💬 Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 19.04.23 @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

[gnosemalf]

I would like to ask why the perfectly functional Summary page was stripped of all the useful information it contained for purchased items; i.e. payment, shipped, feedback left and received icons as well as a tracking number, if provided by the seller.

Removing these items from the Summary page now requires buyers to click through two or three links to find the required information for each item when previously it had all been visible in one place.

How is this supposed to improve user-friendliness?

[ukhaberdashery]

A buyer opened a case to say their item hadn't arrived . I replied that it was most probably due to the easter holiday and problems that RM were having at the moment and to hold on a while.

When it did arrive she contacted ebay to finish of the case quoting

"The buttons arrived this morning. Too late for me. the estimated time of delivery was on the 8th of April "

Ebay promptly refunded them for the item even though they clearly stated the item had arrived"

Ebay should have told them to open up a case for a return of the items they received.

I am now out of pocket and product because ebay did the wrong thing.

I appealed the case to get a message today that was written by someone who obviously did not know english stating that was the right decision and that was final.

"
Thank you so much for contacting us at eBay today about Shirt Jacket Coat Buttons you sold to notnewbelongings. I understand that the case got closed and a full refund is issued to the buyer even when the tracking shows item is delivered to the buyer. This is surely very frustrating. Let me check the details why the case got closed.

After checking the details I see that the item is expected to be delivered by 7th April but it does not went through. By which the buyer got chance to open a case with us. They did not get any help or refund from you for the delayed item. This is the reason we had to step in and solve for the buyer.

Sorry for the convenience caused to you for this transaction. But I suggest you for your future transactions please ensure you resolve your buyer's issue within the seller make it right period. By this you will be hold at fault.
"

Seems ebay are hiring the cheapest employees in order to save costs at the sellers expense.

[pg_kicks]

Hi,

Could you please tell me why on the FAQ on the authenticity Guarantee you spell out that if a customer marks it as customised they will bypass the scheme, this is just giving scammers a step by step guide on how to con ebay users out of money.

Ebay claim many users know about the scheme, but as I sell in this market and get 50% of my customers asking why the shoes have been delivered to a location in London and not them it clearly shows they have no idea about it, this is even after I send them a dispatch email letting them know.

I have spoken to the Authenticity Scheme team and they say they can not authorise customise shoes, but again this is false, you can still say the basic shoe is a genuine Nike/New Balance/Adidas and its been customised, its just eBay dont wish to do that.

I have reported numerous pairs but very rarely are they removed or if they are a new account pops up with the same listing/picture, so the moves eBay mark are clearly not enough, you could stop this by having the customised shoe go via authentication to confirm even if its been repainted that its a genuine product to start off with.

I obviously expect a we shall pass this on but the FAQ will stay the same and nothing will be done but at least I have highlighted it once again.

[nakedkeg]

Hi Community Team,

Please can you escalate this to someone who will engage with me and resolve this?

Or, if eBay has no interest in doing so, please can you let me know?

So I don’t waste any more time with eBay.

Coming up on four weeks ago I raised an issue where it appeared eBay was applying my postage rules incorrectly on selling multiples, resulting in eBay undercharging the buyer, to my financial detriment.

Having had two chat sessions to try to resolve this, I then raised it here two weeks ago, a third chat session, also failed to get any progress.

Kat from the Community Team got back to me last week saying Tech had identified a Bug, and were working on a fix.

I then received an email from the customer service rep I’d had the original chat session with ref SR# 1-461556482242, stating that there was no issue with the postage cost and postage had been charged correctly - this and the rest of their explanation makes no sense.

I replied referring them to Kat’s explanation of a bug. Having sent two further emails, and flagging this contradiction to Kat, I am no further forwards.

Customer service aren’t answering any of my questions about this.

I have previously explained my experience is at odds with how ebay shouts about supporting small businesses in the U.K.

I’ve further explained I’m experiencing a clear disconnect between eBay’s public messaging, versus the attitude of an organisation that’s happy to charge ever increasing fees to its sellers, apply payout holds for no reason, in the two transactions I have identified, charge me £70 in fees, whilst appearing to bump me £11.50 on the postage rule.

EBay haven’t earned their fee, if they can’t apply the postage charges to the buyer correctly based on the postage rules in the listing.

I’ve previously observed that having found one instance, then a second, it’s reasonable to assume there may be others on my own account.

If it’s happening to me, it’s also reasonable to think it may be happening to others, and that when I raised this, and chased it, I don't feel your Customer Service guys on the chat sessions were particularly interested.

I have previously highlighted EBay has failed to accurately provide the service they have charged me for, to my financial detriment.

No one from eBay, in my now three chat sessions with Customer Service, in my contact with Kat or with my emails from Customer Support have offered any remedy to this, or indicated at all that eBay have any interest in correcting my financial position.

I also previously raised that my Impressions/Page Views/Sales on eBay have significantly reduced, against a back drop of increased business on other channels.

I have invited an explanation for this, and asked if there any issues with my account that I am not aware of?

I haven’t received a response on this.

Having made repeated attempts to resolve this, and with mounting frustration, My next step, is to initiate a legal process, that’s not a threat, I’m sign posting what happens next.

It’s what we do when we have tried everything to resolve a situation which has created a financial detriment to us, when Customer Service from our service providers spectacularly fails as EBay has here, compounding eBay’s initial failure to accurately provide the service for which they have taken payment from us for.

Because the legal process is time bound, and given the conflicting information I have received about if this is a bug, or if there is no fault by eBay here, I can’t give eBay an indeterminate length of time to resolve this.

As I said at the top my question for you as a Community Team, is, Please can you escalate this to someone who will engage with me to resolve this ?

If eBay have no intention in resolving this, please be honest and tell me.

We then move forwards to where we serve papers on an eBay U.K. Senior Executive, who inevitably will have trouble understanding how their Service delivery to its Customers then its Customer Service can so spectacularly fail, in an Organisation that shouts loudly about supporting Small Business.

Regards

Neil

EBay Small Business Survivor for 7 years.

[katie@ebay]

---

@ukhaberdashery wrote:

A buyer opened a case to say their item hadn't arrived . I replied that it was most probably due to the easter holiday and problems that RM were having at the moment and to hold on a while.

When it did arrive she contacted ebay to finish of the case quoting

"The buttons arrived this morning. Too late for me. the estimated time of delivery was on the 8th of April "

Ebay promptly refunded them for the item even though they clearly stated the item had arrived"

Ebay should have told them to open up a case for a return of the items they received.

I am now out of pocket and product because ebay did the wrong thing.

I appealed the case to get a message today that was written by someone who obviously did not know english stating that was the right decision and that was final.

"
Thank you so much for contacting us at eBay today about Shirt Jacket Coat Buttons you sold to notnewbelongings. I understand that the case got closed and a full refund is issued to the buyer even when the tracking shows item is delivered to the buyer. This is surely very frustrating. Let me check the details why the case got closed.

After checking the details I see that the item is expected to be delivered by 7th April but it does not went through. By which the buyer got chance to open a case with us. They did not get any help or refund from you for the delayed item. This is the reason we had to step in and solve for the buyer.

Sorry for the convenience caused to you for this transaction. But I suggest you for your future transactions please ensure you resolve your buyer's issue within the seller make it right period. By this you will be hold at fault.
"

Seems ebay are hiring the cheapest employees in order to save costs at the sellers expense.

---

Hi @ukhaberdashery,

Thanks for your question.

You're right, in the case an INR is opened and the item does arrive late we should close the case and ask the buyer to open a not as described case if they want to return since the item arrived past when it was meant to.

However, in your situation here, the agent made the decision to refund the buyer at no cost to you. eBay refunds the buyer and you will receive the funds for this sale. This can take up to 72 hours. This is usually due to the cost of the item and doing what's best for both parties. I'm sorry this was not explained when you chatted with our teams to appeal. The appeal was denied because the refund will not come from you in this situation.

Hope that helps to explain, any questions let me know.

Thanks,

Katie 

[rainbowtrax]

What on earth is going on with the desktop view of listing pages? After suffering weeks of buyers having the most important part of the listing, the seller's description, hidden by the fade-out test (STILL ongoing), ebay have now done the same to the item specifics section as well. Ebay have spent the last 5 years continually banging on about the importance of item specifics only to now hide them! What are the decision-makers thinking? Is there some cunning plan to increase everyone's return rates for some bizarre reason?

[katie@ebay]

---

@pg_kicks wrote:

Hi,

Could you please tell me why on the FAQ on the authenticity Guarantee you spell out that if a customer marks it as customised they will bypass the scheme, this is just giving scammers a step by step guide on how to con ebay users out of money.

Ebay claim many users know about the scheme, but as I sell in this market and get 50% of my customers asking why the shoes have been delivered to a location in London and not them it clearly shows they have no idea about it, this is even after I send them a dispatch email letting them know.

I have spoken to the Authenticity Scheme team and they say they can not authorise customise shoes, but again this is false, you can still say the basic shoe is a genuine Nike/New Balance/Adidas and its been customised, its just eBay dont wish to do that.

I have reported numerous pairs but very rarely are they removed or if they are a new account pops up with the same listing/picture, so the moves eBay mark are clearly not enough, you could stop this by having the customised shoe go via authentication to confirm even if its been repainted that its a genuine product to start off with.

I obviously expect a we shall pass this on but the FAQ will stay the same and nothing will be done but at least I have highlighted it once again.

---

Hi @pg_kicks,

Thank you for you insight into this topic.

At the moment customized shoes are not a part of the Authenticity Guarantee Programme. The team is constantly adding new categories, brands, and items so I am not sure if this is something they plan to add in the future.

I understand what you mean in regard to this being a benefit to be checked so I will send this on as feedback to the Authenticity Guarantee Team.

Thanks,

Katie 

[dave@ebay]

---

@gnosemalf wrote:

I would like to ask why the perfectly functional Summary page was stripped of all the useful information it contained for purchased items; i.e. payment, shipped, feedback left and received icons as well as a tracking number, if provided by the seller.

Removing these items from the Summary page now requires buyers to click through two or three links to find the required information for each item when previously it had all been visible in one place.

How is this supposed to improve user-friendliness?

---

Hi @gnosemalf 

As part of integration across the site its sometimes needed to move options around to different locations.  

I understand this can lead to extra clicks to find some information but it can sometimes be due to how the site works on the backend. 

I will however pass your feedback to the development team to review.

Thanks,

Dave

[pg_kicks]

Thanks so basically nothing will get done and the FAQ aka steps on how to bypass the scheme will stay in place? Glad to see that supporting the sale of fake goods is so high up on the agenda for eBay and stopping this crime is so low down on the agenda. It is a very simple step to take yet eBay just seem to enjoy taking the FFV on the sale of fake goods even though they know 100% what they are doing.

[douglaspuglas]

There is x20 nectar bonus points at the moment.

It used to show what bonus points you'd be getting on the listings and at checkout but now it just shows the normal x1 nectar points.

Is this a glitch or has eBay/nectar stopped letting buyers know what extra points they'll get?

Are we just supposed to hope we get them?

[darth_baggins]

Please can you explain why messages in INR cases are now truncated?

Up until recently I could read the entire messages between myself and the customer but now the messages are cut off and only show the first 200 or so characters. I don't see the point in this change as sometimes I need to refer back to what was said and I now I can't.

I've attached a screenshot and redacted it but you should be able to get the gist of what I mean.

[darth_baggins]

Can you please explain why a buyer is allowed to open an INR case where the tracking is already uploaded to the order and shows delivery?

Surely an INR should be automatically denied if tracking is already present and shows delivery? Otherwise what's the point of having tracking?

[katie@ebay]

---

@rainbowtrax wrote:

What on earth is going on with the desktop view of listing pages? After suffering weeks of buyers having the most important part of the listing, the seller's description, hidden by the fade-out test (STILL ongoing), ebay have now done the same to the item specifics section as well. Ebay have spent the last 5 years continually banging on about the importance of item specifics only to now hide them! What are the decision-makers thinking? Is there some cunning plan to increase everyone's return rates for some bizarre reason?

---

Hi @rainbowtrax,

This is a test as you mentioned that is ongoing.

They are gathering data about the test and the design team will make a decision from there.

We have been sharing sentiment from users on the community with the team to add to their data.

Thanks,

Katie 

[ukhaberdashery]

She bought 2 item. one it seems was not an issue but the 2nd 20-09885-67025 indicated that we were to blame as per the screenshot attached

[jckl1957]

We are still seeing almost daily posts from members who are being inconvenienced (or worse) because payments are taken twice from their bank accounts.  One payment appears in pending and does vanish after a few days and the money is not actually taken.  However, if the amount is large, and is pending, your bank will not show this as available funds and members may not be able to pay bills or purchase necessities.

I raised this on 14th december - 4 months ago.  My post and response below:

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.

[ukhaberdashery]

The buyer had stated in the case the item had arrived and valid tracking had been given.

[katie@ebay]

---

@douglaspuglas wrote:

There is x20 nectar bonus points at the moment.

It used to show what bonus points you'd be getting on the listings and at checkout but now it just shows the normal x1 nectar points.

Is this a glitch or has eBay/nectar stopped letting buyers know what extra points they'll get?

Are we just supposed to hope we get them?

---

Hi @douglaspuglas,

You're correct, the amount is not being shown at the checkout at this time. I do think this is something they are hoping to re-add for future promotions.

Thanks,

Katie 

[dave@ebay]

Hi @nakedkeg 

This issue has been escalate to the Tech Team to be reviewed. I just checked the ticket and at the moment there is no update yet.

The Tech Team are not a customer facing team so there is no way for you to speak directly to them. We will however monitor the Bug Report and as soon as there is an update we will reach out to you and let you know.

Thanks,

Dave

[kempseykate]

The message about extra Nectar points because it's 'hump day' ....

I am English, I speak English and I list/buy on ebay.co.uk, so I expect interactions with them to be in English as well.

I know of three definitions of 'hump':

a hump (like a camel's)

'in a hump', meaning annoyed with someone 

and a third one, which I can't really put into words as the mods will delete it - let's just say being really, really friendly with someone.

Apparently in America 'hump day' means Wednesday - but I'm not American,  I don't live in the US and I don't speak American-English.

So, could we just call Wednesday 'Wednesday', please?