eBay

tyler@ebay · ‎08-29-2017

Howdy everyone -

The chat is open! We'll begin responding 08/30 at 1 pm EDT.

It's still tentative, but here is a list of current reported issues, and where we stand with them. Thanks for your patience while I work with other teams and departments to get things resolved!

Issue	Status	Latest Update	Action taken/Next Steps
Handling times not being added properly	Open	No update at this point	Waiting for tech team's response
Shipping Cost Cannot Be Calculated Error On Us/int'l Sites For CA Listings	Open	"This fix is pending."
Seller Hub shipping reminders on items that have been marked as shipped on eBay.ca	Open	Ticket Filed	Waiting for tech team's response
Guides written on .UK are now missing without a trace	Open	Update requested 08/29	Waiting for response
Link to relist item from eBay message to seller's private email will not load	Open	Requesting update 08/30 if no response	All requested info provided to tech
Shipping calculator not factoring regional shipping differences in delivery estimate	Open	No update at this point	Waiting for tech team's response
Sold email formats have changed - test or intentional?	Information Requested	Update requested 08/26	Waiting for response
Total number of items fluctuates when you hit refresh	Open	Update requested 08/26	Waiting for response
Seller Dashboard showing 20% instead of 10%	Open	Update requested 08/26	Waiting for response
Help page for seller non performance is outdated and wrong	In Progress	Change submitted to proper team	Waiting for confirmation of changes
"Too Many Redirects"	In Progress	Need further input	Update impacted threads with tech's requests

Tyler,

lady.stark · ‎08-29-2017

Hi, I wanted to know why eBay was not able to negotiate better discounts with Shippo and Canada Post. What we had in the past with PayPal was WAY more advantageous than what we currently have with Shippo.

For example, we had about 18% off counter prices on Expedited within Canada, but it's now just a tiny 5-6%. Were you not able to negotiate better prices? Thanks in advance!

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-30-2017

The domestic expedited parcel discount does seem to be lower than before so I'm curious about that too as I understood that there wasn't going to be a change. I don't think it is as low as 6% though as based on your posts on the seller board you are comparing the Shippo rate to the small business rates on CP which are already discounted. The PayPal discounted prices.were always a specific percentage off of the counter rates, not on an already discounted rate.

In your example the other day there was very little difference between the regular rate and the small business rate but that is partly because the on the regular rate the tax was less than on the sm bus rate. I'm not sure why.

izzame · ‎08-30-2017

Is .ca going to experience the same "nightmare" as .com with the new Seller Hub Before responding please read the sellers board on .com and especially read the link below to get a "crystal clear" idea how sellers truly feel so you may make an "informed" response. Also keep in mind that with the link below sellers can express themselves without the fear of being "pinked" Please read a few pages of the comments so you can get a real feel of the situation.

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2017/8/1503723854.html

cumos55 · ‎08-30-2017

eBay is unique when it comes to the listing of books for sale.

(1) Each listing must have atleast one photo

(2) With the use of the book catalogue, stock photo and other information about the book, the information in the catalogue must be an exact match to the book being sold.

(3) Duplicate listings….. Many book sellers do use a stock photo. However, using this photo for the same book but varying based on condition, missing dust jacket, or an ex-library book puts several listings on eBay as duplicates.

Two different ID by the same seller for the same book, with the same stock photo creates a duplicate listing. With two ID a duplicate listing cannot get reported using the normal procedure of reporting duplicate listings with the same ID

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Several sellers that list up to several million books list these books very quickly, many, many times without a photo, or with a fake photo, or with a photo such as a stock photo that does not show the exact book being sold ,

And ,,, more specifically …..a photo of the book that does not clearly show the condition of the book being sold.

The description of a book could be listed with no book catalogue entry that contains information about the content of the book.

The condition of the book will be generic and not specific to the book being sold.

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Many book sellers do use a camera or a scanner to prepare a photo of the book being sold…

But ,,,, then there are the sellers who choose not to use a camera or scanner… and then this is mainly the sellers with usually more than about 50,000 listings…and up to millions and more of book listings.

Yet there are also sellers with fewer listings of books that also do not put a photo in a listings…

Then …..Why are there so many listings of books on eBay without a photo or proper photo of the book being sold?

The number of books listed without a photo or with that …. No image available or equivalent… photo…. could be 20 % of listings and then higher. This is based on an examination of …Newly Listed …. books and estimating the percentage of listings without a photo.

Sometimes when the listings in a book store are viewed under ….Highest First … the percentage of books without that one required photo can be as high as 65 %

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Potential buyers choose not to look at listings without that one photo that shows the book.

It is also known that many potential buyers will not buy a book in a listing shown with a stock photo….. They look for a listing with a photo of the actual book being sold.

Sellers with a lower number of books listed on eBay are beginning to follow the lead of the sellers with millions of listings on Bay… with policy violations….

The book category is very quickly becoming a mess…..with a total disregard for …..Picture policy, Correct use of the book catalogue, and then the listing of Duplicate listings…

The sellers, sometimes with two ID, and with millions of listings are filling up the book category with many, many listings that do not follow eBay policy

-----------------

It is important to note that eBay’s Policies apply equally to all sellers on eBay

An email with more sellers with policy violations will be forwarded to Tyler.

recyclemikey · ‎08-30-2017

hi, several times now since Paypal switched to the new Canadian shipping system, I've been charged with extra fees after the item ships.

I weigh the item in KG, measure it in CM and confirm those measurements & weights when I drop it off at the post office. Yet a week - 10 days go by and I always seem to get charged an extra $1.50-$4.00 for some reason.

why is that?

and speaking of shipping.. why am I charged a shipping final value fee when I charge actual shipping fees? Do you want me to add an extra 10-25% on top of the correct rates to cover these costs? I don't see who is benefiting from that, it's certainly not the buyer.

momcqueen · ‎08-30-2017

Good morning. A quick follow-up on my idea about gift wrapping as an option for buyers on checkout. Has there been any discussion of that you know about and can report? Thanks. - Maureen

cumos55 · ‎08-30-2017

It was many years ago that eBay set up a site specific for the sale of books, music, movies and games.

For books eBay placed a stock photo and information about a specific book at the top of a page.

Each seller then selected a condition category and then described the condition of their book, and a price for the book.

All a seller had to do was describe the condition and set a price for a book..... just like any other book selling site online.

Yesterday I found that.....

..

eBay will be closing half.com on August 31, 2017.

Where will these listings go?

Does this mean all of these sellers and their listings on the main eBay site.... will now be accepted on eBay... that is eBay.com?

If eBay's main site is a mess right now.....

.......the future with these sellers from half.com could create an even bigger mess..........

.that is ......if these sellers do not follow accepted policy with respect to the listings of books on the main site

rose-dee · ‎08-30-2017

Hi Tyler, I have two questions for you. One is a technical query, the other is a follow-up on a small but important eBay policy change.

1. (Technical) -- Where do I find the option "Apply my automated shipping discount rules" when listing an item using the eBay.com SYI form? I've searched high and low, and can't find it. These options used to be located directly below each shipping section ("Domestic" and "International") so that a seller could choose to apply their rules to one, both, or none. It used to be a check-box type of option.

I use Auctiva and they still have it included in their listing templates for eBay.com, but I simply can't find it on the eBay SYI form. Has it been moved, or removed?

2. (Policy) -- As you know, eBay has instituted a policy whereby every item must have a product identifier (SKU, etc.), or else nasty things will happen to the listing. This may already be fully in effect, I can't recall the timing.

The question came up amongst sellers of vintage, antique, OOAK type of goods as to whether eBay would simply leave the "Does Not Apply" option available in certain categories, rather than making us concoct "fake" codes for every single item just to be able to fill a number in the box. The reason was obviously because those items have no modern commercial code.

We asked this of Raphael months ago, and he was going to look into it. Has there been any further word or action on this by eBay? What's the current item identifier requirement with respect to OOAK items?

If the "Does Not Apply" option is no longer available, would it be possible to try to push this suggestion up the line to see if it can be implemented?

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎08-30-2017

I am still waiting for my Seller Dashboard to show only 10% discount instead of 20%. It is annoying to continually see that. I have noticed another problem in my Seller Dashboard in the last couple of weeks. The Monthly Breakdown of sales has not been showing the amount of dollars sold for each month only the transaction amounts.

Another thing that I have noticed in keeping track of the last year is that my sales fluctuate very strangely each month. I will have steady sales for a couple of weeks & then nothing for 1-2 weeks. The page views also are less. It is like my listings are not showing up at all & then all of a sudden they are back. What is causing this every month? As a paying store subscriber I believe the listings should be promoted for the whole month I am paying for not just a couple of weeks.

kitschnvintage · ‎08-30-2017

Hi I have noticed for the past 3 weeks or so that when I am on ebay Canada I am getting directed to items that are not available for shipping to Canada. The Sellers do not have Canada listed in their ship to options, but they do not have Canada in their excluded locations list either. I think I have noticed it once while searching through a specific category but mostly they come up as ebay's "items you might also be interested in" at the bottom of my watch list or "items other people looked at " at the bottom of a specific listing I am looking at. I have to say this is a little annoying because sometimes I am actually interested in the item and I know I have to contact the Seller first to make sure they would be willing to ship to me in Canada and can accept PayPal payments from non-US buyers ... here is one example .... this must/could lead to a lot of buyer and seller frustration

momcqueen · ‎08-30-2017

kitschvintage makes a good point, there was a slew of this reported on the boards last week. Something is awry.

pocomocomputing · ‎08-30-2017

The Groups section of the eBay Community needs some cleaning up. Some groups there were not active since their initial creation in 2013. Some are more like posts asking for help without replies. Others are product reviews. One group is soliciting eBay members to work for them.

Does anyone ever read them from eBay staff or more important, the forum moderators?

I know now that most if not all groups are inactive so not a very important issue.

tyler@ebay · ‎08-30-2017

@lady.stark wrote:

Hi, I wanted to know why eBay was not able to negotiate better discounts with Shippo and Canada Post. What we had in the past with PayPal was WAY more advantageous than what we currently have with Shippo.

For example, we had about 18% off counter prices on Expedited within Canada, but it's now just a tiny 5-6%. Were you not able to negotiate better prices? Thanks in advance!

Hi @lady.stark - I don't have an answer for you on this immediately, but I'll request more input and we'll get you an update on this thread. 🙂

Tyler,

tyler@ebay · ‎08-30-2017

@izzame wrote:

Is .ca going to experience the same "nightmare" as .com with the new Seller Hub Before responding please read the sellers board on .com and especially read the link below to get a "crystal clear" idea how sellers truly feel so you may make an "informed" response. Also keep in mind that with the link below sellers can express themselves without the fear of being "pinked" Please read a few pages of the comments so you can get a real feel of the situation.

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2017/8/1503723854.html

Hi @izzame - I know that the implementation of Seller Hub for Canada is in the cards for the future. I don't have a timeline for you on that, but when it happens we'll be happy to help you navigate, customize, and troubleshoot it to be a solid tool for you to manage your business with eBay.

Thanks for sharing the article - the Seller Hub team is always looking for feedback, which is why a comments link is included on most pages of Seller Hub itself to allow you to provide feedback on the tool itself.

Tyler,

msmaggie060 · ‎08-30-2017

Hi, my question is also about the need for product identifiers such as UPC numbers. I have been using "does not apply" when I don't have anything else. Some of my items are new but I really can't call them vintage even though they are pre UPC. Some have only 10 numbers or the UPC numbers are British or European and the form won't accept them so I have to use the "does not apply". These items never seem to sell so I think they are not being seen in search. What is the alternative since we are told that we must have product identifiers. Most if not all, do have MPN numbers which I do add to item specifics but the occasional one has nothing. We were told that eBay would give us numbers to use instead of the does not apply. Trying to do everything properly but can't if we aren't given the tools to do so. What to do?

Thanks.

tyler@ebay · ‎08-30-2017

@recyclemikey wrote:

hi, several times now since Paypal switched to the new Canadian shipping system, I've been charged with extra fees after the item ships.

I weigh the item in KG, measure it in CM and confirm those measurements & weights when I drop it off at the post office. Yet a week - 10 days go by and I always seem to get charged an extra $1.50-$4.00 for some reason.

why is that?

and speaking of shipping.. why am I charged a shipping final value fee when I charge actual shipping fees? Do you want me to add an extra 10-25% on top of the correct rates to cover these costs? I don't see who is benefiting from that, it's certainly not the buyer.

Hey @recyclemikey - With the first portion of your question I'm not sure I can shed a lot of light on that, as I don't have insight into PayPal's shipping system. Are you referring to Shippo? If so please let me know and I'll work on getting more clarity. I know that the Shippo team is planning on doing a Q&A event on the Shippo Central board in a few weeks (more info coming later today), so maybe we can send it to them to be addressed as well.

When it comes to Final Value Fees on shipping, we moved to a pricing model that charges fees based on the total amount of the sale (http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/insertion-fee.html#fvf) several years ago. Partly to incentivize the use of 'free' shipping (rolling the cost of shipping into the item price) as the Top Rated discount applies to purchase price, not shipping cost. Mostly to combat fee avoidance from members selling an item for a small amount and recouping their price with exorbitant shipping costs. I hope that helps clarify!

Tyler,

tyler@ebay · ‎08-30-2017

@mjwl2006 wrote:

Good morning. A quick follow-up on my idea about gift wrapping as an option for buyers on checkout. Has there been any discussion of that you know about and can report? Thanks. - Maureen

I do! It was sent to the product team and has been sitting with them for the last month. I'll poke them and see if they have an update. 🙂

Tyler,

Anonymous · ‎08-30-2017

tyler@ebay wrote:

@lady.stark wrote:

Hi, I wanted to know why eBay was not able to negotiate better discounts with Shippo and Canada Post. What we had in the past with PayPal was WAY more advantageous than what we currently have with Shippo.

For example, we had about 18% off counter prices on Expedited within Canada, but it's now just a tiny 5-6%. Were you not able to negotiate better prices? Thanks in advance!

Hi @lady.stark - I don't have an answer for you on this immediately, but I'll request more input and we'll get you an update on this thread. 🙂

Hi tyler and lady.stark.

We negotiated the best deal with Canada Post that we possibly could. Maintaining the old discount structure was not going to be possible on Shippo, because Canada Post's pricing structure and product lines had evolved from Venture One program into the new Solutions for Small Business lineup. eBay was in fact one of the last of Canada Post's partners left remaining on that pricing platforms. They showed great partnership in continuing to support us on the outdated platform until we were eventually able to migrate to the Shippo platform together.

Outside of short-term promotions like the one PayPal was running with Canada Post in July, we have the biggest and best Canada Post discounts of any marketplace in Canada. In fact, the majority of Canadian marketplaces aren't afforded any discounts other than straight Canada Post Solutions for Small Business pricing. At eBay, you're getting Solutions for Small Business Rates discounts PLUS the eBay discount.

Of course, we'd love to see even bigger discounts so that our sellers could have even more competitive shipping prices, but this was the best deal we were able to do as an open marketplace, where we aren't really controlling which shipping carriers our sellers decide to use.

tyler@ebay · ‎08-30-2017

@rose-dee wrote:

Hi Tyler, I have two questions for you. One is a technical query, the other is a follow-up on a small but important eBay policy change.

1. (Technical) -- Where do I find the option "Apply my automated shipping discount rules" when listing an item using the eBay.com SYI form? I've searched high and low, and can't find it. These options used to be located directly below each shipping section ("Domestic" and "International") so that a seller could choose to apply their rules to one, both, or none. It used to be a check-box type of option.

I use Auctiva and they still have it included in their listing templates for eBay.com, but I simply can't find it on the eBay SYI form. Has it been moved, or removed?

2. (Policy) -- As you know, eBay has instituted a policy whereby every item must have a product identifier (SKU, etc.), or else nasty things will happen to the listing. This may already be fully in effect, I can't recall the timing.

The question came up amongst sellers of vintage, antique, OOAK type of goods as to whether eBay would simply leave the "Does Not Apply" option available in certain categories, rather than making us concoct "fake" codes for every single item just to be able to fill a number in the box. The reason was obviously because those items have no modern commercial code.

We asked this of Raphael months ago, and he was going to look into it. Has there been any further word or action on this by eBay? What's the current item identifier requirement with respect to OOAK items?

If the "Does Not Apply" option is no longer available, would it be possible to try to push this suggestion up the line to see if it can be implemented?

Hi @rose-dee!

1. You should be able to switch to the 'Advanced Tool', which will have that specific option again. However, I see that you don't have the option to switch over, so I'll see what I can find out about that and update you.

2. If you have an actual UPC/MPN/GTIN for the vintage, antique, OOAK item please use it - but please do not fabricate a number or code. As long as the item truly does not have a unique identifier, you can specify 'Does not apply'. It will remain as an option for you to utilize.

Tyler,