Why won't eBay enforce its keyword spamming policy as written?

[ralphx65]

I'm not expecting this post to be productive and there will be plenty of respondents that will say this issue is so unimportant that they will dismiss it out of hand but I'm going to ask the question anyway.

Why won't eBay enforce its own keyword spamming policy?

The policy is very clearly written when it comes to the specifics of the issue I'm referring to. The keyword spamming is ruining search results in the category and reporting the offending listings doesn't seem to make any difference.

Apparently the customer service personnel that do the reviewing either don't seem to understand their own policies or "interpret" the violations in a very "relaxed' manner (and "relaxed" is being generous).

Example: Say you want to do a title search in Slot Cars/HO Scale and you want to search for a specific manufacturer in the title of the listings. There are many manufacturers that produced and still produce products that are similar and are "compatible" (i.e. one manufacturer's cars will function on another manufacturer's tracks). Listings will simply contain a string of manufacturers names in the title because the person creating the listing thinks that, because there are compatibilities, this is allowed and of course it is not because it ruins the search function which is the point of eBay's policy to begin with.

The policy is written specifically to say that any compatibilities don't go in the title but rather in the description and that the words "works with" or "compatible with" must be included before listing other manufacturers or their products in the listing. The title of the listing can only refer directly to the item listed.

Apparently, those reviewing the offending listings are doing the title review with only an expectation of "related item" in mind and that's not following the policy as written. It appears that, as long as the listing title contains "related" manufacturers, they'll allow the keyword spamming even though the search function remains broken.

I would be interested to know what eBay customer reps think of this glaring discrepancy and the fact that they are allowing their search function to remain broken.

[toysaver]

It's not a terribly egregious offense.  EBay is no different than any other market or selling venue that needs to turn a profit.  The ultimate goal is to make you buy something you didn't even know you wanted or needed.  My preference is that get added funds that way than from increasing selling fees.  

[ralphx65]

And, the very first response is exactly as I predicted, dismissive.

Then it seems to me that they need to change the policy from "this is not allowed" to "we frown on this activity" and then tell users "we don't really care if the search works as intended or not." Obviously they do care. The policy was put in place for that reason and they say as much in the policy itself.

We are not here to judge how "serious" a policy violation is, we just follow it and we expect a listing to be removed when it's not followed just as eBay has said they would be. Pretty much that simple.

Is the reason you are so dismissive of search manipulation because you do it as well? Seems logical.

[eburtonlab]

Listings will simply contain a string of manufacturers names in the title because the person creating the listing thinks that, because there are compatibilities, this is allowed and of course it is not because it ruins the search function which is the point of eBay's policy to begin with.

You can filter out the listings that contain such a "string of manufacturer names" by picking another manufacturer not related to your actual search, and then excluding that specific manufacturer name. Then any listing with that name included will not appear in your results.

Exclude the results that are easily excludeable, and for the listings that are harder to exclude in that manner, exclude the specific seller by username and report the seller for keyword spamming.

For whatever reason, it appears that keyword spamming -- though clearly against eBay policy -- does not seem to be a high priority for eBay, or at least eBay does not seem to take much immediate action regarding reports of keyword spamming. That does not mean that users should not report keyword spamming, but it does mean that users should probably not expect immediate results from such reports.

Save the reporting for the most blatant cases, and find a search strategy that lets you find the things you want to find and avoid the things you want to avoid.

[jerzee908]

I agree.  I notice this with action figure lots.  People will put MOTU, G.I Joe, TMNT and have not a single toy for that is in their lot they are selling.  Because those are popular action figures, people put it in their title when selling a group of figures.  I get it.