Massage Reply Not Working

[nuclearomen]

Since last night I can't reply to messages on my ebay account. I can access and read, but when I hit the reply button the page goes blank and won't load. Is anyone else having issue with this? 

[berserkerplanet]

Not having that problem, and messaging is working just fine for me in Firefox 3.6.24, FF31, and FF52.

Wild stab: Try right clicking on reply button and "open link in new tab" if that is an available option in your browser. Result might be different.

(eBay uses frames heavily in messaging and has some crazy redirection thing going on when the reply button is clicked. In Firefox 3.6.24 that redirection has always caused errors, but I'm able to work through it, and opening reply in a new tab bypasses some of the grief.)

Just a stab in the dark. If that doesn't help, try using* Firefox (if you are not already.)

*Portable versions of Firefox are available and can be installed standalone, even alongside other running instances of Firefox (I'm running 6 right now - 1 FF2.0, 3 FF 3.6.24, 1 FF31.0, and 1 FF52.0)

https://sourceforge.net/projects/portableapps/files/Mozilla%20Firefox%2C%20Portable%20Ed./

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Selling/Firefox-PayPal-Shipping-Label-Printing-Problems-With-N...

[rainey_daze]

I am having the exact same problem and have tried using Firefox and Chrome with the same results.  I also tried right clicking and opening up the "reply" link in a new tab and it just opens up as a new tab of a blank page. 

[berserkerplanet]

Well I guess the shot in the dark didn't work.

Don't know what else to suggest other than trying an older version of Firefox like pre-quantum v52.8.1 ESR (you are probably using the latest updated Chrome and Firefox Quantum v62.0.2 and FF Quantum and latest versions always have problems with eBay)

[nuclearomen]

no, I tried reload, signed out, signed back in, cleared cookies, signed out/in again, same thing... on Chrome. Signed out, closed crhome, opened Edge, signed in, tried again, same thing. I called ebay, they said they send it to tech support the case, issue still exist since call to them this morn. 

[nuclearomen]

same exact thing as rainey_daze

[berserkerplanet]

Don't believe everything (anything?) eBay CS tells you.

It works fine for me. So it isn't a site wide problem.

So it could be account related, might be a specific location/eBay server issue, might be antivirus/malware suite blocking something issue on your machine, or more likely is a browser related issue.

(other somewhat peripherally similar issues were a result of third party cookie blocking in Chrome)

Newer browsers generally are 100% backward compatible, so can handle anything an older version can, but not vice versa. eBay likely serves up different code (or the scripts control behavior based on browser) for different browsers depending on the browser's identity and capabilities. So logical explanation might be that eBay is serving up some code tailored to the newer versions, but is broken, and/or your browser updated overnight and the slight updates to the browser broke something.

FireFox 52 works for me. Firefox 52 is so different from Firefox 62 it might as well be another brand of browser.

I'm just suggesting you (or someone having the problem) try something known to work.

[rainey_daze]

Well, I can rule out it being a browser issue and a machine-specific issue: I'm using Firefox 54 (in addition to trying elsewhere), no recent updates, which IS what I have used/known to work in the past and it is inexplicably not now, and I have also tried it on my Windows laptop (what I normally use) and my Android phone where the exact same thing happens.

The fact that it's happening to more than one of us says to me the problem is on eBay's end.  Unfortunately, the fact that it's not happening to everyone makes me wonder what (if anything?) they'll do to fix it and how long that will take...

[berserkerplanet]

Some of that may indicate an account specific issue on eBay's end and probably rules out virus/malware suite interference and most of the other things i mentioned.

It does however make it harder to debug.


[Random speculating] If "account specific" means eBay opted you into some new "messaging experience" eBay messaging page that doesn't work for a lot of browsers then it shouldn't be too tough to fix - just un-opt those they opted in or fix the postulated new "messaging experience".

Wouldn't hold my breath while waiting for a fix.

Can you provide me some data on the load sequence that occurs when you hit the reply button using the Firefox developer tools/network tab to get a snapshot of the pages that load?

Have an eBay message open and ready to reply to.
Ctrl-Shift-Q to open web developer to the network panel.
Hit the reply button on the message.
Data should load in the WD network panel.

Interested mostly in the network request portion (the URLS in the file column and really mostly the request status codes in the method column). In my browsers eBay plays an involved redirect game bouncing around a couple of times with 302 and 301 redirects, but resolve fine in all but FF3.6.24 where I have to click through a couple of error dialogs. That is not a new development - years old.

So I'm wondering if you also see a bunch of redirects, and your browser fails to resolve it as mine do and instead of throwing the old warnings like FF3.6.24 does, just quits to a blank page. Interested in the URL of that blank page you see.

If you are willing to do that legwork you can PM it to me if you don't want to post it here (it will have some PII like item numbers, usernames, and possible tokens embedded in the URLS which you could munge with some replacements with capital X's).

Getting the report out of Firefox is a bit of a PITA depending on the Firefox version (just went through this with someone else). In Firefox 54 you should be able to click on one of the entries in the file column, and select "Copy All as HAR", which will dump an HTTP Archive report to the clipboard (or I think you can right click and "Copy as CURL" for each of the individual lines there (should be about 7 if you are seeing redirects).

Don't know if that info will reveal anything, but will tell me if your sequence is similar to mine. I'm thinking maybe, just maybe it might be possible to manually extract one of those URLS and use it to bypass a redirection failure if that is indeed what is occurring. (could be that you are getting pointed at a truly empty page and then that idea would go out the window)

[Anonymous]

Yep, me too

[violetsoup]

I'm having the same problem- messages cannot be replied to using Edge and Firefox. I've been trying to respond to a customer for hours.

[the-thrill-of-the-hunt-2014]

same problem 9-23-18

[craiggersfalcon]

I'm having the same problem on Chrome.

[Anonymous]

UPDATE: I was able to reply to an EBay message through the link in my email rather than directly through the message module. Not positive the buyer received my response but it did go through.

[nuclearomen]

I was not, however, I went to the users profile and clicked the contact link and was able to send them a message that way, so it was a new message and not a reply to the original but was able to deliever a message at least. Sadly, even after calling ebay and reporting the issue nothing has been fixed, don't know how many people actually called them but the person who helped me said there have been issues lately but could only forward the case details to tech support.