eBay

mittenmon · ‎06-13-2019

Even my saved searches are yielding item results that aren't even related to what I'm looking for, which is a very broad category (digimon or pokemon). I can't even FIND any new items because the search yields so many unrelated items. I never have had this problem, and check my saved searches daily.

greg5000 · ‎07-19-2019

@attabookki wrote:
I love the work arounds suggested (haven't tried them), BUT it's not super important that I find my own items in searches. Who is going to educate my BUYERS about the hoops they need to jump through to find (my) items that they are looking for?

Oh never mind. I'm sure they are so frustrated with ebay shoving garbage search results at them that they've stopped shopping on ebay altogether.

After 9 years of frequent buying I got frustrated with eBay and stopped buying here.

They need to step-up and fix the search issue and the many others that are being reported.

eburtonlab · ‎07-20-2019

@tenbigdogs

What solution did you message to carberrys13 that fixed his search problem?

I suggested he add a nonsense exclusion term to his search terms ("-octopus"), provided an example search link, and a link to this thread.

carberrys13 · ‎07-20-2019

Thanks to all of you who sent information on the problem I was having with ebay search. I had a reply yesterday from eburtonlab that solved my problem. I was told that search has been acting up lately, and I should add an exclusion term, even a nonsense exclusion (such as "-octopus"). I tried this and it worked on all 3 of the searches

that I was having problems with. Again, thanks to all who sent info. to me to help out. Carberry13

dtexley3 · ‎07-20-2019

According to the most recent weekly chat, "there are no reported issues with search" so we must all be imagining things.

Member of the Grumpy Old Man crew

esmgee · ‎07-21-2019

I'm having exactly the same problem and have emailed eBay several times. They admitted there is an issue and they are trying to fix it but it's been weeks now and no change. This is the email response they sent to me:

"First of all, please accept my apologies for delayed response in this, as this took time longer than anticipated. We have replicated to search items from our end and we were also getting same inappropriate results which you were getting, On escalating this to our technical team, we have received update that there are some challenges with search feature and they are working to get this issue resolved.

Our team is looking into this to get this issue resolved as soon as possible. I've also added your user ID to list of impacted members and they are working hard to resolve this.

We appreciate your patience and understanding in the meantime. It is in times like these that we badly need your support as we do get really concerned that our customers are not having a good experience as we always aim for.

Once again please accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused. I appreciate that you have been very co-operative and understanding in this matter. And, this issue will be resolved very soon."

That was nearly 2 weeks ago. Previously, they told me to do the workaround. Yes, the workaround of adding " " around the search words helps but it's only a quick fix for those who know about it and shouldn't be a permanent fix for the few. I'm concerned that buyers who don't know will just give up. There has been a marked impact on sales. This issue seems to have happened straight after the big outage in June. EBay needs to inform all sellers what they are doing to fix this problem permanently. If it is called a "smart search" it's not that smart is it if no one can find what they are looking for!

@dtexley3 wrote:
According to the most recent weekly chat, "there are no reported issues with search" so we must all be imagining things.

greg5000 · ‎07-21-2019

@esmgee wrote:
I'm having exactly the same problem and have emailed eBay several times. They admitted there is an issue and they are trying to fix it but it's been weeks now and no change. This is the email response they sent to me:
"First of all, please accept my apologies for delayed response in this, as this took time longer than anticipated. We have replicated to search items from our end and we were also getting same inappropriate results which you were getting, On escalating this to our technical team, we have received update that there are some challenges with search feature and they are working to get this issue resolved.

Our team is looking into this to get this issue resolved as soon as possible. I've also added your user ID to list of impacted members and they are working hard to resolve this.

We appreciate your patience and understanding in the meantime. It is in times like these that we badly need your support as we do get really concerned that our customers are not having a good experience as we always aim for.

Once again please accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused. I appreciate that you have been very co-operative and understanding in this matter. And, this issue will be resolved very soon."

That was nearly 2 weeks ago. Previously, they told me to do the workaround. Yes, the workaround of adding " " around the search words helps but it's only a quick fix for those who know about it and shouldn't be a permanent fix for the few. I'm concerned that buyers who don't know will just give up. There has been a marked impact on sales. This issue seems to have happened straight after the big outage in June. EBay needs to inform all sellers what they are doing to fix this problem permanently. If it is called a "smart search" it's not that smart is it if no one can find what they are looking for!
@dtexley3 wrote:
According to the most recent weekly chat, "there are no reported issues with search" so we must all be imagining things.

Fully agree!

I highlighted the most important thing you said:

"I'm concerned that buyers who don't know will just give up."

Many buyers, including myself, don't have a lot of patience with websites that don't provide a good user experience. If "potential" buyers come here and have difficulty finding things, they will quickly become "future" buyers ..... at competitors websites.

All the search workarounds and tips (while helpful) will not resolve what clearly is an issue and the majority of eBay customers or potential customers don't read posts here at Community Boards.

eBay needs to fix the problem or sales will continue to be negatively impacted.

dtexley3 · ‎07-21-2019

@esmgee wrote:
I'm having exactly the same problem and have emailed eBay several times. They admitted there is an issue and they are trying to fix it but it's been weeks now and no change. This is the email response they sent to me:
"First of all, please accept my apologies for delayed response in this, as this took time longer than anticipated. We have replicated to search items from our end and we were also getting same inappropriate results which you were getting, On escalating this to our technical team, we have received update that there are some challenges with search feature and they are working to get this issue resolved.

Our team is looking into this to get this issue resolved as soon as possible. I've also added your user ID to list of impacted members and they are working hard to resolve this.

We appreciate your patience and understanding in the meantime. It is in times like these that we badly need your support as we do get really concerned that our customers are not having a good experience as we always aim for.

Once again please accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused. I appreciate that you have been very co-operative and understanding in this matter. And, this issue will be resolved very soon."

That was nearly 2 weeks ago. Previously, they told me to do the workaround. Yes, the workaround of adding " " around the search words helps but it's only a quick fix for those who know about it and shouldn't be a permanent fix for the few. I'm concerned that buyers who don't know will just give up. There has been a marked impact on sales. This issue seems to have happened straight after the big outage in June. EBay needs to inform all sellers what they are doing to fix this problem permanently. If it is called a "smart search" it's not that smart is it if no one can find what they are looking for!
@dtexley3 wrote:
According to the most recent weekly chat, "there are no reported issues with search" so we must all be imagining things.

brian@ebay It seems that there are reports of issues with search. You may want to check with the tech team again.

Member of the Grumpy Old Man crew

eburtonlab · ‎07-29-2019

@piggymae2000

I type in..."women's plus size 26/28 shorts" and I get blouses, bathing suits, girdles, slimming panties, and even dresses among the shorts.

Try adding a nonsense exclusion term to your search, like this:

women's plus size 26/28 shorts -octopus

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=women%27s+plus+size+26%2F28+shorts+-octopus&_sacat=0

See the rest of this thread (above) for further examples and explanations of how this works to bypass the broken search.

piggymae2000 · ‎07-30-2019

Thank you. I will give it a shot. ~"D"

flo_mingo · ‎07-30-2019

@eburtonlab wrote:
@mittenmon

If you find that you are getting many results that do not have one of your search terms in the title, try putting just that individual search term in quotes.
"pokemon" action figure
Often, eBay will use one of your search terms to steer the search into a particular category, and then will ignore that search term from that point on, causing you to get numerous search results that are not related to your search terms. If you do not want to be steered into a particular category and wish to search "all categories", try adding a nonsense exclusion term. So instead of searching for:
pokemon action figure
try a new search for:
pokemon action figure -octopus
Adding the exclusion term will usually prevent eBay from using "smart search" features that cause category changes.

these are interesting tips/ Do you think the average buyer know to do this, has teh time and patience to figure out how to out smart the eBay smart search? or do you think our buyers give up and go to teh other site that gets them to the othere site? I am going to the other site. I am sick of this **bleep** with eBay

eburtonlab · ‎08-03-2019

@wiggenbrad

when I search for something specific and I type in Jeep 1990 YJ and then what I am looking for I get a list of things that are in the same ball park but for a Mazda or something like that. I need Jeep parts so why show me other items not for a Jeep

eBay's search lately has had a problem with unwanted keyword substitutions causing too many unrelated search results to be returned.

Try these two searches as starting points instead:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=jeep+1990+yj+-octopus&_sacat=0&LH_...

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=jeep+90+yj+-octopus&_sacat=0&LH_Ti...

See the thread above for an explanation of why adding a nonsense exclusion term removes the unwanted "matches".

eburtonlab · ‎08-04-2019

@smilja2753

I buy gift cards from Starbucks, from all over the world. For the last month or so when I search for cards released in Taiwan, I also get China cards as well. Is this a political statement from eBay?

Not a political statement, but rather a broken search.

Try this search as a starting point instead:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=starbucks+gift+card+taiwan+-octopu...

For an explanation of why adding a nonsense exclusion term helps to eliminate the unwanted "matches", see the rest of this thread above.

downrightspecialkids · ‎08-07-2019

I know we have to be losing buyers.

I just read a thread on a non-ebay social media site, and it wasn't an ebay ad, per-se, but it talked about ebay and every comment was from someone unhappy with the direction ebay has gone in. These were buyers, not sellers. Several comments were people only getting tons of the same results of cheap Chinese junk, and all overseas products before US sellers. A couple compared ebay to WISH, which I think is a really cheap junk site.

This is more than concerning.

eburtonlab · ‎08-09-2019

@pafcra-50

I enter a simple search for "Asteroids". I narrow it down to Collectible Arcade game parts........It still lists results that do NOT have the word "asteroids" in the item title. WHY IS THAT?

See the thread above for an explanation of -- or at least speculation about -- why the search is broken.

To avoid the "matches" that do not have "asteroids" in the title, try adding a nonsense exclusion term to your search terms, like this: