eBay

jnwaite1 · ‎11-19-2018

This is a glitch that has been posted about many times already, but I haven't seen any solution. I've contacted eBay about it many times and they simply say "we'll forward this info to the tech team", but it's been nearly 10 months now and the problem still exists. It seems to be related to my zip code.

Problem in a nutshell:

When viewing my own store, it appears to be empty. No categories, no listings, nothing. When I search for my own listings from the search bar, my listings do not show up in the search results. This isn't just my store--when I try to use my quarterly coupon for eBay shipping supplies, that store also appears completely empty, even though they absolutely do ship to my address (I use them every quarter).

Here's how I have to work around it: Go to someone else's listing, click on the shipping tab, change my zip code to something other than my own, and then everything magically shows back up. I live in Alaska, and I suspect this is the problem because eBay seems to think it is an International location. I understand that some international buyers cannot see listings in stores that do not ship to that country, but I do not have any shipping restrictions set with regards to my own town or state.

It's a minor nuisance compared to some of the bigger problems on eBay, but it's annoying nonetheless because I cannot even preview how my own store looks without jumping through some hoops. I also can't get a good feeling for how far up or down my items appear in the search results. Has anyone figured out a better way to fix this issue?

pjcdn2005 · ‎11-19-2018

I thought that one of the board reps had said this was fixed but apparently it isn’t.

I haven’t read of any other ways to get around the problem but perhaps one of the eBay reps can give you more information.

alan@ebay

When I try to look at this Alaska sellers listings usng an Alaskan or PR zip, I dont see any listings at all. When I look with a Hawaiian zip, I do see their listing but shipping shows as not specified in search. I would have to go into each listing to see a shipping price if I was in Hawaii. Well these problems be fixed soon?

pburn · ‎11-19-2018

@jnwaite1 wrote:
This is a glitch that has been posted about many times already, but I haven't seen any solution. I've contacted eBay about it many times and they simply say "we'll forward this info to the tech team", but it's been nearly 10 months now and the problem still exists. It seems to be related to my zip code.

Problem in a nutshell:
When viewing my own store, it appears to be empty. No categories, no listings, nothing. When I search for my own listings from the search bar, my listings do not show up in the search results. This isn't just my store--when I try to use my quarterly coupon for eBay shipping supplies, that store also appears completely empty, even though they absolutely do ship to my address (I use them every quarter).

Here's how I have to work around it: Go to someone else's listing, click on the shipping tab, change my zip code to something other than my own, and then everything magically shows back up. I live in Alaska, and I suspect this is the problem because eBay seems to think it is an International location. I understand that some international buyers cannot see listings in stores that do not ship to that country, but I do not have any shipping restrictions set with regards to my own town or state.

It's a minor nuisance compared to some of the bigger problems on eBay, but it's annoying nonetheless because I cannot even preview how my own store looks without jumping through some hoops. I also can't get a good feeling for how far up or down my items appear in the search results. Has anyone figured out a better way to fix this issue?

It's quite possible @berserkerplanet might be able to advise you.

berserkerplanet · ‎11-19-2018

>>It's quite possible @berserkerplanet might be able to advise you.

Not really this time.

This is (what I termed) the HATA bug, OP is aware of at least some of the dozen other threads on this, and there is nothing more to add - eBay has chimed in, it supposedly has been passed to technical groups multiple times over the last year+, allegedly been fixed (not!), and this thread is pretty much just a re-surfacing of the issue.

Until eBay fixes it, maybe 2% of the US population (those in Hawaii, Alaska, Territories, AP)/FPO) may have trouble seeing US seller listings in search or in their own stores, and changing their searching/viewing zipcode to one in the lower 48 states is the only* workaround to date.

I can add is that changing the zipcode via "Get Rates" on the Shipping&Payments tab of any eBay listing is an option, but the location can also be changed by a "Shipping to" link that appears on a search page when the sort filter is "Price+Shipping: lowest first", "Price+Shipping: highest first", or "Distance: nearest first".

*Just had a thought about whether a user changing their eBay Primary shipping address in site settings to one in the lower 48 states would mitigate the viewing issue, and it looks like that is the case. I changed mine, but had to flush all eBay cookies and log in again to get it to "take" - which is good because it reinforces my suspicion that all location stuff is cookie based (though something I have not been able to nail down solidly yet), but means it isn't viable as a simple toggle.

So a new workaround would be for a user in the HATA areas to add a lower 48 states address to their eBay shipping addresses and make it Primary: https://settings3.ebay.com/address/display?type=SHIPPING

Find a Walmart or UPS store or something in Washington state, or Florida, or wherever works best, and use that address as primary. Search results will then appear, but shipping amounts will likely be wrong, and there are other issues with sellers who block Alaska/Hawaii and/or Territories and or APO/FPO because their listings will appear in search but will not ship to the real location. To get proper shipping amounts, the location will have to be changed to user's real location in the listing S&P tabs, and user will have to be sure to select the correct address at checkout.

Still not optimal, but makes search work better for HATA users at the expense of having to change location in listings to get correct shipping amount quotes.

The other workaround is to use something like I use in FF2,0, 3.6.24, 31, and 52 called CookieSwap where I run 3-5 cookie profiles. Single click on icon on statusbar switches me to profile 2 where I have changed my zip code on a S&P tab, and that profile acts like I am in Alaska. Click a time or 2 again and I'm back to the default profile where my zipcode is my correct one here in Sacramento, CA. Just requires carefully remembering which tab is associated with which profile. Easier alternative is to just run 2 browsers using different zipcodes and copy/paste or drag/drop search results from one to the other.