eBay

devon@ebay · ‎01-10-2023

Hello everyone! Opening up the chat and we'll begin working on answers between now and tomorrow afternoon. Some answers may require me reaching out to the right team for a response so some answers may be delayed!

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎01-10-2023

Hello Devon,

Welcome to 2023 from Canada. Hopefully an easy one for you out of the gate.

Does eBay have an official (will accept unofficial) at this point rationale for the obsoleting/discontinuing of the sub-category in the majority of categories for mixed lots? Is it due to the fact that eBay is heading towards IS finds vs by key words only? The few that are still available (Wholesale Lots which aren't the same as a mixed lot (dot ca) have become a hodge podge catch all for "stuff". Examples. No Mixed lots in CDs. Countered by in Every Other Thing has a large quantity of random beauty products. Making it very difficult for buyers to find what sellers are trying to list and sellers to list accurately. Because the choices of IS's don't apply it makes it extremely time consuming to create listings going forward. Few examples regarding IS's: Years, colours (colors in the USA) or sizes because there could be several. Many of those IS will not let you fill in n/a. (Some standards are mandatory).

Please understand. When a seller creates a listing originally it is correct and accurate to the best of their ability in the category closest resembling what it belongs in. When eBay (as a business move or change for the sake of change) drops listings in a new categories, there is ZERO guarantee they will be ported accurately and correctly. (Specific symbols routinely get garbled.Measurements get transcribed incorrectly. Descriptions with one set of total characters get dropped into another field with a shorter maximum field, losing portions of data.)

For sellers of vintage, obsolete, out of box items in those mixed lots, creating listings has become very labour intensive going forward.

- "LOTZ"ofUniqueGoodies

PS1. I have spoken to numerous sellers in these categories recently that feel the same way.

PS2. From my testing, the category map on ca does NOT mirror com exactly. If Canadian sellers wanted to list on com most would be unable to due to no calculated shipping or corresponding shipping services on that site. In theory they really shouldn't need to.

phc64 · ‎01-10-2023

Hello Devon,

I have been unable to locate any information on how I can initiate an appeal of a ruling of a 'transaction defect' against me.

A shipment was recently returned to me by Canada Post marked "Moved/Unknown". I immediately sent the buyer a message through the eBay message system explaining what had occurred and asking the buyer to confirm her correct and current address. After about ten days had passed with no response from the buyer, I decided to refund the buyer's payment. When refunding a payment, we are asked to select the reason for the refund from the options provided by a drop-down box. Since none of the options were applicable to this situation, I selected 'other'.

I now see that eBay has counted this as a 'transaction defect' against me, describing it as a 'transaction you cancelled for being out of stock', none of which is accurate. The item is not out of stock (the parcel returned by Canada Post is on my desk as I write this) and I have not cancelled the transaction. Should I hear from the buyer, whose silence is hopefully due to a vacation and not a more dire reason, I hope to complete the transaction. I simply felt that refunding the buyer's payment was the right thing to do. Oddly, had I not refunded the payment, it would not have been charged as a 'transaction defect' against me.

I have spent more than a week now trying to find any information on how I can appeal this determination of a 'transaction defect' against me, to no avail. Would you be able to offer me some guidance on how to proceed?

Many thanks!

devon@ebay · ‎01-11-2023

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

Hello Devon,

Welcome to 2023 from Canada. Hopefully an easy one for you out of the gate.

Does eBay have an official (will accept unofficial) at this point rationale for the obsoleting/discontinuing of the sub-category in the majority of categories for mixed lots? Is it due to the fact that eBay is heading towards IS finds vs by key words only? The few that are still available (Wholesale Lots which aren't the same as a mixed lot (dot ca) have become a hodge podge catch all for "stuff". Examples. No Mixed lots in CDs. Countered by in Every Other Thing has a large quantity of random beauty products. Making it very difficult for buyers to find what sellers are trying to list and sellers to list accurately. Because the choices of IS's don't apply it makes it extremely time consuming to create listings going forward. Few examples regarding IS's: Years, colours (colors in the USA) or sizes because there could be several. Many of those IS will not let you fill in n/a. (Some standards are mandatory).

Please understand. When a seller creates a listing originally it is correct and accurate to the best of their ability in the category closest resembling what it belongs in. When eBay (as a business move or change for the sake of change) drops listings in a new categories, there is ZERO guarantee they will be ported accurately and correctly. (Specific symbols routinely get garbled.Measurements get transcribed incorrectly. Descriptions with one set of total characters get dropped into another field with a shorter maximum field, losing portions of data.)

For sellers of vintage, obsolete, out of box items in those mixed lots, creating listings has become very labour intensive going forward.

- "LOTZ"ofUniqueGoodies

PS1. I have spoken to numerous sellers in these categories recently that feel the same way.

PS2. From my testing, the category map on ca does NOT mirror com exactly. If Canadian sellers wanted to list on com most would be unable to due to no calculated shipping or corresponding shipping services on that site. In theory they really shouldn't need to.

Hi @lotzofuniquegoodies Thank you and I hope you had an amazing holiday season yourself! For this I am waiting to get some more details that I can share with you and others. I understand this is important for sellers to understand our category structure.

devon@ebay · ‎01-11-2023

@phc64 wrote:

Hello Devon,

I have been unable to locate any information on how I can initiate an appeal of a ruling of a 'transaction defect' against me.

A shipment was recently returned to me by Canada Post marked "Moved/Unknown". I immediately sent the buyer a message through the eBay message system explaining what had occurred and asking the buyer to confirm her correct and current address. After about ten days had passed with no response from the buyer, I decided to refund the buyer's payment. When refunding a payment, we are asked to select the reason for the refund from the options provided by a drop-down box. Since none of the options were applicable to this situation, I selected 'other'.

I now see that eBay has counted this as a 'transaction defect' against me, describing it as a 'transaction you cancelled for being out of stock', none of which is accurate. The item is not out of stock (the parcel returned by Canada Post is on my desk as I write this) and I have not cancelled the transaction. Should I hear from the buyer, whose silence is hopefully due to a vacation and not a more dire reason, I hope to complete the transaction. I simply felt that refunding the buyer's payment was the right thing to do. Oddly, had I not refunded the payment, it would not have been charged as a 'transaction defect' against me.

I have spent more than a week now trying to find any information on how I can appeal this determination of a 'transaction defect' against me, to no avail. Would you be able to offer me some guidance on how to proceed?

Many thanks!

Hi @phc64! When it comes to appealing defects, in this particular case one that is showing as an out of stock, you can reach out to our customer support here or through any of our social media channels. They will be able to help you through the process! I recommend sharing the same information that you explained here to our specialist once you reach out.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎01-11-2023

devon@ebay wrote:
@phc64 wrote:
Hello Devon,
I have been unable to locate any information on how I can initiate an appeal of a ruling of a 'transaction defect' against me.
A shipment was recently returned to me by Canada Post marked "Moved/Unknown". I immediately sent the buyer a message through the eBay message system explaining what had occurred and asking the buyer to confirm her correct and current address. After about ten days had passed with no response from the buyer, I decided to refund the buyer's payment. When refunding a payment, we are asked to select the reason for the refund from the options provided by a drop-down box. Since none of the options were applicable to this situation, I selected 'other'.
I now see that eBay has counted this as a 'transaction defect' against me, describing it as a 'transaction you cancelled for being out of stock', none of which is accurate. The item is not out of stock (the parcel returned by Canada Post is on my desk as I write this) and I have not cancelled the transaction. Should I hear from the buyer, whose silence is hopefully due to a vacation and not a more dire reason, I hope to complete the transaction. I simply felt that refunding the buyer's payment was the right thing to do. Oddly, had I not refunded the payment, it would not have been charged as a 'transaction defect' against me.
I have spent more than a week now trying to find any information on how I can appeal this determination of a 'transaction defect' against me, to no avail. Would you be able to offer me some guidance on how to proceed?
Many thanks!

Hi @phc64! When it comes to appealing defects, in this particular case one that is showing as an out of stock, you can reach out to our customer support here or through any of our social media channels. They will be able to help you through the process! I recommend sharing the same information that you explained here to our specialist once you reach out.

devon@ebay

In reviewing the original question the out of stock was NOT caused by anything the seller did wrong. More like a shortcoming in eBay's procedure. This rears its ugly head for most of the various buyer/seller available disputes. Similar to my concern. Removing choice and or the actual related option(s).

-Lotz

@phc64

devon@ebay · ‎01-11-2023

Thanks for joining the chat- it's closed but will return next month!

I will continue to work on getting responses to any questions that may not have been answered during the chat. I will be sure to tag the member to assure they are notified of a response!

devon@ebay · ‎01-23-2023

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

Hello Devon,

Welcome to 2023 from Canada. Hopefully an easy one for you out of the gate.

Does eBay have an official (will accept unofficial) at this point rationale for the obsoleting/discontinuing of the sub-category in the majority of categories for mixed lots? Is it due to the fact that eBay is heading towards IS finds vs by key words only? The few that are still available (Wholesale Lots which aren't the same as a mixed lot (dot ca) have become a hodge podge catch all for "stuff". Examples. No Mixed lots in CDs. Countered by in Every Other Thing has a large quantity of random beauty products. Making it very difficult for buyers to find what sellers are trying to list and sellers to list accurately. Because the choices of IS's don't apply it makes it extremely time consuming to create listings going forward. Few examples regarding IS's: Years, colours (colors in the USA) or sizes because there could be several. Many of those IS will not let you fill in n/a. (Some standards are mandatory).

Please understand. When a seller creates a listing originally it is correct and accurate to the best of their ability in the category closest resembling what it belongs in. When eBay (as a business move or change for the sake of change) drops listings in a new categories, there is ZERO guarantee they will be ported accurately and correctly. (Specific symbols routinely get garbled.Measurements get transcribed incorrectly. Descriptions with one set of total characters get dropped into another field with a shorter maximum field, losing portions of data.)

For sellers of vintage, obsolete, out of box items in those mixed lots, creating listings has become very labour intensive going forward.

- "LOTZ"ofUniqueGoodies

PS1. I have spoken to numerous sellers in these categories recently that feel the same way.

PS2. From my testing, the category map on ca does NOT mirror com exactly. If Canadian sellers wanted to list on com most would be unable to due to no calculated shipping or corresponding shipping services on that site. In theory they really shouldn't need to.

Hi @lotzofuniquegoodies! I was able to get an update on this and this is what I heard back:

"Adding some clarity to the rational from moving away from “wholesale”/”sub categories” to “mixed lots”:

The ‘wholesale’ sub -category wasn’t actually wholesale. There is a specific meaning of wholesale legally to do with selling to someone who is not the consumer, but a distributor of the products. “Wholesalers are not required to charge sales tax to retailers because when a wholesaler sells to a retailer, that retailer is not the product’s end user”. We have never had issues with our usage but essentially we were treating these categories as ‘not wholesale’ in terms of taxes etc. Plus if most listings are packs of 10/20 of the same product, as we commonly found under wholesale, this description is wrong.
These ‘wholesale’ categories commonly included a mix of products, making it very difficult to tailor item specifics. If you have lots of multipacks of different products you can’t really define what’s being sold.
The way we are going about designing categories going forward is to define multiples of a product as the product itself, which is why we will discontinued these “catch all” categories.

In terms of Item specific/description differences as a result of category changes Structured Data has seen many complaints over the years about new Item specifics not mapped to old ones, etc which they try to manage. However, they have not seen feedback about information getting garbled/cut off before. I’ve transferred them this user’s ID for further investigation"