Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 23.08.23 @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!

This week we will have marco@ebay only on the weekly chat. Marco has knowledge in Buying, Selling, Parts & Accessories, Payments, and the Community itself. Anything he isn't sure on he’ll know the people who will be! Please ask him any questions you may have and he’ll do all he 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

[mteconlineshop]

Hi

Still having issues with my shop, asked a few weeks ago about not being able to achive my paid and dispatched orders, i was told by Dave he would look into it and come back to me, never heard anything and fed up with asking CS as they cant help

[marco@ebay]

---

@mteconlineshop wrote:

Hi

Still having issues with my shop, asked a few weeks ago about not being able to achive my paid and dispatched orders, i was told by Dave he would look into it and come back to me, never heard anything and fed up with asking CS as they cant help

---

Hi mteconlineshop, thanks for your post.

If Dave has not updated you yet, it would mean that we don't have any recent updates as of yet. As soon as they get back to him, he we will update you as soon as possible.

Thank you,

Marco

[madfroguk]

Hi,

Can you please help, I have buyer which left us a negative feedback saying: “taking far to long to arrive”.

I shipped (and I always do) the order straight away, however on the following day parcel come back with the small red RM sticker saying: “address incomplete”.

After doing some research it turn out that there should be either house number from 1 to 9, or the house name in front of the street, but buyers address was only stating “Regent Court Regent Street”.

I done some research (as buyer was not responding) and managed to figure it out complete buyers address and shipped order again using a fully tracked 24hrs service, which were delivered to the buyer still within the estimated ebay delivery dates.

In the meantime buyer left negative feedback, so I spoke with CS and was told that we need to cancel the order using “incomplete delivery address” reason code and then apply for the feedback removal using a web form and it will be removed.

I done all of that and got the message from ebay saying that feedback will not be removed, so I phoned CS again and after explaining all again was told that I need to upload proof of posting to original order, so I took the screenshots from my RM C&D which was clearly showing that order was shipped on time and as advised uploaded all to ebay CS and waited for the feedback to be removed, as I was promised twice.

After 48hrs feedback was still showing, so I contacted CS again and after explaining the entire situation again I was assured that it will be escalated to someone in charge for the removal.

48hrs later still not removed, so I contacted CS again and after chating for 10 mins with the gentleman called “Vivek” he decided in a very rude way to end the chat without even attempting to help me, or reply to my questions.

I decided to contact ebay CS for the last time and the nice lady told me that if I will be selling for ebay for long time then I will be in this case entitled to so called “courtesy feedback removal”, however because I’m only trading on ebay for few months I can forget that this feedback will be removed.
I was told that this chat is my last hope and would like to ask for that feedback to be removed for a few simple and solid reasons:

1 – I provided the evidence that order was shipped straight away, in fact a day earlier than estimated shipping date,

2 – surely is not my fault that buyer provided incomplete address,

3 – after RM returning original package I went above and beyond to figure it out buyers complete address and shipped the order again via fastest service available (RM24 tracked),

4 – I was completely mislead by ebay CS to refund the buyer in order to remove feedback,

5 – I done all things possible to make sure customer is happy (order delivered + buyer refunded), if that’s not a good customer service, I don’t know what is.

If you still care about a decent sellers on your platform, can you please remove this feedback - Thank you.

[louisianna]

Hi, Im having major problems with delivery times. 
2 Examples:

1. My cut off time is 2pm on Wednesdays. I never work on Thursdays so next dispatch is Friday. Yet, my delivery times are showing as Friday-Monday for 2nd class post

2. A customer ordered an item special delivery on Friday. They were shown delivery as Saturday. Royal Mail do not guarantee special delivery on Saturdays, unless an extra fee is paid. She was able to open an IND on Sunday and has been sending me messages that I am a liar. 

I have spent literally hours on chat with customer advisors who keep telling me that it will be looked at urgently. It has been like this for months.

I cant take a day off when I want to - eg for the school holidays my dispatch has been set to Mon, Wed, Fri, but customers are still being shown dispatch on Tuesdays. 

[williabaxte7]

I had a buyer buy an item off me via best offer and I accepted the offer and item has been paid . She has asked me to hold onto till they are back from holiday at end of this month. I agreed. Would be able to appeal aagainst any defects on my account 

[douglaspuglas]

Hello Marco,

There's several threads from buyers about sellers requiring them to provide a payment method before making an offer so payment is automatically taken as soon as the offer is accepted. 

Can you clarify a few things please.

When a buyer makes several offers to the same seller and they're accepted, the payments are taken separately for each item straight away. 

It's not possible to combine them into one transaction or get a combined postage invoice. 

Can anything be done about this?

If a buyer provides a payment method before making an offer is it a one time thing?

Or does it get applied automatically to any subsequent offers the buyer makes without them needing to provide it again. If so can buyers opt out?

Does it still apply if a seller, who's opted into wanting pre approved buyer payments, sends offers to their watchers?

Do watchers who receive these offers from sellers have to provide a payment method before being able to accept an offer in their watch list?

When will it be rolled it out to include auction bidders in the UK like on the ebay.com site?

[pg_kicks]

I know its been done to death so apologies in advance, but can you please tell me the exact reasons I need to select when reporting an account for being a business under a private account. I have reported so many and not a single one has either been forced to change or closed so I just want to confirm I have been using the correct reason in report as business trading on private account is not an option. 

I just need to make sure I am doing everything correctly so I can prove that eBay are not acting upon the reporting and are infact ignoring the reporting and are complicit with the sellers breaking the law.

[treetopsminicottages]

As it is now a requirement to add a payment method before making an offer, unless the seller has opted out, can you clear up a few issues including how to ask for an invoice for combined postage if buying more than one item from the same seller, also how to select Click & Collect if offered? Also does it apply to collection items as cash has been the recommended payment in the past.

Also, if an offer is received through the watch list is a payment method required before the offer can be accepted or countered?

Finally, Is it the case that sellers in UK have automatically been opted in to this requirement.

There appears to have been quite a bit of confusion since it was introduced.

[marco@ebay]

---

@madfroguk wrote:

Hi,

Can you please help, I have buyer which left us a negative feedback saying: “taking far to long to arrive”.

I shipped (and I always do) the order straight away, however on the following day parcel come back with the small red RM sticker saying: “address incomplete”.

After doing some research it turn out that there should be either house number from 1 to 9, or the house name in front of the street, but buyers address was only stating “Regent Court Regent Street”.

I done some research (as buyer was not responding) and managed to figure it out complete buyers address and shipped order again using a fully tracked 24hrs service, which were delivered to the buyer still within the estimated ebay delivery dates.

In the meantime buyer left negative feedback, so I spoke with CS and was told that we need to cancel the order using “incomplete delivery address” reason code and then apply for the feedback removal using a web form and it will be removed.

I done all of that and got the message from ebay saying that feedback will not be removed, so I phoned CS again and after explaining all again was told that I need to upload proof of posting to original order, so I took the screenshots from my RM C&D which was clearly showing that order was shipped on time and as advised uploaded all to ebay CS and waited for the feedback to be removed, as I was promised twice.

After 48hrs feedback was still showing, so I contacted CS again and after explaining the entire situation again I was assured that it will be escalated to someone in charge for the removal.

48hrs later still not removed, so I contacted CS again and after chating for 10 mins with the gentleman called “Vivek” he decided in a very rude way to end the chat without even attempting to help me, or reply to my questions.

I decided to contact ebay CS for the last time and the nice lady told me that if I will be selling for ebay for long time then I will be in this case entitled to so called “courtesy feedback removal”, however because I’m only trading on ebay for few months I can forget that this feedback will be removed.
I was told that this chat is my last hope and would like to ask for that feedback to be removed for a few simple and solid reasons:

1 – I provided the evidence that order was shipped straight away, in fact a day earlier than estimated shipping date,

2 – surely is not my fault that buyer provided incomplete address,

3 – after RM returning original package I went above and beyond to figure it out buyers complete address and shipped the order again via fastest service available (RM24 tracked),

4 – I was completely mislead by ebay CS to refund the buyer in order to remove feedback,

5 – I done all things possible to make sure customer is happy (order delivered + buyer refunded), if that’s not a good customer service, I don’t know what is.

If you still care about a decent sellers on your platform, can you please remove this feedback - Thank you.

---

Hi madfroguk, thanks for your post.

While I see where you are coming from, we are not able to take actions on accounts over this channel. In order to get a feedback removed, you can send a request through your seller hub or contact our customer service team, they will review that for you and decide whether the feedback is eligible for removal or not based on the evidence available to the case. Alternatively, you can send the buyer a feedback revision request form after you explain the situation. If they are willing to change the feedback, they can do so with that revision form. If you have never done this before, you can see here how to do it.

Thank you,

Marco

[marco@ebay]

---

@louisianna wrote:

Hi, Im having major problems with delivery times. 
2 Examples:

1. My cut off time is 2pm on Wednesdays. I never work on Thursdays so next dispatch is Friday. Yet, my delivery times are showing as Friday-Monday for 2nd class post

2. A customer ordered an item special delivery on Friday. They were shown delivery as Saturday. Royal Mail do not guarantee special delivery on Saturdays, unless an extra fee is paid. She was able to open an IND on Sunday and has been sending me messages that I am a liar. 

I have spent literally hours on chat with customer advisors who keep telling me that it will be looked at urgently. It has been like this for months.

I cant take a day off when I want to - eg for the school holidays my dispatch has been set to Mon, Wed, Fri, but customers are still being shown dispatch on Tuesdays. 

---

Hi louisianna, thanks for your post.

If you give me 2-3 examples with screenshots and item numbers, I will be happy to report this to our IT team, so they can review that for you. Once I get this reported, they will provide me with and update, and I will update you here as soon as I hear back from them.

Thank you,

Marco

[marco@ebay]

---

@williabaxte7 wrote:

I had a buyer buy an item off me via best offer and I accepted the offer and item has been paid . She has asked me to hold onto till they are back from holiday at end of this month. I agreed. Would be able to appeal aagainst any defects on my account 

---

Hi williabaxte7, thanks for your post.

This is not something I would particularly recommend, while I understand the buyer is asking you to hold onto it until they're back, we cannot guarantee the defect will be removed. It is the buyer's responsibility to receive the item they ordered.

So, if you decide to send the item anyway and the item is not delivered due to the buyer not being able to receive the order, you will be protected as long as we can confirm this with a tracking number. However, if the buyer is not able to receive the order, the best thing to do would be asking them to cancel the order, so you can cancel the order under the reason "Buyer asked to cancel", and then the buyer can order again when they are able to receive the order ok.

Thank you,

Marco

[iceblue_uk]

Hi

Is there any scenario where a top rated plus seller with the premium service badge would not qualify for the 10% FVF discount associated with that status?

[ducatimondo]

Why was there no weekly chat last week?

The name suggests there is one every week, but did not see anything anywhere to say there wouldn't be one?

[nsa.ltd]

As a seller I'm getting increasingly frustrated with eBay harrassing buyers questioning whether they have received their item or not, typically 2 days after the item has been posted. This not only increase INR cases dramatically, it also puts the seller under immense pressure. I have had countless INR cases opened merely 4 days after the item has been purchased, and 3 days after it was posted. Why are you doing this? Why are you messaging buyers continually with 'Have you received your item yet?' 'If you've not received your item yet we can help!', which then leads to the buyer opening a case. This needs to stop!

[lord_and_lady_m]

I didn't get a repsonse to this a few weeks ago. This is in relation to the impressions beta tests we were put on without our knowledge or consent.

So here it is again:

The user agreement actually states it  not liable for things that aren't reasonably forseeable. I firmly believe, if they have done this test, they would have had a hypothesis or success or no success. It would be reasonable to believe that if their little experiment of messing about with impressions didn't work then businesses would lose sales. Not only that it doesn't state in that section them not being liable for something they have purposefully done to selected stores.

User Agreement: Section 14

We (including our parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, agents and employees) shall not be liable to you in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise for any business losses, such as loss of data, profits, revenue, business, opportunity, goodwill, reputation or business interruption or for any losses which are not reasonably foreseeable by us arising, directly or indirectly from:

• your use of or your inability to use our Services;
• pricing, postage or other guidance provided by eBay;
• delays or disruptions in our Services;
• viruses or other malicious software obtained by accessing, or linking to, our Services;
• glitches, bugs, errors, or inaccuracies of any kind in our Services;
• damage to your hardware device from the use of any eBay Service;
• the content, actions, or inactions of third parties, including items listed using our Services or the destruction of allegedly fake items;
• a suspension or other action taken with respect to your account or breach of the Abusing eBay section;
• the duration or manner in which your listings appear in search results as set out in the Listing conditions section; or
• your need to modify practices, content, or behaviour or your loss of or inability to do business, as a result of changes to this User Agreement or our policies.

Not only that, it then goes on to say, if they are found liable ...

If we are found to be liable, our liability to you or to any third party is limited to the greater of (a) any amounts due under the eBay Money Back Guarantee up to the price the item sold for on eBay and its original postage costs, (b) the amount of fees in dispute not to exceed the total fees which you paid to us in the 12 months prior to the action giving rise to the liability, or (c) £100.

As far as i'm concerned this does not mean ebay can do what they want to our accounts wiithout any redress. This was not an accident, this was an intentional experiment to the detriment of thousand of  sellers worldwide.

And now, despite impressions seemingly going back to normal, they aren't they're all now impressions for external places, so it seems anyone actually searching ON ebay aren't seeing us as sales are still dead.

[colisempe_0]

Hello, My account payments are on hold until I send ID proof. I do not drive nor have a passport. I also have no government ID, so what can I do?. 

[marco@ebay]

---

@douglaspuglas wrote:

Hello Marco,

There's several threads from buyers about sellers requiring them to provide a payment method before making an offer so payment is automatically taken as soon as the offer is accepted. 

Can you clarify a few things please.

When a buyer makes several offers to the same seller and they're accepted, the payments are taken separately for each item straight away. 

It's not possible to combine them into one transaction or get a combined postage invoice. 

Can anything be done about this?

If a buyer provides a payment method before making an offer is it a one time thing?

Or does it get applied automatically to any subsequent offers the buyer makes without them needing to provide it again. If so can buyers opt out?

Does it still apply if a seller, who's opted into wanting pre approved buyer payments, sends offers to their watchers?

Do watchers who receive these offers from sellers have to provide a payment method before being able to accept an offer in their watch list?

When will it be rolled it out to include auction bidders in the UK like on the ebay.com site?

---

Hi douglaspuglas, thanks for your post.

Regarding your first question, When a buyer makes several offers to the same seller and they're accepted, the payments are taken separately for each item straight away. The answer is yes, when you offer different amounts for different items to the same seller, all amounts will be charged separetly as they will go through in different transactions.

Regarding your question, It's not possible to combine them into one transaction or get a combined postage invoice. 

Can anything be done about this?  I wouldn't be able to confirm anything at the moment, but happy to pass your feedback on, so this can be taken into consideration for the future.

Regarding, If a buyer provides a payment method before making an offer is it a one time thing?

Or does it get applied automatically to any subsequent offers the buyer makes without them needing to provide it again. If so can buyers opt out?  You will have to set it up once only, so this is not something you will have to do again after setting it up the first time. 

Regarding, Does it still apply if a seller, who's opted into wanting pre approved buyer payments, sends offers to their watchers?

Do watchers who receive these offers from sellers have to provide a payment method before being able to accept an offer in their watch list?  Yes, if the seller has that feature, the buyer will need to have it set up.

Regarding, when will it be rolled it out to include auction bidders in the UK like on the ebay.com site? I wouldn't have confirmation on this at the moment, but if this happen, it will be communicated to all users.

Thank you,

Marco

[unitedleisurewear]

Afternoon,

I'm struggling with low sales snd few offers to send. This decline started about6 weeks ago. I would usually fo £100 to £200 of sales a day now it's really reduced. Yesterday only 4 sales and £23. Is there any issues your aware of? Or a problem with my account?

Kind regards 

Peter

[marco@ebay]

---

@pg_kicks wrote:

I know its been done to death so apologies in advance, but can you please tell me the exact reasons I need to select when reporting an account for being a business under a private account. I have reported so many and not a single one has either been forced to change or closed so I just want to confirm I have been using the correct reason in report as business trading on private account is not an option. 

I just need to make sure I am doing everything correctly so I can prove that eBay are not acting upon the reporting and are infact ignoring the reporting and are complicit with the sellers breaking the law.

---

Hi pg_kicks, thanks for your post. 

You can report the seller under the reason "The seller has violated one of eBay’s policies" and then click on "other" and add your comments on the "Additional details" box. If you click here, you will be taken to the report section. 

Thank you,

Marco