Not a small or isolated problem

Hi Rafael or whomever monitors this message board (hopefully someone!).

 

I got a message from a customer this morning 

 

 

I know this issue has been raised with eBay before and I know it's largely been written off as a small problem affecting a small group of buyers/sellers.

I am one seller who's been dealing with this constantly. I am thankful this customer and several others have chosen to contact me to figure out a solution to the cart functionality issue.

At the same time, I expect a similar number of potential customers are opting for the easier approach, walking away from a transaction what would create revenue for myself and eBay.

I hear we're supposed to tell customers to log on to eBay.ca where all problems will be solved.

Maybe.

But only if they contact us to ask.

 

Please don't write off the problem as small and insignificant. Please have your tech department give it the full attention it requires.

 

Thanks

Message 1 of 70
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Not a small or isolated problem

You can email Raphael at:

 

raphael@ebay.com

Message 2 of 70
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Not a small or isolated problem


@canadianfootballcards wrote:

Hi Rafael or whomever monitors this message board (hopefully someone!).

 

I got a message from a customer this morning

 

 

I know this issue has been raised with eBay before and I know it's largely been written off as a small problem affecting a small group of buyers/sellers.

I am one seller who's been dealing with this constantly. I am thankful this customer and several others have chosen to contact me to figure out a solution to the cart functionality issue.

At the same time, I expect a similar number of potential customers are opting for the easier approach, walking away from a transaction what would create revenue for myself and eBay.

I hear we're supposed to tell customers to log on to eBay.ca where all problems will be solved.

Maybe.

But only if they contact us to ask.

 

Please don't write off the problem as small and insignificant. Please have your tech department give it the full attention it requires.

 

Thanks


Raphael's response last week:

 

Issue 1I really think we've been around this question enough times now. There isn't anything that I can say today that myself or Rodney haven't said before. We fully understand the problem and have made the business case with the appropriate teams at eBay HQ, but the required work to enable the US shopping cart to handle non-eBay.com items hasn't been prioritized yet. Our resources are far from endless by the way, if they were we wouldn't have just been through a large personnel cut as we were.

 

This is where this stands and we promise to update you all as soon as there is any movement on the issue, until then, please understand that bringing this up over & over won't change anything to the situation. Thanks for understanding.

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Message 3 of 70
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Not a small or isolated problem

Meh.

I'm a big believer in squeaky wheel syndrome.

If Rafael or anyone else wants people to stop complaining, I'd suggest he be equally annoying with the folks at eBay HQ.

Telling me to cool it while I'm losing business AND paying my store and selling fees like a good little eBayer isn't an acceptable answer.

 

 

Re: editing my message.

Thought it would be OK because there's pretty much nothing to identify who wrote it, but whatever.

Gist of the message was buyer wanted to buy seven cards but was frustrated by the cart process and was looking for help.

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Not a small or isolated problem

I would, by the way, love love love to know what IS being prioritized right now.

 

Sorry if I'm coming off as militant today, because that's not my normal. But this issue is really irritating me, and I've found that eBay telling me to wait for a solution is pretty much equal to, 'we don't really care to fix this.'

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Not a small or isolated problem

Please read through this past Wed. board hour with the eBay staff (March 11th), and then also read my Post #74 (on page 4 - take a careful look at the screen shots) and the following posts on this thread (ignore everything before page 4): http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Cart-quot-Disconnect-quot-issue-A-poll-for-Cdn-sellers/td...

 

Many of us have been bringing this to the attention of Raphael and other eBay.ca staff for months now.  However, they've been hearing from a lot of the same old voices.  

 

I would encourage you to record your concerns by emailing Raphael.  Be prepared -- you will most likely get the answer 'Mr. Elmwood'  quoted above, if any answer at all.  Just thank him for acknowledging your concern.  There is no point in over-complaining at this juncture, but the more sellers they hear from individually, the more they may realize the extent of the problem. 

 

Be aware that at this time the eBay.ca staff believe the "cart disconnect" issue is extremely limited.  I've been disagreeing for a long time.  I think I've shown through my "experiments" set out in the thread above that this will affect pretty much any Canadian seller whose items attract multiple purchases, not just Canadian sellers who have automated shipping discounts and sell with Fixed Price/BIN. 

 

The bottom line, as my tests last week show, is that U.S. buyers trying to purchase more than one item at a time from a Canadian seller will have little choice but to be routed by eBay to a Cart that will not work. This is a fairly recent change in this whole fiasco, and definitely not for the better!   

 

Once you see my screen shots, you'll understand why I say that I really wouldn't blame U.S. buyers for giving up in disgust and just going back to buy from the good ol' USA.  

 

They won't know that it's actually the .com Cart that is the problem (they'll probably blame the stupid Canadians and their site), but it will nevertheless be one more validation for them that they're better off staying at "home" to buy.  

 

Really an abysmal situation for Canadian sellers like me, who used to rely on selling a lot of multi-item orders.  

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Not a small or isolated problem

Squeeky wheel is the first one replaced.

This problem affects a tiny minority of a tiny market. eBay is not going to allocate any resources to this. It just is not going to happen.
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Not a small or isolated problem


@mr.elmwood wrote:


Raphael's response last week:

 

Issue 1: I really think we've been around this question enough times now. There isn't anything that I can say today that myself or Rodney haven't said before. We fully understand the problem and have made the business case with the appropriate teams at eBay HQ [...]


I'm not convinced yet that they do "fully understand the problem".  I think that's a smokescreen.  

 

For example, he was apparently unaware that U.S. buyers purchasing from .com were able to put items into a Cart. What happens is that they are more or less forcibly routed to a "Cart" -- a Cart that never works -- when buying from Canadians.  It's literally like shoving somebody into a dead-end, brick wall portion of a maze.  There is no way to complete the checkout and no way to get out without abandoning the attempt to purchase.  Raphael seem surprised when we mentioned it. 

 

Also, evidently Raphael had never seen (or known about) the eBay.ca Cart issue I brought up last week.  That has to do with a different "disconnect" -- the Canadian cart not picking up automated shipping discounts set up by a seller.  That too has been going on for months, despite the eBay staffers' protestations that the .ca cart works perfectly.  I've shown that not to be the case. 

 

There is no use in me or any of the other "regulars" at the Wed. board hour doing any more griping to Raphael, as he's heard it all (or thinks he's heard it all) before.  However, hearing it from a lot of other sellers may add gravity to the issue.  At the moment, he just doesn't believe it affects very many Canadian sellers.  

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Not a small or isolated problem

I could say it affects a larger part of the eBay market than they know.

 

eBay has made buyer happiness and retention a priority. Are we assuming that an American buyer who bails on purchasing from a Canadian seller automatically spends those dollars elsewhere on eBay?

Or does that buyer give in to frustration and leave the site entirely?

Sure the Canadian seller represents a very small fish in a big pond and I don't blame eBay for not caring too much about us.

BUT, the American buyer is the other half of this equation, representing a big and sought-after fish. Anything that hampers their buying experience should be considered a major priority.

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Not a small or isolated problem


@mr.elmwood wrote:

This problem affects a tiny minority of a tiny market. eBay is not going to allocate any resources to this. It just is not going to happen.

Mr. E., I think this is exactly what the eBay staff want us to believe.  They think it has to do with discounts (it does, in part, but that's not the main concern).  

 

The eBay staff seem to have been looking at this problem solely from the point of view of a minority of Cdn sellers who offer discounts with Fixed Price/BIN.  They have not been recognizing that it's going to be a turn-off for every U.S. seller who tries to buy more than one item at a time from a Canadian.  That will affect a whole lot of American buyers and a whole lot of Canadian sellers (who will never know they've lost their buyers, let alone why). 

 

We Canadian sellers know that Americans tend to be hesitant buying outside their "home" zone to begin with.  

If every few U.S. buyers run into a brick wall when trying to buy from Canadian sellers, will they try again?  I think they'll blame us sellers, or blame the eBay.ca site generally. 

 

Frankly, the view from their standpoint in trying to check out from a Cdn seller is so confusing, and such a mess, that I wouldn't blame them for throwing up their hands and never bothering to buy from a Canadian again.  Why bother? 

 

As for the allocation of resources, I agree we're a miniscule part of the eBay conglomerate.  Which is why I personally think more is in the wind than this Cart fiasco.  I'm taking bets on Canadian sellers fairly soon being obliged to list on .com whether they like it or not.  It's possible no one has ever intended to "fix" the cart disconnect.  

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Not a small or isolated problem


@canadianfootballcards wrote:

I could say it affects a larger part of the eBay market than they know.

 

eBay has made buyer happiness and retention a priority. Are we assuming that an American buyer who bails on purchasing from a Canadian seller automatically spends those dollars elsewhere on eBay?

Or does that buyer give in to frustration and leave the site entirely?

Sure the Canadian seller represents a very small fish in a big pond and I don't blame eBay for not caring too much about us.

BUT, the American buyer is the other half of this equation, representing a big and sought-after fish. Anything that hampers their buying experience should be considered a major priority.


I couldn't agree more!  All their protestations about keeping buyers coming back as a rationale for the defect system seems to mean nothing when it comes to this issue.  

 

This is what the eBay staffers either don't want to see, or have a reason not to discuss with us.  Personally my view is that it's the latter.  

 

None of us can understand why the Great and Powerful eBay can't simply change the pop-up that US buyers see to a link directing them to the .ca Cart.  That would completely solve this problem.  Can we really believe eBay's programmers are incapable of doing that easily and quickly?  They recently added a pop-up, routing US buyers to a completely dysfunctional cart -- why not route them to one that works?  Maybe they don't want to solve this problem.  

 

These questions add up to more than mere coincidence.  Either the people at eBay are complete and utter bunglers (and clueless beyond belief), which I have trouble accepting, or they have another agenda entirely (when wasn't that the case on eBay?).  

 

What precisely else is up eBay's sleeve, I guess we'll find out shortly in the Spring Seller Update.  I'm dreading it.  

Message 11 of 70
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Not a small or isolated problem


@mr.elmwood wrote:

@canadianfootballcards wrote:

Hi Rafael or whomever monitors this message board (hopefully someone!).

 

I got a message from a customer this morning

 

 

I know this issue has been raised with eBay before and I know it's largely been written off as a small problem affecting a small group of buyers/sellers.

I am one seller who's been dealing with this constantly. I am thankful this customer and several others have chosen to contact me to figure out a solution to the cart functionality issue.

At the same time, I expect a similar number of potential customers are opting for the easier approach, walking away from a transaction what would create revenue for myself and eBay.

I hear we're supposed to tell customers to log on to eBay.ca where all problems will be solved.

Maybe.

But only if they contact us to ask.

 

Please don't write off the problem as small and insignificant. Please have your tech department give it the full attention it requires.

 

Thanks


Raphael's response last week:

 

Issue 1I really think we've been around this question enough times now. There isn't anything that I can say today that myself or Rodney haven't said before. We fully understand the problem and have made the business case with the appropriate teams at eBay HQ, but the required work to enable the US shopping cart to handle non-eBay.com items hasn't been prioritized yet. Our resources are far from endless by the way, if they were we wouldn't have just been through a large personnel cut as we were.

 

This is where this stands and we promise to update you all as soon as there is any movement on the issue, until then, please understand that bringing this up over & over won't change anything to the situation. Thanks for understanding.


Your sick of listening to us and we are sick of dealing with this issue from our end...

 

LOSS OF SALES, ADDITIONAL FINAL VALUE FEES ON SHIPPING, ADDITIONAL PAYPAL TRANSACTION FEES.

 

We don`t pay ebay hundreds a month to provide customer service to buyers for an ebay feature that we pay for that does not work.

 

This whole thing is unacceptable.

 

From ebay.ca the cart feature functions correctly when purchasing from canadian sellers and american sellers, yet from ebay.com the cart feature only works on ebay.com and not ebay.ca. Talk about getting the short end of the stick.

 

99.9% of potential buyers that are contacting me regarding multiple purchases that I inform to purchase from ebay.ca never contact me again and the numbers are getting larger and larger, this does not include the one that do not contact us.

 

What a brilliant idea to implement a cart system on ebay.ca and knowing it would not function correctly.

 

I find this article comical... http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2014/1/1390183026.html

 

The number of Canadian sellers who are now becoming aware and affected by the issue is getting larger and larger.

Message 12 of 70
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Not a small or isolated problem

Your right it is not a small or isolated problem and many of us sellers are losing potential buyers daily,  I knew the answer I would receive on the Wednesday discussion board but thought that the more sellers that voice their concerns with this issue that  maybe just maybe they would see that it is a much bigger problem then they think,  

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Not a small or isolated problem

Take it to Twitter & Facebook flood social media with the issue! 

 

Talking about it on these useless boards is a waste of time.

 

As is talking to Canadian ebay reps who have no power or say in any issue of importance.

 

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Not a small or isolated problem

I first posted about this ISSUE ALL THE WAY back on 03-19-14 on the Weekly board hour!

 

THE RESPONSE WAS UNSATISFACTORY THEN AND IS A JOKE ONE YEAR LATER....

 

You can read it for yourself....

 

THAT WAS OVER 1 YEAR AGO!

YOU WOULD THINK EBAY WOULD "FIX" THIS ISSUE, right!

 

I am also fed up with 

 

LOST SALES

DROPPED SALES

BUYERS COMPLAINING HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO MAKE A PURCHASE

EXCESS FEES PAID TO BOTH PAYPAL & EBAY

BUYERS HAVING TO PAY FOR THEIR ITEMS 1 AT A TIME, OVER & OVER AGAIN!

 

THIS HAS BEEN AN ISSUE IN EXCESS OF 1 YEAR ALREADY, REALLY A MULTI MILLION DOLLAR COMPANY ON-LINE SALES MARKETPLACE, UNABLE TO FIX THEIR "SHOPPING CART" IT'S A RIDICULOUS JOKE!

 

I PAY HUNDREDS OF $$$$$$$ IN FEES PER MONTH AND HAVE SEEN MY SALES DECLINE DUE TO BUYERS NOT BEING ABLE TO COMPLETE A PURCHASE, ON A RETAIL SHOPPING SITE!

 

AND EBAY'S RESPONSE "WE ARE A TINY FRACTION OF SELLERS WITH THIS ISSUE" 

 

REALLY????

 

I AM YOUR CUSTOMER EBAY!!!!!

 

ZERO ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ FOR YOU !!

Message 15 of 70
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Not a small or isolated problem

I have now placed yet another call into ebay, woke up this morning to a Canadian buyer who made 10 purchases today, while I am happy to have sales it also means  9 refunds on the shipping,   and yes had Ebay confirm that my listings were all set up to combine multiple purchases so for those sellers posting in there listings special notes to have a buyer go to our Canadian side to complete there purchases should also include Canadian buyers along with US buyers and International as well. 

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Not a small or isolated problem


@barbsplace66 wrote:

I have now placed yet another call into ebay, woke up this morning to a Canadian buyer who made 10 purchases today, while I am happy to have sales it also means  9 refunds on the shipping,   and yes had Ebay confirm that my listings were all set up to combine multiple purchases so for those sellers posting in there listings special notes to have a buyer go to our Canadian side to complete there purchases should also include Canadian buyers along with US buyers and International as well. 


If I understand you correctly, you mean your Canadian buyer was logged onto .com when making the purchases?  I hope that's the case, because otherwise it means we have a big problem even with the Canadian cart.  

 

If this is what you were referring to, then you're right -- my notice directing US buyers to .ca to make their purchases should also include Canadians (actually all buyers, I suppose).  As we know, a lot of Canadian buyers aren't even aware there is a .ca site.  

 

Maybe I should just change my notice to say "To All Buyers -- try Et--y first". Woman LOL

 

Thanks for posting this reminder.  

 

 

Message 17 of 70
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Not a small or isolated problem

I would suggest to change any special notes to address it to all buyers, in the past month I have had 4 Canadian buyers  confirm that they were on the Canadian site when they were trying to get a combined invoice and   today I have just placed a message asking  today's buyer which site they were using, however I will confirm that 4 buyers that purchased each item at a time were actually already on the Canadian site in the last few months, so I will let you know with the customer that purchased today as soon as they get back to me,  

Message 18 of 70
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Not a small or isolated problem

Below is the text of a letter sent this morning to Raphael.

I'd ask that any Canadian sellers who haven't made their opinions known to Raphael or other eBay staff consider emailing him.

As another poster said, it's easy to marginalize this problem if eBay only hears from a handful of voices. If an entire chorus is asking for change, perhaps change will come.

 

 

Good morning Raphael,

 

I am writing to add my voice to the chorus of Canadian sellers who are upset by the 'cart disconnect' problem between eBay.ca and eBay.com.

I am contacted regularly by buyers who are frustrated, trying to find a way to buy my products. I assume that for every customer who takes the time to contact me, at least one customer does not. Obviously there is no concrete way to quantify how much business has been lost because of this, but I've no doubt it is significant.

While this problem was first documented over a year ago, we're still waiting on a solution.

I have seen this described by eBay staff as a small issue affecting a small group of sellers, and I feel that is a mischaracterization.

Take sellers out of the mix entirely and you're still left with the people on other side of this equation.

American buyers.

While Canadian sellers may be small planets in the eBay universe, eBay has placed extremely high priority on attracting and retaining buyers. Nearly every policy introduced by eBay over the last five years has been geared toward making the buying experience better, and this issue sabotages that goal.

I believe eBay operates under the assumption that a buyer who can't successfully purchase from a Canadian seller automatically opts to spend his or her money elsewhere on eBay through an American seller. I'm of the opinion that that many of those buyers throw up their hands in frustration and leave the site.

Like death from a thousand paper cuts, eBay bleeds customers.

 

I do feel a need at this point to express some personal displeasure.

I have invested heavily in an eBay store with the expectation that I will receive a certain level of service.

I don't believe eBay has come anywhere near meeting my expectations, for a number of reasons, but I find this issue particularly bothersome.

This isn't a glitch. This is something eBay knowingly did. This is something that was brought to eBay's attention and remains unaddressed.

eBay is willingly costing me business because this issue isn't considered to be of highest priority, and I feel fully justified asking for compensation, either through a credit on the store fees that I have paid or a reduction in the store fees that I will pay.

I would point out that, not only am I losing business, but I am also paying higher final value fees in shipping.

Customers who are willing to do so often purchase items one by one by one by one, paying full shipping price each time with the expectation that their shipping costs will be refunded.

Because I value their business, I provide those refunds in a timely manner.

At the same time, eBay's system is set up to automatically assess FVFs at time of payment.

The only way to recoup to the FVF excess is to place a call to eBay customer service (a frustrating experience!) and request a refund.

I'm sure you would agree that my time is valuable and shouldn't be spent on the phone with eBay's CS reps.

Paying an extra 10 cents (approximate) per sale won't break my bank, but cumulatively it adds up to a substantial amount, and another reason I feel eBay should strongly consider some form of compensation for myself and other Canadian sellers.

 

In conclusion, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read this letter and I'd like to thank you for all of your efforts to improve the selling experience for Canadians.

I believe we're fighting the same fight on the same side.

I look forward to your response.

 

 

CanadianFootballCards

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Not a small or isolated problem

That's an outstanding letter, you deserve the greatest praise for the cool, calm, professional (and very well-written) style.  

 

I do hope you get a meaningful response from Raphael, but I'm afraid it may be the same pat answer.  Just be prepared for the usual reply. 

 

However, the more Canadian sellers that do speak up, the more there is a chance to get the desired effect merely by dint of numbers.  

 

As you say, and I agree wholeheartedly, the key thing is getting the eBay.ca staffers to recognize (or admit) that this is not simply an issue that affects a minor cross-section of Canadian sellers.  Once they "get" that concept, they may be able to argue more effectively with San Jose on our behalf and convince the U.S. eBay masters that this problem is impacting, and will continue to impact, the big picture for everybody.

 

Thank you for taking the time to prepare that letter and for posting it here! 

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