Locked
Discussion interactions are currently paused.
🗨 Welcome to the general eBay Q&A session on 23/03/22
Hello everyone!
Thank you very much for taking part in the eBay Q&A session with the eBay Community Team.
Since we don't have a specific topic this week, please don't hesitate to post your general buying or selling questions here. To help us answer your questions more quickly, we ask that you post one question per post. Of course, you can post as many entries in the eBay Q&A session as you like - in fact, we encourage it!
The Q&A session will remain open until 3:00 p.m. After that, it will be closed for further questions. Of course, we will continue to make sure that all questions that may still be unanswered are answered - please give us a little time for that 🙏.
To ask your question, click Reply in the lower right corner of this post, enter your question, and click "Reply" between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. The format of the eBay Q&A session 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 answer appear later chronologically and thus further down.
Questions that we cannot answer directly during the session will be handled by us with a link to the answer.
If you unfortunately missed the eBay Q&A session, we'd be happy if you post your question directly in the Community, or simply wait until the next Q&A session.
Kind regards
Your eBay Community Team
mmstore74
·4 years agoHello, I ran a test over a few days and had 30 friends click on the same item every day, so the number of page views should have gone up, but nothing happened.
I also enabled 20% discount, price suggestion, free shipping, and everything else you can select, and promoted my items with up to 20%, so that should have moved them up in the ranking too. And what happened? Absolutely nothing.
Since last October, when they started tinkering with the categories and everything else again, everything here has only been going downhill, and the constant changes are really no longer acceptable. Ebay is going to run everything into the ground, but apparently Ebay doesn't care about the complaints from buyers / sellers, and even on the hotline you almost always hear exactly the same thing, as if everything were being read off a script.
patrick@ebay
Hello @mmstore74 ,
there are many ways to promote a listing. For example: Promoted Listings Standard, Promoted Listings Advanced, Promoted Listings Express: “Promoted Listings” – Overview
Or here you also have a helpful page regarding: Optimizing listings so they appear in “Best Match”
Page views alone won’t generate an advantage, because many more factors play a role when it comes to ranking. Also, how other sellers have set up their listings compared with yours.
Best regards
Patrick
patrick@ebay
Hello @mmstore74 ,
here is another addition to our already provided response after consultation with the department specializing in promoted listings. Our search algorithms do not work on the principle of "what gets the most clicks is shown first," and if clicks are artificially generated that do not lead to sales, the items will likely be seen as low quality, since nobody buys them after clicking.
You are currently promoting more than 200 listings and have received more than 2.5 million impressions and more than 3,200 clicks via Promoted Listings Standard in the last 31 days. If a particular listing is not receiving promoted listings impressions, it is probably because it has a negative performance history or too low a promotion rate, or both. So if someone has tried to promote a listing that your acquaintances clicked on, it is no surprise that it was not shown through promoted listings. Your sales are actually doing quite well and the advertising costs are very low. That should not be a reason for complaint. From eBay's side, everything is therefore working as it should. 😉
Best regards
Patrick
passionepassato
·4 years agoI was just about to start running ads because it was happening to me too; these 0 to 5 click rates have been there for me since ads were introduced. Before that, a newly listed item would get at least 20 clicks from me, right in the first hour. Today it takes me 3 to 5 days to get to 20.
Then I listed a brooch worth a couple thousand euros, at three in the morning, just to test it.
10% ad format. Like I said, at three in the morning I had over 600 clicks in the first minute. Which simply cannot be true. Even if I list items for prep and start them after a day, every 5th to 10th item gets 200 clicks or more right from the first second. Either the system is glitching there too or they're trying to dazzle us with ads. In any case, even though I once considered it because of the defect rate, I won't pay a single cent more than the normal fees. They're already steep enough. On my last sold three-digit item (€550), it was €72 plus a few change. So why bleed even more.
passionepassato
·4 years agoMy second concern would be pickup. I’d like to list my higher-value items, as examples to classify the price range: a 2m church candelabrum for €25,000, a secrétaire made of KPM Berlin porcelain for €150,000, and other high-quality art objects such as paintings, life-sized nativity scenes, etc. etc., which I have on consignment.
However, the owners do not want any intermediary that receives the money. For pickup, we are intended to be the only payment option. Pickup and cash payment is possible, but the other payment methods are also offered. I’m not putting five-figure items on Ebay, letting them be picked up, and then after 179 days the buyer gets a bee in his bonnet and reverses the credit card payment, preferably after I’ve already paid out the consignee. An outrage. Cash payment on pickup without Google Pay, PAypal etc. possible ? If not, these things will never go online here. That would be a shame.
Our limit is €10,000, and I can afford, in a legal dispute, to pay upfront and get it back with a lawyer. But anything above that would lead to insolvency.
Why can members here pick up goods and pay online. That goes against the principle !!
miriam@ebay
I can personally understand your line of thinking, @passionepassato! As you yourself wrote, it is currently not intended to offer the option of "cash payment on pickup" as the only payment method. Buyer protection sets us apart from other online marketplaces and, in principle, strengthens trust in eBay and the willingness to buy. Only in the rarest exceptional cases might this protection possibly be exploited or misused.
I will once again prepare your feedback and discuss it with decision-makers. Unfortunately, there is nothing more we can do at this point, but we appreciate the constructive suggestion for improvement 👍.
Best regards
Miriam
perfect-sally
·4 years agoAre there any new updates or feedback on this yet?
New shipping services for your listings from April 4, 2022
Is eBay really going through with this now, so that you can no longer explicitly specify, for example, Hermes Shop2Shop, but it only appears under Hermes, like the Hermes parcel too?
In that case I can no longer offer this shipping method and am seriously considering moving away from free shipping, also back to a 14-day cancellation period and a longer processing time. The advantages you supposedly have with the eBay guarantee are not there anyway. Since eBay more or less forces you to offer free shipping for the guarantee, of course you choose the cheapest option for sellers that also has a tracking number. Soon that will be gone too and sellers will have even more costs. eBay is becoming more and more unfriendly to sellers! And I also wonder why this change is supposed to make anything clearer.
miriam@ebay
Hello @perfect-sally! We know your wish for this shipping option and the disadvantages this change creates for you. At the same time, we would like to encourage you, where feasible, to offer free shipping as the first (standard) shipping option in order to increase sales opportunities. At the moment, we are actively looking for more feedback on this topic to show the continuing interest in this shipping option.
Internally, a few discussions are currently taking place about this, but unfortunately we are not (yet) allowed to share any details. If we have new information, you will definitely hear about it via the Community! 🙂
Best regards
Miriam
perfect-sally
·4 years agoWell, the problem is that April, when the switch is supposed to happen, isn't that far away anymore, and I or we would really like to know where we stand.
perfect-sally
·4 years agoWhy were scheduled payouts, at least up to Tuesday 22.03.2022, not displayed? The payouts did come through, but they were not shown in advance; only the available amount was shown, but there was still no payout scheduled.
miriam@ebay
Hello @perfect-sally! Glad to hear that you received your payouts in the meantime. Apparently, there was a brief hiccup in our system here. Please let us know if the problem continues for you so that we can inform the tech team accordingly 🤗.
Best regards
Miriam
dmary56
·4 years ago"temporary hiccup of our system"
sometimes I can’t shake the feeling that questioners here are being fobbed off like little kids... oh man.... but I have to admit: distraction straight out of the textbook.... you have to be able to do that too...
decoupage-art1
·4 years ago🤣👍
miriam@ebay
Hello @dmary56! At this time we are not aware of any further reports on this, and since the display for @perfect-sally is working as usual again, we can no longer investigate the exact behavior in more detail.
This also applies to you and others reading along here: If any problems arise, please feel free to report them via the discussion forums, and for eBay questions include @patrick@ebay and me so that we can help you as best as possible 🙂.
Best regards
Miriam
Anonymous User
·4 years ago@community-team@ebay
Why are the Most Helpful Community Authors
being shown again now and no longer the Top Solution Authors?
steffi@ebay
Hello @Anonymous, as soon as the problem with displaying the number of solutions has been fixed, we can switch back to Top Solution Authors. Most Helpful Community Authors is only a temporary solution, since the display is shown correctly here.
Anonymous User
·4 years agoHello @Steffi @
Thanks for the reply.
Was there a problem?
Which one?
I didn't notice anything about it.
steffi@ebay
@Anonymous the number was displayed like this
Anonymous User
·4 years ago@Steffi @
Ok, and your programmers can’t manage that?
Great job if it’s already failing there.
No wonder so many things don’t work properly here.
dmary56
·4 years ago@Anonymous
don't be so strict..
It only comes with an "little hiccup" now and then
steffi@ebay
@Anonymous - I can't say whether eBay's programmers couldn't fix that. But the responsible programmers at Khoros are already working on making sure we have the correct display soon.
bootyooty
·4 years agoHey @Steffi @ 😘 I’ve noticed for a long time that the display is completely messed up. I think there shouldn’t be anything there at all, neither top authors nor most helpful. The people who need help and come here definitely won’t be guided by stuff like that.
They post their question - no matter which forum - and want answers. After all, when choosing someone to reply, they don’t pick someone from that list either. 😉
steffi@ebay
Hello @bootyooty, it is also meant more as recognition, for people like you who help and support here day in, day out 💗
nix-wie-weg
·4 years agoDear @Steffi @ ,
that’s not recognition, that’s pure nonsense. The more someone posts here, the more kudos/solutions they get. Have you ever looked at what gets checked off as a solution here? Research is done, solutions/links are offered, and a meaningless answer gets accepted as the solution. I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus here, but it’s more than ridiculous. Like bootyooty already wrote, unnecessary.
Best regards
steffi@ebay
Hello @nix-wie-weg, solutions are still the most "meaningful" marker, since only the original poster can assign them. However, if the Community Team feels that an answer is more suitable as the solution, it will of course be marked accordingly.
community-team@ebay
Welcome🤗
Anonymous User
·4 years agoThis can't be true, that eBay can't filter them out itself?!
https://community.ebay.de/t5/Sicherheit/fake-accounts/m-p/4554887
patrick@ebay
Hello @Anonymous ,
unfortunately I can't give you any further details or info on this in the Q&A session. I only replied to you yesterday. eBay is aware of this and is reviewing everything related to the matter.
Best regards
Patrick
passionepassato
·4 years agoHi everyone, first of all thanks for rechecking the defects, Miriam. It’s really a shame that even if you do everything right, you’ll never get your top seller status. And then eBay Plus is out of the question anyway, then I don’t need to offer a one-month right of withdrawal either.
Now I’ve got a 5-day processing time, which also hurts my ranking. I’ll just leave it hanging in the room whether any of this still makes sense here, and I’ll probably have to look for alternatives one way or another.
Because with the defect rate, I’m hardly shown at all. I can just as well sell those few sales compared to January’s previous months slowly on classifieds; I don’t need a shop for that. It’s not your fault, but something is wrong in eBay’s system. On the one hand you promote your partner Hermes and partner programs, on the other hand you penalize sellers with defects because the partner can’t manage to upload a proper shipment tracking history. My receipts support that it was handed over on time. If those aren’t even taken into account, it doesn’t surprise me that some people here are throwing in the towel.
Best regards
Jeanette
miriam@ebay
I want to assure you that I will pass your feedback on exactly like this and in full once again, @passionepassato 🤗. We hope that you can become a Top Seller again soon; your/your criticism about this has already been received.
Kind regards
Miriam
passionepassato
·4 years agoIt’s okay, Miriam, don’t make enemies in management because you keep explaining my problem. I’ll live now until the annual subscription ends and then take stock; if the numbers don’t add up, then I’m out. If, against all expectations, I do manage to get the quota down to 0 with 5 days of processing time, then it’ll probably be back to the old way again. Maybe people up top in management should think about whether they want to keep shooting themselves in the foot with these kinds of automatisms and driving sellers away, or whether it would be better to switch to a simple system like it used to be. I’ve got nothing against the 4 defects from buyers who were impatient. Even if I submitted on time and Hermes was asleep. But that eBay itself slaps over 50 defects on me is a whole different story. I also wonder whether the person who rejected that ever looked at the rest of the account. Even my kids can tell something’s not right. The profile is almost blank, I have a cancellation rate of under 3%. No cases and otherwise just a blank, error-free existence on this platform. When that’s then compared to a 30% defect rate, that’s remarkable and, if it were my fault, would be negligent in terms of how I deal with customers. The hotline also said this problem is known. Makes you think why nothing is being done about it. Maybe eBay should disable the defect system and let customers rate, since the delivery date is important after all. Then the numbers at eBay will surely go up too if Cassini doesn’t punish sellers who handle everything according to policy.
After all, the customer himself has been satisfied so far.
vlg
natrolith68
·4 years agoFor some time now, in the category Collecting & Rare Items > Minerals & Fossils > Accessories & Literature, offerings from British sellers (mostly mining lamps and other mining items) have been incorrectly placed by the system, even though they do not belong there at all! In their header, they are clearly labeled Collectables > Memorabilia > Mining Memorabilia.
For exactly this kind of item, there is the category Antiques & Art > Antiques from Old Trades > Antiques from the Mining Trade. Here, mining lamps, tools, etc. are correctly placed.
It must surely be possible for all these listings, which on the eBay UK site are probably correctly placed by sellers under Collectables, Mining, Mining Memorabilia, to be automatically assigned by the system to the appropriate German category. The affected category of minerals, accessories, and literature is being cluttered up like this and is totally confusing for interested buyers! I urgently ask that this problem, which lies solely with eBay, finally be solved! Thank you for your efforts!
patrick@ebay
Hello @natrolith68 ,
thank you very much for your observation! We will gladly pass your feedback on to the relevant team so they can take a closer look at it.
Best regards
Patrick
natrolith68
·4 years agoHello Patrick,
that would make me happy. I had already been in phone contact with the service hotline about this issue once, but unfortunately this problem apparently still hasn't been resolved - in fact, it seems to have spread even further. So I'm glad if someone would take care of the matter!
Regards HS
patrick@ebay
Hello @natrolith68 ,
don’t worry, I’ll look into all of this and, regarding your description, work it up accordingly and pass it on.
Best regards
Patrick