Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 24.07.24 @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 anita@ebay, marco@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

[moonspender]

Many items in the collectables section are excluded from GPSR regulations looking at the EU’s definition. Can you provide a timescale for when ebay will communicate what action sellers need to take to update listings that are excluded from GPSR to continue selling these to the EU.

I feel having no timescale is unacceptable.

Providing a timescale will help manage our expectations and allow us to focus back on our businesses. Currently many of us are looking to block the EU and NI as a shipping destination and it is affecting our decisions regards buying stock to sell on ebay that normally sells well in the EU as we do not know if we will be able to sell it as of December so the sooner we get this clarification the less it will disrupt our businesses.

[pinknikkibird]

Hi, I listed a car for sale as Buy it now' with a 'Best offer' option. The car sold, but the buyer kept messing me around changing collection dates, and then stopped responding. So I advised them I would be relisting the car. In this time ebay had actioned the £14.99 listing fee and £25 selling fee. I cancelled the order stating non-payment (as buyer hadn't paid and never turned up) and I relisted it.  However I have only received a refund of £9.71.  As the buyer didn't pay I would have expected full refund of the selling fee.
The car is still showing as a sold item, despite me relisting it, and it's appearing as a current item. Though the sold item states it is successfully cancelled.  I don't appear to have been charged another £14.99 listing fee.  But should I not get the full £25 refunded? Would appreciate your advice.

Thanks!

[tressygirl]

Hi All !

I know you will be inundated with various questions regarding  the GPSR regulation coming in, but what is the answer when someone asks,  they sell  say vintage toys well over 30 years of age,  where the Manufacturer no longer exists,  what are they meant to put in the new Item Disclosure section.

Others are concerned why would a Manufacturer reveal where they source items,  surely then the person asking could go and buy  their stock direct then from the Manufacturer's source.

Thanks.

[kellianjaxon]

Is there any change the community team could relay a message to eBay UK about a broken link in the "Contact us" page at https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/eua?id=5190?  There's the link "Hard of hearing or visually impaired?" that only redirects to the customer service main page.

My account got locked while trying to renew access for the automatic bidding tool HammerSnipe to my eBay account, and now the only way for me to get full access back is by contacting the support. Sadly, the only way to get in touch with someone seems to be over the phone, which is not possible for all of us. I was hoping the link would actually provide a way to communicate in writing with a person, but, as it turns out, it's broken.

[anita@ebay]

---

@moonspender wrote:

Many items in the collectables section are excluded from GPSR regulations looking at the EU’s definition. Can you provide a timescale for when ebay will communicate what action sellers need to take to update listings that are excluded from GPSR to continue selling these to the EU.

I feel having no timescale is unacceptable.

Providing a timescale will help manage our expectations and allow us to focus back on our businesses. Currently many of us are looking to block the EU and NI as a shipping destination and it is affecting our decisions regards buying stock to sell on ebay that normally sells well in the EU as we do not know if we will be able to sell it as of December so the sooner we get this clarification the less it will disrupt our businesses.

---

Hi @moonspender , thanks for your post.

If the listing is excluded from the GPSR regulation, there is no action needed. For a list of excluded categories see the Which categories are excluded from the GPSR section of the FAQs on the GPSR Seller Center  page.

Thank you,

Anita

[johannadee]

Two weeks ago I wrote on here about having had bidders blocked by my buyer requirements for too many unpaid items, and appearing on the activity log as blocked, then going on to successfully bid and buy the same item on the same day. I asked how this was possible? How are buyers circumventing this useful piece of seller protection? I have not exempted them - my exemption list is empty. I know they are the same buyers because their Member Since date is the same, their feedback score is identical on the day and they are bidding on the same item on the same day. It cannot be a coincidence.

You may say, well they paid this time so it doesn't matter. But it does. One of these transactions resulted in me getting my only and entirely unjustified negative feedback, from a buyer who claims to have been unhappy or disappointed on seven out of her last ten feedbacks, though only mine and one other on red dots - the other complaints were left on green dots. I know the feedback doesn't strictly have anything to do with unpaid strikes, but it may indicate a problem buyer, and if the system had worked as it should I would not have the negative.

I was advised to contact customer service about this, which I did. The only response I have had was a link to request removal of the negative feedback. That would be nice but it's not really the point. The item numbers which slipped through the buyer requirements net are 145863305678 and 145859708421. The second of these sales is also now a problem. The buyer has started a return for a non-existant fault and I fully expect to get the item back in perfect condition.

Two sales that should never have happened if the system had worked correctly have become the only two problem sales I have had in a long time.

So again I am asking, please, how is this happening and how do I stop it?

[moonspender]

Hi Anita

I have read the comm regards GPSR and thats the problem, it does say antiques are excluded, however many of the listings that are antique fall under the Ebay collectables section because thats how ebay set the catagories up, for example most of our listings are antique but come under the collectables section. So for antiques ( items over 100 years old ) that are listing under the collectables section what action do we need to take ?

[marco@ebay]

---

@pinknikkibird wrote:

Hi, I listed a car for sale as Buy it now' with a 'Best offer' option. The car sold, but the buyer kept messing me around changing collection dates, and then stopped responding. So I advised them I would be relisting the car. In this time ebay had actioned the £14.99 listing fee and £25 selling fee. I cancelled the order stating non-payment (as buyer hadn't paid and never turned up) and I relisted it.  However I have only received a refund of £9.71.  As the buyer didn't pay I would have expected full refund of the selling fee.
The car is still showing as a sold item, despite me relisting it, and it's appearing as a current item. Though the sold item states it is successfully cancelled.  I don't appear to have been charged another £14.99 listing fee.  But should I not get the full £25 refunded? Would appreciate your advice.

Thanks!

---

Hi pinknikkibird, thanks for your question.

The £14.99 insertion fee is not refundable, I'm afraid, which is why that wasn't credited. Also, the final value fee, was credited as expected. However, please note that you owed £14.99 due to the insertion fee, so when we credited the final value fee (£24.70 - please note that the 30p per transaction fee is no refundable, that's why we credited £24.70 and not the full £25.00), we deducted the insertion fee out of the final value fee credit.

24.70 (final value fee) - 14.99 (insertion fee) = 9.71£, which is what you received.

I hope the above helps,

Marco

[anita@ebay]

---

@tressygirl wrote:

Hi All !

I know you will be inundated with various questions regarding  the GPSR regulation coming in, but what is the answer when someone asks,  they sell  say vintage toys well over 30 years of age,  where the Manufacturer no longer exists,  what are they meant to put in the new Item Disclosure section.

Others are concerned why would a Manufacturer reveal where they source items,  surely then the person asking could go and buy  their stock direct then from the Manufacturer's source.

Thanks.

---

Hi @tressygirl , thanks for your post.

We've addressed this question to relevant teams as well and the answer we were given is the following:

The law does not provide any exceptions for products that were made by a person/entity that no longer exists. Please note, however, that products that were first supplied for distribution, consumption or use on the EU market (in the course of a commercial activity) prior to Dec. 13, 2024 are exempted from GPSR, as long as they are covered by the current product safety directive and comply with it.  See article 51 GPSR.  

There are also some categories excluded, and you can see the list in the FAQs on the GPSR Seller Center page.

Thank you,

Anita

[maggna]

What will happen should a seller be unable or choose not to provide the required GPSR information? Will they need to manually block the EU and NI or will eBay automatically block buyers in these regions from purchasing?

[dave@ebay]

---

@kellianjaxon wrote:

Is there any change the community team could relay a message to eBay UK about a broken link in the "Contact us" page at https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/eua?id=5190?  There's the link "Hard of hearing or visually impaired?" that only redirects to the customer service main page.

My account got locked while trying to renew access for the automatic bidding tool HammerSnipe to my eBay account, and now the only way for me to get full access back is by contacting the support. Sadly, the only way to get in touch with someone seems to be over the phone, which is not possible for all of us. I was hoping the link would actually provide a way to communicate in writing with a person, but, as it turns out, it's broken.

---

Hi @kellianjaxon,

When I go through the contact us page and click the hard of hearing link it brings me to the email page as usual:

are you signed into your account when you click on the the link? It can sometimes redirect you if you're not.

Thanks,

Dave

[marco@ebay]

---

@johannadee wrote:

Two weeks ago I wrote on here about having had bidders blocked by my buyer requirements for too many unpaid items, and appearing on the activity log as blocked, then going on to successfully bid and buy the same item on the same day. I asked how this was possible? How are buyers circumventing this useful piece of seller protection? I have not exempted them - my exemption list is empty. I know they are the same buyers because their Member Since date is the same, their feedback score is identical on the day and they are bidding on the same item on the same day. It cannot be a coincidence.

You may say, well they paid this time so it doesn't matter. But it does. One of these transactions resulted in me getting my only and entirely unjustified negative feedback, from a buyer who claims to have been unhappy or disappointed on seven out of her last ten feedbacks, though only mine and one other on red dots - the other complaints were left on green dots. I know the feedback doesn't strictly have anything to do with unpaid strikes, but it may indicate a problem buyer, and if the system had worked as it should I would not have the negative.

I was advised to contact customer service about this, which I did. The only response I have had was a link to request removal of the negative feedback. That would be nice but it's not really the point. The item numbers which slipped through the buyer requirements net are 145863305678 and 145859708421. The second of these sales is also now a problem. The buyer has started a return for a non-existant fault and I fully expect to get the item back in perfect condition.

Two sales that should never have happened if the system had worked correctly have become the only two problem sales I have had in a long time.

So again I am asking, please, how is this happening and how do I stop it?

---

Hi johannadee, thanks for your question.

I would need to look into this for you to see what happened, but I will look into those item numbers after the chat, and get back to you with an update between today and tomorrow.

Thank you,

Marco

[tressygirl]

Mmmm,  not quite sure that would answer the poster's question I had re the vintage toys, but thank you,  I think many are just gonna have to pull out of selling to EU and NI  .. shame.

[johannadee]

Thank you Marco. That will be great.

[anita@ebay]

---

@moonspender wrote:

Hi Anita

I have read the comm regards GPSR and thats the problem, it does say antiques are excluded, however many of the listings that are antique fall under the Ebay collectables section because thats how ebay set the catagories up, for example most of our listings are antique but come under the collectables section. So for antiques ( items over 100 years old ) that are listing under the collectables section what action do we need to take ?

---

If the listing does not fall under the exclusion list, you'll need to update the listing with required information to become GPSR complaint. 

Please also note, that products that were first supplied for distribution, consumption or use on the EU market (in the course of a commercial activity) prior to Dec. 13, 2024 are exempted from GPSR, as long as they are covered by the current product safety directive and comply with it. See article 51 GPSR.

Thank you,

Anita

[bojangled]

Hi Community Team

I've been trying to run a custom date sales report for a week now. Keeps returning the

'We ran into a problem please try later ' error.

Known issue?

Jo

[marco@ebay]

---

@johannadee wrote:

Thank you Marco. That will be great.

---

No problem at all johannadee, happy to help! I will tag you here as well, so you don't miss my update. 

Thanks,

Marco

[moonspender]

Just to clarify re GSPR are you saying if an item is over 100 years old so therefore antique as per EU guidelines  and it is listed in the the collectables section and in item specifics it has is it antique ticked " Yes " and the date of manufacture is input in item specifics ( again over 100 years old ) will that be excluded ?

[dave@ebay]

---

@maggna wrote:

What will happen should a seller be unable or choose not to provide the required GPSR information? Will they need to manually block the EU and NI or will eBay automatically block buyers in these regions from purchasing?

---

Hi @maggna 

I'm not aware of any plans for eBay to automatically apply any blocks so you will need to manually set them up once GPSR goes live.

Thanks,

Dave