Welcome to the general eBay Q&A session on 12/06/2024 at 2:00 PM

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Hello everyone and ❤️welcome to the eBay Q&A session with the eBay Community Team.

Since we don't have a special topic this week, please don't hesitate to ask your general buying or selling questions here (please not topics already covered by other members).

To help us answer your questions faster, we ask that you choose one question per post. Of course, you’re welcome to write as many posts in the eBay Q&A session as you like - we actually encourage it!

The Q&A session will remain open until 3:00 PM. After that, it will be closed for further questions. Of course, we will continue to make sure that any questions that may still be unanswered are addressed – please allow us a little time for this, as we often have to ask other colleagues for support to get the correct answer for you.

To publish your question, click Reply in the lower right corner of this post, enter your question, and click "Reply" between 2:00 PM and 3:00 PM.

The eBay Q&A session format mirrors the format of our community discussion forums, where all posts appear chronologically. The Community Team answers each incoming question in that order and then quotes the original question in the respective reply. This quote and the reply appear later in the chronology and thus further down.

IMPORTANT: even though we use the discussion forum format, the Q&A session is separate and solely for individual members' questions only and not for starting discussions - please use our discussion forum for that, as always.

If you unfortunately missed the eBay Q&A session, we’d be happy if you posted your question directly in the Community or simply waited until the next Q&A session*.

Kind regards,

Your eBay Community Team

community-team@ebay eBay Team

eBay Team0 View listings

Posted 2 years ago · Edited 1 year ago·Last reply 2 years ago

18 comments

steffi@ebay

Admin2 years ago

Community TeamView listings

the @community-team@ebay would like to thank you for today's Q&A session. If there are still any questions you'd like to have clarified before the next eBay Q&A session, or if you didn't have enough time for another post / answer, please start a new topic and tag the eBay Community Team as follows:

@patrick@ebay

@miriam@ebay

and me for all questions related to the eBay community

@steffi@ebay

itec-systems

·2 years ago

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If you open a return with "not as described", it makes absolutely no sense to always have to upload a photo as a requirement. Especially with electronic problems like "sound is broken" or "USB doesn't work". Maybe Ebay should change that to an optional field.

patrick@ebay

Admin2 years ago

Community TeamView listings

@itec-systems wrote:

If you open a return with "not as described", it makes absolutely no sense to always have to upload a photo as mandatory. Especially with electronic problems like "sound broken" or "USB doesn't work". Maybe Ebay should change that to an optional field.

Hello @itec-systems ,

Pictures never hurt, in general. For example, you can also photograph an error message or document other steps that may be helpful in finding a solution. We’d be happy to pass on your feedback nonetheless.

Best regards

Patrick

steffi@ebay

Admin2 years ago

Community TeamView listings

Let's get started with your questions 🤗

perfect-sally

·2 years ago

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Why are the buyers' anonymous email addresses only visible for 14 days? The cancellation period for many commercial sellers is 30 days or more. I had this case yesterday and am grateful that the buyer got in touch promptly and sent me their email address. I would have needed this email address because it is absolutely necessary to create a return label yourself, since the ones on eBay are outrageously expensive for some items.

miriam@ebay

Admin2 years ago

Community TeamView listings

@perfect-sally wrote:

Why are the anonymous email addresses of buyers only visible for 14 days? The cancellation period for many commercial sellers is 30 days or more. I had this happen yesterday and I’m grateful that the buyer got in touch promptly and sent me their email address. I needed this email address because it is absolutely necessary to create a return label yourself, since the ones at eBay are outrageously expensive for some items.

Hello @perfect-sally and thanks for letting us know! We’re collecting your reactions on this topic, and we already submitted the suggestion for improvement on May 23 and added your complaint about it yesterday.

When setting the duration for displaying the alias address, it was apparently assumed that all problems with an order would be resolved within the 2 weeks and, of course, future transaction completions outside of eBay are also to be prevented. Your case shows, however, that a longer display period would make sense in some cases.

Best regards

Miriam

perfect-sally

·2 years ago

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Would make perfect sense.

If the customer hadn’t gotten back to me promptly, I would have had to take the significantly more expensive label from eBay! That’s not the point of the matter.

perfect-sally

·2 years ago

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Next question, which also concerns the return slip. Fortunately, this could then be created, but it couldn’t be uploaded either as a PDF or as a photo!

Only when I tried uploading the mobile slip did it finally work after many attempts.

So does eBay really want people to use these expensive shipping labels from eBay at all costs, even though much cheaper ones are available for small and lightweight items?

It actually seems to me as if the system was preventing the upload!

patrick@ebay

Admin2 years ago

Community TeamView listings

@perfect-sally wrote:

Next question that also concerns the return slip. This could then fortunately be created, but it could not be uploaded either as a PDF or as a photo!

Only when I tried uploading the mobile slip did it work after many attempts.

So does ebay want at all costs for people to use these expensive shipping labels from ebay even though much cheaper ones are available for small and light items?

It really seems to me as if the system prevented the upload!

Hello @perfect-sally ,

As far as I can see, everything was recognized correctly. Was there an error message? One I could use as a reference?

Best regards

Patrick

perfect-sally

·2 years ago

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The label as a PDF or photo was not uploaded. The message always came up: "could not be uploaded.

Tried different browsers, also tried making the label smaller - nothing worked. Only when I luckily was still able to download the mobile shipping label, that was accepted after a few attempts. However, then the field below said: Buy label... without clicking that I couldn't enter a tracking number and submit. Luckily I wasn't charged for another label by eBay. The wording on the buttons when you upload your own labels is misleading.

patrick@ebay

Admin2 years ago

Community TeamView listings

@perfect-sally wrote:

The label as a PDF or photo was not uploaded. The message always came up: "could not be uploaded.

Tried different browsers, also tried making the label smaller - nothing worked. Only when I fortunately managed to download the mobile shipping label, which was accepted after a few attempts, did it work. However, then the field below said: Buy label... without clicking that I couldn’t enter the tracking number and submit. Fortunately, I was not charged for another label by eBay. The labels on the buttons, when you upload your own labels, are misleading.

Hello @perfect-sally,

We’ll check whether there are any specific rules regarding uploading, e.g. size, etc. We probably won’t get any feedback on this by the end of the Q&A session.

Best regards

Patrick

petersmodellbahnstuebchen

·2 years ago

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Hey everyone,

I think that quite a few more Ebay members would be interested in joining in here for the Q&A session, but are limited by time, since they have jobs in addition to Ebay in their everyday lives.

Maybe you should think about opening the option to ask questions for the Q&A session as early as 12:00. Then people who are interested could submit their questions during their lunch break.

Just an idea for how this format can be further brought to life.

Best regards from the Baltic Sea

Peter

steffi@ebay

Admin2 years ago

Community TeamView listings

@petersmodellbahnstuebchen wrote:

Good morning, dear ones,

I believe that quite a few more Ebay members would be interested in joining the Q&A here, but are time-limited because they work in real life alongside Ebay.

Maybe you should think about opening the possibility to ask questions for the Q&A as early as 12:00. Then the people who are interested could already submit their questions during their lunch break.

Just an idea for how this format can be made more lively.

Kind regards from the Baltic Sea

Peter

Hello Peter @petersmodellbahnstuebchen , thank you for your suggestion, but that would not be so suitable for the concept of the questionhour, since, like in a live chat, we would like to answer urgent questions. If you really don't have a minute and want to quickly ask the question with your phone, for example, the community is open 24x7 for creating threads (in which we can also be tagged for the support needed). If the peak visiting times in the community should change, we will of course adjust the timeframe of the Q&A accordingly.

petersmodellbahnstuebchen

·2 years ago

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Hi everyone,

next point: The podcast with the new CEO Dr. Saskia Meier-Andrae isn’t that old yet, and I’ve already pointed out in the forum that she might want to take a look here in the forum and face the questions.

But since I can’t imagine that she has the time or the inclination to venture into the lion’s den here, I think it would be quite good if you set up a section called "Community questions for the eBay CEO," where every member may ask one question or make a suggestion. Your CEO or employees can then pass the point along accordingly. Then the CEO can decide for herself whether she wants to answer it, whether she does not want or is not allowed to disclose confidential information concerning eBay’s strategy, or whether the question has already been answered under another point

To avoid unnecessary discussions, the eBay member should only be allowed to ask another question once their previous contribution, as described above, has been dealt with.

Just as a suggestion for how I could imagine an exchange. I consider it self-evident that somewhat higher standards would be placed on eBay netiquette in this context.

Best regards from the Baltic Sea

Peter

steffi@ebay

Admin2 years ago

Community TeamView listings

@petersmodellbahnstuebchen wrote:

Good morning, dear ones,

next point: The podcast with the new CEO Dr. Saskia Meier-Andrae is not that old yet, and I’ve already pointed out in the forum that she should maybe take a look here in the forum and face the questions.

But since I can’t imagine that she has the time and the inclination to venture into the lions’ den here, I’d think it would be great if you set up a section called "Questions from the community for the eBay CEO," where every member can ask a question or make a suggestion. Your CEO or staff can then pass the point along accordingly. Then the CEO can decide for herself whether she wants to answer, whether she doesn’t want or isn’t allowed to disclose confidential information relating to the eBay strategy, or whether the question has already been answered under another point

To avoid unnecessary discussions, the eBay member may only ask another question once their previous post, as described above, has been dealt with.

Just as a suggestion for what I could imagine such an exchange to look like. I think it goes without saying that somewhat higher standards should be expected of eBay netiquette here.

Kind regards from the Baltic Sea

Peter

That would be a dream come true for all of us, Peter @petersmodellbahnstuebchen and I’m sure Saskia would be interested in that too. However, since this can’t be implemented in time, just yesterday we had the idea of repurposing the Q&A session and collecting your questions for Saskia in advance for that hour, which she would then answer on Wednesday from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. 😍. That would already come pretty close to your suggestion!

petersmodellbahnstuebchen

·2 years ago

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@steffi@ebay

Hi Steffi, that would be great.

Best wishes from the Baltic Sea

Peter

petersmodellbahnstuebchen

·2 years ago

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Hi everyone,

lately there have been more and more cases where items listed on Ebay-DE and / Ebay-AT are no longer visible on other Ebay sites, and vice versa.

Your explanations for such cases vary widely, so it is very hard for me to judge whether this is an error on Ebay's part, an error by the seller, or simply a medium-term strategy by Ebay. To be able to judge that, a clear statement from Ebay would be necessary

Best wishes from the Baltic Sea

Peter

miriam@ebay

Admin2 years ago

Community TeamView listings

@petersmodellbahnstuebchen wrote:

Mornin’ everyone,

Lately, there have been more and more cases where items listed on Ebay-DE and / Ebay-AT are no longer visible on other Ebay sites, and vice versa.

Your explanations for such cases vary greatly, so it is very hard for me to judge whether this is now an error on Ebay’s part, a mistake by the seller, or simply a medium-term strategy by Ebay. To be able to assess that, an official statement from Ebay would be necessary

Best wishes from the Baltic Sea

Peter

Hello @petersmodellbahnstuebchen - of course we are monitoring these reports and so far cannot confirm any error. There may, for example, be regulatory reasons why the listings cannot be displayed on other websites - for example, if the LUCID number has not been stored, etc.

Best wishes

Miriam