February 13th, 2013 - Weekly Board Hour Thread

[raphael@ebay.com]

Hello everyone! Welcome to the newly resurrected weekly Board hour. I'm Raphael, Country Product Manager for Canada and along with me is Kalvin, Community Manager, whom many of you already know. We'll be here for the next hour or so, you're all invited to join the conversation!

We'll keep all questions and answers in this thread for a tidier experience.

[karl*katz]

Good Afternoon

I have three questions I was hoping you could address.

(1)     When looking at motor vehicles on the eBay Canada site the item location is not shown.

If you look at the same vehicle on the eBay.com site (United States) you do see the item location.

As most vehicles are sold as local pickup only the item location is important.

I was wondering why that information is not shown on the eBay Canada site but is shown on the US site.

(2)    Sellers feedback percentage is based upon the previous 12 months however after 12 months when negatives drop off the percentages are not adjusting automatically.

We frequently see posts from sellers who have received nothing but positive feedback over the previous 12 months but there percentages have not returned to 100% and they have to telephone customer support to have it fixed.

This isn’t just a case of a few days lag in updating it can be several months.

Why can’t the system automatically update the feedback percentage?

(3)      How do eBay members located in countries that do not have an eBay site contact eBay?

eBay has members in many countries that do not have eBay sites .

We see posts from members in Brazil and Peru and Japan and South Africa just as a few examples and when they try to contact eBay they get given a toll free number that only works from within North America and can’t be called from where they are located.

How are these members supposed to contact ebay?

With Thanks   Karl*Katz

[karl*katz]

BTW

You will notice some off topic threads in the

"Weekly Board Hour Session" board.

Will you be relocating or deleting them ?

Thanky You and

WELCOME  🙂

[pierrelebel]

Good afternoon.

In the last seven months, eBay.ca and eBay.com have changed the way they offer listing promotions to sellers. Now, sellers are only eligible if they get an invitation for a specific user ID.

It appears most promotions were offered mostly to sellers without an eBay store while a few were offered to some (not all) sellers with an eBay store.

Does eBay intend to continue the current policy of offering listing promotions by invitation only or can we expect eBay to revert to the old system where all eligible sellers could take advantage of listing promotions.

Thank you for your time. 

[kalvin@ebay.com]

BTW

You will notice some off topic threads in the

"Weekly Board Hour Session" board.

Will you be relocating or deleting them ?

Thanky You and

WELCOME  🙂

Hi karl*katz,

We'll leave them for now. Moving forward, we're hoping everyone will jump on the dated weekly threads so we can address their questions.

Thanks,

-- Edited by kalvin@ebay.com at Feb 13, 2013 1:13 PM EST

[kalvin@ebay.com]

BTW

You will notice some off topic threads in the

"Weekly Board Hour Session" board.

Will you be relocating or deleting them ?

Thanky You and

WELCOME  🙂

Hi karl*katz,

We'll leave them for now. Moving forward, we're hoping everyone will jump on the dated weekly threads so we can address their questions.

Thanks,

[pierrelebel]

PS - Kalvin did you know you are using the old eBay logo in your signature?

[raphael@ebay.com]

Good Afternoon

I have three questions I was hoping you could address.

(1)     When looking at motor vehicles on the eBay Canada site the item location is not shown.

If you look at the same vehicle on the eBay.com site (United States) you do see the item location.

As most vehicles are sold as local pickup only the item location is important.

I was wondering why that information is not shown on the eBay Canada site but is shown on the US site.

(2)    Sellers feedback percentage is based upon the previous 12 months however after 12 months when negatives drop off the percentages are not adjusting automatically.

We frequently see posts from sellers who have received nothing but positive feedback over the previous 12 months but there percentages have not returned to 100% and they have to telephone customer support to have it fixed.

This isn’t just a case of a few days lag in updating it can be several months.

Why can’t the system automatically update the feedback percentage?

(3)      How do eBay members located in countries that do not have an eBay site contact eBay?

eBay has members in many countries that do not have eBay sites .

We see posts from members in Brazil and Peru and Japan and South Africa just as a few examples and when they try to contact eBay they get given a toll free number that only works from within North America and can’t be called from where they are located.

How are these members supposed to contact ebay?

With Thanks   Karl*Katz

Hello Karl*Katz,

Thank you for your questions.

1) Most of the Motors listings I look at actually do show at least United States as the item location. I suppose this is what you mean.

This is due to Item Location Validation which exists on eBay.com but will only come to eBay.ca in the near future. This feature allows a seller to only provide a zip or postal code for Item Location and the site auto completes it with city/state or city/province. Unfortunately when a site doesn't have that feature, only the country is displayed.

2) The system should automatically update the Feedback percentage. I'll reach out to the relevant team to ensure we aren't seeing a bug there. Thanks for the report.

3) Typically, users from countries that don't have a dedicated eBay site use eBay.com. These members are supported by the same CS teams as all of North American users, albeit the system might serve them different contact channels according to where they are located. Alternative contact channels would typically be email.

[karl*katz]

I hope Kalvin is going to use his power influence and authority to have that Logo reinstated.

Bring back the Moose also.

B-)

[kalvin@ebay.com]

Good afternoon.

In the last seven months, eBay.ca and eBay.com have changed the way they offer listing promotions to sellers. Now, sellers are only eligible if they get an invitation for a specific user ID.

It appears most promotions were offered mostly to sellers without an eBay store while a few were offered to some (not all) sellers with an eBay store.

Does eBay intend to continue the current policy of offering listing promotions by invitation only or can we expect eBay to revert to the old system where all eligible sellers could take advantage of listing promotions.

Thank you for your time. 

Good afternoon pierrelebel,

There are no definite plans to commit to one or the other. The promotions do vary and we hope that you're able to take advantage of some of them.

Thanks,

[kalvin@ebay.com]

PS - Kalvin did you know you are using the old eBay logo in your signature?

Hmm... that's weird! I'm seeing the new logo on my end 😉

[karl*katz]

"

3) Typically, users from countries that don't have a dedicated eBay site use eBay.com. These members are supported by the same CS teams as all of North American users, albeit the system might serve them different contact channels according to where they are located. Alternative contact channels would typically be email. "

eBay.com does not have eMail support anymore only telephone support and the telephone number these members are given is the toll free number that does not work outside of Canada or the US.

I have directed some members to eBay UK where they do have eMail and live online chat still.

http://ocs.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ContactCS&ref=1&topicrelid=5007060130&sid=5235285590&convId=0...

Some members report that eBay United Kingdom has been able to deal with there problems but other members have been told to contact eBay .com however have not been given a way to do so.

There are telephone numbers for eBay.com on this page that can be called from anywhere in the world but if you don't have a pin number you get hung up upon plus it is very expensive for some people to call.

http://www.ebayinc.com/contact

BTW Thank You for your response.

I will stand back now as I am sure others want to post.

B-)

[karl*katz]

I intended to highlight the quoted passage and did not do so.

3) Typically, users from countries that don't have a dedicated eBay site use eBay.com. These members are supported by the same CS teams as all of North American users, albeit the system might serve them different contact channels according to where they are located. Alternative contact channels would typically be email. "

eBay.com does not have eMail support anymore only telephone support and the telephone number these members are given is the toll free number that does not work outside of Canada or the US.

I have directed some members to eBay UK where they do have eMail and live online chat still.

http://ocs.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ContactCS&ref=1&topicrelid=5007060130&sid=5235285590&convId=0...

Some members report that eBay United Kingdom has been able to deal with there problems but other members have been told to contact eBay .com however have not been given a way to do so.

There are telephone numbers for eBay.com on this page that can be called from anywhere in the world but if you don't have a pin number you get hung up upon plus it is very expensive for some people to call.

http://www.ebayinc.com/contact

BTW Thank You for your response.

I will stand back now as I am sure others want to post.

[raphael@ebay.com]

eBay.com does not have eMail support anymore only telephone support and the telephone number these members are given is the toll free number that does not work outside of Canada or the US.

I have directed some members to eBay UK where they do have eMail and live online chat still.

http://ocs.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ContactCS&ref=1&topicrelid=5007060130&sid=5235285590&convId=0...

Some members report that eBay United Kingdom has been able to deal with there problems but other members have been told to contact eBay .com however have not been given a way to do so.

There are telephone numbers for eBay.com on this page that can be called from anywhere in the world but if you don't have a pin number you get hung up upon plus it is very expensive for some people to call.

http://www.ebayinc.com/contact

BTW Thank You for your response.

I will stand back now as I am sure others want to post.

B-) 

Thanks for clarifying. This is something I was unaware of since I haven't had to call eBay CS from a foreign country very often 🙂  I will definitely look into because now I'm curious.

[karl*katz]

Thank You  🙂

[westernstargifts]

Good afternoon,

Last year when announcements were made regarding ebay changes Canadian sellers were told that they did not have to upload 90% tracking to maintain their TRS status on ebay.com.  It was discovered later that ebay reneged on that promise and removed TRS status from Canadians not meeting that requirement causing their sales to plummet. 

May I ask why that change was made and why we were not informed?

Views have dropped in Omniture by about 1/3 reflecting the drop in my sales.  Most Canadian sellers rely on the U.S. as their biggest market.  Many other sellers have also posted that they have experienced a similar drop in sales and many of them are leaving ebay as it is no longer viable for them to sell here.

Since TRS have jumped through all of the hoops to maintain their TRS status it seems very unfair.  Uploading Small & Light Packet numbers by printing labels from PP does not make us better sellers.  In most cases tracking is too expensive for many of us.  Frequently when I have printed PP labels the tracking numbers did not upload to ebay.  When I tried to add them I was unable to do so.

Your thoughts and comments would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[pocomocomputing]

Sorry for the late post.  I was away until now but prepared my questions last night. Answer when you can.

My eBay and / or Selling Manager

1) My eBay. Why only 60 days for Sold and UnSold listings when eBay listings are available for 90 days on the eBay sites? Every other eBay tool uses 90 days as well as all third party tools. eBay design issue?

2) My eBay. One eBay.ca site, why do listings views not show on Active Listing like on eBay.com. Canadian eBayers have to subscribe to Selling Manager on eBay.ca to be able to see views.

3) Me ebay. Selling Manager. Why can't views be kept in Sold and Unsold listings? A seller could look at this information to decide if the UnSold listing should be relisted or need to be checked for errors or listed differently. For Sold, having views would give an idea of poplarity of item before it sold.

4) My eBay. Selling Manager. Why can't I sort by views.  I can sort by watchers. Sorting by views would help decide which listins to relist.

Online Sell Your Item form for creating /revising listings

1) Shipping section. Local Pickup option. Local Pickup check box is available only for Flat Rate shipping. If you use calculated shipping, there is no Local Pickup option. Why? A seller should be able to have the Local Pickup option regardless of how the shipping is set up. (PS I am not talking about the Local Pickup option that is chosen for only Local Pickup and no Flat Rate or Calcualted shipping).

2) Condition field. On eBay.com, new condition field seems to have a bug. If you revise a listing and just change the condition field, the changes are not updated. You have to change something else anywhere on the page to make it take.

eBay Forums

1) When you reply to a topic, if you preview and see mistakes then go back and edit to fix and then post, all changes made after the preview are lost. This happened after the recent forum changes 2-3 weeks ago.

Shipping

1) Expedited parcel eBay/PayPal discount of 25% - How is it calculated? Please give detailed steps.  When I try to manually calculate the discount, I get 20-21% discount.

2) Will Tracked packet be getting a discount?  What will the discount be? If the discount is not similar to the Expedited parecel discount of 25%, then Tracker packet rates for 1 kg will be an "orphan" rate with Expedited Parcel being cheaper.

3) Since Tracked Packet is available, are you going to force mandatory 90% tracking info for TRS on eBay.ca like eBay.com?

[pocomocomputing]

3) Me ebay. Selling Manager. Why can't views be kept in Sold and Unsold listings? A seller could look at this information to decide if the UnSold listing should be relisted or need to be checked for errors or listed differently. For Sold, having views would give an idea of poplarity of item before it sold.

I know that views is kept in the individual listing. I meant why not in the My eBay or Selling Manager Sold Listing summary view.

[pocomocomputing]

Last Question

Listing Analytics is in Beta. No activity on this project since it was introduced. Any further developments? Or it it abandoned?

[raphael@ebay.com]

Hello westernstargifts,

This is an excellent question and thanks for bringing it to us. There are a few components in there which I'll do my best to address in turn.

Regarding the decision made to not show the TRS Plus badge on listings from Canadian sellers who don't meet the 90% tracking upload requirement, what needs to be emphasized here is that this was a decision made by the US business, for the US business. We had initially negotiated leniency for Canadian sellers on that specific requirement, but it was decided it wasn't OK for listings to show a blurb that states "this seller provides tracking for 90% or more of their sold items" for sellers who don't (that blurb is one of the things that comes with the TRS Plus badge). 90% tracking upload isn't so much a measure of how good a seller is, but it's information that buyers have repeatedly stated and demonstrated is valuable to them.

We did make an announcement about this in our 2012 Fall Seller Update, where we specified that the 90% tracking requirement was in effect for the Top Rated Seller Plus badge on listings. The decline in sales that this caused for many Canadian Top Rated Sellers is an unfortunate effect of the way the US business is being managed. We are obviously aware of this and are constantly working to find ways around such issues, however what makes sense for the US business doesn't always work for Canada.

Regarding the PayPal labels, this is something we are currently working in improving. If you have specific examples where a tracking number was not properly uploaded to eBay, or if it happens in the future, please alert me via email at raphael@ebay.com so I can look into it. 

Thanks again for taking the time to share your concerns.