eBay

raphael@ebay.com · ‎10-21-2015

Hello everyone,

Welcome to our weekly session. As usual, I'll be around for most of the day and may leave the thread open overnight as needed.

Here are the issues I am currently tracking:

Combined shipping rules disappear on new listings created via Sell Similar (merritt-motorcycle-salvage)
UPC codes suddenly not recognized on live listings (mjwl2006)

And the issues for which I have had news:

Full shipping FVF charged on combined orders with discounted shipping (dutchman48) - The billing team is investigating on this.
Listings allowed to go live without a photo (rose-dee) - This is a known bug that is being worked on.
SYI preventing relist and Sell Similar if the original listing had a non compliant photo (pierrelebel) - problem has been identified and work has begun.

PS. Don't forget that today is the day Marty McFly shows up in the future. Say hello if you see him!

pocomocomputing · ‎10-21-2015

Regarding the issue with old notifications showing up at the top right of the page in the bell symbol. Supposedly resolved. NOT. I have a notification yesterday that my purchase has been shipped from a purchase completed in Aug 2015 for this ID. I left the notification for you to see.

On my other id, I had a notification "Paid - Ship Now" for an item that has been paid and shipped a couple of weeks ago. The buyer just left feedback today so that might be the trigger for that one to show.

I have seen others and deleted them since you posted the issue resolved weeks ago. But these are the blatant ones.

pocomocomputing · ‎10-21-2015

Selling Manager.

I sent you an email on Selling Manager glitches - repeated columns on the left hand side for Selling Tools and Shortcuts.

It seems from reading the eBay forums that there are other Selling Manager glitches on eBay.com. One is the Actions column on the far right is now on the far left taking up value space on the width of the screen. I checked and it was happening to me also last night and also this morning on Selling Manager on eBay.com. It is not happening on Selling Manager on eBay.ca for the actions column.

Apparently there is speculation that Selling Manager is messed up because the new Seller Hub interface is being worked on and there was an announcement in the Selling forum by eBay Jeff that the Seller Hub beta is available now for some members.

Just thought I would mention these "news" on Selling Manager and the new eBay Seller Hub.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-21-2015

@rose-dee wrote:
Good afternoon Raphael! I have a couple of questions today, both concerning the new seller policies. The first query is really in two parts:

1. When the new defect policy comes into effect on February 20th, will sellers' pre-existing defects be removed, i.e. will we all start with a clean slate under the new system as Day 1 of our new evaluation cycle?

If not, and all existing defects are carried forward, how will this work under the new, lower defect allowance (0.5% for Global/US TRS and 2% for standard)? Will the old and new allowable percentages be blended, or will all accumulated defects be evaluated at the new rate come Feb. 20th?

This is a real concern for many smaller sellers, who are carrying defects for an entire year before they're retired off the back end. Presumably a seller could find him/herself already over the 2% allowable limit on February 20th, even though they were under the limit in the old system. I would appreciate your detailed explanation of how this will work.

2. Under the new system, will sellers get to see eBay's own delivery estimates (the estimates that will be shown to buyers) for each item? I'd like to know in advance what eBay is going to be showing buyers when they go to answer the on-time delivery question. If there are no plans as yet in this regard, do you think it could be done?

2. After the sale you can also see ebay's estimated delivery date on the order details. It's been available there for quite a while.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎10-21-2015

@dutchman48 wrote:

This concerns the new ridiculous shipping matrix that will be used soon. This is real information below

example:

Paid for an order on 10/14

Seller shipped on 10/16

Ebay estimate for delivery is 10/17 to 10/20 which is absolutely absurd.

Of course it is not here yest and has a tracking number.

The seller will be in jeopardy for a defect under the new system.

My question is when I get the order and still answer the question have you received your order on time according to Ebay (generic version) when I do feedback, will that over ride the tracking info showing the opposite or will Ebay just use the tracking info and not use my answer?

If I don't answer the question at all, will Ebay automatically give the seller a strike due to no delivery in their absurd estimate.

This has been discussed when the announcements went out but now I would like definitive answers, not more wishy washy answers as this is a very serious issue.

Hi dutchman,

I have explained how this works in a previous weekly session. From my post there:

raphael@ebay.com wrote:

For tracked shipments, remember that if the acceptance scan is recorded within the seller's stated handling time, the shipping is considered to be on time and nothing after that can change that.

If there was no recorded acceptance scan, or of the acceptance scan was recorded after the seller's stated handling time, we then look at whether there was a delivery confirmation scan recorded within the estimated delivery time. Attempted delivery does not count as confirmed delivery.

If there was no delivery confirmation scan or if the actual delivery confirmation scan was recorded after the latest estimated delivery date, we turn to the buyer's response to the question whether they received the item by the latest estimated date.

On a side note, may I ask more details on the estimated delivery dates you used as an example? Were these for a domestic transaction or cross-border, and if cross-border, to which country? What shipping service was selected? As far as I know, there are no standard shipping services available on eBay.ca where the longer estimated delivery date is 6 days. Expedited Parcel is 1-7 days plus the seller's handling time. Anything lower are express or priority services, which will usually get to the buyer in 24-48 hours domestically.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎10-21-2015

@pocomocomputing wrote:

Regarding the issue with old notifications showing up at the top right of the page in the bell symbol. Supposedly resolved. NOT. I have a notification yesterday that my purchase has been shipped from a purchase completed in Aug 2015 for this ID. I left the notification for you to see.

On my other id, I had a notification "Paid - Ship Now" for an item that has been paid and shipped a couple of weeks ago. The buyer just left feedback today so that might be the trigger for that one to show.

I have seen others and deleted them since you posted the issue resolved weeks ago. But these are the blatant ones.

Thanks pocomo. I'll alert the team.

momcqueen · ‎10-21-2015

Can you give a timeframe for Markdown Manager to be fully operational again? The drop-down menu is a dead link and I cannot delete inactive sales, regardless of whether they're still running in error or legitimately completed.

Also, paypal has been acting up again. Realizing eBay and paypal are separate entities is one thing but how long exactly will we be required to offer it exclusively and not one of its competitors?

merritt-motorcycle-salvage · ‎10-21-2015

I assume you passed my question by accident since you are not responding to it???!!!!

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-21-2015

Raphael, there are times when the the delivery estimate on a listing says something like international delivery time varies and when the item is sold, there is no eta given on the order details. If there is no delivery time given does that mean that the buyer won't be asked the question and that transaction won't be counted at all in the on time metrics?

To be honest, I'm not sure when that happens or how often it does but I've seen the no delivery date scenario recently.

bozonet · ‎10-21-2015

Re: GSP

I avoid any items with the GSP unless it is exceptionally rare and I can get it for a price to offset the extra charges.

I would bet there are cases where auctions do not reach as high they might because some non-USA bidders avoid them.

I have passed on things where I would have bid higher than the closing price if not for the GSP and I'm probably not the only one.

Re: eBay android app

I used to do a lot of searching, browsing and bidding via the eBay mobile app.

That is, until eBay released the latest version.

This is perhaps the worst example of UI design I have ever seen. The previous version was great. It was well designed and easy to use. The latest version is just the opposite. Not only is it ugly, a mess to navigate and non-intuitive it now crashes whenever you try to start it. It seems I'm not the only one who dislikes it. Just check the reviews for this abomination in the Google play store.

Is eBay trying to make searching and buying more difficult?

Once upon a time there was an indication beside saved searches when new items were available. This was very useful when you have a lot of searches that rarely have new items. Of course it disappeared from the website a while back and now you have to actually open the search to see if there is something new. The mobile app still had it. But that was before the mobile app became unusable.

Does eBay even do any user testing before releasing anything? Or do they think they know best and people will just adapt to whatever they dump on us?

raphael@ebay.com · ‎10-21-2015

@pocomocomputing wrote:

Selling Manager.

I sent you an email on Selling Manager glitches - repeated columns on the left hand side for Selling Tools and Shortcuts.

It seems from reading the eBay forums that there are other Selling Manager glitches on eBay.com. One is the Actions column on the far right is now on the far left taking up value space on the width of the screen. I checked and it was happening to me also last night and also this morning on Selling Manager on eBay.com. It is not happening on Selling Manager on eBay.ca for the actions column.

Apparently there is speculation that Selling Manager is messed up because the new Seller Hub interface is being worked on and there was an announcement in the Selling forum by eBay Jeff that the Seller Hub beta is available now for some members.

Just thought I would mention these "news" on Selling Manager and the new eBay Seller Hub.

I alerted the SM team about the repeat menus on the left.

For the columns, note that the order of those is editable via the Customize link in the top right area of the SM page. Anyone who prefers the Action column on the far right can set it that way.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎10-21-2015

@merritt-motorcycle-salvage wrote:

I assume you passed my question by accident since you are not responding to it???!!!!

I have responded to your question.

dutchman48 · ‎10-21-2015

raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@dutchman48 wrote:
This concerns the new ridiculous shipping matrix that will be used soon. This is real information below

example:

Paid for an order on 10/14

Seller shipped on 10/16

Ebay estimate for delivery is 10/17 to 10/20 which is absolutely absurd.

Of course it is not here yest and has a tracking number.

The seller will be in jeopardy for a defect under the new system.

My question is when I get the order and still answer the question have you received your order on time according to Ebay (generic version) when I do feedback, will that over ride the tracking info showing the opposite or will Ebay just use the tracking info and not use my answer?

If I don't answer the question at all, will Ebay automatically give the seller a strike due to no delivery in their absurd estimate.

This has been discussed when the announcements went out but now I would like definitive answers, not more wishy washy answers as this is a very serious issue.

Hi dutchman,

I have explained how this works in a previous weekly session. From my post there:
raphael@ebay.com wrote:
For tracked shipments, remember that if the acceptance scan is recorded within the seller's stated handling time, the shipping is considered to be on time and nothing after that can change that.

If there was no recorded acceptance scan, or of the acceptance scan was recorded after the seller's stated handling time, we then look at whether there was a delivery confirmation scan recorded within the estimated delivery time. Attempted delivery does not count as confirmed delivery.

If there was no delivery confirmation scan or if the actual delivery confirmation scan was recorded after the latest estimated delivery date, we turn to the buyer's response to the question whether they received the item by the latest estimated date.

On a side note, may I ask more details on the estimated delivery dates you used as an example? Were these for a domestic transaction or cross-border, and if cross-border, to which country? What shipping service was selected? As far as I know, there are no standard shipping services available on eBay.ca where the longer estimated delivery date is 6 days. Expedited Parcel is 1-7 days plus the seller's handling time. Anything lower are express or priority services, which will usually get to the buyer in 24-48 hours domestically.

So if I don't answer the question, the seller will be SOL even though the estimates are ridiculous.

gemaddict · ‎10-21-2015

raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@gemaddict wrote:
Good Day,

I have an issue where a buyer has left me a negative. I am not going to dispute this for various reasons, one being this person has given 8 negative and 2 neutrals out of the last 25 FB left. I had no communication from the buyer at all. I refunded them and blocked them. When I went into my dashboard it now shows two defects for this transaction. One for the negative and another for transaction cancelled, reason out of stock. Since they are leaving FB on an item they received it is obviously in error.

I also have received at least three or more item not received defects in the past few weeks because the buyers pick the item not received option when asking after their order. These customers have absolutely no idea that in doing so this opens a case and gives a seller a defect which was never their intention. I have had two removed thus far but now have another to look after. It would seem every time I am set to get my TRS back I receive more defects. It is beyond frustrating.
Hello gemaddict,

In such cases where you think defects came from buyer errors, you can contact CS to appeal those defects.

Also, please note that only one defect can be recorded per transaction, so with your first example only one defect was counted against your overall defect rate.

I put too much emphasis on the negative feedback. While only one defect per transaction counts it still bothers me that a defect can magically appear in my dashboard that I had nothing to do with. I did not cancel the transaction though it is telling me I did. This is the problem and it's a bit concerning that it can happen.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎10-21-2015

@mjwl2006 wrote:
Can you give a timeframe for Markdown Manager to be fully operational again? The drop-down menu is a dead link and I cannot delete inactive sales, regardless of whether they're still running in error or legitimately completed.

Also, paypal has been acting up again. Realizing eBay and paypal are separate entities is one thing but how long exactly will we be required to offer it exclusively and not one of its competitors?

Hi Maureen,

I have alerted the team who owns Markdown Manager, can't say when it's going to get fixed yet but they will look at it.

As a PayPal customer I highly recommend inquiring directly with them any time there is a service disruption. On the eBay side, even though we are not separate companies, PayPal is still the preferred payment platform since we are so closely integrated with their service. I can't speak to if or when we will see similar integration with other payments providers yet, unfortunately.

dutchman48 · ‎10-21-2015

@dutchman48 wrote:
raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@dutchman48 wrote:
This concerns the new ridiculous shipping matrix that will be used soon. This is real information below

example:

Paid for an order on 10/14

Seller shipped on 10/16

Ebay estimate for delivery is 10/17 to 10/20 which is absolutely absurd.

Of course it is not here yest and has a tracking number.

The seller will be in jeopardy for a defect under the new system.

My question is when I get the order and still answer the question have you received your order on time according to Ebay (generic version) when I do feedback, will that over ride the tracking info showing the opposite or will Ebay just use the tracking info and not use my answer?

If I don't answer the question at all, will Ebay automatically give the seller a strike due to no delivery in their absurd estimate.

This has been discussed when the announcements went out but now I would like definitive answers, not more wishy washy answers as this is a very serious issue.

Hi dutchman,

I have explained how this works in a previous weekly session. From my post there:
raphael@ebay.com wrote:
For tracked shipments, remember that if the acceptance scan is recorded within the seller's stated handling time, the shipping is considered to be on time and nothing after that can change that.

If there was no recorded acceptance scan, or of the acceptance scan was recorded after the seller's stated handling time, we then look at whether there was a delivery confirmation scan recorded within the estimated delivery time. Attempted delivery does not count as confirmed delivery.

If there was no delivery confirmation scan or if the actual delivery confirmation scan was recorded after the latest estimated delivery date, we turn to the buyer's response to the question whether they received the item by the latest estimated date.

On a side note, may I ask more details on the estimated delivery dates you used as an example? Were these for a domestic transaction or cross-border, and if cross-border, to which country? What shipping service was selected? As far as I know, there are no standard shipping services available on eBay.ca where the longer estimated delivery date is 6 days. Expedited Parcel is 1-7 days plus the seller's handling time. Anything lower are express or priority services, which will usually get to the buyer in 24-48 hours domestically.
So if I don't answer the question, the seller will be SOL even though the estimates are ridiculous.

To answer your aside, this is in the US, domestic, and sent priority. The same question still applies as it is Ebay's system. If you want the US tracking number, I can give you that as well

raphael@ebay.com · ‎10-21-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Raphael, there are times when the the delivery estimate on a listing says something like international delivery time varies and when the item is sold, there is no eta given on the order details. If there is no delivery time given does that mean that the buyer won't be asked the question and that transaction won't be counted at all in the on time metrics?

To be honest, I'm not sure when that happens or how often it does but I've seen the no delivery date scenario recently.

Usually this happens when a seller selects a shipping service that is incompatible with the buyer's location or for whatever reason, shipping cannot be calculated (wrong package dimensions or weight, for example).

I'm not 100% sure and I'll check with the Standards team, but I would think in such situations the transaction would be ignored in the calculation of the OTS metric.

pocomocomputing · ‎10-21-2015

raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@pocomocomputing wrote:
Selling Manager.

I sent you an email on Selling Manager glitches - repeated columns on the left hand side for Selling Tools and Shortcuts.

It seems from reading the eBay forums that there are other Selling Manager glitches on eBay.com. One is the Actions column on the far right is now on the far left taking up value space on the width of the screen. I checked and it was happening to me also last night and also this morning on Selling Manager on eBay.com. It is not happening on Selling Manager on eBay.ca for the actions column.

Apparently there is speculation that Selling Manager is messed up because the new Seller Hub interface is being worked on and there was an announcement in the Selling forum by eBay Jeff that the Seller Hub beta is available now for some members.

Just thought I would mention these "news" on Selling Manager and the new eBay Seller Hub.
I alerted the SM team about the repeat menus on the left.

For the columns, note that the order of those is editable via the Customize link in the top right area of the SM page. Anyone who prefers the Action column on the far right can set it that way.

Actions column is not in the Customize option. It is one of the eBay columns that cannot be set.

I was ale to to minimize it appearance on the left column by clicking and dragging the column right edge to as narrow as possible to where it is just the width of the dropdown arrow. Overriding over the dropdown arrow brings up the menu list of actions.. Ironically, I find this interesting since I never had enough width on my screen to ever look at the actions column as I had other columns to try and fit in the width of the screen. The actions column was always off screen.

I always found the interface of the Selling Manager was just too wide if you wanted to see many columns. I even went out and got a LCD wide display (1440 pixels wide) just to be able to see more columns in Selling Manager. Fortunately for me, I found a used one at a thrift store for $15-20 3 years ago. Great screen. Died once early in 2015 (it is 8 years old) but I was able to fix it (change bad capacitors in the power supply). Going off topic now ...

raphael@ebay.com · ‎10-21-2015

@dutchman48 wrote:

raphael@ebay.com wrote:

@dutchman48 wrote:

This concerns the new ridiculous shipping matrix that will be used soon. This is real information below

example:

Paid for an order on 10/14

Seller shipped on 10/16

Ebay estimate for delivery is 10/17 to 10/20 which is absolutely absurd.

Of course it is not here yest and has a tracking number.

The seller will be in jeopardy for a defect under the new system.

My question is when I get the order and still answer the question have you received your order on time according to Ebay (generic version) when I do feedback, will that over ride the tracking info showing the opposite or will Ebay just use the tracking info and not use my answer?

If I don't answer the question at all, will Ebay automatically give the seller a strike due to no delivery in their absurd estimate.

----

So if I don't answer the question, the seller will be SOL even though the estimates are ridiculous.

There is something important missing in your example case. What was the seller's stated handling time? Did they ship the item within that handling time? If the answer is yes, nothing that happens after that matters because eBay won't look for any other events to determine if the item was shipped on time (as per my original response to your question).

But to answer your specific question, let's assume the seller shipped past their stated handling time. In that case, if the item got delivered after the latest estimated date, and the buyer did not respond to the question when leaving feedback (or of they didn't leave feedback at all), the seller would not get a strike. The transaction would be ignored in the calculation of their OTS metric.

Lastly, I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure that items shipped domestically in the US with a USPS tracked service pretty much arrive at destination within 6 days.

dutchman48 · ‎10-21-2015

@amya4295 wrote:
Good Morning,

Does or has ebay done anything to educate American Sellers on the GSP to Canada? My purchases from the U.S are about 90% less than a couple of years ago. I know how to search and find Non GSP sellers but they are few and far between severely limiting what is available to purchase.

I have followed all of the threads on GSP and understand clearly how it works but why does the American seller who is listing relatively inexpensive items still use GSP? To me, the answer is that they are now aware and many conversations with U.S Sellers certainly back this up. I sent a U.S seller an email this week explaining that their GSP item for sale would cost me more than $50.00 in shipping/duty and would he consider using a different shipping method. His response was as follows:

"I am sorry but when using eBay global shipping program we cannot do any editing or price adjusting. This item goes through eBay's global shipping center.
We ship the item to a location in the USA and eBay does the rest. Again, our apologies, if you have any further questions, please contact eBay directly."

I am certain that contacting Ebay would not result in any resolution to this but found it interesting that his response indicates that it is something out of his control. Are there any numbers to show that Canadians buying from the U.S has dropped dramatically since the inception of GSP? Are the lost sales to Canada just so small compared to the gains in international shipments using GSP that ebay is not really bothered by it? As I am also a seller, I obviously still visit ebay but for many of my friends and family that frequently used this site, usually first over other sites, when looking for items, they now don't don't even consider it as a viable option and have headed elsewhere. Almost 100% of the time they say shipping is too expensive or that they bought something from a seller that used GSP and were completely surprised by the additional costs. Yes, the associated costs are listed there but they leave many, many people confused and vowing never to return. Another note is that on a mobile device when looking at a GSP item you will need to "dig" to find all of the associated costs as they do not display unless you fully open the shipping tab. It is very misleading.

Just wondering if you can share with us if there is any plans to better educate U.S sellers on the best way to ship to Canada for items that really should not be sent by using GSP or is that not something ebay wants to do as it may be income generating for them?? It's incredibly frustrating to see items that you want but in some cases the associated costs to get it to you is much more than the item value. I buy almost exclusively online from my groceries to clothing to hardware to housewares, so losing ebay as a source is really sad!

Thanks, have a great day.

Here is what I got from a dealer in the US as far as shipping to Canada.

Thank you for contacting us.  Unfortunately, due to excessive losses
in the mails, we no longer ship to Canada.

Maybe that is why Ebay sellers will not ship to Canada without GSP.

Not nice to say, but I buy and sell in US and Canada and the majority of my issues have been in Canada as well due to high tracking costs and lack of CP insurance availability.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎10-21-2015

@gemaddict wrote:

I put too much emphasis on the negative feedback. While only one defect per transaction counts it still bothers me that a defect can magically appear in my dashboard that I had nothing to do with. I did not cancel the transaction though it is telling me I did. This is the problem and it's a bit concerning that it can happen.

The thing that made eBay believe that you cancelled the transaction was that you refunded the buyer. This is a defect that you can appeal since it's clear that the transaction took place (assuming the buyer did not give you negative FB before you had the chance to ship the item).

It's not usual for sellers to issue refunds because they got negative feedback. Most of the time, if a seller issues a refund, it's because they are not going through with the transaction. If there are no traces of a buyer request for transaction in eBay Messages, we issue a defect for the cancellation.