April 24th Weekly Board Hour

[raphael@ebay.com]

Hello Canadian eBayers!

Welcome to the April 24th edition of the Weekly Board Hour. Joining me today are Rodney (Country Co-Manager and Director of Product Management), and Bryan.ca (Country Product Manager). Post your questions or comments, we'll start answering imminently.

Raphael

Country Product Manager

[bryan.ca@ebay.ca]

Hi heidilynn0_3,

We are hoping that by next month the information will be shown on the 'view item page' but until that time sellers are able to see the charges on the 'review your purchase page'.

In the help bubble you will see that this is a consolidation of items such as: 'This amount includes applicable customs duties, taxes, brokerage and other fees.' So its including more items then just import charges.

Bryan

[rose-dee]

Hello bb_cool_stuff

The only way a buyer can open a case after the 45 days mark has passed is via Customer Support. Hence, any behavior that would constitute abuse should be noticed and prevented by the Support agent reviewing the case.

Raphael, I think I may be partly responsible for stirring up this concern by copying a thread from a US discussion board that included a quote from an eBay decision where the seller was told his status would be impacted by a buyer claim after the 45-day point. 

However, if the report was true and accurate, it is a serious concern.  I'll try to find the thread and the quoted decision and send it to you or post it here if there's time.  Thanks!

[raphael@ebay.com]

I have to ask this probably silly question: does eBay anticipate any site overload due to the thousands of sellers who might potentially be trying to process a new subscription on the same day or over a short period of time?  🙂

Thanks for your concern 🙂 We're ready!

[Anonymous]

Does a Fixed Price Item receive better selling exposure if it is NOT listed in a Store? 

Hi janna! There's a lot of things that factor into how a given listing ranks in search, but whether or not the seller has a store is not one of them. 

Many years ago, we had something called "store inventory format", which was our first foray into fixed price format. These listings didn't get indexed in the main search results, which was thoroughly confusing for sellers, buyers and staffers alike. We got rid of that format a few years back, and it was cause for celebration around the office here. 🙂

[pjcdn2005]

We have some excellent questions today already! Thanks for this one.

First, here's a page that has a lot of details and examples about how subscription changes will work and how the fees are calculated - http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/feesupdate2013tandc.html#freeinsertionfeelistings

Second, in answer to your questions,you can sign up for annual billing on your store subscription anytime from May 1st forward. There's no time limit - you can change over to annual whenever you wish. Fees will be prorated based on the day you make the change.

There are a couple different billing cycles to be aware of. If you normally get billed in the middle of the month, then you'll want to sign up prior to May 14th to be on the safe side and have it apply as soon as possible. Otherwise, if you pay at the end of the month, best bet is to sign up before the 29th. Whenever you decide to make the change, we'll just prorate the part of your first month that is remaining.

Thank you for the reply Rodney. I do understand how the new fees work but I was hoping that it was set up so that we could register for the yearly subscription before May 1 so that there wouldn't be a rush to do it on that day.

[raphael@ebay.com]

Raphael, I think I may be partly responsible for stirring up this concern by copying a thread from a US discussion board that included a quote from an eBay decision where the seller was told his status would be impacted by a buyer claim after the 45-day point. 

However, if the report was true and accurate, it is a serious concern.  I'll try to find the thread and the quoted decision and send it to you or post it here if there's time.  Thanks!

Given that the 45 days is the limit to open a case, it's entirely possible that a seller's status could be impacted by a decision on a buyer claim after that period. Buyers cannot, however, get a case opened without the help of a CS agent after those 45 days, which also acts as a buffer to catch the eventual abusers.

If you do find the thread on the US forums, please do post it to make sure I understood you correctly.

[Anonymous]

Hi pjcdn2005

Thank you for the reply Rodney. I do understand how the new fees work but I was hoping that it was set up so that we could register for the yearly subscription before May 1 so that there wouldn't be a rush to do it on that day.

I'm glad your enthused about this annual subscription option. I promise you won't have to stand in line on May 1st. 🙂

[pjcdn2005]

Raphael, I think I may be partly responsible for stirring up this concern by copying a thread from a US discussion board that included a quote from an eBay decision where the seller was told his status would be impacted by a buyer claim after the 45-day point. 

However, if the report was true and accurate, it is a serious concern.  I'll try to find the thread and the quoted decision and send it to you or post it here if there's time.  Thanks!

Actually, there has recently been a number of reports on the U.S. boards about cases being opened after 45 days. I hadn't noticed similar posts before so it does seem as if there has been a change in the policy.

[pocomocomputing]

The latest sales promotion Apr 20-29 has issues with "random" charges for listing fees. It has been reported in the eBay.ca forums and the eBay.com forums.

Some sellers who have had invalid charges have called eBay and got credits. Some sellers say it is not worth their time to call for $3-4.

Will eBay issue credits automatically at the end of the month so sellers do not have to call in?

[rose-dee]

Given that the 45 days is the limit to open a case, it's entirely possible that a seller's status could be impacted by a decision on a buyer claim after that period. Buyers cannot, however, get a case opened without the help of a CS agent after those 45 days, which also acts as a buffer to catch the eventual abusers.

If you do find the thread on the US forums, please do post it to make sure I understood you correctly.

My understanding from reading the US discussion was that the buyer did not contact CS to make the complaint after the 45-day point, and this was why there was so much chatter about it.  I'll have to search for it again, but will email it to you and if you'd like to post it next time with a clarification, that would be very helpful.  Thank you!

[rose-dee]

I'm glad your enthused about this annual subscription option. I promise you won't have to stand in line on May 1st. 🙂

I was personally just worried that we'd shut down the site from over-traffic in our stampede on May 1st!  :^O

[pjcdn2005]

A question about the fvf change on May 1. If an item has been listed before May 1 and is purchased after May 1, will I be charged the old fvf or the new one?

[raphael@ebay.com]

Actually, there has recently been a number of reports on the U.S. boards about cases being opened after 45 days. I hadn't noticed similar posts before so it does seem as if there has been a change in the policy.

There actually was an update on the eBay Buyer Protection policy on April 9th. All the details can be read here.

[raphael@ebay.com]

A question about the fvf change on May 1. If an item has been listed before May 1 and is purchased after May 1, will I be charged the old fvf or the new one?

Hi pjcdn2005,

FVF being charged at the time of the actual sale of the item (or at time of actual payment under the new BIN rules ;)), in this scenario you would be charged the new FVF.

[pjcdn2005]

There actually was an update on the eBay Buyer Protection policy on April 9th. All the details can be read here.

 Yes I realize that but that does not mention that cases can now be opened after 45 days...unless I missed it.

[pjcdn2005]

Hi pjcdn2005,

FVF being charged at the time of the actual sale of the item (or at time of actual payment under the new BIN rules ;)), in this scenario you would be charged the new FVF.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

I was personally just worried that we'd shut down the site from over-traffic in our stampede on May 1st!  :^O

[Anonymous]

whoops - meant to add to my response to rose-dee that it wasn't a bad question at all. eBay's massive scale and active user base have presented technical challenges for us from time to time. But it's a good problem to have in general. And we're ready for this one. 🙂

[raphael@ebay.com]

Yes I realize that but that does not mention that cases can now be opened after 45 days...unless I missed it.

Found it. The answer is here. It's under the Managed Returns process that a buyer can open a case more than 45 days after the payment date. Specifically:

Buyers may open a case for so long as the option to open such a case is visible through the buyer's returns page which can be up to and past 45 days from the date of payment.

Managed Returns is currently only live on eBay.com.

[raphael@ebay.com]

This concludes the Board Hour for this week. Thanks everyone for joining, see you next week!