September 25th 2019 Weekly Session

[tyler@ebay]

Hi everyone - 

Opening the chat up for your questions. I'll be by to work on answers tomorrow!

Tyler

[retroman_studios]

Have you been able to reach out to PBI and figure out why recently shipments are going to odd couriers and customers are unable to file MBG due to invalid or erroneous shipping updates posted by GSP Contractors?

This specific issue concerns me as recently there have been a few items I was considering purchasing, however, until some update from eBay or PBI surfaces, I will not be purchasing anything that uses GSP.

It seems PBI has changed it's standing on customer service. I recall a year or so ago when the 1-800 number I got from PayPal was always friendly, now when folks call, PBI is more hostile and even on the tracking page they list a number but say do not call for anything tracking related.

I understand that eBay has this program in place to allow sales of items that would not otherwise be available, no issue there...and if eBay and PBI make a profit, again, no issue. But it seems as though the program has always had growing pains. Compare this to a similar service setup by AliExpress, and the difference is shocking. AliExpress has a similar setup, a location that accepts parcels and forwards them to the end user. Tracking is amazing, they even have tracking updates before the carriers publish the updates!

Any update on that would be helpful.

[pjcdn2005]

Some Canadian and US sellers received 10,000 or more 'free' listings for the .com site. A few details seem a bit skewed..for example, mine apparently started in 2014 and is over in 2038. lol  It is also shown as active but apparently the listings are not coming off of the total.

Anyway...is this promo a mistake?

[pjcdn2005]

In relations to retroman's post about global shipping, there was a thread earlier this month about an item being marked as delivered but not being delivered...actually I have seen a few recent posts about this.  But in this case, the buyer was told that the package had been redirected to  a PUDO pick up point but PUDO couldn't find it either.  If PB is actually using PUDO, do they ever deliver door to door? The impression I get from their site is that they drop off packages at specific locations such as convenience stores.  Is this is what ebay/PB calls international priority shipping??

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buyer-Central/Help-ebay-Global-Shipping-to-Canada-from-US/m-p/427463

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Hello Tyler,

Why is it that officially announced features/improvements seem to take so much longer to roll out on dot ca vs dot com and why is it Special Offer mail to sellers is usually late based on offer start & end dates. I've received special offers on several occasions just prior to them ending leaving limited time to utilize. Other times they have shown up in my regular mail but nowhere to be found in eBay mail.

Thanks,

-Lotz

[tyler@ebay]

Sorry for my late start today everyone! It's been a little hectic in the office today. 

I've closed the chat from further questions and will be working on getting replies to the folks who posted here shortly. 🙂

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @retroman_studios - couriers are routinely evaluated by PBI and changed to meet their needs. 

I've gathered the feedback that's come up recently (from the thread that @pjcdn2005 shared specifically) and escalated that. It is used in getting input back to PBI so they can continue to make changes as necessary to balance their needs and ours. We want the GSP to be a program that gets you the item you pay for, in a timely fashion and without hassle. 

You shouldn't need to contact PBI for a GSP item, in fact it's something that we would discourage you from doing. Working with CS is the best way to get things resolved - and the quickest way to hold PBI accountable for failure to deliver a package. 

I appreciate your input on this and will continue to share experiences with GSP with the folks that oversee the program, so keep it coming!

[tyler@ebay]

---

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Some Canadian and US sellers received 10,000 or more 'free' listings for the .com site. A few details seem a bit skewed..for example, mine apparently started in 2014 and is over in 2038. lol  It is also shown as active but apparently the listings are not coming off of the total.

Anyway...is this promo a mistake?

---

Hi @pjcdn2005 - I love time traveling promotions! 😛

These promotions were sent in error - but it should be resolved at this point in time. If you're still seeing them please try the usual (clear cache & cookies, restart the browser). If it remains after that will you page me to a thread so I can look further into it? Thanks!

[tyler@ebay]

---

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

Hello Tyler,

Why is it that officially announced features/improvements seem to take so much longer to roll out on dot ca vs dot com and why is it Special Offer mail to sellers is usually late based on offer start & end dates. I've received special offers on several occasions just prior to them ending leaving limited time to utilize. Other times they have shown up in my regular mail but nowhere to be found in eBay mail.

Thanks,

-Lotz

---

Hi @lotzofuniquegoodies - 'why' questions are tricky for me to answer, as there's very rarely a simple 'because'. 

There are a host of reasons why something could be delayed from announcement to production. It could end up being much more complex to roll out for our site, there could be an unforeseen legal complication, a licensing issue, a shift in direction or fewer folks to do the heavy lifting.

Offer emails are usually sent in batches, and while there are usually delays (we send them in waves to prevent overload on our system) it shouldn't be as severely delayed as that. Feel free to start a thread and let me know which email you didn't receive in a timely fashion!

Also, it's worth noting that there are some emails (typically the promotional ones) that are only sent to your email address (not your eBay message center).

Thanks!