Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 23.10.24 @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 and dave@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. 

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

[retroclub]

Hello,

I just wanted to check on listing ItemID 115607232225 does ebay allow pictures/photos like the first one or is this against eBay policy?

Thank you

[glordain]

Should have the ability to add tracking without ebay automatically marking an order as dispatched. For example, when someone buys at 9pm I immediately go onto Royal Mail and order postage. I cannot enter the tracking number though as you will then mark it as dispatched, even though it isn't.

[wellingnorth]

Hi there,
With the clocks going back this weekend any auctions starting now and running across the time change have a duration of the number of days specified plus 1 hour (so an auction starting at 2pm today will finish at 2pm on the 30th).

Previously auctions always ran for exact multiples for 24 hours regardless of the time change, and an auction starting at 2pm before the clock change would finish at 1pm if the clocks went back, or 3pm if the clocks went forward.

The listing duration policy still says that auctions should run for multiples of 24 hours and I couldn't see any recent announcements
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/listings/selecting-listing-duration?id=4652

Do you know if the policy has changed or has something gone wrong here?

[darth_baggins]

It's been several months since the feedback removal policy was secretly updated and an announcement was promised about what the changes actually were.

When can we expect to see this please?

[glordain]

Buyer contact number and/or email is needed so they get delivery updates, and should be standard when dispatching orders is currently only available under the "Legacy Tool" option which you state is soon to be retired. Are you going to make this useful information available in the standard order dispatch details?

[kat@ebay]

---

@glordain wrote:

Should have the ability to add tracking without ebay automatically marking an order as dispatched. For example, when someone buys at 9pm I immediately go onto Royal Mail and order postage. I cannot enter the tracking number though as you will then mark it as dispatched, even though it isn't.

---

Hi @glordain ,

I understand and this is part of the process design for  it automatically being marking as dispatched. The aim is to try and have items dispatched as quickly as possible to keep in line with buyer expectations. There are no plans in place to make a change on this at the moment but I will share your point as feedback,

Thank you,

Katie

[pg_kicks]

When we phone eBay we are thanked for our loyalty, can this please be removed as its patronising, also the hold music has been the same for about 10 years, can it be changed?

The main issue, eBay has a big issue of lying on the phones, be it the incorrect information or the issue I'm currently suffering from the phantom promised call backs from managers. As concierge I should get a call back within 24 hours (so 1 business day) I had to wait 8 business days and phone 3 times, now a manager promised a call back on Monday, didnt happen to I called last night and still not heard from him? Why do eBay just lie so much on the phones, then when we complain we are never given any feedback on the complaint due to eBays policy of not doing so aka we dont really follow up your complaint.

[glordain]

As a professional buyer (lol), when an item is marked as dispatched that means I expect it has been handed to a courier, put in a post box etc., and I can use the tracking number provided by the seller to see that my item is now in the hands of the delivery company.  I recently bought an item that was marked as dispatched on Monday but not *actually* taken to the post office until Friday, thus protecting the seller's status.  This means that sellers who do not honour their dispatch times can cheat/circumvent your system, no?

[sheffieldtoolingco]

Hello

I have a large store and some items have not sold after several years.  They have now falled down the rankings, what are your views on ending and relisting the item / items?

Thanks

[kat@ebay]

---

@wellingnorth wrote:

Hi there,
With the clocks going back this weekend any auctions starting now and running across the time change have a duration of the number of days specified plus 1 hour (so an auction starting at 2pm today will finish at 2pm on the 30th).

Previously auctions always ran for exact multiples for 24 hours regardless of the time change, and an auction starting at 2pm before the clock change would finish at 1pm if the clocks went back, or 3pm if the clocks went forward.

The listing duration policy still says that auctions should run for multiples of 24 hours and I couldn't see any recent announcements
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/listings/selecting-listing-duration?id=4652

Do you know if the policy has changed or has something gone wrong here?

---

Hi @wellingnorth ,

We are not aware of a change in the policy. 

Our policy is as " Listings that run during a daylight saving time-change will still receive the full amount of the listing duration. For example, if you have a 1-day listing that starts at 1pm on Saturday, and the daylight saving time spring transition occurs that Saturday evening, the listing will end at 2pm on Sunday."

Do you have item number example and I can follow up offline

Thank you,

Kat

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Same old question about business sellers on private accounts, I am competing against businesses trading on private accounts, some have 1200 to 1800 items for sale and are generating sales of many thousands each month.

As things stand my business pays ebay approximately £220 for every £1000 we generate in sales, the above sellers are paying next to nothing.

I don't see any changes on this despite the problems it is causing so many legitimate business sellers.

When will this be addressed as many of us don't want to / cannot wait weeks or months. As things stands the platform is no longer viable for us.

[dave@ebay]

---

@retroclub wrote:

Hello,

I just wanted to check on listing ItemID 115607232225 does ebay allow pictures/photos like the first one or is this against eBay policy?

Thank you

---

Hi @retroclub 

In general we always advise sellers to keep the first photo of a listing to just an image of the item with a plain background and avoid adding text or added images. This helps with external search engines that don't tend to show these items as the images could be considered spammed with information.  That main image is of a bundle showing the different items included but there could be issues with the rights owners for the different brands. 

You can report the item to have it reviewed and our policy team will action it if there are any policy breaches. 

Thanks,

Dave

[moldosgifts]

Ill ask again as ive not reived a relevaent answer 

What is the time line for businesses operating on a private account once reprted by us doing your job for you.

Example once you receive the report they have 1 month to offer any evidence they are not a business before being forced, i dont want to know individual informatio timelines just in general what to expect once reported.

How long before i see evidence you hav etaken action i do keep an eye on the ones i have reported and so far in 2-3 weeks no evidence at all.

1 week to take action, 1 week to appeal, 1 week of restricted listing sometyhing like that would be essentiol to share here.

So what IS the timeline.

Sorry for all the typos 

[technthread]

eBay you don't half give out mixed messages to sellers. Today's message in the inbox - 'improve your delivery experience to help boost sales this season' went out to both business and private sellers. In that email it is linking the circular fashion fund offer for a chance of winning a £50k cash boost for a business. It is no wonder private business sellers just stay on the private account for the free fees.

And in that email it is telling sellers to get ready for the rush but don't worry about estimated delivery dates because eBay have us covered. They don't really do they when standard post options like evri, RM 2nd Class / RM Tracked 48 are always given an EDD of 1-2 days from the day the order is placed. Sellers just want you to get the basic EDD correct in the first place. I don't believe the dynamic EDD line. A family member of mine who is a private seller (and inactive in eBay for nearly a year) has just sold something today (2nd Class letter / 1 day dispatch time) and has asked me why the EDD would be Friday/Saturday. I can't help them to understand it because nobody but eBay seems to. If a 2nd class letter is posted on a Thursday the EDD shouldn't be Friday/Saturday should it? Why would a private seller who came back to test eBay out again want to list and sell if they are put under immediate pressure with an EDD they can't achieve. It's not a good experience for sellers at all eBay really need to listen to business and private we are getting tired of it. 

[dave@ebay]

---

@darth_baggins wrote:

It's been several months since the feedback removal policy was secretly updated and an announcement was promised about what the changes actually were.

When can we expect to see this please?

---

Hi @darth_baggins 

At the moment I'm not aware of any upcoming feedback announcements but we will as always post an update as soon as we have one.

Thanks,

Dave

[moonspender]

I read on a business seller comm that a consierge advised someone yesterday that private sellers doing over £1000 PA of sales will be expected to become business sellers by the end of the year, is this correct?

[kat@ebay]

---

@glordain wrote:

Buyer contact number and/or email is needed so they get delivery updates, and should be standard when dispatching orders is currently only available under the "Legacy Tool" option which you state is soon to be retired. Are you going to make this useful information available in the standard order dispatch details?

---

Hi @glordain,

Let me follow this up with our shipping team to clarify and I will come back to you when I have an update.

Thank you,

Kat

[military-incorporated]

Since June this year we’ve noted a significant decline in sales on the eBay platform, we’ve increased our stock offering since then, with a wider range available and we continue to add new stock regularly, we’ve tried your promotional options and regularly revise long term listings, and nothing is working to bring it back. I’ve spoken to a lot of other business users, and they are all experiencing similar declines. eBay has always been a huge part of our business and it’s quickly becoming unreliable and inconsistent. Can you tell me what has changed since June on the platform and with your systems please?

[nutrafituk]

With regards to a negative/neutral feedback removal request - can you actually start considering facts and evidence more than what a buyer just says? It turns out that video or photo footage, documents and any other evidence is not good enough for you as you 'did not handle the item'. In that case you should never be in a posotion to remove any feedback as you never handle any item. By supporting a buyer's comment without any proof, you do take sides with them when a seller can contradict their statement. Your 'buyer's experience' reason not to remove any feedback is utter disgrace as anything can be considered as such. It would be nice to actually see some care more than just reading a script.