Report a Buyer - Technical Issue

[autopiacarcare]

I'm not sure how we're supposed to be covered by the new seller protections if we can't report a problem buyer.  The transaction is within the last 90 days. I put in the item number and hit "search" and this is what I get.

[tunicaslot]

I've run into this on a couple of different screens and saw the same thing the first time I tried to access the page the other day when someone here mentioned the changes made to see what they were.

[pburn]

I'd be surprised if eBay would let a seller report a buyer 90 days after the transaction. Considering that feedback has a 60-day limit, return requests have a 30-day limit, etc., it seems like everything on eBay has a drop-dead date. I would think reporting a buyer also has a time limit; however, the only reference I found with an internet search was a chatroom-style discussion where a poster said it was seven days. I would doubt that, too, but I'll bet there's a time limit that's shorter than 90 days.

It will be interesting to see what other posters come up with in this regard.

[autopiacarcare]

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@pburn wrote:
I'd be surprised if eBay would let a seller report a buyer 90 days after the transaction. Considering that feedback has a 60-day limit, return requests have a 30-day limit, etc., it seems like everything on eBay has a drop-dead date. I would think reporting a buyer also has a time limit; however, the only reference I found with an internet search was a chatroom-style discussion where a poster said it was seven days. I would doubt that, too, but I'll bet there's a time limit that's shorter than 90 days.

It will be interesting to see what other posters come up with in this regard.

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Thanks @pburn - On the report a buyer screen, when you are prompted to look up an item ID, it gives you the option of 7 days, 30 days, or 90 days.  This particular transaction is just a few days over 30, so 90 was the only option I had to try to find this transaction.

[pburn]

Then maybe it really is a technical issue? Maybe try another browser or if you have a device with another operating system? Or the mobile app versus the desktop?

Was there a case filed and resolved? Maybe it won't let you report a buyer if a case has been opened and closed? eBay has claimed in the 2019 Spring Seller Update that they are "[making] it easier for you to report buyers who violate eBay policies." It would be nice if they'd come forth with all the little, specific ins and outs of how to do so, rather than just a simple, general, basic help page with a link.

I'm grasping at straws here, but it shouldn't be that difficult. I'm really hoping someone who has used it successfully in similar circumstances will respond.

[autopiacarcare]

I just tried it again for that item number, still getting the technical error message. Tried it with a different item number and left it at 90 days, and it brought up a bunch results instantly.  Tried the first item number again, got the error message.

The item number in question is still an active listing and it's a product we sell a lot of, so there should be plenty of results coming up for the last 90 days, not just the buyer I wish to report.

[autopiacarcare]

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@pburn wrote:
Then maybe it really is a technical issue? Maybe try another browser or if you have a device with another operating system? Or the mobile app versus the desktop?

Was there a case filed and resolved? Maybe it won't let you report a buyer if a case has been opened and closed?

I'm grasping at straws here, but it shouldn't be that difficult. I'm really hoping someone who has used it successfully in similar circumstances will respond.

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Same result on multiple browsers and devices.  No case of any kind related to this transaction.

[autopiacarcare]

I just tested further - this particular item number brings up no results under Report A Buyer for 90 or 30 days, but does bring up results for 7 days.

Just for reference, we've had about 200 sales of this item in the last 90 days, with only about 20 of those being in the last 7 days, so there definitely should be transactions showing for 30 and 90 days.

[a_c_green]

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@autopiacarcare wrote:

I just tested further - this particular item number brings up no results under Report A Buyer for 90 or 30 days, but does bring up results for 7 days.

Just for reference, we've had about 200 sales of this item in the last 90 days, with only about 20 of those being in the last 7 days, so there definitely should be transactions showing for 30 and 90 days.

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Perhaps the "technical issue" it's reporting is due to its returning too many results to work with, and when you narrow your search down to the past 7 days only, that brings back a low-enough number of records that it doesn't overflow some internal limit.

That verbiage suggests that the error message is a catch-all, reporting that Something Bad happened internally, but that the returned error (whatever it was) does not have a specific error message associated with it.

[autopiacarcare]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@autopiacarcare wrote:

I just tested further - this particular item number brings up no results under Report A Buyer for 90 or 30 days, but does bring up results for 7 days.

Just for reference, we've had about 200 sales of this item in the last 90 days, with only about 20 of those being in the last 7 days, so there definitely should be transactions showing for 30 and 90 days.

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Perhaps the "technical issue" it's reporting is due to its returning too many results to work with, and when you narrow your search down to the past 7 days only, that brings back a low-enough number of records that it doesn't overflow some internal limit.

That verbiage suggests that the error message is a catch-all, reporting that Something Bad happened internally, but that the returned error (whatever it was) does not have a specific error message associated with it.

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Thanks @a_c_green that's a good idea.   I'll find something else we sell a lot of and test that out.  If that is true though, that opens up a bigger can of worms as far as how are we supposed to use this tool to report issues with a buyer if we can't get past that first step?

(By the way, I know there are other ways to deal with the situation, such as call to CS, so I'm mostly asking this as a rhetorical question.  Regardless if there are other ways around this issue, I think that if eBay is going to provide a process for reporting buyers, it should work correctly without needing to find a work around.)

[webwanna]

Go to your Orders List.  find the buyer by searching:

search by username, enter their username, hit search

only items purchased by that username should show up

In the drop down menu, next to the problem transaction, select Report a buyer

[dtexley3]

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@autopiacarcare wrote:

I just tested further - this particular item number brings up no results under Report A Buyer for 90 or 30 days, but does bring up results for 7 days.

Just for reference, we've had about 200 sales of this item in the last 90 days, with only about 20 of those being in the last 7 days, so there definitely should be transactions showing for 30 and 90 days.

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brian@ebay @mtnbkr96 Issues with the new buyer abuse reporting.

[autopiacarcare]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@autopiacarcare wrote:

I just tested further - this particular item number brings up no results under Report A Buyer for 90 or 30 days, but does bring up results for 7 days.

Just for reference, we've had about 200 sales of this item in the last 90 days, with only about 20 of those being in the last 7 days, so there definitely should be transactions showing for 30 and 90 days.

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Perhaps the "technical issue" it's reporting is due to its returning too many results to work with, and when you narrow your search down to the past 7 days only, that brings back a low-enough number of records that it doesn't overflow some internal limit.

That verbiage suggests that the error message is a catch-all, reporting that Something Bad happened internally, but that the returned error (whatever it was) does not have a specific error message associated with it.

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I tested with an item that we sell even more of than the item in question.  It displayed results for 7 days and 30 days, but not 90 days. 

The interesting thing is if I don't search for an item number and simply select the 90 day option, it shows me 11 results per page and says there are 337 pages - so it would seem like if there is a limitation on the number of results, it is specific to the search function.

Maybe if I went through each of the 337 pages, the transaction I'm looking for would be in there somewhere? 

@Anonymous - can you forward this to the appropriate team please? It would also be helpful if the report a buyer page allowed us to search by buyer ID instead of just item ID.

[autopiacarcare]

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@webwanna wrote:

Go to your Orders List.  find the buyer by searching:

search by username, enter their username, hit search

only items purchased by that username should show up

In the drop down menu, next to the problem transaction, select Report a buyer

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Thank you @webwanna - as I said above, I know there are other ways to accomplish this, my posting here is more about making sure that this specific tool/page is working correctly.

[a_c_green]

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@autopiacarcare wrote:

The interesting thing is if I don't search for an item number and simply select the 90 day option, it shows me 11 results per page and says there are 337 pages - so it would seem like if there is a limitation on the number of results, it is specific to the search function.

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Well, yes, that's what I was getting at. You're triggering a specific search that, for whatever reason, seems to cause an internal error in that part of the code that's trying to display (or retrieve, or organize, or something) your results. A different search, such as your search to simply grab everything from the last 90 days without any other restrictions, may go through a different branch of code that doesn't encounter that error.

eBay's website coding Quality Assurance is, in a word, atrocious, with new releases appearing to go into Production without any peer review or serious testing, and so in addition to simply reporting a bug like this, you can increase the odds of getting it fixed by doing your own testing to see if you can narrow down the bug. Report your test results along with the bug symptoms, and that may help the programmers to pin down where or how the problem is occurring. (I am not suggesting that a solution will come along quickly, but it may help to get a solution eventually.)