eBay

rose-dee · ‎02-14-2015

Hello all -

I think those of us who have been following the boards all know about the discussions and complaints concerning what I call the "cart disconnect" between eBay.ca and other eBay sites. I've had some very illuminating responses from Raphael in follow-up to this week's board hour (which wasn't terribly productive itself). Please see my Post #39 in http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/buyers-saying-item-is-unavailable-when-trying-to-purchase... for my summary of his comments.

Essentially, he finally made it clear that the carts are site-specific, were not intended to be universal across all eBay sites, and that a "universally workable" cart is not realistically feasible due to eBay's decades-old and complex site design. Basically, WYSIWYG.

However, eBay apparently believes the "cart disconnect" is not an issue for the vast majority of Canadian sellers. My view is that the reason for this is because we can't be aware of something we don't see -- how do you measure the number of buyers from other sites (e.g. eBay.com, eBay.UK) who may have tried making a multiple purchase using their own site's cart, failed and given up?

So, given the fact that we're stuck with what we have, I know my multiple orders were working fine before the .ca cart was introduced. Perhaps --- just maybe -- if enough Canadian sellers ask for it, I wonder if the .ca cart could be pulled completely?

It would be very interesting to hear from Canadian sellers on this thread as to:

1) Have you seen a significant downturn in multi-item orders from non-Canadian buyers since about mid-summer of 2014 (in comparison to earlier months or years)?

2) Have any non-Canadian buyers contacted you to tell you they're having trouble getting through the checkout/payment process when attempting to make a multi-item purchase?

3) Do you sell regularly to U.S. buyers?

A "yes" or "no" to each of the above would be enough -- I just thought it would be interesting to gather some numbers. Whether it will do any good or not, well...

Thanks!

pierrelebel · ‎02-14-2015

I have been selling on eBay for over sixteen years although my overall volume has been much lower.in the last few years since I retired and substantially reduced the number of items in my store.

Over the years most of my transactions involved multiple items. The majority of the time buyers found a way to combine their purchases (in the same currency) on one payment although some buyers, not understanding the added costs to sellers, made multiple payments (one per item). That pattern has been more or less the same over the years.

I list on both eBay.ca (mostly) in Cdn$ and eBay.com in US$.

Now to answer your questions specifically:

1) Have you seen a significant downturn in multi-item orders from non-Canadian buyers since about mid-summer of 2014 (in comparison to earlier months or years)?

NO

2) Have any non-Canadian buyers contacted you to tell you they're having trouble getting through the checkout/payment process when attempting to make a multi-item purchase?

NO

3) Do you sell regularly to U.S. buyers?

YES

On eBay I sell postage stamps exclusively and my customers tend to be older (average age 66 - no kidding). My results may differ from other sellers offering different types of products.

momcqueen · ‎02-14-2015

1) Have you seen a significant downturn in multi-item orders from non-Canadian buyers since about mid-summer of 2014 (in comparison to earlier months or years)?

Yes. Absolutely yes.

2) Have any non-Canadian buyers contacted you to tell you they're having trouble getting through the checkout/payment process when attempting to make a multi-item purchase?

Yes. On multiple occasions. Sometimes I call ebay to complain about this. Other times, I don't have time to waste. (Also, from those Canadian buyers who found themselves looking at my stuff on ebay.com instead.) I will also note here that some of the Customer Service Reps to whom I have spoken about this cart issue are totally in the dark. They've tried to tell me it's buyer error, not a technical one.

3) Do you sell regularly to U.S. buyers?

Yes. But now only one item at a time. I also sell to users overseas who may or may not be navigating to the site from ebay.co.uk where I pay extra to have the listings seen through International Site Visibility. Does this mean they are covered under the uk basket? Or ca cart? I have no idea.

For the record, I list on ebay.ca and ebay.ca only since I'm not interested in doing a USD currency conversion on everything I list. It doesn't make sense for me. I started out listing in USD and it was a massive headache. Also, I use calculated shipping. I like my shipping costs to be 100 per cent transparent and it's part of my business model not to charge handling fees. Shifting everything over to ebay.com is not at all feasible for me. If I thought it was, I'd already be there.

I really did think the entire point of a shopping cart.bag.basket was to offer buyers from all parts of the world a seamless check-out so I was a little surprised to learn it is not. So be it. I will adjust my expectations accordingly. I will also continue to instruct buyers to just buy-it-now and wait for an invoice before issuing payment. (Not that anyone does.)

I'd like to see the error message that ebay presents become a little more helpful, direct and specific. Like 'we're experiencing technical difficulty with your request to purchase the contents of your cart; please use buy-it-now on each item and then Request Total From Seller prior to submitting payment in order to accurately combine postage'. I'm also considering revising my listings to include instructions like this in the Payment Instructions tab. (Not that anyone reads that.)

I'm a fairly savvy buyer so I've found a workaround whenever I've encountered the shopping cart error message as a buyer but not everyone can troubleshoot it. I don't think ebay has done a great job addressing this problem. I'm certain it is a major source of frustration for many, many people. Buyers, sellers, employees. Maybe it's time to shake up their technical support department. Too often solutions elude the people who are staring at the same problem every day. It takes new eyes.

kcgwynne · ‎02-14-2015

1) Have you seen a significant downturn in multi-item orders from non-Canadian buyers since about mid-summer of 2014 (in comparison to earlier months or years)?

No but I just restarted listing

2) Have any non-Canadian buyers contacted you to tell you they're having trouble getting through the checkout/payment process when attempting to make a multi-item purchase?

Yes but some just purchase individually

3) Do you sell regularly to U.S. buyers?

Yes

I just checked the mobile app for Canada has no cart or options on shipping or discounts, but the US one has a cart.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-14-2015

I also sell to users overseas who may or may not be navigating to the site from ebay.co.uk where I pay extra to have the listings seen through International Site Visibility. Does this mean they are covered under the uk basket? Or ca cart? I have no idea.

If the buyer is viewing them on .ca then they could use the .ca cart. If the buyer is viewing them on the uk site, they would not be able to use a cart as the UK cart does not work for listings on other sites.

I'd like to see the error message that ebay presents become a little more helpful, direct and specific. Like 'we're experiencing technical difficulty with your request to purchase the contents of your cart; please use buy-it-now on each item and then Request Total From Seller prior to submitting payment in order to accurately combine postage'. I'm also considering revising my listings to include instructions like this in the Payment Instructions tab. (Not that anyone reads that.)

If a site requires immediate payment like .com does, a buyer can't buy an item and then request the total. They have to pay for each one as they buy it. I believe that the UK site works the same way. So that note wouldn't wouldn't be valid for buyers shopping on those sites.

I do think that on most other ebay sites, the carts can be used regardless of where the item was listed.

momcqueen · ‎02-14-2015

Oh! I see. That certainly explains things. Hmm. Then I am stumped. It would seem obvious to me that the only way for this to work is to make all the sites compatible with one another regardless of whether you're throwing your stuff into a cart, bag or basket. Until then, we are losing business if ebay.com and ebay.co.uk are operating under their own set of rules that don't apply elsewhere. Or merge us into one site, period, with the ability to make it specific to the currencies and postage rates of a seller's choosing. Level the playing field or separate the game. Maybe the message could read, 'go to ebay.ca if you want to combine postage from this seller' and here's the link.

canadianfootballcards · ‎02-14-2015

#1 - Sales are down overall over the last couple years. Whether that's because of the cart disfunction, the search disfunction or any of the other myriad dysfunctional elements of eBay in its current state, I don't know.

#2 - Of my 6000-10,000 listings, about half are on eBay.ca and half on eBay.com, to take advantage of the 2,500 free listings on each site per month, plus various promos. I do frequently get messages from buyers who have questions about combined shipping and invoicing and checkout difficulty.

For each person who takes the time to contact me, I'm conservatively guessing there is another person somewhere out there who does not, simply giving up.

This actually happened last night with a fellow in Georgia who wanted to buy six Canadian Football League cards. And it was an issue with another buyer in Missouri last week who got eventually bought four cards and requested a fifth that couldn't be invoiced with the rest be cancelled.

#3 - My sales are about 50/50 to domestic CFL and CIS football fans and U-S collectors interested in collecting graduates from various NCAA programs.

This cart issue is a LARGE one for me, and I'm disappointed in eBay's casual approach to acknowledging and addressing (or not) the problem.

recped · ‎02-14-2015

1) Have you seen a significant downturn in multi-item orders from non-Canadian buyers since about mid-summer of 2014 (in comparison to earlier months or years)?

Not really, multi-item orders are down from 15 years ago but then so is everything!

2) Have any non-Canadian buyers contacted you to tell you they're having trouble getting through the checkout/payment process when attempting to make a multi-item purchase?

A couple but only when I do Fixed Price listings which isn't that often and mostly that they are getting forced into immediate payment.

3) Do you sell regularly to U.S. buyers?

Yes, about 40% of my sales are to the US, 55% Overseas and rest to Canada.

"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.

lucitabby · ‎02-14-2015

Hi Rose,

I list on ebay.ca.

In answer to your questions:

1 - Yes

2 - No

3 - Yes

Happy Valentine's Day

-Judith

vintagenorth · ‎02-14-2015

Hi rose, I list only on .com so not sure if this is useful to you.
1) no
2) no
3) yes

rose-dee · ‎02-15-2015

@mjwl2006 wrote:
It would seem obvious to me that the only way for this to work is to make all the sites compatible with one another regardless of whether you're throwing your stuff into a cart, bag or basket. Until then, we are losing business if ebay.com and ebay.co.uk are operating under their own set of rules that don't apply elsewhere. Or merge us into one site, period, with the ability to make it specific to the currencies and postage rates of a seller's choosing. Level the playing field or separate the game.

A universally functional cart/checkout or one-site functionality certainly would be seem to be the ideal -- and logical -- answer, but my takeaway from Raphael's follow-up response to me is that that is extremely unlikely to ever happen. The reason, as I noted he mentioned, is because of eBay's long and very complex site history. To do so would probably mean essentially tearing down all the sites and starting more or less from scratch. They already have enough trouble making even the smaller things work reliably without redesigning the site -- can you imagine!

Some things are rational and desirable, but simply not practically feasible, that I can accept. I just wish someone had clearly enunciated this earlier, so we weren't spending (wasting) time banging our heads against a brick wall.

And yes, we are absolutely losing business if buyers are buying from outside eBay.ca -- how much business is anybody's guess. How do you count buyers who wanted to buy but didn't? That's the reason many sellers have been so upset about the "cart disconnect". It's been that way since the cart was introduced on .ca.

"Maybe the message could read, 'go to ebay.ca if you want to combine postage from this seller' and here's the link."

Now there's a rational alternative to the impossibility of re-tooling all of eBay's sites, better than eBay telling us to list on .com or list all our items with free shipping. However -- and I can hear the eBay.ca staffers saying this -- it would mean openly admitting to every non-Canadian buyer that their own site's cart isn't compatible with ours. Still, in my ongoing effort to find some sort of practical, workable resolution to this problem, I'll try to remember to bring this up next Wed.

In the meantime, there is nothing preventing us from posting such a message on all our listings. Getting people to read it is the problem. If eBay were able/willing to put up this message, presumably they could stick in somewhere where even mobile users would see it, like they do with the store "vacation" banner.

ricarmic · ‎02-15-2015

I only sell on .COM so I believe my stats aren't much use.

My category stamps for stamp collectors.

1) Have you seen a significant downturn in multi-item orders from non-Canadian buyers since about mid-summer of 2014 (in comparison to earlier months or years)?

NO

2) Have any non-Canadian buyers contacted you to tell you they're having trouble getting through the checkout/payment process when attempting to make a multi-item purchase?

NO

3) Do you sell regularly to U.S. buyers?

YES about 50% of sales are to the USA 35% WW, 15% Canada

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-15-2015

The reason, as I noted he mentioned, is because of eBay's long and very complex site history. To do so would probably mean essentially tearing down all the sites and starting more or less from scratch. They already have enough trouble making even the smaller things work reliably without redesigning the site -- can you imagine!

I don't know what Raphael wrote to you but I do find it difficult to believe that he said that they would have to tear down all of the sites (or even redesign any sites) in order for the .com cart to function for listings on other sites. Raphael did explain on January 21 that it is the U.S. cart that needs to be rebuilt. I suspect that it is just that cart and the UK cart that need to be redone since the other carts are already compatible with each other.

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Weekly-Board-Hour-Session/January-21st-2015-Weekly-Board-Hour/m-p/291455... (post 😎

"What we need to keep in mind is that this is not a small fix. What is essentially needed is a full rebuild of the US shopping cart if it's going to be able to handle items listed on eBay.ca or from any other eBay site. The US team knows this needs to be done, we just don't have a date committed to yet."

Now there's a rational alternative to the impossibility of re-tooling all of eBay's sites, better than eBay telling us to list on .com or list all our items with free shipping. However -- and I can hear the eBay.ca staffers saying this -- it would mean openly admitting to every non-Canadian buyer that their own site's cart isn't compatible with ours. Still, in my ongoing effort to find some sort of practical, workable resolution to this problem, I'll try to remember to bring this up next Wed.

Sorry, but that sounds a bit dramatic. I don't get the impression that the reps are hiding that the .com cart does not work with the Canadian site. I also don't think that they are hiding that the .com cart doesn't work with the UK site or with the Australian site or with the German site or with any other site as far as I know. Perhaps I am misunderstanding your comments but you still seem to think this is a Canadian cart issue and it isn't. I think that Canadian sellers depend on U.S. buyers more than a European seller might so the .com cart problems do affect us more than most but this is definitely not just a Canadian issue.

merritt-motorcycle-salvage · ‎02-16-2015

1) Have you seen a significant downturn in multi-item orders from non-Canadian buyers since about mid-summer of 2014 (in comparison to earlier months or years)?

YES. Multi-item orders from non-Canadian buyers has always and by the sounds of things will ALWAYS be major issue that costs us money and time that we are not being compensated for.

2) Have any non-Canadian buyers contacted you to tell you they're having trouble getting through the checkout/payment process when attempting to make a multi-item purchase?

YES. I get contacted on a regular basis everyday if not every other day. Do you combine shipping? I want to purchase more than one item but I can`t? How to I purchase more than one item? I purchase multiple item and paid for them separately please combine and refund any difference in shipping! The list goes on and on and on. Once again, it's ALWAYS being major issue that costs us money and time that we are not being compensated for.

3) Do you sell regularly to U.S. buyers?

YES. but the numbers are on a steady decrease with no end in site. US buyers are getting frustrated because its such a hassle to combine items from Canadian sellers.

rose-dee · ‎02-16-2015

pjcdn2005 wrote:
The reason, as I noted he mentioned, is because of eBay's long and very complex site history. To do so would probably mean essentially tearing down all the sites and starting more or less from scratch. They already have enough trouble making even the smaller things work reliably without redesigning the site -- can you imagine!

I don't know what Raphael wrote to you but I do find it difficult to believe that he said that they would have to tear down all of the sites (or even redesign any sites) in order for the .com cart to function for listings on other sites. Raphael did explain on January 21 that it is the U.S. cart that needs to be rebuilt. I suspect that it is just that cart and the UK cart that need to be redone since the other carts are already compatible with each other.

"What we need to keep in mind is that this is not a small fix. What is essentially needed is a full rebuild of the US shopping cart if it's going to be able to handle items listed on eBay.ca or from any other eBay site. The US team knows this needs to be done, we just don't have a date committed to yet."

Now there's a rational alternative to the impossibility of re-tooling all of eBay's sites, better than eBay telling us to list on .com or list all our items with free shipping. However -- and I can hear the eBay.ca staffers saying this -- it would mean openly admitting to every non-Canadian buyer that their own site's cart isn't compatible with ours. Still, in my ongoing effort to find some sort of practical, workable resolution to this problem, I'll try to remember to bring this up next Wed.

Sorry, but that sounds a bit dramatic. I don't get the impression that the reps are hiding that the .com cart does not work with the Canadian site. I also don't think that they are hiding that the .com cart doesn't work with the UK site or with the Australian site or with the German site or with any other site as far as I know. Perhaps I am misunderstanding your comments but you still seem to think this is a Canadian cart issue and it isn't. I think that Canadian sellers depend on U.S. buyers more than a European seller might so the .com cart problems do affect us more than most but this is definitely not just a Canadian issue.

'pj', I'm repeating myself, but I'll say it once more -- in my post above I was referring to a universally-functioning cart being virtually impossible to now install on eBay because of its complex site history (this is what Raphael told me), i.e. highly desirable, but a practical non-starter. You've taken my comments out of context.

What we've been told (by Rodney) about the US/Cdn cart disconnect issue, as you've quoted above, is that the "fix" is not a simple one , and that there is so far no ETA -- this is a different, more immediate aspect of the issue and I think you're mixing the two up.

I'm well aware there is no problem with the .ca cart as a stand-alone, for Canadians. I don't have enough Cdn buyers to say whether this is true in my own experience or not, so I'll take eBay's word for it. I'm also aware that it's been said that the .com cart (and apparently also perhaps the UK cart, etc.) is the source of the problem. But it's the US (.com) cart that concerns most of us here.

Be that as it may, the fact is that the two carts aren't "talking" to each other, and this is the root of the ongoing issue. Whether it's easier for eBay to retool the .ca site or the .com site to make them communicate properly so that U.S. buyers can use their cart to buy from Cdn sellers, who cares, as long as they do it? Again, things were working just fine for my U.S. buyers before the cart was introduced on .ca -- why that was, I have no idea, but surely that's a clue.

To respond to your last comment, there is a difference between the eBay.ca reps admitting, at the relatively little-attended Wed. boards, that there is a problem (I agree they haven't been "hiding" it, just beating around the bush and doing a really poor job of explaining), and the idea of eBay putting up a site-wide notice for everybody (including buyers) to see.

The latter might help Cdn sellers to route their US buyers to a means of making multiple cart purchases, but how would that go over with eBay HQ? I don't think it's dramatic in the least to imagine that they would regard such a suggestion as anathema, however helpful it might be in practice. Gee, if you're a US buyer purchasing from a Cdn seller, you're now going to have to get off your own familiar eBay site and use ours (.ca) in order to make your multiple purchases work. A fine admission indeed for the world's largest online venue.

The crux of my position on this question is exactly as you've put it -- Canadian sellers depend on U.S. buyers more than other sellers do. Probably not all Cdn sellers, but certainly a significant number. For sellers like me, whose business is over 90% to U.S. buyers, and whose products are of the sort that used to attract multiple-item orders, this is a big problem.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-16-2015

I'm not sure that these are two separate issues at all. Right now the .ca carts works (as far as I can tell) with all other carts other than the U.S. and UK cart. If those two cart systems were redone, then I think that would be a universal cart system (or darn close). That's why I'm confused about the comment about having to start from scratch on all of the sites since the system already seems to be semi universal now. Perhaps there are sites without carts and that is what Raphael is referring to...I don't know.

Anyway...there is no point in rehashing this as we both seem to understand things in two different ways although we agree in some ways. As soon as the U.S. cart was set up I thought it was dumb that they didn't set it up to work with other sites and other currencies. Especially, because as I said before, that was around the time they started requiring immediate payment in many categories. So my comments here are not in any way saying that it is good or morally right that the .com cart only works with .com listings. It's ridiculous actually and I've mentioned it on the board at various times over the last couple of years. I'm hopeful that it will be resolved...'someday' but its been evident that there is no fix planned for the near future. I don't think that hammering the .ca reps on this issue is going to make it happen any faster. I really don't know what would make it more of a priority for them since ebay's priorities seem to be much different than ours.

Again, things were working just fine for my U.S. buyers before the cart was introduced on .ca -- why that was, I have no idea, but surely that's a clue.

It's a clue that you noticed the problem around that time. It doesn't mean that the ca cart was the problem. Perhaps it is but have you ever specifically asked Raphael if they removed the .ca cart would you then be able to combine payments for buyers shopping on .com?

I think the answer would be no but I could be wrong. I think that his comments about the .ca working fine are a clue to what his answer would be but perhaps he should asked that question specifically?

The crux of my position on this question is exactly as you've put it -- Canadian sellers depend on U.S. buyers more than other sellers do. Probably not all Cdn sellers, but certainly a significant number. For sellers like me, whose business is over 90% to U.S. buyers, and whose products are of the sort that used to attract multiple-item orders, this is a big problem.

I agree that it is a big problem and its been for a while. I know you have been complaining about it for a while so I don't understand your resistance to at least temporarily fixing the problem for yourself by changing your listings to .com. It's not that difficult with Auctiva but it does take some time. When I did mine, it did take a while but it got done and I still have a record of those .ca listings should I want to put them back on .ca. For me, it wasn't a matter that I shouldn't 'have to' put them on .com, it's a matter of what was best for my business. I found that time spent on changing my listings was better spent than time complaining about the situation. (Of course time spent on my listings rather than being on this board at all would probably be better for my business lol)

I'm not suggesting that the solution is possible for everyone ....but it is a temporary solution for some of us. Unless a multi-listing has constant sales, I think that ending some long running listings, freshening them up and relisting them does help with views and sales. You've said that in the past that it isn't true in your case but in my opinion, it does help with the current search system.

merritt-motorcycle-salvage · ‎02-16-2015

ebay.ca Canadian sellers moving their listings to ebay.com is ludacris workaround / temporary solution. ebay.ca is setup for canadians and our settings ie. shipping, taxes etc. For us to list on ebay.com is just giving them another reason for them to put this issue on the back burner. Yet more time we have to waste.

It`s ok for us to waste our time = money, but when they caused the issue it`s such a major problem to waste their time and resources. Nothing like paying outrageous fees and subscriptions and then have to waste our time = money to workaround something that should be included.

Ebay.com cart functions on ebay.com and ebay.ca, so why implement a cart for ebay.ca that only works on ebay.ca. Further proves how much they really care about our needs in this and every issue. It`s not that they can`t do it, putting up with it is giving them a reason not to.

Just my opinion.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-16-2015

I agree that it isn't feasible or reasonable for some sellers to move their listings.

Ebay.com cart functions on ebay.com and ebay.ca, so why implement a cart for ebay.ca that only works on ebay.ca. Further proves how much they really care about our needs in this and every issue. It`s not that they can`t do it, putting up with it is giving them a reason not to.

I know that in the long run, it doesn't matter which cart is not working but as mentioned in earlier posts and by Raphael in the weekly session, the problem is not the .ca cart, it is the .com cart that needs to be upgraded. The cart that a buyer is using is not decided by which site the item was listed on but by the site that the buyer is currently shopping on. The .ca cart sees listings done on other sites...the com cart does not. But because the .com cart works well for listings on .com, they aren't in a hurry to upgrade it. Imo it should have been done right in the first place but it wasn't and it is probably more complicated to do now.

I do think it would be easier for them to take off the immediate payment required on .com as that should then allow a buyer on .com to buy and then ask for an invoice without putting the items in a cart.

I'm curious...did you just start noticing that .com buyers couldn't put an item into a cart or did that happen just recently?

momcqueen · ‎02-16-2015

I'm not sure exactly when it started for me but I can tell you now that virtually all my unpaid item reminders go to buyers from the USA and UK. So. There's something odd with that, is there not? If both the ebay.com cart and ebay.co.uk basket require immediate payment on a buy-it-now item? It makes no sense to me. Did they put it initially in an ebay.ca cart? Then continue shopping and lose it? They are not the ones who contact me to say they can't combine shipping, they just buy-it-now and vanish.

merritt-motorcycle-salvage · ‎02-16-2015

It`s not that they can`t put items in the ebay.com cart from an ebay.ca seller. When they do add more than one item or return to a single item it says in bold font that "Item is Unavailable" even though the item is still available. Looks really good to a buyer as they assume it is no longer for sale and leaves. This is what this whole issue is about. It is showing our items are unavailable. If they had an employee with any knowledge of coding etc. this would be fixed. It is unacceptable to feed us these excuses.

I was told on Dec 7 they had enough complaint calls to acknowledge this was an issue and it was to be fixed within 90 days on Mar. 7. Any other information gather on here is stated it will never get fixed. There is always a solution. If they are incapable of fixing this it is good to know the outrageous fees and subscriptions is going straight to their pockets and no interest whatsoever for Canadian sellers.