Community Chat, March 27 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Happy Wednesday! 

Join the Community Team here today at 1 PM PT for our Weekly Community Chat. Bring any general buying and selling questions you might have to discuss 

Thanks & see you then. 

[Anonymous]

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@vrykalak wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@vrykalak wrote:

On the old Active Listings page, I could sort by Newly Listed...to check if an item I thought I listed had actually posted.
On the new Active Listings page, I can only ask for Ending Latest...which often isn't the same thing. Is that deliberate?

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Hi @vrykalak, Ending Latest would be the same as Newly Listed for your fixed price items. If you have auctions with different durations, you may see a different order than a Newly Listed sort option. You don't need to check if your listings posted - if you submit the listing, it will appear on the site within 24 hours. You are of course welcome to double check if you have concerns, I just wanted to clarify that this is not necessary and may actually lead to duplicate listing issues if you attempt to list the item again prematurely.

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My problem is that eBay saves one, two, or even three versions of a listing as Drafts, so I have to check daily to see if the items really were posted.
Usually, they were, so I can delete the drafts.
If I don't see the item in my active listings, I try to complete the draft, and it always posts...and yes, it frequently is a duplicate, which eBay used to catch and doesn't anymore.

What I would like to see is:
- no more than one draft is saved of any one listing, and
- once the item is (released and about to be) posted, the drafts go away

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Hi @vrykalak, a seller is actually the one that elects to save a draft of their listing, pictured below:

You would need to monitor your drafts and ensure you are not saving multiple versions of drafts, as eBay is not doing this on your behalf. When you complete a draft and submit it, the draft is deleted. If you are seeing something different, I would need you to document this with screenshots from start to finish that show an issue is present - I've tested this out with a few different browsers, listings, and accounts and was unable to replicate what you are describing.

[tyler@ebay]

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@quizzeen wrote:

What is the maximum number of drafts I can save?

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Hi @quizzeen - You'll see your most recent drafts (up to 7) when you open the Sell Your Item form. If you go to the Drafts view in Seller Hub, you'll see all drafts (no limit) that are less than 30 days old.

On the subject of drafts, however, it's important to note that they will remain for up to 30 days from your last edit to them, after which they will disappear. 

You should also know that a draft is a static listing, meaning it does not update with eBay's weekly updates. This means the older it gets the more likely it is to encounter errors when you are finally ready to list it. For this reason I do not suggest using drafts as a way to store your listings. Thanks!

[brian@ebay]

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@vrykalak wrote:

"Pre-owned" should be allowed as a condition code in ALL categories, 

but especially in Collectibles, most of which are neither NEW nor USED.

I list lots of collectibles, and have to designated them as USED, because they are not "brand new, unused, unopened, undamaged"..."unopened" being the damaging word here.

Clothing can be "pre-owned" but not Collectibles. It makes no sense to me.

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Hi @vrykalak, pre-owned items are against policy in some categories, so we don't want it available across all categories. Used and pre-owned are synonymous with one another. It's a industry standard in retail to refer to used clothing as pre-owned, while other types of items are commonly defined as used. With that said, I am happy to pass along your feedback about conditions within the collectibles categories. 

[tyler@ebay]

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@divwido wrote:

I was printing a shipping label.  I had entered the data and clicked to change it from Parcel Select to Priority Mail and this stupid note came "this is the option the buyer choose".

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Thanks for the clarification @divwido - I'll see if I can get more info on this. 🙂

[Anonymous]

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@windhaze wrote:

There are major problems using your eBay gift cards-they ar basically useless plastic since March 15th.

I did send a message to the Community email that was refused as being "unsoliciated from you" ?

Fortunately I did also send a copy of it to Griff who forwarded it to Corporate who did respond back.

I just forwarded that on to the Community email as well-hopefully his response will be read. Thanks.

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Hi @windhaze, we are not able to address unsolicited emails of a customer service nature sent to our Community email address. If you have questions or concerns about your Community account, we are happy to address those at the address you have contacted, but would not look into other topics that are sent without invitation. We recommend you review the email you received, and the alternative contact options were provided. We would not need to review any communication with other teams that may have offered support, but are happy to hear that you got some answers.

[tyler@ebay]

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@papermoneyforme wrote:

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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@papermoneyforme wrote:

Is it possible for a Canadian registered in Canada to open their store on .com, and vice versa, can an American registered in the US open a store on .ca

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Hi @papermoneyforme - yes, though there are some considerations. The largest is that a store subscription would apply only to listings created on that site, so if you have existing listings on .ca that you'd like to be covered under a subscription on .com you would need to consider ending them and relisting them directly on .com after you open the store subscription. Thanks!

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So a store on .com will only allow you to list on .com whereas a store on .ca will allow you to list on both .ca and .com, or am I missing something.

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Hi @papermoneyforme - thanks for the opportunity to clarify! I'm sorry for my confusion (I was thinking of a specific question from the Canadian chat earlier today): your account would receive insertion fee credits per site, as long as the store subscription level exists for that site. 

As an example:

If you open a Premium store on .com you will get 1000 insertion fee credits per month on .com. If you sign into .ca you would get another 1000 to use specifically for items listed on .ca.

If you open a Starter store on .com you will get 100 insertion fee credits per month on .com. However, because no Starter store level exists on .ca, you would not get those insertion fee credits. 

Thanks again!

[brian@ebay]

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@cookiecookie55 wrote:

In the ink cartridge listings this week I noticed that items that had no box--no manufacturer's box and had the  previously condition new other now have changed in the condition field to OPEN BOX.  This change was made automatically by ebay. 

This is wrong.  An open box implies that an item has a box.  A box that will accompany the item to the buyer.

This is misleading. 

New other is a better description of an ink cartridge that doesn't have a box but still has the inner foil sealed.

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Hi @cookiecookie55, we announced in the Early Seller Update that Open Box would replace New Other in many categories. Open box is a general term that means the original packaging (this includes items not packaged in a box but instead packaged in plastic) has been opened or is not included.  Our definition for the Open Box condition is: "An item in excellent, new condition with no wear. The item may be missing the original packaging or protective wrapping, or may be in the original packaging but not sealed. The item includes original accessories. The item may be a factory second. See the seller's listing for full details and description."

[brian@ebay]

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@vrykalak wrote:

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brian@ebay wrote:

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@wooden_flower wrote:

One for me - if you post something for CS on facebook, do they ever acknowledge the post?

I detailed an issue with orders being split into multiple payments when there is no reason for them to be split. I did not expect a solution, but I thought they might let me know they received my post.  I posted a follow up asking for acknowledgement, but didn't get a response to that either.

I'm thinking the only solution for me right now is to opt out of guaranteed delivery.

Thanks!

Sue

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As a general example of why orders may be split up, if items within an order have different shipping services. For example, if two items have USPS Priority and three items have USPS First Class, then this order will be split into two orders. The two items with USPS Priority will be one order and the three items with UPSS First Class will be another order. 

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I would like to have that under my control.
If someone buys items that are under First Class, it is because of their weight.
If they buy stuff that takes the combined weight up too high for First Class, I want to be able to shift the entire order to Priority Mail...or ask the Buyer what to do if the main order would cost too much on Prior8ity mail.
I don't want eBay to make that decision for me without my or the buyer's permission.

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Hi @vrykalak, sellers do have control since they can choose to ship items using a different shipping service. However, sellers cannot increase the shipping cost above what they advertised in their listings. Sellers can discount the shipping cost while invoicing their buyers if they want to. Ultimately, sellers choose which services they offer in their listings. Our system is set up to combine orders based on the shipping service an ordered item has and to honor the shipping cost advertised to the buyer.

[Anonymous]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@krazzykats wrote:

Is there anyway to keep the original shipping screens? The new ones are cumbersome and confusing.

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Hi @krazzykats, while we won't be reverting to the previous versions, we are happy to pass along any feedback you may have. Can you elaborate on what you like, don't like, and would like to see added/changed?

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While I have previously listed many problems in gory detail (here), I think I could give a quick summary of the most frequently seen complaints in the Selling or Shipping and Returns groups:

• Waste of space: The new form has items spread all over, requiring much scrolling around or paging up and down to cover everything. The old form is concise, compresses more options into pulldown menus, and takes just a little over one screen (depending on monitor resolution) to cover everything.
• Oddball, irrelevant Shipping options: the seller is presented with a litany of shipping options that may be unsuitable for the item and (in the case of non-Free Shipping items) not what the buyer paid for anyway. If the buyer pays for Priority Mail but the seller gets lured into cheaping out with Parcel Select instead, for example, things will not end well.
• Fumbling the addition of Ship-From-ZIP functionality: The Ship From ZIP field on the label is used to indicate the shipment origin from which the postage was calculated, when doing a Calculated shipment from somewhere other than the Return Address. The first effort at the new Shipping form left it out entirely. Later, it was introduced as a kind of alternate Return Address instead, demanding a full mailing address for the Ship From ZIP location, when in fact all that was needed was the origin ZIP itself. 
• State Abbreviation capitalization bug: If a buyer provides a Ship-To: address with an improperly capitalized state abbreviation (e.g. "Ne" instead of "NE" for Nebraska), the new form has a complete conniption fit, putting the seller into an editing form to try to correct the problem, without clearly explaining what the problem is. The old form simply folds the abbreviation to capital letters first before testing its validity, something that the new form could do equally well, and doesn't complain at all. (The USPS will correct the abbreviation anyway during printing.)

Those are the biggest issues that come to my mind for now. I would summarize by saying that your new programmers should be using the old Shipping form as a guide. It was concise, compact and correct, three points that the new form cannot claim yet. Even if, as someone at eBay said last year, they cannot figure out how to modify the coding of the old one, they should still be using it as a guide to Best Practices. It's intended to be a useful utility, or a toolbox for shipping, so the goal is to able to get through it as quickly and efficiently as possible. Good luck.

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Hi @a_c_green, I just wanted to add a little more information about the ZIP code point you have raised; USPS is actually mandating a full address for both the ship from and return addresses when the label is printed. While this was not required in the old label printing flow, it would have been added if the old flow was going to be retained for longer. I know this can add more time to your process, and just wanted to clarify that this is coming from USPS directly.

[alan@ebay]

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@vociferous_commenter wrote:

2 Quick Items on Promoted Listings:

1) I am seeing Promoted Listings frequently showing up in search results directly adjacent to the original listing:

In these situations, paid promoted listings provide no value to a seller as it's a virtual **bleep**-shoot whether the buyer clicks through one or the other. It also delivers a poor buyer experience having 2 duplicate listings next to each other, something I am told eBay has made efforts to clean-up.

Recommendation: Ensure a minimum spacing between a paid promoted listing and the original listing in search results.

2) As eBay continues to develop different one-to-many offer submissions, sellers paying for Promoted Listings have no visibility as to whether or not accepted offers will be subject to promoted listing fees.

Transparency into whether additional PL fees will be applied to a sale in many cases is critical for obvious reasons if the seller can't accurately calculate their margins.

It would be helpful if eBay would take steps to remedy this in good faith, as eBay continues to thrust "offer" features on both the buyer/seller side, especially with their double-digit "trending" suggested Promoted Listing fees that inexperienced sellers are likely to use.

Recommendation: Advise sellers when reviewing pending offers whether the sale will be subject to additional promoted listing fees.

TIA for passing these thoughts on to the proper teams.

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Hi @vociferous_commenter,

Thanks for your suggestions! 

I chatted with the Promoted Listings team, and they advised that both of these are already on their radar and they're in consideration along with other high priority requests from sellers. 

[tyler@ebay]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
In last week's Weekly Chat, Brian told us:

"Hi @fern*wood, the 1 year mark is the timeframe to be aware of. Listings that have gone unsold for longer than 1 year may be removed ended and moved to the Unsold section. "

That seems to imply that a one off, long tail item listed as GTC basically has 12 months to find a buyer. Will ebay end it at the end of 12 months? You say listings "may" be ended...that seems to suggest wiggle room on eBay's part, but raises the question: under what circumstances would it be "may be" rather than "will be"?

Also, will ebay be providing any sort of warning? Say, at the 11 month mark, something like that?

As for multi quantity listings, would it be correct to say that ebay starts the 12 month countdown only at the point when the listing is showing zero sales? In other words, for a listing with 1000 items, selling 1 a day, it would be well over 12 months before the seller would need to worry about ebay ending the listing....

At one point, I believe ebay sellers were seeing warnings in Seller Hub about listings that were 16 months or older.....will that sort of thing be ended now? Or will we continue to get reminders?

Also: If I list a one off, long tail item but revise it every few months....tweaking the title here, adding item specifics there, maybe changing the gallery photo.....do those revisions have any effect on the countdown?

And finally: If ebay ends my listing after 12 months and puts it in the Unsold folder, will I be able to relist it, just like any other item from my Unsolds?

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Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques - I heard back about your questions:

We do not currently admin-end stale listings. In the past when this was done there was notice given (or should have been). With regards to how stale listing rules apply to single quantity vs multi-quantity, as well as how a listing is determined to be stale we don't have further information at this point in time.

If I hear anything else back regarding this I'll keep you posted!

[brian@ebay]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
GTC: Any update on the addition of a day count column to Active Listings in Seller Hub? As I recall, we are supposed to have it by the end of this month? Still on track for that deadline?

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Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques, we have an update on this feature here.

[Anonymous]

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@midcentureager wrote:

Could eBay clarify their policy on buyer privacy during a transaction? I had unwanted contact from a seller who somehow obtained my unlisted home number and called early in the morning on a weekend, left a message and asked me to call him back. It was about a question he could easily have answered himself on Google in less than a minute. No seller has ever called me at home before, which I consider a breach of privacy. I reported this to eBay by phone but am unclear if any action will be taken. Surely eBay does not allow sellers to call buyers at home? Did eBay give this seller my phone number? Did eBay also give him my home address? I would appreciate clarification.

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Hi @midcentureager, thank you for your patience while I worked on getting some answers on this. A seller will receive the buyer's phone number after purchase if the phone number is provided during checkout. Some shipping services require a phone number, and it does look like your phone number is included in the shipping information given to the seller when you make a purchase. You can omit this number in many instances, but keep in mind that some couriers require a phone number for a label to be printed. 

[Anonymous]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Pleased to report my Seller Hub Active Listings section now sports the "offer to Buyers" feature. I tried it our over the last couple days sending offers on 11 items and selling (so far) one. That might not sound like a high rate of sales, but I'm happy: I sell mostly long tail items and feel pretty sure most of my watchers are people who've been researching items , they aren't people who are actually thinking of buying, So if I end up averaging 10% or so, I'll be happy---it takes very little time to send the offers and there's no cost, so that's a good ROI as far as I'm concerned. It's nice to have another tool I can use to try to increase my sales velocity.

A few questions:
1. I presume if a buyer declines or simply lets the offer run out, we are not notified. We are only notified if the item sells, correct?

2. My offer is good for 48 hours, yes?

3. I gather this has been in beta for a while, so presumably ebay has some data about it by now. Any Best Practices? The Better Half has suggested I restrict sending offers to weekends (when people might have more time to deal with them) and/or the 15th and 30th of each month, when many people get their paychecks.

4. ebay has a formula for determining eligibility of listings and of buyers. Some sellers may feel strongly that certain items (not eligible under the formula) would sell if they were made eligible. Going forward, is ebay willing to consider giving sellers an option to request that a particular item be made eligible? Maybe with some limits ("x" number of requests per month, or whatever)

5. GTC items: If my offer is good for 48 hours, and I send an offer with , say, 13 hours left before the listing auto renews, what time frame for the buyer's response is shown to the buyer? 13 hours? Or 48 hours?

6. Do buyers have the ability to counter offer from my offer? (Many of my items have "Make An Offer" on the listing, so in those cases I assume a buyer could simply make an offer from that....but I'm asking whether the ability is right there in the offer I've sent)

7. If I send offers on an item, and it doesn't sell, how long before it can be eligible again?

8. I have the feature in Seller Hub on my PC. So far, I do not have it in the Android app, although I've heard other sellers say they do have it on the app, but not in Seller Hub. Is it being rolled out to the app on a different schedule? Should I be expecting to get it soon? Do I need to do anything (update the app?) to get it?

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Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques, just wanted to provide an update:

• If I send offers on an item, and it doesn't sell, how long before it can be eligible again?
  • A seller can send additional offers as long as they have received more watchers and 48 hours have passed since the first offer.
• I have the feature in Seller Hub on my PC. So far, I do not have it in the Android app, although I've heard other sellers say they do have it on the app, but not in Seller Hub. Is it being rolled out to the app on a different schedule? Should I be expecting to get it soon? Do I need to do anything (update the app?) to get it?
  • Currently this is available to 50% of Android users, and plan to expand to all of the US, UK, DE, and AU markets within the next month.

I am also double checking your question about the duration of the offer when less than 48 hours is left in the duration of a GTC listing. While I believe this is only the remaining time of the listing before renewal, this may not be the case or may be an area of opportunity for us to enhance this feature. I will touch base when I have more details!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Pleased to report my Seller Hub Active Listings section now sports the "offer to Buyers" feature. I tried it our over the last couple days sending offers on 11 items and selling (so far) one. That might not sound like a high rate of sales, but I'm happy: I sell mostly long tail items and feel pretty sure most of my watchers are people who've been researching items , they aren't people who are actually thinking of buying, So if I end up averaging 10% or so, I'll be happy---it takes very little time to send the offers and there's no cost, so that's a good ROI as far as I'm concerned. It's nice to have another tool I can use to try to increase my sales velocity.

A few questions:
1. I presume if a buyer declines or simply lets the offer run out, we are not notified. We are only notified if the item sells, correct?

2. My offer is good for 48 hours, yes?

3. I gather this has been in beta for a while, so presumably ebay has some data about it by now. Any Best Practices? The Better Half has suggested I restrict sending offers to weekends (when people might have more time to deal with them) and/or the 15th and 30th of each month, when many people get their paychecks.

4. ebay has a formula for determining eligibility of listings and of buyers. Some sellers may feel strongly that certain items (not eligible under the formula) would sell if they were made eligible. Going forward, is ebay willing to consider giving sellers an option to request that a particular item be made eligible? Maybe with some limits ("x" number of requests per month, or whatever)

5. GTC items: If my offer is good for 48 hours, and I send an offer with , say, 13 hours left before the listing auto renews, what time frame for the buyer's response is shown to the buyer? 13 hours? Or 48 hours?

6. Do buyers have the ability to counter offer from my offer? (Many of my items have "Make An Offer" on the listing, so in those cases I assume a buyer could simply make an offer from that....but I'm asking whether the ability is right there in the offer I've sent)

7. If I send offers on an item, and it doesn't sell, how long before it can be eligible again?

8. I have the feature in Seller Hub on my PC. So far, I do not have it in the Android app, although I've heard other sellers say they do have it on the app, but not in Seller Hub. Is it being rolled out to the app on a different schedule? Should I be expecting to get it soon? Do I need to do anything (update the app?) to get it?

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Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques, just wanted to provide an update:

• If I send offers on an item, and it doesn't sell, how long before it can be eligible again?
  • A seller can send additional offers as long as they have received more watchers and 48 hours have passed since the first offer.
• I have the feature in Seller Hub on my PC. So far, I do not have it in the Android app, although I've heard other sellers say they do have it on the app, but not in Seller Hub. Is it being rolled out to the app on a different schedule? Should I be expecting to get it soon? Do I need to do anything (update the app?) to get it?
  • Currently this is available to 50% of Android users, and plan to expand to all of the US, UK, DE, and AU markets within the next month.

I am also double checking your question about the duration of the offer when less than 48 hours is left in the duration of a GTC listing. While I believe this is only the remaining time of the listing before renewal, this may not be the case or may be an area of opportunity for us to enhance this feature. I will touch base when I have more details!

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Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques, just wanted to touch base and confirm that at this time, if there is less than 48 hours remaining in the listing then the offer will display this duration. We are looking into this to see if changes could be made to enhance the experience, and appreciate the callout for potential improvement!