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Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications

EDIT: Volunteers, please make sure your buyer communication preference IS the default setting (check-marked) to receive notifications of price reductions.  Thank you @nobody*s_perfect for pointing this out.

Given eBay's changes to seller-initiated offers (auto-pay requirements for buyers, not sure if that's still rolling out or what, also more recently the unpopular practice of sending offers to people who merely looked at listings) ... and given the fact that if the buyer is NOT made to auto-pay, they have the ole option of keeping the item hostage, invisible to everyone else while not paying for 4 days and even failing to pay at all ..... I have gone back to thinking about something I've wondered about a lot in the past, and got mixed answers about it in the past, here in the Community.  Yes that was all one sentence.  OKAY, I'm talking about whether or not "interested" people receive a notification if the seller merely revises the listing to lower the item's price.  

Wouldn't that be great?  

So let's see where that stands as of now, May 2024.   I have this green frog brooch currently overpriced so that some innocent buyer won't come along and ruin everything by buying it, lol.  @dhbookds  is already watching it.  What would be great is if I could get more watchers AND some mere-lookers, to see what happens if I just lower the item price.  

So let's do it like this.  The "joining up" volunteer period will extend until 3 pm. Central time, tomorrow (Thursday).  Please either put the listing on 'watch' OR just click on the listing  and look at it.... either once or twice (please go ahead and scroll slowly down to the bottom of the listing, to give the software a sense that you really looked).  If you choose to look twice, probably a good idea to close out of eBay completely after the first look, then get back in and find the listing the second time in your 'recently viewed's, and repeat the slow-scroll.     

Then come back to this thread and post a reply, saying either "watched," "looked once" or "looked twice".  It would be best if we have a good sampling variety of these variables, so maybe scroll through replies to see which of those hasn't been done as many as the others, then do that one.   

Ugh, I hope that made sense, lemmie know if it didn't.  

THEN tomorrow at 3 PM or shortly thereafter, I will revise the item's price down.  I'll make a note of how many watchers it says the listing has, as well as how many "interested buyers" the popup window says the offer would go to IF I were doing it that way.  I will then immediately post here that I did the revision.  

Then the rest of the day/night, as each of you realizes you did or didn't get a notification, please come back and post that observation, and we'll tally up the numbers.  

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126482944261 

Screen Shot 2024-05-15 at 3.53.25 PM.png


Message 1 of 74
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73 REPLIES 73

Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications

@melkit_5911 @wastingtime101  
I'm actually going to pull the trigger today at 3 (an hour from now), rather than wait til tomorrow, for mulitple reasons:
1. I have a busy day tomorrow 
2. The 'shopping cart' variable wasn't even in the original experiment design, only a couple volunteers said they did it, and it's a relatively minor factor in the utility of the goal (judging from how relatively rare it is for my SIO's to go to shopping cart holders, compared to watchers).  
3. I'm concerned with this being enough "wrangling cats" already.  @wastingtime101  -take a look at what I discovered last night (message #45 ^).  I'll be needing people to look at 2 devices on top of checking their buyer notification preferences if they haven't already, so postponing the price revision would just add another wrench. 

Message 46 of 74
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Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications

Okay yall, I dropped the price!   
If you weren't already notified, would you please log in to the website and check your phone app, also if you are unsure whether your Buyer settings were enabled to receive notifications on price-reduced items.  

Screen Shot 2024-05-16 at 3.02.52 PM.png




23FDF2FD-29C4-4BC9-AEE2-1DF5B0118C90_1_201_a.jpeg

Either way, please report your result, whether you got a notifcation on the website or the app, and whether you had that preference checkmarked 'on'.  

Thank you in advance! 

Message 47 of 74
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Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications

I got the email @4:04 EST reduced to 28.95

Message 48 of 74
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Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications

Sweet!  So when you say email, do you mean sent to your inbox on the computer website, NOT a phone notification?  
EDIT: Also , I just scrolled through this whole thread twice and could not find your first post, where you said whether you did 'looked once, looked twice, or put on watch'.  -Did you post that under a different account username?  

Message 49 of 74
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Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications

@gurlcat 

 

I looked once. I got the notification through the app. No notification on the website (yet?).

Screenshot_20240516-130941_eBay.jpgScreenshot_20240516-130558_eBay.jpg

Message 50 of 74
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Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications

Thank you!  Fascinating .... but also a bit disturbing, that people who gave only ONE look at a listing will get a potentially annoying push notification on their phone if the seller just lowers the price.  

Message 51 of 74
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Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications


@gurlcat wrote:

Sweet!  So when you say email, do you mean sent to your inbox on the computer website, NOT a phone notification?  
EDIT: Also , I just scrolled through this whole thread twice and could not find your first post, where you said whether you did 'looked once, looked twice, or put on watch'.  -Did you post that under a different account username?  


I put it on the watch list yesterday. I got the notifications from email and through eBay messages. I noticed the email first because I wasn’t signed in to eBay 

Message 52 of 74
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Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications

I just got a notification on my iPhone just like getting a telephone call...ha...Price dropped to $28.95.

I wasn't even in eBay.

 

Message 53 of 74
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Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications

@gurlcat 

 

I have received an email now, too.

Message 54 of 74
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Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications


@mcdougle4248 wrote:

@gurlcat 

 

I have received an email now, too.


So you got a push notification on your phone AND an email on the website -for a 'looked once'?  
That's pretty wild.  As I said, when I noticed that price drop phone notification I checked the website and I didn't even get one there, and certainly didn't get an EMAIL.  

This is starting to look really random.  Hmmm...

Message 55 of 74
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Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications


@gurlcat wrote:

@mcdougle4248 wrote:

@gurlcat 

 

I have received an email now, too.


So you got a push notification on your phone AND an email on the website -for a 'looked once'?  
That's pretty wild.  As I said, when I noticed that price drop phone notification I checked the website and I didn't even get one there, and certainly didn't get an EMAIL.  

This is starting to look really random.  Hmmm...


Looked once and no notification either on phone app, website or email for me yet.

Message 56 of 74
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Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications


@gurlcat wrote:

@mcdougle4248 wrote:

@gurlcat 

 

I have received an email now, too.


So you got a push notification on your phone AND an email on the website -for a 'looked once'?  
That's pretty wild.  As I said, when I noticed that price drop phone notification I checked the website and I didn't even get one there, and certainly didn't get an EMAIL.  

This is starting to look really random.  Hmmm...


Yes, I received a notification on my phone and an email (not an eBay message). Here are screenshots of the email ETA: I only looked once.

Screenshot 2024-05-16 133612.jpgScreenshot 2024-05-16 133910.jpg

Message 57 of 74
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Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications

Only received one notification – from the account that added the item to my watchlist.

Message 58 of 74
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Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications

I watched the frog on this account and viewed it twice on another. I'm using tablets.

 

When I look at the accounts through the app both accounts received a notification about the price change but no emails or messages.

 

When I look at the accounts through Firefox I don't see a notification even when I switch to desktop view.

Message 59 of 74
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Re: Seeking volunteers for experiment about item price notifications

I watched

I received the sale offer via email on PC

I did not make the settings change

Message 60 of 74
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