The last batch of responses...
Posted by mpompadour on Jun 1, 2009 10:49 AM Paging Back Issue Hi Griff, Thanks for taking time to answer questions. Here is my issue: When scrolling throught listings and I see an item I am interested in, I click onto the listing, read to see if I am interested in bidding, etc. When I hit the back button instead of it taking me back to where I left off on the current page, it takes me all the way back to the top of that page. I never had that happen with the old listing pages. Is there a fix in the works for this? Its not a huge issue, but it is rather aggrivating to try to find where I left off looking. Thanks!
This is a common symptom of a browser with either a full cache (unable to store new pages) or a corrupt browser cached page. In normal operation, when you click to a new page, the old page and your position on it are saved in the browser’s cache folder. When you click the “Back” button, the browser serves up the previous page scrolled to your location on the page. Most browser caches use a “first in, last out” method of storing pages so if your inventory of past pages exceeds the capacity of the cache folder, the oldest pages are automatically deleted as new ones are added. However, i the browser cannot store the first page when you click to the second page (because the cache folder is full or corrupt and not deleting oldest pages to make room), then the browser looses your place on the previous page and has to serve up a new page scrolled to the top of that page.
The solution is to empty your browser’s cache folder of saved pages. For IE, go to Tools > Internet Options and click the Delete button for Temporary Files (or Browsing History on newer IE versions). Follow the instructions from there for deleting Temporary Internet Files. For FireFox, click Tools > Options and then the Advanced tab. Select the Network tab and click the Clear Now button.
Posted by lindaspostcardsandmore on Jun 1, 2009 11:29 AM White Space in View Item Page Why does ebay insist on making changes that destroy the look of our pages and then not even let us see what others see?
I'm getting multiple reports about my page having so much white space on it that the description is invisible.
I have been seeing the "old new page" for months now. I know that is not final because the left hand category bar does not show. But, the page looks perfect in what I see whether I am signed on or off of ebay.
How can I fix a page I can't see? And, how can you charge me fees when many of my customers are seeing a total mess?
Don’t panic. Your customers are not seeing a total mess. They are however seeing the information you provide placed below your Store category list in the old View Item page.
The category list and your description are rendering correctly in the New View Item Page
The reason for your description showing up under the Stores category list is due to the fact that your description is inside a template created in an HTML Table and the template description starts with a TR tag. Although the old View Item page is days from retirement (all buyers will see the new View Item page in mid June), I forwarded the anomaly to the product team in charge for their attention. Although the product developers don’t promise me it will work, they suggest editing out that specific first tag. This may not be a good solution if you have a lot of listings to edit especially since the New View Item page will be default in a week or so.
If the product team can create a quick and temporary fix for the next week or so, they will do so. In the meantime, those buyers still in the old View Item pool (a shrinking number as more are moved into the New View pool) will have to scroll down to the bottom of the category list to view the top of your description.
Posted by the-cash-man on Jun 1, 2009 11:39 AM Should Feedback Be Allowed for Carrier Loss of Item? Griff, lets say you ship an item out. The item is delivered according to the USPS.com tracking #; The buyer claims he never got it and files a dispute. You win the dispute. Should the buyer then be aloud to leave negative feedback?
Good question. I don’t have a hard and fast opinion. I don’t see any obvious reason for not blocking feedback in this scenario (as long as it is backed by verifiable tracking or DC) and perhaps it is a possible enhancement to the existing feedback system in the future. I say “perhaps” because my initial take might be missing something… like another possible reason for leaving negative beyond the buyer not receiving the item. I will bring it up again with Brian Burke and co when I see him (them) next week.
On a side note, I ran into Brian in the eBay Café last week and we had a long conversation about the in process redesigns for reputation and UPI processes. I asked if he would come on the show so we could continue our conversation in a public forum (yes, it was that interesting) and agreed. Look for him as a guest on eBay Radio in July for an entire hour.
Posted by hawgryders on Jun 1, 2009 12:02 PM New View Item Page as Default I see the old page most of the time except when I see the new page except when I see what appears to be a hybrid of old/new except when I see a page that falls off the edges of my screen except ... (I think you get my drift)
[When are your programmers going to get the final iteration of the new & improved page done so it becomes default ?]
Mid June
Posted by duds14 on Jun 1, 2009 12:09 PM Enhancing Buyer Requirements Hi Griff-
As I have been told by people in your seller "support" department ny ebay account is my business and it is a statement that I agree with.
That having been said I would love to know why since each seller is our own respective business why each of us can't set the buyer requirements to our liking and can only use the parameters that ebay sets for us to use which even setting each requirement as the highest level does not provide a significant service to the seller?
Setting workable levels and types for Buyer Requirements is a balancing act. We want to provide control to the seller to limit the type of buyer that can bid on or purchase their items but we don’t want to make it possible for sellers to block too many otherwise perfectly good buyers. That’s why we don’t automatically provide a wider range of options for blocking buyers (or allow seller to set custom levels). For example, many sellers if they could, would immediately block buyers with zero feedback. Any marketplace, eBay included, depends on new customers. If a new buyer were to find his ability to buy on eBay severely limited or restricted on the basis of his “newness,” that buyer would most likely leave and not return.
That is not to say we will not continue to refine and enhance the available Buyer Requirements and levels. We made some major additions last year and I continue to push for others (Block Buyers with Private Feedback and Block Buyers with x number of reports of UPI, Feedback Abuse, etc) These allow for blocks based on solid past activity of the buyer and not on the presumption of intent of a new buyer. But the chances of opening Buyer Requirements to allow for a very wide range of seller customized options and levels is extremely unlikely given the delicate balance required.
Posted by hightides_beach_shop on Jun 1, 2009 12:26 PM More On eBay Refunding Buyers in No Fault Disputes you mentioned eBay is refunding buyers at times with no consequences to sellers. I have to say this practice makes no sense to me at all. If the refund is not justified such that the seller has to refund (for clearly justifiable reasons only), then why encourage a buyer to continue by giving them a refund at all AND keep the item.
Frankly, I am puzzled by this. Even though it may not effect the seller... it will effect the sellers as a whole at some point.
No, it won’t. For no-fault situations where we refund the buyer out of our pocket, it will have no effect on the seller, either immediately or in the future.
Griff, this will effect the sellers wouldn't it?
Stores lose millions a year on shop lifting.
Invest millions to prevent it.
This is a major problem.
You are assuming rampant buyer fraud. We aren’t. However, we are not planning on rewarding buyers who may be abusing the system.
There are cases where a refund is the right thing to do. For example, seller ships item, item is lost in transit. Not the seller’s fault but more importantly, not the buyer’s fault. Rather than put the onus on the seller to refund (and be out the item and the money) or on the buyer to wait for the insurance claim to process, we will reserve the right to refund the buyer immediately out of our pocket in the interest in keeping that buyer (who I remind you was a paying buyer) on eBay shopping and spending and in the interest of not making the seller suffer a loss for an issue that was not within his or her control. Happy seller. Happy buyer. It's now even easier to shop lift through Ebay.
What will Ebay do to prevent this and protect us?
Yes, this will eventually affect sellers. It has to.
If Ebay pays out of pocket those shop lifters, after time, all that paying will come back to us in much higher fees to compensate.
Wouldn't it be better for Ebay to invest in prevention now and if so, how does Ebay plan to do this?
It can't go on like it is now.
Getting new accounts is a snap so banning them under one ID isn't the solution.
IMO, Ebay is inviting those shop lifters in.
This in turn will eventually end Ebay.
As I stated in the paragraph above, we aren’t protecting shoplifters. We will reserve the right to provide a buyer with a refund when we believe it is appropriate and the right thing to do.
I am puzzled by your insistence that this is not the right thing or even a good thing for us to do. You are assuming that we will be rewarding buyers for committing fraud. That is not the case. We will not be refunding buyers who are attempting to abuse the system. However, there are many potential circumstances where a transaction goes wrong and it is the not the fault of either the buyer or the seller. In those cases, we will reserve the right to do the right thing for the entire marketplace and refund buyers out of our pocket. Not yours, ours. This is a standard business practice of all good businesses. I regret if a seller cannot see the obvious good reasons for our applying this business practice.
Posted by the-cash-man on Jun 1, 2009 12:52 PM Seller Protection and Buyer Refunds I had one more question that I forgot to ask as a follow up.
What happens if I ship the item and the tracking shows it's delivered and the buyer says they never got it. I'm going to assume that I'm covered under Paypal's seller protection.
If you have made sure the transaction is eligible for Seller Protection, then the answer is “yes.” Does eBay refund the buyer anyway out of eBay's pocket, so that way I get to keep my money as the tracking shows the item is delivered and the buyer gets a refund out of eBay's pocket?
That is a possible outcome and a likely outcome in situations where the seller has a good past history, has used tracking and the buyer has no previous pattern of claiming non delivery. In those cases, we may refund the buyer out of our pocket with no consequence to the seller.
Posted by unknown-shopper on Jun 1, 2009 1:42 PM Character Sets Maybe she uses Linux OS or a Mac??
Character sets have nothing to do with operating systems and everything to do with the language the keyboard/computer was setup to use. I use linux - you can read my text, I hope. It's plain English in unicode. You use English in (probably) Windows-1252. Your CSRs computer was not setup to use Windows-1252 and you don't have any other character sets installed so your computer cannot interpret the stuff right so it showed it to you wrong.
What unknown-shopper said (Thanks!)
Posted by ted_200 on Jun 1, 2009 2:24 PM Replica Coins Policy and Categories: An Update Hi Griff,
Regarding our on-going attempt to REQUIRE Replica coin listings to be listed in only the appropriate categories, I found the following in relation to the April announcements...
"Coins & Paper Money
Replicas & Reproductions: we're placing categories for non-original coins and paper money in more prominent locations throughout this section. Please visit the Selling Currency policy page for more information about selling coins and paper money on eBay.
> Note to sellers: non-original coins and bills should not be listed in the regular denomination categories. "
Here is the link: Link
So, is this a policy change? Is that statement a requirement? Or, is it only a suggestion?
There is no mention of this anywhere else, including in the Coin Selling Policy. Until it is made part of the POLICY, it is useless.
How are we coming along on getting the actual policy revised?
The policy team is working on the final draft of the policy regarding the listing of replica coins (pending the all-important legal review) and it should be in place within the month. As a side note, the Code of Conduct For Selling Coins and Paper Money link has led to a blank page for weeks now. What's up with this? Is there no longer any Code of Conduct?
I am not absolutely certain but I believe it was taken offline temporarily as the new policy is under construction. To be safe, I have alerted the team about the blank page. Thanks, and feel free to have anyone from the "team" in charge of this policy contact me if they are having any issues figuring out what exactly we're talking about here.
Will do. I know this is an sensitive issue for sellers of non replica coins and we are eager to provide an ultimate workable solution.
Posted by buriedbybooks on Jun 1, 2009 3:39 PM Local Pickup and Accepted Payment Policy Griff,
You still have not answered this question posed to you last time:
Why does eBay require sellers to offer an electronic payment option on a pickup only item if the seller does not have to accept that payment method?
I'm not talking about something that can be shipped AND picked up. I'm talking about a pickup only item--no shipping. Sellers are required to offer an electronic payment method for those items.
And why would buyers who see a listing that shows Paypal as an option contact a seller for 'pay on pickup' when their preferred method is clearly offered in the listing?
Your interpretation of this policy still makes no sense to me.
Buyers will be increasingly disappointed to know that sellers listing pickup only items are only putting that Paypal option on there to appease an eBay requirement and won't allow them to pay via the method they thought was offered.
This 'implied' meaning isn't clear to me--and I'm used to the convoluted and grammatically challenged way eBay communicates.
To me (and to most people), that 'Please contact me for Pay on Pickup payment options' indicates additional payment options. Not some hidden way to tell the buyer that the advertised payment method isn't really a valid one.
Either an electronic payment method is required or it's not. Buyers and sellers shouldn't be dealing in hidden meanings and implied policy.
If only it was that easy. Unfortunately, it isn’t. Consider. Regardless of the option for local pickup only, all eBay listings are given at the very least, national exposure. And Local Pickup Only does not preclude the option for the buyer to have a third party carrier or company come to pick the item up for shipping to the buyer. So, since PayPal will not cover a seller for items picked up locally by the buyer and since a “local pickup only” item is not precluded from shipping should the buyer request or arrange shipping and the seller, we will continue to require that the seller on eBay provide one accepted payment option, even for Local Pickup Only. For instances where a buyer insists on paying with PayPal for local pickup against the seller’s wishes, we will back the seller in any resulting dispute.
We have provided some exemptions to this policy based on certain categories (items that are normally shipped by freight if at all). We may expand this list in the future. We may also find workable ways to simply the existing policy. Buriedbybooks, as you know I have stated previously that this is obviously not the most elegant of solutions and if it were my choice to make, I would probably eliminate the ability to list an item on eBay.com with Local Pickup Only (and move that option to a new classified format which is where Local Pickup Only really belongs. This is a very real possibility in the future) In my opinion, that would be the best solution. Asking a seller to state “contact me for local pickup only payment instructions” is definitely not an ideal solution as well. I acknowledge that this inelegant solution does have loopholes when it comes to seller protection. That’s why we will back up a seller who lists Local Pickup Only and ends up with a buyer who insists on using electronic payments for a local pick up. But for the reasons stated above, the current policy is and will remain, in place until there is a better solution.
Posted by nkyphotos on Jun 1, 2009 3:59 PM Listing Start Time and Date in Selling Manager Pro Ebay is removing the listing date "auction items" from the item itself. Store format items never had it.
Currently this information is available in MY EBAY in the sold section but if MY EBAY becomes Selling Manager how is a seller to obtain this information. I currently use Selling Manager Pro and the listing date is not available there.
I do not know about anyone else but I have used this information for inventory control on auction items. I am trying to figure out a system that is error proof but I have not been able to find one yet to replace the listing date which is disappearing.
I forwarded your post as a suggestion for a future addition to Selling Manager Pro. Although all sellers will be provided Selling Manager for free, I am pretty certain (I will double check) that Basic Selling view will still be available to all sellers as an option.
For example, one away to find this information now if you are using SMP is to change temporarily to Basic Selling view. Go to the Selling Manager Pro page and look on the left hand side of that page. There is a long column with links. Scroll all the way down to the Seller Tools section. Inside this section, there is a link for “View My eBay Selling (back to basics).” Clicking this link shows the Basic Selling View where a seller can still locate the Listing Start Time and Date. If you click the My eBay link on the top of the page, the Selling view will default back to Selling Manager.
Another option is to change your Notification Preferences in My eBay, specifically, set the option for receiving listing confirmation emails to “Yes.” Then have these emails automatically routed in your email application to a dedicated folder. The emails contain the item title in the subject and are sortable in an email folder by date received (which is usually the same as the date listed. They go out immediately after the listing is submitted live to the site.)
Posted by king-collect on Jun 1, 2009 5:59 PM New Page View Questions Howdy, Griff!
When I look at my own listings in the new page view,
* I cannot see any indication when the item has a question from a prospective buyer, nor any link to the question, nor any link to the feedback page of the person asking the question.
Although many missing functionalities will be returned to the top of the New View Item page in early July, I am afraid the indication that a seller has a question will not be. In place of this feature, sellers should rely on My eBay (which indicates new messages or alerts) and My Messages for any new communications from prospective and existing customers. * I cannot see if a sold item has been paid with Paypal, or marked as shipped, or even who purchased the item, nor the feedback page of the buyer.
Some of this information will be returned to the top of the page in mid July. All of this information is currently available in the My eBay > Selling > Sold page. * The Best Match bot seems to think I am wildly interested in buying my own item, so if I do look at one of my listings, it suggests a dozen or so identical items to the one I am selling or just sold.
This “merchandising” feature is separate from Best Match. It displays items that match those that you have recently viewed. Although not always perfect, it is getting better. I remember several months ago when I was searching for CDs by Bill Evans, the feature was showing me listings for currency (“bills”). It’s grown “smarter” since then. Now when I search for Bill Evans, the merchandise window shows other Bill Evans related items. The feature is intended to spur a buyer into more purchase and it does work. Is there a rationale for removing any reference to my buyers in the listing? Even so that I myself cannot see it? When someone asks a question about one of my items, I almost always go directly to the listing, so I can see what they're talking about.
I would find it useful if this sort of information was still available from the listing itself. If you could pass that along to someone, I'd appreciate it. THANKS!
I have forwarded your request/suggestions regarding the inclusion of buyers and winning bidders on the New Item Page to the product team working on New View Item for their consideration.
Posted by ck_yaoguo on Jun 1, 2009 7:11 PM PowerSeller Discount Hi Griff,
I have a few issues here. I am a bronze powerseller from Singapore. I have not received my powerseller discount automatically credited into my account for 2 consecutive quarters now. I asked this question in March but eventually I still have to go through countless sessions with Live Help, before I get to know this guy named George, who is in charged of overseas powerseller discount. Immediately, he credited my discount to me. But this time round, same problem, but situation worsen. Live Help don't seems to be working, I don't know whose problem this is, the rep can't seems to see what I type, as a result, I can't ask anything.
Then I tried emailing. I have waited for more than 120 hours, as I am typing now, but there is still no answers. Didn't eBay promised a reply within 24-36 hours or 72 at max? The funny thing is, I received 3 separate acknowledgement emails for this email sent. The 1st came immediately after sending, the 2nd 13 hours later, the 3rd another 13 hours. Will I ever get a reply? And I am not supposed to send another email on the same issue, so what should I do then?
Griff, can you help me located George and help me get my well-discount discount?
I forwarded your request to PowerSeller support.
I would like to remind all sellers that if you have a personal account issue, it is best to email it directly to me so I can assist in a more timely manner than this thread allows (responses can take several days to post). You can email them to me at griff@ebay.com using your regular email (not My Messages). Thanks. And the other thing here, the Live Help reps are very under-trained, I mentioned to them that I did not get my powerseller discount, and every single one told me and showed me a link that the discount is only for US, UK and Canada sellers! I have to dig up the link and show to the rep every time I go to Live Help. I don't know if the situation have improved since then, because I can't even ask a question now.
Next issue. I had 3 fixed-price store listings removed, because they were accused of circumventing eBay fees, choice listing being the reason. I will like to use a question asked by another user, bikerhal, in May, and your answer, as an example to illustrate my question.
The question, What if the shirts are identical except for the sports team name on the front?
Your answer, If the seller can provide the choice of “sport team name” for all possible buyers in that listing (along with the other choices offered, like size, color, fabric type, etc). then it would be allowable.
You further reiterate that, Use this rule of thumb: In a Fixed Price Multiple Quantity listing, the seller can offer a range of configurations only if the choice of configurations is available to all buyers and not limited or reduced once a buyer has made a choice.
I am doing rubber stamps, but the situation is exactly the same. I offered 22 designs of teacher's stamps, and I am capable of any configurations to the buyers, and not limited or reduced once a buyer made a choice. My store listings fullfilled all these conditions, but were still removed. The listings removed were 260298147942, 370061629580 and 260271154126. I am not sure if you can still see those listings, I believed probably not, because eBay will not leave any evidences that they made a mistake.
The problem here, is not that the sellers do not know about what they can or cannot do in a choice listing, but the eBay staff who are handling complaints! Their interpretation of the policies are always limited to the first line of text only, whenever they see choice listing, removed, end of story. And the seller do not even have a chance to explain or dispute the situation, even if the eBay staff is wrong.
Does eBay have a solution for this? And how can my listings be restored?
Email the details to me at griff@ebay.com Using your regular email program, not My Messages, and I will forward it to Trust and Safety for a response.
Posted by modelmax on Jun 1, 2009 7:12 PM Quantity Available Hi Griff,
Please answer me this. I just listed multiples for thirty days but I don't see the "quantity available" anywhere in the listing. It used to be that way. How will people know how many I have for sale in case they want more than one? Is this another change for the worse?
Actually, it is a change for the better. If a Multiple Quantity Fixed Price listing has more than 10 units available, the Quantity listed on the View Item Page will state “More than 10 available.” When the buyer clicks on the Buy It Now button, the actual number available is displayed on the next page. We discovered that showing a high number of available quantity on the listing page itself was discouraging some buyers from purchasing. Consider: If a seller has 150 items available, it tends to reduce the urgency to purchase on the part of the buyer who thinks, “Why buy now? There are certainly enough available. I will check back later.” By indicating “More than 10” instead of the actual number, the buyer is more likely to click on the Buy It Now button to purchase.
Posted by lucky_rare_finds on Jun 1, 2009 8:38 PM Seller Relief Hi Griff.
With the bad economy, slow traffic, and decreasing sale through rates does Ebay have any plans to give sellers any relief? I have been selling for 10 years and my Ebay fees are now much higher than my profits. If Ebay could give some help to its sellers and create some excitement with a TV marketing plan to drive some traffic to the sight it would be well received by most sellers.
You may have noticed several consecutive pricing promotions with low insertion fees and the upcoming consumer pricing (first five listings each 30 days have no insertion fees). It is no secret that the goal is to continue to reduce the upfront fees for listing on eBay and movement in this direction will continue.
There are no immediate plans for media marketing at least until the holidays. Our strategic decision was to put marketing dollars in loyalty programs (eBay Bucks, Cashback, etc) and so far, this strategy is working.
Posted by di25535 on Jun 1, 2009 9:15 PM Information Now in My eBay Along with King-collects comments
- no information about any offers in is available
That information is available now in My eBay. -the shipping calculator is frozen on my zip for sold items - so I can't review what the buyer was charged by eBay. (ebay sends those verdammt notices and I don't know what they're charging the buyer for shipping because all I can see is what it would cost to ship the item to me)
That information is also available in My eBay. -the hit counter -( for what its worth) it down at the bottom of the page - requiring me to scroll down to see it - it used to be on the seller's summary header - which apparently was too useful to survive.
The hit counter has always been directly under the item description (it was never in the top portion of the page -If I don't clear cache and cookies about 6-7 times a day the item description page has several pages of white to reach the bottom, where the item counter is. Is eBay reserving that for ads?
Absolutely not. There are various reasons for extra whitespace in some views. For example, in the old view item for a Store seller (where the Store category box is on the top of the description), if the seller’s description is formatted inside a table with an extra TR tag, it causes the description to move down below the category box resulting in extra whitespace to the right of the category box. For New View Item Pages, if a seller has added extra or incorrectly formatted HTML, it can create a lot of unintended white space. Sellers will have to experiment with resetting their existing templates in order to display their text in their descriptions with a minimum of white space.
Posted by dallasreject on Jun 2, 2009 1:21 AM My World Avatars Issue When are they going to fix it so we can upload/change My World avatars again?
They are working on it as we speak and hope to have it fixed as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
Posted by kalabra on Jun 2, 2009 6:34 AM Blocking Messages from Blocked Buyers Since sellers are allowed to have a blocked bidder/buyer list, it seems sellers should also be able to block these same people from sending messages through eBay or posting a question on a particular item currently up for bid.
I am currently being harrassed with messages from a blocked bidder...nothing evil or threatening at this point....just harrassing me for blocking him and he'd really like to bid on a current item, yada-yada-yada. (He seems to have forgotten he gave me two retaliatory negative feedbacks because I filed an UID on him.)
I have no desire to communicate with this person whatsoever, yet I have to put up with receiving messages from him. Even worse and more disruptive, I see that I have a question posted on a particular item - I click to go to the question and voila...it's him ranting about being blocked instead of a legitimate question from a legitimate bidder. It's all quite disruptive and unsettling.
It stands to reason, if a seller has blocked someone from bidding, they probably don't want to get messages from them. And why should a blocked buyer be able to post a message on an item for which he is not allowed to bid? Makes no sense.
Thus, it seems only logical and fair for eBay to give sellers the option of also blocking messages/questions from folks on their BBL.
Good suggestion. I have forwarded it to the appropriate persons for their consideration.
Posted by ck_yaoguo on Jun 2, 2009 8:20 AM Unacceptable Experience with Singapore Support Reps Hi Griff,
I had a very bad experience over the phone with eBay Singapore on the 28th of May. The following is a brief illustration of what transpired.
I made phone call to eBay Singapore on the 28th of May around 2-3pm, and had one of the experience of my life regarding customer service.
The girl initially answered told me they are just a regional office and does not have any customer support. I asked her she can get me any form of help as I have exhausted all avenues of contacting eBay (Live Help doesnt work for me, the rep can't never see what I type). She kept insisting other than an email address, there is nothing she can do. Then I asked again, what work does this regional office does? She said she cannot said. I asked to speak to her superior then. That is where the real action starts!
As she was asking for a male colleague to the phone, I can very clearly heard her saying "it's a very rude customer!" Then I shouted over phone, what very rude, I can hear you!
Her male colleague was even worse than her! To keep things short, the highlight of his answers when I asked what the regional office does since there is no customer support? NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!! Can you imagine, an eBay staff answers his customer, none of your business? Then he proceed to say he don't have to answer to me because I am not the one paying him!!! I told him I paid eBay fees, and eBay paid you, so I am indirectly paying you, and this is the type of treatment I get! And he even said that whenever there are customers who tried to give them problem at their office, they wont hesitate to call the police. Before long, he said, I can't help you and YOU ARE WASTING MY TIME, I have to hang up. And he slammed the phone down!
Griff, may I know if this is the kind of people we have working for eBay? Asolutely no regards for the customer. If it is, it is no wonder then, our sell through rate is getting lower and lower. This fellow has no idea how he gets his paycheck.
I will like to know if there will be any investigation conducted and any appropriate actions that will be taken for this kind of misbehaviour? Or this type of behaviour is absolutely acceptable and within eBay's protocol?
I apologize that this happened to you. I take CS very seriously and can assure you, your experience was absolutely unacceptable. I forwarded your email to the person heading up support for his attention and he assured me that the appropriate steps have been taken to investigate the occurrence and to insure that it doesn’t happen again.
Posted by bookelph on Jun 2, 2009 8:39 AM New View Item Page Issues In your preamble, you wrote:
“New Item Page Information (Note: All the seller-facing links like Relist, Sell Similar, Mark as Shipped, Revise, etc will be added back to the closed and current views of New Item Page in early July. In addition, Store Category list will also be added back to the New Item page around the same time.)”
I am having problems on the NEW ITEM PAGE,
(And yes, I did use the“send us your comments” link on the page to do so, but since there are no replies and no forum to see if glitches are being worked on, the question is asked here)
1st problem is with "PRINT" function.
When I click on the "Print" icon (near right side of page, just under "Item location, etc)
it opens a blank page.
(This WAS working a week or so ago)
Interesting thing though - When I "switch back to the previous version", and try the "Printer version" at the bottom of the page, it also brings up a blank page.
HOWEVER, this seems to be just on the ebay.com pages...
I went to the ebay.ca pages, and both on the new version and the old version, the Print option brings up the pages.
So I am having to switch over to the ebay.ca page to print off the item info for my records.
Tedious. Annoying.
2nd problem with the NEW ITEM PAGE
When I hit the BACK button on my browser, it does not return me to the last page I viewed.
It just stays stuck on that page. Even if I try to go back 2 pages, I can't get back to the page I was previously on. Have to start over.
Big nuisance for me, sure…but I see this as a major problem for buyers - if they are looking at all my items, either on my sellers page or in my store, they will not be able to go back, so I've lost them!
( My browser is IE, and I cleared cache, etc.
maybe I'm the only one having this problem, but if I am, would appreciate help in resolving it in any case)
Will these issues with the New Item page be fixed in July (or sooner) along with all the other things you mentioned?
Does this refernce to JULY mean that Buyers will be seeing the OLD item page till then?
Can there be a post somewhere by the team working on the New item Page to show what glitches are known and are being worked on?
I have forwarded this post to the team working on New View Item for their attention. They are looking into the situation. UPDATE: the team is unable to duplicate your experience with the Print link on the new item page. They asked me to ask you to send the details (including screen shots) to me for forwarding to them. Send them to griff@ebay.com using your regular email (not My Messages).
Posted by postcardsnstuff on Jun 2, 2009 9:41 AM Blocking Specific Individual Countries Hi Griff,
Would it be possible to add more choices to the countries which we can ship too. From Canada I can choose only UK,Germany and France in Europe, or all of Europe.
This morning I added a bidder from Netherlands to my exempt list who asked to buy. I wonder how many more I am missing that don't ask to be exempt. After a few lost packages in Spain I had to stop Worldwide shipping (we won't even get into the DSR problem for shipping time).
I would love to be able to ship to
Ireland
Scandinavia(Sweden,Denmark,Norway)
Benelux Countries(Luxembourg,Belgium,Netherlands)
and many, many, many more.
I hear that New Zealand is in the Asia group. How can we tell which countries are included with each continent or grouping.
That said, I think that the more country choices we have, more people will ship internationally. Putting lots of countries under one group is more likely to make me not choose that group because there could be one country in there that I will not ship too.
Thanks for your time and efforts.
It’s in the works (blocking individual countries) and more will be announced in the next Seller Release Announcement in mid July.
Posted by hawgryders on Jun 2, 2009 9:57 AM eBay’s Excellent Help System Here is one I would like you to pass on to the programmers ...
When attempting to use the on-board help system I find it to be the most unhelpful one I have ever used
Example - type in free listings - now in a logical world one would expect to see the new eBay feature of Free Listings as the first entry ... instead there are 117 entries with little to no relevance to what is being asked (Now that I think of it this seems to be very familiar to the new search algorithm eBay has instituted)
So the question is ... (and this is dead serious)
[How does your company expect a user to be successful when even the simplest function (help pages) is so inherently unusable and brings up only irrelevant answers ?]
Inherently unusable? Sorry, I strongly disagree. You’ve found a specific example where the phrase used doesn’t bring up a relevant help page. The reason? First, the specific feature has not been released yet, only announced. It does not yet have a Help page entry. Once the special First Five Listings No Insertion Fees feature launches, it will have an entry in the Help pages. Second, this will not necessarily be referred to as “Free Listings” since it is only the Insertion Fees that are waived, not the Final Value Fees, so technically, “free listings” as a descriptor would be inaccurate. However, it might still be included and indexed as a search phrase that will return the relevant page, once that page has been added.
Having said that (and as someone who uses the Help pages continually in the course of a day to double check his answers to most questions, I find that nearly every single one of my queries returns relevant results. However, feel free to provide examples of search strings that you find that do not result in relevant results and I will gladly forward them to the team that manages the Help pages content and navigation.
Posted by lurch-deeann on Jun 2, 2009 11:06 AM Seller Protection and Resolutions At the end of the April thread, you stated: "That catches us up. I will open a new thread tomorrow for June"
It actually doesn't completely "catch us up" - I'm still waiting to hear about the SPP being ported to eBay, particularly in relation to the new INR claims process. And within that, specifically, if someone ships outside of their stated handling time, but still within 7 days, will they be covered under SPP in an INR claim, or is SPP changing to require shipping within your stated handling time to qualify for SPP.
Has anyone provided you info on the SPP under eBay? This had to be thought out in advance, right?
Yes it has.
If we have no information from the seller about handling time or seller shipping method (and consequent expected transit time), we will tell the buyer to wait 7 days after payment before filing an INR claim with eBay.
If we do have handling time and shipping method, we will use the sum of handling time, plus expected transit time for the method used by the seller, plus an additional cushion (usually three additional days). So if handling time is 3 days and expected transit time is 7, we’d ask the buyer to wait 13 days after payment. We may adjust the cushion to a longer period in certain instances (such as Media Mail, or cross-border). Note that this system does not specifically enforce that sellers ship within their stated handling time.
Also, as with PayPal seller protection we will require proof of delivery in INR (Item Not Received) cases in order for Seller Protection to apply to that transaction.
Posted by tabbmbcmb on Jun 2, 2009 12:34 PM New Seller Questions Ok..I am new to this selling thing and I just have a few questions.
1. What is a second chance offer and how does it work? Can you use that after someone has paid?
Second Chance Offer is a feature that sellers can use to sell an item to any of the underbidders in a closed auction format listing. For example, if the winning buyer backs out, the seller can choose to offer the item, through Second Chance Offer, to the next bidder in line. Or if a seller has more than one of an item, they can offer the extra items to the underbidders. To learn more, click the Help link on the top of the page and type in Second Chance Offer into the Search Help box. Our extremely efficient Help page will bring you links to relevant pages on Second Chance Offer. 2. How do you know what to start a bid out for? Example: Having a wholesale lot of used clothing.
The best way to determine a good starting bid is to research eBay for similar listings and see what other sellers have used for starting bids, especially those that resulted in successful sales. If all else fails, keep in mind that the lower the starting bid, the more likely you are to garner bidder interest (and bids). However, there is always a risk that the item could sell for less than you expect or need to realize for the item. 3. How do you determine the shipping costs? Do you go by weight?
Yes, weight and sometimes, dimensions of the package. You need an inexpensive postal scale. Then you pack the items into the box you will use to ship the item. Weigh the item and the box and measure the box for height, width and depth. Write this information down. When you list the item, you will find a Shipping section on the form into which you can enter the weight and dimensions. You will also select at least one carrier and service (for example, USPS Priority Mail). That’s all you have to do. The costs for shipping are calculated automatically for shoppers prior to purchase by using yours and the buyer’s zip codes. The cost is added automatically to the winning buyer’s total. I just want to make sure that I am not losing money on this. Some of the items that I thought would go for more went for little. I want to make sure that I am starting the bidding off right instead of under cutting myself. The same thing goes for shipping as well.
I would apperciate any and all suggestions.
Thanks in advance.
You may want to view the information, tips and tutorials in our online education and help pages. Hover your mouse pointer over the Help link in the upper right hand corner of any eBay page and click the link for Learning Center.
Posted by hawgryders on Jun 2, 2009 1:48 PM A Buyer’s About Me Page Question There is a thread here on SC that originally started on the Feedback Board about a buyer who has embraced the new eBay attitude ... here is the link to the thread
Link
[Do you think this buyer is justified in his attitude, his threats, and his lack of civility towards other community members ? Is this the type of buyer eBay wants to be identified with ?]
Justified? How would I know? I am not privy to his past experiences with sellers and he doesn’t provide specific examples. It sounds like the buyer has very particular views on his relationship with sellers. If you are asking whether we would take action against this member for his particular attitude or tone, the answer is no. His tone is a bit strident (Typing in ALL CAPS never wins friends or influences people) and his attitude is definitely not one of rosey goodwill towards sellers, but there is nothing in the text to indicate violations of eBay policy or intent to violate eBay policy. I am not absolutely certain what it is you are suggesting eBay do about this buyer (we would do nothing based on his About Me page) but I would be very surprised and alarmed if anyone here were to suggest that we should start to take action against members because of their “attitude.”
And that is all I will say about that.
Posted by hawgryders on Jun 2, 2009 2:02 PM Griff’s Listings Question One more for this week ...
I noticed you started putting Immediate Payment Required on your BIN's which, although perfectly acceptable under eBay rules, seems to imply you don't trust your bidders to follow through on the deal in a timely manner
[Did you do this because of NPB's ?]
and
[Do you recommend we do it too ?]
Thank you for this opportunity to promote a fantastic eBay feature called Immediate Payment Required.
I have used Immediate Payment for my Fixed Price listings since the feature was made available several years ago (I most definitely did not just start doing so). I do it because it means I am paid immediately when the buyer buys the item, which is how all ecommerce operates (and how eBay will operate someday in the not so distant future.). And yes, this completely eliminates the UPI problem for fixed price items. I’ve been pretty lucky. I have had only one UPI in the last three years (for an auction item).
And of course I recommend that every seller at least consider using Immediate Payment, especially sellers who are experiencing a regular rate of UPI transactions. As I said, I have been doing so since the feature was launched several years ago. I recommend it hear all the time whenever a seller complains about a high rate of UPI. I recommend it my book. I recommended it in eBay University classes. And I recommend it here.
Thanks again for the opportunity to promote this valuable eBay Feature! You can learn more by using our most excellent Help pages. Click the Help link on the top of any eBay page, enter keywords related to the term or topic of your search (immediate, immediate payment, etc) and click the Search Help button.The most relevant pages will be displayed as links in the returned result list.
Posted by kelnrob71 on Jun 2, 2009 5:34 PM UPI Buyer What do you do when a buyer does not pay , won't respond to messages ? I got the members contact info from e-bay to call the person only to discover its a fraudulent phone number and address. After several messages to ebay trying to get an actual customer service person all I get is a automated response that does not solve anything....Any suggestions?
File an Unpaid Item report. You can do so 7 days after the listing closes. You can get to the process through many channels on eBay. For example, you can use our extremely helpful and effective Help pages.
Click the Help link on the upper right hand corner of any eBay page, and enter “unpaid item,” or “non paying buyer,” or “buyer didn’t pay.” Doesn’t matter which one you use. All of them will return relevant links that explain how to file a UPI (Unpaid Item) report with eBay (Yes, eBay Help pages are that good!). In the report, you will also have the opportunity to report the buyer’s inaccurate contact information.
Posted by bookstew on Jun 2, 2009 5:41 PM A Bug Report Hi Griff -
Not a question, really - kind of a bug report if you don't mind forwarding it (because I don't have much confidence in the "was this page helpful?" box at the bottom of the pages).
On the Help pages Link the drop-down menus don't work in a FireFox browser any more. I have to open (shudder) IE to read the examples. Here are some screen shots so you can see what I mean:
In Internet Explorer, the arrows are visible, and when I click on them, more information is revealed:
No so in FireFox (yes, I have the latest version). No arrows, and nothing is clickable.
And (I guess I do have a question after all) What is the most efficient way to report bugs or page issues? I know it isn't really a Seller Advocate kind of thing, but you seem to be the closest we can get to the eBay Machine these days.
The issue was addressed and fixed shortly after it started to occur. The drop down menus are now all working in FireFox.
Posted by teddybeartwin on Jun 2, 2009 6:35 PM Possible Feedback Abuse Griff why is a buyer's negatives allowed to remain when the neg's were left just two hours after the buyer hit buy it now?
Two different sellers have received neg's from this buyer and both neg's were left within hours of the auction ending.
The sellers are reporting it but are not getting any help from ebay. What can they do?
These may be removable. Send the details directly to me at griff@ebay.com using your regular email (not My Messages). What you are describing sounds like feedback abuse and should be investigated. For anyone interested, I am a proponent of providing all sellers a window of time (one week) before a buyer can leave feedback or ratings.
Posted by emeraldgoddessgarden.. on June 2, 2009 7:07 PM Checkout and Support for PayPal Merchant Services Griff:
I am not a frequent poster, but try to lurk and follow the Boards often.
I do have question.
I am curious as to why eBay's Payment Gateway is not supporting Pay Pal's Website Pro Merchant's Service? I enrolled in this back in Jan, with the understanding that it would soon be intergrated for use on eBay..however...6 months (and $180.00 in monthly fees later) it still isn't and I was recently told by Pay Pal CS and eBay live chat that there are no short term plans to make it usable.
I am losing several sales each week to customers that don't want to register with Pay Pal or any other payment service, or give their card numbers out over the phone. They just want to enter their credit card
info directly into the check out as they are accustomed to doing on other sites. I don't understand why eBay seems to be so unwilling to provide this service to buyers when it could easily be routed through Pay Pal via the merchant account program. I have waited for your thread to reopen to ask this question before ending my subscription to the service. I actually like it and it is convenient, but I have other onsite services for my B&M and can't justify the continued fee if I am never going to be able to intergrate into eBay.
I am also unable to figure out what merchant service will work through the eBay Gateway. When I tried to intergrate the one I have for my B&M I was told that the settings within eBay are outdated and unusable. The merchant service rep laughed when I asked about eBay intergration.
Good news. The integration of PayPal's Payflow (Website Payments Pro ) gateway into eBay’s checkout flow will occur in July - exact date in July is still to be determined.
Posted by purchasejlp on Jun 2, 2009 7:37 PM New Ask Griff Boards Please take a moment to read through them. Also, you may find an answer to your question there. In addition, read through previous Ask Griff threads. Your question may have been previously asked and answered there.
>
Griff, while this link in your posting works to find your archived 'ask Griff' threads, the archive forum does not appear on the Discussion Boards page anywhere that I can find.
The eBay hosted Discussion Board hub page doesn’t have the link.
The newer Discussion Hub Page that is hosted by Liveworld does.
The older page is about to be retired and the newer page will be the default. In the meantime, use the link in that post to reach the new Ask Griff discussion board area.
Posted by caddlecat1 on Jun 3, 2009 3:09 AM PayPal Payment Question Hi
Can I place in the body of my listing to sell an item, that I will only accept paypal if they don't use their credit card to make the payment? Just recently a buyer tried to pay me using credit card through paypal and paypal wanted to charge me 2.4% plus 30c for his priviledge. Had he paid using his savings account through paypal, there'd be no charge to me.
A seller who accepts PayPal payments cannot block or refuse to accept PayPal payments funded with a credit card. And the information about charges is not correct. If you are using a PayPal account to accept payments for sales, then your account must be either a Premium or Business level PayPal account (upgraded from a Personal PayPal account). All payments received to a PayPal Premium or Business level account are charged 2.9% of the payment amount plus .30 regardless of how the payment was funded (credit card, eCheck or PayPal balance).
Posted by buriedbybooks on Jun 3, 2009 9:03 AM Echecks and Order Details Griff, the order details screen is not showing the echeck clearing date as the payment date. Instead, it shows the date the payment was originally sent.
For buyers who don't realize (or remember) that echecks can add as much as 2 weeks to CLEARED payment, this could appear as a lengthy delay between payment and shipment!
For example: the echeck I recently received shows this as the payment date:
Paid on May-26-09 via PayPal
Except it didn't clear until late evening on Monday, June 1st.
So now, when looking at the order details screen, this buyer will see a payment date of 5/26 when in reality, cleared payment was not received until 6/1. 6 days later.
The 5/26 date also appears on the top of the item page and in the alt text in My eBay when you hover over the $.
Why isn't the Paypal clearing date being shown? And is there any way to fix this?
Coincidentally, I believe it just was. There was an upgrade to the PayPal Order Detail pages on Wednesday night that includes information on pending payments (echecks). I haven’t received word yet if this upgrade changes the date the buyer sees from date payment made to date payment cleared but once I receive verification either way, I will post it here.
Posted by king-collect on Jun 3, 2009 9:34 AM Fee Suggestions Hi Griff!
Would eBay ever consider any of the following tweaks to the fee structure?
* Allowing sellers to choose between a low posting fee with a high FVF, a high posting fee with a low FVF and a medium posting fee with a medium FVF
Possibly. * Basing a seller's FVF on the total sales for an entire month, rather than each individual listing? So, selling 100 items for $5,000 would have the same FVF as selling 1 item for $5,000?
Maybe. * Allowing sellers to earn FVF discounts for something beyond high stars and free shipping? For instance, if they have a high sell-thru percentage?
Unlikely. * Allowing sellers to offer real discounts (not just shipping discounts) for multiple item purchases or repeat buyers? For instance, if you buy 5 items from me and your total purchase is over $100, I could offer 20% off the purchase price, or if you make a purchase from me today, I could offer you 10% off your next purchase from me within the next 30 days.
Very possible. In fact, very likely in the future * Applying the FVF discount to the next month's sales, so that the discount is predictable? (Alternately, basing the FVF discount on an entire year's worth of DSR's). I see a lot of frustrated sellers tearing their hair out each month because a single dinged star could ruin their discount. Yet, if they knew in advance they were getting a 20% FVF discount, they might post like crazy for the entire month.
Possibly.
Now an explanation around the short answers. This is a topic into which I am loathe to delve too deeply. I am not an expert in this field and it would be extremely inappropriate for me to provide even mild speculation or commentary on a topic as sensitive as pricing. It would also be inappropriate for me to speculate in detail about the suggestions. However, I did copy and forward them to our pricing guru (Brian Hsu) for his consideration.
Posted by postcardsnstuff on Jun 3, 2009 12:03 PM Blocking Specific Countries Griff, With reference to post 49, this is the response I got from ebay with the exact same question. The question/suggestion has not been answered. Help!
"Hello,
Thank you for writing to us here at eBay. My name is Jessica and it
would be my pleasure to assist you with your concern.
Looking to your preferences I see that you have a buyer requirement set
up to block buyers which;
"Are registered in countries to which I don't ship"
I can first suggest to remove this if you're willing to allow more then
what you're able to select within the create your item form. Choosing
World Wide is also an option for you to ensure all Countries are
available to for your buyers.
I can understand the slow shipping concern to over seas Members. I found
out that ground shipping can take up to 78 days to arrive to the
recipient. Therefore, as a Seller myself I stopped offering ground
shipping to that area of the world. Members are still able to request
this for me, however they absorb all the risk of slow arrival times and
not being able to file any claims or leave any Feedback. You're free to
post a disclaimer like this to help your sales!
I hope this helps, but if you need further assistance, Live Help is
available 7 days a week from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM PST. You can join us in
Live Help by clicking on the link below:
Link
Or, please simply reply to this email and Ill be happy to address any
other questions or concerns that you may have as soon as possible.
I appreciate the opportunity to assist you with this information and I
thank you for writing to eBay and wish you continued success in your
future transactions.
Best Regards,
Jessica F. D.
eBay Customer Support Team"
I provided a response (and some good news) regarding this ability in a response above. The ability to block specific countries is on the roadmap and will be part of the next group of seller update announcements scheduled in July. I trust you took up Jessica F.D.’s offer to reply and that you let her know her original response did not address your specific question.
Posted by karl551 on Jun 3, 2009 12:07 PM Partial Refund Requests Hi Griff,
I recently had a little problem with a buyer,to make the buyer real happy and receive positive feedback I needed to send them $10.
Their response to my refusal to do so:
Dear karl551,
All I asked for was a $10 refund and than you just offered to reimburse me shipping costs + a full refund. Shipping to your zip code of xxxxx from my zip code is about $12.50. So you are actually going to be paying more.
I don't want to go through the whole return process so all I'm asking for is the original $10 I asked for earlier and than I will leave positive feedback and be happy with my purchase.
The feedback manipulation policy contained in the UA is pretty clear on the subject.
My question is,What is eBays stand on this?
This buyer is pushing the envelope of what is acceptable. To me, it is pretty clear that the buyer, in stating he will leave positive feedback “if,” implies that he will leave negative feedback otherwise.
eBay’s stand on this is that it is a gray area. There could be a legitimate reason for the buyer wanting a partial refund. However, I believe we should make it very clear to all buyers that, although a buyer if free to ask for a partial refund, the seller is obliged only to provide a full refund and only once the original item is sent back to the seller, at the buyer’s expense. This would help educate buyers about a seller’s actual obligations (some buyers believe sellers are obliged to accept their demand of a partial refund. We need to disabuse buyers of this false notion).
Do this. Email the details to me (include all correspondence from the buyer – did he ever supply a reason for wanting the refund?) and in the meantime, report the incident as possible feedback extortion using this Link
I cannot promise that if he leaves the negative, it will be removed but I will work on your behalf to reach a resolution.
That catches up for last week’s questions. As I am on the road this week with only intermittent internet access, I will reopen the thread on Friday for new questions and post responses when I am back next week.
Regards,
Griff
Jim Griffith
_______________
eBay Inc
Must use Buy It Now and PayPal.
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