New search bug. Does your variation listing show a variation photo instead of the default photo?

[futuretomorrow]

I have a multi-variation listing with 4 colors and 2 lengths that was a pretty consistent seller but simply stopped selling on 09/17/2018. There are a number of reasons that could lead to this so I initially ignored it until 09/21/2018, which was the longest window I hadn't seen a sale for the item in question.

On 09/22/2018 I decided to do a search for my item. Low and behold, the listing from an outward bound search (using the search at top in eBay) showed one of the variations as the default photo instead of the main photo. This almost or does make it seem like I only sell that color, when the default photo that should be displayed would show I have 4 colors of this item. When I clicked on the listing, it's defaulted to the single color and an already selected length, instead of the default with 4 and allowing the user to choose their required length.

I don't know if this has caused the issue in sales but from a UX standpoint and what this may indicate to buyers it's a nightmare. Listings that only sell a single color of this item have the lowest sales compared to listings similar to mine that sell 4 or more colors.

Are buyers seeing this and thinking I only have 1 color available? When they click on the listing are they thinking I only have 1 length available as well? You don't have the answer, this is more out loud thinking as to what is going through a buyers mind.

1. My listing is not the only listing affected by this bug. Other sellers are affected to.
2. I believe it happened as a result of eBay "attempting" to fix the previous variation bug that would delete the variation photos if you tried to revise that listing.
3. If you're in your eBay hub or active listings you won't see this problem, at least for me. All listings appear normal as they should with the default photo but when I do a search for my items using the eBay search at the top of the page, entirely different story.
4. Only 1 listing is affected but creating any new multi-variation listings on 09/22/2018 duplicated the problem.
5. eBay is aware of it, I've opened a ticket, there is currently no known fix.
6. Different representatives saw different colors, not the neon green I was seeing and when I created a duplicate listing to see if the problem was isolated to that listing the new listing had a black pair as the default. One of the CSR's saw orange.
7. To temporarily fix this, I had to upload the default photo for each color variation but when you click on the listing it still defaults to a variation color and the first length in the list. I find this to be confusing for buyers to be quite honest.
8. I noticed that over a half a dozen other affected sellers were doing no.7 as a fix but again, it's confusing.

On a related note, I don't think eBay should increase fees until they deliver a platform that doesn't handicap sellers "potentiality" to make a sale by system bugs. Let's be clear. I'm not saying that a lack of bugs will guarantee anyone a sale but if you understand even the basics to wider extent of buyer user flows and behavior, you'd know that these bugs sure aren't helping. 

[bigdeals.etc]

Some of what you're saying is pretty much what's been going on long before that glitch you mention about the variations photos being removed upon quantity/price revision. You've explained two different glitches I believe.

glitch 1) When a member searches for keyword and your listing is among the results, the gallery photo isn't being shown but rather the photo of a variation. I've noticed this for years now, but maybe just the outcome is the same as your scenario and but the cause is different. The cause I'm referring to is for instance... if you're selling 3 pairs of the same Nike shoe: 1 black, 1 blue, and 1 white. If you search "Nike shoe" then your listing should be in the results with the correct gallery photo. But if you search "Nike shoe black" your listing will still be in the results but the photo associated with the Black variation will show. Hence, the color variation is searchable. That was how this glitch started but then I've been noticing sometimes ebay would just show the variation photos with just the "Nike shoe" search string. It's kinda random to me, because sometimes they would correctly show the gallery photo too.

glitch 2) When you click into the listing, all of the pulldown menu choices will have pre-filled choices already made for the buyer (not defaulting to the -Select- field which forces the buyer to make a choice to purchase). This has been mentioned like a month or two ago when it started. Some people believe that ebay intentionally is pre-filling the choices to the variation that is the cheapest price on the listing. I find this to be true in alot of my listings too. The problem with this is that having that preset confuses the buyer. They would usually have to back-out of the choices then choose another (having too many incorrect pulldown menu choices sometimes confuses the ebay system. If you don't go back to the -Select-, ebay may not show all of the choices you actually have in that pulldown menu). Also this glitch automatically shows the corresponding variation photo, which means the buyer is likely to skip all of the listing's uploaded gallery and header photos which can contain important information... for instance I include photos of size charts and measurements. If a buyer skipped thru that, they can easily buy the wrong size and then claim a false SNAD for me. Very dangerous glitch. I've explained this to CS before only to have them say this functionality is a change that ebay intended. Which I obviously don't believe and the agent was just being lazy to make any report. If it was intended, then why keep the -Select- option as the top choice in the pulldown since it will never be chosen?

It's very safe to say that multi-variation listings was coded by monkeys.

[futuretomorrow]

"It's very safe to say that multi-variation listings was coded by monkeys." 

There's more monkeys around than we'd like to see:

1. Shopify themes have a problem with variation listings as well. Not all, but too many, including themes by their "experienced" front end developers. This is a sad joke on it's own.
2. Bonanza also has problems with variation listings and the process to create one their is fairly complex or not possible. I'd like to be wrong on this so please correct me.
3. Some platforms don't allow multi-variation listings at all and expect you to create an individual listing for every single variation, which is ridiculous and simply poor UX at work.
4. Amazon variations seem to work but I'm not a seller there to know how easy or hard it is to set up. As a buyer, I've had no problems seleting what I wanted and/or changing options.

This shouldn't be this hard, but for some reason it is for eBay in particular to get right.

Glitch 1 - is new to me, even though I've searched my listings in the past, I've never seen the behavior that I did yesterday and we're both describing. To be clear, when I do a search, I'm  NOT using a color in the keyword phrase, it's just the name of the laces. Yet, in the results I can see my listing and what should be the default photo showing 4 variations is not what appears. It's one of the variation photos and clicking into it may suggest to a buyer that it's the only color and length I sell because that's wht it defaulted to.

If I did search by a specific color it would be absolutely brilliant for the system to match the keyword color with the associated keyword in my listing and display that but there are also several problem cases you and I could discuss with this approach all day. It's problematic when you take a closer look at it as a buyer user flow. 

Thanks for confirming you've seen some iteration of this problem in the past and apparently others have to the point of creating posts about it, which I clearly overlooked or missed at the time, if I was here at all to see them. Not sure. Do you know if those posters submitted tickets and complaints to eBay? 

[gracieallen01]

"It's very safe to say that multi-variation listings was coded by monkeys."   Awwww, come on - they do the best they can with what they've got.  They should get a raise.  Now, if people were doing the programming, well ..... 

I think ebay - and others - would find it much easier to fix their glitches and remedy their problems by gathering a good team - a real team, not just different 'departments', telling them what they want and letting them create a new program that mirrors their current program.  HOWEVER, those designing and programming the new one can't have EVER seen the programming of the current one, or even have access to it.

I know, I know - simplistic.  But, what the heck.