eBay Bugs & Issues Thread

[kalvin@ebay.com]

Hi Everyone,

We are starting a new thread here for you to post your concerns when you encounter an eBay issue or bug and have un-tacked the previous thread that has been around since the beginning of 2008.

Here are some important things to point out:

1. This is not eBay Customer Support. All bugs and site issues should be reported to CS to ensure that they are escalated & tracked. You can report issues to CS using Contact Us. Enter a brief description of the issue you are encountering into the search box and select the most appropriate topic(s).

2. We would like to keep this thread as organized and purpose-driven as possible. If you don't have a bug or site issue to discuss, please consider posting to a different board/thread.

3. Provide as much detail as possible when describing your Issue.

Thanks -

Kalvin

[setchegary]

Since the roundly criticized dropping of wildcard support in saved searches I've found that some refinements are now being lost in a few of the searches that I was forced to change.  Specifically, this affects the Format refinement for DVDs & Movies>DVDs & Blu-ray Discs and also the Platform refinement for Video Games & Consoles>Video Games.  I've been re-saving one of the searches periodically to see if the issue has been resolved but it still persists.  Strangely, on the Saved Searches page, the 'Search Criteria' column still references the dropped refinement, like so:

search string, C $0.01 - C $9.99, Brand New, Blu-ray Disc, North America

However, when I open that saved search I see that the Blu-ray Disc refinement is not actually in place.  My e-mailed results are also not restricted by Format.

I can live with wildcards being unsupported (though I'd rather not) but encountering this issue as a result of to being forced to replace searches is a continual irritation.

[smccaffr39]

i have encountered an issue that needs attention.  i am a canadian buyer.  for US items that i am watching my "daily digest" email and my "my ebay" site are showing US shipping prices instead of that for Canada.  when i click on an item and go to its page specifically, i can then see the canadian shipping.  if ebay know where i'm located, those 2 places should be showing me the appropriate price.  i placed a bid recently based on the info i saw twice, never thinking that it could possibly appear different in another place.  i reported the issue to ebay by way of phone as that was my only option, but the person i spoke to couldn't care less.  

if this should be in its own thread, please let me know.

[Anonymous]

It is a shame that eBay is making a fortune of billions of $$$ and yet they cannot "fix" anything or do anything right?

I think it is time for eBay to "clean their house" meaning fire the staff who are not doing what they are supposed to do and hired back those who were laid off.  Those who were laid off have more knowledge and experts but eBay laid them off so they can save a few bucks by hiring new people who are still wet behind their ears and for that purpose to save a few bucks.  It is so silly.  It only makes eBay look bad and their quality had went south way further than Australia or whatever is down south.

It is time that eBay stop "fixing" their technology which they claimed is "technologyly glitch" which is going on for months and months after I called them so many times.  It looks like something is horrible wrong at eBay that they cannot fix. 

Come on, eBay get those all people who are laid off back and then the quality of eBay may get back to where it used to be.

I remembered when I became a seller in early 2007, eBay was fun and safe and now it is becoming more and more not fun and safe and more hassle due to the so-called technology glitch.  And also stop working on too many policies and stop "fixing" on whatever that don't need to be fixed.  Old saying:  "If it is not broken, don't fix it".  eBay, it was not broken, then why keep on fixing it???!!!

Time to listen and do it.  eBay had a wonderful custome service that is so easy and accessible for everyone until they removed that icon on top right where we can click and chat with someone at anytime.  Since they removed it, the quality of the customer service when down south so fast! 

It is so silly when I read that eBay continues to lay off to save $$$ when in fact, they are making way huge profits in billions of $$$.  Come on, don't be too greedy. 

[rose-dee]

Hi Kalvin,

I hesitate to add my 2 cents' worth to this already busy string, and I know you've heard it all before, but since you asked, my main issue is with DSRs...

DSRs probably have a place on eBay, but IMHO, there are serious problems with the DSR concept as it now stands:

1) The DSR system is skewed against the smaller seller (and for that matter, almost any Canadian seller).  As one poster importantly pointed out, multinational sellers of cheap whatnots with thousands of transactions can mitigate shoddy salesmanship statistically.

2) Allowing buyers to rate sellers on anything to do with shipping after they (the buyers) have agreed to the cost and the item has been shipped is irrational.  It turns DSRs into a ranting forum for buyers.

3) Buyers have no real grasp of how critical those little stars are to sellers.  They either hit all "5s" robotically to get it over with if they're relatively happy, or they use the tool as punishment, often for elements of the transaction completely out of a seller's control.  I've seen my numbers fall in the "shipping cost" section despite the fact that I almost always provide my buyers with a discount on shipping.

4) DSRs are not linked to FB.  A buyer can post positive FB and blast a seller in DSRs, and vice-versa.  This is completely illogical.

5) The only DSRs that should count toward a seller's overall rating should be "Item as Described" and (possibly) "Communication" (perhaps weighted lower than "IAD" overall).

6)  EBay is too draconian with their DSR limits - it should instead recognize that buyers are much more flippant than sellers are where DSRs are concerned, and give sellers more leeway when tallying their performance.

My suggestions to eBay are (is anyone out there listening????)

(1) Get rid of DSRs that allow buyers to rate shipping time and shipping costs.  You've done enough to curtail outrageous shipping charges by hitting sellers with FVFs on shipping.  Don't punish us twice for matters beyond our control.

(2)  Link the DSRs logically to the FB once the FB has been entered -- if a buyer leaves negative FB, then leaves 4 or 5 star DSRs, oblige him to revise his FB to positive, with or without text.  If he leaves positive FB, allow him to only leave 4+ DSR points.

(3) Don't permit multiple DSR entries for a single combined shipping transaction, ever;

(4) Rethink the weighting and statistical use of DSRs, as noted in (5) and (6) above;

(5) Inform buyers a little more on how vital the DSR "opinion poll" is, and perhaps make their IDs visible to sellers (?)

(5) Lastly, have a simple DSR to replace the two currently dealing with shipping, that rates overall satisfaction with the transaction and the seller's service.

Surely eBay's computers can handle this!

[1dreamcatcher1]

One VERY important issue that's been going on, is the shipping for Canadian Sellers using Canada Post.  They system has been charging the Buyer one price and when the Seller goes to actually print the label, the shipping is increased anywhere from 30 cents to over a dollar, even though none of the info has changed!

When an Ebay rep and myself investigated, we discovered the price to be several DOLLARS cheaper for that one small item on the Canada Post website.

I personally contacted my government & Canada Post, since Ebay and PayPal said it wasn't there problem, even though it was happening on their site.

I can tell you that as of this week, they're "rapidly working on the problem and it should be completely resolved within the next 2 weeks."

But, the IMPORTANT part for Canadian Sellers is, if you want to take the time to go over all your selling transactions (since JANUARY!) and add up what they owe you for each one, checking it against the Canada Post website for their overcharging, you CAN submit a bill to Canada Post and get compensated for it.

I am.  😄 

[pjcdn2005]

dreamcatcher....The pricing problems that I've read about are all for Tracked Packet which was added on April 9. Perhaps you are having other problems as well but there is an announcement about the TP overcharges and it looks like they will be crediting those who overpaid.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/ca/201304.shtml#2013-04-22124416

[borntofarm63]

When tracking numbers are uploaded to the buyers purchase list and they click on it, a white pop up comes up which shows nothing but the tracking number. The buyers see this and think that it hasn't been shipped. You have to click on the number a second time in this window to get to the tracking information and many don't realize this. When you clicked on the number before it used to take you right to the Canada Post or other shipping site, now it doesn't.

[action-play-hobbies]

Anyone here know who to contact to get things fixed, I'm loosing sales in the US because of them.

I've been with eBay a short time, but long enough to find issues in the system, worst off they tell me it's not their problem if the Canada post calculating system for sales from Canada to the US isn't working, I can't get anything calculating for me. It's broken and that's really bad. I just lost another sale cause I told the buyer that I would have to invoice him with the shipping cost put in manually and then he or she would have to send me the additional money and then I can send of the item, once PayPal transfers it. Instead of a sale I got a no thanks. I'm very frustrated.

[pjcdn2005]

Some of your listings are giving a shipping price for the U.S.  The other listings are set up to show that the item can only be shipped within Canada so of course there is no U.S. shipping price.  The shipping settings in those listings must not be set up correctly. To figure out what you are doing wrong,  you can compare the ones that show U.S. shipping to the ones that do not. For example, item 181253704235 does give a shipping price and item 181460495559 does not.

[action-play-hobbies]

I already know this, I have some that are not international and some are. The ones that are international (United States), are not working.

I will try however adding some more items and this time I will make it for both, if that doesn't work either I will let you know.

[pjcdn2005]

Ok, now I see a listing that does state shipping to both countries and that does not show a price for the U.S. Sorry I missed that earlier. When that happens, the most common problem is that the dimensions entered are too small for the service being used.

The minimum size for expedited and regular parcel within Canada are quite a bit smaller than the minimum for expedited USA. If you are using the latter, the minimum dimensions are 21cm x 15cm x .5cm. I don't know if that is the problem in your case though as one of the items that isn't working definitely has bigger measurements than that - item 181250440242

Unless...is it possible that you have entered the imperial measurement numbers in the cm field?  

If that isn't the problem...which shipping service do you have listed for the U.S.?

[action-play-hobbies]

Our shipper is Canada Post, and it seems cause I'm in Canada I can only use Canada Post. I had called eBay customer service asking if I could change it to FedEx or UPS, but we're not given these choices for what reason I don't know. I was just told that this is all we get as Canadian sellers for shipping, if I decided to use someone else, I'm not protected by eBay for any miss doings.

This is a not so good way of doing business. I really though that eBay was more expandable when it came to services like this, but I'm starting to see more restrictions than I would like, this is why I use other services like Amazon and Kijiji, it gives me more opportunities to sell my products than just relying on eBay, even though I pay to have most of my stuff listed on eBay. It might not be much per month, but it does eventually add up, especially when you loose sales cause of issues like this.

For now the only thing I can do to make US buyers realize why the system doesn't calculate shipping to the US is to add a disclaimer at the beginning of each item description explaining the shipping issue. It seems soon as I explain how make this work, they simply say no thanks. I guess it seems sketchy to them so they just don't bother.

I'm going to start adjusting some of my items on eBay and perhaps add a few more to see if I can figure out what is going on. I like to find other Canadian seller to if they have this problem or if they have a solution. Calling customer support gets me no where, so I will either try and figure it out myself or just live with it.

BTW, thanks for reaching out to me on this matter. I do appreciate that help on this, I just want to find a solution before I loose more sales.

[pierrelebel]

OK - one step at the time.

I checked a few of your listings and all of those show: "shipping to Canada" only

As such, if you want to ship to the USA and have your items shown on eBay.com, you must do two things:

1) select shipping to USA in your listings

2) select a shipping service and show a shipping charge to the USA for each listing

The shipping calculator works fine.  That is not the problem. In many instances, I suspect you do not even need the calculator but could use fixed price shipping to the USA (Small Packet up to one kilo).  Somehow, you are not completing each step correctly so that your listings are available to both Canadians and Americans, if that is what you wish.

As far as shipping services are concerned, you can use whatever you want, there is no restriction limiting you to use Canada Post.  However, eBay gives you the advantage of using Canada Post by purchasing your postage online and paying for it through PayPal.  The system incorporates many features so that when you purchase the postage through eBay/PayPal, the information, including tracking number (if applicable) is also immediately available to the buyer.

Using other services are quite permissible but you will have to do it manually.  Also, you will quickly find that using FedEx or UPS is generally more expensive than Canada Post.  Why would you want to use them and outprice yourself?

Now, should you decide to ship to Canada only for a while, I most strongly suggest you change your prices to Canadian dollars.  There is no logic in charging US$ for the item and US$ for the shipping charge when both seller and buyer are Canadians.  Both end up wasting money in currency conversion fees.

If an item is worth US$25, you can just as easily price it at Cdn$ 27.  You end up with more money in your pocket (saving the conversion fee) and the buyer ends up paying a bit less (also saving the conversion fee).  WIN - WIN.

On the other hand, if you wish to expand to the US market, it makes sense to use US$.

[pjcdn2005]

For now the only thing I can do to make US buyers realize why the system doesn't calculate shipping to the US is to add a disclaimer at the beginning of each item description explaining the shipping issue.

Or you could take some time and figure out what you are doing wrong as the calculator does work and some of your listings do show a U.S. shipping cost.  As explained in my other post you may be entering dimensions that do not work for that Canada Post service or you may be specifying a Canada Post service that is not valid in the U.S.  In both cases the calculator will allow you to enter the information but will not show a shipping price to the buyer.

We might be able to tell you what the problem is if you give us some information. For example, item 181250420233 shows that it has shipping to the U.S. but there is no shipping price showing. Which Canada Post service have you listed in the calculator and what are the dimensions and weight that you have entered?  Are you using metric or imperial measurements?

[action-play-hobbies]

So I finally figured it out, it took a little tinkering but I got the item War Machine - Marvel Select (181250420233) calculating the shipping. So I guess I have to make sure I truly read everything carefully. It was most likely the shipping method and or the setup to ship internationally. I guess it wasn't clear enough for me, but that's why I have good supportive people like you guys to help people like me who get frustrated when things don't work. I thank you for having patients with me on this.

[pjcdn2005]

I'm glad that you got the U.S. shipping figured out. But I see that the UK and Australian shipping prices are not showing on that item.

[action-play-hobbies]

Should I add the UK and Australian as well, when I test it it say to contact the seller for shipping price. Also when I recently added more of my items compared to the first group of items, the feature for adding more items are different, allot different. It's like a new version of the "Sell an Item", and this version doesn't give me the option for UK and Australian just the US. I will change the older items I had posted but the news one I did I can't. Maybe it has to do with when you first sign up you get so many free to post, then afterwords when I sold my first item, I was given the opportunity to add more but pay for the listing. Now when ever I upload, again...the backed looks completely different, and it's missing a couple of features the old one has.

[action-play-hobbies]

O.k, I got it, worldwide. Da!