Another way eBay could help at the moment

[vinylscot]

Here's a wee suggestion for eBay.

I know this is a sellers' board, but, at times of great upheaval such as this, it would be immensely helpful if they could dedicate just one member of staff to constantly monitor these boards, and either correct, or at least remove, the huge number of plain wrong posts which make it impossible to get any sense from many of the threads.

It's a mixture between genuinely uninformed individuals, wilful contrarians, and downright liars.

eBay has been very good recently about allowing criticism, and have rarely stepped in, when they certainly could have (and possibly should). 

I could understand that they may be worried that it could develop into a Q&A sessions, but, even if they simply removed the worst of these posts anonymously, and replaced them with a brief statement such as "post removed due to misleading or incorrect information", it would help everyone's understanding, and consequently ease the load on eBay's CS department, which we all know is not really up to the task.

At the moment, any seller coming to these boards will struggle to find an answer. There are some correct answers in amongst all the unfounded drivel and nonsense, but they are becoming harder and harder to find.

As long as they didn't stray into matters of opinion, I can't see why anyone would object. Action could be taken to sanction posters who repeatedly post incorrect information - some of the accusations being made against eBay are borderline libellous, and you can see some posters just pushing it a little further with almost every post, often after they've already gone too far.

[edwardian-dreams]

Well sorry to be a party pooper but seeing as eBay created a lot of  confusions and upsets In the first place why would they use one of their employees to trawl the boards to put people’s minds at rest/correct their statements

they could have done all this a lot clearer in their announcements and also being transparent

Agree that if you don’t know something for sure you shouldn’t post it in their system ..like why hide the carrier name when someone’s actually bought something …they just pay for the label

on vinted you get to see / chose when buying between Royal Mail evri inpost etc

it seems here you can’t 

We are  left to do it all ourselves like blind mice sometimes 

Agree that if you don’t know something for sure you shouldn’t post it 

[vinylscot]

I agree with you that it should never have got to this, and that much of the confusion has arisen from eBay's awful implementation of the changes  and their pathetically poor communication about them.

However  that's where we are  and we shouldn't stop imploring eBay to do what they can to right things.

They really have a duty to try to mitigate the mess they have created.

[edwardian-dreams]

Totally agree

 but they’re not unfortunately

the Weekly community chat has and hasn’t helped in that even they don’t know  what’s going on to relay it to us a lot of the time

Customer service agents tell  people different things and when they tell them the same thing ebay make an announcement whic makes all  that defunct 

to be Frank I don’t see eBay doing anything except concentrate on what they want to do when they want to and never mind anyone else 

They will just roll it all out  finally and hope for the best lol

unless  they get it right 

here’s hoping so we can all move on from any problems 

eg SD is  compulsory they said from April 15th 

they have not included a 2-10kg parcel choice , why not?

instead buyers are expected to pay for a 20kg price if their order weighs over 2kg  (rM wise)

it could be that eBay “recommend 2kgs” for zillions of listings (which is wrong weight wise) and they are happy to pick up the tab if sellers go with the recommended ..as they’ve stated they will….unless RM are picking it up lol 

better stop gassing now 

ebay could help by finalising everything and moving on so everything is clear 

not sure why it’s taken so long 

oh last point  re custom delivery why is a large letter more of a risk than an envelope so it has to go tracked when the value of the contents is the same id under £10

Eg £9 trading card goes in envelope for 87p ok

£4 knitting pattern goes in tracked large letter for 2.70 whatever 

hmmm

[papso22]

Many of the worst offenders no longer even use ebay to buy or sell.  The boards would be simpler if they just left.

[edwardian-dreams]

But they did use eBay for many years and had rug pulled under their feet in  few ways

you can’t blame people for ebays many screw ups ..one being housebound people being chucked off selling 

The boards would be simpler if there weren’t so many simple delivery threads…something perchance eBay might think about amalgamating 

E 

[lucy_farmer]

'........and replaced them with a brief statement such as "post removed due to misleading or incorrect information", it would help everyone's understanding, ....'

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Can't help thinking that would lead to even more  'conspiracy therorising' !

[crafty_cat_lover]

you can’t blame people for ebays many screw ups ..one being housebound people being chucked off selling

How are housebound people being chucked off selling? They can select Royal Mail as the only SD courier and can arrange collection via the Royal Mail website. How won't work for them?

[edwardian-dreams]

Sorry my bad in my rant 

housebound people without a printer 

as before postie collecting would bring the label now they can’t 

[crafty_cat_lover]

I expect they'll manage the same way they do now if they have to return an item bought on Ebay that is SNAD and they don't have a printer to print the return label.

[the_book_seekers]

Interesting idea, but easily abused.  Easy to remove critically accurate posts along with the misinformation.

[papso22]

My point was that the ones who spout misinformation,  conspiracy theories,  legal garbage, etc, are often those who have stopped buying and selling.  They are damaging a platform they no longer use and misleading those that still use it.

Rants are OK, rubbish is different. 

[bojangled]

@vinylscot 

I do agree with you, it seems the management/community team just let these boards burn away with little input.

The ‘not selling anymore because of SD’ thread has over 148,000 views in 3 weeks, no comment from eBay at all. 

I’m taking a break from the boards as they are understandably negative right now (that is the nature of the beast), a reason I loathe social media. 

Hoping this will all calm down in the near future, but not investing too much of my time on eBay.

Jo

[edwardian-dreams]

ah ok, no worries yes we can do without conspiracy rubbish

I feel sorry for a lot of the people who have got confused  or can’t use a certain function for weeks on end and that’s on eBay 

[ruby*ryan]

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@papso22 wrote:

My point was that the ones who spout misinformation,  conspiracy theories,  legal garbage, etc, are often those who have stopped buying and selling.  They are damaging a platform they no longer use and misleading those that still use it.

Rants are OK, rubbish is different. 

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But how do you know they have stopped buying or selling? I could rant and rave on here about eBay ruining my 'business' so I have removed all my listings having sold 1000s of items a month, and I no longer spend hundreds a month buying. How would you know which part of that, if any, were true?

You yourself started a thread about the fact that according to the new UA SD was going to be optional. I know that was an interpretation of the info as you saw it, but if we didn't 'know' you, and you were using a new, zero feedback ID, that could have been seen as misinformation/maliciousness.

Personally, I read and make my own mind up.  If a poster constantly crops up with wrong info, and still repeats it after being told the facts, then I just scroll past their posts, as I do with any of the ones that just seem to want to stir up trouble.

Also, it would be very difficult for eBay to correct any misinformation, when they themselves don't seem to know what is/isn't correct. Were the Mentors not told that LL would be exempt from SD, only for that not to be the case?

[vinylscot]

The thread you refer to should have been removed some time ago, as it contains an inordinate amount of incorrect and dangerous information. It's a vanity thread, set up by one of a number of the contrarians I mention. When the thread took off, it became obvious the OP was going for some sort of record. The number of pointless posts from him, responding to almost every comment, no matter how banal, bears this out.

Posters on these threads would naturally prefer independence from eBay interference, but that surely comes with a responsibility to conduct themselves better. eBay has been too tolerant of the inaccurate postings. In many cases, I'm sure it is these postings who turn users against eBay, rather than eBay's (widely unpopular) actions.

[jckl1957]

Mentors can only advise on Ebay policy.

Although we would like to be informed about changes in advance, that does not happen, so we can only ever comment on what is correct at the time we write.

Certainly, into March, I was checking policy and informing people that Simple Delivery was not mandatory.  I made the assumption, until it was definitively confirmed otherwise, that 'under £10 and under 100g' would include Large Letters.

I agree with the OP - it would be useful, especially at a time like this, for a member of Ebay staff to swiftly remove posts containing misinformation.

Mentors try their best.

I usually try to add a 'cut and paste' quote or a link where I am advising or correcting but it is quite clear that such links are often not read.

As for the really long, repetitive posts with a limited number of members saying the same thing over and over - they are pointless.  Nobody has time to read them and I am constantly amazed that the 'I am not selling or buying any more' brigade have the time and energy to keep coming back to add more tedious and turgid twaddle.

[vinylscot]

It's all very well saying you'll scroll past all the posters who continually post incorrect statements or advice. You're an experienced poster, and you're (most likely) reading these threads to see if you can offer assistance.

A "newbie", new to the boards, and possibly new to eBay, won't have the experience or knowledge to recognise when these posters are posting utter nonsense. That's why eBay need to intervene more. Those looking for answers aren't going to keep looking once they think they've found what they're looking for. In many cases, what they have found is clearly and demonstrably wrong, which helps nobody, seller, buyer, or eBay.

[*vyolla*]

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@vinylscot wrote:

It's all very well saying you'll scroll past all the posters who continually post incorrect statements or advice. You're an experienced poster, and you're (most likely) reading these threads to see if you can offer assistance.

A "newbie", new to the boards, and possibly new to eBay, won't have the experience or knowledge to recognise when these posters are posting utter nonsense. That's why eBay need to intervene more. Those looking for answers aren't going to keep looking once they think they've found what they're looking for. In many cases, what they have found is clearly and demonstrably wrong, which helps nobody, seller, buyer, or eBay.

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I've bought this up with eBay a couple of times because when the Vinted forums turned into the wild west they literally permanently closed them within a couple of days. 

I personally am deeply suspicious that Seller Central is being allowed to degenerate even worse than the Vinted forums did, and have questioned if this is a case of 'give them enough rope' so that it provides the perfect excuse to do the same, and just leave a couple of the quieter boards and the Member to Member one, because I sure can't think of another reason. 

[suelel1968]

 I made the assumption, until it was definitively confirmed otherwise, that 'under £10 and under 100g' would include Large Letters.

Where has this been confirmed please? I have only seen that it was confirmed it would be excluded from SD. I wish they would just get on with it. I am in limbo land at the moment.