💬 Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 19.07.23 @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 marco@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

[marco@ebay]

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@keelinge wrote:

When trying to filter purchases to UK only, why are sellers who have registered in other countries still showing up? 

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Thanks for your question, keelinge.

This is because we would show all the UK results, sometimes when there are not enough items to show, we would show you the rest, including seller from other sites. 

Thank you,

Marco

[katie@ebay]

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@pg_kicks wrote:

Hi,

I recicved an email regarding a coupon, replied back to him and since then its been radio silence, just wondering if you have any information or if it was just a mistake from ebay? I've tried emailing since and again no answer, just wondering if you can confirm if this person is real and any reason behind the silence towards a cusomter of the company he represents?

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Hi @pg_kicks,

Thank you for your question, I reached out to them and they can see your email there. They have let me know they will reach out to you as soon as possible with more information. 

This person is a genuine eBay employee and works for specific category promotions.

Thanks,

Katie 

[ducatimondo]

Is eBay ever going to address the issue of the duplicated listings in the vehicle parts category?

We have been asking for eBay for help with it for 7 years now and they still don't do anything.

I have occasionally had some help from colleagues on here, some help on the phone, a lot of reassurances that it is taken seriously but the same old line, we can't share about any action we take on another members account, blah blah blah.

If the sellers still sells stuff and the duplicated listings remain, then there is no need to share as we know eBay are doing nothing.

I am sick of paying extra for sponsored listings to try and get our items found when these sellers have the same item often listed more than 500 times with no consequence, ever.

Thanks

Russ

[keelinge]

But the filter is there for a reason? I chose where I wanted the items from but you are suggesting ebay knows better than the buyer in this situation?

[dave@ebay]

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@darth_baggins wrote:

Regarding this thread (post 96) https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-Board/Impressions-broken-again/td-p/7442399/page/6

Quote I called and spoke with someone at eBay who said we had a 'soft block' on our account, to stop us going over the VAT limit - but we're VAT registered?! He said eBay was 'thinking of us' and didn't want us to have to pay more VAT so they limited our sales each day.

Can you confirm that eBay do this please? And if they don't, why are CS saying that eBay have 'soft blocks'?

Many of us experience similar where sales seem to be 'capped' and when we reach a certain level they stop. I know it's been denied but this needs to be addressed, either it's true or the CS agent in question needs to be educated.

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Hi @darth_baggins 

Again I cant comment on any action that may have been taken on another account but, we do not cap or block sales without there being an actual issue on the account. We can sometimes suspend or restrict an account for a policy breach but in no way would we do it to keep an account under the the VAT threshold. 

Ill have the call pulled and the appropriate action taken with the agent in question. 

Thanks,

Dave

[katie@ebay]

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@keelinge wrote:

When a buyer returns an item under a false reason, we can report them but how can we follow the case to see the return label fees are credited? 

Also will there be a way to block buyers that open x amount of cases, similar to those that don't pay? 

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Hi @keelinge,

We do track all buyers returns and any claims they may lose or have appealed by sellers. This is reviewed by our risk team and they can take further action on buyers accounts if there are negative trends in behaviour. There is no way for a seller to manually add a rule for blocking buyers that have had cases in the past.

If you appeal a case for item not as described cases the return postage can be discussed with an agent that works the claim and these are reviewed on a case by case basis.

Thanks,

Katie 

[marco@ebay]

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@eco-green-chicken wrote:

my sales have stopped, impressions/page views/watch count all down / stopped.

what is going on ? I list popular items, been using ebay 20 yrs so know how to drive it, but sales slowed in June, stopped in July. 

same as everybody else, please explain what ebay have done, why no* sales for me this month

* ok, £46 of sales in a month is a sale but it's not the £500+ on a slow month...

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Hi  eco-green-chicken, thanks for your message.

We have reported this to our IT team, and no technical issue was found that could potentially be causing this. However, we are monitoring this to see if there are any issues with the actual report or something similar like that. We are currently waiting for an update on this.

Thank you,

Marco

[keelinge]

However this puts the onus on the seller to get in touch and spend time trying to get through to the correct person. Why can an email/ message not be sent to inform of the decision directly? With a way to follow up if if it is decided against the seller?

[eco-green-chicken]

Dave - the terminaology might be different, some say block, others say limit.

the post might be refering to account selling limits that ( I have now discovered on my account ) been applied by ebay . I have no reason for my accout to be limitied as I am perfect in every way..... but still limited by ebay. please check with the poster, to see if that's what tehy mean.

[marco@ebay]

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@ak_craft_crazy wrote:

Hi, I had a request by a customer for a bespoke custom order. So i created a listing for this and i send them the direct link to that particular listing taking them directly to it. They made a purchase but yet i had a promoted listing charge on the ppurchase? Now to me a promoted listing is when someone searches for an item genrally and then my item is "promoted" higher up the list, if they purchase then i am charged. Also if my item appears in a ad somewhere like google and is purchased then i am charged a promoted listing fee.

I do not expect me to be charged a promoted listing fee when the item has not been promoted in anyway shape or form by yoursleves and is purchased directly from a link i sent them.

Please can this be explained?

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Hi ak_craft_crazy, thanks for your message.

If you PM me the item number for the item in question, I can look into it for you, and I will get back to you with an update.

Thank you,

Marco

[katie@ebay]

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@ducatimondo wrote:

Can someone look and see why I cannot reply to threads in the member to member support section?
As talented as I am, I'm yet to find a way to help people without actually being able to talk or write to them.

Thanks
Russ

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Hi Russ,

The member to member board is designed to allow users to ask Community Mentors questions. Only the original poster and mentors can reply on the member to member board. There is more information on the mentor programme on our community notice board.

Thanks,

Katie 

[lord_and_lady_m]

There is constantly private sellers selling on ebay, when they should be registered as a business. It's been brought up so many time.

How is it fair the private sellers can have special offers on fees etc when businesses cannot?

Businesses cannot compete with private sellers fairly in these instances.

[petals-and-paws]

Hi dave@ebay - I'm the member who was told that I had a soft block on my account, I can assure you that I was told that it was so 'I didn't make too many sales' due to the VAT threshold and that there were no other issues with my account. If you'd like to send me a message I'd be happy to provide more details.

[ducatimondo]

Why is there a limit of up to 5,000 members that you can add the blocked bidders list?

The conduct of buyers lately, abusing policies, making bogus return requests, claiming items have't arrived that show delivered, using or braking items and then wanting a return, retuning items damaged or missing packaging and general being nastly to sellers when we have done nothing wrong all mean that limit will soon be used up.

Is there a way to find out how many are already on the list without counting them?

Thanks
Russ

[marco@ebay]

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@lord_and_lady_m wrote:

The variations link isn't working today.

I went to alter a stock number on the variation and guess what... It's not me, it's you!!

click that and the page has a second of struggle then goes to the server down page

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Hi lord_and_lady_m, thanks for your question.

If you PM me the item number for the item you are trying to update, and a screenshot of the error you are getting, I can look into it, and get back to you with an update. 

Thank you,

Marco

[dave@ebay]

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@lord_and_lady_m wrote:

It seems the community is split in two. Ine half thriving, and the other half seemingly switched off. I cannot understand it as those that are thriving appear to  be doing nothing different the those that are seemingly switched off.

The divide is so clear  i don't blame all of those thriving, saying that the others are peddling conspiracy theories.

What are ebay going to do to deal with this divide?

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Hi @lord_and_lady_m 

We don't switch off sales to anyone so there is no divide that we can action from this side.  

We do however run a number of different programs to help sellers trading on site. We have the Roadshows, eBay Open, ProTrader, Small Business United and eBay Academy among others. There is also our eBay for business YouTube channel where we share talks and guides for selling and using the different tools on site.

Thanks,

Dave

[eco-green-chicken]

Marco - there clearly IS a problem, otherwise I wouldn't be here trying to solve it.

sales do not "stop" on the change of a specific month. 

ebay applied limits to my ( perfect ) account without telling me, then let me ? have higher limits, but still no sales.... 

so why have my sales stopped, views/watches/impressions all dropped by 90% ? it's not the products, time of year, wars, or strikes, or any variable I can control....

either way if sales do not improve on ebay for me, by end of month I will close my account.

[lord_and_lady_m]

All items so i'm not going to work that out, and is there really a point to me screenshotting the its not you its us page?

[ak_craft_crazy]

Hi,

I dont want it looking into as i have received a refund for this but according to one of your representatives, this is considered a "promoted listing". How can this be when you haven't promoted anything?

My next queryto this is how many times have you charged me a promoted listing fee without actually promoting the lisitng?

[marco@ebay]

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@keelinge wrote:

Private sellers appear to have frequent 70-80% off fvf promotions. Could businesses sellers be offered some incentives as well as a lot of 'private' sellers are just businesses that are trading at an advantage to those who abide by the rules.

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Hi keelinge, thanks for your message.

This type of offers/promotions are sent out to sellers from time to time, and there is not an actual schedule or program for them to be assigned to private/business sellers. However, I will make sure to pass your feedback on, so this can be taken into consideration for future offers for business sellers.

Thank you,

Marco