Hello all, Thanks for your questions to date. please read the header post for this thread. It has been edited, specifically: ...Limit your post to no more than three specific, non rhetorical questions on a single topic that is directly related to selling on eBay. Use separate posts for separate topics and their questions, limited to one post per day. This is a new requirement for posting and I didn't come to it lightly. However, given the unavoidable reality of time and resourse constraints under which I currently find myself, I must ask for your cooperation with this new "rule." Thanks. ... Think of it this way. In a live situation in front of a crowd, questioners queue in a line in front of a microphone. The moderator usually restricts each person to one question at a time. If a person has another question, they usually are asked to go to the back of the line. I will let those posted stand but from here on, I will delete posts if they don't meet this requirement. Thanks for your cooperation. Griff

Griff _________________ eBay

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Before we begin: An update on Payment Reminder emails (which was the most popular topic) Rather than repeat the same message for each of the posts, here is a response/update regarding this issue: To golfingaddict, jupitergardensllc, katydidscards, 777blessings, jimmosk, et al I have forwarded every post (and all emails) I have received on this subject (payment reminder email), to the appropriate team for their attention. I am also lobbying hard for a change to this feature, based on your input. I will post more when the team that manages this feature responds with any news, information or update. Thanks Griff

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Posted by ted_200 on Nov 11, 2009 4:35 PM Buyer Unable To Bid – Country Not Selected From The Blocked List Hi Griff, and welcome back! Thanks! I have the Buyer Requirements set to block bids from countries I do not ship to. A buyer living in and registered in Saudi Arabia has been messaging me - he really wants to bid on an item of mine. I told him OK. He responds, he cannot bid. I check my excluded countries list and I don't have Saudi Arabia checked, nor do I have the generic "Middle East" checked, nor is Saudi Arabia checked under "Asia" (I don't know why it is there, but I digress). He's not on my BBL. Yet I go to my "Buyer Requirements Activity Log" and it shows his ID as blocked for reason "Countries I Do Not Ship To". I have confirmed he shows as registered in Saudi Arabia. What gives? Is this thing broken? Not really but it might not be clear where “Saudi Arabia” fits in but it is grouped as a part of “Asia” so, if you did not select "Asia/Worldwide" in the international shipping section for “countries to which I ship,” then buyers from Saudi Arabia would be blocked.

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Posted by enchantedhen on Nov 11, 2009 5:19 PM Leaving No Ratings; Harm or Helps a Seller? Hi Griff, good to see you back! Thank you, I am definitely glad to be back. It’s been a busy past month. Feedback as a Buyer - or - Skipping the Stars: On leaving feedback after I have made a purchase, sometimes I just don't feel like taking a test every time I post feedback. Is there any disadvantage to my seller if I don't fill out the DSR questions? I would like to just post a positive, leave a saved comment and be on my way, but I don't want to hurt anybody's rating. If you, as a buyer, don’t leave ratings, you are not negatively impacting the seller’s rating percentages. A “no rating left” doesn’t equal a zero in the calculation. A “no rating left” is considered a null value. It simply doesn’t count at all. However, if you believe that your seller deserves high ratings, you really should take a moment to click the five complete stars. Although a null value doesn’t hurt a seller, it also doesn’t help her either and your five rating could be the one that moves the percentage needle for that seller up over the threshold requirement for Top Rated Seller eligibility. If your seller has provided you with a five-star buying experience, don’t leave them a null value!

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Posted by wearitsatvintage on Nov 11, 2009 7:09 PM “Quick Look” Explained Is ebay planning a mass refund to sellers who have paid for gallery enlarge and now are not getting it due to the new "quick look" feature that has taken its place? No. See below. Why, with quick look now site wide does ebay still offer gallery enlarge, still making it available when listing and still charging and collecting money for a feature that they are not providing? Doesnt that pose some legality questions, charging for a feature and not providing it? No. We are still providing the service. See below I know some sellers who have called customer support and have recieved refunds for their listings that should have gallery enlarge, but why should we have to jump through hoops to recieve refunds? There seems to be some confusion and misinformation about this new feature in Clothing, Shoes and Accessories. (The new Quick Look feature is not side wide. It is available in place of “enlarge” in the Clothing, Shoes and Accessories category only.) Although the Quick Look pop up box is different in design and layout from the “enlarge” feature, Gallery Plus sellers are still getting a larger image in Quick Look (albeit not a 400x400 of the “enlarge” feature) when they've purchased Gallery Plus then they are getting without Gallery Plus. If the item is a gallery plus item, we will show in the Quick Look box, the larger image and any additional thumbnails associated w/ the item. If the item is not gallery plus, then we show a smaller image and no thumbnails. Here's how a Gallery Plus item photo in CSA looks like today within the Quick Look pop up:

Here’s what a non Gallery Plus item photo (in CSA) looks like in a Quick Look pop up:

NOTE: In order to have the maximum size photo possible for any eBay Picture Service feature (like Quick Look for CSA categories or Enlarge for the rest of eBay categories), sellers should provide photos whose maximum height or width is 1000 pixels.

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Posted by ted_200 on Nov 11, 2009 7:11 PM UPI Assistant and the New Manual UPI Process Confusion Hi Griff, again, It is being reported by users that the new 4 day UID program (which isn't active for most users yet) is automatically opening disputes for them without them having opted into it, or even having the OPTION to opt into it yet. Comments? Explanations? Better yet, can you work on getting this corrected even before you return to respond? The UPI Assistant (aka “UPI AutoFile”) feature has not been released site wide. In fact, it is currently only available to an extremely small number of sellers (about 100). I am willing to bet that what these sellers are seeing are reports from their buyers about the automatic Payment Reminder emails since it is highly unlikely that any of the sellers in the thread would be a part of the initial group with access to the UPI Assitant feature at this time. Some facts about the UPI Assistant: It is and will be a”seller opt in” feature (and again, only a very small number of sellers have access to UPI Assistant at this time. This number will increase in the coming weeks with the goal of a full roll out within a few months). If a seller with access to UPI Assistant has opted out, UPIs will NOT be automatically filed. UPI’s are also not automatically filed for the manual UPI process. I would urge every seller to read the Help page for the Unpaid Item Process

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Posted by sevensixteen on Nov 11, 2009 8:56 PM UPI Messages In your response ("Possible Feedback Abuse") to my question in the Oct. thread , you apparently misunderstood my question. Altho I prefaced it with specifics of what I do believe was feedback (actually, DSR) abuse, I was not asking about how to report it. My understanding is that a report of low DSR's left with positive feedback is rejected out of hand, so that was not my concern. That is absolutely not true. Reports of low DSRs with positive feedback are never “rejected out of hand.” Each is investigated to determine if there is a case for assessing deliberate abuse of feedback. If it appears there is the possibility of feedback abuse, T&S investigates. I have witnessed several of these cases in the last month, some of which were ruled to be clear feedback abuse, one of which was reported http://tamebay.com/2009/11/powerseller-suspended-for-low-dsr-feedback-attack.html > here. My actual purpose was to find out what the buyer is told when a UID is filed citing "buyer has not responded" as the reason. In response to that, you posted a screen-shot of an unpaid item reminder message that is sent to buyers. That screen-shot simply confuses me further. From the text of that message, it is a mystery to me how the buyer who trashed my DSR's would even have known that a dispute had been opened (yet she responded immediately in the dispute, with an excuse about having been away from her computer). So anyway, to be clear, these are my specific questions: How would the buyer know to respond in the dispute if the "payment reminder" in that screenshot was the only communication she received? Actually, I made an error in pointing to the Payment Reminder as an answer to your specific question. My apologies. The payment reminder email is sent out to all buyers for items where no payment has been received (or where a seller has not marked the item as “paid” in My eBay). It is not sent as part of the UPI process. (2) Assuming she received some other communication about a dispute having been opened, what was the specific wording of that communication? (3) If not included in (2), what warning does a buyer receive about the possibility of an unpaid item "strike" on their account, and at what point in the dispute process do they receive that notice? (4) How long has the message in that screen shot been in use? Did it replace a more explicitly worded notice, and if so, how was that notice worded? My particular incident was in late August. If the UID message has been revised since then, I would still like to know what instructions my buyer received THEN, in addition to understanding any changes made since then for items (2) and (3) above. IMO, it is very important for sellers to know the exact content of any message eBay sends to their buyer on their behalf, so I appreciate any additional info you can provide. Here are the emails that are sent to a buyer in a UPI case (they are the same for the new manual process and the not-fully-launched UPI Assistant program) Here is the first email a buyer receives when a seller opens a UPI dispute (sent immediately upon opening the dispute):

If a buyer pays for the item while the UPI case is still opened, the buyer will receive the following email:

If a buyer fails to pay for the item while the dispute is open and the seller closes the dispute, the buyer will receive the following email:

If a seller fails to close an open UPI case, the buyer will receive the following email:

In addition, the seller in a UPI case will receive emails along each step of the dispute informing him of the current status of the case and, when necessary, alerting the seller of a needed action to be taken, for example, if a UPI case is about to expire, the seller is sent a warning email so they can either manually close the case or let it expire. I happen to have a copy of the UPI email a buyer received prior to the improvements in the manual UPI process: Here is a copy of the first email a buyer used to receive (again, this is an old email, and no longer used).

Hope this helps clear up some of the confusion about the wording of the new emails.

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Posted by golfingaddict on Nov 11, 2009 9:24 PM Payment Reminder Regarding the new emails that ebay is sending on "our behalf" I use selling manager pro and recently my "item shipped" email that I wrote to send to my buyers once I shipped the item has been removed from the automation in SMpro. Now ebay is sending an email when a buyer completes checkout and when the seller marks the item shipped (along with the 48 hr reminder to pay) Why oh why did ebay take it upon themselves to send these new emails? How is a seller, who is rated on communication suppose to balance these emails along with the emails they also want to send? If ebay is sending emails, my sending similar emails might seem like overkill to some buyers, but if I do not email them, it seems like I am not communicating. In the first 20 days of this new "communication" system, I noticed a slight drop in my 30 day dsr for communication. It was only then that I discovered the missing email and the two "new emails" What happened? Why and where did these new emails come from? Why is ebay communicating with my buyers but then telling them to rate me? How can I keep track of when and what ebay is sending? Who thinks this stuff up and where was it announced that these emails would change. And why and how am I suppose to find the right balance of transaction communication when email is making these switches during the busiest time of the year. Thanks for your comments. I have forwarded them to the team in charge of emails for their attention and consideration. Posted by ted_200 on Nov 11, 2009 11:03 PM Seller Update Announcements Hi Griff, again,... somewhat related to all these previous posts... eBay said they were going to consolidate policy changes to two times a year. This was supposedly to help sellers be able to deal with it all, and provide some lead time to adjust. But if the policy changes don't have firm roll out dates, and they are phased in for users over several weeks once they finally are rolled out, and the details aren't made clear up front in the announcement itself (like providing actual examples of communications being sent on our behalf), what is the point? Now we've got payment reminders going out to people we told could wait to pay, unpaid item disputes being opened for people who don't want them, some buyer disputes opening on eBay and other buyer disputes still opening on PayPal... suddenly no one understands how anything is working, or is supposed to work (since there is apparently a distinct difference). And instead of two changes a year, we've got constant change trickling out over weeks and months. Now it is entering the holiday buying season, and it just keeps coming! No one wants surprises in mid-November! No one said when "payment reminders" would start going out in the initial announcement, and no one made another announcement to let us know after that either. First I hear of it is from an angry buyer who got one (for an item they already paid for!). Now, I've seen no announcement that automatic UIDs were starting, but they clearly have started, and again the sellers have no idea what is going on. Same with TRS... no one is told when, or how, it just starts showing up, sometimes, goes away, comes back... and TRS search filter just shows up out of nowhere - no announcement at all! I got the impression that "two announcements a year" meant two sets of changes a year, with ALL the changes included and with ALL the pertinent details provided well in advance, and some stability in between. Is this really how the two announcements a year deal was supposed to work? Am I supposed to be able to plan for things, or have time to adjust, when change occurs like this? Although definitely an improvement over the past method of release and announce, the new Seller Update process can always benefit from improvement. Thanks for your comments. I have forwarded them on to the communications team for their consideration. One note: although the most impactful changes will always be included in a Seller Update, this does not preclude smaller changes happening outside of the Seller Update schedule.

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Posted by jupitergardensllc on Nov 12, 2009 12:24 AM Too Many eMails Griff, As a mostly buyer on ebay now, can I just add my voice to those who have said that all the new emails are confusing as heck. I've been on a bit of a buying spree lately, and I get shipping emails from ebay WITH a dc #, shipping emails without. Emails from paypal with a dc# (not clickable, although non-ebay paypal shipping emails are, for a suggestion). Sometimes I can go into my order details and see a tracking #. Othertimes I can't. Sometimes it says how it was shipped, sometimes it doesn't. I think you get the idea. Can we have ONE CLEAR AND CONSISTENT communication means for shipping? I've had a rash of sellers who ship parcel when listing says priority, for example, and I'd like to see with the shipping email how the dang package is coming, so I know how long to wait. You know, help temper the buyer's expectations. Posting with a selling id, which I no longer use, mostly because if someone with my kind of longevity and feedback on ebay can't figure this thing out, how is a newbie supposed to? Many thanks for your response. I agree. There are indeed too many emails that can be received by both a buyer and seller. There should be as few as possible and its one of the issues our new team (Seller Strategy) is planning to address as soon as possible. For now, there are some steps a buyer and a seller can take to reduce the number of emails that they receive or send. Start by going to My eBay > Account > Notification Preferences and edit the options there for received mail. For sellers using Selling Manager Pro, go to My eBay > Selling Manager Pro > Automation Preferences and configure your settings for all automated emails.

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Posted by mygift2u on Nov 12, 2009 4:51 AM Domains in eBay Store Names Griff There are many sellers that have their ebay Store named with their actual "off ebay" website address. For example, www.bla bla.com being the name of their ebay store. I feel this is a great disadvantage to those of use who can no longer do this. In one of my categories, this is detrimental to my business if I cannot do the same as my competitor(s). Since I pay the same price for an ebay Store as those that were granfathered in to being able to do that, why should I be disadvantaged?? A seller who is allowed to have his off-ebay website address as his ebay Store name is getting free exposure, advertising and a great advantage over other sellers. Why doesn't ebay level the playing field on this? I feel ebay needs to either allow all of us or none of us to do this. This is just one more reason I don't like selling here. There are different rules for different sellers even when we pay the same fees to do business here. Thanks for your comments. Perhaps it is time to revisit the “Grandfathered” exceptions to User IDs and Store Names. I will forward this post to Trust and Safety for their consideration.

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Posted by katydidscards on Nov 12, 2009 4:54 AM Payment Reminders I have already had one buyer complain about the automated payment reminder. Now she may ding my stars, through no fault of my own! It was sent TWO DAYS after her purchase. I typically don't send my own reminders until 5 to 6 days. Why can we not opt out of these automated reminders? I have had several discussions with Customer Support about this, and all I get is the same parroted answer: I'm sorry to hear about the problems you have been having with your payment reminders. I've actually helped others in the past with similar situations and I know how frustrating this cant get and I want to get this resolved for you. But payment reminders sent to buyers by eBay can't be disabled. In many cases, buyers are not on eBay consistently and find payment reminders to be helpful. We understand that different sellers have different expectations and encourage sellers to communicate these expectations to their buyers. This one-time reminder is a message from eBay to the buyer about an outstanding purchase. This is patently nonsense. I don't need eBay to be my buyer's nanny. I would like to very add my voice to those asking to have these automated payment reminders set so that we can opt out of them. If the buyer who receives one after two days dings my communication star, how is that appropriate? I didn't send the email, eBay did. But the buyer doesn't know that. We are not seeing an increase in low DSRs since the release of the Payment Reminder feature. However, I fully understand your concern about this feature and am campaigning for an opt in/opt out enhancement.

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Posted by mygift2u on Nov 12, 2009 5:18 AM Payment Reminders I also would like to chime in about the unpaid item reminders ebay is sending out. I also have a BIG problem with ebay trying to take control of MY business. I want to handle my own payment reminders. Many times I get customers who email me and let me know that they will be paying on such and such date which might be past ebay's 5 day threshold. What do you think a buyer will think when they see a threat from ebay when in fact, the buyer and seller have already discussed a payment date? The Payment Reminder does not contain anything even remotely resembling a threat. Nor does it mention consequences. It is merely a reminder, and a friendly one at that. I posted the template for the Payment Reminder in a previous response post. Until such time as a change is made to the email or the process, my suggestion to sellers who have buyers to whom they grant extended payment options is to communicate those options both in their listings and in their initial invoices or email to their buyers. Include a note that eBay routinely sends a Payment Reminder after 48 hours. Or, if you are using Selling Manager Pro, for purchases made by those buyer for whom you have provided extended payment options, mark them paid in My eBay until the buyer is finished purchasing. This will prevent the sending of the Payment Reminder. Once the buyer has finished purchaing, go back to My eBay, open the Record Number for each of the selected transactions, an uncheck the box for Payment Received On under Sale Status and Notes. eBay acts like every buyer on the site is their customer when in fact they are MINE. It is not as black and white as that. When a buyer has a problem with a seller and the seller cannot or will not address it, where does that buyer turn? eBay. When a seller has a problem with a buyer (buyer didn't pay or sent back an item that was not what the seller sold and sent), where does that seller turn? eBay. Bottom line: eBay sellers are eBay customers. eBay buyers are both your and eBay's customers. This is and always has been the reality of how a marketplace like eBay's works. If ebay insists on sending these reminders, then ebay should have a process in place that if a Buyer does not pay before the reminder is sent, then the Buyer will their forfeit their right to leave any and all feedback. If this were posted to buyers by ebay, then I bet the reminders would not even need to be sent. Again, these are reminders, not notices of action pending or threats. I stated at the top of the post that I am for making this an optional feature and I am working towards that goal on your behalf. It is appalling to me that ebay allows a Buyer to grade us on Communication when ebay is doing everything in their power to cut off communication between Buyer and Seller. (e.g. ebay wanting to have buyer/seller email addresses anonymous in the near future) Once a sale is complete, buyer and seller should be able to email each other. A different topic but...actually, it is the exact opposite that we are trying to achieve. We want to make sure that buyers and sellers can always contact and communicate with each other. Given the vageries of email (and we all can recount tales of emails that were not received or went missing in the vast ether of the internet), the purpose of eventually eliminating email addresses will be to keep at least initial communication between buyer and seller in one, consistent, reliable, and verifiable channel (My Messages) where it is not subject to loss on the internet or deliver failure. How will this benefit you? Once in place, a buyer will not be able to plead that they never received email from the seller and such pleas will not negatively impact a seller in a dispute.

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Posted by 777blessings on Nov 12, 2009 7:57 AM Low DSR Ratings Good Morning Griff, listen to your shows all the time and learn tons. My question is really a thought. I know and believe eBays statement about all people are generally good. But I was thinking about this new rating system for sellers on TRS. We have been selling for 7 years have had very good ratings, but it seems this rating of 1's and 2's on medium volumn really can effect a seller. Case in point, I just got an email from a customer on this item #370281458073. She said it was not a St. John, when in fact it is. Now this is "her" opinion or excuse for returning it. Of course we will take the return we always do, but if she gives a 1 or 2 in my DSR's because she is claiming it is not as described, I can do nothing about that. Is it truly fair that as a seller we are rated because someone has a "bad hair" day, when we have such great ratings. You see it seems that the buyers are basically good but the sellers are not (your rating system). With all the transactions that we have great ratings on, we will get dinged because this buyer is stating an opinion and not a FACT. This item is an authentic St. John and was exactly as described. Please think about this because I think we are rated poorly with the way you are determining the qualifications for TRS. In any rating system, there will always be the risk of a buyer like this one who for whatever reason, believes what she believes, even if it is illogical (and who btw, you are assuming will leave you a low rating. She may not). My advice is to a seller in this scenario is to respond with a “please send the item back for a full refund” with no protestations arguing the item’s authenticity (you aren’t likely to convince her so why open up the possibility of an email argument). Remember, that if this buyer does leave a low rating and you don’t have other recently left one or two ratings, her one low rating won’t affect your status.

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Posted by 777blessings on Nov 12, 2009 8:18 AM Payment Dispute Confusion Here is a good case in point about this situation of eBay sending payment disputes. I just got an email from a customer "please explain why I have an open dispute as payment was promplty made"I await your response before leaving feedback." She in fact did pay on the 5th day, but we were in contact with her. As you can see she is a little put out about getting this dispute. Can you please rethink your decision here. Unless you opened a UPI dispute against the buyer, then they did not receive a UPI notice. Let me make this perfectly clear: Except for the intial 100 or so sellers who have access currently to the not-yet-launched UPI Assistant, eBay is NOT automatically opening UPI disputes. Your buyer may be referring to the Payment Reminder email that is sent 48 hours after the listing closes if the buyer has not paid. The wording of the Payment Reminder does not infer or mention "dispute." (There's a copy of the email in a previous response thread).

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Posted by freshstart457 on Nov 12, 2009 8:29 AM Changing an Auction Format Listing’s End Time Is there a workaround to allow a seller to change the TIME an auction ends short of cancelling and re-listing? I didn't think about the ending time when I posted my first listing and want to move the ending time up 2 or 3 hours. I was told through CHAT that this was not possible other than cancelling the listing and starting over. The problem with that is that it would move the ending DATE one day which is not ideal either. Once an auction format listing has been posted to the site, it is not possible to change the end time. You would have to cancel the listing and relist. One note though: if your item is well described and its title contains relevant search key words, buyers will find it and bid on it regardless of the ending time.

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Posted by mygift2u on Nov 12, 2009 8:32 AM Unpaid Item Disputes Griff Since ebay is now playing God with unpaid item disputes, should Sellers put a note in all their listings stating that if "payment is not sent within 'x' number of days, that eBay will Automatically open an Unpaid Item Dispute and that the Seller has no control over ebay doing so?" I am not sure at what point ebay is emailing MY customers or opening Unpaid Item Disputes. Exactly when (how many days,hours after item ends) does ebay email MY customer telling them a UPI has been opened? We don’t. Let me repeat: we do not automatically open UPI disputes on behalf of a seller. The UPI Assistant feature – which will provide for an automatic filing process – is only currently available to about 100 sellers and those sellers had to opt in (agree) to be in the first group. If you are not in this initial group of sellers, (you would have been invited to join via email), then there is no need to worry that eBay is automatically opening UPIs for you. We aren’t. Your buyers are receiving a Payment Reminder if they haven’t paid within four days of the listing’s close (or if you haven’t marked an item as paid in My eBay) but no one is automatically opening UPI disputes for these buyers. Posting wording of this type in your descriptions will increase your buyer’s fear and confusion. I would not recommend it.

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Posted by jimmosk on Nov 12, 2009 9:03 AM Wording for Payment Reminders I'm writing about eBay's automatic payment reminders, which are being emailed to buyers about 48 hours after the close of auctions. I know that several other posters have also posted questions about this issue, so I'll try to ask about a different aspect of the problem (while adding my voice to the chorus of people asking for this to be opt-out-able). I give my buyers time (around a week) to win more of my auctions so they can have them shipped together for less money. These 48-hour reminders wrongly make it seem like payment must be made then. So I'm considering adding wording to my listings to the effect that I am not sending those emails, do not require payment that quickly, and would rather they just ignore the automatic reminder. BUT the July 2009 seller update specifically states that "Listings cannot include comments that undermine confidence in the marketplace, such as comments expressing negativity toward [...] the selling process". So my question is: Can you provide some suggested way to phrase my ignore-the-payment-reminder statement so it won't violate policy? Thanks Griff! -Jim Sure. If you are using Selling Manager Pro, the process can be automated. You would add a note to your buyers in two emails: First, go to SMP > Automation Preferences and under the “Emails from you” section, check the box for “Automatically send a Winning Buyer Notification email to your winning buyer(s) after item has sold” and click “Edit Winning Buyer Notification template” to add a note to your outgoing message to your buyer. As for wording, something along the lines of, “NOTE! eBay automatically sends out Payment Reminder emails for all items where payment has not been made after four days. If we have previously made an arrangement for your payment, please disregard this Payment Reminder.” For known buyers where you allow for more than four days for payment (buyer wants to purchase more and make one payment), you could mark each of their purchased items as “paid” in My eBay which will prevent the automatic sending of the Payment Reminder. When the buyer is finished purchasing, you would have to change all those items back to “mark as unpaid” before you could send a combined invoice. Elegant? Absolutely not. (see my post at the top of this response post). But until and when a change is made, this is a possible, workable solution.

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Posted by bookelph on Nov 12, 2009 9:47 AM Emails To Buyers Sent By eBay Griff, add me to the growing list of people posting here that are incensed about the emails that ebay are apparently now sending out, without notice to us, and without option to opt out. Thank goodness I have learned over the years to read forums such as this one, otherwise I would never know what new and ridiculous changes ebay was foisting on us poor beleaguered sellers to make running our business needlessly more complicated and annoying. Good grief! What next? The other posters have been very specific about the reasons so I won’t repeat them. A QUESTION and a REQUEST: Question – I have heard the “automatic UPI after 4 days” process has started, and that is is possible to OPT OUT. For the life of me, I CANNOT find where to do so. Not in my Site preferences or in my Resolution Center. Please provide a link for making sure I’m opted out, since I have heard that some are and some are not. The UPI Assistant (automatically filed UPIs) feature has not been officially launched. Unless you were invited as one of the first 100 sellers to use UPI Assistant, no UPIs are being automatically filed for you. Request – PLEASE get whoever decides this to make this change ASAP: allow me the OPTION to receive a copy or EVERY email that ebay sends to my buyers about a transaction. I posted them above in an earlier post. I have suggested that we include the templates in My eBay for seller's to veiw and access at any time.

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Posted by circa1901 on Nov 12, 2009 12:52 PM Cross Promotions on Live Listing Pages Hello Griff, I am wondering why ebay is now putting "related picks" on LIVE auctions instead of only on completed auctions? There are 5 "picks", only 1 belongs to the specific seller, all the others are from different sellers. There are only 11 posts so I hope you will read it rather than me posting the same things here on this thread. Although nothing ebay does really surprises me anymore, it's hard to rationalize (for me anyway) live, competing auction links on still running auctions. We announced this on November 16th. Sellers who prefer not to participate or benefit from this program can opt out by going to My eBay > Account > Marketing Tools > Item Promotion > Promote Similar Items. It is understandable that a seller might consider this Promote Similar Items feature to be detrimental to their sales but that would be a mistake. Based on the results of recent testing of this feature, we discovered that Promote Similar Items actually benefits nearly all participating sellers with an incremental lift in traffic and sales. My advice. Opt out if you insist but, and this may seem counterintuitive but bear with me; a smarter business move might be to test participation first to see if cross promotion benefits your sales. My own take on this: I have to list more items this week (sold the last of my current items few weeks ago) but I am most definitely opting in to test the effect on my own traffic and sales. Here’s why: The items I list are appropriately presented (photos, description, etc), my customer service record is pretty good, and most of all, my prices and starting bids are competitive and compelling. However, if one of my buyers finds an item they prefer more than mine (either because it is more suited or less expensive than mine) or in addition to mine, mazeltov! Buyers are happiest when they are getting the best possible deal for an items they want. So I will test it out first before deciding whether to continue opting in (but my intuition tells me I probably will stay opted in). You may disagree. To many sellers, it is a matter of protecting their own interests against the perceived threat of similar items appearing on their item page (without a willingness to consider the possible benefits of mutual exposure on other seller’s pages). If that is your take on cross promotions, then simply opt out. Issue closed. But based on what our own testing has shown about the benefits of cross promotion, wouldn’t the wiser business strategy be to put emotion and fear aside and at least test its effectiveness? You can always opt out (and back in) at any time. If you do, track your sales carefully. Let me know what you discover. To opt out: My eBay> Selling Manager > Marketing Tools > Item Promotion > Promote Similar Items

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Posted by shotoftakela on Nov 12, 2009 1:12 PM More Buyer Requirements Two Fold - Blocked Bidder Requirements & Bidder's FB I have two different items to address. The first would be the blocked bidders requirements that I may opt/select. If I can block bidders from certain countries, then I should be able to "block prisoners" (that's our govt. tax dollars hard at work) and "block inactive accounts of 2 years or more". Both of these have generated non-payers for me. I could not cancel their bids, as they were made within the last second of the auction. I cannot think of a way that we could effectively block bids or purchases made by incarcerated buyers so although I will happily forward your suggestion on this issue for consideration, I wouldn’t hold out much hope that it is attainable. As for blocking inactive accounts, that would not be an option primarily because it would be blocking good buyers who may be returning to eBay after a long hiatus. That would be, quite simply, unacceptable. I believe that negative bidder's FB should not be able to be left by a buyer until they have clicked a direct link to "contact seller" first and then having an automatic wait time of 24-48 hours for a response. I have one neg. from a buyer who did not "correspond" to the UPI (she paid, but 14 days late) and then left negative feedback by checking off the 3 boxes prior to leaving it. She never contacted me one time thru the whole transaction, thus she lied about "have contacted the seller". I am seeing so many buyers jumping the gun and leaving negs for sellers that are not appropriate. If you check out the feedback answer center board you will find some of the buyers and one that is always telling the buyers " to leave a negative, you have to check off the 3 little boxes first" and now you can leave your negative...thus undermining good and decent sellers. I would agree with you except that our own data for left feedback shows no jump in the number or rate of left negatives (It is pretty much the same for the last three years and if anything, shows signs of decreasing, not increasing). However, I tend to agree that some type of mandatory communication prior to leaving a rating is definitely worth considering.

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I will post more responses in the next day or two. As a reminder: An update on Payment Reminder emails (which were the most popular topic) Rather than repeat the same message for each of the posts, here is a response/update regarding this issue: To golfingaddict, jupitergardensllc, katydidscards, 777blessings, jimmosk, et al I have forwarded every post (and all emails) I have received on this subject, to the appropriate team for their attention. I am also lobbying hard for a change to this feature, based on your input as well as my own. I will post more when the team that manages this feature responds with any news, information or update. Thanks, Griff

Griff _________________ eBay