eBay

raphael@ebay.com · ‎01-20-2016

Hello everyone,

Welcome to our weekly session. I'll be here on & off for most of the day.

I'll start by posting responses to a few posts from last week, those will be coming soon to stay tuned.

Here are the issues I'm currently tracking:

SYI: Form resets IS when switching currencies.
SYI: Form resets IS when trying to update handling cost
Hard block on non compliant images only on relist/sell similar
Missing Tracked Packet destinations
Sold items going into Unsold container in Turbo Lister
Safari browser SYI exhibiting erratic behaviour when trying to select text in description in Revise

dutchman48 · ‎01-20-2016

raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@izzame wrote:
Sorry, ebay makes a policy, then give the sellers the tools to comply. If ebay can't accept scans of postal receipts. Which again I can't understand as they can and insist on images for listing, a scan is an image. I know I can scan my postal receipt and send it to my neighbour or better yet the buyer, but not ebay.... come on.
So insisting on tracking to "cover" the seller so like others have said, no point in wasting the time listing as it won't sell, usually, and been there done that ..... that's a negative/won't fly. I also subsidized 50% of postage w/tracking still no sale. So, as ridiculous as this sounds, I should assume, come Feb. ebay will be putting in my Paypal account the tracked shipping portion amount for every item sold. Of course not but really thats what they are expecting of the seller. Just subsidize the shipping yourself as we already know it's too much to expect the buyer to pay the extra. See eBay is fully aware of the situation for Canadian sellers regarding shipping rates and has been aware for years. They know they can't out right make it a "rule" to ship with tracking (there would be no need for .ca) so it has become one of the stock answers: Well if you had used tracking"
Just wondering, is it even in ebay's vocbuary to sellers that is, WE CAN, THANKS AWESOME INPUT. Because all I keep seeing is ebay can't do this, can't do that, programmers would have to do this/that/the other thing, still working on that issue, excuses ...... some positiveness towards the sellers justified, numerous issues would be a refreshing welcome.
Sorry but you are misreading me. I am not tooting the "if you had just used tracking" horn at all.

The thing that needs to be kept in mind is that there is no Canada-specific Standards program. If there was one, it would be totally possible to create a set of Canada-specific rules that take all the challenges of Canadian shipping into account. However, Canadian sellers are measured mainly under 2 programs: the Global program, under which all sellers in the world are measured, and the US program, designed for the domestic US seller. I'm not going to discuss the US program now, other than to say that the US program works perfectly well for the US seller. For the Global program, since it is impossible to build a set of rules that satisfy the specifics of every country and their shipping realities, was designed with padded targets when it comes to the OTS metric, specifically to accommodate for cross border trade. Granted, this isn't the same as implementing all the suggestions brought forth today, but it works, we have the data to prove it.

Another thing that has to be kept in mind is that the new program, even with its imperfect measurement of on time shipping, puts the vast majority of sellers far away from any risk of damage to their standards level. In fact, for good measure I have just looked at all of your dashboard previews before writing this, and literally no one is in danger of losing their current status on February 20, even on the US program where the targets are most stringent.

The problem that Ebay does not care about is the majority of buyers do not leave feedback today so those do not count for the measurement. It therefore only takes a few for us, the sellers, to get the shaft from Ebay.

Why does Ebay not count all the transactions period which would make the not on time a more realistic %.

IE if you sell 100 items and only 10 leave feedback, and 1 says not on time, that 1 out of 100 transactions will really skew your percentage as it is counted based on only 10.

But then, that is what Ebay probably wants so more sellers will lose the discount!!!!!

Anonymous · ‎01-20-2016

"or a seller to phone customer service and ask them to look at the information in the listing"

been there done that......

'We are sorry but that claim has been is closed in the buyers favor."

can ebay help you with anything else?

got to get the item back first , ebay already gave the bidder the refund

ebay shows a tracking number uploaded and consider it returned

that is not the same as an item returned in the real world,

if it not in hand, it is not returned.

out item & payment, was not a "couple of dollars from the COB jar" item

musicyouneed · ‎01-20-2016

@dutchman48 wrote:
raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@izzame wrote:
Sorry, ebay makes a policy, then give the sellers the tools to comply. If ebay can't accept scans of postal receipts. Which again I can't understand as they can and insist on images for listing, a scan is an image. I know I can scan my postal receipt and send it to my neighbour or better yet the buyer, but not ebay.... come on.
So insisting on tracking to "cover" the seller so like others have said, no point in wasting the time listing as it won't sell, usually, and been there done that ..... that's a negative/won't fly. I also subsidized 50% of postage w/tracking still no sale. So, as ridiculous as this sounds, I should assume, come Feb. ebay will be putting in my Paypal account the tracked shipping portion amount for every item sold. Of course not but really thats what they are expecting of the seller. Just subsidize the shipping yourself as we already know it's too much to expect the buyer to pay the extra. See eBay is fully aware of the situation for Canadian sellers regarding shipping rates and has been aware for years. They know they can't out right make it a "rule" to ship with tracking (there would be no need for .ca) so it has become one of the stock answers: Well if you had used tracking"
Just wondering, is it even in ebay's vocbuary to sellers that is, WE CAN, THANKS AWESOME INPUT. Because all I keep seeing is ebay can't do this, can't do that, programmers would have to do this/that/the other thing, still working on that issue, excuses ...... some positiveness towards the sellers justified, numerous issues would be a refreshing welcome.
Sorry but you are misreading me. I am not tooting the "if you had just used tracking" horn at all.

The thing that needs to be kept in mind is that there is no Canada-specific Standards program. If there was one, it would be totally possible to create a set of Canada-specific rules that take all the challenges of Canadian shipping into account. However, Canadian sellers are measured mainly under 2 programs: the Global program, under which all sellers in the world are measured, and the US program, designed for the domestic US seller. I'm not going to discuss the US program now, other than to say that the US program works perfectly well for the US seller. For the Global program, since it is impossible to build a set of rules that satisfy the specifics of every country and their shipping realities, was designed with padded targets when it comes to the OTS metric, specifically to accommodate for cross border trade. Granted, this isn't the same as implementing all the suggestions brought forth today, but it works, we have the data to prove it.

Another thing that has to be kept in mind is that the new program, even with its imperfect measurement of on time shipping, puts the vast majority of sellers far away from any risk of damage to their standards level. In fact, for good measure I have just looked at all of your dashboard previews before writing this, and literally no one is in danger of losing their current status on February 20, even on the US program where the targets are most stringent.
The problem that Ebay does not care about is the majority of buyers do not leave feedback today so those do not count for the measurement. It therefore only takes a few for us, the sellers, to get the shaft from Ebay.

Why does Ebay not count all the transactions period which would make the not on time a more realistic %.

IE if you sell 100 items and only 10 leave feedback, and 1 says not on time, that 1 out of 100 transactions will really skew your percentage as it is counted based on only 10.

But then, that is what Ebay probably wants so more sellers will lose the discount!!!!!

I totally agree, very few buyers leave feedback any more and I know that most of sales do not have a on time measurement. Those that do may cause me problems. For all the measurements that ebay has implemented this one takes the cake.

I still don't understand what they are trying to accomplish with this. Is it that they want everyone to use tracking? I would use it if Canada Post didn't make it so expensive. In the US, I think you pay $1.00 more for tracking. We pay $15 more.

dutchman48 · ‎01-20-2016

@musicyouneed wrote:
@dutchman48 wrote:
raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@izzame wrote:
Sorry, ebay makes a policy, then give the sellers the tools to comply. If ebay can't accept scans of postal receipts. Which again I can't understand as they can and insist on images for listing, a scan is an image. I know I can scan my postal receipt and send it to my neighbour or better yet the buyer, but not ebay.... come on.
So insisting on tracking to "cover" the seller so like others have said, no point in wasting the time listing as it won't sell, usually, and been there done that ..... that's a negative/won't fly. I also subsidized 50% of postage w/tracking still no sale. So, as ridiculous as this sounds, I should assume, come Feb. ebay will be putting in my Paypal account the tracked shipping portion amount for every item sold. Of course not but really thats what they are expecting of the seller. Just subsidize the shipping yourself as we already know it's too much to expect the buyer to pay the extra. See eBay is fully aware of the situation for Canadian sellers regarding shipping rates and has been aware for years. They know they can't out right make it a "rule" to ship with tracking (there would be no need for .ca) so it has become one of the stock answers: Well if you had used tracking"
Just wondering, is it even in ebay's vocbuary to sellers that is, WE CAN, THANKS AWESOME INPUT. Because all I keep seeing is ebay can't do this, can't do that, programmers would have to do this/that/the other thing, still working on that issue, excuses ...... some positiveness towards the sellers justified, numerous issues would be a refreshing welcome.
Sorry but you are misreading me. I am not tooting the "if you had just used tracking" horn at all.

The thing that needs to be kept in mind is that there is no Canada-specific Standards program. If there was one, it would be totally possible to create a set of Canada-specific rules that take all the challenges of Canadian shipping into account. However, Canadian sellers are measured mainly under 2 programs: the Global program, under which all sellers in the world are measured, and the US program, designed for the domestic US seller. I'm not going to discuss the US program now, other than to say that the US program works perfectly well for the US seller. For the Global program, since it is impossible to build a set of rules that satisfy the specifics of every country and their shipping realities, was designed with padded targets when it comes to the OTS metric, specifically to accommodate for cross border trade. Granted, this isn't the same as implementing all the suggestions brought forth today, but it works, we have the data to prove it.

Another thing that has to be kept in mind is that the new program, even with its imperfect measurement of on time shipping, puts the vast majority of sellers far away from any risk of damage to their standards level. In fact, for good measure I have just looked at all of your dashboard previews before writing this, and literally no one is in danger of losing their current status on February 20, even on the US program where the targets are most stringent.
The problem that Ebay does not care about is the majority of buyers do not leave feedback today so those do not count for the measurement. It therefore only takes a few for us, the sellers, to get the shaft from Ebay.

Why does Ebay not count all the transactions period which would make the not on time a more realistic %.

IE if you sell 100 items and only 10 leave feedback, and 1 says not on time, that 1 out of 100 transactions will really skew your percentage as it is counted based on only 10.

But then, that is what Ebay probably wants so more sellers will lose the discount!!!!!
I totally agree, very few buyers leave feedback any more and I know that most of sales do not have a on time measurement. Those that do may cause me problems. For all the measurements that ebay has implemented this one takes the cake.

I still don't understand what they are trying to accomplish with this. Is it that they want everyone to use tracking? I would use it if Canada Post didn't make it so expensive. In the US, I think you pay $1.00 more for tracking. We pay $15 more.

To lose your 20% FVF discount or worse, get the boot from Ebay. Ebay is still purging sellers but doing it sneakily now with idiotic policies.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎01-21-2016

@izzame wrote:
Thank you for your reply as it does clarify the situation a little better. Can you comment on if ebay is looking at creating a Canada specific standards program in the future ?

That's been on our list of asks for a long time. I'd love to tell you it's coming soon but the reality is it's unlikely that we will see this in the foreseeable future.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎01-21-2016

@thegainfullyunemployableresurrectionist wrote:

Yes one would have thought that.

Exactly what qualifications/knowledge do SNAD decision makers have in order to determine if an item is or is not as described?

Or is it a buyer only has to escalate, and ebay will side with buyer and refund? Without regard to established policies

That appears to be the policy judging by the current experience, with the resolution team: lose payment and lose item.

eBay policy is followed in every case, no one is making decisions without regard to them. The SNAD rules state that a buyer has to return the item in order to get a refund, so unless a seller fails to provide the buyer with means to return the item (provide a return shipping label, funds for the return shipping or simply, clear instructions), a seller should never be out both the money and the item. Unless the seller shipped a counterfeit item, in which case the policy says the buyer should destroy the item, and we make them swear to that via a signed affidavit.

To answer your previous question, all it takes for an item to be returned as a SNAD is the buyer reporting it as such.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎01-21-2016

@dutchman48 wrote:

The problem that Ebay does not care about is the majority of buyers do not leave feedback today so those do not count for the measurement. It therefore only takes a few for us, the sellers, to get the shaft from Ebay.

Why does Ebay not count all the transactions period which would make the not on time a more realistic %.

IE if you sell 100 items and only 10 leave feedback, and 1 says not on time, that 1 out of 100 transactions will really skew your percentage as it is counted based on only 10.

But then, that is what Ebay probably wants so more sellers will lose the discount!!!!!

Actually there are more sellers qualifying for Top Rated under the new program. If our goal was to avoid giving discounts to sellers, we failed.

avenueshopswapsell · ‎01-21-2016

eBay policy is followed in every case, no one is making decisions without regard to them. The SNAD rules state that a buyer has to return the item in order to get a refund, so unless a seller fails to provide the buyer with means to return the item (provide a return shipping label, funds for the return shipping or simply, clear instructions), a seller should never be out both the money and the item. Unless the seller shipped a counterfeit item, in which case the policy says the buyer should destroy the item, and we make them swear to that via a signed affidavit.
To answer your previous question, all it takes for an item to be returned as a SNAD is the buyer reporting it as such.

Not true from my experience. I had a buyer open a case against me as SNAD for an album that he clearly stated on the SNAD form to eBay that he had altered the item. I was advised by CS over the phone to let the claim escalate and expire, and then a fair decision would be made. I did just that and within 15 minutes of the expiry, eBay sided with the buyer and refunded him immediately, without returning the item. Obviously policy was not followed, as the buyer CLEARLY stated to eBay that he had altered the item. It took 4 phone calls, over 2 hours on the phone and 3 weeks to get this corrected. and have the funds returned to my Paypal account. No one at Ebay reviewed the SNAD case, not in 15 minutes, and if a real person took 2 seconds to read the details the BUYER provided they would have seen that he altered the album, therefore making the return null and void.

So a decision WAS made without regard to eBay policy.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎01-21-2016

@avenueshopswapsell wrote:

eBay policy is followed in every case, no one is making decisions without regard to them. The SNAD rules state that a buyer has to return the item in order to get a refund, so unless a seller fails to provide the buyer with means to return the item (provide a return shipping label, funds for the return shipping or simply, clear instructions), a seller should never be out both the money and the item. Unless the seller shipped a counterfeit item, in which case the policy says the buyer should destroy the item, and we make them swear to that via a signed affidavit.

To answer your previous question, all it takes for an item to be returned as a SNAD is the buyer reporting it as such.

Not true from my experience. I had a buyer open a case against me as SNAD for an album that he clearly stated on the SNAD form to eBay that he had altered the item. I was advised by CS over the phone to let the claim escalate and expire, and then a fair decision would be made. I did just that and within 15 minutes of the expiry, eBay sided with the buyer and refunded him immediately, without returning the item. Obviously policy was not followed, as the buyer CLEARLY stated to eBay that he had altered the item. It took 4 phone calls, over 2 hours on the phone and 3 weeks to get this corrected. and have the funds returned to my Paypal account. No one at Ebay reviewed the SNAD case, not in 15 minutes, and if a real person took 2 seconds to read the details the BUYER provided they would have seen that he altered the album, therefore making the return null and void.

So a decision WAS made without regard to eBay policy.

I'll admit that my previous statement did not account for CS error, which is clearly what happened in your case. Apologies for that.

pierrelebel · ‎01-21-2016

Good afternoon Raphael.

Six months ago, through the announcement board, eBay-Canada advised Canadian sellers they would benefit from listing in Cdn$ instead of US$ in most categories (except auto parts).

Whenever the subject is raised on discussion boards, Many Canadian sellers offer comments such as:

"I sell to both Canada and the USA, and to be quite frank, I would love the list in CAD but my US buyers will not pay for paypal's currency exchange fees and get timid about buying in another currency, and since most of my buyers are from the US, I have to list in USD or else I don't get any sales...I have been offering free shipping at my expense to other Canadians to help

ps: the 'study' that Ebay did, was done before our dollar tanked, so I don't believe the same results would occur now...US buyers want to pay in US dollars....and Canadian prefer CAD...but most buyers are from the USA, and that is the sad truth of it."

What does eBay-Canada have to say? Are those sellers correct in their assumption that the survey would show different results if conducted now?

raphael@ebay.com · ‎01-21-2016

@pierrelebel wrote:

Good afternoon Raphael.

Six months ago, through the announcement board, eBay-Canada advised Canadian sellers they would benefit from listing in Cdn$ instead of US$ in most categories (except auto parts).

Whenever the subject is raised on discussion boards, Many Canadian sellers offer comments such as:

"I sell to both Canada and the USA, and to be quite frank, I would love the list in CAD but my US buyers will not pay for paypal's currency exchange fees and get timid about buying in another currency, and since most of my buyers are from the US, I have to list in USD or else I don't get any sales...I have been offering free shipping at my expense to other Canadians to help

ps: the 'study' that Ebay did, was done before our dollar tanked, so I don't believe the same results would occur now...US buyers want to pay in US dollars....and Canadian prefer CAD...but most buyers are from the USA, and that is the sad truth of it."

What does eBay-Canada have to say? Are those sellers correct in their assumption that the survey would show different results if conducted now?

Hi Pierre,

Yes, those sellers are probably correct that the study would show different results if conducted now. However, based on our math, which was calculated at a time when the Canadian dollar was already in decline (contrary to what the seller in your quote is saying), the new results would show even more benefit to Canadian sellers who list in CAD because their items look even more attractive to US buyers now that our dollar has sunk even lower.