eBay

bcwet · ‎06-12-2014

I had noticed a decrease in my Canadian sales so I thought I would look up some of my items in the search lists.

To my shock and utter dismay all of my listings is search results were coming up with a 17 dollar and change shipping cost. when I clicked in the listing however the right shipping cost was there but in search results using price & shipping lowest first it puts us beneath gsp sellers from the states. Is this deliberate? sure seems like it to me.

Then I checked other Canadian sellers with and without stores using calculated shipping and buy it now and they have the same thing happening to them.

I have also noticed that american sellers who are not using gsp are showing up in .ca as shipping not specified but again they are showing up above Canadian sellers.

The only sellers with the correct shipping costs in search results lists are those that offer free shipping, fixed price shipping and auctions. Oh ya and americans using gsp.

Comments Anyone????

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-13-2014

An odd thing -- I just clicked on the link I posted above to the sample search, and my listing is now #4 on the list, and it now shows "Free Shipping".

It shows free shipping if you are looking at it as a Canadian buyer. If you are in the U.S. or anywhere else, it shows as shipping not specified. But since it is mostly all Canadian sellers showing up in that search, I am guessing that it is a brand name more popular here than in the U.S.?

ricarmic · ‎06-13-2014

Hi Rose, it is a personal opinion of mine that eBay has an aspect of "randomness" included in the algorithms, with the intention that if a given buyer looks at the same search list 7 times in a row over a course of hours or days, they would see some different things at the top page or two - presumably so that they don't always see the same stuff, and get bored and go somewhere else to buy. ... While I don't spend huge amounts of effort researching it, over the last many years of watching mine and other stuff, it leads me to believe there is a randomness aspect intentionally introduced.....

treasure.hunter.d · ‎06-18-2014

After reading this thread I went to look and sure enough, on the Canadian site, all of my listings show "Shipping Not Specified". Got my wife to log into her account and search out one of my items and yup, same thing. I'm on the phone with support right now waiting for a supervisor after blowing my stack when the CSR I was speaking to acknowledged the glitch but then went on to say "it was no big deal as far as my listings and sales were concerned" Can you believe that?

I am absolutely livid right now!

dinomitesales · ‎06-18-2014

Please follow up with your conversation! I'd like to see what they have to say about this.

rose-dee · ‎06-18-2014

See Post #11 of today's Wed. board discussion with the eBay.ca staffers. Apparently they are aware of the issue, but how long a fix will take is anybody's guess:

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Weekly-Board-Hour-Session/June-18th-2014-Weekly-Board-Hour/m-p/243810#M1...

twicereadbooks · ‎06-18-2014

They could at least make an announcement about it on all sites, so potential buyers are aware of the (temporary) glitch.

BTW, I liked the way they slithered and wiggled their way out of your question today on the Wed.board, rose-dee. So they made an announcement about the international visibility email - good for them, but not on .ca, only on .com. The shipping glitch is much more serious, but no announcement from them at all, just the pat "We're working on it" response.

twicereadbooks · ‎06-18-2014

Now here's another glitch. I made that previous reply while signed in to another ebay ID, not the one that shows. I am still signed in to that other ID, wonder which one they'll choose for this reply?

twicereadbooks · ‎06-18-2014

Very weird - I've been signed in to that other account, read some eBay Messages, answered one of them, checked something in the Resolution Center, reviewed my Invoice, and they still assign the wrong ID to my post.

Looks like a good time to quit for today!

treasure.hunter.d · ‎06-19-2014

@dinomitesales wrote:
Please follow up with your conversation! I'd like to see what they have to say about this.

As of today, with over 1.5 hours spent on the phone with Ebay support again, there is no update whatsoever and the lackadaisical manner in which they are addressing this HUGE issue is very distressing.

They did offer me a token credit for my "TROUBLE" however it took me the better part of the time on the phone today to actually get that processed.First, it wasn't processed as I was promised it would be and then it was processed for an incorrect amount.

It's absolutely amazing how difficult it is to get anything done when dealing with these people. They all read from the same script. Apology, assurances, more apologies, thanks and then culminating with nothing being done right on the first go ever it appears.

They have no issue taking money from us or bullying us into giving them more money to maintain status quo (buy a store or lose all your free listings) but when it comes time to offer anything in return, that even remotely resembles competent customer service their record is an unchallengeable scorecard of abysmal failures!

The last word, to me today so far, on the listing glitch, is unfortunately the painfully patronizing "we are aware of it and working on it but have received no update from the tech people." I did get a promise to have an email sent to me with any updates but I have been told that before on other issues and it has never actually been followed through on.

I suggested that Ebay should be sending out a mass email to subscribers advising them of the glitch but that probably fell on deaf ears.

Cheers,

thd

bcwet · ‎06-19-2014

So after starting this post I decided to call eBay customer service again yesterday for the third time. I explained the problem with search results and shipping fees being calculated wrong I waited over an hour to speak to a supervisor. He informed me that he looked all through the system and this was the first time anybody had ever put in a ticket for this problem. I told him that that was impossible because I had previously put in two tickets.

Needless to say once this summer passes I'm seriously thinking about selling on Amazon as many other sellers are now doing. I have had it with this glitch riddled site. I cannot deal with the the condescending attitude of these customer disservice reps any longer..... I'm tired of banging my head against the wall. I was the end of the month in nears I will once again ask that they refund my store fee. I don't know about the rest of you but I've just about had enough!

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-19-2014

It is very frustrating that after a week, it has still not been fixed. But the ebay tech people are already aware of the problem regardless of what the customer service reps say.

This is affecting some U.S. sellers too and their shipping price are showing as not specified when international buyers are searching even though they do have a price listed in the shipping area. GSP listings are still working though....if there was a problem with them, they would probably be fixed by now anyway. Plus, not all U.S. sellers who sell internationally are having the same problem.....there doesn't seem to be a reason why some are affected and others are not.

bezzlala · ‎06-19-2014

This is a total disaster. One customer support person told me there was no problem and if I wanted more help I should hang up and get another support person to help me. Thats nice you get treated like total trash for asking for help. Another customer support person at least tried to make a work around so shipping would not come up in the initial search with no luck. After may calls, they whole thing has been a total waste of time.

With shipping cost coming up at twice the actual cost, it is a total sale killer, and it seems Ebay could care less. They refuse to give any sort of store credit so far. It's like they want to get rid of customers by not providing the services we pay for and provide the worst customer service possible by employees over seas that have never used Ebay and don't even understand how it works.

It is sad to see a company run so poorly. I asked to talk to some one from North America with no luck either.

bcwet · ‎06-20-2014

So many times I've asked to speak to a north american for help because I feel that they just don't understand what we are saying the language barrier is a definite problem. If you go to youtube there are a bunch of videos of people who have taped these calls some are pretty funny in a pathetic sort of way. These reps are helpless though they can do nothing to help except put in your complaint actually ask for a supervisor right away because they have a tiny bit more power at least they can email IT in the US but even they cant call them in fact I had one supervisor tell me they can only email them and when the get an answer they would call me back. Never happened.... I have on the odd occasion by mistake been transferred to a US rep the last time was to address the shopping cart issue and to ask why Americans could no longer buy more than one item at a time from us this has been going on since early last fall since they took the commit to buy page and instead send people straight to PayPal also for about 5 months we Canadians were showing up as shipping not specified the fixed that only about two months ago he spoke to the IT department and told me even though hundreds of tickets had been put in about that glitch they were all tossed out because it was done on purpose in order to promote American sellers using gsp.

When this so called glitch happened that response made me see this problem so clearly what better way to boost gsp than by screwing up everyone search results shipping costs with the exception of Americans using the global shipping program it makes them come up first in search results, but in the search results list it does not include the customs fee so buyers can easily purchase by mistake not seeing their full shipping cost until its too late and until recently the customs fees were not showing in the eBay app so anyone using a phone or tablet and not the website was basically getting outright ripped off because they couldn't see their full shipping cost until they had already bought hence the thousand of complaints on those boards.

If you think about it ebay has alot riding on gsp they have partnered with pitney bowes and fedex who knows how much of a cut they are getting from this program, they have put so much into this its no wonder they are trying to make it work at any cost to us it seems, what they failed to realize that with canada we were never charged customs fees for items under at least 100 dollars. My husband works at gateway in Mississauga and most of the time its two hundred during really slow months its dropped to 100 dollars before we're charged any customs fees. Thats why its been such a huge failure with Canadians.

How many buyers do you think have left ebay for good over gsp because they perceived ebay has ripped them off? and what better way to make gsp sellers look better on the Canadian site than to raise our shipping rates to those higher than Americans using gsp.

So is this really a glitch or are they just trying to push gsp sellers above Canadian sellers???

nelson*art · ‎06-20-2014

Well, call me paranoid if you want, but I think there's something really odd going on when I consider everything all together:

--Canada Post shipping charges SKYROCKETING.

--Canada Post vastly changing their terms of service for many package types (ie insurance, declaration of contents, etc)

--Canada Post bringing in a requirement that everyone shipping anything outside of Canada must pre fill out all info online before going to a post office (including item weight and package type) or be charged $2.00

--Canada Post requiring customers to choose the option to either have package abandoned or returned C.O.D if undeliverable.

--Ebay not allowing multiple item discounts for shipping

--Ebay mysteriously assigning such a low search result to Canadian sellers without free shipping.

--Ebay 'glitching' on shipping cost for Canadian sellers.

These things seem onerous for sellers, particularly small time sellers. Some of these requirements seem to make no sense whatsoever. IE I have no idea what people who just want to send a little hand knit cap to their new neice or nephew, for example, are going to do if they are charged extra by the post office for not having the item weight filled out before they go. And some of these things seem like planned interference with Canadian seller businesses.

I think that people who can carve out any sort of earnings, whether just a little help or their full income, via any means other than government sanctioned JOBS are being squeezed to death.

It is abundantly clear to me that the Canadian government doesn't like entrepreneurship.

mr.elmwood · ‎06-20-2014

@nelson*art wrote:
Well, call me paranoid if you want, but I think there's something really odd going on when I consider everything all together:

--Canada Post shipping charges SKYROCKETING. after the decline in the Cdn dollar they are pretty much the same as three years ago. I set my current flat rate charges Jan 2011 and have not had to change.
--Canada Post vastly changing their terms of service for many package types (ie insurance, declaration of contents, etc) Not sure about that. The only change has been the dropping of insurance on small packets.
--Canada Post bringing in a requirement that everyone shipping anything outside of Canada must pre fill out all info online before going to a post office (including item weight and package type) or be charged $2.00. That is NOT CP. That is Customs in every country.
--Canada Post requiring customers to choose the option to either have package abandoned or returned C.O.D if undeliverable. My returns are coming back free.
--Ebay not allowing multiple item discounts for shipping
--Ebay mysteriously assigning such a low search result to Canadian sellers without free shipping. My placement in search is very high.
--Ebay 'glitching' on shipping cost for Canadian sellers. eBay glitches on everyone all the time, we are not special.

These things seem onerous for sellers, particularly small time sellers. Some of these requirements seem to make no sense whatsoever. IE I have no idea what people who just want to send a little hand knit cap to their new neice or nephew, for example, are going to do if they are charged extra by the post office for not having the item weight filled out before they go. And some of these things seem like planned interference with Canadian seller businesses.

I think that people who can carve out any sort of earnings, whether just a little help or their full income, via any means other than government sanctioned JOBS are being squeezed to death.

It is abundantly clear to me that the Canadian government doesn't like entrepreneurship.

.
.
.

block36 · ‎06-20-2014

It was my turn today!

Because of the current promotion have re-listed today in bulk many books, and then attended the search for word RUSSIAN in newly listed books... All my books that are not offered with free shipping show the shipping cost as $17.96...

Until you press the item and you see $8.36 and other similar correct numbers.

So I made a call...

The girl from eBay told me that when she was doing the same search she did not see $17.96 - she saw calculated shipping and the cost when the item was pressed on... $17.96 did not show up anywhere...

She was going away a couple of times and checked with others - I got impression that my call about this problem was the first one!!! At least her behavior told it.

And, of course, she realized the importance of such an error and wrote the report to IT people, she said they should reply to her within 24-72 hrs.

And she will immediately report to me...

I will wait... as we say "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved"

I know that I did not do anything new today other than have added the drop of my frustration...

Anonymous · ‎06-20-2014

Mr. Elmwood: How do you KNOW if our placement in search is very high? Thanks.

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-20-2014

I am now seeing shipping prices in my search view instead of the shipping not specified message so It looks like the only thing that hasn't been fixed is the wrong amount showing for calculated shipping.

When customer service was looking at your listings and not seeing the problem, did she have her location set with a Canadian postal code? The U.S. prices are showing correctly in the search view so if she was looking as a customer in the U.S., she wouldn't see a problem.

I noticed when I was looking at your listings and sorted them by price + shipping highest that you have 3 listings with a U.S. and international shipping price of more $1000. I am guessing that's a slip of the finger. 🙂

block36 · ‎06-21-2014

Thank you very much for letting me know about this but I am unable to find these 3 listings although tried twice already.

if you can find some of your time to give the items' names or numbers, I will greatly appreciate it.

I think this error was caused by me when I was switching my keyboard from Cyrillic to English: the system does not read the coma as such and reads my $1,99 as $199.00... Although a slip of the finger is possible as well...

Thank you again!

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-21-2014

No problem 🙂

310985918566

261506273700

261506036357

I also noticed in at least 2 listings ... I didn't check them all..that you have xpresspost USA listed as the first option and expedited USA listed as the second option. When searching, the customer will only see the higher shipping cost unless they actually click on the shipping tab. The difference in price is $12+ so that could make a difference on whether or not they would purchase the book.

Item numbers for the 2 that I noticed...

310986060314

310986102447