Hello Canadian eBayers,
Today's session will start at 1 pm Eastern, as usual. Please feel free to go ahead and start posting at your earliest convenience. See you soon!
A few days ago, a seller posted this message on Seller Central:
"A few days ago I called eBay to get help in cancelling a bid from a buyer in a country to which I do not ship. Following the directions given to me on the phone when I was still the phone, I cancelled the bid for the shipping reason. The buyer accepted the cancellation in about an hour. THIS ACTION LED TO A DEFECT FOR ME!
I just spoke to eBay and was now told the proper way was to first email the buyer and and let buyer initiate the cancellation. I was also told that the defect I got although from bad advice would stay on my record."
My questions to you today:
1) Who is right? The first customer service representative? or the second? or none of the above?
2) What is the correct procedure in such instance to avoid a "defect"
3) What is a Canadian eBay seller - already competitively disadvantaged in many ways - to do when the wrong advice is given by eBay staffer? What appeal can one file? How? Where? When?
Another question that comes up regularly in one shape or another:
Is the Canadian "Cart" now fully functional?
Could you please explain in details what the Shopping Cart does on eBay.ca.
When does it apply?
Is it available to all sellers? to all buyers? in all categories?
Purchases of items listed by the same seller on eBay.ca? eBay.com?
Purchases made on eBay.ca? regardless where listed?
Regardless of currency?
Regardless of shipping method?
Are they substantial differences between the shopping cart on eBay.ca and eBay.com?
What should a Canadian buyer do to avoid problems?
What should a Canadian seller do to avoid problems?
Is your "customer service" staff (spread around the world) aware of the differences between the cart on eBay.ca and eBay.com and can they correctly answer questions and inquiries on the subject?
Here is a technical question regarding the current "fixed price" invitational promotion offered by eBay.
When I view my Selling Manager on eBay.com, I see under "Promotional Offers"
Pay no insertion fees for up to 15,000 fixed price listings
15,000 free insertion fees on fixed price listings. All existing selling limits apply.
Start: 08/04/14 00:00:00 PDT
End: 08/08/14 23:59:59 PDT
15,000 free insertion fees on fixed price listings. All existing selling limits apply.
Start: 08/04/14 00:00:00 PDT
End: 08/08/14 23:59:59 PDT
Available at ebay.com
When I view my "my eBay" (All Selling) on eBay.ca at the bottom of the page, I see:
Pay no insertion fees for up to 15,000 fixed price listings
15,000 free insertion fees on fixed price listings. All existing selling limits apply. Available at cafr.ebay.ca,ebay.ca
My question is pretty obvious:
Why can't I see the promotion available on both sites on the same page, both on eBay.com and eBay.ca?
To muddle the water a bit more: most promotions are shown on both sites (.ca and .com). However, when eBay asks sellers to click on a link to activate the promotion, only one site shows!
On the same subject, my second question:
Why is it that so many sellers (myself included) regularly claim not to have received the invitation by email and/or through "My Messages" although they were eligible to the invitational promotion. Where is the problem?
Why can't eBay send email and a message through "my messages" to those invited sellers?
This is a follow-up question from an earlier session. I apologize for all the screen shots, but it was the easiest way to illustrate this.
After having tried checking off all the boxes in the 2nd international shipping section, I ended up with two shipping options showing for the U.S. (not what I want as it may be confusing for U.S. buyers). The listing still doesn't show an actual shipping amount for New Zealand (see screen shot #3). This was the case whether I checked off every box or unchecked "United States" (as shown below). My exclusion list is set up properly and seems to be working.
Due to this double entry for U.S., I'm just going to go back to my old way of setting up the 2nd int'l shipping, by only checking off everything from "Germany" on. I suspect the "N. & S. America" box is what is causing a 2nd shipping entry for the U.S. to appear in listings. The sample below was taken from my item # 161386264424 if you need to take a look.
I'm resigned to leaving NZ as it is (or giving up on NZ) -- but my question is whether this is an eBay glitch and if so, if there is any plan to correct it? It seems to me that "Oceania" should have a box in that 2nd int'l shipping section, as it does in the exclusion list, which would pick up NZ. Could this be the programming "disconnect"? I think many sellers would like to show a flat shipping rate to NZ, but also show a custom flat shipping option for the U.S., so it would be good to know if this is ever going to be available.
1) What I've set up:
2) What the U.S. buyer sees if the boxes are checked as above:
3) What the NZ buyer sees if the boxes are checked as above:
@pierrelebel wrote:
A few days ago, a seller posted this message on Seller Central:
"A few days ago I called eBay to get help in cancelling a bid from a buyer in a country to which I do not ship. Following the directions given to me on the phone when I was still the phone, I cancelled the bid for the shipping reason. The buyer accepted the cancellation in about an hour. THIS ACTION LED TO A DEFECT FOR ME!
I just spoke to eBay and was now told the proper way was to first email the buyer and and let buyer initiate the cancellation. I was also told that the defect I got although from bad advice would stay on my record."
My questions to you today:
1) Who is right? The first customer service representative? or the second? or none of the above?
2) What is the correct procedure in such instance to avoid a "defect"
3) What is a Canadian eBay seller - already competitively disadvantaged in many ways - to do when the wrong advice is given by eBay staffer? What appeal can one file? How? Where? When?
Hi Pierre,
This is a very unfortunate CS error.
1) The 2nd CSR has the right answer
2) The correct procedure is what was recommended by the 2nd CSR, to either get the buyer to initiate the cancellation or at least create a "paper trail" in eBay messages so that anyone reviewing the case can tell it wasn't a seller cancellation due to a break in stock or lack of willingness to complete the transaction.
3) It's never great when wrong advice is given. The best way to handle this would be to contact CS again and explain what happened, and that you want to appeal the case. The CSR should be able to route the call appropriately.
@pierrelebel wrote:
Here is a technical question regarding the current "fixed price" invitational promotion offered by eBay.
When I view my Selling Manager on eBay.com, I see under "Promotional Offers"
Pay no insertion fees for up to 15,000 fixed price listings
15,000 free insertion fees on fixed price listings. All existing selling limits apply.
Start: 08/04/14 00:00:00 PDT
End: 08/08/14 23:59:59 PDT
Available at ebay.com
When I view my "my eBay" (All Selling) on eBay.ca at the bottom of the page, I see:
Pay no insertion fees for up to 15,000 fixed price listings15,000 free insertion fees on fixed price listings. All existing selling limits apply.Available at cafr.ebay.ca,ebay.ca
My question is pretty obvious:
Why can't I see the promotion available on both sites on the same page, both on eBay.com and eBay.ca?
To muddle the water a bit more: most promotions are shown on both sites (.ca and .com). However, when eBay asks sellers to click on a link to activate the promotion, only one site shows!
On the same subject, my second question:
Why is it that so many sellers (myself included) regularly claim not to have received the invitation by email and/or through "My Messages" although they were eligible to the invitational promotion. Where is the problem?
Why can't eBay send email and a message through "my messages" to those invited sellers?
There seems to be a problem with Selling Manager right now, I can't get it to load when looking at your account on eBay.com which makes me unable to check the promo on there. From what you write though, it sounds like both are the same promo, just that you see a CA friendly version of its pages when looking at eBay.ca and a US friendly version on eBay.com. Unless I misunderstood what you are saying?
To answer your first question, there are legal reasons why we don't just use the same promo page for eBay.com and eBay.ca. There has to be a Canadian page for terms and conditions, rules, etc.
For your second question, as far as I know when invitation-based promos are run, an eligible seller is defined as one who received the invitation email. Thus, if a seller didn't received the invitation, they aren't eligible for the promo.
Are you saying that sellers get the promo invitation by email but not in eBay Messages or vice versa?
"Are you saying that sellers get the promo invitation by email but not in eBay Messages or vice versa?"
NO
I am stating that sellers, eligible to the promotion, do NOT get either a message by email or through "my messages".
The only way to know if one is eligible is to click on the Selling Manager every morning and see if a promotion is offered or not.
That is not a logical way to run a business.
@rose-dee wrote:
This is a follow-up question from an earlier session. I apologize for all the screen shots, but it was the easiest way to illustrate this.
After having tried checking off all the boxes in the 2nd international shipping section, I ended up with two shipping options showing for the U.S. (not what I want as it may be confusing for U.S. buyers). The listing still doesn't show an actual shipping amount for New Zealand (see screen shot #3). This was the case whether I checked off every box or unchecked "United States" (as shown below). My exclusion list is set up properly and seems to be working.
Due to this double entry for U.S., I'm just going to go back to my old way of setting up the 2nd int'l shipping, by only checking off everything from "Germany" on. I suspect the "N. & S. America" box is what is causing a 2nd shipping entry for the U.S. to appear in listings. The sample below was taken from my item # 161386264424 if you need to take a look.
I'm resigned to leaving NZ as it is (or giving up on NZ) -- but my question is whether this is an eBay glitch and if so, if there is any plan to correct it? It seems to me that "Oceania" should have a box in that 2nd int'l shipping section, as it does in the exclusion list, which would pick up NZ. Could this be the programming "disconnect"? I think many sellers would like to show a flat shipping rate to NZ, but also show a custom flat shipping option for the U.S., so it would be good to know if this is ever going to be available.
1) What I've set up:
2) What the U.S. buyer sees if the boxes are checked as above:
3) What the NZ buyer sees if the boxes are checked as above:
Hi rose-dee,
I don't know why this is happening to this listing. I've asked for help with it and I'll update this post when I get the answer.
@pierrelebel wrote:
"Are you saying that sellers get the promo invitation by email but not in eBay Messages or vice versa?"
NO
I am stating that sellers, eligible to the promotion, do NOT get either a message by email or through "my messages".
The only way to know if one is eligible is to click on the Selling Manager every morning and see if a promotion is offered or not.
That is not a logical way to run a business.
Thanks for the additional info. We would need a real life example of this to be able to troubleshoot. If it happens to you again (or if it happens to anyone who might be reading this), can you send me the details in an email?
