Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 20.12.23 @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, katie@ebay and anita@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. Some questions may not be suitable for this weekly chat, as it closes after 1 hour. If you have a long question or one that requires a lot of investigation please write a discussion post on the boards and tag our team members. 

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. This will be our last weekly chat of the year. We'll be back on the 3rd of January.

Many thanks,

Your eBay Community Team

[pg_kicks]

It's a bit too late now but I did tag the community members into my original post over the weekend but not heard anything. Is there any reason why eBay was saying that tracked 48 would take till 2024 to be delivered if purchased on Friday and Saturday when I had it set as my default free shipping method? It was 'fixed' by changing to other 48 but only found out due to another member. 

What should have been the busiest weekend of the year was a total washout and I'm pretty sure part of it was down to ebay having an EED (which is working as designed as you keep telling us) saying if you purchased and item with tracked 48 and same day dispatch it could actually take over 2 weeks for delivery?

This year is ruined by the lack of response in over 72 hours from the original post but hoping it can be alerted to the correct team to fix their mess so it doesn't happen again.

Hope you all have a wonderful and a merry Christmas and that next year I don't need to say anything here as all issues are fixed.

[anita@ebay]

---

@pg_kicks wrote:

It's a bit too late now but I did tag the community members into my original post over the weekend but not heard anything. Is there any reason why eBay was saying that tracked 48 would take till 2024 to be delivered if purchased on Friday and Saturday when I had it set as my default free shipping method? It was 'fixed' by changing to other 48 but only found out due to another member. 

What should have been the busiest weekend of the year was a total washout and I'm pretty sure part of it was down to ebay having an EED (which is working as designed as you keep telling us) saying if you purchased and item with tracked 48 and same day dispatch it could actually take over 2 weeks for delivery?

This year is ruined by the lack of response in over 72 hours from the original post but hoping it can be alerted to the correct team to fix their mess so it doesn't happen again.

Hope you all have a wonderful and a merry Christmas and that next year I don't need to say anything here as all issues are fixed.

---

Hi @pg_kicks, thanks for your post.

We worked closely with carriers to understand their performance across the peak times and adjusted EDDs based on number of factors. If you see longer EDDs it is due to the extensions and not a bug/site issue.

Thank you,

Anita

[prinkink]

Hi,

I have noticed that there seems to be Chinese companies with large warehouses of stock dotted around the UK who have multiple accounts selling the same items. This results in the same item being listed hundreds of times by the same company but under the guise of being listed by different sellers. However, they all have the same VAT number.

Surely, this is not allowed?

[pg_kicks]

But it wasn't across the board for Royal Mail, it was just tracked 48, which is not having any issues, surely if you decide tracked 48 is an issue (it's not) tracked 24 should too and all the other Royal Mail services? Also amazing how eed works to add 2 weeks but never any other time ie strikes or real delays.

Also any reason why all 3 just ignored my tags? 

[tressygirl]

Hiya,

May I ask, if a buyer pays for  a faster therefore more expensive postage/ delivery service, and the item is then sent with a basic 2nd class postage, in effect the buyer has paid an excess postage charge but also has not received the delivery service and time promised , can they open a case for item not as described here,  and receive a full refund?

Thank you.

[marco@ebay]

---

@tressygirl wrote:

Hiya,

May I ask, if a buyer pays for  a faster therefore more expensive postage/ delivery service, and the item is then sent with a basic 2nd class postage, in effect the buyer has paid an excess postage charge but also has not received the delivery service and time promised , can they open a case for item not as described here,  and receive a full refund?

Thank you.

---

Hi tressygirl, thanks for your question.

Yes, the buyer would be entitled to open a not as described return for this. If they do that, you could take the item back and issue a full refund, or issue a partial refund for the difference on postage.

Thank you,

Marco

[best-range]

Royal Mail does not advertise their 2 class services as 2 days faster then 1 class services, only ebay does.

So I dont believe that ebay ever checks with RM. this happens again & again, reported so many times by so many sellers & no response, but this bug happening over the last few days of sales before Christmas is just appalling;

[anita@ebay]

---

@pg_kicks wrote:

But it wasn't across the board for Royal Mail, it was just tracked 48, which is not having any issues, surely if you decide tracked 48 is an issue (it's not) tracked 24 should too and all the other Royal Mail services? Also amazing how eed works to add 2 weeks but never any other time ie strikes or real delays.

Also any reason why all 3 just ignored my tags? 

---

@pg_kicks, our teams do this by service performance that’s why the EDDs were extended to provide realistic expectations for buyers, especially before Christmas time.

I’ve looked through the posts and found the thread you are referring to, the tags were not done properly so we actually never got the notification. Please see this  video on how to mention another member.

Thank you

Anita

[returns_andexdisplay]

EDD does not work, it has been mentioned over and over all throughout the year on here, message boards, social media yet ebay don't seem to want to listen to sellers about the issue even though it is one of the number one issues sellers face currently on here. 

No mention of the issue in the end of year message of Eve Williams even though "we listen" to sellers. 

If EDD is based on delivery metrics of sellers shipping and delivery history then why on Saturday buyers were shown Wednesday - Thursday delivery, which is a fair estimate.  Yet on Sunday same delivery settings shown after Christmas delivery estimate? Sales dropped off a cliff at this point while had one of my best days trading on own website and Amazon.  On one of the busiest traiding weekend for most online stores ebay massively messed up the same as last year. 

When checking delivery tracking randomly for orders throughout December, they are dispatched same or next day. Many get delivered next day and longer distances get delivered in day 2 after delivery. Yet ebay seem to think they will take up to two weeks to get delivered. 

I am sure Amazon have the same conversations with the delivery companies and managed to estimate delivery correctly and let sellers live and die by the promises they make to buyers. If I get it wrong I may get bad feedback,but at least I get the oppertunity to sell at the busiest time of the year. ebay continue to try and manage my business and keep getting it wrong. 

[tressygirl]

I've seen invalid access token some members are seeing, what is this , and what does the member need to do to then access their account.

Thank you.

[anita@ebay]

---

@best-range wrote:

Royal Mail does not advertise their 2 class services as 2 days faster then 1 class services, only ebay does.

So I dont believe that ebay ever checks with RM. this happens again & again, reported so many times by so many sellers & no response, but this bug happening over the last few days of sales before Christmas is just appalling;

---

Hi @best-range, thanks for your post.

I appreciate where you are coming from. However, I do want to confirm this is not the bug, we do show the EDDs based on the information we have, which includes history of carrier performance.

Thanks,

Anita

[marco@ebay]

---

@tressygirl wrote:

I've seen invalid access token some members are seeing, what is this , and what does the member need to do to then access their account.

Thank you.

---

Hi tressygirl, thanks for your post.

Could you please elaborate this further? I am not quite sure what you're referring to, when does that happen exactly, do you have a screenshot you could share with me for better visibility?

Thank you,

Marco

[best-range]

---

anita@ebay wrote:

---

@best-range wrote:

Royal Mail does not advertise their 2 class services as 2 days faster then 1 class services, only ebay does.

So I dont believe that ebay ever checks with RM. this happens again & again, reported so many times by so many sellers & no response, but this bug happening over the last few days of sales before Christmas is just appalling;

---

Hi @best-range, thanks for your post.

I appreciate where you are coming from. However, I do want to confirm this is not the bug, we do show the EDDs based on the information we have, which includes history of carrier performance.

Thanks,

Anita

---

So you're saying that Royal Mail 1 class services are slower then 2 class ?  & you dont question it or report it to the EDD team to correct it promptly ???, only in ebay's fantazy land this is possible.

By the way this bug is still continuing today, 2 class post according to ebay is 2 days faster then 1 class :

[tressygirl]

Sorry Marco no screen shots,   as I  have just seen this a few times from members asking that  they are seeing   'Invalid token' when trying to log into their account, and therefore cannot log in.

They are defintiely UK based members as it did sound a little ' Americanised' ,  but nothing else for me  to elaborate really,   members were asking as above,  and no one gave any correct answer,   as I believe, like me,  no one is clear what this ' invalid token ' means.

Anyone else there any idea, katie ?

[marco@ebay]

---

@tressygirl wrote:

Sorry Marco no screen shots,   as I  have just seen this a few times from members asking that  they are seeing   'Invalid token' when trying to log into their account, and therefore cannot log in.

They are defintiely UK based members as it did sound a little ' Americanised' ,  but nothing else for me  to elaborate really,   members were asking as above,  and no one gave any correct answer,   as I believe, like me,  no one is clear what this ' invalid token ' means.

Anyone else there any idea, katie ?

---

Thanks for your reply, tressygirl.

Could you please tag me on the thread in question? I will take a look from there and assist from there after this chat.

Thanks for flagging this with us,

Marco

[anita@ebay]

---

@best-range wrote:

---

anita@ebay wrote:

---

@best-range wrote:

Royal Mail does not advertise their 2 class services as 2 days faster then 1 class services, only ebay does.

So I dont believe that ebay ever checks with RM. this happens again & again, reported so many times by so many sellers & no response, but this bug happening over the last few days of sales before Christmas is just appalling;

---

Hi @best-range, thanks for your post.

I appreciate where you are coming from. However, I do want to confirm this is not the bug, we do show the EDDs based on the information we have, which includes history of carrier performance.

Thanks,

Anita

---

So you're saying that Royal Mail 1 class services are slower then 2 class ?  & you dont question it or report it to the EDD team to correct it promptly ???, only in ebay's fantazy land this is possible.

By the way this bug is still continuing today, 2 class post according to ebay is 2 days faster then 1 class :

---

@best-range, if historically one postage service didn’t perform as well as the other, we will take that into consideration along with other factors. While one service may seem faster, the actual performance may have been different.

This was already brought to our attention, and we actually did report to the relevant team. It was checked and confirmed that it is not a bug.

Thank you,

Anita

[bojangled]

anita@ebay 

That's an interesting statement, can I ask is that an official line from Royal Mail? 
Jo

[tressygirl]

Saw this a few days ago, so might not be able to,   or find the time to,  to be honest , to trawl through pages and pages of posts which came after,  but I'll try !

[pbshef]

Hi,

I have bought an item on ebay which was marked for local collection due to its size and agreed with seller for paying cash on collection.

While collecting the item, the seller asked for Collection code which was not visible until, I pressed the Make payment button - which has also charged my card, even though I have paid in cash.

I contacted ebay customer services to stop the payment, and they confirmed that the payment will not clear but it has still been charged to my card. How can I get the refund for double payment ?