Notifications for "viewed: items
I keep getting notifications for my "viewed" items. Items I looked at and decided I wasn't interested in. eBay seems to think that since I looked at it, I'm interested. I can only turn off notifications for items I'm interested in. This seems dumb. I only want notifications for items I'm watching, not items I viewed and decided I wasn't interested in
11 comments
mamacassidy
·1 year ago@mudshark61369
Unfortunately, that isn't the case.
When I look at listings as a buyer, I get offers from dozens of items I simply viewed. I know some of them might have been sponsored, but I'm 99% certain not all of them were.
On the flip side of that coin, as a seller, I have dozens of items that are "eligible to send an offer" that have 0 watchers. Which means eBay wants me to send offers to people who only viewed the listing. And I'm 100% sure that none of my listings are sponsored or promoted.
This is something ebay started not that long ago (maybe early 2024?), and there have been many complaints on these boards about it. Ebay probably thought that if they could get even a few sales out of these offers then they could make some extra money.
However, because a lot of people see all these messages as getting spammed, many people have turned off offers and notifications completely. This has not only stopped offers from getting through to people who are actually interested in buying, it has also stopped Newsletters from getting through to people who have subscribed and actually wanted to see them.
I wouldn't be surprised if this has cost ebay more money than the few sales it has brought in.
mudshark61369
·1 year ago@mamacassidy,
If you open a listing and below the main photos you see a string of other listings for the same item Those are sponsored or promoted listings. Other sellers pay to have their items displayed there. Clicking on any of them will cause an offer to be set to you.
I opened one of your listings https://www.ebay.com/itm/235877607577?itmmeta=01JVMNRCP6FPZGSTC12XJAN9A3&hash=item36eb66a899:g:feEAAOSwu4BnZI7F
and saw about a dozen Sponsored listings, of the same or similar items offered by other sellers.
On your first page of listings (60) per page, sorted by Time: ending soonest. I did not see one that had Best Offer on it. But I didn't look through all of your 902 results.
mamacassidy
·1 year ago@mudshark61369
I think there might be a misunderstanding.
The OP was talking about receiving messages/ offers (notifications) on items they just viewed and didn't add to their watchlist.
They weren't talking about seeing sponsored ads inside of listings they looked at.
eburtonlab
·1 year agoThe OP was talking about receiving messages/ offers (notifications) on items they just viewed and didn't add to their watchlist.
eBay treats offers the same for items that are added to a Watch List, added to a cart, or viewed more than once (or possibly viewed once for a long enough period of time). Users should be able to opt out of receiving those offers entirely, but cannot pick and choose which offers are received. It is all or nothing. All offers or no offers.
There may be a separate offer situation for promoted listings; not sure how that works or if that can be opted out; eBay does not say as far as I can tell.
If you have opted out of offers entirely and you still receive offers, those may be for promoted listings.
mudshark61369
·1 year ago@samcoffeeman,
@mamacassidy,
The reason you are receiving messages, most likely Offers from sellers whose item you only looked at is, You opened Sponsored listing photos you saw on an item's page that you were looking at.
Seller's pay to have Sponsored listings posted on other seller's listing pages, so ebay will not allow you to turn off those notifications. All you can do is delete them from your messages daily or a few times a week.
On a search results page you may see Sponsored just above an item title. If you do, opening one of those listings will generate a message, usually a Special Offer from seller, to be sent after a certain number of people (chosen by the seller) have looked at the listing.
simba6
·1 year agoLog out of eBay ans clear your cookies. Then you can shop without that. You will have to log in to bid or purchase.
samcoffeeman
OP1 year ago@simba6
I only use the mobile app, would that work for that also?
simba6
·1 year agoYes. If your not logged in they don't know who you are.
mamacassidy
·1 year agoThis has been a complaint for a year or 2 now from both buyers and sellers. I posted a thread about this a while back with the hopes that one of the eBay people would see how many people were unhappy with this feature, but all I got was a bunch of responses from members telling me to turn off notifications.
So I turned off notifications.
But I also used the feedback button to let eBay know that because of this feature, I turned off ALL NOTIFICATIONS, which basically makes their offer system useless to me and any other member who has been inundated with notifications on items we just viewed.
Please use the feedback button to let eBay know that this is a problem. Maybe if enough people send feedback letting them know they have turned off ALL NOTIFICATIONS, they will realize their new system has completely backfired.
kensgiftshop
·1 year agoYou can opt out of receiving offers, but it doesn't stop all of them.
samcoffeeman
OP1 year agoThese aren't Offers
@kensgiftshop
@mudshark61369