April 3rd Weekly Board Hour

[raphael@ebay.com]

Hello Canadian eBayers!

Welcome to the first Weekly Board Hour for the 2nd quarter of 2013. As Keanu Reeves would say: "Whoa!" Time sure flies when you're having fun.

Joining me today are the usual suspects:

Rodney, Head of Product and Country Co-Manager

Kalvin, Community Manager

Bryan.ca, Country Product Manager

Post your questions and comments, we will start answering at the top of the hour.

Cheers!

Raphael, Country Product Manager

[raphael@ebay.com]

Due to the fire alarm forcing us out of the building a few minutes ago, we'll extend this Board Hour until 2:30 pm ET to give you a chance to get answers to your questions.

[Anonymous]

Hi ottokitty.

I would recommend giving the combined discounts feature a shot. There are a lot of different choices available, and it's likely you'll find an available rule there that you can customize to your needs.

To try it out:

1. Go to My eBay on the site you're going to use to list on. (In your case, eBay.com. If you list on eBay.ca, then you should set your rules up on eBay.ca).

2. Click the blue "Account" link near the top of the page.

3. Click "Site Preferences".

4. Scroll down to "Shipping preferences" and click "Show".

5. Look for "Offer combined payments and shipping". Click "edit".

From there you can step through and explore the different options available. Note that calculated rules only apply if you use calculated shipping. The Flat Rate section will be the area of interest for most sellers.

If you are manually entering discount information for buyers, I would recommend putting it immediate after your item description details. 

As for how to phrase it, that depends on what your offer is. Try looking around at leading sellers in your category to see what they do on their listings. Something like "I offer combined shipping! Only $1 shipping for each additional item in a combined order. To take advantage, add both items to your shopping cart before checking out". Or something like that.

Good luck! 

[postit4me]

Hi when is ebay going to increase their catologue for books, cassette, etc It is very limited and very hard to include new ones. I gave up after submitting many entries and no response from ebay catologue.

[asyahijab]

Thanks for the fire alarm to give me a chance to ask a question.

I have a rule of combine shipping, pay the highest plus 50% additional.

Some of my items could be sent by light package some by small package.

When my buyer make multiple purchases and paid without request my invoice first, the combine shipping won't apply if they bought items which have different method of shipping.

Is it norm?

this thing always happened and I end up to refund the discount.

[raphael@ebay.com]

Thanks for the fire alarm to give me a chance to ask a question.

I have a rule of combine shipping, pay the highest plus 50% additional.

Some of my items could be sent by light package some by small package.

When my buyer make multiple purchases and paid without request my invoice first, the combine shipping won't apply if they bought items which have different method of shipping.

Is it norm?

this thing always happened and I end up to refund the discount.

Hello asiahhijab,

Looking at your combined shipping rules and several of your items, I cannot tell what would cause such a problem. What do you mean by different methods of shipping? Every one of your items I looked at are shipping with Canada Post Expedited Parcel.

[kalvin@ebay.com]

Hi when is ebay going to increase their catologue for books, cassette, etc It is very limited and very hard to include new ones. I gave up after submitting many entries and no response from ebay catologue.

Hi postit4me,

We don't have a definite date - but we appreciate your submissions as these help grow catalogue, so please do keep them coming! If more information is needed from you, we'll respond to your email, otherwise these are just one way communications.

[beautiful_times]

I received my ebay bucks certificate today and it did not include the promised $5 bonus for the program ending. Customer service knows nothing about this. Who do I need to speak to to get this fixed?

[kalvin@ebay.com]

I received my ebay bucks certificate today and it did not include the promised $5 bonus for the program ending. Customer service knows nothing about this. Who do I need to speak to to get this fixed?

Hi beautiful_times,

Sorry to hear that. Let me follow up for you - someone will get in touch with you shortly.

[beautiful_times]

Hi beautiful_times,

Sorry to hear that. Let me follow up for you - someone will get in touch with you shortly.

Thank you - if you read the boards there are other members who, like me did not receive the $5 either.

[bilge21]

Two questions..

What is Ebay going to do about sellers that keep listing multiple ads with different prices and titles but all advertising the exact same product? The duplicates have gotten so numerous that's it's no longer feasible to report them, especially when they are still there a week later?

Does Ebay have any plans to set up a filter where a buyer can filter out certain sellers that insist on posting so many duplicate listings that it takes for ever to find just one certain item? Some of these sellers have duplicate ads that take up the first 3 or so pages and there's no way to filter out that seller.

[bilge21]

Thank you - if you read the boards there are other members who, like me did not receive the $5 either.

Yeah, I didn't get the bonus either.

[raphael@ebay.com]

Two questions..

What is Ebay going to do about sellers that keep listing multiple ads with different prices and titles but all advertising the exact same product? The duplicates have gotten so numerous that's it's no longer feasible to report them, especially when they are still there a week later?

Does Ebay have any plans to set up a filter where a buyer can filter out certain sellers that insist on posting so many duplicate listings that it takes for ever to find just one certain item? Some of these sellers have duplicate ads that take up the first 3 or so pages and there's no way to filter out that seller.

Hello bilge21,

At this time, variations in price and title does make listings to be considered non-duplicates. We do have provisions in place to catch sellers who abuse this, if you could private message me any user ID for seller like that, I'll be glad to look into it.

As for Search, although you can't filter out specific sellers, there are several ways to work around that. For example, if there is a certain key word used by the particular seller whose items you are trying to filter out, you can have Search omit to serve you listings with that keyword. You can do this via Advanced Search or simply my adding that work with a minus sign (-) in front of it in the general Search. Another example, if the seller is in a different location than the item you are looking for, you can omit that location in your Search. That will have to be done using Advanced Search though.

-- Edited by raphael@ebay.com at Apr 3, 2013 2:34 PM EDT

-- Edited by raphael@ebay.com at Apr 3, 2013 2:35 PM EDT

[kalvin@ebay.com]

Yeah, I didn't get the bonus either.

Hi bilge21,

Members eligible for the extra $5 would be advised on the original & reminder emails. Can you please double check to make sure the emails had this stated?

Thanks,

[raphael@ebay.com]

This concludes this week's Board Hour. Thanks everyone for participating, see you next week!