buyer doesn't have access to the money pending/on hold and, in some cases, this must cause issues.  This post from today, the member was unable to pay for his lunch.  Is Ebay aware of this longstanding issue and what is being done to fix it, please?

Double payout frequently

[kat@ebay]

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@jckl1957 wrote:

I don't know if this issue has been raised before but I see a lot of posts about double payments - Ebay take a payment from a buyer's bank account and then a duplicate, identical payment appears as pending.  The buyer doesn't have access to the money pending/on hold and, in some cases, this must cause issues.  This post from today, the member was unable to pay for his lunch.  Is Ebay aware of this longstanding issue and what is being done to fix it, please?

Double payout frequently

---

Hi @jckl1957 ,

I have noticed this on posts before. It seems to happen that one payment doesn't go through and goes to a holding state.  We have reported it to be looked into so I will include this recent example from today to have it reviewed.

Thank you,

Kat

[louisianna]

Hi,

If you look at the business seller chat board you will see the complete and utter stress Ebay has caused sellers by giving totally unrealistic delivery times when Royal Mail are striking.

Even adjusting our dispatch time made no difference. EG before I had to shut down because of the hassle it is causing (losing a lot of revenue by the way) I had set my dispatch time to 3 working days. My dispatch date was showing as 10th Dec. The buyers were being shown delivery by 10th-12 Dec.

1. 10th Dec was a Saturday and I do not work on Saturdays.

2. Even if I did, how is the person supposed to get it by Saturday or even Monday in normal situations, never mind during a strike.

Ebay must have lost lots of revenue too due to all the refunds sellers have had to issue - losing Ebay the seller fees,  plus all the shops that have had to shut down due to the stress.

A number of customers have told me they will no longer shop with Ebay due to the unrealistic expectations they have been given in terms of delivery times so you really arent helping yourselves. 

To top it all off, yesterday a customer reached out to me because she had received an email from Ebay to check if she had recevied her item yet, because she should have!! No Ebay she shouldnt have. The delivery time she had been given was totally unreachable.

Anyway I do hope that Ebay are going to learn from this complete mess. Its not your fault RM are striking, but you do need to handle it in a more efficient manner or we will all be out of business.

[petals-and-paws]

Item due for dispatch next Tuesday 20th - estimated delivery is 19th - 23rd (Royal Mail 24). How can it be delivered the day before it's posted, or the day that it's posted? Plus last day for Christmas delivery is 16th December, so it shouldn't be estimated to arrive until after Christmas and 23rd December is a strike day - and realistically, it's not going to arrive within 48 hours with the current state of the Royal Mail backlogs (which I hope they will be prioritising next week, rather than dealing with newer post).  I know about the 'dynamic delivery dates' eBay claim are working as expected - but to give buyers estimated delivery dates of 2 days before it's posted and where there aren't even any deliveries taking place - that's just setting sellers up to fail. I appreciate that the eBay staff members on this forum have no control over this themselves, but surely the 'shipping' team must realise this is just impossible?

[beetleboy82]

Hi,

I sell on ebay and get a lot of 'where are my order' messages, I feel its not clear enough to buyers about the current postal delays.

I have just had a little search as a buyer and haven't seen anything obvious advising of the delays. Prehaps some big banners across your site advising of the delays would be helpful to us sellers, also make it clearer that delivery dates are 'estimated' rather than 'Get it by Wed, xx Date' its just not realistic and causes a bad experience for buyers and sellers as expectations can not be met. 

[louisianna]

I also have had an issue for over a month in seller hub. If I sort by item title in orders ready to dispatch I get all my sent orders. And if I try to mark multiple orders as dispatched I get a spinning wheel.

I have contacted CS twice and was told it was being looked into, but it still hasnt been fixed. 

Many thanks

[66699912]

I know the rather hopeful 1st class Royal Mail last posting date for christmas is Friday 16th , but why do my listings 1st class arrival state delivery after christmas when theoretically at least according to Royal Mail they should arrive before ? and worse still my 2nd class option states possible delivery before christmas , make sense of that !!

[ojewellery]

Post and delivery have been a real business challenge these last few months.  eBay have provided back up with offering alternative courier offers, putting notices on the site and seller protections.  Its been great but its a sticky plaster answer not a solution.

We've had a big focus on getting to Christmas but there is no sign of strikes letting up. Many business' have traditionally relied on large letter format post.  Royal Mail have quite openly talked about focus on parcels so potentially large letter post is going to be going through changes only accelerated by the strikes.

Do eBay have plans to put a strategy in place in the New Year, working with business' to find new ways we can get customers to build bigger baskets to justify parcel post, offer postal discounts to get mulitbuy purchases, allow sellers of lower value items to maintain top rated status if using slower services for lower value items?

[drgwalker]

I brought up an issue six weeks ago regarding the default Business Policies / Postage Options. I made you aware that you are unable to edit any saved default postage options unless you listed and amended the listing once live. Things have gotten worse.

In the postage options you have 4 prompts.

1 - View Postage Policy
2 - Edit Policy
3 - Create Postage Policy
4 - Edit Cost For This Listing

My previous issue was with option 4 ‘Edit Cost For This Listing’ as this wasn’t updating. This option no longer exists as it now defaults to option 3 with no edit options.

Can option 4 be looked into with some urgency as creating individual postage policies for listing variations isn’t really viable?

[66699912]

still why is the 2nd class showing possible faster delivery than 1st class

[fatbobfan]

What/Where? are the guidelines on obtaining payment for INR refunds, that will arrive after strike/weather/dispatch times issues

Would it not be easier to elongate the INR time period before refunds are issued, most customers are understanding and strike/weather aware, saving the buyer and seller the hassle of having to deal with this at a later date and what happens if the buyer chooses not to communicate

[returns_andexdisplay]

Can someone explain the reason why ebay have decided to show estimated delivery after Christmas for most delivery serivces offered now? This has been going on since Saturday. 

I have emailed your head of UK and told someone from shipping would get back to me, nothing. Spoke with some in Monday then got cut off and never heard back. Nothing has been sorted as still showing after Christmas delivery. 

It's nothing to do with past metrics or carriers as I have not any major issues and I don't use Royal Mail.  

When speaking to CS support I was told to protect buyers from negative feedback or to message buyers to let them know would be delivered quicket (not sure how I message a buyer looking at my listings?).

As a small business I can live with some negative feedback as long as I can pay my bills and suppliers. With this latests interferance ebay have compleatly killed my sales on ebay whilst Amazon and own website sales are booming. 

I just want to be able to run my own business and if I get it wrong then let my feedback reflect this. 

[petals-and-paws]

eBay are now sending out emails to buyers pointing out to them when an item they have ordered hasn't been scanned as delivered and telling them 'what action to take' - including opening an INR. Firstly, I received one myself as a buyer for an item which wasn't due to be delivered for another 2 days. Secondly - not all sellers use tracked services and not all items get scanned at delivery - especially not at the moment. So this is just pointing out to buyers that there is no delivery confirmation and encouraging more dishonest buyers who have actually received their orders to open INRs. Would it not be better for eBay to send an email to the buyers straight after their purchase informing them of the current postal delays (as believe it or not, there are still some people who have no idea of what's happening with Royal Mail and the subsequent impact on other couriers) and ask for a little patience and understanding? This has been a stressful time for a lot of sellers, with many having to close their shops early, causing financial stress and undoubtedly mental anguish too. Please eBay, dont make it any worse for us.

[kat@ebay]

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@petals-and-paws wrote:

Item due for dispatch next Tuesday 20th - estimated delivery is 19th - 23rd (Royal Mail 24). How can it be delivered the day before it's posted, or the day that it's posted? Plus last day for Christmas delivery is 16th December, so it shouldn't be estimated to arrive until after Christmas and 23rd December is a strike day - and realistically, it's not going to arrive within 48 hours with the current state of the Royal Mail backlogs (which I hope they will be prioritising next week, rather than dealing with newer post).  I know about the 'dynamic delivery dates' eBay claim are working as expected - but to give buyers estimated delivery dates of 2 days before it's posted and where there aren't even any deliveries taking place - that's just setting sellers up to fail. I appreciate that the eBay staff members on this forum have no control over this themselves, but surely the 'shipping' team must realise this is just impossible?

---

Hi @petals-and-paws ,

Part of the calcuation of the EDDs does include previous shipping and dispatch peformance. This looks like it may be taking that into account here.

Thank you,

Kat

[beetleboy82]

When printing postage labels I sometimes get errors, telling me the buyers address is incorrect. This really should flag up to the customer at the point of sale, rather than to me the seller.  It would save sellers having to liase with customers who often have a delayed response, it turn we then can not get their order dispatched on time. 

[seal-extrusions]

Can we please get a one-click send customer copy invoice button - eBay has hidden email addresses from us so we have got to get email addresses from customers, then send them a copy PDF invoice. I waste so much time sending copy invoices when it should just be a button in the drop-down menu.

[kat@ebay]

---

@louisianna wrote:

I also have had an issue for over a month in seller hub. If I sort by item title in orders ready to dispatch I get all my sent orders. And if I try to mark multiple orders as dispatched I get a spinning wheel.

I have contacted CS twice and was told it was being looked into, but it still hasnt been fixed. 

Many thanks

---

Hi @louisianna ,

Yeah we have had further reports of this and it is under an open ticket with tech.  If you have been in contact with customer support its likely they have added your account to the ticket but I'll check my side to ensure its been added. Once there is a fix for this we will update on the boards.

Thank you,

Kat

[dave@ebay]

---

@louisianna wrote:

Hi,

If you look at the business seller chat board you will see the complete and utter stress Ebay has caused sellers by giving totally unrealistic delivery times when Royal Mail are striking.

Even adjusting our dispatch time made no difference. EG before I had to shut down because of the hassle it is causing (losing a lot of revenue by the way) I had set my dispatch time to 3 working days. My dispatch date was showing as 10th Dec. The buyers were being shown delivery by 10th-12 Dec.

1. 10th Dec was a Saturday and I do not work on Saturdays.

2. Even if I did, how is the person supposed to get it by Saturday or even Monday in normal situations, never mind during a strike.

Ebay must have lost lots of revenue too due to all the refunds sellers have had to issue - losing Ebay the seller fees,  plus all the shops that have had to shut down due to the stress.

A number of customers have told me they will no longer shop with Ebay due to the unrealistic expectations they have been given in terms of delivery times so you really arent helping yourselves. 

To top it all off, yesterday a customer reached out to me because she had received an email from Ebay to check if she had recevied her item yet, because she should have!! No Ebay she shouldnt have. The delivery time she had been given was totally unreachable.

Anyway I do hope that Ebay are going to learn from this complete mess. Its not your fault RM are striking, but you do need to handle it in a more efficient manner or we will all be out of business.

---

Hi @louisianna 

I understand how stressful this can be, especially at this time of year with the added pressure of strikes.  The shipping team have been working to incorporate everything into the EDDs and update them as soon as possible. It also takes into consideration how quicky items were dispatched in the past, this can show the earlier delivery dates.

I will as always pass your feedback on to the shipping team to review for further updates.

Thanks,

Dave 

[beetleboy82]

You have a personalisation box and wondered if we could have the choice of making it complusery so a customer can not check out without filling this in? it saves us chasing the customer for the details, and we can get their orders dispatched on time.