Another change to Messaging while existing problems still not fixed

[a_c_green]

While on my Manage Orders page, I picked the Message Buyer option from the pulldown menu in the Actions column to send a note to my buyer. Instead of putting me into the Messages page, it now slides in a blank message pane from the right side of my screen.

All well and good, but I want to go to the Messages page for context, in particular to copy-and-paste one of my standard texts from a previously-sent message, only now I can't get there automatically, and if I go there manually, then I don't have an open draft to my current recipient.

Adding insult to injury here, the previously-reported copy-and-paste bug (which doubles every line in the text to be copied) is still not fixed, nor is the looooong-reported inability to modify or delete message folders, only create them. (God forbid you should get a typo in the name of your newly-created folder.)

I would be happy if we could at least have this slide-in Message pane as an option, not as an unannounced revision.

[wastingtime101]

If I were to make an educated guess, I'd say the side pop up was implemented because:

1. users were too confused on the message screen - not understanding they were in a new message draft.

2. the pop up keeps you on the same page so you don't lose visibility to the page you were on, like order details or whatever.

It probably solves more problems than it creates since the population that copy/pastes from other messages is in the minority.

That said, I'll repeat advice I gave when the duplication error was reported:

Create a file on your system (notepad PC or textedit Mac) in plain text format and keep it open in the background - easy to copy paste from there, plus you avoid the issue of the duplication error because of the extra code.

I know that's not the same as eBay fixing things that aren't working for you, but it's a really simple way you can deal with the changes pretty efficiently. Hope it helps.

Almost forgot to be a scratched record here. Click that ? icon in the lower right corner to submit feedback / file tech report as those comments go to the product developers.

[a_c_green]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

I know that's not the same as eBay fixing things that aren't working for you, but it's a really simple way you can deal with the changes pretty efficiently. Hope it helps.

To be honest, it's quicker for me personally to just use the defective copy-and-paste operation as-is, and then zoom through to delete the duplicate strings, but Tech Support was my job for many decades, so working around coding screwups is pretty much second nature for me now. 

I also agree that the slide-in pane does have its uses, but it's a significant change in functionality for anyone who's been working in that area up to now, so it would be ideal to introduce it as a preference setting rather than an unannounced change. 

That said, the most infuriating point here is that they were working on coding enhancements in the very same area as existing problem reports, and did nothing about it. The copy-and-paste error was detected and reported promptly by more than one user here; there should have been ample time to get back to whichever doofus put in the coding revision that broke it and have him fix his work before he wandered off to another gig. This is the sort of mess-up that proper testing can detect before it's released into Production, and even now should be a pretty trivial fix.

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

Almost forgot to be a scratched record here. Click that ? icon in the lower right corner to submit feedback / file tech report as those comments go to the product developers.

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True. Ironically, when the unwanted slide-in pane appears, it completely covers that problem reporting link. 😉

[wastingtime101]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

Almost forgot to be a scratched record here. Click that ? icon in the lower right corner to submit feedback / file tech report as those comments go to the product developers.

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True. Ironically, when the unwanted slide-in pane appears, it completely covers that problem reporting link. 😉

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😂  Of course it does.

Trust me, I'm not trying to minimize your frustrations or make excuses for the way eBay handles these things. I'm pretty sure you're familiar enough with me to know that, though. Doing my best to help people work with what's in front of us to get through the day to day.

I get angry with eBay as much as anybody else - in fact I just railed in another thread here on the tech forum and I'm ready to throw my laptop against the wall I'm so frustrated.

As for the messaging stuff, I know more changes are coming, but it's slow moving. They just rolled out the translation feature which is great, plus the side pop up which some like and some don't. I don't know what they're going to do with folders - fix them or nix them or ignore them for eternity. We'll have to wait and see.