eBay

canadianfootballcards · ‎03-16-2015

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

rose-dee · ‎03-22-2015

@mr.elmwood wrote:

The software works for 90-95% of the market. They are not going to invest any time or money into the 5-10%.

I'm not sure I agree. For one thing, a number of us have now demonstrated, through tests, that the issue affects UK buyers (and probably buyers from other countries as well).

Even if it were the case that the software works for 90-90% of the market, it's only the case at any given moment in time. The real, underlying problem is that it has the potential, over time, of driving US buyers away from Canadian sellers, and US buyers away from eBay itself. This is what we have to grasp, and what the eBay staff have to impress upon eBay HQ.

There may be other solutions besides sending all Cdn sellers to list on .com (or listing with free shipping everywhere) -- remove Immediate Payment Required. According to Raphael, the introduction of that feature was what dealt the blow to the US/Canadian cart connection.

I can attest to this, since my buyers were able to make multiple/combined orders perfectly up to a certain point. I've had none since then, unless buyers figured out how to buy, back out, buy again, and so on - and those are the experienced eBay buyers. The newbies, most of whom have never used anything but the Cart, will be totally bamboozled.

In the meantime, I'm removing my automated shipping discounts (in Preferences). Since they are useless anyway because they don't function with the .com Cart, this at least will prevent those weird messages about items being "Not Available" or having been "Up for Auction" appearing when a US buyer attempts to use their Cart to buy from me.

'bb' -- You may actually not have been seeing what your US buyers have been getting at their end, so you may not know what's driving business away. Please take a look at the screen shots I posted at the last Wed. board hour. US buyers are being deliberately routed to a Cart that does not work. It appeared Raphael was not previously aware of this.

Even if they only want to buy 1 item, once they are in that cart, it's a dead-end -- they will not be able to check out properly. How many buyers are going to give up? How many are actually going to bother contacting the seller? For every one who contacts us, there are probably a whole lot of buyers who just threw up their hands and went back to .com (or Amazon or wherever) to buy. That hidden fact -- and not your product alone -- may account for slumping sales to the US.

mr.elmwood · ‎03-22-2015

@rose-dee wrote:
@mr.elmwood wrote:
Raphael has already said that eBay has stopped listening to this and that they will not listen.

Do you really believe Raphael is passing this complaint along? He has been told not to.

As I see it, there are pretty much two choices. Keep on complaining with zero chance anything is ever going to happen, or, change the way you do things.

Mr. E. (and 'bb') -- there is an enormous difference between mere complaining (or whining) and advocating in the hope that having enough voices heard often enough with enough detail will move the powers that be to make some changes.

I'm not saying this is a simple task. Raphael et al have been a bit entrenched in their view that this issue is limited to a very small minority of Canadian sellers because they have been looking at it as a "bug" or "glitch" that affects very few. I think many of us have demonstrated to him that this isn't the case. Once we have enough evidence (for lack of a better word), the next step is to try to appeal to him (and the whole .ca staff) that it's critical to pass the message along to eBay HQ more forcibly than they have been doing.

Think about it -- why would eBay HQ bother prioritizing a problem that even the eBay.ca staffers are telling them affects a very small minority of Canadians? In that context, both of you are right. The problem is, the eBay.ca people have a completely wrong perception, and I think it's up to us sellers to make sure they see the issue clearly enough to be able to argue on our behalf.

No one is going to convince the powers that be that a problem is important enough to take action on if they aren't first convinced themselves. The more we sellers can put examples of what we find in front of Raphael (or the others), the clearer the gravity of this problem will be.

For example, 'bb', the next time a buyer has to contact you directly to get help in paying for/checking out with more than 1 item, bring that to Raphael's attention. There is a reason behind why buyers are doing this, and the reason is within eBay's power to fix.

I don't despair of it ever being fixed, I just think this one is going to take quite some time.

By the way, if ever there was a desperate cause, it's the arts in this country. I was a professional "lobbyist" on behalf of the arts for several years, both to the BC provincial and the federal governments. If we could argue and present a case for support there, we can get this fundamental and critical issue fixed here.

Huge difference and Raphael has already stated that complaining is being ignored.Why bring up something he has already said will not be addressed.

What is "huge" for a tiny segment of the market, is not huge to the market. It is insignificant.

Let me re-ask. eBay is not going to "fix" this. What are the folks who are affected by this going to do in place of the never coming fix?

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rose-dee · ‎03-22-2015

@bb_cool_stuff wrote:
I don't disagree Rose, I can understand the frustrations, but you can't spend so much time on What Ifs, it will drive you crazy.

We still continue to sell even though the cart is missing a wheel.

.ca seems to have shut this down for now, unfortunately additional posts are not going to change anything at this time.

Please understand, 'bb', the cart isn't missing a wheel -- it doesn't really exist as far as US customers are concerned who try to buy from Canadians. As I said above, some of us have run tests, and buyers get stuck against a brick wall.

The .ca staff have not shut the issue down. They just didn't want to hear any more about it when they believed it was a very limited issue for a very, very small minority of sellers. I'm sorry if Raphael is not enjoying hearing about this, but subsequent Wed. board hours have shown that there are things he simply wasn't aware of.

As I said, this is not a hopeless cause or "pie-in-the-sky". It a difficult issue to grasp, with a lot of hidden elements, but eBay.ca needs to understand that it is important enough for them to push for more priority at San Jose.

Once those guys realize that their Canadian market may be driving US buyers away from eBay in disgust and frustration, maybe they'll react.

bb_cool_stuff · ‎03-22-2015

We are a single crouton in a large eBay salad & while I may not agree, that is a reality I must live & work with.

I cannot worry about What Ifs, it is unproductive.

rose-dee · ‎03-22-2015

@mr.elmwood wrote:
Huge difference and Raphael has already stated that complaining is being ignored.Why bring up something he has already said will not be addressed.
What is "huge" for a tiny segment of the market, is not huge to the market. It is insignificant.

The argument you make above is exactly the problem we were having with Raphael a couple of weeks ago, but I think that changed this past week -- you may be looking at an older board hour.

At the most recent board hour, you will see the screen shots I posted, and you'll see Raphael's answer -- that he will look into these new issues. He didn't previously seem to be aware that US buyers were being deliberately routed to a non-functional Cart. Surely there are bigger implications for eBay in that than a few Canadian sellers, and surely he now understands this. This changes the picture significantly.

Let me re-ask. eBay is not going to "fix" this. What are the folks who are affected by this going to do in place of the never coming fix?

1) As I said, removing IPR might be simpler and cheaper for eBay.ca than waiting for San Jose to fix the .com Cart.

2) While waiting for a final fix to the "cart disconnect", Canadian sellers can remove their automated discounts, since they don't work anyway for US buyers.

3) Canadian sellers can specify IPR on all listings, which will force US buyers away from the ugly and non-functional Cart experience they get otherwise (including avoiding the bizarre and contradictory messages that appear). Since that Cart doesn't work to combine orders or provide discounts anyway, IPR won't make any difference except perhaps to encourage buyers to get in touch with sellers if they want a shipping discount on a multi-item order.

4) Cdn sellers can post a notice to buyers to log onto .ca -- just remember that programmes like eBay bucks may not be available to US buyers if they buy via .ca.

5) Canadian sellers can offer every item with free shipping. This was one of Raphael's suggestions -- but remember, that was a couple of weeks ago, when he believed this particular issue affected only a very small minority of Cdn sellers. He was wrong about that, as has been demonstrated, so take the advice with a grain of salt. We actually don't know for certain that the US cart will work to combine orders even if everything has free shipping. At the time he suggested it, Raphael thought the only concern Cdn sellers were having was around shipping discounts.

6) Canadian sellers can list on .com -- another of Raphael's suggestion. Again, he gave this advice when he thought the issue was simply that discounts weren't being properly accounted for by the .com Cart, and that's clearly now been shown to be a very small part of the bigger checkout problem. Personally, I'd rather put up with things the way they are than list on .com and find out there are still US buyer problems with their cart (as have been reported on the boards). And I have my own good reasons for staying on .ca.

Items 5) and 6), in my view are not reasonable "workarounds" for a lot of Cdn sellers. I think it's better to bend a bit by using some of the other temporary adjustments if necessary, hoping a true fix may happen at some point in the next year, than to completely re-structure your business model hoping to get a couple more multiple sales per month.

rose-dee · ‎03-22-2015

@bb_cool_stuff wrote:
We are a single crouton in a large eBay salad & while I may not agree, that is a reality I must live & work with.

I cannot worry about What Ifs, it is unproductive.

'bb', they will always believe it's a miniscule Canadian issue if every Cdn seller takes this view of it and nobody shows them otherwise. I'm personally not willing to give up yet. The real "disconnect" is between the eBay staffers' perception of the issue and the actual seriousness and widespread impact of the issue.

I think a couple of us Cdn sellers have already made some progress with Raphael on that score. And I'll keep trying, I'm not rolling over on this one. If we do eventually manage to convince eBay to get this fixed, you owe me a T-shirt -- is it a deal?

Oh yes, and P.S. -- Mr. E. owes me a car part -- 2002 Ford Focus wagon. Write it down somewhere, I'll be back. I need a new radio/CD player.

bb_cool_stuff · ‎03-22-2015

I had to completely restructure my Business Model due to the New Search Engine & to remain competitive in a saturated market.

Everyone can remember how tough it was the last six months last year.

What if they didn't change the search engine, what if the market wasn't so saturated, what if there weren't so many sellers, what if, what if, what if ?

Cannot worry about that, I have to deal with the cards I've been dealt with at this time, unfair or not.

lukey9 · ‎03-22-2015

i sell most of my items with Free shipping so I have no problems at all with the Cart. I think my self you are beating a dead horse and this time next year the problem will be still there because they are not going to spend allot of time and resources to fix the Cart in Canada for such a small part of the big E-Bay pie

bb_cool_stuff · ‎03-22-2015

If my sales increase due to buyers making multiple purchases in regards to the cart reconfigurations, yes, we have a deal.

Gotta fly.

rose-dee · ‎03-22-2015

@lukey9 wrote:
I think my self you are beating a dead horse and this time next year the problem will be still there because they are not going to spend allot of time and resources to fix the Cart in Canada for such a small part of the big E-Bay pie

But this is why there is a problem. A lot of people think it's the eBay Canada cart that needs to be fixed. It isn't (there are minor issues with the eBay.ca cart, but that's another story). It's the US Cart that can't "talk" to other sites (including the Canadian eBay site and, apparently eBay.UK and likely other eBay sites).

A lot of people believe this is a small part of the eBay picture. It's absolutely not. It will happen every time a US buyer tries to purchase more than 1 item from a Canadian seller, unless the buyer knows in advance how to avoid being sent to the "dead-end" cart.

When US eBay buyers start abandoning eBay itself because they have a frustrating experience here, that's an issue for everybody, including eBay.com. Isn't "buyer experience" what eBay is always talking about?

They need to be concerned in San Jose because as a result of the US Cart that can't communicate properly, eBay Canada has become one big area of potential "buyer turn-off" for US customers ever since the cart disconnect began.

You're fortunate you're able to offer free shipping on all items to all destinations, because it's possible you may never be affected by this problem. However, if you only offer free domestic shipping, it won't make a difference. US buyers still won't be able to check out if they use the Cart that the US site directs them to.

lukey9 · ‎03-22-2015

How to you know you are losing sales unless some body contacts you about a combined shipping total or telling you they will not buy because the cart does not work in Canada. I don't think there is any way you could ever tell if you are losing sales. My self I look forward not trying to fix problems I have no chance of getting done. Every seller in Canada can contact E-Bay about the problem and it is not going to happen.

rose-dee · ‎03-22-2015

@lukey9 wrote:
i sell most of my items with Free shipping so I have no problems at all with the Cart. I think my self you are beating a dead horse and this time next year the problem will be still there because they are not going to spend allot of time and resources to fix the Cart in Canada for such a small part of the big E-Bay pie

Actually, I just took a look at your items. Do you usually sell most of your items at auction? If so, then you would probably never know about the Cart issue because there is a different checkout flow for auctions.

Are you currently able to combine items on a multi-item invoice at your end if a US buyer wins more than one auction item at a time? This used to be possible prior to 2013, but I'm not sure whether the US cart problem has affected this feature too. It would be interesting to know.

The Cart issue will affect any Canadian seller who sells using Fixed Price/BIN to the US (and probably also UK), whether or not they have automated discounts set up, if that buyer tries to purchase more than 1 item at a time.

It may also affect single-item purchases if the US buyer takes eBay.com's directions and clicks on the "Go to Cart" button, which will be a dead-end process. Buyers who are experienced or persistent may find their way out of the maze, but I doubt newer buyers will.

How many Canadian sellers does that include? A lot more than a tiny minority, I would think.

Consider this too: if a US buyer comes to my store, tries to buy 3 items and can't checkout/pay for their order, will they blame me personally (possibly), blame eBay Canada (probably), or blame eBay generally (maybe). Will they come back to another Canadian seller to try again? Likely not -- we know Americans are usually reluctant to go outside their home comfort zone anyway. Will they come ever back to eBay to try again -- maybe not.

Any of these scenarios is cause for real concern for Canadian sellers. It should be a concern to San Jose if we can get our eBay Canada reps to tell them why they should be worried.

rose-dee · ‎03-22-2015

@lukey9 wrote:
How to you know you are losing sales unless some body contacts you about a combined shipping total or telling you they will not buy because the cart does not work in Canada. I don't think there is any way you could ever tell if you are losing sales. My self I look forward not trying to fix problems I have no chance of getting done. Every seller in Canada can contact E-Bay about the problem and it is not going to happen.

I know there is a problem that is preventing sales because eBay.ca reps have admitted it. They just don't (yet) fully appreciate the extent and potential impact.

I also know I'm losing multiple sales because my items tend to attract those kinds of orders (people who sew like to buy patterns that work well together, for example). I had regular multi-item orders, several per month, before eBay broke the checkout system. Then it all suddenly stopped.

Through 2014, I had a handful of multi-item orders from experienced buyers who were obviously using BIN + "Commit to Buy", purchasing one item at a time, paying for it, then backing out, then going back to purchase the next, and so on. I could tell by the recorded times of the purchases.

Since about October, 2014, I've had no multi-item orders at all. US buyers are still buying single items, so obviously some are getting through the checkout. However, as I found out though testing (by logging onto .com with an alternate ID and trying to purchase items from my store), if a US buyer chooses 1 item and follows eBay's directions to "Go to Cart" (if they think they might like to continue shopping), then they get stuck at a dead-end, and won't be able to pay for that one item. This means many 1-item sales will also be impacted.

How many potential buyers have gone away at that point? Who knows? It's possible that factor alone may account for my own slumping sales since the fall.

It may not affect sellers who sell mainly at auction, nor sellers whose buyers usually aren't interested in purchasing more than 1 item, but it will affect almost every other Canadian seller, either directly (loss of multi-item sales) or indirectly (loss of disgruntled US buyers who've run into the cart issue with another Canadian seller). We shouldn't be fooled into thinking this is somebody else's rare or isolated problem.

Once upon a time my US buyers used to be able to use their Cart to purchase 2, 3, 4, 5 items at a time (with 5 they got the automated free shipping discount). I had a lot of these multi-item orders. All of that was working absolutely perfectly for months before eBay introduced Immediate Payment Required, which apparently dealt the final death blow to US buyers' ability to purchase and checkout easily with Canadian sellers.

One solution would be for eBay to remove the IPR for the time being. They should never have introduced it in the first place, IMO, until they knew the full effect it would have.

In the meantime, we sellers can choose whatever is the lesser of the several evils I listed above. These aren't "workarounds" but more like "damage control". The problem of US buyers getting disgusted with a non-functional Cart is not going to be resolved by any of those measures, but only by eBay fixing the programming that is causing the problem. I personally believe they will eventually do it if they can be shown it's in eBay's larger interests to do so.

By the way, I think there is a big difference between sellers contacting eBay (the CS phone lines, which I agree is virtually useless), and bringing specific examples of issues to the eBay.ca staff's attention at the Wed. board hour. The latter, if done properly, can often bring to light elements of a problem that even they weren't aware of.

It's not a good idea, nor is it even productive, to simply rant and rave in general terms over known issues at the Wed. board hour. However, I think it is very useful for them to see for themselves what sellers are experiencing, or have discovered, that is going wrong on the site. Experiments, tests and screen shots from the site, in particular, are very hard to argue with, and can often bring new information to light.

I would encourage any Canadian seller who is reading this and who sells even occasionally to US buyer, to log onto .com and run the same tests I did, either by using their alternate eBay ID, or with the help of another eBay user. You'll see what your US buyers are experiencing, and it isn't good.

mr.elmwood · ‎03-22-2015

There is one person I listen to, and that is Rose.

I do not think the issue is "big". I know it is big to you, but, not to eBay. eBay is not losing anything. Cart "abandonment" is rampant in every web site. Also, because eBay is myopic and can only see inside the 48 states, they will never care. I am on an American board and it is stunning how their world starts and ends inside the 48.

This has nothing to do with ebay.ca staff either. They have no control or influence over the millions of lines of code that run the whole enterprise. San Jose does not care as it would cost more to "fix" than they would ever see in profit.

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rose-dee · ‎03-22-2015

@mr.elmwood wrote:
There is one person I listen to, and that is Rose.

I do not think the issue is "big". I know it is big to you, but, not to eBay. eBay is not losing anything. Cart "abandonment" is rampant in every web site. Also, because eBay is myopic and can only see inside the 48 states, they will never care. I am on an American board and it is stunning how their world starts and ends inside the 48.

This has nothing to do with ebay.ca staff either. They have no control or influence over the millions of lines of code that run the whole enterprise. San Jose does not care as it would cost more to "fix" than they would ever see in profit.

Mr. E, thank you for the kudos, but this is exactly why I am continuing to work on this matter, because eBay is myopic. The eBay staffers haven't yet, quite accepted that this problem is "big". They need more convincing, and more examples of what's at stake so they can go "AHA" and work with that to convince eBay HQ. That's what I want to continue giving them.

It isn't about cart abandonment alone. It's about buyers abandoning Canadian sellers if enough of them get put off trying to buy from us. It's also -- and this does affect San Jose -- about US buyers abandoning eBay altogether.

So far, I think Raphael has only just begun to "get" the whole picture. That argument is that if eBay HQ is concerned about buyer experience, about buyers coming back to the site again and again (as they kept saying in relation to the defect issue), then they need to be worried about this Cart issue driving buyers away. And those will be US buyers, many of whom will try -- and be unable -- to buy a couple of items from an eBay Cdn. seller, and just say the heck with eBay, I'm going to _______________ [fill in your favourite alternate site].

We all know eBay is no longer the only place to buy most "stuff" online. San Jose needs to be concerned, very concerned, about this issue. If it goes on for several more months, it will begin to bite them directly in the you-know-what. They will see losses, it may not be immediately apparent from what, but it will accumulate. EBay has already had enough buyers who fled because of the security incident last year. This is going to add to those losses.

Here's the thing: we've discovered that the "cart disconnect" affects:

1) Every Cdn seller who uses Fixed Price + BIN and hopes to sell more than 1 item at a time to a buyer other than another Canadian;

2) Every US buyer who tries to buy more than 1 item from any Cdn. seller -- and, it appears, also any UK buyer (or even others, such as .de, .fr, etc.)

3) Every US/UK, etc. buyer who thinks they'll get a multi-item discount from a Cdn. seller with automated shipping discounts rules set up. The buyer receives a message from eBay that the discount is "No longer valid" when that discount was clearly displayed in the "Shipping" tab of the listing. This looks bad -- really bad -- verging on some kind of fraud or sleazy scam.

4) EBay.ca if US/UK, etc. buyers start fleeing from purchasing from Canadians because of the above;

5) EBay.com if US/UK, etc. buyers start fleeing from eBay generally because they think they'll have trouble checking out on any of eBay's sites, or just because they're fed up (and I wouldn't blame them).

I think these effects are going to add up to a whole lot of impact for eBay generally, not just eBay.ca, and not just a few isolated Cdn. sellers.

The worst thing is that eBay.com is directing its buyers into a Cart that is completely non-functional. Raphael apparently wasn't aware of this before I posted those screen shots last week. I'd rather have US buyers forced to use the old "Buy It Now/Commit to Buy" flow than be herded into a dead-end Cart.

The one thing this systemic flaw of the .com Cart does have in common with the GSP issue is that it will, given enough time, deter a very significant number of Americans from either buying from Canada or buying from eBay period. They will look elsewhere to buy, just as Canadians got fed up with the GSP and are avoiding US sellers who use it.

Eventually, word will get around, enough US/UK, etc. buyers will have run into this nasty checkout experience to produce a critical mass that will, I have no doubt, affect eBay's bottom line. The real question is, can we convince eBay staff of this in enough time so that they can take the argument forcefully enough to San Jose to get something done before it becomes a more widespread disaster.

Every Cdn. seller right now from whom a US buyer is trying (and failing) to purchase more than 1 item is, whether they are aware or not, compounding the problem. They aren't to blame, but they will be the ones to suffer first.

We Cdn. sellers are like some sort of unwitting Typhoid Mary's at the moment, who have been infected but don't know it and are spreading ill-will every time a US/UK, etc. buyer comes into contact with us to try to purchase more than 1 item (and in some cases to just get through the checkout with 1 item). Don't you think that's a big enough problem to concern even San Jose, since a large portion of those buyers are Americans?

I realize the eBay staffers have no control over the code that's used to programme eBay sites. But I think they can have influence, if they themselves are convinced enough of the seriousness of a problem and can pass that message effectively on to San Jose.

Lobbying to someone who has no direct control but at least some direct influence is a difficult art, believe me, I've done it professionally. But it can sometimes be successful. I think this is important to everyone who sells and buys on eBay, and I think we need to keep trying to get the eBay.ca people to send the right message up the line. I'm not willing to give up on this yet.

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-22-2015

barbsplace -

I'm a bit confused although that isn't unusual. 🙂

You said in your last post...

here is what it says under create shipping discounts for those two listings:

Flat rate shipping rule subtract an amount from each additional item US 1.25 then it says shipping discount profile and a number that follows (not sure if i can post that number etc)

You subtract 1.25 for shipping from each additional postcard? I've noticed 3 shipping costs for your cards...$1.15, $1.25 and $1.35. That would mean that after the first postcard they get either free shipping or pay .10 cents?

Your listings says that a buyer will pay $1.50 to ship 2 - 14 post cards but that isn't what the rule says?

Also from your last post...

When I spoke to the Ebay rep she looked at the 10 sold listings on that day as the customer had to pay for each card one at a time, I then had the rep look at the two transactions I listed new that day and confirmed that I had those listing set up as noted above that if a customer buys those two or up to 14 cards it should of subtracted any additional shipping charges

I can't remember if you know which site the buyer was on when she purchased the 10 cards but if it was on .com, she would have had to pay for each one separately because as we know, the cart there doesn't work for listings on .ca. If she was on the Australian or Canadian site it's odd that she didn't receive It if things are set up properly for it.

.......she also confirmed that I had nothing in the shipping details about free cards .....

I don't understand that either. Any listing of yours that I have looked at states....Free shipping on orders of 15 or more eligible items from barbsplace66. so obviously you do have free shipping set up for 15 or more items. Plus as I said, I was able to get the free shipping to work when I put 15 cards into my cart. Perhaps I am just misunderstanding what you are saying and/or what she is saying.

Anyway...there doesn't seem to be a problem with the 15/free shipping rule but from what you have said and from what happened when I experimented, buyers using the .ca cart are not getting discounted shipping on 2-14 cards so either there is a problem with the cart or with the set up of the promo. The reason I think there is a problem with the set up is because I see the 15/free shipping promo when I click on your shipping tab but no other promo. But...I really am just guessing as I don't really know enough about setting up discounts to know where and why things are going wrong.

Sorry that I can't help.

barbsplace66 · ‎03-22-2015

Hi Picdn2005, the 10 items that sold last week where the customer had to purchase each item one at a time did not receive any discounts on the shipping , I had to provide 9 shipping refunds, the buyer could not remember which side of ebay they were purchasing on but my feeling is that the buyer was on the states side when they purchased, however today I had a customer purchase 7 items and I did not have to refund any shipping, confusing right,so your seeing the free shipping discount but one of my customers today received the correct shipping discount and they did not have to request a combined invoice from me. (it automatically discounted any additional shipping)

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-22-2015

The .ca staff have not shut the issue down. They just didn't want to hear any more about it when they believed it was a very limited issue for a very, very small minority of sellers.

I'm not sure that showing them more sellers were involved than they thought would change anything. Even if it affected all Canadian sellers, we are still a small minority of sellers compared to the sellers on .com. The cart there works for them...our cart works for us.....for the most part anyway. How do they justify redesigning the .com cart for a small percentage of the users? I'm not saying that is right but I suspect that is how head office thinks.

As far as worrying about U.S. buyers having a 'bad' experience...well if they that were that worried about the site working properly they wouldn't be making constant changes and they would fix the glitches. They also would have designed the U.S. cart to work with other sites to begin with. Or, at the very least, they wouldn't have mandated immediate payment on .com.

Once those guys realize that their Canadian market may be driving US buyers away from eBay in disgust and frustration, maybe they'll react.

There's no proof that is happening so I don't see why they would think that it is. Plus, the percentage of U.S. sellers that purchase from sellers who list on .ca or any other sites is very small in comparison to U.S. buyers buying from U.S. sellers. And if they do think that it is causing a problem, perhaps they will just start to treat .ca like the other international sites and list our items under international sellers instead of next to the U.S. sellers listings. That would definitely count down on any problems from their perspective.

Unfortunately, they don't always do what we think they will do....Remember when people complained about buyers not contacting them before they opened a case. Well ebay said they would fix that. Their fix was to make sure that buyers contacted sellers at the same time they opened a case, not before. Be careful what you ask for.

I know that Raphael has said they have been encouraging them to drop the immediate payment required, it would be great if they did that. But for them to do it in the first place tells me that they didn't worry too much about other countries a couple of years ago when they started it so will they worry now? I don't know...

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-22-2015

At the most recent board hour, you will see the screen shots I posted, and you'll see Raphael's answer -- that he will look into these new issues. He didn't previously seem to be aware that US buyers were being deliberately routed to a non-functional Cart. Surely there are bigger implications for eBay in that than a few Canadian sellers, and surely he now understands this. This changes the picture significantly.

He was aware that all or most of that was happening as myself and at least one other person had shown him screenshots a couple of weeks ago. If they can fix that so that .com shoppers can't add .ca items to the cart, then I can't see them placing a high priority on redesigning the cart.

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-22-2015

That's great that it worked for them. Was the buyer Canadian? If so, it's likely that your discount is working on the .ca cart.

When I click on the shipping tabs, I see the following on two of those items...

	Free shipping on orders of 15 or more eligible items from barbsplace66.
OR	Save up to US $1.25 on shipping when you buy additional eligible items from barbsplace66.

I don't think both discounts show up on the other items though but perhaps because the discount is associated with some of the purchases, the buyer received the discounts. 🙂