Reporting issues related to the ongoing technical issue with Item Specifics

[community_team]

This thread is dedicated to reporting issues related to the ongoing technical issue with Item Specifics. Please share details including screenshots, steps to recreate, etc. This thread is not meant to be a place for in-depth discussion of the situation, but to be a  place for you to provide us detail into what you're seeing so we can pass this on to the appropriate teams.

Please know that off-topic discussions in this thread will be moved to their own threads. 

For the most recent updates on this issue please review the Announcements Board.

[iowagirlfinds]

I have 4 listings - 2 clothing items and 2 non-clothing where the written description has disappeared. The area where the description should appear is simply blank. One of the clothing items was a lot of 3 blouses that will all need to be remeasured and that information re-entered.

[jenpicked]

Mens shirts and sweaters "Style" is in shambles.  In shirts, giving 7 choices, of which six of the choices are womens tops.  Such as "Camisole"  and Kimono.  These are the same choices in Womens tops, and although these 7 choices can be used for women's tops, this would be the most ridiculous list to be the required for womens tops.  Where is:  knit top, and button-down?  These two are two of the top four used.  Tunic and tank top being the other two of the top four.  

Maybe those 7 choices are used in countries where English is not spoken?  For instance:  "Jersey" in US clothing refers to a sports team shirt.  However "Jersey Knit" refers to the knit fabric used in many items of clothing.  Over 300 listings in my own store.  No US clothing seller would ever use "Jersey" to describe a non-sports shirt.

Similar problem in multiple other categories.  All with "Style" requirement. 

I am being forced to leave most clothing listings in drafts.

I have 2 full time employees, that I am paying to do nothing.  It's not their fault they cannot list.  Is ebay planning to reimburse for our down time?  Free Anchor store subscription this month would cover about half of my lost payroll overhead.

On a positive note........jewelry is more than half of my business, and jewelry seems to be doing fine.

[caspianpearl]

For Mens Clothing...Suits and Separates (which is the category used for both mens Suits and mens Blazers/Sport Coats), a new required item specific is "Waist Circumference"...this is not applicable to Blazers alone. This is relevant only when listing a suit and the pant waist measurement is req'd. The old item specific (which is still part of the item specifics but not in the required field) a waist measurement was req'd but we had the option of selecting "Does Not Apply". This is not an option in the new required item specific--an actual number value must be selected..which doesn't apply to blazers alone. Can the "Does Not Apply" be added to the new req'd Item specific? 

[1stglobalwholesale]

Ahhh! The item specifics are a mess.  I read in one of the updates on technical issues that we would not need to update our item specifics if they are already in the older listings as they would be transferred to the new item specifics so that our listings can be found by buyers who use the search filters.  This is not true.  I tested it on a listing for a pair of women's boots.  They did not show up in the search using the size search filter.  They did show up once I updated the listing and used the new slot for the size.  Now I need to update thousands of listings.  Also, all my converse that had previously been in unisex adult shoes were all shifted to the mens slippers category.  I find that the new setup is confusing and tedious.  I hope it does not feel like that on the buyer's side.  I also find that some of the Style options in shoes that I once used are no longer an option.  I find it problematic mostly with boots as many of the options are very specific.  Not all boots can be described as Chelsea, combat, desert etc.  Many are simply ankle boots.  Not all knee boots are riding boots.   You get the point.  

[abfabvintage]

@community_team 

I have used my 3rd Party listing program, Auction Wizard 2000, since 2001. I do not list direct into ebay unless I want to revise or tweak a listing after the fact. As a test, I listed one of my Vintage Denim Jackets in Clothing, Women's Jackets (not the Vintage subgroup) using my program this morning. I get 8 ebay warnings I need to fill them in, but with the message you can list as is but need to revise at a later time. All of them have this number 2919403:

Closure, Type, Water Resistant Level, Department, Model, Insulation Material, Vintage, Warmth Weight.

It is more than obvious these would be your "additional refinements" or whatever you are calling them and not REQUIRED. My program did let me list without going into ebay to revise. I have no intention of going in and doing any more revisions until this mess is cleaned up. 2 days ago I listed a Denim Jacket for Men in Clothing Men's jackets (not the vintage category), and that one had 7 warnings. 

My program manager informed me yesterday he expects to get ebay's "final" developer upgrades some time this week. If I keep listing newly listeds or go in now and revise what is active, I wilil have to go BACK in and revise again. What is the timeline to have this fixed? My program already fills in size, brand, and lot , of other elements I have added as custom IS. And all of my items do not have UPCs, they are VINTAGE. And this DEPARTMENT field? Items are already listed in the gender specific category. You need to get rid of DEPARTMENT.

[mantlerulz]

Below is the SG after trying to bulk revise the item specifics on several existing listings.   First, the listings did not update.   Second, I am still unable to revise ANY of my listings due to this requirement that all listings now require the item specifics.   However, it is mentioned in one of the updates that this requirement has been disabled....not on my end????

[timbart824]

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@cobra22nd wrote:
It's not just clothes. All you guys ever talk about is clothes. I sell sports cards and sales are down 27% this month even though I have more stuff listed this month than last month. You keep adding requirements, and most of that info is in the freaking title and category. As it stands right now, I have 2,600+ listings that I will NOT be able to relist without a massive amount of work beyond the massive amount of time I have spent getting this far. You need to turn that requirement **bleep** off. One of the requirements is player name, but you don't even have 90% of players listed, so I have to manually type that in the box when I just typed in the title. Team name? In the title as well. I just signed up for a year long commitment to a store, and I was looking to work my way up to anchor, but now I am back to square 1. Thanks for nothing.

IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET RID OF THE DOGGONE STUPID REQUIRED SPECIFICS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAKE IT TO WHERE THEY ARE EDITABLE IN BULK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I second the motion, @cobra22nd , and eBay is absolutely clueless regarding sports cards, so it would have behooved them to consult with actual sports card sellers in regard to item specifics. However, as you stated, there is absolutely no good reason to even add additional item specifics to sports cards, let alone make some of them mandatory, so we just need to chalk it up to eBay constantly trying to reinvent a perfectly round wheel and screwing it up royally, as always.

Specifically in the Sports Mem, Cards & Fan Shop > Sports Trading Cards > Auto Racing Cards category, the new mandatory item specifics are...

Sport (which is redundant, because the seller already needs to select this as a sub-category)

Grade (which is mostly irrelevant to racing cards)

Original/Reprint (although not specified what this actually refers to, I personally use it to describe an autographed card, otherwise it is irrelevant to racing cards)

Team (which is irrelevant to racing cards)

Player (which is irrelevant/redundant to racing cards, because there is already a "Driver" item specific in the sub-category, which is not mandatory)

However, I can report as of October 23 @@ 12:30h EST, when using the eBay bulk relisting utility in the Sports Mem, Cards & Fan Shop > Sports Trading Cards > Auto Racing Cards category and following the "Next steps for sellers:For now, you should continue providing all of the required, recommended and additional item specifics as needed." instructions in the latest subject update announcement , it STILL ONLY works with the "Edit listing individually - grouped by category" option and STILL NOT the "Edit listings in bulk" option...

[1stglobalwholesale]

Heel Height Specifics in Heels

 

Who measures in .9 inches?  This seems confusing and silly.  I don't know anyone that thinks in .9 inch increments.  What was wrong with the previous heels heights that were  things like 1 - 1.75 or 1 - 1 3/4 .  I don't remember which it was but it was much more intuitive.  

[abfabvintage]

@1stglobalwholesale 

Hi, I don't think they are going to take anyone's suggestions on how to "improve" their drop downs. What they are now focusing on is undoing the dirty deed where their upload/upgrades were not compared to what was ALREADY in the system as required, i.e. there was a Cat/IS update I think a month (2 months? ago). That one worked fine. What I think they have done is not compare what they already did last month to what they did on October 15. I don't see them cleaning up or refining those drop down boxes anytime soon. 

In the last month another problem is that the Blues were all of a sudden directing sellers direct to this IS team email with their suggestions. G*d only knows what they did with that information. And it was done piece meal with again, NO QA. 

[dhbookds]

Home & Garden > Kitchen, Dining & Bar > Kitchen Tools & Gadgets > Microwave Cooking Gadgets

Duplication of color, also a mismash of measurements for Ht, width, etc. 

[snowbean2u]

Two things I have not seen addressed, for which I would love to have an answer...
1. I have had potential international buyers in the shoes category thinking the shoes were in their sizing, instead of the US. Before the shoe sizing was in US, EU, UK, etc. While my listing may now be showing up, it is not clear to buyers which sizing system is being used. Will this be clear with the new sizing categories? And will eBay automatically provide size conversion info in our listings for international buyers? I assume they will not, yet they have taken away those filterable item specifics.
2. This question concerns vintage fashion categories. I've noticed they no longer fall into the men's, women's, or children's categories primarily. Buyers will not know to filter searches into the "specialty" category. This will remove all of my vintage clothing and shoes from most of buyers' eyes. If I search for a vintage pair of boots, and filter into the mens category, my listings would be excluded. I searched "vintage dress" and ebay auto-filtered my results into womens dresses, also exclusing my entire inventory of vintage womens' dresses.
This category change created a huge negative impact on that portion of my inventory. Please, please consider removing vintage fashion from the specialty category, and back into the mens, womens, and childrens clothing or shoes (with vintage subcategories).

[breetsboutique]

Went from having the item specifics issues to now having issues where item specifics fields don't even populate. So I basically have listed several items with no specifics on size. It is super frustrating to go from glitch to glitch in Q4. Does anyone else have this issue & how I might be able to fix it?

[breetsboutique]

I have the same issue where I cannot list the item specifics such as size in the baby category. So frustrated. Hey Ebay, I'm a UX researcher & I'd love to join your team. Ya'll need to start hiring researchers who actually sell on Ebay like myself. 

[breetsboutique]

Fully agree. This is a disaster. I have so many amazing items but too many tech issues. 😞

[shhhchristinassecret]

You should have the required information be the same one as the left hand filters.

Some of the other non-required ones are the same so there is a long list of repetitive boxes which make it tedious and confusing . Each category should have 

its own type of requirements and options because again is confusing and fastidious when listing shoes having the same options as I am listing a dress.

I am very glad that you are working hard to put things in order and making the site much better but when I am searching for an item as the same as the one I am listing to compare prices I always find different items that were not there in the first place so my point is that requirements should be the same as the left hand filter as an universal search .

Also , since you started with all this , 15th of this month , my sales have plunge more than any month of all the years I am with eBay. I am not sure that I will have 

the money to pay Anchor Subscription. I do believe that , because there is not a coordination between filters and requirements and there is a proof, as I have difficulty finding items, that is the reason why my sales have been down too.

You are the experts . Please do it quickly! 

Thank you