eBay

raphael@ebay.com · ‎07-16-2014

Hello Canadian eBayers,

We're back! Please go ahead and start posting your comments and questions, we'll begin answering at 1 pm Eastern. See you then!

pierrelebel · ‎07-16-2014

Over the last two months (since mid May) five of eight weekly sessions have been cancelled.

For the three sessions that we had, many questions have been asked but left unanswered (the new Canadian anti-spam legislation effective two weeks ago comes to mind).

Will someone in Toronto please take the time to review these three threads and give your Canadian users answers to the questions raised?

Thank you.

lady.stark · ‎07-16-2014

The only time eBay has given a free promo for Fixed Price listings since the change in fees, all my categories were excluded. Why? Will we have a promo including these categories or do I have to forget all the Fixed Price promos?

lady.stark · ‎07-16-2014

A good comment for once: I am really glad to see the first sentence of a message on the board when I hover my mouse over the title. I LOVE the fact that this option is finally back! Thanks! 😉

raphael@ebay.com · ‎07-16-2014

Hello lady.stark,

@lady.stark wrote:

The only time eBay has given a free promo for Fixed Price listings since the change in fees, all my categories were excluded. Why? Will we have a promo including these categories or do I have to forget all the Fixed Price promos?

Promos are set so they generate business in categories and formats where stimulus is needed. While I can't speak to what those categories and formats might be on the next promos, I can assure you we don't look to exclude any sellers in particular with the way the promos are set up.

@lady.stark wrote:

A good comment for once: I am really glad to see the first sentence of a message on the board when I hover my mouse over the title. I LOVE the fact that this option is finally back! Thanks! 😉

Thanks for the kind words. I share your praise with the Lithium team who does an awesome job at building and maintaining the community sites for us. We are always working closely together to improve the experience for our members, so your feedback is always welcome, good or bad.

Anonymous · ‎07-16-2014

@pierrelebel wrote:

Over the last two months (since mid May) five of eight weekly sessions have been cancelled.

For the three sessions that we had, many questions have been asked but left unanswered (the new Canadian anti-spam legislation effective two weeks ago comes to mind).

Will someone in Toronto please take the time to review these three threads and give your Canadian users answers to the questions raised?

Thank you.

Thanks Pierrelebel. We prefer to never have to cancel our scheduled weekly Q&A, but there are times when it is unavoidable. I'm sorry we have had a spotty record for the past couple months!

Thanks for raising (or re-raising) the question around CASL compliance with respect to the Seller Email Newsletters. As you can imagine, Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation - and its impact on our operations and the operations of our sellers - has been pretty huge topic for us over the past year or so.

The short answer to this question is that we believe Seller Email Newsletters are compliant with CASL.

As you know, sellers with Store subscriptions can make use of the Seller Email Marketing feature to send emails to interested buyers. The good news here is that the only way buyers have ever been added to the distribution lists for sellers emails is by specifically subscribing to them. We have never opted anyone in automatically.

This means everyone who receives eBay Seller Email Newsletters has actively opted in - providing their express consent. There is no need for eBay Canada - or our sellers - to send out those pleading emails asking for customers to provide further express consent with respect to our Seller Email Marketing feature because we already have express consent. 🙂

If anyone is interested in learning more about this feature, you can read more about it here: http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/email-newsletter.html.

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-16-2014

So the companies that asked before July 1st if they could continue to send me emails even though I had subscribed to their list at another time, didn't really need to do so?

Anonymous · ‎07-16-2014

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

So the companies that asked before July 1st if they could continue to send me emails even though I had subscribed to their list at another time, didn't really need to do so?

Hi pjcdn2005.

They may or may not have needed to do so. It depends on whether they were operating based on express consent, implied consent, neither or unsure/unclear. And it also depends on how their legal advisers are interpreting the new legislation. So let's assume that they needed to do so. 🙂

The legislation is very complex, and there are many areas that will be open to interpretation and speculation until the details get proven out over time through case law.

It's more than a handful for us to ensure eBay business practices are compliant - I can't comment on other businesses. 😛

I'll say this much - it certainly was interesting seeing all the different approaches arriving in my inbox in May and June!

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-16-2014

That does make sense, thank you Rodney. I haven't seen the legislation but since most or all laws can be interpreted in many ways, this one probably isn't any different.

Anonymous · ‎07-16-2014

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

That does make sense, thank you Rodney. I haven't seen the legislation but since most or all laws can be interpreted in many ways, this one probably isn't any different.

Thanks pjcdn2005.

It is a very well-intentioned piece of legislation, but there are indeed some sections that are not abundantly clear. I think it would be fair to say that any company who doesn't know how they acquired your email address, or doesn't know whether they have your express consent, your implied consent, or neither - these are the marketers who have had to work the hardest to try to retain the ability to reach out to their customers.