Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm

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

Available via Email for Community-related inquiries:
contactcommunity@ebay.comeBay
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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm

 opting out of all these types of messages

 

What does this mean ? All messages  totally or just ones which are selling ones, which i assume ebay are an active partner in ?

 

and as such how can this blocking take place?

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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm

Since we are now almost 1/3 of the way through Q1, when exactly will the Simple Delivery mandate for eligible items from private sellers go into effect?

 

For anyone who needs reminding, eBay CEO Jamie Iannone has explicitly stated Simple Delivery will become mandatory in Q1 2025 and applicable laws and rules from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and other relevant regulatory bodies classify prepared remarks made by the CEO of a publicly traded company in quarterly financial reports to be "official corporate communications."

 

Here's what Iannone said on the Q3 2024 earnings call at the end of October, and for additional background this was part of his prepared remarks, not an off the cuff answer to analysts in the Q&A segment - which means this part of the presentation would have been scripted in advance and reviewed by legal, compliance, investor relations and other relevant internal stakeholders before the call.

 

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4731184-ebay-inc-ebay-q3-2024-earnings-call-transcript

With managed shipping, we are completely overhauling our shipping experience for C2C sellers in the UK in two phases. The first phase completed in early October, extended the simplified shipping experience we first rolled out in pre-owned apparel to all categories. Within the new native listing flow, UK C2C sellers now see a consolidated list of shipping options based on the estimated package size and weight. And since implementing this change, we have observed a significant reduction in time spent on shipping in a listing flow.

 

The second phase of managed shipping; radically simplifies the experience and creates a new revenue stream for eBay. Similar to managed payments and eBay international shipping, Managed shipping leverages our scale and expertise to create a better experience for customers while generating incremental revenue and operating income dollars. When listing eligible products sellers simply confirm the pre-selected package size and eBay handles the rest.

 

Buyers received competitive shipping rates and sellers are fully protected against loss or damage. Managed shipping is currently live for C2C pre-owned apparel listing in the UK. In Q4, we plan to expand managed shipping horizontally on an opt-out basis, before mandating the program for eligible items listed by C2C sellers during Q1 of 2025.

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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm

Thank you Marco. 

Interesting - as we still have the item sold... (as it was collection only).

Seems unusual they will pay for goods and then not collect. suppose they may get in touch when they remember we still have it.

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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm


@valueaddedresource wrote:

Since we are now almost 1/3 of the way through Q1, when exactly will the Simple Delivery mandate for eligible items from private sellers go into effect?

 

For anyone who needs reminding, eBay CEO Jamie Iannone has explicitly stated Simple Delivery will become mandatory in Q1 2025 and applicable laws and rules from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and other relevant regulatory bodies classify prepared remarks made by the CEO of a publicly traded company in quarterly financial reports to be "official corporate communications."

 

Here's what Iannone said on the Q3 2024 earnings call at the end of October, and for additional background this was part of his prepared remarks, not an off the cuff answer to analysts in the Q&A segment - which means this part of the presentation would have been scripted in advance and reviewed by legal, compliance, investor relations and other relevant internal stakeholders before the call.

 

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4731184-ebay-inc-ebay-q3-2024-earnings-call-transcript

With managed shipping, we are completely overhauling our shipping experience for C2C sellers in the UK in two phases. The first phase completed in early October, extended the simplified shipping experience we first rolled out in pre-owned apparel to all categories. Within the new native listing flow, UK C2C sellers now see a consolidated list of shipping options based on the estimated package size and weight. And since implementing this change, we have observed a significant reduction in time spent on shipping in a listing flow.

 

The second phase of managed shipping; radically simplifies the experience and creates a new revenue stream for eBay. Similar to managed payments and eBay international shipping, Managed shipping leverages our scale and expertise to create a better experience for customers while generating incremental revenue and operating income dollars. When listing eligible products sellers simply confirm the pre-selected package size and eBay handles the rest.

 

Buyers received competitive shipping rates and sellers are fully protected against loss or damage. Managed shipping is currently live for C2C pre-owned apparel listing in the UK. In Q4, we plan to expand managed shipping horizontally on an opt-out basis, before mandating the program for eligible items listed by C2C sellers during Q1 of 2025.


Hi valueaddedresource, thanks for your question.

 

Yep, that question has been raised here a few times now. However, we have no confirmation on this. Should this change, we will let you know as usual.

 

Thank you,

Marco


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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm


@jiggery-pokery wrote:

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!"

 

 


Hi @jiggery-pokery ,

 

I know alot of the eBay marketing messages will go to both the ebay messages and the personal email so I can understand needing the customer support emails needing to go to ebay messages.

I'll follow up with customer support for this to share your feedback.

 

Thank  you,

Kat

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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm


@avenger_7 wrote:

Thank you Marco. 

Interesting - as we still have the item sold... (as it was collection only).

Seems unusual they will pay for goods and then not collect. suppose they may get in touch when they remember we still have it.


Thanks for your reply, avenger_7.

 

Yep, I understand where you are coming from. However, you'd be surprised with the amount of time this happens. I'm sure they will get back to you at some stage, they probably did forget like you said. Otherwise, I'd recommend issuing a refund once you have the item back with you.

 

Thank you,

Marco 


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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm

dave@ebay 

Thanks for your reply, good luck with your trawl!

However wouldn’t it be a best practice statement to make upon the subscription purchase?

Ensuring that the seller was aware that a shop was a just storefront not an upgrade to a sole trader or business account.

Some sort of safety net wording.

Dont expect a reply just please consider it.

Jo

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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm


@funkybunnie-direct wrote:

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?


Hi @funkybunnie-direct 

 

There haven't been any changes since kat@ebay replied to you in the chat on the 14th. in case you missed it she said:

 

"From internal reviews there has been a huge number of accounts that have been asked to upgrade to businesses and when they have not done the ability to continue selling has been removed. Other measures introduced for private accounts have been access to discount tools being removed.

Ebay will continue to review current policies for these accounts and once we are aware of any further changes and measures we will share."

 

Thanks,

Dave

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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm


@a45heaven wrote:

 opting out of all these types of messages

 

What does this mean ? All messages  totally or just ones which are selling ones, which i assume ebay are an active partner in ?

 

and as such how can this blocking take place?


Hi @a45heaven ,

 

For marketing emails. Please see your account settings> communication preferences>marketing communications. Tick or untick your preferences here.

 

Thank you,

Kat

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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm

Hi Dave 

This relates to the Seller Dashboard for exclusively Region USA only

We ship to customers outside of the UK exclusively via GSP and only have these problems with the USA

No issues with customers, none with the orders being processed via the GSP Hub but somehow we get stitched up with the occasional defect. They frequently come in pairs as our customers will often buy two or more items in a single order. We have also been further penalised with this defect because UK public holidays differ from the USA. We currently have two defects for one order, despite the order being delivered to our customer with no issues at all. In part that caused us to lose TRS for a month+ and only regain it in last evaluation. Due to these current two defects still firmly attached to our dashboard would only take another and we are back to Above Standard

J-P
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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm


kat@ebay wrote:

@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?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


Thank you for your reply Kat,

Again, either I am being thick or who ever programmed it is.

Why doesn't the "report item" button got to report the item?

Like, literally why make something new when it is already there?
If you must have something new, then why not also just make the link, that is already there do the same thing for the new flow.


If that is for the app, then why not have it say something different when I am not using the app?
Also, why is there no option on the new flow?

This seems like an ill thought out calamity, so nothing new there then...

Thank you for your help anyway, I appreciate it is not your team that is responsible for this disaster we pay hefty fees to use.

Russ


We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
- Albert Einstein
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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm


marco@ebay wrote:

@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


As chat closing soon message me the answer than you

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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm


@jiggery-pokery wrote:

Hi Dave 

This relates to the Seller Dashboard for exclusively Region USA only

We ship to customers outside of the UK exclusively via GSP and only have these problems with the USA

No issues with customers, none with the orders being processed via the GSP Hub but somehow we get stitched up with the occasional defect. They frequently come in pairs as our customers will often buy two or more items in a single order. We have also been further penalised with this defect because UK public holidays differ from the USA. We currently have two defects for one order, despite the order being delivered to our customer with no issues at all. In part that caused us to lose TRS for a month+ and only regain it in last evaluation. Due to these current two defects still firmly attached to our dashboard would only take another and we are back to Above Standard


Thanks @jiggery-pokery ,

 

I've sent this over to the guys in shipping to review. I'll come back to you as soon as they have an update. 

 

Thanks,

Dave

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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm


@sweetcharity.2013 wrote:

Today I bought an item (Auto Pay) & VAT was added to the postage. There was no mention VAT would be added in the listing details. Can you advise? Seller is UK registered since 2011

 From listing:-

Postage:

£2.91 Standard Tracked Delivery. See details for postage

Located in: ***, United Kingdom

 

From Payment:-

Payment info

£13.49

29 Jan at 1:10 PM

1 item

£10.00

Standard tracked delivery

£2.91

VAT *

£0.58

Order total

£13.49

*VAT collected on this transaction based on applicable laws.

 

 


Hi sweetcharity.2013, thanks for your patience on this.

 

After double checking this for you, I can see that the VAT was not added to the postage of your purchase. The VAT was added to your purchase in general, which is correct. You can click here in case you want to see more on VAT being charged to your purchases.

 

What you saw in your transaction details was just the breakdown of item price, postage, VAT, and order total.

 

Thank you,

Marco


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Re: Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 29.01.25 @2pm

 


@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 patience on this.

 

It will work the way I said, if the bidding process starts before the 4th of February, the listing won't be impacted by the changes, so it will be handled/processed in the old/current way. If the bidding process starts after the changes take effect, then yes, the listing will be impacted by the changes.

 

Thank you,

Marco


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About this Weekly Chat!

Welcome to the Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team! Unless otherwise noted, chats occur every Wednesday from 2pm to 3pm.

Our Community Team will be in the Chats to help with the questions.

If you have multiple questions please open a post per question so we can get back to them individually. If it's something we can't answer right away we will get back to you after the chat has finished.