💬 Weekly Chat with the eBay Community Team- 30.11.22 @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

[kat@ebay]

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@hettsville wrote:

Why has the search location filter disappeared from search pages for anyone searching who's delivery location isn't in the UK when using the UK site. 

There have been complaints from buyers in eu countries that search the UK site and can no longer filter item location to the eu or anywhere else because that function has disappeared.

Here's a link to one of the threads. https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Technical-Issues/Country-and-region-search-filters-gone-or-not-worki... 

And this is another thread.https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Technical-Issues/Option-to-filter-item-location-vanished/m-p/7329704... 

I discovered it is possible to use the advanced search to filter country/region location but it's not as easy as using the search filter on the actual search pages.

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Hi @hettsville,

Do you mean this filter on the left hand side of the page ? We are based in Ireland and this is showing for us when we do a search

Thank you,

Kat

[dave@ebay]

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@mysterious_cities_of_mold wrote:

When using the Pale Moon browser, the buttons on the Shopping cart page do not work. I add something to the Shopping cart and when I go to the Shopping Cart page, the "Go to Checkout", "Continue Shopping", "Save for Later" and "Remove" buttons do nothing when you press them. Also some other elements are missing from the page.

I believe this is related to the more extensive browser problems when the Best Offer buttons stopped functioning on the Ebay website, as it started around the same time. This need to be fixed so it works when using the Pale Moon browser.  I have reported this to Ebay several times in the last couple of weeks but the problem is still there. Pale Moon is regularly updated by its developers to ensure it is safe and secure so it is not a problem with it being "outdated".

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Hi @mysterious_cities_of_mold

I haven't heard of the Pale Moon Browser until now. The site is generally built around Chrome and the more commonly used browsers but I'm sure the site development may be familiar with it. 

I'll send your feedback to the guys to review it may be something they are aware of. 

Thanks,

Dave

[kat@ebay]

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@bravergrace wrote:

And, along with the wheelnut listings, come the 99p Stairlift listings.

These are occasionally removed, but soon replaced by identical listings from a new ID.  

There cannot be any actual VALUE to eBay in allowing companies to advertise their "contact details" for 99p, when the product they are selling costs tens of thousands of pounds.  And the poor person who thinks they are buying safely on eBay, is actually buying something with no guarantee and virtually no consumer rights.

Here is an example (anonymised, but otherwise copy-and-paste from a live eBay listing):

******** *******lifts.

Hi,

My names ***** I’m the Director of a lift company based in ********. Even though we are based in ****we cover the whole of the UK & Europe. I have over 20 years experience in the mobility industry. My back ground is Mechanical & Electrical Engineering as well as general building & electrical works. I was an Engineer at ******** in the early development stage of the company training installation teams & builders. I later left to set up my own company & still have a great relationship with ********* today.

This advert is just to advertise our company our experience & what we can provide for you.

1. We sell brand new ******* lifts & products to our clients.

2. We can sell reconditioned ******* lifts. We typically have half a dozen in stock at anyone time.

3. We can provide a call out service (UK & EU)

4. We can provide servicing (UK & EU)

5. We remove unwanted ********* lifts

6. We can remove a lift & repair the ceiling & floor

7. We also have a lift buy back scheme.

We do not sell lifts on eBay just our contact details.

If you require anymore information please message us through eBay messenger. We charge 0.99p for our contact details which is refundable. This way we don’t break any eBay rules.

Kind regards

*****

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Hi @bravergrace ,

Thank you for the example. I'll have these types of listings reviewed by our risk team. 

Thank you,

Kat

[dave@ebay]

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@returns_andexdisplay wrote:

Are there any more updates planned to the listing tool as it is still awful to use and not user friendly. 

EAN hidden at the very bottom of the item specifics even thou it is required in some listings. Don't find this out till you submit the listing then have to waste time going back to fill it in. 

MPN number required in some categories, little hard to find when item is a used customer return and have no packing. 

Still to much clicking in and out of boxes. 

For the fees sellers pay the experiences is no where near good enough especially considering it has just been revamped as part of the tech led reimagination 

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Hi @returns_andexdisplay 

We have been working with the team that built the the listing tool and reporting all the user feedback directly to them. This is all being actively reviewed and there may be some changes in future updates. 

We will post any updates we receive from the guys as soon as we can.

Thanks,

Dave

[dave@ebay]

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@returns_andexdisplay wrote:

Is there a reason why there is no transparency with return credits when a buyer claims not as described but nothing wrong with the item? I could have 10 returns in month, try to claim 4 credits for buyer abusing the system yet only get 2 credits. Get no notification of which credits are accepted, only a credit on the statement. Large items cost more to send back yet eBay only part refund the return even if buyer abused the system

eBay seem to be promiting part refunds on social media yet fail to warn sellers that ebay keep the  fees for part refunds. Again why is this? 

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Hi @returns_andexdisplay 

We do indeed refund fees on part refunds you can find a breakdown of the process here.

The credits are processed in batches so it does show as a total rather than each individual credit. I will raise your concerns about how the credits are shown to the billing team to see if there is the possibility of an itemised view. 

Thanks,

Dave

[dave@ebay]

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@bayseeker11 wrote:

I sell predominately "Crested China" which were all deemed to be vases by ebay when item specifics were first rolled out. This resulted in completely nonsensical item specifics. For example, there are in excess of 300 makers of crested china and despite there being a very long list of makers available in the item specifics only 8 are actually makers of crested china.

I could  give many more examples but fundamently Crested China needs its own category with relevant item specifics. If the "team" involved would like some idea of the relevant specifics there are a number of books written about Crested China they would then appreciate the magnitude of the issue.

This is also not a niche item, there are currently over 19000 listing showing when you search Crested China.

This is also a predominately UK market so you cant cut & paste from other ebay sites.

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Unfortunately the guys cant be experts on the different categories across the site and we rely on feedback from you guys who are. 

I will pass the above to the catalogue team to review to see if there is any action that they can take.

Thanks,

Dave

[kat@ebay]

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@iceblue_uk wrote:

Hi Kat.

Regarding seller protections, there doesn't seem to be any covering cases resolved without seller resolution.

I understand the usual rule that we must resolve cases within 4 working days but when the buyer opens a case due to Royal Mail delay, we are sending the buyer information about the delays and asking them to let us know if they still don't have it by a certain date. In most cases we receive no reply and since we know that most buyers don't bother to close cases or even tell us when they receive the item, we wait for a response but then the buyer simply comes back 4 days later and, without contacting us, asks ebay to step in, resulting in a loss of fees and a defect on our account.

This seems massively unfair, can we appeal this kind of defect during periods of industrial action?

If not, are we expected to refund every delay case, even though the item may since have arrived?

Doing so would be crazy because we've had upwards of 100 such cases over the last few months that simply closed on their own because the buyer received the item.

If we cannot appeal these defects, could you simply extend the time we have to resolve cases to allow for the strike days and subsequent delays?

What about extending the number of days before a buyer can claim for delay?

We had a case last week where a buyer ordered last Weds evening before the 2 strike days, was given an EDD of 3-4 days, opened a refund case on the Sunday and due to strikes this week probably won't see the item for another week at least.

We need some protection against having to issue refunds so soon after delivery, 6 or 7 days just isn't enough right now. The delivery date for RM post is always estimated, but many buyers treat it as a guarantee, even now and the system is allowing them to act as if it is.

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Hi @iceblue_uk ,

As much as possible with site messaging and advice from customer support calls/chats buyers are being asked to delay opening cases due to strikes to give more time for delivery. However buyers will still have the option to open INR's and you will still need to respond and try and resolve.  I understand your examples here and others from other users posted today. I will share them with our shipping team.

Thank you,

Kat

Thank you,

Kat