posted on June 24, 2008 05:53:47 PM new
Not the marketing company but a real live ebay person! SHOCK!
They took down 50 of my listings in the wee hours of the am on Sunday - got an email that said they called first (was home all night - no call) and referred to an explanatory email they sent (got no such email) so I replied with a bit of an edge that I didn't know what they were talking about. Eventually I went to the Dashboard and found out I had listing "violations" ("cash - buyer's risk" in the 50 listings.
What was surprising was how many times he told me I was a VALUED member of the Community blah blah. I asked if I was so valued, why were my listings taken down in the middle of a weekend night with no warning. He said they had to keep the buyers safe...I asked if they really thought that buyers were in danger by sending $10 in cash to a seller with 32,000 + FB - rating 99.9%?
At one time I had 4,000 listings with the word "cash" in them. Most of them have either sold or were edited as I found them. There were still 388 left active and I took them down on Sunday.
And now I have 8000 to revise to show return policy (even though it is clearly stated in my description).....when do they expect us to get down to the business of SELLING???
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posted on June 24, 2008 06:10:04 PM new
Lots of changes coming - Vendio has failed to keep up with Ebay in letting us show "Return Policy" and "Handling Time" in the proper places so all listings will have to be revised.
Here is en excerpt from the announcement:
For Sellers – A quick "listing update" checklist
We realize that any time sellers need to change their listings or templates, it costs you time and energy. To minimize the effort it takes for our sellers to accommodate our changes, I'd like to give you a quick checklist of changes you may need to make in the coming weeks, based on the changes we’ve announced:
1. Remove any links to 3rd-party sites to stay in compliance with recent updates to eBay’s Links Policy (Read our previous announcement).
2. Specify shipping, return policy, item condition & handing time in the specified fields. This information will be required soon so now’s the perfect time to get started.
3. Remove any email addresses from your listing descriptions by September.
posted on June 24, 2008 06:52:47 PM new
It is never a good idea to send cash through the post office.
I remember back when I was living in New Orleans,someone from Singapore sent me 80 dollars cash,when it arrived at the New Orleans post office,it has been slashed open with a sharp razor and the cash is gone.
The Cage personnel at the local post office showed it to my mailman and said I am not going to let you walk out of here with an envelope open,and he sealed it with a tape which said 'arrived open at this post office'.
There is no way to find out where it was slashed open-at Singapore office,any USPS station enroute to New Orleans?
But then there was so much theft and missing mail in New Orleans that the post office was firing mailman left and right,if any resident complains,3 strikes they are out.
And trust me, a job as a mailman is much sought after,there is a long waiting list.
So,never encourage anyone to send cash,it is not SAFE FOR THE POSTAL WORKERS!
*
Google does not hire stupid people.
posted on June 24, 2008 08:12:53 PM new
I'm sorry your listings were removed and I don't blame you for being annoyed but I think it's funny that you and Pixia were both busted for the same thing.
You naughty, naughty sisters. I wonder if they'll put you in the same cell in eBay jail?
posted on June 24, 2008 08:30:18 PM new
Yeah zip - I kind of knew it was coming after Pixia got busted. I had this language in the listings (Used Vendio's bulk reviser to add to each of my listings):
On Jan-15-06 at 14:01:06 PST, seller added the following information:
In accordance with EBay Payment Policy, I accept the following types of payments: PayPal (worldwide), Personal Check (US only or in US $ drawn on US Bank), Money Order (US only), and Postal Money Order (US and Canada only). If you are unable to find a payment method available to you, please contact me for additional payment instructions. These acceptable Payment types replace those included in the above description and in the section titled: "Payment Methods Accepted" below.
I talked myself into believing that eBay must be ok with it since it worked for 2.5 years, but alas - cash in "t&d" search will eventually get you busted.
Pulling 50 listings is no big deal - but claiming they called and emailed me about it pi$$ed me off royally.
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posted on June 24, 2008 09:42:58 PM new
We still get cash in the mail from our international customers. If we know they are going to send it, we politely ask that they hide it by taping to a piece of card or wrapping in heavy paper. Also they should NOT send it registered, but instead tape the envelope's edges and send it regular Airmail.
Contrary to what eBay says it's still quite safe provided the seller has stellar feedback (as I'm sure we all do)...
posted on June 24, 2008 09:51:37 PM new
If your sending cash money thru the post you need to wrap in in 1 of 2 things. 1. carbon paper is good seems to stop money scent and xray. 2. alfoil is also very good to use.
[ edited by agate18 on Jun 24, 2008 11:35 PM ]
posted on June 25, 2008 06:54:51 AM new
Beth - can you tell me the procedure you used to get TL to work? It still won't work for me and I am beyond frustrated!
The first time I did it it worked for 1300 items and all of those items showed the new listing icon after the revision - but since then it won't work!
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posted on June 25, 2008 08:59:46 AM new
Sorry for your troubles Neglus - I know it can't be fun.
Why can't they just give us deadlines for this stuff instead of saying "Soon".
I didn't even know about the return policy requirement - I don't have any return policy listed in my store items or auctions.
I guess now is a good time to do this stuff as bids and sales are painfully slow.
posted on June 25, 2008 10:51:52 AM new
Well, downloaded the updates.
Then synched.
It said I had about 3100 items. That seems to be a moving target.
I sorted them on whether store or auction.
Deleted auction.
Then sorted by title. Figuring I would do it be years.
I could only do them in batches of 75-150 due to the fact that some of my listings have more than one copy of the ad and at least one had sold. So I just highlighted a couple of pages worth and hit edit. Changed shipping and refund policy
Also my category numbers were no good on some and those had to be edited individually.
Then once I finished, I synched again.
Everything disappeared and then it came back as new.
It took me two days.
Now, I can't get SMPro to work on fixing the time to ship. It keeps saying that items have an internal system error...every time that comes up it is with different items.
PITA!
Beth
posted on June 25, 2008 04:18:25 PM new
Beth - I *think* you can use TL to prepare a .CRV export file. You can check which items you want to show on the file. I did this and got a file with all of my items on it. I see a spot for handling time (but oddly don't see return policy). I think you can edit in Excel and then upload to eBay API using File Exchange but not sure how to do this. I think there is a 24 hour limit on how many you can upload but it sure beats SM bulk revision. I am going to check it out as I have time
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posted on June 25, 2008 05:07:34 PM new
I looked into eBay's file exchange a while back. If you've averaged 50 listings/month for the last two months, you can request a download flat csv file of all your active listings. You can revise them in Excel and then upload them to revise. Here's the rub: I don't think they have the handling time field or the return policy field AND they only allow you to upload 1000 items per day, unless you get a blessing from customer unsupport.
in the 50 listings.
He said they had to keep the buyers safe...I asked if they really thought that buyers were in danger by sending $10 in cash to a seller with 32,000 + FB - rating 99.9%? 
