eBay

1avid_collector · ‎07-06-2018

Being very suspicious of eBay's recent view-counter issues, I asked a friend of mine to check whether my listings are visible to me on my computer, but not on the computers of others. He checked and sure enough, none of my 4 current listings appeared in the search results.

Just what kind of scam is eBay pulling??? This is downright fraud -- charging a listing fee and then blocking the listings so that potential buyers cannot see them.

Is it time for a class-action lawsuit against the eBay con game??? Check your listings in this way and see if yours are also being similarly blocked, and if so, please post a reply confirming this ongoing scam.

bprbargains · ‎07-06-2018

I can see your listings.

1avid_collector · ‎07-06-2018

Thanks for your reply, but I've heard this same complaint from other sellers who did the same test on their items and got the same results I did -- not visible to those who checked for them.

If eBay is making some listings viewable only to certain viewers, and not to others, then it is committing fraud.

fabelous_records · ‎07-06-2018

I just surfed your listings and all's fine.

buyselljack2016 · ‎07-06-2018

I searched

IBM Model M 1397681

yours came up 1st in best match

and eBay can show your listings to everyone all the time, some of the time, not to everyone......... and on and on....... not guaranteed to show to all, all the time

it is so stated in the UA

yuzuha · ‎07-06-2018

If I search for "IBM clicky keyboard," your Model M 1391401 and the Model M5-1 both come up about halfway down the first page. Your Model M 1397681 is near the top of the second page, and your Model M Trackpoint II is about halfway down the second page.

fashunu4eeuh · ‎07-06-2018

If you familiarize yourself with current eBay policy, you’ll see that every member who uses the site has agreed to binding arbitration in lieu of most legal actions, but specifically class actions, unless you chose to opt out.

You will also discover that the User Agreement refers to the issue you are raising now. By using the platform, you agreed to all the provisions of the UA, link below, including this:

“To drive a positive user experience, a listing may not appear in some search and browse results regardless of the sort order chosen by the buyer”

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/member-behaviour-policies/user-agreement?id=4259

I strongly urge all sellers to read and study the policies as laid out in the UA and other help pages, before using the site to list their items for sale.

1avid_collector · ‎07-06-2018

To all who have reported seeing my listings, thank you.

But if eBay has the right to restrict the visibility of listings so that some viewers can see them and others cannot, (per the UA) how exactly does that help sellers or potential buyers?

And how exactly does “To drive a positive user experience, a listing may not appear in some search and browse results regardless of the sort order chosen by the buyer” drive a positive user experience?

And as far as class action suits are concerned, non-members are free to sue eBay without being bound by the UA.

I don't care what the fanboys and fangirls have to say about this subject, the fact that eBay can do this and get away with it (regardless of the UA) is absolutely incomprehensible and indefensible. Period.

reallynicestamps · ‎07-06-2018

EBay has over 140million listings at any given time.

And they make no secret that some listings are given preference- which has been true since before I started selling here in 1998.

The basic preferences are based on a 'Cassini' logarithm.

Some of the identified preferences are:

selling similar products recently
offering 'free' domestic shipping
offering returns
lots of listings (Four listings are no competition for sellers with hundreds of listings. And some sellers have thousands.)
Item Specifics

Others can identify more, I'm sure.

Also, eBay offers several different Searches. The default is Best Match, which is heavily Cassini-dependent, but there are also Highest Price (my personal default), Lowest Price, Newly Listed and About to End.

Your items may show better in some of those than others.

And, the more items you have listed (remember you get 50 free listings every 30 days) any listing a customer finds may encourage her to look at your other listings.

1avid_collector · ‎07-06-2018

The search phrase that I use and that my friend used was: IBM "Model M" keyboard. The searches were done in All Categories, and the Condition specified for the searches was "New". The Location was specified as "North America". The Buying Format was specified as "All Listings". These delimiters were the only ones used for the searches. There should be 17 listings in the Search results, of which 4 are my listings.

The fact that eBay can limit the number of people who can see my listings when doing the search as I and my friend did it is extremely maddening and could very well be damaging my sales. How on earth does eBay think this is acceptable or providing a more positive user experience???

Diehard eBay fans who will put up with any such nonsense on the part of eBay are not part of the solution -- they are part of the problem by accepting such outrageous policy and expecting others to do so as well. If this policy bothers you, please make your voice heard by commenting.

1avid_collector · ‎07-06-2018

I did say that no delimiters other than the ones I mentioned were used for the search. So none of the "identified preferences" should have affected the Search Results in my case. And the Sort order should also have no effect on how many listings come up in the Search Results.

And no, I'm not going to accept that I need to be a high-volume seller in order to have my listings be viewable without eBay artificially hiding them from some percentage of viewers.

The number of eBay listings at any given time has absolutely nothing to do with this issue, nor should it. The fact that eBay cannot even write the code for a reliable and consistent View counter (a trivial bit of programming IMHO) tells us a lot about the competence of their coders. It's the faulty View counter that got me to do this search experiment in the first place. And this is not the first time that the View counter and/or Watch counter have been screwed up.

luckythewinner · ‎07-06-2018

@1avid_collector wrote:
Thanks for your reply, but I've heard this same complaint from other sellers who did the same test on their items and got the same results I did -- not visible to those who checked for them.

That accusation gets posted on this board regularly, and rarely can anyone here duplicate the problem (and when they do, it can usually be explained by something other than "fraud" by eBay).

If you post the item numbers and the specific search criteria that your friend expected to find them with, we would be happy to check and report the results. If not, I suspect you will encounter mostly skepticism.

yuzuha · ‎07-06-2018

@1avid_collector wrote:
The search phrase that I use and that my friend used was: IBM "Model M" keyboard. The searches were done in All Categories, and the Condition specified for the searches was "New". The Location was specified as "North America". The Buying Format was specified as "All Listings". These delimiters were the only ones used for the searches. There should be 17 listings in the Search results, of which 4 are my listings.

Yours are listed as "New (Other)," not "New." When I used "New (Other)" as the specified condition, I get 9 results total, of which 4 are yours.

flyinhawaiiangirl · ‎07-06-2018

@1avid_collector wrote:
I did say that no delimiters other than the ones I mentioned were used for the search. So none of the "identified preferences" should have affected the Search Results in my case. And the Sort order should also have no effect on how many listings come up in the Search Results.

And no, I'm not going to accept that I need to be a high-volume seller in order to have my listings be viewable without eBay artificially hiding them from some percentage of viewers.

The number of eBay listings at any given time has absolutely nothing to do with this issue, nor should it. The fact that eBay cannot even write the code for a reliable and consistent View counter (a trivial bit of programming IMHO) tells us a lot about the competence of their coders. It's the faulty View counter that got me to do this search experiment in the first place. And this is not the first time that the View counter and/or Watch counter have been screwed up.

If you don't mind me asking, how much money do you give ebay a month? I personally don't give them that much because there's so many different items to catch attention away from whatever I'm here to do. With just 4 listings, I can't imagine you're handing over the amount of cash to get Ebay to specifically taylor anything to your needs. No offense.

I actually am better at making others give Ebay money by making a lot of purchases here. I get asked a lot where did I get such and such, and my answer usually is Ebay. You seem a bit hostile and quite demanding of a site designed to ASSIST you to sell items to an audience you would not be able to obtain alone or locally. My sales are dismal, but I don't depend on them, I happily buy somehing on one of my lists and throw the money right back into the trade game. If your demands root in money needs, I don't suggest using this venue alone to make that happen.

Good luck to you

1avid_collector · ‎07-06-2018

When I do the same search, there are only 3 Item Condition choices that appear: "New", "Used", and "Not specified". I cannot check "New other" if that option is not presented.

If I check "New" then all listings that are either "New" or "New other" appear in the Search results. Why doesn't this work for you? I have no idea, but the obvious inconsistency is annoying at best.

Perhaps eBay's Cassinian nonsense can provide a clue.