eBay

a_c_green · ‎01-13-2024

The Sold Items pages have had a seemingly unnecessary column of "ZIP Code" added, which causes the Feedback indicators ("Engage buyer") to be pushed offscreen to the right. This revision fails to take into account that some columns may expand to fit longer entries.

There is no easy way to either get rid of the ZIP Code column, or to get the Feedback column back in view without having to scroll all the way down to a slidebar at the bottom of the page. If the right-hand columns are pushed entirely offscreen, there is no visual indicator that anything is missing.

The following screenshots were taken on a Windows 10 machine using the Chrome browser at 100% scale. When viewing a Sold page with no entries, such this Awaiting Shipment page, the table columns are all sized proportionately to fit the page:

Page with no entries to display (Awaiting Shipment)

However, when there are entries in the table, such as this Manage All Orders page, the Order Details column has expanded to fit longer entries, and now the Engage Buyer column will get pushed either partially or completely offscreen to the right:

Sold Items page with entries (Manage All Orders)

I can think of two possible resolutions here, neither of which really addresses the question of what the point is for adding a ZIP Code column to the Sold pages in the first place, but anyway:

Add a horizontal slidebar to the top of the table as well as the bottom. Right now there is no visual indication that anything is offscreen to the right, unless some fragmented portions of the column head(s) remain visible, or
Provide a customizing option that will allow the user to throw out the ZIP Code column altogether, or at least push it off to the right end where it cannot do any further damage.

This issue isn't entirely a matter of whether the ZIP Code column is even relevant here, but whether the sellers can have control of these table layouts in order to use them to their best advantage. Right now this is a bit of a roadblock.

steve_stuff · ‎01-14-2024

We posted about this - "New un-improvement - Slide bars on order page" - back in August. Note that it cuts off at 'zip'

Now it cuts off at date sold

Now maybe it's because we have a 16 wide monitor.

"seemingly unnecessary column of "ZIP Code" added" - as we have been using the zip code on the sold ... I mean ordered page to 'tag' what we will be packing 'today' but labeling tomorrow for as long as I can remember, the zip code must have been there before they added the useless and unnecessary slide bar.

"customizing option" - we would get rid of the quantity - always one for us, and the feedback one, as we haven't left feedback since they took away our ability to check stars to see who were hiding behind mother ebay skirt to secretly lie about being 'completely happy' - Don't like saying nice things about buyers who secretly complain about the shipping costs which was shown before they bid/bought. And yes we know, ebay says they don't use feedback or the stars to rate us, but I can't believe if we had a 1.1 for as described they wouldn't notice.

And also change 'item subtotal' to what it really is - sale price.

buyselljack2016 · ‎01-14-2024

I just noticed that yesterday. I hit the Ctrl minus, and back in business.

a_c_green · ‎01-14-2024

@buyselljack2016 wrote:
I just noticed that yesterday. I hit the Ctrl minus, and back in business.

Right; that was why I mentioned that the problem occurs at normal 100% scale. Certainly if you back down to 90% scale (or less), you can fit things onto the screen eventually, though at the expense of legibility.

eburtonlab · ‎01-14-2024

It might be possible to use an ad blocker's element hiding tool to suppress one of the less critical columns like the zip code, and be able to more easily use that page without scrolling or making the font size smaller.

a_c_green · ‎01-15-2024

@eburtonlab wrote:
It might be possible to use an ad blocker's element hiding tool to suppress one of the less critical columns like the zip code, and be able to more easily use that page without scrolling or making the font size smaller.

I don't doubt your suggestion, but I just can't see the average user thinking of that as a solution, or being able to figure out how to implement it. I get the impression that the page revision was tested without any real data (i.e. populated table rows), since the columns are allowed to expand as necessary to show the data without truncation, at the expense of pushing the following columns further to the right.

A customization option on that page would allow the user to dump the unwanted column(s), thus giving more visible page width to the remaining ones.

buyselljack2016 · ‎01-15-2024

Monitor size also comes into play. At 110% I still have feedback shown if I use the entire available 21" screen.

a_c_green · ‎01-15-2024

@buyselljack2016 wrote:
Monitor size also comes into play. At 110% I still have feedback shown if I use the entire available 21" screen.

I think it's more precisely monitor resolution that's a factor, isn't it? I'm using a 20" HP Compaq LE2002x on this desktop, with native resolution of 1600x900. It does support higher and lower settings, but I have it at its default resolution, which I suspect is what the majority of casual users have for their configuration of their own monitors. How does that compare with your monitor and your current resolution: is yours on its native setting?

I should add here that while it's probably possible to work around the display problems as you said, the original complaints still stand: the column(s) can be unpredictably pushed offscreen and unnoticed, the slidebar movement necessary to bring the missing columns back on-screen is buried at the bottom of the page, and there is no customization option available for the user to make his own repairs.