eBay

raphael@ebay.com · ‎11-09-2016

Hello everyone,

Welcome to our weekly chat. This week, the thread will remain open until tomorrow as usual.

Open issues:

"Apply my Combined Shipping Discounts" option unavailable on Revise
Incomplete ID History
Link to Community located on Feedback page points to eBay.com
Some Search pages show watchers, some don't
Items missing from combined invoice
CA Shopping cart erroneously applying free shipping on multiple orders (under investigation)
Request Total unavailable

Updates:

Selling limits live items count discrepancy - We are investigating further.
Missing Tracked Packet destinations - still no update from PayPal and Pitney Bowes
Combined shipping offers not shown to international buyers - ticket open

If anything is missing, please let me know. Thanks!

momcqueen · ‎11-09-2016

Good morning, Raphael. I have a few matters to being to the weekly chat today but I will post each one separately for clarity.

The first:

Browse Pages. How are the products and sellers featured selected? As in, what basis is used to determine which products and of those offered by what sellers? Of the ones I have viewed in toys, none of the sellers are Canadian. I might rank among the top 50if done as a Best Match, but appear nowhere on the Browse Page. This concerns me. It seems more like a closed door to prevent buyers form finding my listings than a new portal to reach millennial as was described to us. https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/The-Browse-Page-explained-that-landing-page-with-all-the...

momcqueen · ‎11-09-2016

Canada and EU sign historic trade agreement during EU-Canada Summit. What impact, if any, does ebay Canada predict for Canadian ebay sellers exporting to Europe as a result of this?

http://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2016/10/30/canada-and-eu-sign-historic-trade-agreement-during-eu-canada-sum...

momcqueen · ‎11-09-2016

COUPON DEALS. I noticed on the weekend a promotion on ebay Canada where if you spent money with certain, select sellers, you got a discount not available on other purchases made elsewhere. How are these Deals put together and what criteria does a seller need to meet to be invited and involved? https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buyer-Central/eBay-Canada-coupon-fashion-promo-good-to-use-at-select-se...

momcqueen · ‎11-09-2016

A major problem with Tracked Packet Intertnational calculations has been discovered where the Calculated Shipping tool says an item can ship via Tracked Packet when, in fact, it is too big to do so. Buyers are being shown Tracked Packet on listings where the dimensions (not weight) of the package exceed the allowed limit. Those same buyers are being allowed to purchase Tracked Packet as a postage option where Tracked Packet cannot actually be used to send the item. I have emailed you about this also. What went wrong with the tool and when will it be fixed?

gwrocen · ‎11-09-2016

Hello Raphael,

This is in regard to “shipping and handling” time which we spoke about last week.

We got a “late delivery” defect that we felt was through no fault of ours.

We did some more checking and this is what we found on our listings

when we look at delivery time to locations in the USA.

When we use “Create a listing” we pick

“Economy Shipping from outside the US (11 to 23 business days)”.

Then we pick “Handling time 3 or 5 business days”.

This should give us a total of “11 to 26 or 28 BUSINESS DAYS” for delivery.

When we look at our listings, here’s what we see:

“Delivery is estimated 12-19 days” OR

“Delivery is estimated 11-18 days” OR

“Delivery is estimated 10-17 days” OR

“Delivery is estimated 9-19 days”.

Nowhere do we see “11 – 23 BUSINESS days”

or “11 - 28 BUSINESS days” which would include handling of 5 business days.

Why the difference in all the examples above???

Here are some of our listings that show this.

(Look for these in completed listings on .com with shipping to a location in the USA)

Item 152286341454 – Delivery estimated within 12 – 19 business days.

Item 152287157594 – Delivery estimated within 12 – 19 business days.

Item 122202739170 - Delivery estimated within 12 – 19 business days.

Item 122199106419 - Delivery estimated within 10 – 17 business days.

We believe that this is what lead to our getting a defect for late delivery

because delivery time had been shortened

from what we had selected by a FULL 9 BUSINESS DAYS (see following).

The (late delivery defect) item in question was #122089879385 (completed listings on .com).

We had selected “Economy Shipping from outside the US (11 to 23 business days)”.

Plus 3 business days handling.

Item stated:

“Delivery: Estimated within 10-17 business days

Please note the delivery estimate is greater than 9 business days.”

Naturally International Delivery will end up being “Late Delivery”

if the seller’s criteria of 11-23 business days plus 3 day handling is sabotaged.

This is a No Win situation for a seller.

Other sellers have seen this as well.

Would appreciate it if you could give us some idea

why delivery data is being altered and displayed on the listing with a shorter time period.

Thanks.

gwrocen

momcqueen · ‎11-09-2016

Finally, Best Offer. Has something changed? At some point this week the text that used to warn a buyer that the Best Offer they were submitting couldn't include talk about postage has vanished. Now buyers are making offers for postage terms and, natualrl,y expecting those to be met. Did the policy abrou Best Offer and shipping change? If so, should seller be told ahead of time that was the case, or was this merely a glitch? This buyer wants to know what to do about the fact his postage upgrade request was not honoured by the seller and he has a valid point since nowhere on the screen did he see the 'no shipping offers' warning that most sellers still think is there. https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buyer-Central/Offer-accepted-but-terms-not-met/m-p/356314#M31539

Thank you advance,

Maureen

gwrocen · ‎11-09-2016

Raphael,

Further to Delivery time...........................

And this is really odd. This is one of our listings on .ca where Canada Post

is the default for shipping.

For this listing (#152237094242)

if you search delivery to the USA (to Florida or Georgia for example) ,

it states:

Delivery: Estimated Delivery within 6-11 business days

But if you want delivery anywhere within Canada it is:

Delivery: Estimated Delivery within 2- 16 business days

Why the shorter time frame allowance for shipping to the USA

when the item has to go through customs, travel further, etc.?

Doesn’t make sense.

Even when you have TWO IDENTICAL ITEMS listed in two separate auctions with identical shipping

there is a difference in estimated delivery to the same location in the USA.

Look at:

Item 152302063131 – 17-24 business days.

Item 152302065755 – 12-19 business days.

It appears that sellers may be getting ........late shipment defects through no fault of their own

because of this discrepancy.

The majority of sellers are doing their level best to ship in a timely manner.

They do this to inspire confidence in their buyers and to maintain their business.

However this will work only if this data is displayed and applied accurately as intended by the seller.

Thanks.

gwrocen

rose-dee · ‎11-09-2016

I hope you're having a good afternoon Raphael (despite the debacle last night in the U.S., which I watched with a combination of disbelief and horror until 4:00 a.m.). I have a couple of questions:

1) You were going to check into why the option of "Apply my Promotional Shipping Rules" appears not to be available on the new Revise Your Item form (actually I think it's absent from the new SYI form as well). See my question last week on this. Is there any update? If not, could you please put this on your issues list?

2) Do you know whether it's still necessary to specific select Australia, Germany, France, etc. as a "custom" destination when setting shipping parameters on listings, in order for the listing's shipping rates to be visible on those eBay sites? I noticed recently (using the new .com Seller Hub/Revise Your Item form) that the warning about having to specify these countries is now gone.

To put it another way, if I now choose "Worldwide", will shipping rates be visible for eBay sites/countries like Australia? I tested a couple of listings and this now seems to be the case. I've always broken out my shipping to destinations other than Canada and the U.S. into the two groups (specified and Worldwide) in order to ensure my shipping is shown to Australians, but I'd like to know if this is still necessary.

3) I was wondering about the effect of C.E.T.A. (the new Canada-EU trade agreement) on Canadian eBay sellers as well -- that is, until last night. Now I'm more concerned about what effect a repeal of NAFTA will have on us once Trump has his way. (I know, still a hypothetical, and not really a question I expect you to answer anyway. We may all have to deal with it soon enough).

rose-dee · ‎11-09-2016

@gwrocen wrote:

Naturally International Delivery will end up being “Late Delivery”
if the seller’s criteria of 11-23 business days plus 3 day handling is sabotaged.
This is a No Win situation for a seller.
Other sellers have seen this as well.
Would appreciate it if you could give us some idea
why delivery data is being altered and displayed on the listing with a shorter time period.

I'd like to chime in on this subject as well. It's very worrying, and made even more serious because most sellers won't even be aware it's happening until they start getting unexplained defects.

I'm actually still not even convinced that changes at the settings end didn't also occur (i.e. 11-23 day "Out of U.S." economy delivery option being changed to the shorter, U.S. domestic economy). I am certain some things have recently been changed in the .com list of shipping options -- the list is now longer, and differently ordered than previously. Is it completely impossible that the "new" system on .com could default to the shorter, U.S. "economy" option during a revision?

I hope you can assure us that eBay will be giving these two issues priority investigation. They need to be looked into urgently. A lot of sellers are going to get unfairly and unknowingly caught with defects for late deliveries in the meantime.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎11-09-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:

Good morning, Raphael. I have a few matters to being to the weekly chat today but I will post each one separately for clarity.

The first:

Browse Pages. How are the products and sellers featured selected? As in, what basis is used to determine which products and of those offered by what sellers? Of the ones I have viewed in toys, none of the sellers are Canadian. I might rank among the top 50if done as a Best Match, but appear nowhere on the Browse Page. This concerns me. It seems more like a closed door to prevent buyers form finding my listings than a new portal to reach millennial as was described to us. https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/The-Browse-Page-explained-that-landing-page-with-all-the...

Hi Maureen,

The items you see on browse pages aren't curated, they are basically Best Match search results based on the category you're seeing. For example, what items you see there when you browse to the Disney Car Toys category (Toys and Hobbies > TV, Movie and Character Toys > Disney Toys > Disney Car Toys) should roughly be the same as if you had searched using the term "Disney Car Toys".

momcqueen · ‎11-09-2016

Thank you for the response. The results on the Browse Page are totally different than those that appear on a search of the same terms within eBay. That's the reason I questioned it.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎11-09-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:

Canada and EU sign historic trade agreement during EU-Canada Summit. What impact, if any, does ebay Canada predict for Canadian ebay sellers exporting to Europe as a result of this?

http://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2016/10/30/canada-and-eu-sign-historic-trade-agreement-during-eu-canada-sum...

I'm not sure that eBay or myself are the right people to comment on this trade agreement, for I am not familiar with the finer terms of the agreement to begin with. We are certainly hoping that it'll help stimulate exports to and imports from Europe.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎11-09-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:

COUPON DEALS. I noticed on the weekend a promotion on ebay Canada where if you spent money with certain, select sellers, you got a discount not available on other purchases made elsewhere. How are these Deals put together and what criteria does a seller need to meet to be invited and involved? https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buyer-Central/eBay-Canada-coupon-fashion-promo-good-to-use-at-select-se...

As with any other promo, the Promo team makes the call on what coupons need to be issued in order to help stimulate whatever parts of the eBay business need it most, at any given time. Usually this is decided on a case by case basis, we never guarantee that a seller or category will be included or excluded from any promo. For that reason, there aren't criteria that I can share to help sellers get invited to participate.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎11-09-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:

A major problem with Tracked Packet Intertnational calculations has been discovered where the Calculated Shipping tool says an item can ship via Tracked Packet when, in fact, it is too big to do so. Buyers are being shown Tracked Packet on listings where the dimensions (not weight) of the package exceed the allowed limit. Those same buyers are being allowed to purchase Tracked Packet as a postage option where Tracked Packet cannot actually be used to send the item. I have emailed you about this also. What went wrong with the tool and when will it be fixed?

Thanks for flagging this. Can you share an item number that allows Tracked Packet International to be selected even though the dimensions are too big? Thanks!

raphael@ebay.com · ‎11-09-2016

@gwrocen wrote:

Hello Raphael,

This is in regard to “shipping and handling” time which we spoke about last week.

We got a “late delivery” defect that we felt was through no fault of ours.

We did some more checking and this is what we found on our listings

when we look at delivery time to locations in the USA.

When we use “Create a listing” we pick

“Economy Shipping from outside the US (11 to 23 business days)”.

Then we pick “Handling time 3 or 5 business days”.

This should give us a total of “11 to 26 or 28 BUSINESS DAYS” for delivery.

When we look at our listings, here’s what we see:

“Delivery is estimated 12-19 days” OR

“Delivery is estimated 11-18 days” OR

“Delivery is estimated 10-17 days” OR

“Delivery is estimated 9-19 days”.

Nowhere do we see “11 – 23 BUSINESS days”

or “11 - 28 BUSINESS days” which would include handling of 5 business days.

Why the difference in all the examples above???

Here are some of our listings that show this.

(Look for these in completed listings on .com with shipping to a location in the USA)

Item 152286341454 – Delivery estimated within 12 – 19 business days.

Item 152287157594 – Delivery estimated within 12 – 19 business days.

Item 122202739170 - Delivery estimated within 12 – 19 business days.

Item 122199106419 - Delivery estimated within 10 – 17 business days.

We believe that this is what lead to our getting a defect for late delivery

because delivery time had been shortened

from what we had selected by a FULL 9 BUSINESS DAYS (see following).

The (late delivery defect) item in question was #122089879385 (completed listings on .com).

We had selected “Economy Shipping from outside the US (11 to 23 business days)”.

Plus 3 business days handling.

Item stated:

“Delivery: Estimated within 10-17 business days

Please note the delivery estimate is greater than 9 business days.”

Naturally International Delivery will end up being “Late Delivery”

if the seller’s criteria of 11-23 business days plus 3 day handling is sabotaged.

This is a No Win situation for a seller.

Other sellers have seen this as well.

Would appreciate it if you could give us some idea

why delivery data is being altered and displayed on the listing with a shorter time period.

Thanks.

gwrocen

Hi gwrocen,

Thanks for all the additional info. This is something I need to put in front of the shipping team. I'll update this post as soon as I get news from them.

UPDATE:

It appears that Economy Shipping from Outside the US (11 to 23 business days) only counts as 7-14 business days. Whatever you see on your listings is that + your handling time. I have someone on the Shipping team looking into why the discrepancy between what you see when you create the listing and what shows up on the listing.

UPDATE 2:

We have verified that the issue only appears when looking at the item on eBay.ca. The EDDs are accurately reflecting the 11 to 23 business days + your handling time when viewed on eBay.com. This is a bit of a silver lining as most US buyers will look at your items from eBay.com and not eBay.ca, where the EDDs are unreasonable. Also, we have verified that buyers see the correct date when asked whether the item arrived on time (23 days + your handling time), So the issue is only on eBay.ca and only on the item page and only when looking at shipping to the US.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎11-09-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:
Thank you for the response. The results on the Browse Page are totally different than those that appear on a search of the same terms within eBay. That's the reason I questioned it.

Thanks. I have flagged this to a colleague who will take a look.

pjcdn2005 · ‎11-09-2016

@gwrocen wrote:
Raphael,

Further to Delivery time...........................
And this is really odd. This is one of our listings on .ca where Canada Post
is the default for shipping.
For this listing (#152237094242)
if you search delivery to the USA (to Florida or Georgia for example) ,
it states:
Delivery: Estimated Delivery within 6-11 business days

But if you want delivery anywhere within Canada it is:
Delivery: Estimated Delivery within 2- 16 business days

Why the shorter time frame allowance for shipping to the USA
when the item has to go through customs, travel further, etc.?
Doesn’t make sense.

Even when you have TWO IDENTICAL ITEMS listed in two separate auctions with identical shipping
there is a difference in estimated delivery to the same location in the USA.
Look at:
Item 152302063131 – 17-24 business days.
Item 152302065755 – 12-19 business days.

It appears that sellers may be getting ........late shipment defects through no fault of their own
because of this discrepancy.
The majority of sellers are doing their level best to ship in a timely manner.
They do this to inspire confidence in their buyers and to maintain their business.
However this will work only if this data is displayed and applied accurately as intended by the seller.

Thanks.
gwrocen

Your item with 17-24 days has a 5 day handling time. The other one has 10 days hence the difference in the eta.

momcqueen · ‎11-09-2016

raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@mjwl2006 wrote:
A major problem with Tracked Packet Intertnational calculations has been discovered where the Calculated Shipping tool says an item can ship via Tracked Packet when, in fact, it is too big to do so. Buyers are being shown Tracked Packet on listings where the dimensions (not weight) of the package exceed the allowed limit. Those same buyers are being allowed to purchase Tracked Packet as a postage option where Tracked Packet cannot actually be used to send the item. I have emailed you about this also. What went wrong with the tool and when will it be fixed?
Thanks for flagging this. Can you share an item number that allows Tracked Packet International to be selected even though the dimensions are too big? Thanks!

Certainly. This information is also contained in the email I sent you. It was item 232086199530 . The buyer was offered and chose Tracked Packet as their postage and it doesn't exist on an item of this size meaning I was forced to upgrade to XPRESSPOST at a significant additional cost which came from my own funds. I'm looking for this to be fixed too.