July 12 2017 Weekly Session

tyler@ebay
Community Member

Howdy everyone,

 

Opening up the thread for our Weekly Chat Session for July 12, 2017. This thread will be open until tomorrow, so please post any questions or subjects for which you would like eBay support.

 

Please find the below table of open issues with the latest updates, as well as what we need in order to pursue them further. Many of them (having been older issues) require more recent examples for me to pursue any type of update. My time on the boards is limited, so I can't do as much digging as I'd like, so if you have examples on any of the fields that request them please send me a message with the details, thanks!

 

 

Issue Status Latest Update Action taken/Next Steps
Browse pages and Search pages showing different results for same category Not a bug "Search and browse get different result by definition.  One shows all items matching keywords and the other shows all items in a category." Will be removed from list going forward. 
Items missing from combined invoice  Open/no updates "We need more details to investigate, will the original reported please let us know the status." Proposed removal from list if no update: 7/26
Search results page shows shipping costs inconsistent with what's on the item pages  Need clarification/examples "Shipping not matching is not a bug if it's a GSP item" Need more examples/information, let us know
Shipping Calculator returning erroneous rates Open/no updates "In order to test further we need current examples of this." Need more examples/information, let us know
Selling limits live items count discrepancy  Open/no updates "Can you provide a more recent example?" Need more examples/information, let us know
Missing Tracked Packet destinations  Resolved "Tracked Packet issue is no more." Will be removed from list going forward. 
Adding Economy International Shipping  Suggestion filed "This has been submitted as an enhancement, but we do not have an update as to when it will be implemented." Will be removed from list going forward. 
Handling times not being added properly  Open/no updates "In order to test further we need current examples." Need more examples/information, let us know
Tyler,
eBay
Message 1 of 37
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36 REPLIES 36

July 12 2017 Weekly Session


@silverpinups wrote:
  • Structured data. As we announced last year, new and manufacturer refurbished items in many categories must now have valid product identifiers to help buyers find what they’re looking for. Most likely you’re one of the vast majority of sellers whose listings are in great shape. But starting this month, listings missing valid identifiers will not be able to be revised and relisted, and starting in early September, Good ‘Til Cancelled listings will not automatically renew.

 

Is Good 'Til Cancelled Listings ending in early September??


Sorry for the confusion, happy to clarify:

 

This is referring specifically to Good 'Til Cancelled (GTC) listings with new and manufacturer refurbished conditions in one of the categories (link to a list in your quote) that requires valid product identifiers. If you have GTC listings that fall under that particular set of circumstances, and choose not to upload valid product identifiers by September they won't renew and will move to your unsold section.

 

The Good 'Til Cancelled listing format itself is not being retired, it is not going away, and will still be available for you to utilize in September as it is now.  Thanks!

Tyler,
eBay
Message 21 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session

Anonymous
Not applicable

@thewoodguy1 wrote:

Hi,

 

I would like further clarification on the role out of 'Seller's Hub' on ebay.ca.  There was a notice that stated that TurboLister would no longer be supported and that sellers would have to switch to 'Seller Hub'?  Can you give us some updates and some dates? 

 

Is there going to be a field trial for seller hub versus the sudden flip over of the Shippo experience?

 

For those of us who are used to using a database type of listing tool, is it just TurboLister that going to be eliminated?  What about other listing tools such WonderLister, Auctiva etc.  - specifics please - which ones will be allowed?

 

FAR


Hi thewoodguy1

 

1. eBay.ca seller hub rollout dates and plans have yet to be announced.  

 

2. Shippo did in fact have a number of field trials. We would like to have had more, but we could only start once the necessary contracts were signed and the necessary work had been done at Canada Post and Shippo and eBay. Seller Hub is not a new product, and it's an eBay product and not a third party platform, so the needs of those launches are different. We may roll it out gradually or suddenly, depending on product capabilities, resources, and degree of confidence we have in the product. TBD. We'll be as careful and slow as circumstances permit. Sometimes our options are limited. 

 

3. Turbolister is an eBay product. All those other products are third-party listing tools. We have no visibility into their plans for their individual products. There are no changes happening at eBay that would make these companies need to stop offering their products. In fact, we continue to invest in and evolve our API. We have recently launched a number of new REST API's with more capabilities for third party developers. We will continue to invest in our API so that cool things can continue to be developed in the ecosystem. 

 

Message 22 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session

Anonymous
Not applicable

@ricarmic wrote:

(Note that I am selling on .COM)

 

Regarding the aspect in Bob's Blog: Bringing more Buyers and Sales to you in 2017:

 

Stronger marketplace protection:

Also starting this month for the small group of sellers who repeatedly violate important eBay policies like completing transactions outside of eBay checkout, their active listings will be suppressed from search and browse results in line with selling restrictions.

 

I would like to know if the affected sellers are notified that they are violating this and their visibility has been impacted in a way other than the bot warning messages that show up whilst one is typing messages to buyers.

 

I ask this because I regularly communicate with buyers especially for bulk order deals, and it seems I am forever getting bot warnings regarding the communications I am trying to have with the buyers in their efforts to try to buy their desired items on ebay! As an example the bots do not like the word "invoice" so I can't even talk about a "combined invoice" in a message without getting the bots warning. When I thought I could only send a message that didn't have a bot warning, it was taking me 20 minutes sometimes to figure out the words to answer a simple question using words the bots thought were ok (I don't close and sell off ebay and the communications were about nothing close to doing this).

 

Since then, I realized the message still goes so I've been sending them despite the bot messages. Now I'm worried that I may have been flagged and penalized and don't know it. (I do know that my paid promoted listings visibility dropped a couple weeks ago and has remained stable but about half the number it was before and I don't know what caused that).

 

Unfortunately I am out of the office tomorrow (Wednesday) for the bulk of the day so I won't be able to respond but if there's extra information you need from me let me know and I will forward it as soon as I can.

 

 


Hi ricarmic. That's a great question, and I honestly don't know the answer but will try to get one for you. 

 

I very strongly suspect that you would receive a notification email, but I will try to confirm that.

 

A number of different approaches are employed to identify this type of activity, but we obviously won't be sharing those details publicly. 😉

Message 23 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session


@msmaggie060 wrote:

Hi Tyler, when I view my items in the eBay app using my iPad (is that considered a mobile device?), my items appear differently when I look at them as .ca and as .com
When I am signed in on .com my description appears as a shortened version with "Read more" below. When I am signed in on .ca I have no description showing and it just says to click on "sellers description". Why the difference and how do I get my description to at least partially show?

 


Hi @msmaggie060! You're experiencing a test that we're running on shortened descriptions and the buyer experience. This is a temporary test and it involves a small percentage of buyers. Because all seller accounts are also considered buyer accounts it seems like you've been included as well. Because you're on a mobile device (gotta love the iPad!) you're seeing the different versions of the test being run.

 

To @femmefan1946's question: it's possible that you see the test running on different sites if you're active on .com. I haven't heard of an official .CA version of this test being implemented, but I will keep you posted if I hear otherwise. Thanks!

 

 

Tyler,
eBay
Message 24 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session

Anonymous
Not applicable

@pocomocomputing wrote:

Shippo has been implemented as the eBay.ca Canada shipping tool this month. Suggestions and bugs are being fixed by the Shippo support.

 

Is anything being done to fix and improve the eBay side of shipping in a listing? Since the shipping calculator was implemented, the data entry part of creating a listing does not warn sellers that invalid dimensions are being for some shipping services.

 

For example, Canada Post Expedited Parcel service to Canada and USA have different minimum dimensions. EP Canada has minimum of 10 cm x 7 cm x 0.1 cm. EP USA has a minimum of 21 x 9 x 0.5 cm. Checking during creating of the listing appears to be done using the lower EP Canada limit. If a package is over the EP Canada minimum but under the EP USA minimum, no warning is issued that the package does not meet the EP USA minimum. When the listing goes live, the listing will show to a buyer "Shipping cannot be calculated" message because checking is done only when the listings is live.

 

Many sellers have been caught wit this issue over the years and is one of the first things members here advise a seller posting with shipping calculator issues. How about FINALLY fixing this issue.


Pocomo, I seriously want to thank you for asking this question. I have been trying to get this fixed for many years now, and despite the obvious importance and relative simplicity of the fix, we have struggled to get this prioritized. I will add your post to the ongoing case for resolving this. Because the overwhelming majority of Canadian sellers use flat rate shipping, and because many list on ebay.com instead, it's tough to make a compelling financial case for this investment. But a great quote like this can sometimes help a whole lot, because it makes the seller impact very clear and poignant. 

 

I wish I had a better answer for you, but here's hoping we finally get this addressed soon.

Message 25 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session


@cgphile wrote:

Hi Tyler,

 

I was reading a post at EcommerceBytes http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2017/7/1499567926.html about IPR being required on all BIN listings.

 

Is this correct? And does it apply to E-Bay.ca listings ? If so how does one opt out of this?  There already is a way to mark individual listings as requiring IPR. I choose not to use IPR as I often allow buyers up to 30 days to shop from my store to take advantage of shipping discounts.

 

Unfortunately, setting up automatic shipping discounts does not work for me as the sizes and weights of my items are too varied to set up combined shipping rules.  I need to be able to package all items first to work out the shipping discount that will be applied.  

 

Also, as has been pointed out on the US community boards, if IPR is required, then sellers will constantly be refunding the overpayment of shipping when doing combined shipments for buyers.  Will E-Bay be refunding sellers the FVF of the shipping refund given to buyers? 

 

Monika


Hi @cgphile - yes, this is a test that is in process on both .com and .ca (the threshold for immediate payment moving from CAD100 to CAD1000 specifically). It is rolled out to a smaller percentage of buyers currently, with an anticipated launch to everyone by Q4. As this is a buyer experience, not attached to individual listings, it isn't something you can opt-out of.

 

While we'd encourage you to work with automatic shipping discounts where possible, if that isn't something that works for you in every situation I'd recommend reaching out to CS to request partial credits for shipping refunds being given.

Tyler,
eBay
Message 26 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session

Anonymous
Not applicable

@dinky-ryan wrote:
I was wondering how e bay.ca decide to whom they send the invitation offers of 500 free listings too. I didnt realise such things existed until i saw a discussion tread at the weekend. After further conversations, several members said they get these offers on a regular basis ( usually once a month). i have been a member of e bay.ca for many years , with a 100% + feedback and an above standard seller level and have never received an invitation like this, so was wondering why offers for some and not others.?

Hi dinky-ryan

 

Sorry you are feeling left out!

 

eBay uses a variety of targeted promotions to try to stimulate both buyer and seller activity. The offers and targeting depend on what type of type of stimulus we are trying to apply to the marketplace, and how much budget we have to do so. Even for folks who fall squarely in the target audience for a given promotion, there are always a certain share of people assigned to a control group who do not receive an offer. We do this so that we can more reliably measure the impact of the promotion. These tried and true tactics of target marketing and holding back a control group are not unique to eBay - they are older than the world wide web. 

 

Keep an eye on the promotions area in My eBay - sometimes you'll see a promotion available there even though you might not have received an email invitation.  

 

To make sure you are eligible to receive Canadian promotions, make sure that you haven't opted out of receiving marketing messages from us (My eBAy > Account tab > Communication Preferences > Promotions and Surveys). 

 

Also, to be eligible for Canadian offers, make sure your registered name and address is in Canada. (My eBay > Account tab > Personal Information > eMail and Contact Information.

Message 27 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session

RE answer #3

 

You make it sound like TurboLister is not being retired, is this correct?  Or is that it is so far out in the future that dates have not been set?

 

I like using TurboLister and if the dates for its retirement are out beyond Christmas '17 I am not as concerned about switching over.

 

All the Best,

Fred

 

Message 28 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session


@mjwl2006 wrote:

Hello. The problem is not mine but one that seems to be affecting certain other sellers on ebay: their buyers cannot purchase the item and get a multitude or error messages which seem particular to ebay.ca only or at least to ebay Canada but not ebay.com. Can you look into what is being described this thread, please, and make contact with the sellers in question? Thank you.

 

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Canadian-PowerSellers-Discussion/Buyer-can-t-check-out/td-p/378137


Howdy @momcqueen, @thewoodguy1, and @sleco69 -

 

Thank you for bringing this to my attention! I've gotten a great email with a large amount of information from @pjcdn2005 detailing several threads, examples and breakdowns. I'll be working with that and filling appropriate tech reports on this to get us answers. I'll be reaching out to you directly if i need more information or have updates!

Tyler,
eBay
Message 29 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session


@thewoodguy1 wrote:

I am in the same situation.  WE need to have the ability to send the customer an invoice for combined shipping.  My items range from 250 grams to almost 30 Kg.  There is no formula that will work.  Free shipping is not an option because many times the shipping cost is more than the cost of the items itself.  A lot of sellers will shake there head at that but for some of us it is all in a days works.

 

IPR is not the god send that ebay thinks it is.  I always figured IPR was just ebay wanting to lock in its fees. 


@thewoodguy1 - this is valid feedback, and I'm happy to share it. Would you mind sending me a message with some specific examples that I can include? Thanks!

Tyler,
eBay
Message 30 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session

tyler@ebay
Community Member

Thanks for your questions today - the chat is now closed.

 

We'll be going through and answering any questions that came through in the hour, and look forward to next week!

Tyler,
eBay
Message 31 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session


@lucitabby wrote:

ebay is including Saturday & Sunday in estimated delivery times shown on my Order Details of sold items.  Is this something new or did I miss the memo?


Estimated delivery times should be pulling from carrier data as well as your handling time, etc. But I'm not aware of any situation in which it would be including Saturday & Sunday if those days are not days in which the selected shipping service is open.

 

Would you PM me an example or two so I can dig into it further? Thanks @lucitabby!

Tyler,
eBay
Message 32 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session

Anonymous
Not applicable

@mjwl2006 wrote:

And again, not my problem, per se, but one that is generating a great deal of angst on the Canada Boards because many sellers are misunderstanding it. Please see https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Updates/Can-anyone-explain-the-sales-tax-for-canada-starting-jul...

 

Can ebay Canada please reiterate and clarify what is and is not being affected by the GST (or HST where applicable) collection on monthly seller fees?

 

There is a great deal of fear out there that I think is based on misunderstanding.

 

In particular, some sellers seem to think Canada Revenue will be mining ebay Canada sales data to get the detailed goods on sellers' sales performance.

 

Others fear it is a retail tax on goods sold to buyers

 

I can tell them otherwise but it's almost meaningless coming from me, I'm simply adding more noise to the argument. 

 

Thank you,

Maureen 

 

 

 


Sorry to hear folks are still confused about this.

 

If you are a Canadian seller, your seller invoice will now come from eBay Canada Ltd instead of eBay International AG, and you'll be making your payment to eBay Canada Ltd. 

 

Because eBay Canada Ltd is a Canadian company, we are now obliged to collect and remit Canadian sales tax when we receive payment from sellers for their selling fees. So this means that seller fees now attract sales tax. 

 

Note that sales tax is now applied to the seller's fees and not to the the amount of the eBay transaction. If you collected $100 for item + shipping and were assessed $9 in fees by eBay, then you pay tax on the $9, not the $100.

 

There is no impact to the transaction between the buyer and the seller. Sellers who are obliged to collect and remit tax in Canada should continue to do so. As always. 

 

The change is because of tax restructuring at eBay and has nothing to do with the Canadian Government whatsoever, except I suppose that they will now receive more tax revenue from eBay Canada Ltd than they did in the past. 

 

Here's the announcement and FAQ 

 

I hope that helps a bit. 

 

 

Message 33 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session


@musicyouneed wrote:

Last week to my question regarding some listings show the amount of watchers and not others.  You responded:

 

Factors considered when ranking an item's popularity include:

Views

Purchases

Watches

Questions asked.

 

This is looking specifically at a listing's popularity, not a seller's or a seller's performance. So at this point that is working as intended. Thank you again for this clarification, I'll get the point removed from the weekly roundup!

 

However, when I looked at the item popularity the item with the lowest hits showed watchers, while the one with the most hits, didn't so your explanation doesn't make sense.  Watchers are watchers, why wouldn't they show in the search pages.  

 

watchers again.jpg


@musicyouneed - item 'hotness' signals are intended to create urgency for buyers and increase sales, and there are multiple factors involved with displaying a 'hot' signal like number of watchers.

 

The number of views and watchers factors into it, but are not the only things considered. I don't have specific numbers for you on how many views/purchases/watches&questions your items would need to display number of watchers in search results to curb any potential abuse of this system. I wish I had more detail to give you, but I don't.

Tyler,
eBay
Message 34 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session


@lady.stark wrote:

On my dashboard, the number of transactions for "Late shipment rate" is different than all the other sections... why?

 


I'm not certain why that would be off the top of my head - will you send me a PM so I can take a look at this in more detail?

Tyler,
eBay
Message 35 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session

Anonymous
Not applicable

@thewoodguy1 wrote:

RE answer #3

 

You make it sound like TurboLister is not being retired, is this correct?  Or is that it is so far out in the future that dates have not been set?

 

I like using TurboLister and if the dates for its retirement are out beyond Christmas '17 I am not as concerned about switching over.

 

All the Best,

Fred

 


I don't think I've seen an announcement re timing of Turbo Lister retirement just yet. 

Message 36 of 37
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July 12 2017 Weekly Session

Anonymous
Not applicable

@Anonymous wrote:

@ricarmic wrote:

(Note that I am selling on .COM)

 

Regarding the aspect in Bob's Blog: Bringing more Buyers and Sales to you in 2017:

 

Stronger marketplace protection:

Also starting this month for the small group of sellers who repeatedly violate important eBay policies like completing transactions outside of eBay checkout, their active listings will be suppressed from search and browse results in line with selling restrictions.

 

I would like to know if the affected sellers are notified that they are violating this and their visibility has been impacted in a way other than the bot warning messages that show up whilst one is typing messages to buyers.

 

I ask this because I regularly communicate with buyers especially for bulk order deals, and it seems I am forever getting bot warnings regarding the communications I am trying to have with the buyers in their efforts to try to buy their desired items on ebay! As an example the bots do not like the word "invoice" so I can't even talk about a "combined invoice" in a message without getting the bots warning. When I thought I could only send a message that didn't have a bot warning, it was taking me 20 minutes sometimes to figure out the words to answer a simple question using words the bots thought were ok (I don't close and sell off ebay and the communications were about nothing close to doing this).

 

Since then, I realized the message still goes so I've been sending them despite the bot messages. Now I'm worried that I may have been flagged and penalized and don't know it. (I do know that my paid promoted listings visibility dropped a couple weeks ago and has remained stable but about half the number it was before and I don't know what caused that).

 

Unfortunately I am out of the office tomorrow (Wednesday) for the bulk of the day so I won't be able to respond but if there's extra information you need from me let me know and I will forward it as soon as I can.

 

 


Hi ricarmic. That's a great question, and I honestly don't know the answer but will try to get one for you. 

 

I very strongly suspect that you would receive a notification email, but I will try to confirm that.

 

A number of different approaches are employed to identify this type of activity, but we obviously won't be sharing those details publicly. 😉


 

Hi again. I've got an update for this topic. 

 

You will indeed be notified via email if any action is being taken on your account. 

 

 

Message 37 of 37
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