Description not showing for my item listing

[koakako]

Hello,

Hopefully somebody has found a solution to this problem. I've seen it mentioned from time to time, and I've been searching for a solution for the past couple of hours, so I've seen lots of these cases on forums like this. However, I have yet to see somebody do something that works to solve the problem.

I put two listings up this morning. One of them shows the description just fine. The other doesn't show the description at all, and it's followed by 3 acres of white space before it gets to the Q&A at the bottom of the page. I've seen this happen before, but this time I'm actually going to post here and hopefully find a helpful suggestion. I have other listings to put up, but I'll wait until I can do something about this mysterious problem first.

I'm using Firefox, but I've seen posts where people say it happens in other browsers as well. (Maybe it's Firefox, maybe it's not. I don't know.) I've disabled adblock and antivirus. I've tried clearing the cache, the history, any offline data, hit the "reload tab" button so many times I'm virtually wearing it out... and so far nothing has worked. In desperation, I even revised the basic HTML of the description on the listing to be a table body instead of simple 'paragraph' text. That didn't work either.

And despite reading pages of forum posts regarding this issue over the past couple of years, I've never once heard an answer for why a listing would show 3 acres of blank white space - forcing one to scroll down for a long way to get to the bottom of the page. Even if the description shows up. Maybe that's a separate issue? Still, I'd really like to know why it does that and how to stop it.

In any case, the listing that appears fine is item number: 122729021564

The listing that's having this "no description" problem is item number: 122729050399

If anyone has any input on this whatsoever, please reply to this post. Preferably somebody from ebay's software or technical divisions, but any useful input on why some item listings do this would be very much appreciated.

As mentioned above, I've spent a countless number of hours searching on this topic, today and in the past, so I'd really like to have SOME kind of answer for why it happens - and hopefully something I can do to prevent it.

Thank you,

KO

[canvasgirl]

I'm having the same trouble, but not with all of my listings (and I have several accounts).  In the big white space, there is usually a  light gray "frown face" showing that something is being blocked or not able to load.  I did not have these problems until eBay started messing with the "browser updates" and everythin became unsecure.  I'm using Google Chrome.  

I did a test last night on a listing that I was having this trouble with, and I went in and copied and pasted the text back into the Item Description window.  I then re-vised the listing and BINGO!  It showed up. 

I did have quite a few listings that had pictures hosted outside eBay, but this is now happening even on listings where I don't have anything but formatted text!  

My hunch is this is directly related to the browser issues eBay is making.  However, I don't understand why listings with no outside pictures, CSS links, or any of the other listed culprts, etc. are being affected?  Anyone else have a clue?

[canvasgirl]

PS - I checked out your item # 122729050399 and I was able to see the description in Chrome.

[d-k_treasures]

I see the description fine for 122729050399 using Chrome.

[pjcdn2005]

I see the description in that listing on both Firefox and IE.

[berserkerplanet]

Description (Para Spa Plus) appeared just fine in Firefox v3.6.24, but the 3 acres of whitespace was there too.

(then again, I have never yet seen any listing with the description hidden, or with the "show description" button)

Only thing that comes to mind if you want to is:

• go revise the listing
• copy everything in the HTML listing description tab to clipboard
  (Ctrl-A then Ctrl-C or via mouse context menu select all/copy)
• come back here and paste it in a post in code box for us to scrutinize
  (insert code is on edit menu above - it's the </> thing)

Make sure to redact any personal or sensitive info in the HTML if there is any (I don't think there is in your case, but there could possibly be for sellers using third party templates, and galleries, and such)

[osato]

I have the same problem...I noticed when I looked at items that sold, the description was blank...just acres of gray or white space. An Ebay rep told me it all relates to the "http" codes in my listings having to now read "https", whatever that means. Honestly, whoever came up this change must be delusional if they think the average seller even knows what they are talking about. In any event, my immediate concern was that buyers were not seeing my item descriptions. However, the rep said that as long as the listing was active,  the description would appear- but it would not appear after the item had sold. Huh? I was then advised to bulk edit all of my 3500 listings...but Ebay made that more difficult by changing the program so that you can now only bulk edit 200 listings at a time instead of 500 at a time. They acknowledged they are getting a lot of complaints about it. Worse, when you are doing a bulk edit, it becomes virtually impossible to go to the next set of 200 listings because after you submit your changes, you go back to page 1 all over again- making it difficult to even know if you already changed these listings. 

Ebay is going crazy with all these "improvements". Each time they institute them, sellers have to undergo time consuming disruptions- and find out that all the kinks weren't even worked out before the new policies were implemented. I was told that they will report my problems and admitted that it was a flaw in the system. Great...but there is no immediate solution. However, the good news is that when you see a blank item description, make sure you aren't looking at an item that already sold. "Live" and active listings have descriptions that can be seen normally by buyers. 

A plea to Ebay: just leave things alone for a while. These "improvements" are killing your top dealers. 

[koakako]

berserkerplanet

I revised the listing more times than I can count. There's nothing in it to cause an "https" conflict, and nothing special in the words (so far as I know) that should cause the description to fail to show. As I mentioned, I've seen other listings the same way - just devoid of description and a long scroll of whitespace on down.

And there's really nothing to copy for you to scrutinize. The fact that I converted it to the HTML side of the description panel is incidental. When it was posted as plain text in the left panel, it had this problem. When it was posted as simple "p" tag HTML it retained the same problem. At the moment it's posted as a simple table, using 'tr' and 'td' tags. Considering that it's the simplest possible sort of HTML edit to display text, I just left it that way for now.

BUT, I went to look at the listing and now I can see it just fine. AND the massive whitespace is gone. So I don't know what it was. I haven't installed any antivirus or app updates, and all of mine are set to Manual. I haven't restarted my PC or this browser in that time, so I doubt it's something local. My guess would be that some background mechanic bot on ebay changed something about the listing that either caused the error in the first place, or has since fixed whatever the error was. So at least the listing is fine, now.

Yet, as I said, I've been trying to find out why this happens for at least a couple of years now. No matter how much searching and reading I do, I have yet to find any sensible answer for why I keep seeing listings that look like this. I just saw another one yesterday, as I was looking at chain saw chains and gauge tools. Below all the header info, no description and a half-mile scroll to the bottom. There was another listing - where the description was visible, but the long whitespace was there.

I guess I'll just do what I've been doing for years now, shrug and move on. I was hoping to hear an actual answer this time, by posting this question here and hopefully find somebody who's actually found a reason and solution for this.  I think it's odd that so MANY people have seen this bug in action and we have yet to find out WHY it keeps happening. Very frustrating, that.

[newview]

I've seen this many times in the past, but it seems to be happening much more frequently lately. I chalk it up to eBay's flaky servers, bloated & tracking code bogging down browser rendering. I also view the "too many redirects" error you occasionally see as related to the same thing.

[berserkerplanet]

It was a shot in the dark, and the only proactive thing I could come up with.

eBay does mess up perfectly fine HTML at times, and that easily could have caused what you saw. That along with all the recent hijinks with "active content" prompted me to ask to see the HTML. If you had posted it and it was clean, that would have ruled out an error on your part or a case of eBay having corrupted the HTML.

I've seen the whitespace bug too over the years, but all instances of it don't necessarily have the same cause.

(I spent an hour a while ago trying to fix a mangled listing where eBay kept inserting broken font tags in every time I saved it - and I hand code my listings in HTML so was in control of what was in there. Didn't case the whitespace issue, but did smear tables all down the page. It happens at times. Not as much as years ago, but still happens)

[penguins_dont_fly]

---

@canvasgirl wrote:

PS - I checked out your item # 122729050399 and I was able to see the description in Chrome.

---

I don't see anything wrong with it ....could it be that OP is using table formatting center justified, ??

OP how do you create your Descriptions? Do you create them in a different program and then copy/paste?

(I would get rid of the reference to Amazon, BTW)

<table align="center" style="border-spacing: 0px; width: 100%;">
	<tr>
		<td>
			<div id="ds_div">
							<font rwr='1' size='4' style='font-family:Arial'><font rwr="1" style="font-family:Arial" size="4">
<table style="width:100%">
  <tbody>
<tr>
<th>Homedics wonderfully warming paraffin wax spa bath. </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Warm and moisturize and care for your hands and elbows as never before! </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Heat therapy soothes aching joints and muscles. </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>NEW, in original box. Has been in storage for several years, has NEVER been used. </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Still has the original paraffin wax to fill Spa device, along with 20 liner bags and instruction booklet. </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>(Dollar bill is shown for photo scale only. Is not included in auction items.) </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Amazon is currently listing this same item for $60. Get it now for half that price! </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Colors of the body of this device are white and blue. </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Originally purchased for about $60. </th>
  </tr>
</tbody></table></font></font></div>
</td>
</tr>
</table><span id="closeHtml"></span>

[critter_mama_2007]

This has been going on for quite a while sporaticly.   I called ebay.  They decided its obviously my fault since there is nothing wrong with ebay coding and I am not using the ebay approved browser.  I use firefox not chrome.  The end result was,...... move along here, nothing to see. 

[joesoucie22012]

Ebay rents server space from.....(are you ready for this,) Amazon! Oh God......help us.

[freakmuseum]

Want to fix this problem? If 10,000 people (or more) call eBay on the phone to ask about fixing this problem, I bet they fix it quickly. Also, I don't see the descriptions using Firefox, but using Chrome, I do see the descroiptions.

[firewhitefire]

I have 3 items listed. The descriptions show up fine for 2 of the 3. The third item is getting lots of looks and a considerable number of bids. Seems that buyers can see my 3rd item description, even though I can't, because no one is emailing me for more info.. I use the latest version of Firefox.