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Hello everyone,
Welcome to our weekly session. Today I'll be around for most of the day and as usual, will come reply to you on & off until the end of the day. If needed, we may also keep the threat open overnight.
Here are the issues I am currently tracking:
- UPC codes suddenly not recognized on live listings (mjwl2006)
And the issues for which I have had news:
- Fixed: SYI stripping the weight off when switching back to USD on an item that was originally in USD and set up with calculated shipping (block36)
- Full shipping FVF charged on combined orders with discounted shipping (dutchman48) - The billing team is investigating on this.
- Listings allowed to go live without a photo (rose-dee) - This is a known bug that is being worked on.
- SYI stripping Item Specifics when attempting to update Handling price or time (mjwl2006) - bug has been logged and work has begun.
- SYI preventing relist and Sell Similar if the original listing had a non compliant photo (pierrelebel) - problem has been identified and work has begun.
Just wanted to say bravo... standing ovation... clap clap on the decision to automatically default currency to CAD when listing an item. Having to change it to USD every single time even if you are selling a similar item that is listed in USD (sarcasm 
) since I list and I am sure a very large majority of sellers list in USD.
With this setting it automatically removes any previous domestic and International combined shipping rules. On top of having to make sure you change the currency a seller has to re-select combine shipping rules for both. I enjoy having to go back an edit 150 listings after noticing.
Needless to say I guess it really doesn't matter because the chance of having any buyers benefiting from combined shipping rules is nill since .com buyers can`t combine items from .ca sellers.
Yet more resources being wasted on unnecessary changes instead of focusing on the real issue, combined shipping.
Hi merritt-motorcycle-salvage,
@merritt-motorcycle-salvage wrote:
Just wanted to say bravo... standing ovation... clap clap on the decision to automatically default currency to CAD when listing an item. Having to change it to USD every single time even if you are selling a similar item that is listed in USD (sarcasm
We published a thorough explanation of why we have started defaulting new listings to CAD (the Sell Similar flow is considered to be the same as a new listing). You can read all the details here:
http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/springupdate2015/list-in-cad.html
@merritt-motorcycle-salvage wrote:
With this setting it automatically removes any previous domestic and International combined shipping rules. On top of having to make sure you change the currency a seller has to re-select combine shipping rules for both. I enjoy having to go back an edit 150 listings after noticing.
This is the first time I am alerted of this. I went into your account and tested a few scenarios and what I observed was that your combined shipping rules disappear as soon as you use Sell Similar (no matter whether you switch the currency or not). I have logged this as a new bug and will work with the Selling team to address. Thanks for the report.
@00nevermind00 wrote:
Hello Raphael,
For good and for (mostly) bad, the GSP has been a part of our eBay lives for over 3 years now and any hopes that it may just quietly go away have pretty much died.
Three+ years is a long time to iron out kinks and yet we still see a depressingly high number of posts from buyers whose item arrived damaged or not at all, or who received something completely different from what they ordered.
These buyers are confused and lost. They simply don't know what to do in order to get their money back. Their natural tendency is to involve the seller, as with non-GSP transactions, and that usually ends up with both parties being out some money because the process is completely counterintuitive.
Is there any way the eBay.ca people could alert the eBay.com to this ongoing problem? We also see it on the US boards. I posted about it a while back on one of their weekly chat sessions but was told that everything was peachy. Maybe those people should start reading their own boards! The best thing would be to have the GSP claims process fully integrated into the "regular" process, i.e, the system would be able to detect that the claim is for a GSP item and direct the buyer accordingly. But I'm realistic and I know that there is a higher chance of the sky turning pink than of this happening. But surely there are other ways to insure that buyers don't end up losing money when the GSP distribution center messes up.
Thank you.
Hi 00nevermind00,
The GSP team and eBay leadership is well aware of the buyer issues being reported via the Canadian and US discussion boards, as well as from Customer Support. I can't speak to what you were told on the US boards but what I know is the team continuously works to improve the program for all buyers, not just Canadians. Unfortunately I can't provide more depth on what is being done for now.
Good morning Raphael
"SYI preventing relist and Sell Similar if the original listing had a non compliant photo (pierrelebel) - problem has been identified and work has begun."
A few days ago (same problem I guess) using the bulk relist function on eBay.cafr, 19 of 20 listings relisted without problem while one was rejected by your system claiming the image did not meet your standards.
I then manually relisted that one item using the "relist" function without problem.
The question was and remains why does the bulk relist tool sometimes claims an image does not meet your standards while allowing the same listing to be relisted using the individual relist function?
Go Jays go.
@rose-dee wrote:
Hi again out there in Merritt, BC!
You know what? This girl, the biggest cheerleader for "please help us solve the cart disconnect", finally threw in the towel and decided to abandon .ca for my most important listings -- the ones that traditionally have attracted combined/multiple purchases.
I hated to give up a lot of the advantages and features I had on .ca, but as a business decision it was forced on me, a necessary, although undesired, switch. It has, of course, already worked -- within the first week I had a multi-item order. I'm not happy to have been forced off .ca by the realities of eBay's lack of interest with regard to the checkout system, but clearly eBay HQ didn't care enough about keeping sellers like me on .ca to do anything about it for nearly 2 years. I'm disgusted but resigned.
And to put a question in this respect to Raphael: What do you think the ultimate effect will be of sellers like me giving up on .ca simply in order to ensure our buyers can easily checkout and pay for their purchases? Is this really what eBay HQ wants?
Hi rose-dee,
I'm sorry you're disgusted. There are two ways to look at this. One of them is to see it as having been "forced" to change your business model and "give up on eBay.ca". Another way to look at this would be that you had to adapt to a situation, and it's yielding results. At the end of the day, if business is better, wasn't it a good thing to do?
To answer your question, what eBay HQ wants is for sellers on the platform to be successful. Also, please note that you aren't giving up on eBay.ca by listing on eBay.com. You are still a Canadian seller in the eBay ecosystem; one of tens of thousands who list on eBay.com for various reasons.
@pierrelebel wrote:
Good morning Raphael
"SYI preventing relist and Sell Similar if the original listing had a non compliant photo (pierrelebel) - problem has been identified and work has begun."
A few days ago (same problem I guess) using the bulk relist function on eBay.cafr, 19 of 20 listings relisted without problem while one was rejected by your system claiming the image did not meet your standards.
I then manually relisted that one item using the "relist" function without problem.
The question was and remains why does the bulk relist tool sometimes claims an image does not meet your standards while allowing the same listing to be relisted using the individual relist function?
Go Jays go.
Hi Pierre,
This I haven't observed yet. I would like to bring the use case to the team who is working on this issue, would you mind giving me the item number for the listing that exhibited this behaviour? Thanks.
Go Jays go indeed!
The relisted number is 371462669131
The earlier listing number was 391281862948
@rose-dee wrote:
A more prosaic and less heated question this time, Raphael:
Last week (post #45), in response to a seller asking about returns, you outlined eBay's policy on who is responsible for return shipping and in what sort of circumstances.
I understood those details, but one thing that wasn't mentioned -- and a question that has surfaced amongst sellers on the boards -- is this: where must a seller's policy be stated in order to be considered the seller's "eBay official" returns policy? In other words, is it fine to state the details a seller's particular policy in the listing itself, or must those details be specifically included in the "Returns Policy" box on the SYI form in order to apply in all instances?
For example, if I were to say in my listings that I will not pay return shipping for clothing items that don't fit (because I always set out size and measurement details explicitly in each listing), but I simply say in the SYI form "please see listing for details on returns", which will eBay consider the applicable policy?
Sellers must use the Return Policy section for this. It's OK if the return details are also stated in the item description, but they must also be properly set in the Returns Policy section to be regarded as valid in the context of eBay Returns.
I would just like to point out that the SYI will not let you complete a listing without stating at least a basic return policy in the proper section (see the part on SYI, near the bottom, where you need to specify whether you accept returns or not). So it's impossible that you would have a listing with no return policy in the appropriate section.
@rose-dee wrote:
Further, if a buyer contacts me, telling me an item doesn't fit, and I say that unfortunately my policy is that they will need to cover the cost of shipping it back to me, what happens if the buyer asks eBay to step in? Will I be asked to pay for shipping anyway because my return policy was not specified in the SYI form itself?
Return shipping only becomes the seller's responsibility if the item was not as described. If for example you were selling a pair of shoes size 8 and you shipped a pair of shoes size 8, the return shipping doesn't become the seller's responsibility just because the buyer says the shoes don't fit.
@rose-dee wrote:
Here's another (I think very good) question that has come up on the seller board recently. If you have a chance, please see posts #1, 5 and 6 of this thread: http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/The-quot-did-you-item-arrive-on-time-quot-question/m-p/31...
The bottom line is that it makes a lot of sense to retire the more or less redundant "shipping time DSR" now that there is the on-time shipping question. If an item arrives within the expected delivery window, why confuse the issue and ask the buyer to rate the seller's "shipping time" (which as we all know, most buyers interpret as "delivery time" and not "dispatch time" anyway)?
Why keep that DSR now, since it will no longer count toward a seller's evaluation by eBay? Its rating by buyers has always been skewed because of misinterpretation, so how can it fairly reflect a seller's performance (to other buyers seeing the DSRs) in any event?
A related question: Do you know whether eBay is actually planning any change (i.e. retirement of that DSR)?
While I can't speak to the specifics, I can say that the "renovations" to feedback and standards that were just started with the announcement of the upcoming changes span much further than just a new shipping question for buyers. Stay tuned for more such announcements in the future.
@rose-dee wrote:
Hi 'merritt' - Yes, it was a rather monstrous job switching a large portion of my listings over to .com. It took me nearly two weeks of effort. And it destroyed my entire business model where shipping and FVFs were concerned.
Despite what Raphael posted above, this is not yet a "win" for me, nor a business decision with a certain outcome. It was a calculated gamble, nothing more, an experiment that I'm hoping will work, because I had to know before giving up on my eBay business entirely.
I dislike big leaps that have consequences that cannot be calculated -- or even estimated -- in advance. However I felt I had to try, or else continue grinding my teeth and banging my head against a brick wall over the checkout problem. I suppose I just got exhausted hoping for the issue to be resolved.
I am gambling that enabling combined shipping by listing on .com will not only bring back my multi-item orders, but will also cover the increased costs of listing on .com (it's a bit complicated to explain the details, but suffice it to say that I had a very nice cost-saving strategy worked out on .ca that I have had to abandon). If this experiment fails, then I'll have to crawl back to .ca and accept that I'll never be able to sell at the level I'd like to because of major flaws on the site.
I apologize if I misread your earlier posts. It appeared as though you were happy with the results after moving your listings to eBay.com. I hope things work out for your business in the end.
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