Hello everyone,
Welcome to the Weekly Session. I'll be here on & off for the day, so please go ahead and start posting your comments and questions.
Here are the issues I'm currently tracking:
- Wrong tax rates applied to PayPal labels
- Estimated Delivery discrepancy between View Item page and Order Details page
-
Missing Tracked Packet destinations
- Odd missing gallery picture in search results
Updates:
- Sold items going into Unsold container - need live examples to be able to troubleshoot
- Hard block on non compliant images only on relist/sell similar - Selling team is on this
- SYI: Form resets IS when switching currencies. - Problem identified, Dev team is working on a fix
- SYI: Form resets IS when trying to update handling cost - Problem solved. This item will be taken off the list.
- Safari browser SYI exhibiting erratic behaviour when trying to select text in description in Revise - under investigation
Fixed:
- Combined shipping offers not shown to international buyers (pending confirmation)
Hi dutchman,
Since you've been feeling like I was giving you "non-answers" to your question about international not-as-described item returns, let me try that again, hoping I can clarify things for you.
Let's recap the scenario first:
- International buyer purchases item, seller ships
- Buyer receives item, has an issue with it, reports it as a SNAD
- Seller wants to make it right, decides to send the buyer return shipping money before the buyer can escalate to eBay
- Buyer pockets the shipping money and doesn't ship the item back
- Now what?
In this particular scenario, the seller would have to escalate the case to eBay who would decide in favour of the seller. This means the buyer would no longer be able to escalate or reopen the case for this transaction and eBay wouldn't issue any refunds on the original purchase + shipping price, however, the seller would be out the return shipping money sent to the buyer. I originally thought there were mechanisms in place for us to help a seller recoup that money, but I was wrong, sorry for the confusion.
What I would recommend as a safer, best practice in such cases would be to start by offering the buyer to refund everything (original item cost + shipping + return shipping) once the item is returned. Some buyers might be hesitant to do this, so if I was the seller in this situation I would reinforce the fact that eBay is protecting them so they are safe. If the buyer still refused, I would then oblige and send return shipping money, but only with some proof of the shipping cost from the buyer.
Good morning Raphael
Any reply from PayPal or Pitney Bowes or eBay on the tax surcharge problem raised two weeks ago?
@pierrelebel wrote:
Good morning Raphael
Any reply from PayPal or Pitney Bowes or eBay on the tax surcharge problem raised two weeks ago?
Hi Pierre,
Nothing yet from PayPal but I have a meeting with PB on Friday.
@merritt-motorcycle-salvage wrote:
See my no save on shipping issue is yet again out the window. It's being weeks and every week you ignore it. Sick and tired of this. Bring up a valid issue and still get treated like it's not.
Sorry about that, I re-added it.
For the record, I may forget to write it down here but I do have that on my list of issue that I work on.
@merritt-motorcycle-salvage wrote:
See my no save on shipping issue is yet again out the window. It's being weeks and every week you ignore it. Sick and tired of this. Bring up a valid issue and still get treated like it's not.
Actually looking at several of your items, I am now unable to see the issue on any of them. I see the "Save on shipping" blurb no matter which country I select for rates. I'll ping the team on this, I suspect they fixed the issue but forgot to notify me. Could you please check on your side and let me know if you have any other items that are problematic?
Thanks!
@merritt-motorcycle-salvage wrote:
Like I said before every single item that has flat rate shipping to Canada and calculated international fails to show save on shipping to internation destiations. Simply choose lowest price and shipping on my store front and take your pick from nearly 1240 items. I hate having to explain myself over and over every single time. How can you be working on a fix when you have no idea what I am referring to???
In case you don't know, I don't fix the bugs myself. I rely on the teams who own the respective areas of the site to remedy issues. I can't apologize for forgetting some details about your specific issue when I handle reporting and following up on the many things that get reported here, plus my actual job which also need some of my time. I also can't apologize for losing sight of something I have brought to the shipping team months ago after you originally reported it.
It's for these reasons that it's super helpful to provide actual item numbers when reporting issues, whether or not it's the first time you bring it up. "Just look at any of my items" really just creates unnecessary work for me and slows me in handling everyone's issues. It might be frustrating to you but I assure you, it wouldn't seem unreasonable at all if you were sitting in my seat. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation.
Hi rose-dee,
@rose-dee wrote:
Hi Raphael, I have two questions this time:
1) Last summer we lost Omniture statistics. We were told a replacement system would be put in place within a few months. That was about 8 months ago. Is it still coming (if so, do you have a rough ETA?), or has eBay changed its mind on implementing this entirely?
As a smaller seller, Omniture was one of the most important tools I had. It's a shame that it's been gone so long.
The upcoming Seller Hub includes the analytics section that is replacing the 3rd party Omniture tool. It's unlikely to get to Canada until the 2nd half of the year though. In the meantime, there is the older Terapeak "listing analytics" tool available on the Applications tab in My eBay. Not as good, I know, but can help in the meantime.
@rose-dee wrote:
2) To follow up from last time, (regarding the "on-time" Question that we love so much): You said that eBay has no plans to add a 3rd option ("Don't know or Can't recall") to the question, or to exempt sellers from the Question where free shipping is provided. However, can you give us any rational explanation for why eBay has not included a notation at the end of that on-time question to inform buyers that they can skip the question if they wish and/or that their answer will be used by eBay to evaluate seller performance?
I suppose what I'm really asking is why eBay is continuing to present their FB question(s) as if they were simple "opinion surveys" with absolutely no consequence to the seller? In fairness to both buyer and seller, buyers deserve to know their answers are indeed being used to impact a seller's ability to continue to sell.
To be frank, I think many buyers would be horrified to know that their answer to the on-time question was being used to directly punish the seller from whom they may have just had a very pleasant purchasing experience.
After all, a buyer can give a seller 5 stars for everything and leave glowing FB, but still feel obliged to answer "No" to the on-time question if they feel it's the only honest response (i.e. even if the untracked item was a day over eBay's estimate) because there is no 3rd option. How fair is that to the seller -- and the buyer? At least let buyers know they can opt out of the impossible corner eBay puts them in!
I wish I could answer "why" questions like these. The only thing I can say is that the Standards team is listening to any and all comments and suggestions made on this forum. For now, as I keep saying, the data we have suggests that the measurement of on time shipping works well for the vast majority of sellers, even for Canadian sellers who don't use tracking.
@msmaggie060 wrote:
Hi Raphael,
I had to close my stores mid December until 2nd week of January due to family reasons. First time i have ever closed down over Christmas.
Because of these reasons my store sales were down and it only took one buyer from the US to bring my dashboard numbers down to where I am close to losing my TRS. I seem to remember that you said it wasn’t going to affect good sellers (and I am one). If you read my FB most of my buyers think that they receive their items quickly and that seller did give me positive FB. Now, instead of spending time listing new items to sell, I am having to spend my time editing my shipping from Standard to Economy. Yes this may help but in most cases this is actually overkill, my items will arrive before delivery estimate.
I have emailed my buyer and asked if she remembers how long the item took to reach her. (I ship same or next day). However, I have not rec’d any answer from her. It is very possible that the recent US storm had something to do with slow transport time, in which case the late shipping should have been removed as per ebay’s announcement – but how do I prove that? Evidently an item travelling from Canada through the affected area is not the same as one originating from or being delivered there. Anything else I can do about this? Thanks.
Hello msmaggie060,
Before commenting any further, let me reassure you: your TRS status is not at risk. Note the following:
- There is a minimum of 5 unique late orders before the late shipment rate starts affecting your account. Orders are defined as all items purchased by the same buyer within the same day (I'm not 100% sure how "day" is defined here, I asked the Standards team for clarification).
- As a Canadian seller, you are considered Top Rated whether you meet the requirements in the Global program OR the US program. If you make one but miss the other, you are still getting your FVF discount.
There seems to be a display issue on the Global side of your seller dashboard. Where is says "5% or less" is allowed, it should say "5 or less" until such time as you reach that 5 count, then the percentage should be shown. I have raised this with the Standards team and someone is looking into it.
Regarding the specific late order you brought up, it's unfortunate that the buyer isn't replying to you, but they aren't obliged to do so. As for the impact of the snow storm on your shipment, I would guess the fact that the order was made 10 days before the storm hit and that the buyer isn't located in an affected area would put this order out of the ones protected by the announcement. I'm not saying that for sure the storm didn't cause any delays to your package, but given how the announcement is worded, I think this order on the other side of the line.
@musicyouneed wrote:
Any news on adding economy international shipping to ebay.ca?
Hi musicyouneed,
No news there yet.
What is the status of Business Policies? As you know, years ago ebay (2012 ?) was gong to force all sellers to use Business Policies by the end of 2014 but was abandoned because of implementation issue (mainly the confusion to the seller with so many polices created by the conversion). I converted by mistake one day and rather than opt back out I figured out how to use them. I think they are a good idea but eBay just has a terrible way of implementing them because they convert all listing. I would think a system where both old and new could coexist while a seller converts in a more controlled logical manner would be the better approach.
Are Business Policies a dead tool doomed to sit in limbo forever? I am asking because I came across a cosmetic issue with the information in the Shipping policy creation/edit page. Minor issue but I keep seeing it for months now and forget to mention it.
The Shipping Policy page shows the old 15% better chance to sell in US $ blurb that was changed months ago.
Here is a screenshot of the Shipping Policy create/edit page.
@pocomocomputing wrote:
What is the status of Business Policies? As you know, years ago ebay (2012 ?) was gong to force all sellers to use Business Policies by the end of 2014 but was abandoned because of implementation issue (mainly the confusion to the seller with so many polices created by the conversion). I converted by mistake one day and rather than opt back out I figured out how to use them. I think they are a good idea but eBay just has a terrible way of implementing them because they convert all listing. I would think a system where both old and new could coexist while a seller converts in a more controlled logical manner would be the better approach.
Are Business Policies a dead tool doomed to sit in limbo forever? I am asking because I came across a cosmetic issue with the information in the Shipping policy creation/edit page. Minor issue but I keep seeing it for months now and forget to mention it.
The Shipping Policy page shows the old 15% better chance to sell in US $ blurb that was changed months ago.
Hi pocomo,
BP is definitely not going away or being left in limbo. As you pointed out there were some pretty egregious issues with version 1.0 which caused the program owners to halt all opting-in until the experience could be made better. Last I heard, the team has been hard at work and resolved several of the larger issues already. Most importantly, it won't create a policy for each and every variation of shipping, payment and return settings a seller had used since beginning to sell.
There should be a re-launch of "BP 2.0" (not an official name) in the near future, at least, those were the last news I had on this.
@msmaggie060 wrote:
Thanks for your reply Raphael. I guess I thought it was affected by the storm because it had until the 26th of January to arrive without being considered late and I thought it must have been held up during the storm period (going from Southern Ontario down to Florida).
Also, some buyers do not realize that weekends are not counted as business days, and the US MLK holiday was in there too. Yes, I do wish she had answered my message asking about the actual delivery date. I didn't send it in an accusatory (is that a word?) manner, just asked nicely I thought.
Thanks for the explanation about TRS, I just don't like having any marks against me on my dashboard!
You may be right about your shipment being "in the pool" since the later estimated delivery date is right in the affected dates. As such I have asked for clarification from a CS contact of mine.
The estimated delivery date shown to a buyer at Feedback should take into account holidays and weekends (eg. not count them as business days). However Pocomo raised an issue 2 weeks ago which suggests there may be a bug at play with this, this is under investigation.
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