posted on May 13, 2004 07:22:11 AM new
I previewd my pending auctions I have ready for ebay yesterday and today. It shows a Gallery fee will be charged on each auction for 25 cents. We have never knowingly selected such an option. It has never been used before and does not appear as a charge on closed or pending ebay or Vendio invoices. I have searched far and wide and can not find any Gallery selection that we authorized on the Vendio or ebay site. We have over 800 auctions and can't see the need to pay an additional $200 for this type of service. Is there a glitch in the preview or have I marked something by mistake or what?????? PLEASE help ASAP as we want to launch our auctions Monday but do not want to with this additional fee hanging in the unknown.
The gallery fee of 25 cents is charged by eBay, and it is for selecting an image to place in the eBay gallery. This option is under 'Features' on the Create Listing page. If you don't want to submit an image to the gallery, please go into each listing that had it selected and change your seletion to 'no gallery picture'. Then you will need to save your changes, and go ahead and launch your listings.
posted on May 13, 2004 09:55:01 AM new
Hi Sonya,
That's the problem. The gallery IS NOT SELECTED on the page. I thought I had inadvertnly selected it and that was why it was showing up but it is marked N/A or no gallery selected. I have not changed any of my choices and can not figure out why this shows. You can look at the pending auctions and see that the gallery selection has not been selected but when you preview the auction the gallery fee shows up?!?!?
posted on May 14, 2004 09:41:04 AM new
Ya wanna know what I'M thinkin' it is?:
Look under your "My Account" tab, then click on eBay specifics ... scroll down to see if you have accidentally got that 'gallery picture' checkmarked in, as a default ... if so, click it off.
[ edited by EstateSaleStuff on May 14, 2004 09:43 AM ]
posted on May 15, 2004 11:21:50 AM new
Preview still shows we will be charged 25 cents per auction for Gallery fee. I have looked everywhere and the Gallery option IS NOT selected anywhere. Will I be charged 25 cents on 1000 auctions that I need to launch Monday????? We do not want to pay $250.00 on these auctions but need to make a living also and need to launch Monday night. Will we be charged or not?????????
I have escalated the issue when you first brought it up -- you don't have gallery chosen so you won't get charged for it, it looks like it's just a small error that it says there's a .25 cent fee but clearly you do not have a gallery image attached to your auctions. I apologize for not having more information for you at this time.
Error 5112 is an eBay API error. Unfortunately for this particular error, the only solution that has worked is to copy the listing and launch the copy. You may copy it by clicking the title to get to the edit screen and clicking the blue 'copy' button in the upper right corner. Unfortunately by doing this the item is not being seen as a relist -- if you wanted relist credit you would need to relist directly on eBay, and use 'track by auction' to get the items back into your account. We are looking into this error to see what we can do. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
Regards,
posted on May 19, 2004 12:47:32 PM new
Guess what????? Even if I "copy" the auctions, when I preview them it STILL shows a Gallery Fee!!!!!!!!! Am I the only customer this is happening to??? Are others being charged this fee also and have not caught it yet??? This is just ridiculous. How in the world can we continue if we can't control functions even if they are selected properly???? I'm still waiting for a reply from my earlier post today also. I also think a true living person should pick up the phone and call me to explain what is and will be done.
John Troxel
Mike Russell
Vintage Speed Shop
Upon investigation of this issue, we found that eBay inadvertently changed their code
to charge for the Gallery using rules other than published in their API specs. We're
working with them to get the broken API code corrected as quickly as possible. In the mean time, you should request a refund from ebay directly for any Gallery fees that were charged incorrectly. If eBay claims that the problem is not on their side, please forward the the details of your communication to us for our records.
posted on May 20, 2004 11:27:26 AM new
This is exactly what has been happening to me. This has increased my fees through ebay. I brought this up to ebay just last week and that is why I have been monitoring this and of course they said it had nothing to do with them. What shall I do as I also have lots of fees that didn't authorize!
posted on May 20, 2004 04:56:33 PM new
Hi Makepono,
Go ahead and request a credit from ebay for those items and if they say it isn't their fault and they deny it, send a copy of their response to [email protected]. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
I deleted your new thread on this issue, so that we can consolidate it to one thread.
Regards,
Sonya
[ edited by SonyaCS on May 20, 2004 04:57 PM ]
posted on May 20, 2004 06:31:13 PM new
reply from ebay on credit.
Report Junk E-Mail
Report and Block Sender
From : eBay Customer Support <[email protected]>
Reply-To : eBay Customer Support <[email protected]>
Sent : Thursday, May 20, 2004 6:11 PM
To : vintage speed shop <[email protected]>
Subject : Re: GS=C31009 The problem you're having with listing and managing your itemisn't listed [#US A20 ?01] (KMM13565103V94676L0KM)
| | | Inbox
Hello,
Thank you for writing to eBay.
There hasn't been approval of credit for this request. In situations
like this, we recommend any member using a third party listing to
contact their service provider directly. In this specific situation,
Vendio has channels to contact our API department directly.
Thank you for using eBay for your online trading needs.
Regards,
Spencer
eBay PowerSeller Support
Seems like NO ONE will own up to mistake and we get to pay for it!!!!!
1. We have a workaround we are currently testing that resolves this negative impact of eBay's undocumented change.
2. We are attempting to work with eBay through our API representative on resolution for the Gallery fees that you did not request. We will continue to keep you up to date on our progress.
3. We do recognize that there was an error that caused these charges when submitting items through the API. It's a complex system. I will say that we made no changes between the time before these issues appeared till today related to Gallery interactions and no changes were requested by eBay that we did not execute. So at some point, our customers started seeing Gallery fees being charged. We don't have visibility into eBay changes unless they provide this visibility, but we made none.
It is our intention to see that you are compensated for these fees that should not have been charged. When we know more, we'll update this thread.
posted on May 22, 2004 12:19:08 PM new
Here is the reply I got from ebay when I asked for the monies back:
If you are using third party software, such as Vendio, and you notice an
error in your listing, I would suggest that you end the auction
immediately. To end your listing early, please follow the steps below.
If there are no bids on the listing, you may skip step 3.
1. Click on the "site map" link located on the Navigation Bar. Scroll
down and click on the "End my listing" link. It's located in the middle
column.
2. On the next page, enter your User ID, password, and the item number.
3. If there are bids on the item, you will see two choices. The first is
"Cancel bids and end listing early." The second is "Sell item to high
Bidder(s) and end listing early." If you wish to end the item without
selling it to any Bidder(s), please select the first option and click on
"Cancel bids." If, however, you wish to sell the item to the high
Bidder(s) for the current high bid price without waiting for the listing
to end on its own, please select the second option and click "Sell
item."
4. If there are no bids on the item, or if you select to cancel the bids
on the item, you will be prompted to select a reason for ending the item
early. You can finish ending your listing by clicking on "Continue."
5. If there are bids and you select to sell the item to the high
Bidder(s), you will end the listing at the current high bid price by
clicking on "sell item." You will then be instructed to contact the high
Bidder and complete the transaction.
Once you have done so, you can write to us so that we can determine
whether or not the auction qualifies for any credit.
I hope I have been of some assistance to you in this matter. Thank you
for being part of the eBay community, and I wish you all the best in
your future transactions.
posted on May 23, 2004 10:59:52 AM new
I have asked and asked. They (ebay) says it is Vendios fault.
From : eBay Customer Support <[email protected]>
Reply-To : eBay Customer Support <[email protected]>
Sent : Sunday, May 23, 2004 2:27 AM
To : vintage speed shop <[email protected]>
Subject : PS38254 Response to your email from eBay PowerSeller Support (KMM13670565V95734L0KM)
| | | Inbox
Hello,
Thank you for writing to us at eBay Powersellers for assistance. I will
be happy to help you with this.
I have reviewed the previous emails and your listings. I reviewed one
of your listing's Sell Your Item webforms with one of our best
technicians. We now know what has happened.
This is not an eBay error. Vendio actually inserted an image URL for
the blank white box. On page 3 for pictures and details, it shows that
Vendio entered a blank pixel, actually a tiny blue dot, as the image.
With Motors, all vehicle listings get a Gallery image automatically.
However, that is not true for the parts categories. For whatever
reason, someone at Vendio decided to throw in a Gallery image that is
actually blank. They probably did not realize that there is a .25 charge
for Gallery images in non-vehicle categories.
If you go to Revise one of your listings, on page 3 for Pictures and
Details, you can see the following that was input by Vendio:
Picture Web address
http://imagehost.vendio.com/images/cleardot.gif
and
Gallery picture Web address
http://imagehost.vendio.com/img/spacers/pixel.jpg
********
If you copy and paste those image URLs into your browser, you will see
either nothing or a very tiny blue dot.
If you have listings that started in the last day or two, you can end
them early. You may also go into Revise and put in an image of your
choice. Or, if the listing has bids or is otherwise ineligible for
revising, you can use the 'Fix My Gallery Image' feature to change the
image. The link for 'Fix My Gallery Image' is found on the SiteMap.
This has been reported to our operations group. The entire issue will
need to be reviewed and decisions made on how we will handle this.
Still, this is certainly a Vendio issue and something that they did.
The eBay listing system worked as it should. Right now, I have no idea
if any credits will be authorized or under what conditions.
Please try to correct what you can now, and contact Vendio also, while
this is being reviewed. It is possible that a credit will not be
forthcoming so you can enter the Gallery image URLs to get your .25
worth. Or, you may ask Vendio for the credit since it is their problem.
I realize that this is not the answer that you wanted, but I wanted to
give you an honest and straightforward response. This is an issue that
could affect a lot of sellers and listings. The extent is not known
yet.
Thank you in advance for your patience as this is sorted out.
posted on May 23, 2004 11:55:04 AM new
Hi, thanks for the updates. They do shed some light on the challenges of working with a large company where everyone there can't be consistently informed.
As you probably know, we've been going back and forth with eBay over the past week on this issue. Trying, patiently, to show them what happened, and why. The only thing we got from them last week is a suggestion at a rather ugly hackaround -> eBay feels it is easier for us to react to their sometimes heavy handed changes than for them to make compatible upgrades or even revert their changes.
In this particular case the CS reply is just plain wrong. What they forgot to mention is that the gallery is specified both as a url and as a flag field that must be set to true. The incompatible, unannounced, undocumented change they made the other week was to assume gallery was to be applied regardless of the flag -- only for this particular category too, unfortunately.
It is ironic that the reason we set this blank gif in the field in the first place is to work around a previous bug in their system -- suggested by them too! Great fun 'eh?
Anyway, we've set the fields to remove the previous workaround, hopefully this won't bust, say, camera icon setting in search results, for users who use vendio images, but not gallery. We're still testing all the combinations for any other unexpected regressions.
Thanks again for your updates, the information does help us make sure all the parties involved are consistent in their messaging. We do try to be the customer advocate in all these discussions - it does seem to help.
posted on May 23, 2004 01:16:45 PM new
So who is going to reimburse the customer ebay or Vendio? We the customer are not many dollars that we didn't authorize wo who gives?
We are working hard to convince eBay to reverse these charges that never should have occurred in the first place, since neither you nor our system requested them. I haven't received an update this weekend yet, but we'll keep working on it through the coming week. In the event eBay doesn't come through, we'll make sure all are covered for any inadvertant gallery charges. We'll keep you up to date through the week as we learn more.
posted on June 6, 2004 01:05:18 PM new
Hi everyone,
An update on this situation. eBay has agreed to refund the erroneous Gallery fees - the refunds will be applied by us and will appear on your Vendio statement. I'm not sure exactly when the refunds will appear, as this will require some engineering on our part, but we are working on it and expect that it won't take more than another few days.
We will post and update once we have a better idea of when you can expect your refunds to appear.
