We wanted to let you know that there’ll be a scheduled update of the Royal Mail Paypal online postage system from around 10pm, Saturday 1st March to 3am, Sunday 2nd March.

During this time there may be disruption to the purchase of Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide items using PayPal online postage.

Regards,

The eBay Team

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As previously announced in January, eBay will be extending both the requirement to offer PayPal to buyers and the protection we provide to sellers, so that people can shop and sell with more confidence across the site.

The changes we announced around requiring sellers to offer PayPal in certain cases will now go live in late March 2008 instead of February 2008, as previously stated. Sellers who will be affected by these changes should register with PayPal and update their listings to include PayPal as a payment option as soon as possible. Click here for more details.

Regards,

The eBay Team

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	***Original: Offering safe payment and protection on eBay.co.uk***
	29 January, 2008 | 03:10PM GMT Buyers tell us they are more confident and likely to buy on eBay.co.uk when PayPal is offered as a payment method. It also means we can offer reassurance and protection should things go wrong. As a result we’ve already made it compulsory to use PayPal in certain categories on eBay.co.uk as part of our ongoing efforts to protect eBay buyers and sellers. (Please note that this change does not apply to eBay.ie.) We’re now extending both the requirement to offer PayPal to buyers and the protection we provide to sellers, so that people can shop and sell with more confidence across the site. More about the PayPal requirements. Find out more about all the changes being announced today (UK sellers / Ireland sellers). Regards, The eBay Team
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It’s not often you only pay half price for something, but this weekend you can list in the Cars, Parts & Vehicles sub-categories on eBayMotors.co.uk for half the usual price when using the Auction-style, Auction-with-Buy It Now or Buy It Now Only (Fixed Price) formats.

Regards,

The eBay Team

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We wanted to let you know about further changes to how listings are displayed in search results. We’re doing this to reward sellers who offer great customer service, by making it easier for buyers to see listings from those sellers at the top of their search results.

Last December, we began demoting the listings of sellers who had a Detailed Seller Rating of 3.9 or below for postage & packaging costs. From early March, we’re going to look at all four DSR categories: item as described, communication, delivery time, as well as postage & packaging charges.

The listings of sellers with a DSR of 4.3 or below on any of the four rating categories will appear lower in search results. Based on current figures, this will affect around 3% of all sellers.

We’ll calculate ratings on a rolling 30-day basis, so that the most recent and relevant transactions are the ones that will influence visibility in search results. This also means that should you be a seller whose listings are affected, you’ll be more able to improve your scores quickly by offering good customer service.

If you’re a seller and your current DSRs are close to the 4.3 threshold, look at how to improve your customer service levels to raise the ratings that buyers leave you. Since the DSRs will be based on ratings from the previous 30 days, you should be able to improve your scores in short order.

Here are some tips to help you improve your service and scores.

Good service from sellers means more buyers coming back to eBay more often, so we’ll provide the best benefits on the site to sellers who work hard to provide the best service.

Regards,

The eBay Team

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We will soon be launching a new streamlined Checkout flow, which is designed to simplify and improve the buying process. We hope these changes will create a better buyer experience for all our users.

This new flow will be reduced to 3 steps, improving the integration of PayPal with eBay Checkout, and addressing the issues our users were finding difficult, such as, postage method selection and postage & packaging discounts.

We will be gradually introducing the new eBay Checkout to our site and, over the next three weeks, all our buyers will be able to experience the new flow.

Regards,

The eBay Team

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Tickets to a series of concerts in April organised by the Teenage Cancer Trust to help raise essential funds to build specialist teenage cancer units within the NHS will be going on sale on today (22nd February).

Because of the limited number of tickets that will be available, we expect that some of these tickets will be offered for sale on eBay. We have been working with Teenage Cancer Trust to further their fundraising efforts and will apply the following conditions on the sales of these tickets:

These conditions will apply to the following events:

Thank you for your understanding and for your support of this cause.

Regards,

The eBay Team

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We wanted to let you know that over the next couple of months, 2% of users will be shown two different versions of the View Item pages. We are testing alternative layouts to see which makes it easier for buyers to understand what is displayed and to find what they are looking for on eBay.co.uk.

Depending on the test results and your feedback, these changes might be made available to more users.

Regards,

The eBay Team

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We wanted to remind you that the new fees for sellers on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie are now effective.

Sellers on eBay.co.uk:
View the Fees page and get more background on the Fee changes.

Sellers on eBay.ie:
View the Fees page and get more background on the Fee changes.

Regards,

eBay Europe S.à r.l

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	***Original: New fee pricing for eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie sellers***
	29 January, 2008 | 03:10PM GMT We wanted to inform you about new fee pricing that will reduce upfront costs when selling on eBay for all sellers and reward business sellers who have strong sales and great customer service. Reducing risk: up to 33% off Insertion Fees We’re reducing the upfront cost of listing an item by reducing Insertion Fees by up to a third. Instead, the majority of fees will now be payable as a Final Value Fee, only when an item sells, aligning your total fees much more closely to your selling success. This change will come into effect from 20th February 2008 in most categories. More about eBay.co.uk pricing changes More about eBay.ie pricing changes Rewarding great sellers: up to 40% off Final Value Fees Following your feedback, we’re delighted to introduce a new volume discount scheme, available from February. If you’re a high volume, business-registered seller providing a good service to your buyers, as measured by your Detailed Seller Ratings, then we’ll recognise your success by giving you a discount of up to 20% off your Final Value Fees. If you’re an active member of the PowerSeller programme, you can qualify for the highest volume discounts - up to 40% off your Final Value Fees. There will be a series of Q&A sessions on the Community boards over the coming weeks and as always we look forward to your feedback. Of course, we’ll continue to update you as these changes take effect. More about the eBay.co.uk discounts More about the eBay.ie discounts The scheme will replace the eBay Rewards programme, which was our first step towards rewarding high volume sellers. More about the closure of eBay Rewards Find out more about all the changes being announced today (UK sellers / Ireland sellers). Regards, eBay Europe S.à r.l
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Please note that the changes in this announcement are also relevant for sellers trading on eBay.ie.

Regards,

The eBay Team

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	***Original: Extension to rules for display of business information on View Item page***
	04 February, 2008 | 05:35PM GMT Last week we announced broad changes to the marketplace, including new rules for businesses to display their contact details to prospective buyers. E-commerce regulations clearly state that businesses must provide the geographic address at which their business is established. Members who are operating as businesses on eBay.co.uk need to comply with this law. eBay provides business registration functionality to help sellers easily display their business details directly on the View Item page. A number of sellers have voiced security concerns with displaying their address on the View Item page. To mitigate this, we are extending the list of permissible locations for a business to provide their contact details. Sellers operating as a business on eBay.co.uk must clearly display their business name and geographic address in at least one of the following locations: 1. On the View Item page – in the Business Seller Information section 2. On a user’s About Me page 3. On a Shop’s custom page that is no more than one click from their main Shop page. Please note: 1. PO Box addresses are not considered to be geographic addresses, and will not be accepted as a valid business address. 2. Businesses choosing to display their name and address on the View Item page must display that information in the Business Seller Information section. Displaying the name and address in the item description only is insufficient. Regards, The eBay Team
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The eBay system will be undergoing general maintenance from approximately 07:00 to 09:00 GMT on Friday, February 8th. Please note that eBay Checkout will be completely unavailable for one hour -- 07:00 to 08:00 GMT -- during this time. Other eBay site features may be intermittently unavailable or slow.

Regards,

The eBay Team

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