Yet Another Technical Site Issue

[shoecitychampions]

Anyone else who has a store on ebay notice your categories are gone?  Began 1 hr ago 8/5/21.  Tested on various browsers, pcs, & phones, cleared cache, etc..

[m60driver]

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On the Selling board someone else posted the same problem and it was responded to by John on eBay staff.  He had a suggestion, which I just tried.   Unfortunately it did not work.  I logged out and back in, cleared history, cache, cookies, and looked again, still no solution, but I wanted to share it in case you wanted to try it on your own stores.  Maybe it will work for you.  

Toggle the store categories off and back on:

1. Go to https://www.ebay.com/sh/str/edit
2. At the bottom of the page, under Category Preference, select eBay Categories
3. Click the blue 'Publish' button
4. Repeat the above steps, instead selecting Store Categories this time

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Well that did not work probably because "John" is just another member of the public relations department of the Ebay B-team (there is a reason Ebay writes it as "eBay") who has even less technical qualifications than the technical employees who do not comment, even on these major glitches.  At least my individual listings still show the store category just in case someone is able to correct this problem.  But like another major glitch a few years ago still no official comment from the corporation that is so quick to punish us when we sellers make an error.

Oh well, it is Friday down in the Bay area so don't expect those folks down there to fix this issue before Monday.  Here are some (altered) lyrics to their National Anthem down in the Bay area.

They smoke two joints in the morning,
They smoke two joints at night,
They smoke two joints in the afternoon,
It makes them feel all right.

Disclaimer: I no longer smoke two joints in the morning, just one at night.

[myhomeschooldelights]

@mr_lincoln 

Your screenshots are great and your post helpful.  HOW do we get someone at eBay to actually respond and fix?  This seems to be affecting everyone with a store and the only temporary "work-around", which isn't a work-around at all really, is to edit the store, and on the bottom where it says chose categories, to switch it to eBay categories and publish.  At least then, the eBay site categories do show on the left column.  I certainly don't want that in my own store though, but it's better than nothing.  However, paying a store subscription that allows us to customize with up to 300 listings to organize hundreds of items is a pretty valuable feature which results in far more sales than the "where's Waldo" search (quote from another thread on another board).  My "go-to" place for quicker help is the FB page.  I tried that too but the response was clueless.  I will try again though.

[mr_lincoln]

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@myhomeschooldelights wrote:

@mr_lincoln 

Your screenshots are great and your post helpful.  HOW do we get someone at eBay to actually respond and fix?  This seems to be affecting everyone with a store and the only temporary "work-around", which isn't a work-around at all really, is to edit the store, and on the bottom where it says chose categories, to switch it to eBay categories and publish.  At least then, the eBay site categories do show on the left column.  I certainly don't want that in my own store though, but it's better than nothing.  However, paying a store subscription that allows us to customize with up to 300 listings to organize hundreds of items is a pretty valuable feature which results in far more sales than the "where's Waldo" search (quote from another thread on another board).  My "go-to" place for quicker help is the FB page.  I tried that too but the response was clueless.  I will try again though.

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@myhomeschooldelights  Sadly I have no power to have eBay fix this MASSIVE problem and if I was a Buyer I would be LIVID because thus far we have only looked at it from a Seller's point of view.  So, I logged out and went to one of my items (copied an Item number before logging out - then paste it in the Search window - once on the item click the Visit Store link).

At first ALL listings are shown BUT if I select the "Other" category choice only 2 items come up AND there is NO way to get back to ALL listings.  I tried the "more refinements" at the bottom of the filter list and that was a total bust, no help at all.  I clicked on the "Auction" formats and "0 results" came up.

This is one major eBay blunder and yes, THIS glitch will negatively affect sales because it is NOT "enhancing the Buying experience" ... one of eBay's credos ...

And here it is Friday and for me most of my sales are on Weekends ... we'll see how well THAT works out.

[wgonzales]

Just adding my name to the list of those missing store categories. 🙄

[lastminute713]

I just noticed that mine isn't working about 15 minutes ago

[myhomeschooldelights]

@mr_lincoln 

What a fiasco - sounds like you've researched it pretty well.  I'm just wondering if anyone has tried to contact seller "support" and filed a ticket on it.  Does eBay consider it a "known issue"?  Not that that ever does much good, but just wondering.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@myhomeschooldelights wrote:

@mr_lincoln 

What a fiasco - sounds like you've researched it pretty well.  I'm just wondering if anyone has tried to contact seller "support" and filed a ticket on it.  Does eBay consider it a "known issue"?  Not that that ever does much good, but just wondering.

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Not sure if this is site wide/permanent/or a work in progress but from doing some testing discovered the following.

If you search a sellers name when signed out of eBay using advanced search you get the sellers listing seeing ebay's standardized Categories/Sub-Category options. From there if you click on the sellers store it only shows Other...Eliminating any customized titles created by the seller. When you are signed in your store you only see other.

-Lotz

[myhomeschooldelights]

@swappart 

I don't see this fixed in your store, nor am I able to switch my eBay link default open back to Seller Hub after inadvertently clicking classic view again.  Can't get it back.   But anyway, if I go to one of your listings I see the EBAY category it is in on the left.  If I then click on the link to your storefront, it looks like mine.  It says "categories all" on the top left but those are not links.  Below that it has the same eBay filter options such as price, location, etc.  Your store categories are not showing on your storefront.  Sigh....what a fiasco for all.

[myhomeschooldelights]

This information just posted on the Seller board........by john@tools

"It looks like since my last reply this has been escalated to our technicians as a site issue. The cause is still being investigated right now, so I don't know a timeframe for a fix at this point, but I have sent all of your accounts over to make sure they addressed.

I apologize for the inconvenience this causes in the mean time.

[kims_finishing_touches]

My store is impacted also

[somanypostcards]

Every day I expect to encounter at least 1 new error on eBay that impacts buying and selling.  Missing store categories is today's glitch, and it is a MAJOR error.  So many technical errors are NOT acceptable on a major site like eBay. 

Minor errors I'm still seeing today:  1) I'm told I have left feedback for a sale when I have NOT left feedback.  2) I get an error message if I try to leave feedback for a combined item sale if I click Leave feedback in the drop-down list.  3) Pages are slow to load, and sometimes the Active listings page is blank.

[alphanovacovers]

Well it's afternoon now, and my store categories have been down since late Thursday. No fix available and apparently no one from eBay support cares enough to provide any insight or workable answers. I'm really surprised they have not fixed this yet. How widespread is it? Seller are losing sales because customers cannot easily navigate stores. Please fix this! #ebaysupport

[jejbe]

My store is affected as well. Hopefully we get a credit at the end of the month.

[swappart]

Well, my store and business policies started working last night and I can list again, but the categories are gone again. Every time eBay changes something, they break something else. It almost seems as if they don't test their changes before going live with them.

[mopar_memories]

Another store with missing categories here.

I didn't notice this til I came here to ask about another issue (insertion counter not updating since 8/1).