2012 Fall Seller Update

[CmtyGuide@ebay.com]

Discuss changes announced during the 2012 Fall Seller Update here!

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/ca/201207.shtml#2012-07-24112136

[ottokitty]

Sorry to keep coming back to this, but better to get clarification now, since there seems to be some confusion about this CONDITION field

Hi pocomocomputing,

Thanks for pointing that out. I seem to have missed this part, which is likely to have been added just before these pages went live.

As I told ottokitty, despite the intended use for Item Condition Notes, seller will undoubtedly find the best way to use the feature to their advantage. I certainly hope you will as well 🙂

I've been browsing the US Discussion Board, and came across this thread:

http://forums.ebay.com/db1/topic/2012-Fall-Seller/2-S-Item/5100091199?start=0

The question (Post #1) is

First with Condition. The problem with ebays forced grading system is it is too general especially for older items &  books & magazines.

Does this mean I put my detailed description in this box Instead of the general ebay grading system which for my auctions is not useful. Also will that text stay for unsold items for relisting?

& is there going to be a text limit as my description have gone up to 6 lines of text which in a small box would be a lot of text. So could I put " SEE ITEM DESCRIPTION FOR COMPLETE DETAILED DESCRIPTION" WHich would also be easier on a buyers eyes as long as the text does have the description.

TO WHICH THE REPLY is (see post #10)

Your understanding of the item condition notes field is correct. It is a 1000 character free form text field that sellers can use to clarify the condition value selected. Text entered into it will be saved for relisting when the listing ends.

Since we do not want buyers looking in multiple places on the "View Item" page for item condition related information, we expect sellers to use the condition notes field exclusively for any details on the item's condition, thereby removing such information from the description. Using the field as an anchor to sections of the item description goes against the intent of this feature and may result in administrative action.

Please don't misunderstand, I just want to be sure I use the CONDITION field properly.

BUT, this mention of administrative action is a concern.

What does it mean exactly?

...restriction? suspension? Listings failing? Error messages? Very vague.

Clarification would be deifinitely appreciated.

[pocomocomputing]

Regarding the new picture policy and its implementation. Non-store owners got the 12 free eBay pictures (i.e. Picture Pack) July 2. Great.

Prior to that non-store sellers on eBay.ca were limited to one picture without Picture Pack. No Zoom, no Enlarge Supersize (just enlarge 500 pixels).

Now I know that the eBay photos from the beginning of the year have been uploaded and stored at a maximum size of 1600 pixels or the maximum size of the image.  Non-store accounts photos were also uploaded with the maximum size but displayed at 500 pixels max in the listing. (You can check the maximum size uploaded by copying the eBay picture URL, pasting into the browser address bar, and changing the eBay URL suffix from_12 (whatever) to _10 to get the maximum size uploaded.)

Now listings created before July 2nd have to have the pictures deleted and uploaded again with Picture Pack on to turn on the Picture Pack Zoom and Enlarge. This seems silly since the photo is already stored on eBay servers with a maximum size.

Even more frustrating is using the Bulk Editor to revise the listings and turn on Picture Pack in Listing Upgrades. It does nothing except to switch on the Zoom with Zoom Unavailable message and an Enlarge stuck at 500.

What is the purpose of the bulk editor having a Picture Pack option that does not seem to do anything useful?

[froogal_electronics]

Finally some good news from Ebay and some more fair rules for selling. I mean really, after some of the goofy changes, some that finally make sense, and not just for the seller, but I am sure for ebay as well.

As for the following one, it looks like a little Orwellian "good" news.

Maybe you can clarify this please? The emails says:

Buyers must contact you first. Starting in February for items sold on eBay.com, buyers will be obliged to contact you through My Messages to make sure you have the opportunity to resolve issues before they can open a Buyer Protection case and get eBay involved. You will be allowed three busine...

I can't find the outline, but from my understanding, currently a buyer can open a dispute  and you have 7 days to respond. Until you respond, the buyer cannot escalate the claim. Once you do respond, then the buyer may escalate the claim. So if you are unaware of the policy and respond, you could get it escalated in 1 day, but if you just emailed outside the dispute to resolve the issue, and then acted on the 7th day, you would have a week.

Now, it seems that the time is lowered to 3 days and that it will be escalated to ebay if it is not resolved in 3 days and the buyer opens the dispute.

If that is the case, it is good that it requires 3 days for the buyer to cool off, but seems disingenuous that ebay says they are not counting opened cases, when in reality they aren't really opened, and any opened cases go straight to ebay to decide (after 3 days),and for me at least, this lowers the amount of time available from 7 days to 3.

While I am mostly happy with the changes , Orwell wrote much better and ebay trying to say something is 'good' when there is more to it than what they say, well, it just reminds me of a used car salesman, and not a professional company.

[rainbow71113]

Hello Froogal,

note the answers above yours where they mention that only items purchased on ebay.com have all these qualities, those purchased on other sites do not have the same rules applying.

[Anonymous]

I strongly object to the fact that eBay will automatically add my postal code to my listings. I am a divorced woman who has no interest in letting her violent ex-husband (who also is on e-Bay) knowing exactly where I live. It’s very easy to do and only takes a postal code to find someone these days. I’m sure that I am not the only one with this problem. E-Bay will be responsible for the consequences of this “new improvement”.

[hccauctions]

Tough on sellers

the only feedback I received from customer who did not contact me, just placed it.  Ebay did not retract feedback , took customer side, it cost me to lower DSr, so I lost the discount. It seems like it is in Ebay favor not  to change a bad feedback, thus lowering seller standard and remove his discount, I am totally in a mercy of buyers and basically with no difference as a status of bad seller - he does not receive discount either. I will look to minimize my sales on Ebay.Good Luck everyone

[raphael@ebay.com]

I strongly object to the fact that eBay will automatically add my postal code to my listings. I am a divorced woman who has no interest in letting her violent ex-husband (who also is on e-Bay) knowing exactly where I live. It’s very easy to do and only takes a postal code to find someone these days. I’m sure that I am not the only one with this problem. E-Bay will be responsible for the consequences of this “new improvement”.

Hello granydsattic, thanks for voicing out your concerns. Please note that actual postal codes will not be visible on eBay listings, only the city and province information will be displayed.

The privacy and safety of our members is someothing that we take very seriously at eBay. All the personal, sensitive information that members provide eBay in order to transact on the site is governed by our Privacy Policy.

[raphael@ebay.com]

BUT, this mention of administrative action is a concern.

What does it mean exactly?

...restriction? suspension? Listings failing? Error messages? Very vague.

Clarification would be deifinitely appreciated.

Generally speaking, administrative action in this context only means the removal of a non-compliant listing and an email to the seller explaining what was done wrong so they can relist properly. Sellers who continue to go against eBay's instructions may incur harsher consequences, but for this particular policy I wouldn't think this would happen very often.

[raphael@ebay.com]

Hello froogal_electronics,

The paragraph you quoted from the Announcement pages pretain to items sold on eBay.com only. These item fall under the US eBay Buyer Protection, a program that currently only exists on eBay.com. The current eBP process allows buyers to escalale a case without having to wait 3 days for the seller to respond or react. These are truly good news for all sellers whose items show up on eBay.com, I'm sure even George Orwell would agree! 🙂

[bryan.ca@ebay.ca]

Regarding the new picture policy and its implementation. Non-store owners got the 12 free eBay pictures (i.e. Picture Pack) July 2. Great.

Prior to that non-store sellers on eBay.ca were limited to one picture without Picture Pack. No Zoom, no Enlarge Supersize (just enlarge 500 pixels).

Now I know that the eBay photos from the beginning of the year have been uploaded and stored at a maximum size of 1600 pixels or the maximum size of the image.  Non-store accounts photos were also uploaded with the maximum size but displayed at 500 pixels max in the listing. (You can check the maximum size uploaded by copying the eBay picture URL, pasting into the browser address bar, and changing the eBay URL suffix from_12 (whatever) to _10 to get the maximum size uploaded.)

Now listings created before July 2nd have to have the pictures deleted and uploaded again with Picture Pack on to turn on the Picture Pack Zoom and Enlarge. This seems silly since the photo is already stored on eBay servers with a maximum size.

Even more frustrating is using the Bulk Editor to revise the listings and turn on Picture Pack in Listing Upgrades. It does nothing except to switch on the Zoom with Zoom Unavailable message and an Enlarge stuck at 500.

What is the purpose of the bulk editor having a Picture Pack option that does not seem to do anything useful?

Hi pocomocomputing,

Seems to be an inefficiency with one of our bulk editors, can you provide me the name of the bulk editor you are using and I can relay the comment back to the team. Thanks for the feedback.

[ottokitty]

Still some confusion, sorry, maybe it's just me, but I want to make sure that when the new CONDITION field is availbale, that I use it correctly from the get-go

So, Just to be clear on this CONDITION field:

Which is right/wrong?

1. I do not use the CONDITION field, and I am allowed to include information about condition in the body of my description.

2. I do use the CONDITION FIELD and I also include the same  information about condition in the body of my description

3. I do use the CONDITION FIELD, and I include more detailed information about condition in the body of my description  (but I do not say --> see description for more info)

4. I do use the CONDITION field, and therefore I can NOT include the same or expanded condition information in the body of my description.

Also, it is not mandatory to use it (now, anyway). Will not using it have any impact on search? Will it become mandatory?

Thanks, just concerned that if I do it wrong, I could have hundreds  of listings taken down, and I would have to change them all to comply, big job, and I'd rather get it right from the start.

[froogal_electronics]

Hello froogal_electronics,

The paragraph you quoted from the Announcement pages pretain to items sold on eBay.com only. These item fall under the US eBay Buyer Protection, a program that currently only exists on eBay.com. The current eBP process allows buyers to escalale a case without having to wait 3 days for the seller to respond or react. These are truly good news for all sellers whose items show up on eBay.com, I'm sure even George Orwell would agree! 🙂

I must be mistaken then. Can you please clarify a couple points then?

From what I understand, the current system, ( i am referring to ebay.com only), a buyer can open a dispute. At that time, an email is sent to the seller. The seller has 7 days to respond to the email. Once the seller has responded, regardless whether it's 1 day or 7, only after the seller has responded on ebay.com can the buyer then escalate the claim and have ebay make a judgement. Is this correct? If not, please  explain.

If so, this means that ebay is really disregarding the opening of a dispute and after 3 days, if the problem is not resolved and the buyer opens a dispute, it goes automatically to judgement?

Further, it suggests that email sent through 'my messages' are the first contact required, then 3 days after that, if a claim is opened, ebay will make a judgement on it.

If so, does an email 1 day after the sale or anytime after, for innocuous questions like 'what's the tracking',' how come I can't track on usps', or even 'looking forward to receiving' count as the first contact and would a buyer then be able to at some time in the future (after 3 days and min stated delivery time) start a claim and have it go to judgement with no input from the seller?

[pjcdn2005]

froogal, I don't think that this new 3 day rule has anything to do with what happens after the dispute is open. Once that happens, I am guessing that things will work the same as they always have.

I see the 3 days as a good thing. The buyer can't open a dispute without contacting you first and giving you 3 days to respond before they are allowed to open a dispute. I suppose a buyer could send a message about something unrelated...wait 3 days and then open a dispute but how often is that going to happen? Also....in that case, we would just lose the 3 days before dispute to fix the problem. The dispute would then have to be handled as usual.

That's how I see it anyway. The ebay reps will correct me if I'm missing something.

[elebricks]

...For now, the best way a Canadian seller can work around problems like low Shipping DSRs from US buyers is to offer free shipping with 1-day handling and whenever possible, to use tracked shipping and upload the tracking data to My eBay. This will help manage buyer expectations. We fully understand that this model won't work for everyone, but it will work for most.

Since you mentioned it... This doesn't seem to really be very useful... Is it not true that this automatic 5 star for shipping time is really only valid if the item tracking has been marked as "Delivered" within just 4 days! otherwise the automatic rating no longer applies...  just wondering 'cause often it takes 4 days just to get a package across the same city here - not even counting 2-3 days in US Customs... so basically this is not really a work around at all.

here's the link, at the bottom of the page in yellow

*Tracking data must show the package having a status of "delivered" with a delivery date within 4 days of payment clear.

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/selling-practices.html#5startime

[rainbow71113]

Especially when at Christmas and Easter time with all the holidays and ebay doesn't take that into consideration.  I don't know how many people I had to explain at Easter that there were 4 days that Canada Post was shut down so it didn't even leave Canada until after that, it certainly can't be in a foreign country in the same time frame!!  If Ebay is going to give an estimate it should be a realistic one.

[froogal_electronics]

froogal, I don't think that this new 3 day rule has anything to do with what happens after the dispute is open. Once that happens, I am guessing that things will work the same as they always have.

I see the 3 days as a good thing. The buyer can't open a dispute without contacting you first and giving you 3 days to respond before they are allowed to open a dispute. I suppose a buyer could send a message about something unrelated...wait 3 days and then open a dispute but how often is that going to happen? Also....in that case, we would just lose the 3 days before dispute to fix the problem. The dispute would then have to be handled as usual.

That's how I see it anyway. The ebay reps will correct me if I'm missing something.

When I first read it, I thought the same thing, but when I read it again, I have these questions and would like clarification as well.

From what I read, they are doing away with opening a dispute, and then escalating it. When a buyer opens a dispute now, it is automatically escalated.

I re-read it again, and it seems as if once a buyer has an issue, they will go to the resolution area, then send an email, and then you have 3 days. If that's the case, then at least you get 3 days, but if any contact counts, then you could get blindsided.

As for the 3 days, in many cases, this is lowered now. Before, you had up to 7 days to respond, now you have 3, then if the buyer submits a dispute, it automatically goes to customer support for a decision. This is the change. You don't get up to 7 days, you get 3 min/max. Before it was called escalation, now just opening a dispute automatically goes to customer support for a decision.

Seems to me like it's not all good. It can be argued it's better in some ways, but I think it will mean settle quickly with the buyer, or be penalized.

[raphael@ebay.com]

I must be mistaken then. Can you please clarify a couple points then?

From what I understand, the current system, ( i am referring to ebay.com only), a buyer can open a dispute. At that time, an email is sent to the seller. The seller has 7 days to respond to the email. Once the seller has responded, regardless whether it's 1 day or 7, only after the seller has responded on ebay.com can the buyer then escalate the claim and have ebay make a judgement. Is this correct? If not, please  explain.

If so, this means that ebay is really disregarding the opening of a dispute and after 3 days, if the problem is not resolved and the buyer opens a dispute, it goes automatically to judgement?

Further, it suggests that email sent through 'my messages' are the first contact required, then 3 days after that, if a claim is opened, ebay will make a judgement on it.

If so, does an email 1 day after the sale or anytime after, for innocuous questions like 'what's the tracking',' how come I can't track on usps', or even 'looking forward to receiving' count as the first contact and would a buyer then be able to at some time in the future (after 3 days and min stated delivery time) start a claim and have it go to judgement with no input from the seller?

Just as pjcdn2005 said, the new rule makes sure a buyer at least attempts to contact a seller before they can open a dispute (a dispute is called a case on eBay.com). After that, once a case (dispute) has ben opened, the process carries on, much like it does today.

[raphael@ebay.com]

Still some confusion, sorry, maybe it's just me, but I want to make sure that when the new CONDITION field is availbale, that I use it correctly from the get-go

So, Just to be clear on this CONDITION field:

Which is right/wrong?

1. I do not use the CONDITION field, and I am allowed to include information about condition in the body of my description.

2. I do use the CONDITION FIELD and I also include the same  information about condition in the body of my description

3. I do use the CONDITION FIELD, and I include more detailed information about condition in the body of my description  (but I do not say --> see description for more info)

4. I do use the CONDITION field, and therefore I can NOT include the same or expanded condition information in the body of my description.

Also, it is not mandatory to use it (now, anyway). Will not using it have any impact on search? Will it become mandatory?

Thanks, just concerned that if I do it wrong, I could have hundreds  of listings taken down, and I would have to change them all to comply, big job, and I'd rather get it right from the start.

At this time, I'm not entirely sure of the specifics of how these new guidelines will be applied and enforced. We will have a new Help Page in place closer to the launch date, you'll be able to get all those specifics there.

[ottokitty]

Re; Condition field

Thanks, as long as it's clarified before it is in place.

It seems, every time one of ebay`s updates comes out, I end up having to make tedious changes to my listings (last time it was revising pictures, Which I am still working on, with thousands to re-do).

So you can understand my concern, I trust;  if I can avoid having to do another revision to my listings by using the feature ``correctly``, I certainly will do so.

[froogal_electronics]

Just as pjcdn2005 said, the new rule makes sure a buyer at least attempts to contact a seller before they can open a dispute (a dispute is called a case on eBay.com). After that, once a case (dispute) has ben opened, the process carries on, much like it does today.

are you going to address the question of whether it was up to 7 days before and now is 3 days? Is that a change or no?