eBay

rose-dee · ‎12-05-2015

Most Canadian sellers realize by now that eBay is defaulting $US listings to $Cdn currency in the SYI form (and when using "Sell Similar").

However, what sellers who normally list in $US may not realize is that not only will the "Sell Similar" SYI form re-set your currency to $Cdn, but it will also pick up the original pricing figure. This could be a serious problem for many. Moreover, the SYI form will also retain your original shipping figure, but display it as $Cdn.

For example, if your unsold item was priced at, say, $45 US, with $7 US shipping cost, "Sell Similar" will pick up the numbers -- 45 and 7 -- and show these as the prices in Canadian dollars. In other words, you will be listing at roughly 25% of your intended pricing.

This issue was brought up this week at the Wed. Board Session, and Raphael indicated it was an unintended "glitch", i.e. the SYI form should be stripping out the actual pricing figures. I just tried another test today, and the SYI "Sell Similar" is still not stripping the figures out.

I have listed exclusively in $US for years. I recently got caught with this problem when I didn't notice that an item I had listed with "Sell Similar" had been defaulted to $Cdn. As it happened, I accepted an offer on the item, not realizing it was in $Cdn, and not realizing the listing currency values (including my carefully set shipping cost) had not been converted. I ended up selling at more than 40% below my original price (because I accepted the offer, thinking it was in $US), and lost 25% on the shipping (because my shipping figure was shown as $Cdn, without being converted).

So be aware that there is a double problem if you're using the SYI form to "Sell Similar" and you want to continue listing in $US. If I'm available, I'll bring this up again next Wednesday, as I think it needs addressing urgently. It's bad enough to automatically change our currency, quite another to change our actual prices.

dutchman48 · ‎12-05-2015

Yup, just another problem created due to lack of testing before going live.

Seems to be the norm at Ebay.

Fixing these issues, if they ever get fixed, takes forever and as usual, Ebay could care less.

rose-dee · ‎12-05-2015

Sorry, correction, I meant to say up above that if you don't spot this problem, you'll be listing at 25% below your intended pricing, not 25% of your intended pricing.

And yes, if it weren't for sellers noticing these things and telling others, few of us would be able to carry on selling given all the glitches, bugs and issues on this site.

westernstargifts · ‎12-05-2015

In the beginning I had a few of my listings slip through with the prices in CDN instead of USD. Fortunately I noticed them before they had any bids and ended them. We have to be aware with every item that we list because it is easy to forget to change the currency to USD. I hope they don't take too long to fix it.

triber · ‎12-05-2015

I agree, I was caught a few times the same way, thankfully I noticed before they were purchased. eBay is keeping us on our toes!

rose-dee · ‎12-05-2015

@westernstargifts wrote:
In the beginning I had a few of my listings slip through with the prices in CDN instead of USD. Fortunately I noticed them before they had any bids and ended them. We have to be aware with every item that we list because it is easy to forget to change the currency to USD. I hope they don't take too long to fix it.

Yes, I was rather miffed at having the currency itself changed, but when I realized the price (i.e. the original number from the $US listing) was being kept too, I thought that was outrageous.

It makes a bit of a nasty joke out of telling us our items are more likely to sell in Canadian $ -- well, yes eBay, if you list my $40US item for me at $40 Cdn! I might as well start giving things away.