Can't see watchers?

[Anonymous]

For Some reason  I can no longer see watchers on items on ebay Not even mine unless I am on my ebay page. So Buyers can no longer see how many People are watching my buy nows? Why is that? I tried 3 different browsers  None show them,this started today! But you can sure see the Delivery in 3 days In my zip, Which is a lie I cant even get packages from my house to the town over In 3 days any more. Priorty mail or First class. This should have been removed..

[greenbaycheese]

Ebay is turning into a joke. Seriously. I called about this same issue and the lady plays dumb. I asked her if she honestly had not heard of this issue even once...and she said no. Lol. It’s a shame that they treat people this way when you call for honest helpful answers. I even read comments (some from on here) stating that this is a huge issue, that they play dumb when we call, and so on. Still the lady played dumb and said she has no idea about this. I asked if I could please speak to someone else that may have a better idea about this issue and she told me no. She said she would “put this on her list” and call me or email me if/when she found out about this. WHAT A COMPLETE JOKE EBAY!!! I will be waiting for that call or email....lol

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

These customer service reps are low paid people with scripts. Many in a foreign country. You really think they're lying when they say they don't know about some miniscule change to the layout of a screen? Let's be reasonable here. The customer service people are there to deal with the 90% of common issues. They are not trained to deal with a tiny change that most people wouldn't notice.

[greenbaycheese]

You really believe that they have NEVER heard of this issue?? They never got a call about this?? Come one. Do you work for Ebay? And when I asked to please speak to someone else about this issue she flat out said no. Lol   Anyway, we can agree to disagree on this one.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

Aah, the old "if you disagree with me you must work for Ebay" accusation. I demand my paycheck! Please don't look at all the times lately I've criticized Ebay for their behavior. It was someone else who looks like me.

[greenbaycheese]

Looks like you have been a member on eBay since 2005 and have bought 30ish items from eBay in the last 12-13 years. No transactions for well over a year. So why all the interest in responding to my (and others) comments on this topic at this point in time?

I have sold and bought hundreds of things in the last year or two and that’s why this topic interesting/frustrating to me. 

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

I’ve been on EBay since 1999 and buy about 30 items a week. This is a posting ID. I have well over 10k transactions on EBay as buyer or seller and been on the boards learning since 1999.

Regardless I am interested in what everyone has to say. Whether they buy and sell a lot or a little. I’m inclusive and feel anyone can learn from anyone if they have an open mind.

[greenbaycheese]

Ohhh...Your posting ID. Later.

[berserkerplanet]

Enter reply textYou need to stop digging - the hole you started is deep enough.

[lux10k]

Hello, just to give an update. since my last message Ebay did start showing the watch number on the item view page for buy it now items.... but only if it had 5 watchers or more, It may have been due to the number of complaints made, but talk about stubborn! they could have went back to showing watchers starting at 1 watcher and fixed this issue completely. My sales have not improved since my last message. The 5 watchers rule would probably confuse buyers even more because now 4 watchers looks like 0. 

Even worse than that, I have today started to notice quite a few (not all .... yet?) items with 6 or 7 watchers not displaying watchers, only items with ten or more watchers are showing the number on the item view page. I currently have an item with 7 watchers that won't show the watch number on the item view page . The listing will run out in 3 days and I will be back to 0 again and may never get to 10 watchers before it runs out each month. I am certain that this item (along with dozens of my other items) would have already sold weeks (even months) ago if ebay had simply brought back the old and perfectly effective watch number display starting from 1 watcher on the item view page.

In order to educate buyers I will be adding this message to my listings: (it may help to add something like this to your own listings if you are suffering with this issue also)

"NOTICE: Ebay no longer display the current number of watchers on all listings any more
you can still check the number of watchers and views this item has by visiting watchcount.com and entering the ebay item number into the search bar"

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

You're going to "educate" buyers by putting a blurb in your listing about something that means very little to nearly everyone? I think it's a hugely bad idea to put irrelevent information in your listings and for trying to "educate" your buyers.

Put in why I should buy your item. Stop trying to manipulate people.

The more control stuff in a listing compared to the actual item information, the more the seller is advertising that they are difficult and control freaks.

Really, put important information in your listing about your item and your service and leave the lecturing and Ebay procedural statements out.

[lux10k]

If you are selling successfully in the antiques and collectables category, please could you give an example of one or more of your current buy it now listings.

please enter the ebay item number/s in your reply.

If your listings are generating sales and you are keen to offer advice it would be helpful to see an example. thanks

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

I mostly sell off EBay now however I’ve been buying, selling and posting here since 1999. I’ve had over 10k transactions.

Most sellers don’t post with their selling ids because there has been a long history of malicious interference.

[ifyouloveit]

I always used watchers as a gauge to how well my listing was getting to the buyers. No watchers, I would go in a tweak it. Now I can't see anything. No page views, no watchers. Removing it didn't help me, it just dumbed me down, again. Lost a selling tool AND a buying tool.

[ifyouloveit]

Of course, the worst explanation could be the simplest. There are no watchers because no one is seeing our listings.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@big-island-sales wrote:
I personally used the watcher log to manipulate my sales and ebay knows this. Many times I have used the watcher function to watch a item just to make the watcher count go up. I would use my other IDs to watch my items too and, if the item was a hard to get item, by the time the count got up to three or four, someone would come in and feel like someone else could buy it before them and they would pay full price. I used this tactic over a thousand times on my IDs and eBay made more money faster by using it. YES, I admit, I manipulated folks and I would do it again if eBay brought back the feature.

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Recently a seller reported an interesting theory.  She would raise the price on a listing whenever a watcher appeared, and each time, another watcher appeared, and so on, and the item quickly sold.