💬 Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 27.07.22 @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. 

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

[technthread]

Please could you try and help me fix the broken estimated delivery dates on my listings. As of today, the estimated delivery dates on my listings are showing as Sat 6th August-Tues 9th August. My dispatch time is set to 2 working days and my delivery options are generally Royal Mail 1st or 2nd Class. I don’t have 1 late delivery mark against me in 12 months. This glitch started around a month ago, I have spoken to eBay customer services to try and get answers and got nowhere (the less said about that the better). I raised it on the weekly chat here on 6th July and nothing has changed. As you can imagine, it is pretty demoralising to list something that I know I can deliver to someone in a few days and it shows buyers that it is going to take 10 days. Some specific answers on why this is happening and how it can be fixed would be appreciated, I am not going to continue paying a shop subscription and wasting my time listing items that are being actively undermined with these delivery dates for much longer. 

[cleaner4coaches]

Good afternoon,

I refer to our conversation of 22/6/22 regarding the list of followers. 

As another thread was raised at a later date describing the situation as "creepy" not knowing who is looking at you, could we please have a descision after these 4 weeks of waiting with regard to being able to see & offer followers sales & discounts.

Thank you.    

[j_n_tee]

When is ebay going to wake up and address the estimated delivery date issue - rather than saying the system is based on various factors etc. Clearly with the amount of sellers raising this in the past year there is something wrong. Does ebay not value sellers opinons nothing has been done to address this. I've literially had an order for an england flag which is being dispatched tomorrow (28th) 2nd class postage and buyer has been given estimated date as 29th! Since when did i start sending my items next day delivery free of charge! I expect the buyer ordered the time thinking it will arrive on the 29th as ebay have stated! probably for the england ladies final (no chance) so i've just had to message the buyer highlight if its for that event, ebay have over promised with the estimated date and i'm happy to cancel the order etc etc etc. 

When will ebay start listening to sellers?

[katie@ebay]

---

@cleaner4coaches wrote:

Good afternoon,

I refer to our conversation of 22/6/22 regarding the list of followers. 

As another thread was raised at a later date describing the situation as "creepy" not knowing who is looking at you, could we please have a descision after these 4 weeks of waiting with regard to being able to see & offer followers sales & discounts.

Thank you.    

---

Hi @cleaner4coaches,

We have passed this feedback onto our teams about members wanting to see who their followers are. We do not have record of any plans to add this option at this time due to privacy, but changes are being made to the profile page and the team is looking for feedback on it.

Thanks,

Katie 

[ukhaberdashery]

I wasn't sure how the board this week would be. Either full on like last week, or empty.

At the moment it is empty. Not because sellers have nothing to complain about but because nothing will be done about anything that is commented on.

Guessing sellers are just fed up not being heard by what is supposed to be "customer service".

Last week lots of questions were asked about the VAT problem that eBay created with wrong information given out to sellers who were told their information was correct only to see eBay pull their items which had been on sale for 10 years with associated feedback, sales and listing prominence on search because apparently now the information was incorrect.

I left the last message last week and there was a follow-up by eBay that they would be getting back to me/us

"

Hi @ukhaberdashery ,

We do understand all the questions on it. We are working with the internal teams to get as much details and clarity as we can.  We will share the information as soon as we have it.

Thank you,

Kat

"

Yet not one word on the situation.

Really disappointed that eBay feels the only way to do business with their sellers is to purposely blank them.

[cleaner4coaches]

Will inquire again in one months time but please don't take 9 months as I have terminal cancer.

[katie@ebay]

---

@ukhaberdashery wrote:

I wasn't sure how the board this week would be. Either full on like last week, or empty.

At the moment it is empty. Not because sellers have nothing to complain about but because nothing will be done about anything that is commented on.

Guessing sellers are just fed up not being heard by what is supposed to be "customer service".

Last week lots of questions were asked about the VAT problem that eBay created with wrong information given out to sellers who were told their information was correct only to see eBay pull their items which had been on sale for 10 years with associated feedback, sales and listing prominence on search because apparently now the information was incorrect.

I left the last message last week and there was a follow-up by eBay that they would be getting back to me/us

"

Hi @ukhaberdashery ,

We do understand all the questions on it. We are working with the internal teams to get as much details and clarity as we can.  We will share the information as soon as we have it.

Thank you,

Kat

"

Yet not one word on the situation.

Really disappointed that eBay feels the only way to do business with their sellers is to purposely blank them.

---

Hi @ukhaberdashery,

Thank you for bringing this topic to this weeks chat. Last week we provided as much information we had available to share. 

Please be assured that we are reading your comments, even if we don’t reply individually to each of them. 

There are a variety of reasons that actions were taken on a small number of selling accounts, based on the VAT information that had been supplied to us. Each of the affected sellers have different circumstances and I am sure you will appreciate, we cannot discuss private details of individual accounts in a public place.

Please be assured that behind the scenes our customer support team is working to reach out to all sellers involved. 

If your business was impacted and you haven’t been contacted  yet, you can email our specialist team on sellergrowthuk@ebay.com. If you’d like to have someone call you back, please let us know in the email. 

Please note that calls from eBay customer support usually come from a ‘withheld number’. Some phones are set up to automatically block withheld numbers and this might block our call. 

We’re keen to get your business up and running again as quickly as possible once we have the correct VAT information and we will support you.

Thanks,

Katie 

[dave@ebay]

---

@technthread wrote:

Please could you try and help me fix the broken estimated delivery dates on my listings. As of today, the estimated delivery dates on my listings are showing as Sat 6th August-Tues 9th August. My dispatch time is set to 2 working days and my delivery options are generally Royal Mail 1st or 2nd Class. I don’t have 1 late delivery mark against me in 12 months. This glitch started around a month ago, I have spoken to eBay customer services to try and get answers and got nowhere (the less said about that the better). I raised it on the weekly chat here on 6th July and nothing has changed. As you can imagine, it is pretty demoralising to list something that I know I can deliver to someone in a few days and it shows buyers that it is going to take 10 days. Some specific answers on why this is happening and how it can be fixed would be appreciated, I am not going to continue paying a shop subscription and wasting my time listing items that are being actively undermined with these delivery dates for much longer. 

---

Hi @technthread 

This is not a glitch with the delivery times. 

The estimated delivery dates take into account more than just the handling/dispatch time and courier option selected. Its now a dynamic calculation. 

We take into account other criteria such as carrier performance, your buyer's location and
your performance i.e you are shipping orders within your stated handling time. Buyers may also see different estimates depending on their location. Checking your items with your browser on private mode will also affect this. 

The EDD showing an extended time can be because of the area the buyer is located or if there is a history of delays in the area. 

We as always will send you feedback to the shipping team.

Thanks,

Dave

[dave@ebay]

---

@j_n_tee wrote:

When is ebay going to wake up and address the estimated delivery date issue - rather than saying the system is based on various factors etc. Clearly with the amount of buyers raising this in the past year there is something wrong. Does ebay not value buyers opinons nothing has been done to address this. I've literially had an order for an england flag which is being dispatched tomorrow (28th) 2nd class postage and buyer has been given estimated date as 29th! Since when did i start sending my items next day delivery free of charge! I expect the buyer ordered the time thinking it will arrive on the 29th as ebay have stated! probably for the england ladies final (no chance) so i've just had to message the buyer highlight if its for that event, ebay have over promised with the estimated date and i'm happy to cancel the order etc etc etc. 

When will ebay start listening to buyers?

---

Hi @j_n_tee 

Thanks for reaching out. 

As you know the EDD is based on a number of factors. This can shorten the EDD and based on history on the account and the location of the buyer. This is possibly why the delivery time is showing this particular date. 

I will pass your feedback to the shipping team to review. 

Thanks,

Dave

[sweetmeme]

Hello,

We have upgraded to Anchor Shop since June but haven't got any invitation to the Concierge service yet. This is the main service we looked for with the extra £399 monthly fee. Consulted with customer services several times, but no concrete answers. Can you suggest please?

[too_good_2be_used]

Hi!

What would be your top tips to help increase my listing page views and impressions? Both figures are down to almoust 40%  within the last month. And of course it does have an impact on sales. How to get that back in most efficient way? 

Thanks!

[kempseykate]

dave@ebay 

Please, rather than C&P the same reponse each time, can you feed back to the relevant team that the 'dynamic calculation' does not work.

I have a 4 day despatch time set because there are issues that may cause me to take this time to post. However, because I usually, manage to send same/next day, ebay decide to override my 4 day time. If anything happens that my OH is unable to drive, or the car is out of action (both of them are getting older and less reliable) I will need those extra days, as, if I have to rely on friends/family, I will only ask them to go to the delivery office no more than twice a week.

Why ask us to set a despatch time, only to override it?

Can we look forward to 'dynamic pricing', where ebay decide the item cost for us anytime soon?

[oakley_home_and_gifts]

If that is the case why is it not being communicated in one of the updates? 

Yes if I send something to a customer in the North West is it likely to get there much quicker than if it has to go to the top of Scotland or bottom of Cornwall. 

Either get things right or let a business actually manage things themselves. 

[katie@ebay]

---

@sweetmeme wrote:

Hello,

We have upgraded to Anchor Shop since June but haven't got any invitation to the Concierge service yet. This is the main service we looked for with the extra £399 monthly fee. Consulted with customer services several times, but no concrete answers. Can you suggest please?

---

Hi there,

It can take some time for the invite to be sent as it is sent by the concierge team. If you would like to share the username of the impacted account I can send it on to their teams to try to help the process.

Thanks,

Katie 

[oakley_home_and_gifts]

How come a business seller on thier own website and Amazon is registered for VAT and Limited company yet run two private acocunts on ebay, offer no distance selling information or returns policy?

Far to many private accounts clealry running a business. 

These accounts have been reported time and time again but nothing ever gets done. 

Yet go to any ebay event and get told about the importance of trust, offering returns etc. 

[j_n_tee]

Thanks Dave@ebay  It's very very annoying, I understand it being based on a number of factors but telling a buyer to expect delivery on 29th, When it's being dispatch tomorrow 28th (and 100% it will be) using 2nd class service.  Not sure how the system if using those factors believes thats a true reflection on when that buyer will receive the item. Its not just one listing, some actually say 30th, but most 29th using the same postal service. I knew that this particular buyer was buying for the final hence i took the effort to message them, as believe it or not i dont like letting buyers down. I dont have time to message  each and every buyer highlight the over ambitious delivery date being given it should be something ebay should be sorting, but making it more realistic.

[rainbowtrax]

The postage options are still not quite right on the new listing form. Economy services are all listed as Standard services instead of having a separate Economy section. Special Delivery 1pm is still missing from the list for your first and second option. It's only listed if you select a third option. So you can't select it as the only postage option. There may possibly be other errors/omissions, those are just the ones I've noticed.

Below is the full list of options on the old form followed by the full list of options for first choice on the new listing form. 

[pixiesen2012]

it's all very well saying it takes all sorts of things into account,

but when it gives an estimated delivery date that is the same as the sellers dispatch date there has to be something fundamentally wrong with the 'algorythm'

Solved: Re: When will Ebay fix the Estimated Delivery Time... - UK eBay Community

ebay have got to stop giving buyers completely unworkable estimated delivery dates!

[technthread]

Dynamic? 

My carrier performance is excellent. You can see my delivery ticks on sales and how quickly they are being delivered. Historically my issue has been eBay making the estimates too optimistic and thankfully I have avoided late deliveries by the speed of Royal Mail's service. 

My handling time is fast, usually same day. I only changed it to 2 day dispatch to try and offset eBay's optimism.

The buyers location seems to make no difference in my case. I have checked this by asking friends who live local to me and further afield in the UK what they are seeing on my listings and it is the same.

I also have a private account and this EDD issue hasn't affected that account, which is strange don't you think?

I appreciate your response but it seems like a slap in the face. If 10 day delivery estimates to buyers on an account with no late delivery history or local carrier issues isn't a glitch then I don't know what is.