eBay

raphael@ebay.com · ‎06-22-2016

Hello everyone,

Welcome to our weekly chat. As it is now common, the thread will remain open for the next 24 hours or so, to help those who couldn't make it during the day.

Open issues:

Errors when uploading more than one tracking number at a time (repeated, erroneous numbers saved)

Updates:

Printer friendly Order Details page missing items - Resolved - fix to roll out soon.
Odd missing gallery picture in search results - There was a general bug fix that was supposed to address this. Will now remove it from the list, if anyone still has that happen to their listings please let me know.
FVF on shipping charged on international sales even when there was free domestic shipping - Resolved
Selling limits live items count discrepancy - We are investigating further.
Missing Tracked Packet destinations - still no update from PayPal and Pitney Bowes
Combined shipping offers not shown to international buyers - ticket open

If anything is missing, please let me know. Thanks!

tch_ca · ‎06-22-2016

raphael@ebay.com wrote:
Hi tch_ca
@tch_ca wrote:
Let's continue with the answered questions from last week.

1. As you know (or at least you should) Selling Manager Pro is a free tool available for use with the two top store subscriptions. Since Ebay Canada is now forcing sellers who wish to continue to use mixed currency to list their items on multiple sites, will Ebay be waving the $15.95 fee required to paid for the us of Selling Manager Pro on Ebay.com, even for sellers who have a Canadian store subscription?
The only thing you get in Selling Manager Pro compared to Selling Manager are marketing and reporting features. It's overkill to have Selling Manager Pro on both sites. Any seller with a store subscription on eBay.ca who chooses to list on both sites and really need the Selling Manager features on eBay.com as well should just use the free Selling Manager subscription on eBay.com. Alternatively, if the Pro features are really necessary on the .com side, you can consider moving your store subscription to eBay.com. However I can='t see a scenario where that would be desirable.

Great!. Another stick it up your's and suck it up response by Ebay. Overkill? What's wrong with you????? This is functionality sellers with multiple listings had before and now you've theoretically removed it (And by the way charging me 10$ per month more for the store). There are numerous functions that cannot be performed from the .ca SMP and must be performed directly on .com. You know that!!!! You've assured me on this very board before conversion that the functionality for sellers and the interfaces would not change. Now what you're saying is that I have to use two.....That's ridiculous!! Why not give the functionality of SMP on both sites for the appropriate tiers? You forced the change on sellers. I didn't chose it!!!!
@tch_ca wrote:
2. As a result of laughable development efforts to produce a working migration tool that subsequently caused duplicates, sold listings being relisted along with other problems that resulted in countless of hours of manual intervention required by sellers to relist and/or cleanup their listings which subsequently resulted in defects for some. Will Ebay Canada be removing all defects since the announcement of the tool and the migration?
At this time there are no plans to put a defect removal campaign in place. We did enhance the tool with sorting capability between Sold and Unsold several weeks ago, sellers have been able to avoid the issue you mentioned for a while now. With that said, we try to be as fair as we can with such things, so if you have received defects caused by how the tool worked early on, please reach me directly and I'll see what I can do.

Pretty much in line with above answer. It's a known fact that even the late version of the tool THAT IS STILL NOT 100% FUNCTIONAL. The smart people went manual as a result (It took me some time too, but eventually I smartened up too) I know you read the Seller's thread and you know how many sellers had problems.
@tch_ca wrote:
3. Will Ms. Stairs be taking personal responsibility and formally apologizing to Canadian sellers for the blunders associated with this migration?
While I can understand the frustration with us asking many sellers to make significant changes to their listings, I don't think any apology is required for taking steps to ensure long term health for our marketplace.

Seriously?? You've burdened Sellers with a dysfunctional tool that caused countless of hours of manual effort and you're not going to apologize? Not your fault eh? Can you explain "health" and how it benefits/applies to specifically the sellers?

bunbar · ‎06-22-2016

With over 5000 items being migrated to the US site, I have had to do it in pieces to make sure I don’t leave any items out or double list anything because the 1st time I used it weeks ago, it only listed some items and there was no way to know which ones were listed without downloading my inventory and checking which ones still had a C in front of the price.

I have received an email from ebay 3 times saying I have listed an item twice, and the duplicate item was removed. About 2 years ago I made this mistake and ebay punished me by not letting me list for 7 days. At that time, I had relisted a few items and forgot to change the title, everything inside was different. I tried explaining this a few times on the phone and was just told “Those are the rules”

My problem now is I’m afraid if I list another duplicate item by mistake they will punish me again and not let me relist the rest of my items I have to migrate.

tch_ca · ‎06-22-2016

raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@tch_ca wrote:

And a followup on last week's response.
----
@thecoinhunterca wrote:
Raphael,

Statistical data that claims that listing in CDN is now more advantageous for Canadian sellers than in USD. I'm looking for details and how and when the study was done. What data was used, what products were used, etc.
The study ran for the year 2015 and looked at all items sold my all Canadian sellers, to any buyers anywhere in the world, across all categories. We then cut that data in many different ways to see where there were variations and found that with a few exceptions, CAD is better pretty much in every case.
This is a little bit a shady response. Can you provide specific data details of they study?. If one actually occurred, the data should be readily available. Things like, length of data sample, how many samples of each currency, destinations, products, avg price, how was the data "cut", etc....I think it would make the "community" much more comfortable about the decision. Otherwise is just noise to justify the decision...
Sorry you thought my response was shady. It isn't. Our finer data points are confidential, so I can't share our results with as much granularity as you're asking for.

As for how we can justify the decision, logically, we wouldn't be making this decision if we weren't aptly convinced that it was better for the marketplace. Without a healthy Canadian business, our jobs are at risk.
Oh....So it is about Ebay Canada and not the seller....Sure sounds like trying to force an unwanted and unpopular option on the sellers for the sake of survive-ability of the Canadian brand...

amya4295 · ‎06-22-2016

Hello Rafael,

Did something change with the "did your item arrive by a certain date questions"? There was a lot of concern about this controversial question and the implication of a "no" answer. I purchased and received an item and was not asked the question. I'm surprised if this had been removed that we were not notified as it is good news for most of us!

theodoreides · ‎06-22-2016

The Printer Friendly Order Details page is still incorrect. The Payment Status is showing as "Payment in Process" and the Shipping value is still blank. See photo attached.

This was reported last week - please advise on status.

ight.coin · ‎06-22-2016

FVF on shipping charged on international sales even when there was free domestic shipping - Resolved

Can you expand on the above statement:

-What exactly has been resolved?

-How were the overcharges to sellers resolved?

-Are credits for overcharges complete for ALL affected sellers (or just to the one seller that complained)?

aln_kat · ‎06-22-2016

I posted this message on the community chat board a few days ago and it was recommended that I post it on this Wednesday's chat session:

How to handle "items not recieved" due to Canadian postage strike

on ‎06-20-2016 06:55 PM

It is highly likely there will be a Canada postal strike come July 1 2016. I have numerous outstanding purchases (coming from China) that are due come late June and into July. A lot of my purchases from China these last six months have already been arriving late ( quite a few lately not arriving at all) and are about one to two weeks after the last delivery date. If a item is not received 2 weeks after the last delivery date I do file a claim regardless of the amount and will not accept offers for a re-send. If a seller issues a refund and I receive the item at a later date (seldom happens) I will contact the seller and offer to make a payment. How should I handle "items not received" should a postal strike occur? I will not be sure if the reason I do not receive an item is because item was not actually shipped (suspect that in few cases), actually lost in mail or due only to the postal strike but may arrive one day. I do not want to penalize a seller but neither do I want to out the money if the purchase never is received once the strike is over and the deadline to file a claim is perhaps passed.

I reviewed the noticed that was posted in regards to this : However it does not address

http://announcements.ebay.ca/2016/06/21/7803/

However it does not address my concerns. How do I handle "items" not received that show due in July? Will those delivery dates show a revised date on my listing? Also have several Ebay purchases coming from China that either are week passed due, are currently due and/or due before July 1st. A lot of my purchases from China in the last six months are arriving 7 - 14 days after last estimated delivery date. I had to file quite a few claims in the last several months due to "items not received". Most of these orders include multiple purchases (5 to 10+ items) and each items has to be treated as an individual claim rather than one claim for the entire order (i.e payment) which makes it look like I file a lot of claims ( items VS one order/payment/parcel). What do I do about the orders that are due before July 1st that I have not received since they fall in the late delivery (1-2 week delay) which takes it pass July 1st? Will the EBay claim deadline be extended in these cases? The announcement states: Should such a labour disruption occur, eBay will ensure that sellers are not penalized for the delayed arrival of shipments originating or terminating in Canada: It does not address the situation from the buyers perspective. Do I continue to submit "not recieved" claims as per Ebay deadlines? This seems to penalize the seller which is not my intent in the first place.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎06-22-2016

@tch_ca wrote:

Great!. Another stick it up your's and suck it up response by Ebay. Overkill? What's wrong with you????? This is functionality sellers with multiple listings had before and now you've theoretically removed it (And by the way charging me 10$ per month more for the store). There are numerous functions that cannot be performed from the .ca SMP and must be performed directly on .com. You know that!!!! You've assured me on this very board before conversion that the functionality for sellers and the interfaces would not change. Now what you're saying is that I have to use two.....That's ridiculous!! Why not give the functionality of SMP on both sites for the appropriate tiers? You forced the change on sellers. I didn't chose it!!!!

Can you give me examples of SMPro features that you can't use from eBay.ca for items listed on eBay.com?

tch_ca wrote:
Seriously?? You've burdened Sellers with a dysfunctional tool that caused countless of hours of manual effort and you're not going to apologize? Not your fault eh? Can you explain "health" and how it benefits/applies to specifically the sellers?

I have been apologizing profusely for the tool and its issues. I'm not hiding from that at all, and when I apologize for that I speak for the entire eBay Canada team, Andrea included. Please show me where I said that anything isn't our fault.

A healthy marketplace is pretty self explanatory. It benefits sellers in that they can run a healthy business on it.

ight.coin · ‎06-22-2016

How about Negative Feedback.

How will ebay protect against negative feedback from buyers that may be upset about what they will perceive as 'poor service'?

Sellers will be blamed for long delivery timelines. As everyone knows ebay's system is not able to handle removal of negative feedback without a (hours) long phone call to ill-informed customer service reps.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎06-22-2016

@bunbar wrote:

With over 5000 items being migrated to the US site, I have had to do it in pieces to make sure I don’t leave any items out or double list anything because the 1st time I used it weeks ago, it only listed some items and there was no way to know which ones were listed without downloading my inventory and checking which ones still had a C in front of the price.

I have received an email from ebay 3 times saying I have listed an item twice, and the duplicate item was removed. About 2 years ago I made this mistake and ebay punished me by not letting me list for 7 days. At that time, I had relisted a few items and forgot to change the title, everything inside was different. I tried explaining this a few times on the phone and was just told “Those are the rules”

My problem now is I’m afraid if I list another duplicate item by mistake they will punish me again and not let me relist the rest of my items I have to migrate.

Hi bunbar,

Unfortunately, the only thing I can say is be careful to not list duplicates by mistake. If it helps, perhaps look into breaking the task in smaller batches to ensure you can catch anything that has the wrong title.

merritt-motorcycle-salvage · ‎06-22-2016

raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@merritt-motorcycle-salvage wrote:
raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@pierrelebel wrote:
Good morning.

Does management at eBay-Canada offers an official suggestion to Canadian sellers considering the potential postal strike scheduled for ten days from now?
Hello Pierre,

We do, and we posted a first announcement on this topic yesterday: http://announcements.ebay.ca/2016/06/21/7803/

Since we will have solid protection against defects caused by the postal disruption, we recommend for sellers to continue running their business as usual.
Does this include items sent Canada Lettermail and US / International Light Packet where there is no tracking available? Or does this only included items that include tracking?
We will protect all sellers impacted by the postal disruption, regardless of whether they used tracking or whether they were shipping from Canada or into Canada.

Defects aside. Are sellers protected money wise by ebay and/or PayPal from buyers opening claims for items not received and automatically be refunded for any item or items shipped via. Lettermail, Light Packet or Small Packet because there is no tracking available for those methods during a postal strike.

bunbar · ‎06-22-2016

So relisting this many items a fast as I can because ebay has forced me to do this, doesn't protect me from making a mistake.

Also after relisting the 1st half of my items and only then found out that when using the migrating tool, it listed the original amount listed and not the amount we have left. I asked you about this last week and you said it is me that should know my inventory. As far as I can see, Nowhere were we told that it wouldn't list the amount we actually had left, as it does when you relist an item you sold some of so I never checked. Now when I'm done migrating the rest of my items, I will have to go through over 5000 items one at a time to make sure I don't sell an item I don't have. which is how I found out it was doing this in the 1st place

I am also mentioning this again, for sellers who didn't know the migrating tool didn't relist with the amount you had left so they can check their own listings

dutchman48 · ‎06-22-2016

raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@dutchman48 wrote:
raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@dutchman48 wrote:
raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@merritt-motorcycle-salvage wrote:
raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@pierrelebel wrote:
Good morning.

Does management at eBay-Canada offers an official suggestion to Canadian sellers considering the potential postal strike scheduled for ten days from now?
Hello Pierre,

We do, and we posted a first announcement on this topic yesterday: http://announcements.ebay.ca/2016/06/21/7803/

Since we will have solid protection against defects caused by the postal disruption, we recommend for sellers to continue running their business as usual.
Does this include items sent Canada Lettermail and US / International Light Packet where there is no tracking available? Or does this only included items that include tracking?
We will protect all sellers impacted by the postal disruption, regardless of whether they used tracking or whether they were shipping from Canada or into Canada.
I asked before and got no answer.

What about any claims opened against sellers in Canada or by buyers in Canada?

WHAT IS EBAY'S POSITION AND WHAT WILL EBAY AND CS DO IN THOSE CASES?
dutchman, I did answer you last week, and I have answered this again week already. Again: we will protect all sellers against defects (including INR claims) caused by the postal disruption. What this means is, if a seller gets a defect as a result of the postal disruption, we will either descore (make it not count) it or remove it.
PLEASE READ THE QUESTION!

I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT DEFECTS, I AM TALKING ABOUT CLAIMS. I SEND AN ITEM OUT AND THERE IS A STRIKE. BUYER OPENS AN INR CLAIM, WILL EBAY TELL BUYER TO WAIT AND FOR HOW LONG?

I BUY AN ITEM AND THERE IS A STRIKE. I OPEN AN INR CLAIM AGAINST THE SELLER. WHAT EXACTLY WILL EBAY DO?

I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT DEFECTS, I AM TALKING ABOUT CLAIMS AND THE CS BOTS THAT PAY THEM

WHAT ABOUT RETURNS FOR ITEM ITEM NOT AS DESCRIBED THAT CAN'T BE RETURNED IN TIME DUE TO THE STRIKE.

I WANT SOME SPECIFIC ANSWERS, NO WISHY WASHY EBAY WILL DEAL WITH IT OR LOOK AFTER IT. THAT MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

WILL EBAY PAY CLAIMS OR NOT? IF NOT, HOW LONG WILL IT BE ON HOLD?

EXCUSE THE CAPS AND BOLD, BUT I AM A LITTLE TIRED OF ALL THE WISHY WASHY NO ANSWERS ON THESE CHATS.

I ASK A SPECIFIC QUESTION, AND I WANT A SPECIFIC ANSWER
Sorry that you aren't satisfied with my previous answer but that is all I can say for now. I can't explain in detail how we will protect against the specific cases you are describing because it's not fully signed off on yet, but yes we will have provisions for INR claims, whether it is proactive or reactive.

One last thing, I'm sorry that you're frustrated but I will no longer respond to posts like this going forward. This is borderline abusive. Keep it civil, please.

I am sorry if you feel it is abusive.

As a buyer and a seller, I feel it would be professional and good business practice for Ebay to let us know exactly what they intend to do before the situation comes into play. After is too late and they have had a great deal of notice in regards to a potential strike.

Why does Ebay take this casual approach to something that is very important to buyers and sellers? This is probably why a lot of sellers and buyer do not have a great deal of faith in Ebay's decisions anymore.

dutchman48 · ‎06-22-2016

See my post

raphael@ebay.com · ‎06-22-2016

tch_ca wrote:
Oh....So it is about Ebay Canada and not the seller....Sure sounds like trying to force an unwanted and unpopular option on the sellers for the sake of survive-ability of the Canadian brand...

I think you are mis-reading me. All I was trying to do was use logic to explain how we wouldn't have made this decision if we weren't 100% confident that it was the right thing to do, based on real life data from real life transactions. It isn't about the viability of our brand, it is about the viability of the marketplace, which is essential to your and our success. Nothing can be about eBay Canada and not the seller. If sellers don't succeed, we don't succeed. That's how the eBay model works, and what separates us from other marketplaces.

dutchman48 · ‎06-22-2016

raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@tch_ca wrote:
Oh....So it is about Ebay Canada and not the seller....Sure sounds like trying to force an unwanted and unpopular option on the sellers for the sake of survive-ability of the Canadian brand...
I think you are mis-reading me. All I was trying to do was use logic to explain how we wouldn't have made this decision if we weren't 100% confident that it was the right thing to do, based on real life data from real life transactions. It isn't about the viability of our brand, it is about the viability of the marketplace, which is essential to your and our success. Nothing can be about eBay Canada and not the seller. If sellers don't succeed, we don't succeed. That's how the eBay model works, and what separates us from other marketplaces.

Raphael

This is not borderline abuse as has nothing to do with you personally so here goes.

Is Ebay so far gone that they believe this type of info themselves.

Ebay is only interested in one thing, their bottom line. They do what they want, when they want, without any regard for sellers or buyers, as long as they can make more profit for themselves, shareholders, and bonuses.

Hence why everything is a secret that they refuse to discuss. It may prove this to be true and Ebay to be wrong. Unfortunately, Ebay is still the only game in town so buyers and sellers put up with it.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎06-22-2016

@amya4295 wrote:

Hello Rafael,

Did something change with the "did your item arrive by a certain date questions"? There was a lot of concern about this controversial question and the implication of a "no" answer. I purchased and received an item and was not asked the question. I'm surprised if this had been removed that we were not notified as it is good news for most of us!

Hi amya4295,

The question still shows up if the item was shipped without tracking or, when there was tracking, if the acceptance or delivery scans were late. Was tracking provided for the item you purchased?

raphael@ebay.com · ‎06-22-2016

@theodoreides wrote:

The Printer Friendly Order Details page is still incorrect. The Payment Status is showing as "Payment in Process" and the Shipping value is still blank. See photo attached.

This was reported last week - please advise on status.

Hi theodoreides,

Apologies, I got mixed up with another issue that has been fixed already. This one will be fixed shortly, the required work has been completed and will take effect soon, I'm waiting for the roll out date. I have updated my original post to reflect this.

Thanks for catching this.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎06-22-2016

@ight.coin wrote:

FVF on shipping charged on international sales even when there was free domestic shipping - Resolved

Can you expand on the above statement:

-What exactly has been resolved?

-How were the overcharges to sellers resolved?

-Are credits for overcharges complete for ALL affected sellers (or just to the one seller that complained)?

Hi ight.coin,

All impacted sellers will be credited for the excess fees. I don't have very deep details on exactly what went wrong and how it was fixed.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎06-22-2016

@aln_kat wrote:

I posted this message on the community chat board a few days ago and it was recommended that I post it on this Wednesday's chat session:

How to handle "items not recieved" due to Canadian postage strike

Options

on ‎06-20-2016 06:55 PM

It is highly likely there will be a Canada postal strike come July 1 2016. I have numerous outstanding purchases (coming from China) that are due come late June and into July. A lot of my purchases from China these last six months have already been arriving late ( quite a few lately not arriving at all) and are about one to two weeks after the last delivery date. If a item is not received 2 weeks after the last delivery date I do file a claim regardless of the amount and will not accept offers for a re-send. If a seller issues a refund and I receive the item at a later date (seldom happens) I will contact the seller and offer to make a payment. How should I handle "items not received" should a postal strike occur? I will not be sure if the reason I do not receive an item is because item was not actually shipped (suspect that in few cases), actually lost in mail or due only to the postal strike but may arrive one day. I do not want to penalize a seller but neither do I want to out the money if the purchase never is received once the strike is over and the deadline to file a claim is perhaps passed.

I reviewed the noticed that was posted in regards to this : However it does not address

http://announcements.ebay.ca/2016/06/21/7803/

However it does not address my concerns. How do I handle "items" not received that show due in July? Will those delivery dates show a revised date on my listing? Also have several Ebay purchases coming from China that either are week passed due, are currently due and/or due before July 1st. A lot of my purchases from China in the last six months are arriving 7 - 14 days after last estimated delivery date. I had to file quite a few claims in the last several months due to "items not received". Most of these orders include multiple purchases (5 to 10+ items) and each items has to be treated as an individual claim rather than one claim for the entire order (i.e payment) which makes it look like I file a lot of claims ( items VS one order/payment/parcel). What do I do about the orders that are due before July 1st that I have not received since they fall in the late delivery (1-2 week delay) which takes it pass July 1st? Will the EBay claim deadline be extended in these cases? The announcement states: Should such a labour disruption occur, eBay will ensure that sellers are not penalized for the delayed arrival of shipments originating or terminating in Canada: It does not address the situation from the buyers perspective. Do I continue to submit "not recieved" claims as per Ebay deadlines? This seems to penalize the seller which is not my intent in the first place.

Hello aln_kat,

Welcome to the weekly session and thanks for posting about your concerns. At this time I don't have more colour to add on exactly how we will protect sellers and what buyer-facing measures will be implemented. We are looking at multiple things and will make a more detailed announcement once we sign off on what we will do. In the meantime, if there are items that you have purchased (such as the Chinese items you mention in your post) and that are nearing the deadline to report as not received, please continue to do so in order to not miss the deadline. If that were to happen while there is a postal strike in effect, we would protect the seller against any adverse effect resulting from your claim (what I meant when I spoke of defect protection in prior posts).