eBay

mr.elmwood · ‎07-26-2016

He is in charge of North America.

He says CDN sellers do 50% within Canada.

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rose-dee · ‎07-29-2016

@dutchman48 wrote:
Maybe you could ask all your good buddies if they are so technology orientated, when they are going to fix the cart issues between the US and Canada which has been a disaster for years?

Hear, hear!! If I were there, that's the first question I'd ask these guys.

The second would be why they won't throw us Canadian sellers a bone with a few concessions on the on-time delivery policy.

Personally I think when Wenig says "sellers", he's thinking "U.S. sellers" only.

pierrelebel · ‎07-29-2016

"I think when Wenig says "sellers", he's thinking "U.S. sellers" only. "

Of course. And that applies to all eBay executives in California.

mr.elmwood · ‎07-29-2016

@marnotom! wrote:
At this point, I'm more interested in what plans eBay has to strengthen its presence in Canada. I wonder if MrElmwood has heard Canada mentioned in any context other than Hal's statement.

Very good question, and, the answer is NO.

Why is the answer no?

1500 attendees and only 30 were Canadian. CDNs do not show up to be heard.

I push and push and push the CDN agenda, and they wave me off. Why? I am the only one. When eBay people say to me: "Oh, your are THE guy from Canada" I know I am out numbered.

I cannot and will not be the voice for everyone who refuses to be here. It is too exhausting.

Ya know what? American sellers have the exact same overall complaints.

I come to these things, this my 11th one, to meet old friends, make new ones, find out W5 of everything. Every single time, I come away with new knowledge that helps expand my business so I can make even more money.

I met Andrea, Raphael, Rodney (again), Hal Lawton.

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pierrelebel · ‎07-29-2016

"Oh, your are THE guy from Canada""

Reminds me of my days as a member of the "Voices" program on eBay.com in 2002 to 2005. One Canadian voice raising a question or concern about the international side of eBay when most others did not even know (or care) they could ship outside the USA and members from outside the USA could list and sell on eBay.com.

The good old days!

marnotom! · ‎07-29-2016

@mr.elmwood wrote:

I cannot and will not be the voice for everyone who refuses to be here. It is too exhausting.

I think framing it as a "refusal" is a bit harsh, though. Let's put the boot on the other foot for a moment. If eBay decided to hold a North American convention in Winnipeg, say, what proportion of the total number of active US eBay sellers would attend, and what would their reasons be for not doing so?

pierrelebel · ‎07-29-2016

"... a North American convention in Winnipeg, ..."

On a more serious note.....

ypdc_dennis · ‎07-29-2016

@pierrelebel wrote:
"... a North American convention in Winnipeg, ..."

On a more serious note.....

I've actually been to a World convention in Winnipeg (ConAdian) -- Canadians were still outnumbered by the rest of the world (around 4 to 1).

momcqueen · ‎07-29-2016

What does it cost you to attend each year, Elmwood?

jt-libra · ‎07-29-2016

@mr.elmwood wrote:

I cannot and will not be the voice for everyone who refuses to be here. It is too exhausting.

I'm sure there are many sellers like myself who are happy to hear of your experience at the convention, but I don't expect you to be our spokesman.

In most cases, I'm sure, it isn't that Canadian sellers refuse to go. There could be any number of reasons .... a lack of funds; family commitments; health reasons. Personally, if I can only afford to take a vacation every two or three years, my priority wouldn't be an eBay convention.

Thanks for sharing!

momcqueen · ‎07-29-2016

I haven't take a holiday in six years for all the reasons you cite and I'd certainly rather spend the money feeding my four kids but if the total cost is less than $500 USD (registration, flight and accommodations) I may go next year. (Like I said last year too.)

esclyons · ‎07-29-2016

no one is asking anyone to be our voice, ebay canada made it clear that they had a focus group who had all of our best interests looked after, before they made the switch to all canada dollars.

momcqueen · ‎07-30-2016

I'd like to know more about their Structured Data project.

Has there been any discussion on the integrity of the Product Catalogue? I'm worried about it. In my category, only five per cent of items are matched and, worse than that, they include grossly incorrect data in every single case I have found. Within my listings, I have user-created notes to indicate which of my items are matched to the Catalogue because those are the ones I cannot and under circumstances relist or edit Description using the Bulk Editor or it adds all the wrong Item Specifics without prior warning.

And I mean Item Specifics that are so wrong that a buyer would rightly be allowed to file a SNAD on them. Like, wrong size/scale, colour, model, the works. Everything that you look to confirm about a product in an Item Specific is so incorrect that including it in your listing would be seller suicide.

Also, the same, identical item in Canada and the USA can have a completely different UPC because one has a multi-lingual package necessary due to our language laws. So if the products are being matched by UPC, only Americans' items will be collected for feature. Yet a Canadian selling that item cannot 'borrow' the American UPC because it doesn't actually match the package, and also because that packaging matters to some buyers.

(I don't know what company was responsible for adding data to the Product Catalogue but from what I've seen in my category (Toys) it's as if they had no earthy idea what they were doing, and had never seen that toy in real life, and had no idea where those toys would be sought or listed on ebay. Certainly, your average ebay seller would have done a better job populating the Product Catalogue than these people.)

rose-dee · ‎07-30-2016

@mr.elmwood wrote:
1500 attendees and only 30 were Canadian. CDNs do not show up to be heard.

Well I did attend (virtually), and I asked a lot of questions during the live seminars.

Only two of my questions were responded to over all the presentations I attended, and of those two one response was a throw-away answer that anybody here could have given. At one presentation, there were over 100 of us online attendees, yet the seminar was cut off sharply on time, about 3 minutes into the "Questions" segment at the end (at which live attendees were given priority at the microphone).

If I could make one suggestion to eBay about this convention it's this: if they are going to provide online live access to their seminars, they need to allow an appropriately extended time for the floor to be open afterward for questions and comments.

The virtual attendance is a good idea, but the designers really have to do a better job of making it worthwhile for online attendees. You would think eBay, with all its geeks and techno-engineers, would "get" this concept. I'm sorry to say so, but another site I use does a far, far better job of online seminar inclusion than this. I thought they might also have provided some sort of face-to-face feature for sellers to connect, maybe a live "virtual cafe". It wasn't easy to get a conversation going.

BTW, I don't intend in person because I simply can't afford it. It's a long way from here in Tipperary.

gifts_of_elegance · ‎07-30-2016

Temperature will reach 43 degrees Celsius today in beautiful Las Vegas

momcqueen · ‎07-30-2016

And that's the other thing keeping me at home, though I don't suppose people go there to hang around outside.

jt-libra · ‎07-30-2016

@rose-dee wrote:

Well I did attend (virtually) .....

I couldn't even get in. I logged in and was acknowledged as having registered but could get no further than the home page. No matter what I clicked on, I went nowhere .... while the music continued to play.

I tried 3 browsers -- same thing.

However, even though you got in, it sounds as if if it wasn't very productive from your standpoint.

rose-dee · ‎07-30-2016

Hi 'jt' -- so nice to see you here again!

Yes, I had some trouble getting in at first, but I just persisted and finally got through. There was an awful lot of "buffering" going on though during the talks, every minute or two it seemed, which was not only annoying, but I missed some content as a result.

EBay really needs to up their game if they're going to do this next year. It lacked professionalism.

vintagenorth · ‎07-30-2016

I was also registered successfully but was unable to connect. I tried on my desktop (win 10), laptop (win 7), and my iPad but could not manage to connect either day.

mr.elmwood · ‎07-31-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:
What does it cost you to attend each year, Elmwood?

Less than you think. Airfare is what it is, discounted room rates, entrance fee. Entrance fee gave us freebies, plenty of food and drink, so busy that you have little time for anything else.

I stayed at The Venetian, oddly, not a great choice, convention was there. My room for 5 nights was around $1600 CDN, airfare, was $700 CDN, entrance fee $200 US.

Fly West(**bleep**)Jet on a redeye, stay at a cheaper place, stay a shorter time and the price drops considerable.

I do not do cheap.

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mr.elmwood · ‎07-31-2016

@rose-dee wrote:
Hi 'jt' -- so nice to see you here again!

Yes, I had some trouble getting in at first, but I just persisted and finally got through. There was an awful lot of "buffering" going on though during the talks, every minute or two it seemed, which was not only annoying, but I missed some content as a result.

EBay really needs to up their game if they're going to do this next year. It lacked professionalism.

Rose, some of the folks there tried watching it on a computer and the experience was very poor.

This is the kind of thing you really need to be in the room for.

On some kind of "cast" this will never be better than what it was.

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