eBay

raphael@ebay.com · ‎08-11-2014

Hi everyone,

Please use this thread to discuss the 2014 Fall Seller Update.

Thanks!

Raphael

airdave · ‎08-14-2014

as I said in my post at the beginning of this thread...DEAF EARS...once again, no response of any kind to my complaint. ... When I go to the Mall, the Mall does not tell me where to shop or how to shop. And the Mall sure as hell does not interfere with how the individual stores sell their goods. The Mall collects its rent and keeps its hands out of the store tills. Whatever happened to allowing Sellers sell their goods in their own way? Whatever happened to caveat emptor? Let buyers learn how to fend for themselves. Ebay is the Mall...and as such, is not responsible to protect the idiots who are shopping in the mall. And ebay should not be controlling the Sellers in this way. Things weren't perfect ten years ago. There were a lot of unhappy buyers and sellers...seems like nothing has changed. Ebay made a billion dollars. Obviously it wasn't so bad. I'm ready to leave this place. Ebay doesn't care because they've found a way to gouge more money out of more people. Thats what I think.

denim-2000 · ‎08-15-2014

I post here, with MUCH hesitation, as I'm certain like all other eBay feedback it will fall upon deaf ears. However, here goes.

I received your notice about the fall seller update. Amazing how there was no mention of improvements to the horrendous, cash-grab, borderline criminal GSP (Global Shipping Program). Clearly, eBay has once again turned away from the literally thousands upon thousands of posts throughout the internet of how this new system, which benefits absolutely no one except eBay, has made the buying and selling experience awful between US and Canadian members.

To summarize what you'll read from thousands of members: Canadians are now being forced to pay duty on items they were previously not paying duty on. To make matters worse, the charge is heavily padded with a little 'extra' (for eBay's greedy, little shareholders I presume). If eBay expects members to purchase a used coat, for instance, and now pay an additional $50 dollars for duty, before shipping, they will lose. The gouging program by Pitney Bowes has resulted in constant complaints about lost or broken packages, inabilities for sellers to combine shipping, unclear and estimated charges that the buyer won't see until it's too late, and much, much more. I used to spend hundreds every month or two buying from eBay sellers. Since the program went up (secretly and without most members knowing about it), I have spent a fraction of what I used to. I'm sure you've probably lost out on hundreds of thousands of other buyers just like me.

I'll even go a step further and provide you with some 75+ pages of disgusted members right here on your own forum:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Global-Shipping-Program-experiences/td-p/2954083/page/77

So in an effort to provide constructive criticism, how about you focus on what's TOTALLY broken first, followed by bubblegum improvements afterwards.

Cheers

thecoinhunterca · ‎08-17-2014

As a Canadian buyer I DO NOT purchase from any vendor who participates in the GSP program. It's a complete rip off to foreign buyers (foreign to the USA) both in shipping costs and brokerage/tax fees. Canada Post generally does not collect tax and/or duty for lower priced items $50+- (yes even when properly declared). I urge and encourage for other buyers to do the same.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎08-18-2014

Hi everyone,

The forums have had some issues since Friday and those prevented us employees from posting replies. It's all fixed now and we will resume our participation in this discussion.

Thanks,

Raphael

raphael@ebay.com · ‎08-18-2014

@stouffvillejen wrote:

A question for Rodney or Raphael ...

I sell very low value items, certainly lower in price than even the cheapest mailing option available. I am afraid that with your new system a buyer will be able, with just a few clicks, to print a shipping label that will be charged to me at probably 10 times the value of the item without my consent. I would rather refund 100% instead of having anyone pay more to ship an item back (I've never had a return yet, thankfully). Will I have to have a 'no returns' policy to make sure this won't happen? Or will there be some kind of interaction between buyer and seller (where I will have a chance to refund) before a buyer can print a label and saddle me with a huge return shipping cost?

Hi stouffvillejen,

There will be a mechanism in place for you to offer a refund without requiring a return if this is what you prefer. The goal here is to resolve issues for the buyer, not to create unnecessary expenses for the seller. In every case, the buyer and seller will have the chance to discuss and agree to a solution before eBay steps in.

pierrelebel · ‎08-18-2014

Good morning Raphael.

I am glad to read a technical issue resulted in you getting the weekend off!

Now, after nearly sixteen years selling on eBay and having encountered many many many policy changes over the years, on both eBay.ca and eBay.com, one would think I would understand the recent changes announced in the Fall Update.

I read just about everything about the Update on both sites and I am still confused.

From what I understand eBay.com will have two return policies for sellers, both of which require the seller to pay return postage in case the staff at eBay or PayPal find the buyer correct in claiming "Goods Not As Described":

1) Hassle Free Returns (HFR) - domestic (USA) only - effective late 2015 for all sellers listing on .com (or shipping from the USA? even if listing on .ca)

2) eBay's Money Back Guarantee (MBG) - domestic and international - effective ???

There is no clarity (as far as I can see) as to what form of "return postage" sellers will have to pay. Will it require "tracking" or not? even from International buyers?

On eBay.ca, sellers will face the MBG at a time to be announced with terms to be announced.

Many other members have tried to help me understand the need for two different sets of policy resulting in the seller paying for return postage in case of "goods not as described" but... somehow... I just do not get it.

The biggest problem, to be candid, is to reconcile these policy changes with the comments made by your boss that there is only ONE eBay User Agreement that applies to all, regardless of where we are located and what eBay site we sell.

Please Raphael give it a try, using small - easy to understand - words.

aubreyclay56 · ‎08-19-2014

@dutchman48 wrote:
Ebay is opening the doors for every scammer in the world and rental buyers with this idiotic policy. If they believed what sellers say about receiving totally different items back, or missing parts, or replaced with their broken ones, or rocks, or boxes of what ever, or just an envelope, the policy might not be as bad.

EBAY BELIEVES THE BUYER 99 TIMES OUT OF A 100 AND THE SELLERS GET SHAFTED.

This will just open more doors for scammers and fraudsters which there are more and more on Ebay all the time. Now they can tell all their friends to come to Ebay for easy merchandise with no repercussions. Safer than shoplifting. Ebay will lose a lot of sellers that are also buyers due to this policy.

Yea, I am not happy as Ebay can do what they want when they want and they are dumb enough to expect all sellers to accept it or they do not care.

Ebay was safer when we did not have all these idiotic policies and we could pay with MO or check and receive the same.

Why not just take all sellers payments, hold them for a year and then release it to give buyers 100+% protection and really tell sellers they mean nothing.

you are dead on with that statement i already have one neg for a brand new never opened item that the customer wants for free sad to see ebay treating sellers as they do real shame i must say going to be lots of returns and free stuff out there maybe they should change the name to free bay .c .com .ca

luxorden · ‎08-20-2014

It's no help if you want more buyers yet pushing away sellers! I think both parties are as important, but I don't think Ebay gets it.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎08-20-2014

@pierrelebel wrote:

Good morning Raphael.

I am glad to read a technical issue resulted in you getting the weekend off!

Now, after nearly sixteen years selling on eBay and having encountered many many many policy changes over the years, on both eBay.ca and eBay.com, one would think I would understand the recent changes announced in the Fall Update.

I read just about everything about the Update on both sites and I am still confused.

From what I understand eBay.com will have two return policies for sellers, both of which require the seller to pay return postage in case the staff at eBay or PayPal find the buyer correct in claiming "Goods Not As Described":

1) Hassle Free Returns (HFR) - domestic (USA) only - effective late 2015 for all sellers listing on .com (or shipping from the USA? even if listing on .ca)

2) eBay's Money Back Guarantee (MBG) - domestic and international - effective ???

There is no clarity (as far as I can see) as to what form of "return postage" sellers will have to pay. Will it require "tracking" or not? even from International buyers?

On eBay.ca, sellers will face the MBG at a time to be announced with terms to be announced.

Many other members have tried to help me understand the need for two different sets of policy resulting in the seller paying for return postage in case of "goods not as described" but... somehow... I just do not get it.

The biggest problem, to be candid, is to reconcile these policy changes with the comments made by your boss that there is only ONE eBay User Agreement that applies to all, regardless of where we are located and what eBay site we sell.

Please Raphael give it a try, using small - easy to understand - words.

Hey Pierre, sorry for the delay.

Unfortunately a lot of details you are asking for have yet to be locked down and as previously stated, we will make the full announcement on that policy very soon. For now, here is what I can tell you:

HFR only impacts the US domestic business and is of no concerns to Canadians for now.

eMBG is already effective on eBay.com and launches in CA at a date TBA.

The new After-sale experience we've just announced encompasses eMBG and HFR on eBay.com, and eMBG with the rules around Returns in Canada (since we don't have HFR). For me it's easier to think of it in this manner, but I apologize in case I just made it more difficult for you. 🙂

souldaiver · ‎08-21-2014

Absolutely agreed with you. I closed my store because a bunch of scams.
Canadian sellers can not compete with USA sellers where shipping prices are less. Also sellers from China who ship items for free.I do not understand eBay why they open eBay.ca if they are killing Canadian sellers?

souldaiver · ‎08-21-2014

Bravo!!!

pierrelebel · ‎08-21-2014

"eMBG is already effective on eBay.com "

American buyers purchasing on eBay.com are protected by MBG (Money Back Guarantee). That is easy to understand.

Please allow me to try a very simple question:

If an American buyer purchases an item on eBay.com but the seller ships from Canada, is the American buyer still protected by MBG?

Therefore, if the buyer is protected, is the seller, shipping from Canada, subject to MBG (including paying return postage)?

pierrelebel · ‎08-21-2014

An easy follow-up question.

On the basis that the Money Back Guarantee is determined exclusively by the site where the buyer was logged in at time of the purchase (or the bid), is it fair to conclude that if a buyer in Russia buys on eBay.com from a Canadian seller listing on eBay.ca, such Canadian seller would be responsible for return shipping from Russia in case of "goods not as described."

The fact the Canadian seller lists on eBay.ca would not minimize his responsibility concerning payment of the return postage.

Considering that the MBG program on eBay.com goes into effect September 15 (about three weeks from now) and eBay is obligated to give its members 30 days notice for changes to the User Agreement, and since you are still working out details on how the program will work with Canadians, am I missing something?

raphael@ebay.com · ‎08-22-2014

@pierrelebel wrote:

An easy follow-up question.

On the basis that the Money Back Guarantee is determined exclusively by the site where the buyer was logged in at time of the purchase (or the bid), is it fair to conclude that if a buyer in Russia buys on eBay.com from a Canadian seller listing on eBay.ca, such Canadian seller would be responsible for return shipping from Russia in case of "goods not as described."

The fact the Canadian seller lists on eBay.ca would not minimize his responsibility concerning payment of the return postage.

Considering that the MBG program on eBay.com goes into effect September 15 (about three weeks from now) and eBay is obligated to give its members 30 days notice for changes to the User Agreement, and since you are still working out details on how the program will work with Canadians, am I missing something?

What has yet to be worked out are the mechanisms of the eBay.ca eMBG, so only what impacts buyers who shop on eBay.ca.

eMBG is already in place and active on eBay.com. You can read the policy page here:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/money-back-guarantee.html#previous

This URL will take you directly to the eMBG rules are they are applied today for items bought on eBay.com (effective until September 14). For the rules as they will apply from September 15 onwards, just scroll to the top of the page.

You unfortunately won't find a clear answer there regarding your Russian buyer use case. I'm myself not exactly sure how that would be handled under the US eMBG policy, so I'm asking around and will update this post when I get the answer.

EDIT: a representative from the eMBG team confirmed that most likely, the seller would be made responsible for the return shipping if a Russian buyer received an item that was not as described and eBay was asked to step in after the seller failed to make it right.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎08-22-2014

@pierrelebel wrote:

"eMBG is already effective on eBay.com "

American buyers purchasing on eBay.com are protected by MBG (Money Back Guarantee). That is easy to understand.

Please allow me to try a very simple question:

If an American buyer purchases an item on eBay.com but the seller ships from Canada, is the American buyer still protected by MBG?

Therefore, if the buyer is protected, is the seller, shipping from Canada, subject to MBG (including paying return postage)?

Any buyer who purchases on eBay.com may be protected by eMBG (not just Americans). The answer to your question is yes, provided the buyer and item meet all the requirements for eMBG coverage. Please refer to the URL I provided in my last post for more info on those requirements.

pierrelebel · ‎08-22-2014

"Please refer to the URL..."

Thank you. I had already read that page (and many others) several times.

The confusion came from many posts suggesting Canadian sellers are not yet subject to the eBay.com policies and Canadian (eBay.ca) policies are yet to be formulated and announced.

Your post clears that up: Canadian sellers are responsible to pay return postage under the eBay.com policy IF the buyer places his bid or buy-it-now on eBay.com, regardless of where the buyer resides (Canada, USA or overseas) and regardless of where the Canadian seller may have listed the item (eBay.ca or eBay.com).

Frankly I think most Canadian sellers do not fully understand their liability on the subject at this time. There has been much confusion between

- Canadians

- eBay.ca

These two terms are not interchangeable.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎08-22-2014

@pierrelebel wrote:

"Please refer to the URL..."

Thank you. I had already read that page (and many others) several times.

The confusion came from many posts suggesting Canadian sellers are not yet subject to the eBay.com policies and Canadian (eBay.ca) policies are yet to be formulated and announced.

Your post clears that up: Canadian sellers are responsible to pay return postage under the eBay.com policy IF the buyer places his bid or buy-it-now on eBay.com, regardless of where the buyer resides (Canada, USA or overseas) and regardless of where the Canadian seller may have listed the item (eBay.ca or eBay.com).

Frankly I think most Canadian sellers do not fully understand their liability on the subject at this time. There has been much confusion between

- Canadians

- eBay.ca

These two terms are not interchangeable.

Totally right, Canadians use eBay in a unique way naturally, which makes it a bit complicated to talk about these things.

On the up side, once eMBG launches in Canada, the "what site did the buyer use" distinction goes out the window because the same rules will apply in both cases. This is one big reason why we are so eager to see this launch happen.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-22-2014

raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@pierrelebel wrote:
An easy follow-up question.

On the basis that the Money Back Guarantee is determined exclusively by the site where the buyer was logged in at time of the purchase (or the bid), is it fair to conclude that if a buyer in Russia buys on eBay.com from a Canadian seller listing on eBay.ca, such Canadian seller would be responsible for return shipping from Russia in case of "goods not as described."

The fact the Canadian seller lists on eBay.ca would not minimize his responsibility concerning payment of the return postage.

Considering that the MBG program on eBay.com goes into effect September 15 (about three weeks from now) and eBay is obligated to give its members 30 days notice for changes to the User Agreement, and since you are still working out details on how the program will work with Canadians, am I missing something?
What has yet to be worked out are the mechanisms of the eBay.ca eMBG, so only what impacts buyers who shop on eBay.ca.

eMBG is already in place and active on eBay.com. You can read the policy page here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/money-back-guarantee.html#previous
This URL will take you directly to the eMBG rules are they are applied today for items bought on eBay.com (effective until September 14). For the rules as they will apply from September 15 onwards, just scroll to the top of the page.

You unfortunately won't find a clear answer there regarding your Russian buyer use case. I'm myself not exactly sure how that would be handled under the US eMBG policy, so I'm asking around and will update this post when I get the answer.

EDIT: a representative from the eMBG team confirmed that most likely, the seller would be made responsible for the return shipping if a Russian buyer received an item that was not as described and eBay was asked to step in after the seller failed to make it right.

Raphael, You state "What has yet to be worked out are the mechanisms of the eBay.ca eMBG, so only what impacts buyers who shop on eBay.ca."

Perhaps I'm missing it but I don't see any information about how international returns will be handled on .com.

For example, if a Canadian buyer shops on .com and then wants to return an item, how is it decided which service and how much the seller will have to spend for that return shipping? For a Canadian buyer to buy postage at the post office to send an item back to the U.S. with delivery confirmation, the smallest item will cost $16. Is the .com seller expected to pay $16 even if the original shipping was only $8?

After Sept 15th, if a buyer purchases an item from me on .com and then wants to return it, how much return postage do I have to pay? I may have sent the item via small packet post for $8 but if the return cost with del confirmation is $15, do I have to pay double the original postage to have the item returned?

It's also possible that a Canadian buyer could buy from me on .com. I could have sent that item lettermail for $1.80 but would I have to pay $12+ for the item to be returned with delivery confirmation?

As shown, there are scenarios that will effect Canadian and U.S. users on Sept 15th but it doesn't seem as if the details are worked out for that yet? Is that true? If so, when will they be announced?