💬 Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 21.09.22 @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 refrain from opening discussions here, any posts without questions may be removed.

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

[iceblue_uk]

Hi.

I have a question regarding GSP shipping and VAT.

In the past, whenever I sell to a customer in another country (european or non-european), eBay has always billed the customer at the full UK list price of the item.
At some point in the last year or 2 this changed... customers in Europe are zero rated for VAT and the VAT portion is now deducted from the total price they pay to us.
I am told that this is because European customers pay taxes in their own country and should therefore pay the list price with UK VAT deducted.

Can you explain please why sales to non-european countries are also zero rated, but we still receive the full list price as before?
Presumably these folks still have to pay taxes in their own country, just like in europe, but they are paying us roughly 20% more than europeans are for the same product.

As things stand I can no longer make sufficient margin on sales to Europe because I still have to pay a percentage to HMRC on these sales, despite the reduced sale price. Is it, or could it be possible to set different list prices for non-UK sales?

[iceblue_uk]

Another GSP issue...

Customers often ask me for an invoice, but there's no way for us to produce one from eBay and GSP tell us that we should not supply one in any case.
I would like to know exactly how these customers are being invoiced, presumably a commercial invoice is sent with the goods?
I have never seen one and, as far as I know, I have no access to them... which is a problem since HMRC require us to keep invoice records and proofs of export, neither of which eBay provide to us.
For my business records to be accepted by HMRC, I need copies of all GSP commercial invoices and proofs of export generated over the last 2 years, how to I obtain these?

[iceblue_uk]

I would like to add my voice to the many complaints that have been made about the EDD system.

I have just attended the 'prepare for peak' webinar where we were encouraged not to over-state our delivery capability and make promises we cannot keep. I find this a ludicrous stance to take, considering that is exactly what the current EDD system is doing. We now receive more complaints about 'late' delivery than ever before.
Why on earth is EDD promising Royal Mail 2nd delivery in 1 day, even same-day in some cases? That is not progress, it's simply ridiculous.

My main concern here is that buyers are clearly told 'GET IT BY' a certain date in search results, that sounds like a guarantee and there is absolutely no mention that it is an estimate.
Almost every buyer I have spoken to believes that this date is a delivery PROMISE!
The ONLY place eBay advises that the date is an ESTIMATE is in small print, if you happen to click into the delivery details that virtually nobody reads or can find.
This needs addressing a.s.a.p., please do something to make buyers aware that these dates are NOT promises and start managing buyer expectations, just as we have been instructed to do by eBay.

[thegoodgoods95]

Hello,

Can you please add a template drop down menu in the new listing system.

At the moment, i can choose only 10 out of the 50 template i ve.

Thanks

[iceblue_uk]

I'd like to know if standard promo ad fees are refunded when a buyer cancels an order.

Also, all our promo sales state 'sold via promoted listings', but we really need to differentiate between standard and advanced promoted sales, without that we have no way of knowing the margin we made on the sale.
Currently it's possible to find out if it was standard or advanced, but it takes an age to go through several pages of info to get to that data, one order at a time. Please indicate in seller hub which sales are which, or make a sales report available that showas this info.

[oakley_home_and_gifts]

Seems some buyers are experiencing issues recievng collection codes for click and collect orders. Have had two buyers recently message me saying they have not received a collection code and also head from another person they did not receive a collection code for a order. Very frustrating as the second time it happened the buyer was eventually able to collect the item but is now returning it due to taking over a week to get the code from ebay and went else where to buy the product. So a lost sale and also lose of outbound postage through no fault of my own. 

For a tech company there seems to be a lot of tech issues at present which are making both buyers and sellers experience of the site a negative one. 

[rainbowtrax]

---

@thegoodgoods95 wrote:

Hello,

Can you please add a template drop down menu in the new listing system.

At the moment, i can choose only 10 out of the 50 template i ve.

Thanks

---

If you click on the actual words, "Your templates", that's a link to the full list and from there you can select "Create listing" for all of them.

[iceblue_uk]

There is a problem with eBay checkout in that the buyer has to select the postage option separately for each line item. What happens is that buyers don't realise this; they order say 8 items and click on only the first line if they want to upgrade the postage on the whole order.

This results in 2 orders being created, both with payment transaction fees despite only 1 payment being taken, so we are billed twice for that, and also the buyer does not pay the extra 'per item' amount that is set by the seller for the upgraded postage option.

Please make it possible for buyers to select a whole order postage upgrade as default, without having to scroll down and tick a box next to each line. 

In the, very few I am sure, cases where a buyer wants to have different delivery speeds for different items in their basket, surely this could be set up so that they have to actively click a separate option to open up the separate delivery option on each line.

[katie@ebay]

---

@thegoodgoods95 wrote:

Hello,

Can you please add a template drop down menu in the new listing system.

At the moment, i can choose only 10 out of the 50 template i ve.

Thanks

---

Hi @thegoodgoods95,

Thank you for your feedback. I understand where you are coming from and a drop-down menu would be very helpful here.

Since this is a newer tool the design team has been asking us for feedback from the community on this. I'll make sure to send this as a note to them.

Many thanks,

Katie 

[thegoodgoods95]

Hello,

Yes, it's just a lot slower, need to load more pages and it could be a lot faster with the a dropdown menu.

Thank you for the fast reply.

[dave@ebay]

---

@iceblue_uk wrote:

Hi.

I have a question regarding GSP shipping and VAT.

In the past, whenever I sell to a customer in another country (european or non-european), eBay has always billed the customer at the full UK list price of the item.
At some point in the last year or 2 this changed... customers in Europe are zero rated for VAT and the VAT portion is now deducted from the total price they pay to us.
I am told that this is because European customers pay taxes in their own country and should therefore pay the list price with UK VAT deducted.

Can you explain please why sales to non-european countries are also zero rated, but we still receive the full list price as before?
Presumably these folks still have to pay taxes in their own country, just like in europe, but they are paying us roughly 20% more than europeans are for the same product.

As things stand I can no longer make sufficient margin on sales to Europe because I still have to pay a percentage to HMRC on these sales, despite the reduced sale price. Is it, or could it be possible to set different list prices for non-UK sales?

---

Hi @iceblue_uk 

Following Brexit, shipments between the EU and the UK are considered as export sales. This means the you no longer owe VAT on the transaction.We use the gross price and the VAT rate you provide to calculate the net price displayed to buyers. Buyers will then pay you the net amount, but may still need to pay import VAT and duties on delivery.

You can find everything you need to know about VAT here

Thanks,

Dave

[katie@ebay]

---

@oakley_home_and_gifts wrote:

Seems some buyers are experiencing issues recievng collection codes for click and collect orders. Have had two buyers recently message me saying they have not received a collection code and also head from another person they did not receive a collection code for a order. Very frustrating as the second time it happened the buyer was eventually able to collect the item but is now returning it due to taking over a week to get the code from ebay and went else where to buy the product. So a lost sale and also lose of outbound postage through no fault of my own. 

For a tech company there seems to be a lot of tech issues at present which are making both buyers and sellers experience of the site a negative one. 

---

Hi @oakley_home_and_gifts ,

The collection code is generated at the collection point when a member of their staff inputs the eCP code into their system. Sellers would see this eCP code in the address of a click and collect order when you are printing a label. Our teams are unable to generate a collection code without the shop/location noting they have received the parcel. 

Our teams work closely with the collection points to reduce any issues like this. Do you have the examples you mentioned above? I want to make sure our shipping team are made aware.

Many thanks,

Katie 

[iceblue_uk]

Thanks Dave but actually I do pay VAT on zero rated export sales as I am enrolled in the flat rate VAT scheme, hence my margin is now almost non-existent on EU sales.

However, my question was ...why are EU sales treated differently to non-EU export sales? Both are zero rated, but buyers in non-EU countries pay the full list price, not the list price net of UK vat.

[oakley_home_and_gifts]

Just tried sending you a PM with the item number and address details but get a error message saying I have reached the number of private messages I can send for now. Only sent one maybe two messages to buyers today. 

[katie@ebay]

---

@oakley_home_and_gifts wrote:

Just tried sending you a PM with the item number and address details but get a error message saying I have reached the number of private messages I can send for now. Only sent one maybe two messages to buyers today. 

---

Hi @oakley_home_and_gifts ,

Is this a PM on the community or the main site?

You should be able to send me one here.

If not let me know and I'll look into it.

Thanks,

Katie 

[ecaddie-golf]

Hi, I have been trying to get an update on a package for weeks now and I am unable to get an update on a support ticket as I receive a reply email "FAILED DELIVERY: GB2022EBAY0038561350".

Ticket ID: 12338205

I can't get in touch with Evri, Packlink support is not getting back to me. I cannot follow up on the request. Can somebody help me?

[thegoodgoods95]

Is it possible to have a very lite version for sellers a bit like the previous one ?

We now have to click on more options, buttons (ex : Schedule to sart on).

Every unnecessary loading times or clicks are a waste of time for sellers not such an issue for private.

Thank you

[katie@ebay]

---

@thegoodgoods95 wrote:

Is it possible to have a very lite version for sellers a bit like the previous one ?

We now have to click on more options, buttons (ex : Schedule to sart on).

Every unnecessary loading times or clicks are a waste of time for sellers not such an issue for private.

Thank you

---

Hi @thegoodgoods95,

At the moment it is not an option as we are moving sellers to a unified listing tool. This helps our teams to create a consistent environment we can work on and helps to ensure our staff are best equipped to help any seller no matter what type of account they have.

As I mentioned, they are looking for feedback on this so I will add that you liked the more streamlined version you had previously.

Thanks,

Katie 

[ecaddie-golf]

Hi, can somebody assist me?