My experience with product-based shopping

[new.melody]

On my selling account, I have already experienced eBay's new "product-based shopping experience" and didn't realize it until I started getting angry messages from buyers.  After a couple of hours of research, I finally managed to dig out the reason.  The buyer was clicking on what they called an "ad" which lead them to a single product page for this particular product, with a group of sellers with listings for it.  However, at the top of this "product-based page" was a title that was either made up by eBay or copied from someone else's listing, because it stated the buyer would receive a quantity of 2, and I was the "featured" seller.   The buyer purchased directly from that page and they were never shown my listing or my description which stated they would receive a quantity of 1, so sure enough, they expected to receive 2 and were angry when they didn't and filed cases against me.  I removed the UPC code from the listing to avoid any more angry buyers and ended the listing when it sold out.  

What will happen when this goes live?  The buyer will never see your description, your terms, or anything about your listing, and you will be at the mercy of eBay's programming. 

So eBay, what are you going to do to ensure that won't happen, because this has failed miserably already.

[lolkthxbai]

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@new.melody wrote:

On my selling account, I have already experienced eBay's new "product-based shopping experience" and didn't realize it until I started getting angry messages from buyers.  After a couple of hours of research, I finally managed to dig out the reason.  The buyer was clicking on what they called an "ad" which lead them to a single product page for this particular product, with a group of sellers with listings for it.  However, at the top of this "product-based page" was a title that was either made up by eBay or copied from someone else's listing, because it stated the buyer would receive a quantity of 2, and I was the "featured" seller.   The buyer purchased directly from that page and they were never shown my listing or my description which stated they would receive a quantity of 1, so sure enough, they expected to receive 2 and were angry when they didn't and filed cases against me.  I removed the UPC code from the listing to avoid any more angry buyers and ended the listing when it sold out.  

What will happen when this goes live?  The buyer will never see your description, your terms, or anything about your listing, and you will be at the mercy of eBay's programming. 

So eBay, what are you going to do to ensure that won't happen, because this has failed miserably already.

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Thank you for the question. We'll continue to work with our seller community to ensure that our catalog descriptions are accurate and up to date.  Buyers will continue to have access to listing level product details to inform their buying decision.

[ted_200]

Here's what going to happen:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Product-Catalog/Product-Landing-Pages-Are-A-Disaster-If-You-Let-People...

It's still happening.  I did not use the Catalog, eBay just decided for me.

The title to this listing is:

FRANCE 25 Centimes 1903-1939 - Lot of 10 F-EF Coins, No Reserve!

[new.melody]

The buyers had access to my description and apparently chose not to view it, and still filed cases.  eBay did nothing to protect me and took no responsibility for the mistake -- I was the one who was penalized and I did nothing wrong.  Thanks to the link provided above, I see that this has been going on for months now and still no improvement. 

[d-k_treasures]

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@lolkthxbaiwrote:

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@new.melodywrote:

On my selling account, I have already experienced eBay's new "product-based shopping experience" and didn't realize it until I started getting angry messages from buyers.  After a couple of hours of research, I finally managed to dig out the reason.  The buyer was clicking on what they called an "ad" which lead them to a single product page for this particular product, with a group of sellers with listings for it.  However, at the top of this "product-based page" was a title that was either made up by eBay or copied from someone else's listing, because it stated the buyer would receive a quantity of 2, and I was the "featured" seller.   The buyer purchased directly from that page and they were never shown my listing or my description which stated they would receive a quantity of 1, so sure enough, they expected to receive 2 and were angry when they didn't and filed cases against me.  I removed the UPC code from the listing to avoid any more angry buyers and ended the listing when it sold out.  

What will happen when this goes live?  The buyer will never see your description, your terms, or anything about your listing, and you will be at the mercy of eBay's programming. 

So eBay, what are you going to do to ensure that won't happen, because this has failed miserably already.

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Thank you for the question. We'll continue to work with our seller community to ensure that our catalog descriptions are accurate and up to date.  Buyers will continue to have access to listing level product details to inform their buying decision.

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We're still waiting for the answer. Thank you.

[puredesignhome]

Malarky. You are already suppressing most content on our listings (no, not from active content), and now you are requiring users to disambiguate (on a new, unfamiliar interface) by carefully clicking and reading stuff, which means you don't understand how internet users actually internet, which means you are in the wrong business. The catalog is a disaster we'd avoid if we still could, and getting eBay to fix things is more work than it's worth ... you repeatedly ask us to do your job for you, and the only sellers who care are the ones who already have above-average listing quality, would be happier with unique listings, and are just trying to prevent you from making a hash of things. This is obviously another "Like Amazon? You bet it is!" feature, and from selling there, I can tell you what a nightmare product-based listings are once you have to convince the platform's underpaid, untrained staff that they're wrong about something.

As usual, I see many announcements here that represent more work for us on what's clearly a dying platform, with no benefits (that don't require more work and decreased margins), and will continue to just let our listings atrophy until our store or the entire platform is irrelevant after years and $500K in sales. A disinterested observer might conclude you're trying to squeeze the last of the juice from the rind of a once-thriving ecosystem, but I'm not that person ... I just think you have no clue that rapidly veering back and forth across the electronic superhighway is a good way to total the business you're ostensibly driving.

[ted_200]

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@puredesignhomewrote:

Malarky. You are already suppressing most content on our listings (no, not from active content), and now you are requiring users to disambiguate (on a new, unfamiliar interface) by carefully clicking and reading stuff, which means you don't understand how internet users actually internet, which means you are in the wrong business. The catalog is a disaster we'd avoid if we still could, and getting eBay to fix things is more work than it's worth ... you repeatedly ask us to do your job for you, and the only sellers who care are the ones who already have above-average listing quality, would be happier with unique listings, and are just trying to prevent you from making a hash of things. This is obviously another "Like Amazon? You bet it is!" feature, and from selling there, I can tell you what a nightmare product-based listings are once you have to convince the platform's underpaid, untrained staff that they're wrong about something.

As usual, I see many announcements here that represent more work for us on what's clearly a dying platform, with no benefits (that don't require more work and decreased margins), and will continue to just let our listings atrophy until our store or the entire platform is irrelevant after years and $500K in sales. A disinterested observer might conclude you're trying to squeeze the last of the juice from the rind of a once-thriving ecosystem, but I'm not that person ... I just think you have no clue that rapidly veering back and forth across the electronic superhighway is a good way to total the business you're ostensibly driving.

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Yes.  This.

[upgradedendmills]

With the massive drop off in sales over the last few months,  I have been slowly moving to other venues and considering my own website. These latest changes will make it almost impossible for me to continue to sell the mix of new and used machinist's tools that I have been selling for many years. I also feel that these needless changes are going to drive most of my suppliers off eBay and I will no longer be able to purchase and resell inventory here. These are specialty tools that I buy in large lots from sellers that have inherited them or purchased them at estate sales and don't have the knowledge or experience to sell them efficiently one at a time. I purchase them, carefully inspect and select tools from these larger lots and list them at a reasonable markup for buyers needing a specific tool. I am sure that there are sellers doing the same thing in different categories. When eBay makes is too difficult or time comsuming for individuals to do this, it will dry up both the supply and demand for good used specialty tools.  What a shame after all these years. I almost considered filing a chargeback with PayPal for my seller's fees for the last six months as a SNAD item.

[walk4us]

I echo the question.

The main appeal eBay has for most sellers is connecting a buyer to your own individual item. With the new guidelines, this no longer seems possible.