Classic Listing Form to Be Retired

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I think most experienced sellers realized this when ebay first launched the new listing form in beta, but on today's ebay for business podcast, Griff and Rebecca confirmed that the classic listing form will be retired at some point (no date set). 

My advice is the same as usual: There's always a learning curve with anything new (not to mention the ingrained resistance to change many of us have) , so.....either plan on using a third party listing tool or start getting used to the new form now, before the old one is gone.

But, of course, my advice and 25 cents will get you...actually, not much of anything these days. Certainly not a cup of coffee....

[readabouthorses]

I wonder if that is the big announcement that is supposed to be released on Wednesday? Saw something on the Ebay for Business Facebook about exciting news coming tomorrow.

There is nothing I can do about my ability to use this crazy new listing form because I can't get any faster DSL service than I already have. Centurylink refuses to replace all the old systems they have because they are selling North Carolina to Apollo. I'm stuck with less than 3 for a speed (usually between 2 and 2.5). The new listing form takes forever to load each new popup you have to open. I don't sell enough to make it worth having a third party program.

I still miss Turbo Lister every day! I can't even get enthused to list I miss it so much.

[a_c_green]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

My advice is the same as usual: There's always a learning curve with anything new (not to mention the ingrained resistance to change many of us have) , so.....either plan on using a third party listing tool or start getting used to the new form now, before the old one is gone.

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I can't say for certain, but I think that some details have been tweaked in the past few days that were not present the first time I walked through the new form. I'm not happy about their habit of taking comments but never responding in any detail as to what might get fixed or what has been fixed already.

In rare cases I have actually had direct email exchanges with eBay programmers over a bug fix and such, but this form revision has all the earmarks of a busywork redesign for which no one wants to take direct responsibility.

[chapeau-noir]

I hope they've upgraded it at least somewhat.  I don't mind change but I really do hate busywork.

[popblox]

Thank you for the info - I was just working on a post about this, so I’ll insert it here!

New Listing Tool - A Warning

Lag:
There is a significant lag when opening a listing/draft with the new listing tool, sometimes up to a minute or longer - the form is just solid white and blinks for a while. I thought it might be my internet connection, but I have zero issues with the classic tool.

Item Specifics:
If you thought they were a pain before, this will be excruciating. First of all, if when you ‘convert’ a draft or any single listing to the new listing tool, ALL of your active listings and drafts switch over to the new format. With that, you randomly lose item specifics from every single active listing and draft and have to enter then all over again.

In addition, each item specific is met with a pop-up window that has to be navigated. This is specifically troublesome because you cannot see any other portion of the listing when you’re making these changes.

I didn’t realize before, but sometimes I just forget what I’m working on and now I can’t even see the title - I have to close the pop-up, scroll up, scroll down, open pop-up again. Oh wait, what color was it again?…repeat entire process. I honestly cannot believe how long it takes to do this.

HTML:
If you’re like me and write your own code for your descriptions and/or have descriptive listings with different fonts, etc., that’s over. Attempting to even view the HTML prompts a pop-up warning that has to be clicked through, which discourages adding any “extra”.

Once you’re past the warning, attempting to simply change the font color creates another lag where you have to wait on a color box to appear. My intention was to include a picture here, but I just tried and gave up after waiting almost 2 minutes for it to come up.

Video:
This is probably minor, but video cannot be added to variation listings.

Loss of draft data:
This is the worst. Last night I left my computer for a few minutes, then came back to a draft. After entering all the data, the screen flashed white, then the draft reset to what it was before I opened it. I entered everything again, and it did it AGAIN.

I can only assume this happened because my session timed out, but I wasn’t gone more than 10 minutes. I’m in and out all day long, every single day - I’ve never had anything like this happen before. I strongly suggest everyone save their drafts before stepping away.

Since using the new listing tool, I’ve sent several “Tell us what you think” comments to eBay over the last month, but have seen zero improvements. I can’t even describe the amount of time I’ve wasted on this thing - something that used to take me 5 minutes now takes 30.

I’m not prone to doom and gloom, but I really can’t emphasize enough how many issues this is going to create for everyone who is actively selling.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@readabouthorses I think that "big announcement" is going to be the other thing mentioned in today's podcast: ebay Seller School is now eBay Academy. 

https://academy.ebay.com/student/catalog

(my page opened in German, but gave me an option for English LOL---maybe they will get the language right by the time of the big announcement)

[simply-the-best-for-you]

Thank you @popblox for such a succinct summary.  I have not heard 1 positive thing about the new listing tool.  It sounds like a nightmare.  TG I use 3rd party software.  No ability to see the rest of your listing when editing IS's would be a nightmare.  I rely on my Description to fill in the IS's.   

Pop ups are not an efficient way to do anything & will wreak havoc on those who use adblockers (most everyone with any tech knowledge).  I haven't tried the form b/c I've been afraid that if I try it, I'd be stuck using it.  Sounds like the 'enhancements' are not ready for prime time.   Which never seems to stop Ebay from putting them into Production. 

[chapeau-noir]

Sounds like it's not even marginally better than when I tested it when it was first released in beta.

@popblox  The form timing out - I started having this problem with the 'classic' listing form in the last couple of months.  I'm in and out, too, and this used never to be a problem.

I only have a little basic HTML in my listing template - basically  just to organise text, but it was mangled when I tried the listing form before - how does one mangle bullet points?  Did these programmers go to Cornpone's Codin' Akademy?

[a_c_green]

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@popblox wrote:

Thank you for the info - I was just working on a post about this, so I’ll insert it here!

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For what it's worth, I put a writeup in the Technical Issues group here: 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Share-eBay-Technical-Issues/Comments-on-the-new-Listing-Form/m-p/32826... 

It's a lengthier version of comments I jammed into their 500-character feedback window in the comments link on that form.

It's hard to find any threads in the Technical Issues group that actually show a reply from an eBay contact (in going through the first two pages of topics, I found only one topic on each page had received an eBay response), but there's nothing to be gained by not reporting the problems, so...

[b86fiero]

When current listings automatically renew will they be switched over to the new listing form view? Or will the classic listing view remain for updating, etc?

[chapeau-noir]

When I tested the new listing format when it was first introduced, they did get back to me about my experiments. 

Most innovations eBay rolls out are pretty rough to begin with and they improve as time goes on, but this one seems particularly poorly done.

[kensgiftshop]

I received an email last week saying they were going to start moving accounts over to the new listing tool soon.

I wish they would leave the business tool and have it an option to use the new one.

I tried the new one when it come out and don't like it at all, to much clicking.

[stephenmorgan]

I though there was a new Listing Tool with Seller Hub a couple of years and you could switch back to Classic Tool for a while.  So is now the New Listing Tool of a couple of years ago going to become the Classic Tool and another New Listing Tool be implemented?

[fern*wood]

This certainly doesn't give a warm fuzzy feeling.  Do drafts not auto save with the new form if you walk away? 

[popblox]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

I only have a little basic HTML in my listing template - basically  just to organise text, but it was mangled when I tried the listing form before - how does one mangle bullet points?  Did these programmers go to Cornpone's Codin' Akademy?

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Seriously, that's what I'm trying to figure out lol. All the lags, pop-ups, and attempts at "fanciness" with total disregard for actual web development and the most important aspects of a UI. Everything you learn in coding is how to create the best program in the least complicated, most efficient way possible. The speed at which the user can navigate is the priority. Always.

I used to be a manager of a salon, where employees were required to have a cosmetology license to be on the salon floor. None of the people I reported to actually had a license - they weren't even allowed to walk in the salon during business hours. Half the time they made policies that were against licensing guidelines. It was a nightmare.

That's what this feels like. Either eBay programmers went to Cornpone's Codin' Akademy, or they're being forced to implement something they know is horrendous and they're crying themselves to sleep at night.