Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @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, 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. We understand that certain topics, such as concerns about businesses possibly using private accounts, can be frustrating and important to you. Please refrain from asking the same question repeatedly in our weekly live chats. We assure you that we carefully review all posts in the forum and ensure that your concerns are communicated to the relevant teams for appropriate action.
To maintain a constructive and community environment, posts that repeatedly breach this guideline may be removed. Continued violations could result in further action against your community account. We appreciate your cooperation and understanding in helping us keep our community focused and respectful.

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

[krafty-kreations]

Thanks Kat

Problem is when you message the buyer many don't seem to get/read or reply to the message and there is no real cancellation option either. 

[moldosgifts]

There has been bit off discussion on the forum regarding the February the 4th Buyer Fee.

With regards to auctions this has been answered here previously but confusion still reigns.

Auctions what will happen on the 4th for auctions already midway through.?

Will they suddenly get the Buyer fee added thus changing the price or will eBay let it run until ended then apply on relist.

[kat@ebay]

---

@sweetcharity.2013 wrote:

Thanks Kat. 

No it's not an older account, but it might be this one in the near future. I just wondered if I didn't use it for a while would I have a buying limit restriction put on it after a certain period of time & what that time scale was?

---

Hi @sweetcharity.2013 ,

If an account had no activity for a long period of time eBay would send an email with notification that the account would be closed after 30 days. There wouldn't be buying restrictions as such but they would let you know you have 30 days if you wanted to re-activate it.

Thank you,

Kat

[dave@ebay]

---

@auctiongabble wrote:

Thanks Dave, i believe others have posted on forums of also having issues with this send offer option no longer in messages.

---

Thanks @auctiongabble 

I'll have a look through the posts and add the users to the request. 

Thanks,

Dave

[ducatimondo]

Good afternoon team,

I've tried to report some private sellers that are clearly business sellers.

These are not rocket science to see, private seller with about 50 new power tools for sale with a lot of repeat sales on them, etc.

When I try to report them, either I am being a bit thick or the person who programmed it is, because it says I need to tap the three dot icon...

There is no three dot icon?

Is this just copy and paste the same thing for the app as it is for the PC?

Cause there are no dots??

Also, why is there no fast track to report this level of policy abuse, as it breaches the statutory rights of the buyer, and the statutory rights of the honest sellers, in addition to possible tax evasion.
eBay also get no fees from the sales or from 4th Feb, will get diminished amount of fees.

You would think this should be classified as important by a self proclaimed industry leader in this sector.

Thank you
Russ

where is the three dot icon?

[funkybunnie-direct]

I recently reported 3 items from the same seller that were 'copies' ie not original (clearly stated in his listings), under the 'counterfeit' heading. This was also 'private' seller (another business seller trading illegally as private according to ebay rules and UK law). All supplied with no artwork or case. The seller had sold multiple copies of all. In all 3 cases the report came back that there was nothing wrong with the listings.

What is the point of having the report system if it appear that customer service don't seem to know what they are doing?

[avenger_7]

Hello. Can you please advise me on a course of action following the NON- Collection of goods paid for on 7th December 2024.

Since then, we have sent messages about 7 times (the last being sent on 15th January 2025. As there is no indicator to show that messages have been picked up (AND we do not appear to have access to the buyer’s email address or details) we cannot try an alternative method to see when they may be able to collect.

Is there any way that eBay may be able to contact the buyer for us to try make contact?

Details.....

Buyer paid date: 7 Dec 2024

Order: 27-12407-34141

[marco@ebay]

---

@moldosgifts wrote:

There has been bit off discussion on the forum regarding the February the 4th Buyer Fee.

With regards to auctions this has been answered here previously but confusion still reigns.

Auctions what will happen on the 4th for auctions already midway through.?

Will they suddenly get the Buyer fee added thus changing the price or will eBay let it run until ended then apply on relist.

---

Hi moldosgifts, thanks for your post.

Don't quote me on this as of yet, as I will have to double check this for you, which I will. However, it is of my understanding that if the auction starts before the date of the changes, the transaction will be processed in the old/current way. If it happens after the date, then it will be processed in the new way that the changes are implementing.

I'll double check and get back to you anyway just to confirm. 👍

Thank you,

Marco

[dave@ebay]

---

@jiggery-pokery wrote:

Selling to the USA (core site) even via GSP has a unique challenge. Is it worth raising the issue of Tracking Uploaded and Confirmed here?

A punitive metric that can make the difference between Top Rated / Above Standard / Below Standard that cannot be appealed. Would really appreciate some help please

---

Hi @jiggery-pokery 

I not aware of any issues with tracking on .com, are you having an issue uploading it?

Thanks,

Dave

[kat@ebay]

---

@krafty-kreations wrote:

Thanks Kat

Problem is when you message the buyer many don't seem to get/read or reply to the message and there is no real cancellation option either. 

---

Hi @krafty-kreations ,

It does make sense to be able to set the limit. There was a suggestion on the thread for this yesterday where you  could change your personalisation instructions so that it actually states how many characters they may use. I know this will rely on buyers actually seeing this but it may be a help. See the thread here

for the screenshot details.

Thank you,

Kat

[jiggery-pokery]

We also find it odd that many ebay staff do not contact us through ebay messages just use email which results in messages getting missed too easily amongst all of the notifications to our main business account.

When I asked if they could contact us through ebay messages or the Seller Portal they said 

"Unfortunately we don’t have access to send things via eBay messages – I know the initial *** ****** invitation came through there but that was sent automatically by another team.  Is this email better to reach you at?  I completely understand the spam issue!"

[darth_baggins]

Dave, I think you may have been away for a time, not sure, but this has been raised in the forums a lot, along with other issues with the 'improved' messaging system.

Basically if a potential buyer asked a question you could hit 'reply with offer' and send them a special BIN price. This doesn't exist in the new message experience, but it's still there in the email.

[moldosgifts]

That's wonderful i wait with baited breath thank you.

The method you mentioned would make much more sense then adding it midway through.

I just need it for advice i give on the forums

You guys cant be everywhere 😁

[dave@ebay]

---

@funkybunnie-direct wrote:

I recently reported 3 items from the same seller that were 'copies' ie not original (clearly stated in his listings), under the 'counterfeit' heading. This was also 'private' seller (another business seller trading illegally as private according to ebay rules and UK law). All supplied with no artwork or case. The seller had sold multiple copies of all. In all 3 cases the report came back that there was nothing wrong with the listings.

What is the point of having the report system if it appear that customer service don't seem to know what they are doing?

---

Hi @funkybunnie-direct 

We don't have the ability to see what happened with reports from here so I can't say why an action was or wants taken. 

If you want to PM me the item numbers, I can send through another report for them. 

Thanks,

Dave

[marco@ebay]

---

@avenger_7 wrote:

Hello. Can you please advise me on a course of action following the NON- Collection of goods paid for on 7th December 2024.

Since then, we have sent messages about 7 times (the last being sent on 15th January 2025. As there is no indicator to show that messages have been picked up (AND we do not appear to have access to the buyer’s email address or details) we cannot try an alternative method to see when they may be able to collect.

Is there any way that eBay may be able to contact the buyer for us to try make contact?

Details.....

Buyer paid date: 7 Dec 2024

Order: 27-12407-34141

---

Hi avenger_7, thanks for your question.

If the buyer never picked up the item, the shop you sent it to for collection should eventually return the item to you. In this case, we recommend refunding the buyer once you get the item back. Unfortunately, we can only provide you with the details of the buyer that were shared with you at the time of the transaction, and we cannot try contacting them on your behalf. 

Hope this helps,

Marco

[funkybunnie-direct]

I continue to report 'private' sellers who are obviously business sellers, and see no action taken after 4 months. Whilst I appreciate that certain measures are about to come in effect which may 'persuade' some to convert their accounts, for the vast majority it won't (still at a financial advantage trading illegally). It wouldn't be difficult (if ebay wanted to) to find a large portion of these seller - just write a program to find private sellers that list multiple copies of the same item, or large copies on new items.

I keep asking this question (and I'm positive there are 10,000s business sellers who would love to know the answer), what actual measures is ebay taking to have these illegally trading sellers convert to a business account?

[tobiasd4]

This has been happening to myself and others for several weeks.

Not every time, no logic to it.

[dave@ebay]

---

@darth_baggins wrote:

Dave, I think you may have been away for a time, not sure, but this has been raised in the forums a lot, along with other issues with the 'improved' messaging system.

Basically if a potential buyer asked a question you could hit 'reply with offer' and send them a special BIN price. This doesn't exist in the new message experience, but it's still there in the email.

---

Thanks @darth_baggins 

Ill ask the site team to confirm if this was removed with the update to the messaging system update.

Thanks,

Dave

[marco@ebay]

---

@moldosgifts wrote:

That's wonderful i wait with baited breath thank you.

The method you mentioned would make much more sense then adding it midway through.

I just need it for advice i give on the forums

You guys cant be everywhere 😁

---

That's no problem, moldosgifts.

Once I get confirmation on it, I will post back here to let you know.

Have a good one,

Marco

[kat@ebay]

---

@ducatimondo wrote:

Good afternoon team,

I've tried to report some private sellers that are clearly business sellers.

These are not rocket science to see, private seller with about 50 new power tools for sale with a lot of repeat sales on them, etc.

When I try to report them, either I am being a bit thick or the person who programmed it is, because it says I need to tap the three dot icon...

There is no three dot icon?

Is this just copy and paste the same thing for the app as it is for the PC?

Cause there are no dots??

Also, why is there no fast track to report this level of policy abuse, as it breaches the statutory rights of the buyer, and the statutory rights of the honest sellers, in addition to possible tax evasion.
eBay also get no fees from the sales or from 4th Feb, will get diminished amount of fees.

You would think this should be classified as important by a self proclaimed industry leader in this sector.

Thank you
Russ

where is the three dot icon?

---

Hi @ducatimondo ,

This is the older report an item/listing flow. The newer flow is by clicking on the question mark on right hand side at the bottom of the pages of listings. The 3 dot icon reference is the eBay app. The 3 dots is available on the app and by clicking on that it brings up the option to report there. Reporting those types of accounts can be done by reporting the " other " option through the old flow. Currently there is no option on the new flow for these types of reports and we have raised this with our internal team. Once we have an update on this reporting function we will update the community.

Thank you,

Kat