Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 18.12.24 @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. 

This will be the last chat of the year but we will be back on January 8th.

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. 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

[custom-giftsuk]

Now that GSPR has come into effect, and all eBay sellers must be compliant, which way is eBay cracking down on sellers who are still shipping to Northern Ireland and the EU without complying with GSPR rules. What restrictions are eBay implementing on sellers who breach GSPR rules, in what way and when. If they are relying on other sellers to report these sellers, what method is in place to report these sellers and will they crack down on such breaches in the way they are taking action against sellers who breach other eBay rules?

[moonspender]

Hi

Can i just leave some feedback. I've noticed quite often ( including today ) that when the chat opens it doesnt allow questions for the first 5 minutes, im sure this is a technical issue rather than you guys turning up late but could someone have a look at it ?

[darth_baggins]

Can you explain why it seems like every single seller that received the email about the eBay yearly round up is being told they're in the top 5% performers in their category?

Is this is a glitch, or is eBay cherry-picking selected categories to blow smoke up our backsides?

[kat@ebay]

---

@custom-giftsuk wrote:

Now that GSPR has come into effect, and all eBay sellers must be compliant, which way is eBay cracking down on sellers who are still shipping to Northern Ireland and the EU without complying with GSPR rules. What restrictions are eBay implementing on sellers who breach GSPR rules, in what way and when. If they are relying on other sellers to report these sellers, what method is in place to report these sellers and will they crack down on such breaches in the way they are taking action against sellers who breach other eBay rules?

---

Hi @custom-giftsuk,

For listings that  don’t comply with the GPSR,  listings may not be visible to buyers in the EU and Northern Ireland. Reporting such accounts will come from a variety of sources including internal reviews, through the site from users and from regulators. It is a new regulation that has just come into effect so it can take time for all processes to come into effect.

Thank you,

Kat

[dave@ebay]

---

@moonspender wrote:

Hi

Can i just leave some feedback. I've noticed quite often ( including today ) that when the chat opens it doesnt allow questions for the first 5 minutes, im sure this is a technical issue rather than you guys turning up late but could someone have a look at it ?

---

Hi @moonspender 

Sometimes when we open the chat it can take some time to reindex. Its possibly just a delay in it refreshing, it will sometimes say it's still locked even though its open. 

I'll keep an eye on it for the next chat to see if it's an issue.

Thanks,

Dave

[darth_baggins]

Is there any data to show that 'private' sellers are indeed spending more money on eBay, primarly with business sellers, as eBay predicted? This is what we were told would happen.

Personally my (eBay) sales in November were incredibly poor and I'm certainly not seeing this massive surge in spending since 'private' sellers were given free everything.

[marco@ebay]

---

@darth_baggins wrote:

Can you explain why it seems like every single seller that received the email about the eBay yearly round up is being told they're in the top 5% performers in their category?

Is this is a glitch, or is eBay cherry-picking selected categories to blow smoke up our backsides?

---

Hi darth_baggins, thanks for your post.

If you as a seller received an email stating that, then that is because you are. Just because you are seeing a some sellers commenting about this, it doesn't mean that you're covering all the multiple sellers we have on site.

Thank you,

Marco

[cobwebcottage]

Hi Dave,

Any updates about the private seller advertising her Etsy shop on all of their 1600 listing photo's?

I can't believe that Ebay would condone this and do nothing about it. 

[darth_baggins]

Thanks.

I've got a friend who sells 2-3 items a day but is also in the top 5% of their category. Seems off to me.

[marco@ebay]

---

@darth_baggins wrote:

Thanks.

I've got a friend who sells 2-3 items a day but is also in the top 5% of their category. Seems off to me.

---

Thanks for your reply, darth_baggins.

Yes, I can see where you are coming from. However, there is no glitch or anything similar like that. So, all good there.

Thank you,

Marco

[kat@ebay]

---

@darth_baggins wrote:

Is there any data to show that 'private' sellers are indeed spending more money on eBay, primarly with business sellers, as eBay predicted? This is what we were told would happen.

Personally my (eBay) sales in November were incredibly poor and I'm certainly not seeing this massive surge in spending since 'private' sellers were given free everything.

---

Hi @darth_baggins,

We don't have any current data to share for this but usually the earnings reports take place the following quarter. Those kind of reports would be the first quarter in 2025.

Thank you,

Kat

[custom-giftsuk]

So just to get this clear. Sellers who have removed themselves from selling to Northern Ireland & the EU because the GSPR rules are too onerous / expensive / not cost effective dont show up in the listings when a buyer comes from NI/EU but sellers who have not done so and are hoping to game the system are relying on someone reporting them and that we should just hold tight and trust the process (a la businesses posing as private sellers). Is there any effective method for reporting these sellers which are breaking GSPR as there is no option to do so when reporting a seller at the moment?

[dave@ebay]

---

@cobwebcottage wrote:

Hi Dave,

Any updates about the private seller advertising her Etsy shop on all of their 1600 listing photo's?

I can't believe that Ebay would condone this and do nothing about it. 

---

Hi @cobwebcottage 

Unfortunately, I don't have anything that I can share. It has been reported but as you know I can only speak about any action that was taken with the account holder. 

I haven't seen what action the policy team have taken but, it can for example be that they have been given time to update their listings.

Thanks,

Dave

[kat@ebay]

---

@custom-giftsuk wrote:

So just to get this clear. Sellers who have removed themselves from selling to Northern Ireland & the EU because the GSPR rules are too onerous / expensive / not cost effective dont show up in the listings when a buyer comes from NI/EU but sellers who have not done so and are hoping to game the system are relying on someone reporting them and that we should just hold tight and trust the process (a la businesses posing as private sellers). Is there any effective method for reporting these sellers which are breaking GSPR as there is no option to do so when reporting a seller at the moment?

---

Hi @custom-giftsuk ,

If a listing is not being compliant like our other policies it can be reported through the site. Ebay also have their own internal systems that review listings and accounts for policy breaches. 

Thank you,

Kat

[bojangled]

Hello team

Also a feedback post. 

I was chatting to a regular private seller yesterday, selling his old tools and the like. He’s fully aware of the HMRC reporting next year, he’s a quite a savvy retired ‘chap’. I asked him if he was aware of the incoming payment holds until delivery confirmation, advised him of the basics as he has no idea of the changes.
Along with the many forum posts of rejecting simple delivery confusion it all feels a bit messy. 

Given media reporting on this isn’t entirely accurate and are creating a negative narrative are there plans to communicate this (other than the updated T&C) and other changes sooner than later? 
I know it’s not in your arena to action such things, it seems a damage limitation clear concise announcement would be beneficial. 
Just my thoughts.

Wish the team a gentle festive period.

Jo

[moonspender]

I have seen quite a few electrical goods that are avilable to the EU where the seller has put the responsible person as someone in the UK, ive reported a few but its clear many many sellers are chancing their arm. Can i suggest that in catagories where that item has to comply to GPSR ( ie new electrical ) that the system will not accept invalid details .... get the AI to so some of the work as these are the key products GPSR was designed to protect buyers from and the ones the EU will be checking.

[cobwebcottage]

Thanks Dave. I will wait and see and hope that it is not just another example of the reporting system not working. 

[kempseykate]

As this is the last chat of the year, is there any info on when private sellers will be forced into Simple Delivery and what it will involve, please? It's happening in Q1, and the next chat will actually be in Q1.

I know you often pass feedback back to the relevant team etc. Would it be possible to please pass back to the CEO that if he makes an announcement about a change that will have a huge effect on all private sellers, it would be a very good idea to have all the whys and wherefores, and more importantly the when in an announcement ready to be published at the same time.
It is now well over 2 weeks since he announced this change, yet we still have no details, it seems that we are not even worthy of a 'yes it's happening, but we are as much in the dark as you'. 😠

[custom-giftsuk]

Can you tell me the process for reporting a seller for being a business with a personal account and a seller breaching GSPR rules please as I cant see either of those options in either reporting a seller or reporting a listing.