What's with buyers who don't read?

[movieman630]

2 times in the last 24 hours I've had potential buyers email me with questions asking me things that I clearly state in the listing descriptions.  There's no confusion about it either, my descriptions are clear and concise. 

I'm starting to wonder if maybe there's something wrong with our listing description blocks not being clearly shown to buyers. 

Is anyone noticing this trend?  Does anyone know why a person might not see the description and ask such obvious questions?  Does it have to do with people seeing things on the mobile app?  Did they change something again?

[bdmh-enterprises]

BUYER ENGAGEMENT MAKES SALES! You should be happy to be getting dumb, easy to answer questions. A simple "yes it is, thanks for asking" is FAR more likely to sell your item than the buyer simply reading your description.

[mantle1951]

Maybe they are waiting for you to make an offer to them when you answer their question.

[luckythewinner]

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@movieman630 wrote:

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@movieman630 wrote:

Does anyone know why a person might not see the description and ask such obvious questions?  Does it have to do with people seeing things on the mobile app? 

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Your listing template forces me to scroll a scroll bar within the listing to see the entire description, rather than just scrolling the screen. That is a definitely not the case with 99% of the listings I look at and I found it irritating. 

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I wonder why ebay did that.  It never used to work like that.  I've seen peoples descriptions that were chapters long and I never had to scroll in their description block.  It usually just displays.  Did they recently change this?

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I do not think eBay did this. I think it is a function of the HTML inside the OP's listing template.

[lux.ra_14]

Best way to handle it:

Thank them for inquiring, politely answer the question, and let them know you will package securely and ship promptly if they decide to purchase.

Worst way to handle it:

Get testy, and tell them the answer is already in the description, the item specifics, or wherever. Just answer the question, even if it's redundant. 

[heckofagame]

The MBG does not require buyers to read anything. 

[movieman630]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@movieman630 wrote:

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@movieman630 wrote:

Does anyone know why a person might not see the description and ask such obvious questions?  Does it have to do with people seeing things on the mobile app? 

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Your listing template forces me to scroll a scroll bar within the listing to see the entire description, rather than just scrolling the screen. That is a definitely not the case with 99% of the listings I look at and I found it irritating. 

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I wonder why ebay did that.  It never used to work like that.  I've seen peoples descriptions that were chapters long and I never had to scroll in their description block.  It usually just displays.  Did they recently change this?

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I do not think eBay did this. I think it is a function of the HTML inside the OP's listing template.

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Do you know how I might remove this code?  Has anyone else had experience with this in the description block?

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Often a buyer will send the same message to every seller selling a particular item in an effort to narrow their choices for that item.

They do not bother reading anything but the item name.

The mobile app is always a problem, but so are too many offers for the item.

[fbusoni]

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@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

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@soh.maryl wrote:

In a climate where buyers are in short supply, why would a smart seller block a potential buyer simply for asking a question even though the answer to the question is contained in the listing? 

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I concur and am unable to comprehend the rationale behind the adoption of this philosophy by numerous sellers.

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@chevymontecarlo88 @soh.maryl 

I'm actually mildly sympathetic to the idea of blocking a buyer for asking such a question.

The reason is that if the buyer is so negligent that they cannot bother to read the description, one must assume that there are other gaps in the buyers knowledge about what they are purchasing and that ultimately, there is at least an even chance that a seller will be left with an unhappy buyer, an INAD (because the buyer does not know how to manage a return request), and bad feedback. 

We've all seen that scenario discussed here.

[a_c_green]

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@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:

They do not bother reading anything but the item name.

The mobile app is always a problem, but so are too many offers for the item.

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The mobile app is a huge problem. It's not only poorly written and formatted, but also its influence seems to be bleeding over to the desktop/laptop side, as seen in the idiotic revisions to the Messages page that eBay is now trying to implement, to make it look like a texting app (on a desktop???) for no apparent reason.

I recently got through a series of messages with an interested buyer (who did eventually buy the item) where it quickly became apparent that they didn't know there was a description in the listing. They thought it was just a title and a bunch of photos, followed by a series of ads for other listings and other sellers. Way down further was a link to the description that they had never found.

[adamcartwright]

@movieman630 

HTML source code

HTML content won't be displayed on the first page of your Item page on mobile. Since mobile buyers account for over 80% of traffic, consider minimizing your use of HTML as much as possible.

[wastingtime101]

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@movieman630 wrote:

Does anyone know why a person might not see the description and ask such obvious questions?  Does it have to do with people seeing things on the mobile app? 

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That may be the reason @movieman630 . Take this listing: 204982541994

Plenty of HTML in that description even though it's just a few basic lines of text. But with any HTML at all - even bold or italics - eBay will hide the description on the app behind a read more link. Buyer will not see the description without clicking to the next screen to read it.

Because the description is pretty basic, my suggestion is to post it without the graphic and without any changes to font. Strip out all the HTML and use plain text. True it will be different visually, but it may resolve the issue of buyers asking questions that are already answered in the descriptions. Up to you how you want to address the issue.

[movieman630]

I'm not giving up aesthetics.  I literally just got finished updating my whole listing layout for every single item.  It took me a better part of a year.

In my opinion ebay needs to go back to the old display and allow buyers to see the description in whole and close to the top.  The ads for competitors listings should take a back seat to the primary function of a listing description.

[movieman630]

I don't know what you mean by don't use HTML.  What is that and what does it mean?  All I do is enter info into the description box.

[chevymontecarlo88]

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@fbusoni wrote:

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@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

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@soh.maryl wrote:

In a climate where buyers are in short supply, why would a smart seller block a potential buyer simply for asking a question even though the answer to the question is contained in the listing? 

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I concur and am unable to comprehend the rationale behind the adoption of this philosophy by numerous sellers.

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@chevymontecarlo88 @soh.maryl 

I'm actually mildly sympathetic to the idea of blocking a buyer for asking such a question.

The reason is that if the buyer is so negligent that they cannot bother to read the description, one must assume that there are other gaps in the buyers knowledge about what they are purchasing and that ultimately, there is at least an even chance that a seller will be left with an unhappy buyer, an INAD (because the buyer does not know how to manage a return request), and bad feedback. 

We've all seen that scenario discussed here.

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I believe it depends on the seller, and I should have provided more context to what I posted. You, like myself, do not need or rely on eBay sales, and I have no problem with some people choosing who they want to do business with. The majority of users rely on sales and shouldn't discount someone messaging them or assume they'll behave in a certain way. JMO Engagement is a key component of sales and an opportunity to close the deal. One distinction between your approach and mine is that I derive pleasure from the involvement and challenge involved in negotiating deals. Over time, some of my most annoying buyers have become my best customers, and it is easy to miss how they communicate via messaging. Some users (clerks) prefer eBay to sell their items, while other users (sales persons) prefer to sell items on eBay through engagement. Both are perfectly fine, but I tend to roll my eyes when people complain about the lack of sales, but ignore someone asking a basic question.

[a_c_green]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:
Plenty of HTML in that description even though it's just a few basic lines of text. But with any HTML at all - even bold or italics - eBay will hide the description on the app behind a read more link. Buyer will not see the description without clicking to the next screen to read it.

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Question (for anyone): Why do they do that? That is, what is so... dangerous, I assume, about having the HTML description on the current page, as opposed to hiding it behind a Read More link that's going to bring it up on the same device anyway?

I know some markup language commands can be more controllable than others, or more volatile than others, but is there not some way to at least filter the HTML text to determine whether it's benign enough to leave it in as part of the original listing?