Where to Report eBay software/Website bugs

[ducks2k]

I've been spending a lot of time in the last month preparing an eBay store and adapting software I have written to working with sales of fixed price items instead of the mostly auctions I've done for the last couple of decades.

I keep running into bugs (let's call them "glitches")  in the Seller Hub, the download reports, the API and the general store logic.  On another thread, I've had some good discussions on why there are problems with the store logic, but there are other things that I am sure are not what eBay intended.  Some would be trivially fixable.

So, my question is "Where do I go to report these things and provide context and documentation?"  I get the feeling that this discussion board is casually monitored by corporate eBay, but I don't want to spend a lo0t of time trying to help eBay on the off-chance that it may, someday, get to the right person.  This is not to demand a solution, but to try to make them aware of an issue.

As a long-time software developer, I understand that, even extensive, testing will not uncover all real-world glitches, but feedback from users can be helpful.  Actual software development companies have a problem reporting system where each issue gets assigned a number and there is pressure to get the item closed in a reasonable amount of time.  Does eBay have such a system?  Is it accessible to non-employees?

[downunder-61]

I would post this particular thread on:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Share-eBay-Technical-Issues/bd-p/technicalissues-db

[onlinecentral]

Weekly Discussion with eBay
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Discussion-with-eBay/bd-p/weekly-chat

Share eBay Technical Issues
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Share-eBay-Technical-Issues/bd-p/technicalissues-db

[ducks2k]

I can't see how to actually "move" this to a different forum, so I am just duplicating it. "Technical issues" does seem like a better place for it.  Thanks

[ducks2k]

I did one of the "Weekly Discussion" posts on an issue.  The result was positive(-ish), in that the moderator (or someone) was going to forward it to somewhere within eBay.  This class of response is better than nothing, but does not justify the work necessary to prepare a bug report to an unknown destination, and forum posts are not a great place to put technical details - the audience is totally undefined.

For, example, in the trivial glitch department:

Seller Hub - To get a download csv file of active listings, go to menu "Reports" (called "reports" for some weird reason).

Immediately get a popup of a "welcome - get started" box with a clear "don't show this message again" checkbox.  No matter whether I check the box or not, it will always pop up again every time I try to get a download.  There is a second similar popup when actually creating the "report", which similarly ignores the checkbox.  I have checked this with multiple browsers - same problem. 

Unless this is some weird interaction with my anti-virus software, the issue does not appear to be on my end.  On other websites, the "do-not-show-again" logic works fine - not sure if I have encountered any other similar things on eBay before, but this one is trivially annoying.

I am not particularly web-savvy, but I can guess why this is occurring, and the fix is probably trivial.

There are other less-trivial issues I've encountered.  Some involve data fields oddly omitted from the download csvs.  It is not at all obvious why the files were constructed the way they were.  I could understand if the field came from some different data record somewhere else and that the retrievals would be server-intensive, but I suspect that they were omitted because someone thought they would not be useful.

I really don't want to spend (waste) a lot of time posting my complaints into the ether and hoping that someone useful sees them.  I would welcome "Hey dummy - have you tired this?" responses, but I need to reach the correct audience first.

[m60driver]

I highly doubt that Ebay will give a rat's derriere about a seller's programming issues, such as API conflicts, with code a seller is creating for their own use.  Crikey, Ebay has enough issues with glitches that affect all sellers.

[jasmen@ebay]

Good Morning @ducks2k the members commenting are correct, the Tech Issues Board is going to be your best bet! If you're on social media you can also reach out to our eBay For Business team as well! 

[ducks2k]

jasmen@ebay  thanks for the link, but that seems a long way away from software issues.  I dumped my FB account a few years back - I was only on it to see grandbaby pictures, and now we live with them.  Is this really a sensible way to communicate with eBay?  really?  Facebook?

[heckofagame]

Hey now @ducks2k . Don't disrespect the Facebook group. They do a great job of taking care of things. 

[ducks2k]

@heckofagame-- It is not disrespect, just bafflement that this is the "proper" way to report software bugs.....  I suspect I would need a FaceBook account to communicate via this channel.  That seems weird.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

The tech issues board others gave you is the correct answer.  I would not expect much response though.  There are a number of highly visible bugs that affect many sellers & buyers, that have been known for years & aren't fixed.

[ducks2k]

that is just sad......

[simply-the-best-for-you]

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@ducks2k wrote:

that is just sad......

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As a former software person, for my entire working life, I get you.  I worked for a huge software company for 10 years, that cared very much, so it drives me crazy, but it just doesn't seem to be a priority for ebay.  I'd be happy if they could just test things before putting them into production, but they don't do that well either.  

I will say if you give feedback on a page that allows it (usually when they've changed a screen or implemented a new feature on a screen), those comments DO get to developers & they DO contact you for input/clarification.  I have been contacted that way a number of times.   I even was on a meeting with a group of them once to recreate a bug.  They saw it, figured out why, but to the best of my knowledge never fixed it 😞   I remember asking them why the change was happening at all b/c it was completely unnecessary & the answer was to modernize the screen. 

As a company, they seem to prioritize modernizing the user interface, much more than fixing bugs, testing, etc.  Which is very frustrating!  All my development was non-web & the GUI should be changed AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE.   These constant unnecessary changes frustrate not just sellers, but buyers too. 

[jasmen@ebay]

@ducks2k like @heckofagame  mentioned our social teams are a great resource if you need help with something right away and need troubleshooting. If you just want to report something the tech boards are a great place for that too. If social media isn't an option for you then you'll want to go through the help pages to request a call back from the proper team. Thanks! 

[cooltronix]

The facebook link is dead.