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!

merritt-motorcycle-salvage · ‎02-16-2015

BTW... here`s some more ammo for ebay to feed us. Make sure if you are listing on ebay.ca that your items require immediate payment. This way ebay.com buyers can't add items to the so called partially functioning cart and show items as unavailable.

Downside is this will even further deter potential buyers on ebay.com from purchasing more than one item from Canadian sellers. In the end doesn`t matter they can`t combine anyways. We lose again!

I figured this out by accident yesterday. Immediate payment required doesn`t affect adding items to cart like it used to as items are available until a buyer on ebay.ca completes payment for combined items in a cart purchase.

momcqueen · ‎02-16-2015

It says 'Unavailable?!' That's even worse than I thought. I was under the impression the buyer got some sort of message that the seller couldn't combine postage. Can't that message be changed at least? 'Contact the seller' for starters, 'Your item is available but there is a technical issue with the cart which prevents you from proceeding until you contact the seller' or whatever. That explains the reason they bail and never respond. I can usually see from the feedback they get afterwards that they've made a purchase(s) from someone who sells exactly what I do. They got the error message, moved on and bought it from someone else. Guaranteed.

Moving my listings to ebay.com will never happen. (Or rather, it would happen on the day after I move to the States.) Currency conversion, sales taxes, calculated shipping, expectation management regarding shipping times.... those are only some of the issues faced that make it not at all feasible for me. I realize the folks that represent ebay.ca are in a difficult position and doing their best to concoct solutions but, really, to tell Canadian sellers to abandon ebay.ca is that's like telling a disgruntled customer that if they don't like the service they're receiving, they'll just have to take their business to another store. That is the opposite of a Best Practise.

I am a huge fan of ebay and tell it to everyone I encounter but I'm not really feeling the love on the way this problem is being handled by the powers that be. I don't mean to be a knob about that statement either. If we affected sellers are perceived to be in the minority, we need to be respectfully vocal. An organized protest to raise awareness of the issue? Don't ask me how or what. I'm not that clever.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-17-2015

BTW... here`s some more ammo for ebay to feed us. Make sure if you are listing on ebay.ca that your items require immediate payment. This way ebay.com buyers can't add items to the so called partially functioning cart and show items as unavailable.

I hadn't thought of that before. I can't test it on any of my items but would you mind giving me the item number of one of your listings that has immediate payment required? I'm curious to see how that works.

I want to comment on your other post but will have to do that later, I need to go get punished now by the physiotherapist.

merritt-motorcycle-salvage · ‎02-17-2015

Just go to my store through ebay.com and you will see the result of immediate payment on items.

Go to sellers store that started this thread though ebay.com as well and add more than one item to your cart and you will see the result.

Your items appear to be set up for immediate payment.

jt-libra · ‎02-17-2015

I've been following this thread but don't believe I really have anything useful to offer. However, for statistical purposes:

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. I've historically had few multi-item orders from non-Canadian buyers.

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.

Merritt-motorcycle said "Make sure if you are listing on ebay.ca that your items require immediate payment. This way ebay.com buyers can't add items to the so called partially functioning cart and show items as unavailable.

I have continued to use Immediate Payment Required on all my BIN's even though it was my understanding that this could lead to problems for buyers who wanted to use the shopping cart (once that was introduced). Because I had had enough problems with non-paying bidders on my auctions, I was reluctant to remove that stipulation from my BIN's. I took a wait-and-see attitude to determine whether I would receive enquiries from buyers who were having trouble making multiple purchases. I received no such enquiries and the number of individuals who bought more than one item did not change -- no increase or decrease.

I have received the occasional request to combine shipping and I have revised the listings to remove the IPR and then issued a combined invoice. In several instances, buyers made separate payments for each item and never even asked about reducing the shipping. In these cases, I've always refunded an appropriate amount.

So there has been no indication that I have been affected by the "cart-disconnect". Although, of course, I would like to to see it function properly.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-18-2015

@merritt-motorcycle-salvage wrote:
Just go to my store through ebay.com and you will see the result of immediate payment on items.

Go to sellers store that started this thread though ebay.com as well and add more than one item to your cart and you will see the result.

Your items appear to be set up for immediate payment.

I have just a few items with immediate payment and they are listed on .com.

I do see what you mean though as last time I checked I could add one of your items to a cart on .com and see the 'unavailable' problem. Today, I couldn't do that so you must have just started the immediate payment requirement?

merritt-motorcycle-salvage · ‎02-18-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
@merritt-motorcycle-salvage wrote:
Just go to my store through ebay.com and you will see the result of immediate payment on items.

Go to sellers store that started this thread though ebay.com as well and add more than one item to your cart and you will see the result.

Your items appear to be set up for immediate payment.
I have just a few items with immediate payment and they are listed on .com.
I do see what you mean though as last time I checked I could add one of your items to a cart on .com and see the 'unavailable' problem. Today, I couldn't do that so you must have just started the immediate payment requirement?

Yes, I changed all my listings Immediate Payment Required over the weekend. Although items through ebay.com no longer show "Item not available" buyers on .com are still not able to combine multiple items, which they couldn't`t before anyways.

Canadian sellers still have no feature in place for .com buyers, cart or no cart, to combine multiple items.

rose-dee · ‎02-18-2015

@merritt-motorcycle-salvage wrote:

Yes, I changed all my listings Immediate Payment Required over the weekend. Although items through ebay.com no longer show "Item not available" buyers on .com are still not able to combine multiple items, which they couldn't`t before anyways.

Canadian sellers still have no feature in place for .com buyers, cart or no cart, to combine multiple items.

I think you've hit the nail on the head in summarizing the problem.

It's hard not to be frustrated over this issue. Raphael continues to repeat that it impacts very few Cdn sellers, because few of us offer BIN plus combined discounts. The last part of that statement may be true. But what I think he's just not seeing is that the discounts are secondary (I can do those manually if need be). It's the inability of US buyers to combine multiple items in one (cart) order that is most critical. Raphael says that US buyers can't even put one Canadian item in their cart, but I'm not sure this is accurate. If it is, it's even more worrisome.

My main concern is that, as you say, my US buyers are finding it impossible to quickly and easily check out and pay if they're buying more than one item at a time from a Canadian using the .com cart.

Surely this impacts a lot of Canadian sellers if US buyers are getting turned off buying from us, not just Canadian sellers who offer multiple discounts and BIN. How do we (or eBay) even know how many U.S. buyers have tried to make a multiple purchase, given up and gone elsewhere?

Honestly, you need to have a very determined and experienced U.S. eBay buyer these days to buy from a Canadian seller. I can't blame the ones who give up and abandon buying from a Canadian seller. If you were in their shoes, wouldn't you go back to .com to purchase, where everything works? That's the real consequence, and I think it will affect many Canadian sellers.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-18-2015

Raphael says that US buyers can't even put one Canadian item in their cart, but I'm not sure this is accurate. If it is, it's even more worrisome.

When a buyer on .com looks at an item listed on .com, they see the add to cart button underneath the buy it now button.

When that same buyer looks at an item listed on .ca, there is no add to cart button in that area. They can click on buy it now, pay and then everything is fine. OR they can click on buy it now and THEN add it to a cart however, if they actually try to check out with it in the cart, it will say item unavailable.That is what Merritt's thread is about.

Also, if they try to add another item in the cart, it will say the second one is unavailable. Either way, they cannot check out with a .ca item in the cart. I don't think Raphael is aware that a .ca item can be put in the cart at all. I did mention it to Raphael today but he didn't comment on that post so I'm going to write him about it to see if he is aware of that issue. It's bad enough not having the cart but imo its worse to pretend that the item can be added to a cart and then be told it is unavailable.

rose-dee · ‎02-19-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
Raphael says that US buyers can't even put one Canadian item in their cart, but I'm not sure this is accurate. If it is, it's even more worrisome.

When a buyer on .com looks at an item listed on .com, they see the add to cart button underneath the buy it now button.

When that same buyer looks at an item listed on .ca, there is no add to cart button in that area. They can click on buy it now, pay and then everything is fine. OR they can click on buy it now and THEN add it to a cart however, if they actually try to check out with it in the cart, it will say item unavailable.That is what Merritt's thread is about.

Also, if they try to add another item in the cart, it will say the second one is unavailable. Either way, they cannot check out with a .ca item in the cart. I don't think Raphael is aware that a .ca item can be put in the cart at all. I did mention it to Raphael today but he didn't comment on that post so I'm going to write him about it to see if he is aware of that issue. It's bad enough not having the cart but imo its worse to pretend that the item can be added to a cart and then be told it is unavailable.

Yes, this seems to be the case, and it's not good. I had one US buyer tell me she was able to put the first item in her cart, but ran into a brick wall when she tried to add subsequent items. At least she was savvy enough to purchase each one separately, back out, then purchase the next -- what a rigmarole for a buyer. As I said, I think you need to hope for an experienced and resourceful buyer who wants the items badly enough that they are willing to bother going through that circuitous routine.

I get the impression that Raphael is somehow focused on the combined discounts rather than seeing the big picture (that US buyers are having trouble processing orders -- period). This whole checkout problem, in my view, affects far, far more Cdn sellers than the minute percentage he seemed to be suggesting.

I do not want to list on .com, for a whole variety of reasons. I don't want (well, can't afford) to offer free shipping on every single item I sell. However I am considering 'merritt's' idea of changing everything to IPR. That won't make any difference where US multi-item orders are concerned, but at least the "item not available" message will be avoided.

I'm also going to do my best, using a notice at the top of my listings, to alert US buyers to try logging onto .ca if they're having trouble checking out -- and that, of course relies on people to read.

lady.stark · ‎02-19-2015

@rose-dee wrote:
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?

1) Yes, I've seen my sales drop a little every passing month.

2) No, they have not contacted me. *However*, many buyers paid for their multiple order item by item. The direct result for me was higher PayPal fees (it adds up pretty fast when one person buy 10 items at $5 each) and the items were not grouped together in my eBay, which made the packaging process a little more difficult than usual to make sure very item was there.

3) Yes. I think they represent about 90% of my sales. The other 10% is divided between France and Australia mostly, but also one or 2 sales to the UK (before the cart was introduced - none since then). I also had a buyer from Finland and Russia.

lady.stark · ‎02-19-2015

Now that I had time to think about it, my answer to #2 is a little bit different. One buyer once contacted me to say that he was not able to purchase multiple items from me. I told him to log on eBay.ca, commit to buy each item there and then ask for a combined invoice. And it worked fine. However, how many buyers did NOT contact me when it happened? It is impossible to know, but if the saying of "If a person takes the time to write, 100 won't bother" is true, then we are in real trouble!

lady.stark · ‎03-10-2015

Follow up on my situation... got another message saying the item was unavailable when using the shopping cart. Told the buyer to "Commit to buy" on eBay.ca. And even then, because she was purchasing with a phone, she had troubles doing that. She had to wait until she came home to use her computer... not funny! How many sales did I lose because of this? 😞

momcqueen · ‎03-10-2015

As distressing as it sounds to you, I am thrilled to hear it now directs a buyer to Commit to Buy on ebay.ca. That is actually a huge step forward. So far as I know, this is a new development, is it not? (I suggested this as a workaround in another thread a few weeks ago.)

It used to be buyers received only the Item Not Available red text error message and were left empty-handed with no alternative instructions at all. It is possible to log into an alternative site on a mobile device within the app being used but it takes a bit more time. We do know a lot of buyers are making their purchase on-the-go. But still. This is good news. More sales were lost before this. At least now, a buyer might realize the problem is a bug and not with them or the actual item or seller specifically.

In the meantime, I have revised most if not all of my listings to state the following in my payment instructions:

If you encounter an error message stating this item is 'not available' while attempting to add it to your shopping cart, log into ebay.ca to do your shopping! There is a known incompatibility between the cart/bag/basket on ebay.com and ebay.co.uk. Or send us a message and we will guide you through the workaround. Thank you for your continued patience as ebay works to resolve the matter.

barbsplace66 · ‎03-10-2015

my present listings are on the Canadian side (I reside in Canada)

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. Yes

I did a test run from spring 2014 to fall 2014 and listed my items on the states side

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. Yes

dutchman48 · ‎03-10-2015

On the general topic, no issues.

I do not think Ebay gives 2 hoots about issues as can be read on the US AND CA BOARDS,

Until staff knows who goes and stays, and until the split tales place and gets finalized, they have more pressing issues.

Everyone can harp about all the tests and problems over the last year, but you may as well talk to the wall.

Relax and go with the flow until everything else gets finalized or you will drive yourself crazy

triber · ‎03-10-2015

In the last 2 weeks I have had 4 buyers saying they can't combine items. Telling them to go to .ca doesn't often work, people don't want to bother. I gave some options and in the end told them to just purchase and I would refund the difference in shipping cost, only 1 did that, so more lost sales.

maggiebvintage2010 · ‎03-10-2015

I did not read "lady.stark"s message that way. I understood that she told the buyer to Commit to Buy on eBay.ca. You seem to understand that the .com site directed the buyer to the Canadian site. I highly doubt that.

Perhaps "lady.stark" can clarify this for us?

momcqueen · ‎03-10-2015

Silly me. I read it another way but you're probably right.

Anonymous · ‎03-10-2015

Actually I don't understand the cart feature for Canada because I felt it is a complicated issue.

I sell lots of items to USA and many of them asked me if I would do combined shipping for multiple orders and I always tell them to WAIT for my invoice with the right shipping costs (one flat rate) to save them shipping costs. So actually to have a cart feature is not necessary.

I think it is the problems is the eBay's system that don't realize the multiple orders and they automatically send the invoice right after each item got sold. Some of my buyers were upset thinking they have to pay the shipping costs for EACH item.

I had to include the mention that they have to WAIT for MY invoice if they order multiple items which often works.

I wouldn't mind if the cart feature would be removed. As for how eBay determined how many sellers don't want the specific feature like the blue half arrow feature or "print item" feature removed which we didn't want them removed.

As for "print item" feature removed, I am very disappointed because I often have to print some listings when I purchased some items and the sellers told me to print them for my record like for original transparencies, slides, negatives that the sellers are transferring the copyrights to me. The sellers use those listings as proof of transferring and now eBay removed that "print item" feature.

It is beyond how eBay determined which feature(s) should retired when shouldn't. I would think eBay should already "retire" GSP but no, it is because it is a "goldmine" for them! That is how eBay operates when it comes to have green eyes and want $$$$.

Retiring the cart feature would be fine that way it wouldn't confuse or upset the buyers anymore. In fact I never used it , so it would not be a loss for me.