Variations dropdown issues?

[packratville]

I just made a purchase with my buying ID and it's probably the first time I've ever purchased something on eBay with a variation. After I selected a size in the dropdown I decided to look at another size. When I made my initial selection in the dropdown, there were three choices and I chose the first. When I tried to look again, the only choice in the dropdown was the one I had chosen, so I couldn't select one of the other two since they weren't showing. I had to go out of the listing then go back in. Then the dropdown showed the three choices. That is, until I selected one and tried to look again just to see if I could switch my choice.

Is that part of the recent glitches?

[pink.fish.rule]

No. It's the way the variations work. You can only select one of the variations to purchase at a time (although you CAN select more than 1 of that particular selection).

If the seller has set up additional items shipping for less, you only get that if you add each selection to the cart and THEN checkout.

[bigdeals.etc · Accepted solution]

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@packratville wrote:

I just made a purchase with my buying ID and it's probably the first time I've ever purchased something on eBay with a variation. After I selected a size in the dropdown I decided to look at another size. When I made my initial selection in the dropdown, there were three choices and I chose the first. When I tried to look again, the only choice in the dropdown was the one I had chosen, so I couldn't select one of the other two since they weren't showing. I had to go out of the listing then go back in. Then the dropdown showed the three choices. That is, until I selected one and tried to look again just to see if I could switch my choice.

Is that part of the recent glitches?

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No. Unfortunately it's always been like that. Chalk it up to bad programming. And it happens randomly, not all the time. You can imagine how confusing it can be for one of my buyers since I have at least two simultaneous dropdowns with this dumb disappearing functionality (color and size). I complained about this to CS back when variations first came out. And back then they said they'll forward the info to development. A lot of good that did. Tbh, maybe I was the only seller to ever complain about this to them.

I forget, but I think there are times when you choose a variation and the others disappear from the dropdown, you can go back to the "-Select-" choice and the system will display all available options again.

[packratville]

Thanks. I might not have described exactly what happened very well but it was past my bedtime. I would expect I could choose any one of the three in the dropdown just to see what the price for each choice is before I actually pick which one I want to go with and continue with the other two dropdowns. In this case it was bubblewrap, and the choices were small, medium, or large bubbles. The second and third dropdowns gave me a choice for width, then length. All this happened just in the first dropdown.

I guess I can compare it to those secret questions some websites have. If I look at the dropdown it might give high school mascot, name of best childhood friend, and mother's maiden name. When I look at the dropdown I can see all three choices. I might choose school mascot but then change my mind. So I go back to the dropdown and all three choices are still there and I can choose name of best childhood friend instead.

In this case on eBay, I chose small bubbles, but then decided I wanted to see the price for medium bubbles. When I selected the dropdown again, all that showed was small bubbles and the -Select-, and the other two choices that had been there weren't there. I had to back out of the listing then return in order to see the other choices again. That would be like choosing high school mascot, then changing my mind but when I went back to the dropdown only high school mascot and the -Select- showed.

I tried several times but it was the same result each time.

[packratville]

That's extraordinarily bad programming. And you're right, it can be confusing. Seems like it might cause someone to just move on in some cases.

I sometimes wonder, not just with eBay but with many companies, how many times things actually get passed on to the correct department when a customer service rep says they will.

Thanks for confirming it's not just me. As far as randomness, I think I had looked at the choices on that seller's page last week and if so, it worked fine then. I'm just not 100% positive. I ended up buying from one of his other listings that didn't have dropdowns then. Luckily I was able to make the choice this time after a couple of tries and purchase the selection I wanted.

[wastingtime101]

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@packratville wrote:

In this case it was bubblewrap, and the choices were small, medium, or large bubbles. The second and third dropdowns gave me a choice for width, then length. All this happened just in the first dropdown.

In this case on eBay, I chose small bubbles, but then decided I wanted to see the price for medium bubbles. When I selected the dropdown again, all that showed was small bubbles and the -Select-, and the other two choices that had been there weren't there. I had to back out of the listing then return in order to see the other choices again.

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Without seeing the listing, it sounds like the issue you're describing has to do with a combination of the seller's stock level and eBay's programming.

Example: you choose size small, then choose width 12"

Now you want to see size medium, width 12", but since medium doesn't come in 12" it's not available to choose unless you de-select 12" width. If the seller had 12" width for medium then you would be able to select it.

The problem is that eBay's programming does not allow you to de-select a variation and this causes problems when there are multiple attributes in the same listing (like size and width).

My solution is generally to hit page refresh.

[packratville]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

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@packratville wrote:

In this case it was bubblewrap, and the choices were small, medium, or large bubbles. The second and third dropdowns gave me a choice for width, then length. All this happened just in the first dropdown.

In this case on eBay, I chose small bubbles, but then decided I wanted to see the price for medium bubbles. When I selected the dropdown again, all that showed was small bubbles and the -Select-, and the other two choices that had been there weren't there. I had to back out of the listing then return in order to see the other choices again.

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Without seeing the listing, it sounds like the issue you're describing has to do with a combination of the seller's stock level and eBay's programming.

Example: you choose size small, then choose width 12"

Now you want to see size medium, width 12", but since medium doesn't come in 12" it's not available to choose unless you de-select 12" width. If the seller had 12" width for medium then you would be able to select it.

The problem is that eBay's programming does not allow you to de-select a variation and this causes problems when there are multiple attributes in the same listing (like size and width).

My solution is generally to hit page refresh.

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Ahhh, that appears to be the problem. I just tried again and everything was fine until I selected from the third dropdown, which had to do with length. Once I chose that, the options on the bubble size were limited to the one choice. Refresh worked.

Thanks!

[pink.fish.rule]

Ah. I get what's happening now.

Yeah, what the others said - just incredibly bad coding (but it's ebay - we should be surprised? lol)

Usually backing out and refreshing can help.