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I still have global shipping turned on, but you are right about the violations. There is a way to turn off types of listings using title words, but I see what you are saying. Not sure about the sunglasses thing since I have a few hundred listed and no issues. You do get notifications if a listing is in violation and you just change it or add the key word in your title to the list of keywords that “if they are in your title then that item won’t be listed”.
Also, what I found helpful was to go to their site and locate the chat page and ask for them to call you. I personally don’t like chatting in text format when trying to be helped I find it much easier to speak to them. They called me the next day. If I remember correctly their CSR’s are located in Canada.
No worries. Yeah, so every time I list something it is auto-listed in the 6 other sites, I think this is done over night or a few hours later but it might be determined by how much you list in a given time. I tend to do large amounts of listing in a day or two followed by two or three weeks of not listing at all. They do have an account view but their site is a bit archaic. It could use some updating but like all things I think if more people use it, it will grow and become easier to use much like eBays site. But their accounts page does for sure leave much tone admired.
Yeah it handle all the cancellations on all the 6 ebay sites it oversees including the main USA store. So when an item sells in the UK it is cancelled in Spain, Germany, Canada, USA, Australia. There are no fees to list any thing which is a huge savings since ebay sites in other countries charge a lot more to list then the USA site. But just be sure to add knives and flatware to what not to sell in the UK since it is not allowed to be shipped and perfume in france (there is a section on the website to add search words which can be used to exclude items you sell in the USA to be listed in other markets). Yes they do charge a 5% fee but only if you choose to list all your products. You can use their service for free but they will then only list 20% of your store. Which honestly worked great but seeing I was making some money I figured there was not harm in losing 5% which I was adding to the price of those items in the other markets.
Thanks Jay! I know this is not as detailed as it could be but here is what I was able to piece together this morning. I originally jumped aboard webinterpret when it was offered by ebay just prior to Christmas. It was and still is a free service but they will only list 20% of your store for the free service. After I saw promising results the first two or so months they contacted me and asked if I would like to have my whole store listed for a 5% charge on what sells. What really sold me is the ability to change the price on only the items listed overseas by the exact percentage I was being charged. So I looked this morning at the items sold this month with their service and it was 22 items for a total of $1025.96, full disclosure this includes the shipping charges but if on average I pay $15 per item to ship which is generous since most items are first class pieces of jewelry, that would be $330, and another $50 for web interprets service and it still is not bad for doing little else. Obviously I am not taking into account the standard fees for PayPal and taxes.
1 United States 487 $22,389 USD
2 Germany 21 $1,075 USD
3 United Kingdom 19 $916 USD
4 Australia 16 $666 USD
5 Canada 6 $157 USD
6 Spain 2 $107 USD
7 Japan 1 $62 USD
8 South Korea 2 $59 USD
9 Italy 2 $52 USD
10 Sweden 1 $35 USD
This is 90 days from PayPal and includes a few of the items that were sold through the Global Shipping Program but the majority were through the webinterpret. The number after the country is the amount of items sold. Again, I think this includes shipping charges. I hope this helps.Congrats on the new venture, exciting, look forward to hearing more. This week has been really slow for me as well. At least it feels that way. Most things are $20 and lower. I had my highest sale recently and have not wanted to share until I was atleast 30 days in and today is that day. I still won’t spend the money until 90 days since I don’t want any nightmares arising. But 30 days ago I heard the Cha-Thing and I was in the middle of doing something at the moment and didn’t get to look right away. Ten minutes later I looked down at an offer for $5500 for a piece of metal art of Mark Twain. I originally had it priced at $12000 so it was quite the price cut but it was one of a kind and so what did I do… just what I have learned here. I priced it high and took the offer. Four years after leaving my job and I am not looking back. All thanks to you guys. I hope all is well. Also, I am not sure if you all have had a chance to dive into web interpret. I sell a lot on the other eBay sites. It only costs 5% of the sale price and I have them just up the price of the items by 5% when they list them. I am not affiliated with them at all but it really has worked out great. Thanks again, and I look forward to hear your next investment adventure.
So I got an text from my brother who gets the Supreme Court updates. He texted me while at Goodwill. I was shocked as I thought that the judges were moving in the other direction but hey… what can you do? I can’t say that I am happy about this, actually my first reaction was anger then a little nervousness as to what this will mean for our businesses. But I have had lunch now and had a little time to think it over. This is nothing we can control and will just become the norm for buyers. We will all tell our kids how we used to not pay taxes online and they will look at us like it was the wild west. But everyone will pay it. My only concern is if it can be made retroactive. If they can come after for back taxes. So why do I think people will except and still buy? Because people love to buy. And things cost what they cost. This will not hurt the online market… I don’t shop online because it is cheaper, I do it because of the convenience and the availability of what I want. I can’t even tell you how many times I have gone into Best Buy or Home Depot (this happened yesterday) to buy a product and they didn’t have it. Also, people including my family happily pays $100 for prime, just for the convenience of using their services. A little off the top will not hurt and like returns it is easier to pay it and not think about it to much and chalk it up to business. How long did we really think the government would keep its paws out of the honey pot.
Awesome work guys. I completely agree with the statement that you are not selling anymore with the free shipping. The rep told me that they saw a 30% increase. Definitely not… But on a different note I watched a youtube I have watched for a while. An artist in New York named Jimmy Diresta. Anywho he did a video of the stuff he found on the streets of New York, totally thought of you two. Heres the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epBIl4zDk8c Thanks again, silently watching every week.
Hello everyone, I recently, reluctantly have come to the same conclusion about the 30 day free return shipping. I have created my first business policy and am starting to see that I may not know exactly what I am doing. Ebay initially created a lot of different policies and only some listings are in there. I am assuming this is because the listings haven’t been updated and only the listings that have renewed are in the business policies section. My first question, is my thinking correct? And when changing handling time for vacation would I need to change the listing, then click the update listing button for each shipping policy with listings in it? I would call eBay and ask but it has been a crap shoot lately on getting a rep that knows anything past the standard questions, technical questions seem to through them for a loop. Not to mention the 45 minute wait times. Being an anchor store the wait times have been the hardest pill to swallow. Anywho, you two are awesome and I can’t say enough about how you two changed my life. I would not be living the dream if it weren’t for this platform. Thanks.
Thanks guys. I got it for $30 at Goodwill. I did the online Christies submission but haven’t heard back yet. I did not clean it, it almost looks copper. But I am no expert. Just waiting to here from the auction house but I put it up since I don’t want it lying around the house not making any money.
Not sure if everyone is talking about the international first class shipping issue but I wanted to stop off and give my run down as I just got off the phone with eBay. As usual, it is important to know the rules before calling because it is a role of the dice as to who you are going to get on the other end. I was calling to make sure I didn’t have a shipping discount and the rep told me that I was supposed to ship through other programs in order to get the item out on time. This was the opposite of the seller team announcement which I was some how able to find again while on the phone. Here is the link if anyone else needs this in order to make a dispute: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/UPDATED-Issues-with-Domestic-and-International-First-Class-Label/ba-p/28023207#M4329 Anyhow, all is well and very important to know that we as sellers know more then the reps most of the time but you need to be able to produce where the info came from. Side note: my dog spilled my coffee all over me and the couch while on the call which was more upsetting then the lack of communication between departments concerning this issue.
So a few things happened this week, I sold my highest price item (Rauschenberg Print $2422), finally went past 10k in 30 days, and am officially SICK of shipping. Such a silly thing to complain about but I need a break (I say this as I am sitting on the couch and not at a job, but hey, I think we adjust our expectations and frustrations with how our life is). I am really looking forward to the week of Christmas and a little less sales to find and get out. Part of this is not the shipping but we have workers in the house painting and remodeling my sons bathroom since the water intake flooded the bathroom down to the kitchen. But thats life and I am thankful to have the funds to pay for it. Thanks you two and eBay!
Happy Monday everyone. I just listened to the podcast and wanted to give a quick update. I called again after my initial rant and I saw Ryanne’s post. I had a member of leadership call me back after he re-listened to the conversations. He was very apologetic and did say the situation was not handled appropriately on the reps hands. I did explain that it did not feel good being talked to like I was doing something wrong and that we were business partners. I told him that because the rules seem really open to interpretation on a case by case basis that calling back and getting a second opinion seems only fair especially when I spend so much for the service. He did agree and did say that calling back is ok, but they are having problems with people calling multiple times until they get the answer they want. It is like Jay always says, “eBay is a big clunky machine”, and they are trying to solve the problem of call overload which is another reason he said that call times are higher. He did say that I was not even close to having action taken against me. I am just assuming but here it goes. I think I did call back too quick as you both mentioned and when the later took the correct action she was reprimanded by the other member of leadership for not looking at the notes. The lesson I am taking away from this is to NOT call back the same day/time. I think I will stagger the call, i.e. if I don’t get the answer in the morning I will call back the next night. But reflecting back the rep that took away the feedback and then called me back was definitely taking things personally and may have overstepped her bounds by making threats about removing privileges. My only guess is because she was scolded herself. Thanks for all you guys do. It means so much to have an outlet were people understand this crazy lifestyle. Most people I talk to either try to offer me a job (this just happened on date night this weekend) or just look perplexed like they did’t even know it was possible to make a living selling on eBay.
I think you are right. I do get very few returns. I know though that the restocking fee is a deterrent, otherwise she would have returned the item. In all honesty, I did not care about the $6 dollars. It is the principal. But as I write this it seems rather silly to let something like principals affect my business. Just suck it up to the cost of doing business. It could be worse. I could always be attending meetings or having to commute to work each day. I just didn’t like getting told I would have notes put on my account, like I am a problem to deal with given the amount of money I give them every month. But I guess it all is just business. Thanks for input. – Brian
Yesterday I had to make the dreaded eBay Customer Service call. I say dreaded not because of the wait time, or the possible language barrier, but because of the roulette wheel spin of who will take the call. Once you have been around the block for a while one finds that they typically know more about the rules then the eBay reps do. This happens more often then I would like to describe. Which generally ends in asking for a manager and then to calling back to find a more competent rep.
So I was looking at my feedback which I saw that I had received a negative. I only have 2 in the last 12 months so they stand out if I get one. The buyer wrote, “Restocking fee charged upon return; buyer paid shipping”. This feedback was in response to a buyer that had purchased a needlepoint and was unhappy because she “thought” there was a glass covering the needlepoint. I do not know how she got that idea but there was no mention of glass or a picture of glass, and or that matter there could not have been a glare of glass since it was a picture of yarn. When the buyer contacted me and asked to return the item and not pay the restocking fee I informed her that the restocking fee covers my time and the packaging materials, i.e. bubble wrap. She never responded, she never opened a case or returned the item. So I called eBay to get the feedback removed. I have an anchor store so I called the dedicated line and was placed on hold since the removal of the vast majority of the department (I only know this because the last time I called I complained about the wait time and how it had recently became much longer and the rep let it slip). When the phone was eventually answered I explained to the rep that the return policy is clearly stated when buying an item and becoming upset about something you knew before you purchased the item is buyers remorse. I also stated that the item was never returned and she was never charged a restocking fee. The rep. said that because it was her buying experience and the feedback could be interpreted a number of different ways that they could not remove the feedback. I asked to speak to a manager who basically said the same thing. Beside my self, I hung up the phone, said a few choice words, and took a few deep breaths. I then called back. Like all people, reps are subject to having bad days and wanting to stick to their guns and sometimes like with the case of a diagnosis it is important to get a second opinion. The next rep I got said that she would remove the feedback because it was violating eBays feedback policy. I hung up the phone and called my wife and told her what had happened. While on the phone I saw there was a Utah Phone number coming through and this is the number eBay uses. When I answered the call, the rep Heather informed me that she knew that I had called once before and that what I did was called Agent Shopping and she would be putting that in the notes on my account and that my customer service privileges could be revoked. She had already taken the feedback off so she could not put it back. Basically I was shamed for getting a second opinion when I didn’t think the first rep knew what she was talking about. FYI, the rep I just spoke with informed me that a feedback given the mentions a restocking fee is not removable. Thought you all might like to know that they are on to the call back method.
