‘Block remedy’ locks non-US sellers out of Turbo Lister

November 16, 2008

pile of rubbish

pile of rubbish

If you were thinking of updating Turbo Lister tonight, please don’t. Numerous sellers are reporting a problem signing into their eBay accounts via Turbo Lister, which leaves them unable to list anything at all.

I normally avoid updating TL until it stops working: if it’s not broken, I don’t try and fix it. But today I’d added some new categories to my Shop, so I ran the “check for updates” process. Once TL had downloaded the upgrade, it competely failed to sign into two of my selling accounts: I got a strange message saying “block remedy” and a link to “continue” to another sign in page, which hung indefinitely, not letting me in to list.

Finally a thread on the HTML and Technical Issues board came to my rescue. I had to completely uninstall the UK version of TL I was running and reinstall the US version from scratch. Signing into that, I then got a new screen telling me that eBay didn’t recognise my computer: I don’t know why because it’s the same one I’ve been listing from for months. One automated phone call and an input PIN code later, my problem was solved; I can now list again.

This sign-in problem isn’t limited to Turbo Lister: other sellers are reporting the “block remedy” message appearing when they try to sign into Omniture, so it seems to be a problem with third-party authorisations, rather than with Turbo Lister specifically. Perhaps eBay could take the line recommended by eBay Ink and let us know what’s going on?

Photograph by Chiara Marra.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 11 Comments 

14 day returns : bulk editing your listings

April 23, 2008

This post was written in April 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

eBay Pink Kerstin has posted some clarifications regarding eBay’s new 14 days returns policy, to which sellers must adhere after the 1st May.

She outlines two possible methods of “bulk editing” your listings:

1) download all your live listings into Turbo Lister, bulk-update the returns policy, and re-synchronise with your live listings.

2) via My eBay:

  • define a return policy in My eBay under My Account > Site Preferences > Business Seller Preferences > Show Business Seller Information on View Item (it isn’t necessary to select to show your business info on the view item page)
  • go to Active Items in My eBay, and select all items which do not have bids/purchases
  • click Edit
  • under Business Seller Information, select the box for Business Return Policy
  • on the next page select Business Return Policy > Update to all

Either of these methods should add a 14 day returns policy to any listings you have without BIN purchases or bids, but sellers who use SIF format will still be unable to edit any listings which have had purchases. Regarding this problem, Kerstin says:

items cannot be edited if they had purchases. They will have to be ended at some point, revised to include your return policy and relisted. Fees for SIF items are charged every 30 days, so I would advise to end SIF items close to the end of their 30 day period. This way you will not incur extra fees. It is acceptable that active SIF items will not have the correct returns requirements immediately after the 1st May but they will have to be in line with the requirements by 31st May.

(Emphasis mine.)

Sellers using GTC can at least thus end listings as they are due to renew, and relist them with an updated returns policy. It’s a pain, but it’s not quite as much of a pain as it could have been. That said, if eBay want to encourage sellers to upload their entire inventory to the site, how about making more elements of SIF listings - P&P, for example, payment methods and returns policies, or even listing template - editable without having to constantly end and relist.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Featured | 31 Comments 

Okay, Turbo Lister, you win

April 14, 2008

This post was written in April 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

Do you want to know why I hate you?
Well I’ll try to explain…
The Cure, How Beautiful You Are

I’ve had issues with Turbo Lister before. But just recently, my issues have been building up into a pile so huge, so constant and so insurmountable, I can no longer work around it.

Here are just a few of the problems I’m having with TL right now:

  • attempting to download updates crashes the program, constantly
  • when updating doesn’t crash it, network problems prevent it talking to eBay
  • if I manage to download the update, installing it causes a runtime error
  • P&P combined discounts have been lost and won’t come back
  • turning off fee calculation won’t work
  • SIF is missing
  • all the form labels are blank so I have to remember what’s where (fortunately this has only happened on one ID)
  • the box for a seperate gallery picture has disappeared on one ID
  • on another ID, though the gallery pic is specified, when I relist it is sometimes replaced with the main picture
  • it randomly takes a dislike to individual listings and crashes repeatedly when trying to upload them
  • on one ID, it refuses to recognise that I have a premier PayPal account, so I can’t do immediate payment only
  • on my French listings, it randomly refuses to let me list as “neuf et immediat” (kinda like professional buy it now), saying that I have no P&P or new condition specified, when I do have both of those on the listing
  • the columns I’ve picked to display never stay picked. Every time I change ID, I have to reselect the ones I want to show
  • the whole thing runs at the speed of porridge

To keep things interesting, not all these happen on all IDs, and not all of them happen all the time. So for example, it may take a couple of minutes to upload 50 listings, as it did this morning, or it may take me something in excess of an hour, as it did on Friday.

I’ve had enough. Dear Reader, give me some advice: what do you use to list with? I don’t mind if it’s pay-for, but it *must* support non-.com sites and it must support multiple IDs (so Spoonfeeder is out). Help me.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Featured | 27 Comments