Etsy is going to review and update its marketplace policies in Adult Content, Hate, Violence, and Off-Platform Transactions, and it vowed to expand its non-handmade enforcement this year. In a post on Wednesday, Etsy said it knows it's frustrating for both buyers and sellers when they see items that don't follow the Handmade policy and explained how it improved enforcement last year, including introducing a new metric called VVR. 

Etsy said reducing the visibility of items that don't belong on the marketplace continues to be a top priority for the company. Categorizing the Handmade policy so that it's clearer ... Read More

eBay informed sellers it will be making changes to their international shipping settings. It pointed sellers to its policy page where it appears the changes are related to Section 10 of the policy. Several sellers forwarded us the following email message eBay sent today, May 7, 2024:

A seller encountered a never-before-seen issue that appears to be an attempt by eBay to avert cancellations requested by buyers who find the same item they just purchased at a lower price. Others responding to the seller's thread believe it may be a new feature eBay is testing.

The seller said that immediately after paying, the buyer requested a cancellation. When the seller opened the eBay app to proceed with the cancellation, they encountered a pop-up window.

"The pop-up says that the buyer was shown a better deal and that the buyer wanted to cancel because they "found a better price,"" ... Read More

eBay confirmed that some sellers have been incorrectly charged for voided USPS shipping labels purchased through its site. And what is making the glitch more concerning to sellers is the fact the charges were for labels that they had voided months earlier.

There are indications it's either an intermittent or an ongoing issue, since one thread about the glitch was posted on March 9, 2024 by a seller who explained USPS charged them for 2 shipping labels that had been voided in December 2023. "For some reason the tracking numbers attached to the labels are showing that they were used for ... Read More

Many people who buy and sell on eBay take feedback ratings personally - comments can be stinging with often no way to get them removed. But it isn't just the ratings and comments themselves - some get upset over etiquette, as demonstrated by a recent post on the eBay discussion boards. 

A buyer described her disgust at sellers who don't leave reciprocal feedback and proposed the eBay feedback policy be changed so that in such cases, buyers would be able to remove their feedback within a certain amount of time. An excerpt of the post explains their thinking:

"I would like to see ... Read More