Managed Payments Glitches

[armbo_comics]

So i was invited to Managed Payments and was told i could have my 65 thousand items which are sold on .com in US dollars all put into a US holding currency, and our fees would be taken out off the top.

ebay posted it was a one time lifetime decision to choose your holding currency, and since i had so many items in US dollars currency, listed on ebay.com, for twenty straight years now, i wanted to have US holding currency as our default currency. I was very worried that i would flub the aplication process due to a couple decades of ebay roll outs so i called Managed Payments and had a rep walk me through the process live, with the clear intent of choosing US currency

well, there is a glitch and the short form does not give you that option, and she guided us throught the process incorrectly, and we were defaulted into Canadian currency

so beause we have a US currency bank account connected to managed payments, the default currency they gave us caused all of our payments to be looped and none of the funds are landing

to compound this glitch, all of the fees are getting added to our seller account directly in US funds, so our already converted funds (from US to canadian) get converted back to pay the fees, thus giving ebay and the banks a couple of extra conversions of each dollar we collect. in other words the fees are not being collected up front and the remainder gets transferred. nobody can figure out the glitch or get us our money it seems

our response has been to shut down our 65K item store for 7 days (and counting) and they still do not know when they can correct the glitch, we are just a small cog in the ebay machine and despite having a written record of the CSR guiding us incorrectly (we had her make a SR ticket as proof it was done, so that nobody could say we flubbed the process

in short, our livelihood is shut down for 7 days and counting. managed payments is a hobby division, in other words the people there are not properly trained and it takes a half hour to explain the problem to them when you call in. 

hard to say, but it feels like if we cannot get our fees taken off properly, or given acess to our funds as they are collected, i am not certain our twenty year business on ebay can continue

managed payments is a brutal joke, and might be the glitch that killed us.

hard to swallow

[blueberrysparkle]

Quite a terrifying ordeal.  I can relate in that I've been giving multiple directions to solve the MP set up myself.  I think the real issue is who is in charge of the Canadian accounts. Whether the accounts are on .com or on ca, if the registrant is Canadian they are dealing with issues tied to Canadian banks.

We need a team specifically focused on all the issues. The fact that no micropayments, tied to registration, are going through, needs to be a priority to be fixed.

[marnotom!]

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@armbo_comics wrote:

so beause we have a US currency bank account connected to managed payments, the default currency they gave us caused all of our payments to be looped and none of the funds are landing

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By "US currency bank account" do you mean a Canadian-based US dollar chequing account, which is what Managed Payments requires, or a checking account with a US bank, which would include a subsidiary of a Canadian bank operating out of the United States?

[armbo_comics]

yes, a Canadian soil US currency bank account

it is a glitch in the registration process, nothing to do with our bank

sad days

[marnotom!]

@armbo_comics 

ref: https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/More-Managed-payment-shenanigans/m-p/460833

Did you initially register on the .com site back in the day and keep your registration there?  I remember my wife registered for eBay in 1999 and was invited to switch her "home" from .com to .ca when eBay Canada became established.  I don't think she took eBay up on its offer but it hasn't been a problem thus far because she hasn't been selling for some time.

There have been a handful of posts from old-time eBay users who registered on the .com site when that was a possibility who are now having trouble registering for Managed Payments because they're being directed to the .com registration process that doesn't recognize Canadian-based bank accounts.  If this seems to be the case for you, you're going to have to call Customer Service to get your registration information moved from .com to .ca so that the Managed Payments registration process will work for you.

@blueberrysparkle, you may want to take note of this, too.

Good luck!

[armbo_comics]

no, that is not the issue unfortunately, although i appreciate the insight. 

we are registered on .ca. but list on .com in US funds. there is supposed to be a choice when you register but a glitch has routed people to a default choice

they are aware of the glitch and are unable to resolve or give an estimate of when to resolve.

it is a nasty perfect storm of glitches, we have never closed down the ebay store in 17 plus years,  but are forced to put it on hiatus while ebay figures out how to pay us. they are too greedy to put us back into paypal until they figure it out, but i am also too stubborn to let them profit off of us at the same time as leaving us hanging wondering if the business will continue or be halted.

even if we choose canadian currency now, as i actually did try to do, the other glitches still result in US currency fees being tacked onto our seller account directly, instead of taking them off the top.

it is too bad, but also gives me an excuse to take the summer off until they get back to me.

depressing for a workaholic to not work,  but i will get used to it over time. thanks for nothing ebay 

[marnotom!]

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@armbo_comics wrote:

we are registered on .ca. but list on .com in US funds. there is supposed to be a choice when you register but a glitch has routed people to a default choice

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Did you inititally register on .com?  I can't remember when eBay dropped the option for Canadian sellers to register on the .com site.

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@armbo_comics wrote:

it is a nasty perfect storm of glitches, we have never closed down the ebay store in 17 plus years,  but are forced to put it on hiatus while ebay figures out how to pay us. they are too greedy to put us back into paypal until they figure it out, but i am also too stubborn to let them profit off of us at the same time as leaving us hanging wondering if the business will continue or be halted.

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I appreciate this is extremely frustrating for you, but I don't think "greed" enters into the picture at all.  I think there's a concern that if there's an attempt to put the toothpaste back in the tube, it might make things even worse.  Try to see things from the perspective of an eBay techie; they're probably finding this just as frustrating as you are.  

[ricarmic]

As a one time developer and support person I can tell you they hate this situation as much as us, perhaps more....trying to incorporate legacy stuff into "new" systems is a nightmare.... and some souls like myself have VERY legacy stuff.....

I believe the ONLY reason they are trying is because there is so much legacy stuff out there and (like us) they don't want folks losing time fixing up stuff any more than necessary.....

[armbo_comics]

marnatom wrote

Try to see things from the perspective of an eBay techie; they're probably finding this just as frustrating as you are. 

doubt it. the difference is they are still getting paid to work, our lifes work is on hold due to others incompetence and ill training. sorry, not sorry.

[hlmacdon]

Utterly absurd. The training for managed payments reps seems abysmal. In my sign up email the rep literally acknowledges me as a Canadian seller then sends us a link to signup for US managed payments. Like other oldtimer accounts I seem to have the same issue, which ebay is clearly aware of yet the reps don't seem to have a clue. I hope things get corrected for you soon. This whole we can't ever change anything even if it is our fault is mind boggling.

[fergua3]

himacdon:  has your abilty to list, revise etc been disabled?  If so, you'd be getting a message in red at the top of the revise page, after trying to submit.  If you're getting that message, there should be a link in it to sign up for managed payments.  The link i am getting is to sign up for managed payments on .ca.  Like you i originally signed up for Ebay in 2000, so i am guessing i am in the same boat

I have not clicked on any MP registration links yet, because i'm afraid to commit to a course of action that might not be the right one, so perhaps when i do click on the .ca registration link i will get a redirect to sign up on MP on .com.  I'll know this weekend.

Anyway, if your ability to relist has been disbled, try it and when you get the error message see what sign up link you get, .ca or .com.

[hlmacdon]

According to messages and listing forms deadline is the 15th before that occurs. The links I am getting direct me to .com. Like you I don't want to inadvertendly click on anything that forces me into something I can't reverse since ebay seems to be unwilling to change anything for managed payments once something is started.

[hlmacdon]

As follow up, live chat with rep via the managed payments link here was able to confirm (as we suspect/know) that we should not be reigstering through a .com url and passed my account information on to esclations to hopefully head off any actions that would effect listings on the deadline. Until we get a link with the .ca signup we are being advised not to attempt sign up. Switching the .com sign up url to .ca on my account indicates that I am not eligible to sign up yet for managed payments Canada. Same thing shows via the seller dashboard, payments tab for  .ca says not eliglbe, us says eligble. Reps definitely need more training and a process for dealing with this as  multiple reps had no clue, and that is going through the contact section of the Canadian managements help pag contact links. Tuesday is going to be interesting at this rate.

[blackranda2]

OMG! I have heard a lot horror stories about this new system but yours is the icing on the cake! I didn't sign up and every passing day I count my lucky stars that I didn't

I sincerely hope they fix this for you but have a feeling it will take a terribly long time for them to do it if they ever do. They will claim it wasn't their fault but was yours. This is what happens when a corporation blindly implements changes without thinking them through. They use sellers as guinea pigs to test the changes all the while not being willing to shoulder the blame if something goes wrong.

I wish you the best.

[blackranda2]

I am a workaholic as well but am likely going have this summer off when they deep six my listings and likely many more to come on eBay at least. If I get bored I may try another venue later in the year or maybe I won't.  Somewhat of a power trip to to be the one to have a choice for change!

[blackranda2]

I doubt it too!! And I also can't figure out why marnatom is defending eBay so often on these posts??? From his previous comments and his profile he hasn't been a seller for years. So why does it matter to him?

[fergua3]

Himacdon:  When you go to the Payments tab on ebay.ca and click on it, you see a message saying you are  not eligable to sign up yet, correct?

When i click on the Payments tab on ebay.ca i am prompted to register.  So it seems to me you should do nothing until you are prompted to register on the .ca Seller Hub.  That's my guess, anyway.

The fact that you've been threatened with losing your listing abilities is strange, given that you are not eligable to sign up for MP on ebay.ca.  It seems that all my communications from Ebay on this MP matter  have only come from .ca, nothing from .com.  Yet you have had .com messages.  I signed up in 2000 like you and have never switched over my country of registration.  It's strange that we are being treated differentlly.

One interesting thing i learned is that once you sign up, your new MP account will not be activated without prior notice and until then you can sell normally (ie using Paypal).  It also says you have 30 days to complete the registration process.

So, my hunch is that once i click the "Register Now' link,  my ability to relist, list etc will be restored and i will have 30 days to finalize my info and submit it.  Which is good because i haven't really decided how i want to proceed, bank account-wise.  After i submit my info i imagine it wil be a quick activation, probably within a few days, unless there is some error or more info required.

This is all speculation, but it's reasonable speculation based on what i've learned over the last few days.

[blueberrysparkle]

@marnotom!  top MP personnel at Ebay.ca have told us to sign up for MP on .com site.  There are two types of Candian domiciled MP registration - those on .com and those on .ca.  Your information is not applicable to Canadians with US based accounts.

The issue is the micropayments not being sent by eBay to Canadian banks denominated in US funds and fully completeing the MP sign up process. ( This has also be cited as a problem by those with .ca based accounts on FB groups).

@armbocomics seems to have picked CDN funds as his choice. There in lies his problem.  I have heard of people getting this reversed to USD.  

As long as Paypal is functioning and eBay doesn't slow views on accounts with MP issues - eventually they will figure it out.  However, we all need to keep calling and writing.  It would be very nice if eBay staff could clearly explain what is going on in the background to fix all these problems.

[fergua3]

I thought i was getting things figured out but now i'm not so sure. 

As mentioned in my post above, i CAN sign up for MP on ebay.ca, i learned this by clicking on the Payments tab in my .ca Seller Hub.  I just checked the Payments tab on my .com Seller Hub and i CANNOT sign up for MP yet.

So this is what i think is happening:  Everyone who signed up on .com is going to be prompted to sign up for MP by ebay.com  at some point; that includes Canadians who registered many years ago on .com.

On top of that ALL Canadian based sellers are going to be prompted to register with MP by ebay.ca, at some point.  So this means some Canadian sellers, the ones who signed up with Ebay long ago, are going to get TWO prompts to join MP; one from .ca and one from .com.  In my case i got the .ca prompt first.  In Himacdon's case he/she got the .com prompt first.

This is why some Canadian sellers are having very different experiences from other Canadian sellers when signing up for MP.  So my conclusion was that all Canadian based sellers should wait until they can sign up for MP on .ca (by checking the .ca Seller Hub).

However, after reading blueberrysparkle's most recent post, in which she implies that Canadians who originally signed up for Ebay on .com many years ago should be registering for MP on the .com site not the .ca site, i'm not so sure what to do.

It seems illogicial to me that i should be signing up on .com, despite what top MP personel have said.  Besides, as i have not been prompted to sign up by .com yet i can't sign up on .com.  Yet my albility to list and revise is already suspended for several days now and all my listings are going to be removed by Ebay on June 15.

So, it seems my choice now is to be totally shut down from selling by Ebay OR sign up for MP incorrectly ie on the wrong site, which apparently is .ca.  What a mess.

[armbo_comics]

@armbocomics seems to have picked CDN funds as his choice. There in lies his problem.  I have heard of people getting this reversed to USD.  

not true, if you read the originating post carefully you will we were defaulted into canadian, due to a glitch in the aplication process. a known glitch now, but unknown when i was walked through the aplication process live by a managed payments employee, with the explicit purpose of choosing US dollar holding currency

it was done incorrectly, despite our request, as well as having her make an ebay SR request so we have a written request of what we were trying to do

it is pretty damning when they see the SR report, and how poorly the employee flubbed our account, while putting in writing the exact purpose of the call (to enroll us into US holding currency)

remain calm, sure, lets remain calm as your landlord cuts off your cash flow, and does not let you know when or if they will resume it

why would you run a business under those circumstances?

remain calm is a funny thing to say

thanks for your input though