Big Box & Store Sellers Manipulating Buyers Search

[sweettsymphony]

This is getting riduculous I've noticed big sellers are increasingly flooding any category they wish; flooding the buyers search with their items that don't belong in the category of their listing. However, if it is intentional manipulation so they can list the same item in different categories to increase thier sales or whether unintentional and they are being careless because they can't handle their load. I don't know, either way a seller is responsible for their actions and Im tired of reporting this. Anyone doing so should have strikes/consequences against them if they repeatedly are doing this. I added a few attachment/examples.

[sweettsymphony]

Listed in category:
Musical Instruments & Gear, Sheet Music & Song Books, Vintage & Antique

All 4 of them was listed in the above category for which they don't belong.

[nowthatsjustducky]

I feel your pain.  Just yesterday I was trying to look up a couple 1998 vintage issues of WildBird magazine to see if they were worth listing over on the other E.  My search results were flooded with listings for bird feeders, bird food, and other bird enthusiast gear (with very few results being actual magazines).  Curious, I went into one of the listings for a closer look, and lo and behold; every single one of those was listed in Magazine Back Issues.  What the bleep, eh?

I did report a bunch of them (always a good idea to keep the "place you work" neat and tidy, so to speak); but no idea if there would be any positive effect.  So far, looks like one of the reported items was ended early and relisted in the actual correct category for bird feeders.  So there may be hope yet, if you remain diligent and report these wherever you find them (reported as Listing Practices / Search and Browse Manipulation / Incorrect Category).

[mudshark61369]

@sweettsymphony,

These seem to all be from Isreal registered sellers dropshipping from Amazon and China.  Use the report button is all that can be done.

None of those sellers has a decent feedback rating

[reallynicestamps]

Personally I'd put the blame on some bored minimum wage employee listing and uploading by rote.

The owner of the account might actually realize that using the wrong category would be counter-productive, since some buyers wouldn't find a bird feeder in magazines and many who did find the feeder would be as annoyed as you.

If the seller is offshore and/or dropshipping, language may also come into it.

BTW- my default Searches use keywords rather than categories and Highest Price plus Shipping rather than Best Match or Lowest Price.

To my mind, it is easier to drill down to my price point through a few dozen correctly titled listings than to slog through thousands of 'goldfish'.

[sweettsymphony]

Another thing that bothers me and from my own buying experience, regarding Big and Box Store sellers, it's seems the small seller rules and consequences don't apply. Anymore, I try to avoid buying from them after a few bad experiences. I now make an effort to support the small seller by purchasing from them even if it costs a little more.  Big Box and Store Sellers can take days or weeks just to ship. They can cancel bought and paid for purchases if they are out of stock or any other reason.  Ive had them cancel an order and say product was broken, refund me and then go relist at a much higher price.  Ive ordered from them and its shipped by Amazon, or a third party. I  don't think they pack, as well. They can get tons of negative feedback and still keep selling.  Alot of them will say ships from United States but dont add a specific location.

[sidemouse]

Oh yeah or they sell something they have none of in stock...

Technically if a seller runs out of an item they SHOULD "cancel" the sale due to reason "out of stock" which earns them a well-deserved defect, which if they make fast corrections and have no further violations should cause no ill effect.

That is also the proper method of operation, it is what an honest seller should do.

Not dropshippers / big boxers, no sir.

These folks send a message talking about any old excuse and how it's going to take much longer than expected (because, the usual story goes, the manufactured item is on back-order) would buyer like to wait or cancel?

Obviously if the buyer responds with a cancel...
The seller now cancels for reason of "buyer requested"

And slily dodges the defect.

This form of abuse is quite widespread as well, and while some may think little of it the practice is in fact quite annoying... They did take the money out of the buyer's credit card account and it will take up to two weeks before it is credited back one, and two if this is a time sensitive order the buyer is now likely to have to face the consequences of not getting their item on time (even if the buyer can immediately buy it elsewhere, the delay between ordering and receiving the message could be enough to push buyer past some deadline).

The practice of selling something a seller does not have in my book is outright theft and deception, but at the very least it undermines buyer confidence.

Last but not least I also find it hard to believe that all these manipulations and gamings of the system are pure coincidence and accidence.

[awoodsmith]

Same story in Scientific Instruments Antique. Repros, knockoffs, and now modern (2011 and newer) stuff on a regular basis. Ebay has even corrupted the search engine to the point of almost no results if I search with minus the offending brand name. I have stopped my longstanding practice of daily searching this category because of this - just a waste of time.

All of my searches just loaded with stale stuff; items there for months, or in some cases years.

[reallynicestamps]

Have you tried Searching with Highest Price First + Shipping?

I found that most of the junk is down in the low price stuff and with the High Price First, what is shown is (usually ) the real thing.

Then I just have to find my price point, which is faster High to Low than Low to High.