May 17th 2017 Weekly Session

tyler@ebay
Community Member

Howdy everyone!

 

Come and join the Community team for our first weekly chat in a long (long) time. No set topic, so join us at 1pm eastern time for an hour and bring your questions. 🙂

Tyler,
eBay
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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been such a long wait, but I'm very happy to have these weekly sessions back up and running at last. 

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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session

tyler@ebay
Community Member

The thread is unlocked and we're ready to help!

Tyler,
eBay
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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session

Welcome to the lion’s den, I hope we won’t be too hard on you right off the bat.

 

I do want to say that I for one (and I’m sure others share this feeling) appreciate having someone from eBay Canada here again on a regular basis who can answer questions authoritatively and look into issues that occur.

 

I have two questions I want to bring up.  Since I’m pressed for time today, I’ll just give you a summary on the first one.  Next week, I’ll post a better explanation and some screen shots I took.

 

Issue #1)  Many months ago I asked Raphael about a problem I’d encountered as a buyer on a number of occasions where “Request Total” did not work. Before he left, I believe Raphael said this issue had been “fixed”.  However, when buying a number of items recently, I again ran into a brick wall when attempting to use the “Request Total” button – the “dead-end” screen read something along the lines of “This seller doesn’t offer shipping discounts”, which I knew was false in my sellers’ case.  By the way, this occurred with my purchases from both the U.S. and the U.K.

 

I won’t repeat here the rigmarole I went through to finally get an adjusted invoice from the seller, but suffice it to say that if I hadn’t been an experienced seller, I probably would have given up.  And this is the reason this issue seems to me to be such a big problem.  How many buyers are we losing because they can’t get an adjusted total from the seller?  Which buyer wants to pay for, say, 4 items plus 4 times the shipping, hoping the seller will refund?  Which seller wants to have to chase after eBay for lost FVFs on excess shipping refunded to a multi-item purchaser?

 

So please leave the “Request Total not working” issue on your to-be-fixed list.  I think it’s one of those serious but hidden problems on eBay, as it’s a reason for buyers to give up completing a purchase that sellers may never be aware of.  Moreover, this issue has been going on now for months.

 

Issue #2)  In the past 2 weeks, I’ve been unable to print labels on three occasions by using the eBay transaction link to print a shipping label. As you no doubt know, eBay recently announced that we sellers would no longer get our shipping discounts (on Expedited, Tracked Packet and Xpresspost) unless we used the eBay shipping link.  In other words, we could no longer benefit from our promised discounts if we used the direct route to print a label (by going through the Paypal transaction itself). 

 

The problem on those 3 occasions was that the shipping label could not be printed using the normal eBay link, despite all the information (customer name and address, etc.) loading into the Paypal screen from eBay.  Each time I selected “Pay and print label” I got a screen advising the “shipping label could not be printed at this time, try again later”, or words to that effect.  I did try again later, several times, but never could get the label to print.  I had to back out, go into the Paypal transaction and use their link.  

 

Today, again I needed to print a label, only unlike the last 3 times, this wasn’t Light Packet, but Tracked Packet (which does have a discount).  On the 3 previous occasions, I ended up using Paypal directly because there was no discount anyway (luckily for me). 

 

This time however, after trying 4 times and getting a “dead-end” screen each time, I called Paypal.  I asked if they were aware of any issues with their labelling system.  The Paypal representative took some time to check, and informed me the problem was with the eBay “interface”

 

I think they may be correct, because I finally just decided to forfeit my discount, and went in through the Paypal transaction in order to get the darn label printed and the item on its way.  This, after having wasted nearly an hour between trying to get the label to print and holding on the phone for Paypal.

 

Obviously the reason this is an issue is because we sellers no longer have a backup to print our labels and still get the discount if something goes wrong with the eBay shipping link (which was not uncommon in the past, and now seems to be happening frequently).  I feel that if eBay is going to disallow the discounts using direct Paypal shipping, they really, really, need to make sure the eBay shipping link will work.  

 

Could you please urgently look into this?  We need to be able to print our labels and get the discounts.  With eBay raising so many costs for Canadian sellers, those discounts have real meaning. 

 

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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session

Hi rose-dee,

 

Thanks for sharing your questions.

 

Regarding the first issue - Request Total flow - it would be great to get more information about your experience so we can understand exactly what the problem is. We'll reach out to you to get more info. 

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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session

Rodney, I have a question specifically concerning the limitation of TRS for Canadian sellers. 

 

It's clear a lot of us will lose our "backup" (the Global TRS).  For me this is a real loss, because even though the discount is now only 10%, I use it to help subsidize my mainly U.S. buyers' shipping costs.  With sales at an all-time low, I'll be struggling now to maintain U.S. TRS, even though over 90% of my sales are to the U.S. 

 

Be that as it may, I've resigned myself to most likely losing my 10% discount.  However, it was an incidental comment in the eBay announcement concerning TRS and placement or visibility that got my attention and had me more concerned. 

 

Can you explain to those of us Canadian sellers who will most likely drop off the back of the TRS wagon after the grace period, what effect this will have on our placement and/or visibility in searches (or any other downsides that may be involved)?  

 

Also, will eBay be making any changes to its treatment of TRS holders in terms of boosting their visibility, etc. as a result of this recent announcement?  In other words, will extra consideration be given to TRS holders and will those of us who can't hang on to TRS be at an even greater disadvantage than non-TRS sellers are at the moment? 

 

In this regard, I'm especially worried about my visibility and placement on .com, as I'll become a non-TRS Canadian seller competing with U.S. sellers who are able to maintain U.S. TRS Plus. 

Message 6 of 16
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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session


@a.depour wrote:

Hi rose-dee,

 

Thanks for sharing your questions.

 

Regarding the first issue - Request Total flow - it would be great to get more information about your experience so we can understand exactly what the problem is. We'll reach out to you to get more info. 


Thank you.  I have a number of screen shots I took this most recent time that show the experience from my point of view as a buyer.  I don't have time to organize and describe them now, but if you send me an internal email, I'll try to get to it later this week. 

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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session


@rose-dee wrote:

 

 

Issue #2)  In the past 2 weeks, I’ve been unable to print labels on three occasions by using the eBay transaction link to print a shipping label. As you no doubt know, eBay recently announced that we sellers would no longer get our shipping discounts (on Expedited, Tracked Packet and Xpresspost) unless we used the eBay shipping link.  In other words, we could no longer benefit from our promised discounts if we used the direct route to print a label (by going through the Paypal transaction itself). 

 

The problem on those 3 occasions was that the shipping label could not be printed using the normal eBay link, despite all the information (customer name and address, etc.) loading into the Paypal screen from eBay.  Each time I selected “Pay and print label” I got a screen advising the “shipping label could not be printed at this time, try again later”, or words to that effect.  I did try again later, several times, but never could get the label to print.  I had to back out, go into the Paypal transaction and use their link.  

 

Today, again I needed to print a label, only unlike the last 3 times, this wasn’t Light Packet, but Tracked Packet (which does have a discount).  On the 3 previous occasions, I ended up using Paypal directly because there was no discount anyway (luckily for me). 

 

This time however, after trying 4 times and getting a “dead-end” screen each time, I called Paypal.  I asked if they were aware of any issues with their labelling system.  The Paypal representative took some time to check, and informed me the problem was with the eBay “interface”

 

I think they may be correct, because I finally just decided to forfeit my discount, and went in through the Paypal transaction in order to get the darn label printed and the item on its way.  This, after having wasted nearly an hour between trying to get the label to print and holding on the phone for Paypal.

 

Obviously the reason this is an issue is because we sellers no longer have a backup to print our labels and still get the discount if something goes wrong with the eBay shipping link (which was not uncommon in the past, and now seems to be happening frequently).  I feel that if eBay is going to disallow the discounts using direct Paypal shipping, they really, really, need to make sure the eBay shipping link will work.  

 

Could you please urgently look into this?  We need to be able to print our labels and get the discounts.  With eBay raising so many costs for Canadian sellers, those discounts have real meaning. 

 


Hi rose-dee,

 

Thanks for your your feedback.  One of my colleagues will address point 1), but let me probe a bit further on point 2) about the PayPal labels issues you are having.  

 

First of all, I am really sorry that you are having issues with printing the labels on PayPal.  I haven't heard of any issues from other sellers with the PayPal platform recently.  Can you give a little more info so I can see if I can dig into the issue a bit further?

 

- Were you trying to print the labels on eBay.ca, in the My eBay section on the site?

- I assume this was the first time you were trying to print the labels for the first time, or were you trying to re-print?

- Is the error message you received on the PayPal platform, after you had signed in and viewed the label?

- Are these labels being printed for items that are being sent to the US, and if so, is there a buyer phone number on them?

 

Second, though unrelated to the above issues, we recently announced (in our Summer Seller Release) that we are moving away from PayPal label printing to a new partner called Shippo.  Shippo provides a much more robust platform, including the ability to go directly to their platform and print eBay labels, once you have connected your accounts.  eBay rates will be applied to labels printed for eBay transactions, regardless of whether you go direct to Shippo or via My eBay.  We will be rolling out the new label printing flow over the next month or two, so keep an eye out for more messages about the transition!

 

Message 8 of 16
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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session

Anonymous
Not applicable

@rose-dee wrote:

Rodney, I have a question specifically concerning the limitation of TRS for Canadian sellers. 

 

It's clear a lot of us will lose our "backup" (the Global TRS).  For me this is a real loss, because even though the discount is now only 10%, I use it to help subsidize my mainly U.S. buyers' shipping costs.  With sales at an all-time low, I'll be struggling now to maintain U.S. TRS, even though over 90% of my sales are to the U.S. 

 

Be that as it may, I've resigned myself to most likely losing my 10% discount.  However, it was an incidental comment in the eBay announcement concerning TRS and placement or visibility that got my attention and had me more concerned. 

 

Can you explain to those of us Canadian sellers who will most likely drop off the back of the TRS wagon after the grace period, what effect this will have on our placement and/or visibility in searches (or any other downsides that may be involved)?  

 

Also, will eBay be making any changes to its treatment of TRS holders in terms of boosting their visibility, etc. as a result of this recent announcement?  In other words, will extra consideration be given to TRS holders and will those of us who can't hang on to TRS be at an even greater disadvantage than non-TRS sellers are at the moment? 

 

In this regard, I'm especially worried about my visibility and placement on .com, as I'll become a non-TRS Canadian seller competing with U.S. sellers who are able to maintain U.S. TRS Plus. 


Hi Rose-dee.

 

It's interesting that you see this as "losing your back-up". Another way to look at this is that you're losing the risk of being subjected to double jeopardy for any defects selling into the US. Today, a defect toward a US buyer counts against you for both your Global and your US standards. After this change is applied, US defects only impact US standards.

 

From our modelling, we expect very few Canadian sellers to lose their Top Rated discount, and we're protecting those sellers for at least 6 months while we make sure of that. What we do expect is that far, far fewer Canadian sellers will fall below standard in either Global or the US standards program going forward.

 

Now let's put that aside and assume that you are not going to be Top Rated in Global or US anymore. That will impact your bill because you won't get discounts anymore.

 

We don't presently require a seller to be Top Rated under any program before their item can show in search recall. So there's nothing to protect you from in terms of whether or not your item can show up in a search.

 

Best Match ranking does include a small factor for seller performance, but the impact of that ranking factor is quite small relative to the importance of the relevance of your item to the search, the total cost of our item including shipping, and, to a lesser extent, on multi-quantity fixed price listings, the sales to impressions ratio. More and more, search ranking is about artificial intelligence / machine learning and less about individual seller trust factors. 

Message 9 of 16
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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session

I have heard that we need to change our store front format from the old format to the new to make them mobile friendly. Is this true? I have one of my stores still in the old format since I am able to add extra info to it so I have never changed it. Thanks.

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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session

What happened to only 2 updates and increased costs per year.

 

Why was the summer one put in. Have we Canadians not been shafted enough over the last 2 years.

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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session


@vintagenorth wrote:

I have heard that we need to change our store front format from the old format to the new to make them mobile friendly. Is this true? I have one of my stores still in the old format since I am able to add extra info to it so I have never changed it. Thanks.


You don't have to do that @vintagenorth. While the new store format is more in line with today's standards of formatting and layout, it's not necessary to have in order to be mobile-friendly. The only thing we recommend is that you do not use custom HTML formatting on your old store layout, as that can bog down load times.

Tyler,
eBay
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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session

Anyone not running a business on Ebay for this question.

 

With CP costs going up every year, and FVF's on those costs increasing, and now the tax as well, How many casual non business sellers do you expect to lose?

 

And on top of that, by reading the US boards, it seems unless you want to cough up more FVF's for promoted listings, your sales will be reduce as will your visibility.

 

Is this Ebays intent?

 

Why does Ebay not just say they don't want us around anymore and to go elsewhere as we are not adding to their bottom line and are not mega sellers or Chinese?

 

Much of this is also showing up with lack of listing promotions.

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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session

tyler@ebay
Community Member

Thanks for joining us! The chat is now closed, but we'll respond to anything posted. Join us next week!

Tyler,
eBay
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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session

Anonymous
Not applicable

@dutchman48 wrote:

What happened to only 2 updates and increased costs per year.

 

Why was the summer one put in. Have we Canadians not been shafted enough over the last 2 years.


Hi dutchman48. Nice to see you again.

 

We try to cluster our seller updates into major releases, and keep them to one or two per year. But it's not a contractual requirement or anything like that. 😉

 

We were pretty happy about having a summer announcement given all the new investments being made on the Canadian platform. If I keep getting new investments in the platform that we haven't already announced, and they are impactful for Canadians - like Bucks and TV and Gift Cards will be - then even more announcements may yet come. 

 

But for the most part, we still try to stick two a couple of major release announcements per year. Nothing has changed there.

 

In response to your last question, according to our shafting data, most Canadians have apparently been shafted enough at this point. Unfortunately, it does appear your name is on a very short list of "others to be subjected to further shafting in the future". So I'd recommend that you personally brace yourself. But I think the rest of our Canadian sellers will be okay though, so good news for everyone else. Man Tongue

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May 17th 2017 Weekly Session

Anonymous
Not applicable

@dutchman48 wrote:

Anyone not running a business on Ebay for this question.

 

With CP costs going up every year, and FVF's on those costs increasing, and now the tax as well, How many casual non business sellers do you expect to lose?

 

And on top of that, by reading the US boards, it seems unless you want to cough up more FVF's for promoted listings, your sales will be reduce as will your visibility.

 

Is this Ebays intent?

 

Why does Ebay not just say they don't want us around anymore and to go elsewhere as we are not adding to their bottom line and are not mega sellers or Chinese?

 

Much of this is also showing up with lack of listing promotions.


Hi dutchman48.

We don't control Canada Post's pricing. We did not announce any increase to FVF last week but we did announce a lower price for guitars yesterday.  Tax is something we are obligated to collect as a result of corporate restructuring. We hope and expect to lose exactly zero business sellers. And if we do lose some, we'll try to win them back as best we can.  

There is no plan to reduce visibility for anyone that I'm aware of. We have a promoted listings product available on .com for sellers who wish to participate in it. I've heard that's some sellers have had some good success with it, but whether or not you wish to try it is up to you. It is not required by any means, and the overwhelming majority of the millions of items sold on eBay today will not have been promoted through that product. But it's a cool feature that's worth a look. 

Re your last question, we are not just saying that because literally none of that is true. And actually, until this very moment, I had no idea whether you were or weren't Chinese. 😉  

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