eBay

kates-of-mequon · ‎02-11-2015

Has anyone seen this new layout for listings? I have a button on my last listing called 'click button to view entire description'.

There is a completely blank screen unless one clicks that button. There is NO description of the item for sale until you click this button and then the description opens in a separate window.

What is this all about - an I in a test group?

tunicaslot · ‎02-14-2015

Well - this "test" seems to be good for other venues as I have now had 3 sales in 12 hours on another venue, where I may get 1 a month if I'm lucky. Buyers are googling and going elsewhere.

Jeff - despite what the tech team thought - this test needed to be announced to both buyers and sellers. Without knowing to look for a click through to see a full description - sellers are receiving emails with questions about answers already in the description that can't be seen. Believe me - it's not a coincidence that I've had 3 sales elsewhere - buyers aren't buying this.

gossiprag · ‎02-14-2015

yep. about a year ago(& I made a post about it here). it was a bad idea then & a worse idea now to hide the descriptions. i have a hard enough time getting buyers to read it without you hiding it

1920s-1990s vintage + retro clothes, handmade glitter shoes, vintage hats, leather gloves, secondhand books, etc

tunicaslot · ‎02-14-2015

I can understand their idea behind it - people buying from their cell phones ( they tell me 30%+ are cell phone sales on my selling acct.) have to scroll all over the place to see the description. I can understand them doing it now - when for most sellers it's a bit slower until IRS returns start coming in - but I don't understand why there was no announcement.

I'm tech challenged and only have a Tracfone - I have a hard time doing anything on Ebay with my ipad because everything is so small - so I can't imagine using a tiny screen like a cell phone.

They would have been better off having a big red button - with " Click for Full Description" but this should have been tested only for the mobile app - not on the PC platform.

I know we have a lot of older buyers - who are as tech challenged as myself and buyers that just glance at a listing who wouldn't see that little blue button which blends into the background.

If this test was to see if buyers could find the "full description" - we could have told you it was going to fail without hidden testing. I don't think your teams do enough in house testing before bringing it to the marketplace. I don't think you have unbiased sellers in your focus groups if this was tried on one and they said " Hey this is great! Try it!"

Griff has admitted that they don't always listen to him when he speaks as our seller advocate. I know Ebay has a lot coming up and wants to be more competitive but sometimes - patience is a virtue. Alienating more sellers and buyers isn't the way to do it.

appellative · ‎02-14-2015

Sorry Jeff, my question about promotions probably should have been better written.

In the current PC format when I click on a listing as a buyer any special discount or shipping offer is noted right at the top of the description. For a buyer in the beta test do they have to click the description button before they can be seen - as part of the second page when they click read description? Or do these offers appear on the first screen seen on a beta test listing? Apparently my seller account is not part of the test as all listings appear as normal to me with the description on one page.

If it appeared in the descripton box before, it should continue to appear there. If you can find a listing that has this offer, please PM me the details and I'll be glad to look at it (I'm opted in) and confirm. Thanks.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Whoa! Wait just a minute, there.

You have indicated that whether or not we see the new layout in a listing is completely random. Now you ask for specific listings to look at because you are opted in.

If you are opted in, then the test is not truly random.

If you are opted in, it stands to reason that WE CAN BE OPTED OUT!!

maknee61 · ‎02-14-2015

I just went to you latest listing and it was just like always opened and veiwed just fine

ymeagainlord · ‎02-14-2015

All well and good but mobile usrs already HAVE an app for viewing eBay, why does it need to be on the CLASSIC eBay site to accomodate cell phone users?

Or are they aware most shoppers on phones hate the apps with a vengeance and typically use the "classic site"?

Crusader Cat is watching

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. - L Tolstoy

"You are entitled to your own opinion, you are not however, entitled to your own facts."

tunicaslot · ‎02-14-2015

I didn't say it was a good idea - I just see what they were trying to improve upon. And no - I don't believe that the "Test" or new application is needed on classic Ebay. As I stated earlier - we tech challenged have a hard enough time navigating without all these changes.

fort2b · ‎02-14-2015

I"ve seen this 'click to view full description' thing used on a few other sites, but Ebay is not doing it properly.

The way you are supposed to do it is show the first couple of sentences of the descritpion then have the 'view full description' button. That way people viewing the listing will realize there is a description in the first place.

eg This auction is for a brand new ultimate GI Joe figure. Figure stands about 4 inches....(click to view full description).

That's the way you are supposed to do it. I guess nobody at Ebay has thought of that yet. So they just hid the entire thing.

If they are so concenred about mobile users, bandwidths etc then there is a simple solution: just remove all of the ads from the listing. That will save lots of space and bandwidth. There, problem solved.

I mentioned this in another thread but going forward, anyone who gets a SNAD should not have to refund the buyer. If Ebay is going to deliberately hide descriptions then they are going to have to bear the full responsibility for SNAD cases. And any judge would agree.

clockworktoyshop · ‎02-14-2015

Just noticed this today 2/14, not as a seller but as a buyer. I was looking at a piece

of stoneware and was ready to email the seller to ask why they did not post a description.

I looked 3 times and never saw the description button. Then....I looked at my listings, I was

sick. Why, why, why? Has it not worked for the past 20yrs?

best-now · ‎02-14-2015

eBay is run by a bunch of young, inexperienced in life, Asian and Indian imports who work in software development and think the world is contained in their iPhones. They live, breathe, eat and sleep with their smart phones in Silicon Valley (where I live). They forget there's a whole other real world out there populated by real human beings who have a life apart from their computers.

There's a commercial on TV said it best. It showed a young couple in their tweties sitting in a restaurant booth facing each other, and texting each other rather than having a real human conversation.

Of course, like the past, current and future CEO's never having used eBay in real life either as a seller of buyer, would know what's best for you.

eBay's disclaimer that they are "Just a venue" is true, and they still own the company, so they can do whatever they want and if we don't like it, we don't have to use them.

Most of us are not computer geeks, and could not guess to click on the statement "See full item description" because when I first looked at this, I was searching for the full item description on the page and could not find it. This is to prove that 99% of imported software developers haven't any English language grammar skills since it's their second language. It should clearly state "Click Here For Full Item Description" and make it appear as a normal clickable button, not as plain text.

tunicaslot · ‎02-14-2015

I just went to a couple of sites that used the example fort2b used above that I shop at. Guess what - they no longer use the click for full description - did they maybe get too many returns because buyers weren't looking and reading the full description if it wasn't right in front of them on the item page?

marthca938 · ‎02-14-2015

@best-now wrote:
eBay is run by a bunch of young, inexperienced in life, Asian and Indian imports who work in software development and think the world is contained in their iPhones. They live, breathe, eat and sleep with their smart phones in Silicon Valley (where I live). They forget there's a whole other real world out there populated by real human beings who have a life apart from their computers.

There's a commercial on TV said it best. It showed a young couple in their tweties sitting in a restaurant booth facing each other, and texting each other rather than having a real human conversation.

Of course, like the past, current and future CEO's never having used eBay in real life either as a seller of buyer, would know what's best for you.

eBay's disclaimer that they are "Just a venue" is true, and they still own the company, so they can do whatever they want and if we don't like it, we don't have to use them.

Most of us are not computer geeks, and could not guess to click on the statement "See full item description" because when I first looked at this, I was searching for the full item description on the page and could not find it. This is to prove that 99% of imported software developers haven't any English language grammar skills since it's their second language. It should clearly state "Click Here For Full Item Description" and make it appear as a normal clickable button, not as plain text.

I said the exact same thing in an earlier posting of mine today! I think that's exactly what's going on.

Anonymous · ‎02-14-2015

@binderzz wrote:

When I click on the "tell us what you think" thing, this is the popup I get. A blank page. LOL.

Apparently they didn't want to know what I think. This is beyond stupid.

Give it a few more seconds to load. It took about 10 seconds for the page to load for me, but it should load.

gorilla-scales · ‎02-14-2015

I dont know how many buyers would wait 10 sec for a pop up page to load. I know I wouldn't.

Anonymous · ‎02-14-2015

@appellative wrote:

Sorry Jeff, my question about promotions probably should have been better written.

In the current PC format when I click on a listing as a buyer any special discount or shipping offer is noted right at the top of the description. For a buyer in the beta test do they have to click the description button before they can be seen - as part of the second page when they click read description? Or do these offers appear on the first screen seen on a beta test listing? Apparently my seller account is not part of the test as all listings appear as normal to me with the description on one page.

If it appeared in the descripton box before, it should continue to appear there. If you can find a listing that has this offer, please PM me the details and I'll be glad to look at it (I'm opted in) and confirm. Thanks.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Whoa! Wait just a minute, there.

You have indicated that whether or not we see the new layout in a listing is completely random. Now you ask for specific listings to look at because you are opted in.

If you are opted in, then the test is not truly random.

If you are opted in, it stands to reason that WE CAN BE OPTED OUT!!