New Listing Tool- UGH!

[steelheader54]

So ebay decided to run out this new listing tool. OMG! I tried to list a book about 10 times. No luck. No input from ebay as to why it won't list. This is just time consuming and ridiculous. Does ebay actually have people who try to list something with a new tool prior to giving it to us? And we don't even have the option to go back to the old listing tool. Fix the bugs! ...and please, please ebay add some tutorial buttons to the new tool so that we can troubleshoot an area and find out if we have problems. Sign me...

Disgusted!!!

[mr_lincoln]

Hi @steelheader54 

In the upper right hand corner are small dots, there AND for a limited time you can revert back to the other tool that actually works. 

It is eBay's SOP to launch new features, programs, tools, etc without fully testing them on all commonly used browsers and I suspect most of the folks who do the programming are not avid Sellers on eBay ... if they are then they shouldn't be programming if your results are commonplace ...

There have been mixed reviews on the tool, I had to revert back to the old tool when the new version popped up in the bulk editor ... mainly because I didn't have the block of time available to teach this old dog new tricks ...

In the back of my mind I am wondering if listings made on the new tool get better visibility then those done on the old tool ...

Regards,

Mr. L

[bimm_corp]

You can try this,

https://www.ebay.com/mys/overview

The links to various selling pages are on the left side under "Selling". I open each page (Sold, Active, Scheduled, etc.) in a new tab and just navigate between tabs. Works for me. Try it. You might like it.

BTW, I haven't used an eBay listing page in years. I just bring up a closed or current listing and use "Sell similar", editing the item to match the parameters of the new listing. No fiddling with constantly-changing eBay listing pages. The listing also gets a new item number and the "New listing" tag when posted. HTH.

[steelheader54]

Thanks for the response...I tried the dots as you suggested and it doesn't work for me. Oh well, guess this one listing will have to wait. I was successful in listing a different item though. Can't figure out why this book won't list?

[siamjane8]

I spent an hour on the phone with a rep trying to get the standard shipping option to work with flat rate shipping. we never did get it to work. its a shame i lost a $95 dollar sale over a simple relist that would not work. Customer went on to buy it from someone else that no doubt used the classic tool to list ----to be fair- i cant actually know that they used the old tool -lol

[mr_lincoln]

---

@siamjane8 wrote:

I spent an hour on the phone with a rep trying to get the standard shipping option to work with flat rate shipping. we never did get it to work. its a shame i lost a $95 dollar sale over a simple relist that would not work. Customer went on to buy it from someone else that no doubt used the classic tool to list ----to be fair- i cant actually know that they used the old tool -lol

---

@siamjane8   The point is YOU lost the sale because of the deficiency of the new tool ...

[siamjane8]

that is true mr_lincoln.... that is true.  this morning i had to revise another listing for a customer and tried on my phone 3x and it would never update- the app just spun and spun. had to switch to computer and wanted to try the new import picture from phone. tried 6x and it never sent the notification. 7th time it did but it does not really import to the listing flow, it just opens the listing on your phone and then you either complete the listing on mobile or you just save it their and then you have to close and reopen the listing you had open on your computer. this is not really and integration as much as it is just telling us to use our phone to add pictures and then use our computer to complete listing...... not  big deal- i use a digital camera to take pics anyway.

     Another 20 minutes wasted on this listing tool over a $25 item

my wife just announced she is going to open another mercari account instead of fighting with this new listing tool-  that will make 3 selling accounts on mercari..... why does ebay cintinue to drive sellers away like this? 

[mr_lincoln]

@siamjane8   I am sure your wife is not the only member who has pushed most, if not all, of their internet sales to other venues.  And I am sure it is not just because of the new tool, eBay has made a number of significant changes in the last 6 months that I think have had an adverse affect on sales, listing and working with the site.

The new tool is just the latest programming that takes two steps backwards before taking one forward.

My generation grew up in the computer era meaning we were in the business world before the Fax machine was a common piece of office equipment.  My first computer class was in 1976 then I had two more during the early 80s in college ... that's when I decided to be a user and not a programmer.  The idea of GOOD programming is to make things easier and simpler ... sadly, eBay has failed in that regard on many different occasions.

I will cite one example so as not to bog down this thread.

In ALL my years of being online and using MANY different web sites the ONLY one that I get an error that "This page is slowing down your Browser" is eBay's Seller Hub - See all Orders page.  AND OH, the old "have you tried a different browser?" and "have you cleared cookies, cache, temp internet file, browsing history and your neighbor's backyard?" is meaningless because I HAVE used different browsers and done all that but the results are the same ... and its been going on for years now ... THAT is the result of poor programming and the one thing in common to the issue from browser to browser is that one page from eBay ...

I had to laugh the other night when I was on the phone with an eBay rep on a particular transaction ... each time I had to access the See all orders page OR go back to it after opening a transaction we had to wait the 45 seconds it takes for the page to upload!!!

[siamjane8]

@mr_lincoln 

       I have heard that as well about their bloated programming. I know absolutely nothing about code or programming but i do know that ebay continues to hire by the cheapest bid possible method and that usually does not bode well.  I have NEVER been asked by any other company to clear my cookies or cache lol- only ebay. granted - I would expect the programming for the space program to have the best and brightest and that is not financially feasible for an auction house company......but there has to be somewhere in the middle.   I think the larger problem ,other than coding, in this case is simply poor web design. this new tool was designed  using  a flawed baseline- that all devices can be treated equally. that is not true- a computer has its advantage and they must be utilized not suppressed or you lose what a desktop is. that s what has happened here.  the dumbing down of the listing tool but it still needs to function so everything we need gets moved into sub menus and popups to make it available.  this approach works on a 6" touch screen phone- not on a desktop that has 2 or 3 24" monitors.

ebay must learn- build the tools with the end user  and device in mind! 

[siamjane8]

Still waiting ebay.... i know it will take time to improve the new tool to something we can use on a computer but a rollback can be done easily! that would buy you the time needed to fix the new tool while allowing us to continue to list and be productive. 

[siamjane8]

I see my previous comment was on 5/2.......... now it is 5/20- nearly 3 weeks and still no change in the listing tool. yet every day the boards are full of new people with the same complaints of "takes longer", "confusing", "dont fix what aint broke", " where is this or that?", " hidden features", classic was 100% better".

      How long do we have to wait to get some service from the company that we pay for the service?

My new listings have fallen off by the hundreds because of this tool and that is what many are saying that I have spoken with. This tool is not helping anyone- please get it fixed or give us back the classic

   Gas is $5/gal here and food cost have double and new ebay is preventing its sellers from even getting new listings on the platform. Is this some conspiracy to undermine everyone? 

[adampaulsonlinemall]

I'm as frustrated as you. I've reported over 50 times the bugs but NONE have been fixed and on top of that a new bug pops up every day. Here is a petition to ask ebay to go back to the classic tool until this one is fixed. Please share:

link to petition: https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/ebay-get-rid-of-glitchy-non-working-listing-tool-and-go-back-to-cl...

[siamjane8]

     Pretty sure that ship has sailed- they have no intention of giving us back the classic.   Although the new unified listing tool is still nowhere near as fast and simple to use as the classic- it has gotten better over the last 2 years.   It was unusable then.   

     It is still riddled with glitches, annoyances, inconsistences, and irritations, and in general such obvious stumbling blocks to being efficient to use.    Still extra clicks and bad formatting that just do not sit right with sellers.

   There are many small things but they just add up to friction in the listing process that wears us down on a daily basis.

Such as:

1. picture editor rotates the opposite direction of industry standard for no apparent reason

2. no "delete photo" button in the editor- you must back out to main view to delete  ( inconvenient if you realize that a photo was blurry or some other issue when editing)

3. Category selection is HORRIFIC! The classic showed cascading dropdowns of each subcategory as you went so you could easily look at them all an choose the best fit- Now you are only shown what the AI thinks it should be (wrong 95% of the time)/ and now we can no longer see the options available to us to make an educated decision!!!!!!!.    We cannot backtrack either so if we want to change category you MUST start at beginning and go through the whole process.   Currently, THIS IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST ISSUES with the tool

4. it would be nice to see all condition options without having to go into a popup- WE HAVE TONS OF WASTED EMPTY SCREEN SPACE AVAILABLE with this new design- lets use it to make listing faster!

5. Description box NEEDS to have the advanced option bar AVAILABLE at all times without extra confirmation clicks!!!!!

6.   we need to be able to set font size and have it "stick"- 14 is tooo small- in case nobody noticed- it is the same an the item specifics on the listing page and your description is completely lost in the jumble of text- it is not easy or natural to find the description when viewing a listing- this leads to buyer confusion.  
When we list- it takes 3 extra clicks to change font size---- its just unnecessary friction

7. we want the industry standard colors back - red is crucial to highlighting good or bad things in listing!

8. shipping calculator link should be on main flow instead of having  to go into popup box

9. order of shipping selections on main flow should be draggable to re-order instead of having to click 2x on the 3 dots.

10. item specific still need continuity- some provide an obvious box to start typing in (awesome) and some still use a preselected AI guess that we must click on 2 extra times to get to a box to type what we want (NOT awesome)

11.  Item specifics are still wildly inaccurate for categories and are more reminiscent of Amazon- who has complete control over the item specifics- ebay has no control over item specifics nor should they.

12. Where is the cancel button?

13. where is the revise another button?

    I would love to have someone from ebay address the issues that sellers are asking about head-on and in print / just go down a list like this and say - we are working on this or that , or this will never happen, or something- so we know where we stand as sellers on the platform.

    I am grateful that they have made so many changes already from the feedback- we just need more.   It is just so odd to have to beg a company, as their paying customers, to provide what we want.... and in this case what they took away!?   

    I know there are people working on the design everyday and they are honestly just trying to do their best and I am not trying to be overly critical, but when changes made from people who do not use the tool make it 5x harder to list and conduct business.... then they need to know about it, loudly and often.