Service Metrics Scam Round 2 You only get 80 Characters

[gwzcomps]

I forget who has said in the past, but I know people have mentioned improving the accuracy of the description to help avoid false claims.  The thing is eBay deliberately hides your description in their mobile app and mobile site.  Rather than giving you a fighting chance to show your buyer what you are selling eBay spams them with semi related carp in the desperate hope something sells.  I find it quite ridiculous on how eBay constantly sabotages its sellers when we are the ones paying their bills.  It shouldn't take 3 pages of scrolling and extra work to see the full description of an item.

The way I see it at this point your title is your only description.  If you can't accurately describe the item to the least capable buyers in 80 characters then you are best off just throwing it away.

(Random item as an example of how the mobile app looks)

 

 

[corvettestainless]

No doubt, you are correct. In that example, I would've got rid of 'tested' and 'free shipping' - if it works, no need to say so. It's much more important to say 'its broken' if it were.

But...I've found that even big box websites make it difficult to find and see the 'specifications' of an item, which would contain size, weight etc. HD and Wallyworld for example. I'm trying to find a 'replacement' fabric for 3 rectangular umbrellas. Getting that information is like pulling teeth. A 7'x10' Umbrella Replacement (title) is actually 9'6" x 6'8" if you dig enough. 

A chest freezer- gives me 'cubic foot' in the title. Who knows what a 4 cf or a 6.6 cu.ft. freezer is. Give me height, width and depth. That I can understand. 

[dhbookds]

even big box websites make it difficult to find and see the 'specifications' of an item, which would contain size, weight etc. HD and Wallyworld for example.

I second that..........the specs (if they are there) are buried way below the sorry description and a bunch of please buy me too items.......  same on Amazon...... sometimes just trying to find the size......ounces, etc....is just a pain in the keister........

[3eyedfishcatcher]

While the mobile app tens to shorten larger descriptions and removes and truncates sentences so they say the wrong thing. As I sell used model train items pointing out all issues is mandatory for me to avoid buyers filing item not as described cases. 

Even if the description is edited and sorted by eBay the buyer can chose to swipe or click to see the full description.  I have found including a message to read the full description at the start of my description alerts by buyers to take the time to fully read so they will know of any condition issues, Also for used items you can add a custom  description under the item specifics that gives a warning to read the full description . In the past when I started selling eBay would show as much of the description  as the character limitation could display and give the buyer a message to tap or swipe to read on. While the simplicity rarely ran into issues of the buyer not reading the full description  as they had a indication that there was more information for them to read.

From what I under stand they changed it to the current format so partners could sell programing to tell the mobile app what parts of the description  to show on the truncated version.  It also gives distributors a advantage over a single individual listing  the same item as the distributor will have the money to pay for the use of HTML editing software making their item stand out unfairly giving them better chance of getting a sale.

[gwzcomps]

Regardless of their reasoning it creates a bad buyer experience.  Well that is assuming people are buying stuff to not return it?  I honestly don't know how this works anymore.

[gwzcomps]

This is Brian's suggestion for the description problem.  I'm not buying it.  Especially since it requires people to be tech savvy.

@gwzcomps mobile screens have limited display space on their smaller screens so we focus on showing buyers a portion of listing descriptions to help them know what they are buying. Sellers can choose what appears in the item description summary (up to 800 characters) by following these steps. The option to view the full description is available to all buyers in the mobile app by clicking on the description field.  

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Chat-with-eBay-Staff/Community-Chat-September-2-1-00-pm-PT-Gene...

[mobileman67]

100%. Majority of my cancellations are due to the fact that customers didn't read the description. There's no reason the description cannot be shown on the main page where everything else is, cell phone or not. In reality, it has nothing to do with "Mobile screens", because Amazon, Offer Up, Craigslist and Etsy have no issues with showing item descriptions on any of my mobile devices. 

[southern*sweet*tea]

::general reply::

There is a "Read more" link plainly visible. If a buyer has even half a brain cell, they're going to click that link, right? Or am I expecting too much from today's society?

Fahrenheit 451 is here I guess. Forget reading, just look at the pretty, pretty pictures...

The farther we advance technology-wise, the farther we decline brain-wise.

[gwzcomps]

It is visible, but it is smaller than the rest of the text and doesn't call any attention to itself as an important detail.  Also kinda buried under a bunch of stuff.  Maybe they need to put a link higher up the listing that clearly stands out and says it shows the buyer the description.