eBay

tennistom · ‎08-19-2020

Many, many times when I try to sign in to eBay in August, 2020, I see nothing but blue text and a white screen. Everything is non-functional, and I can not even access my auctions. What is the issue, and how long is this going to continue? This extremely annoying - Especially when I have auctions ending, or need to answer buyers' questions about an auction. If there has been some explanation offered by eBay, I have not seen it. Does anyone know why this is happening?

Thank you

eburtonlab · ‎08-19-2020

If you are using Firefox, try disabling Enhanced Tracking Protection on ebay.com, or try using another browser entirely.

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eburtonlab · ‎08-19-2020

If you are using Firefox, try disabling Enhanced Tracking Protection on ebay.com, or try using another browser entirely.

tennistom · ‎08-19-2020

Thank you for your answer. This is not a constant problem, just a recent, frequent problem that happens only the past couple of weeks. After varying periods of time, eBay returns in it's "usable" form. I feel they are changing the site or working on the site, and really just wondered what was happening. I have not made any changes at all to the settings on my computer, made any new additions, or taken anything away. I am not a computer wizard, and would rather not start trying to change settings, and make errors I may not be able to correct. I am an older guy and technologically challenged in comparison to some of the younger users.

tennistom · ‎08-19-2020

Hi -

I did turn it off, and the site started working. I do have questions though. Why has it been working with the setting turned on? And doesn't turning this off open me up to greater risk of viruses, etc.?

It hardly seems feasible to continue to use eBay if I have to run high risks just to use it?

Thanks

eburtonlab · ‎08-19-2020

Just because you did not make any explicit changes to your browser settings does not mean that your browser settings did not change. Firefox and other browsers make periodic changes and updates; any plug-ins or add-ons like ad blockers you have installed also likely have updates that may be installed automatically. eBay also makes changes from time to time. And of course your operating system has periodic updates.

Enhanced Tracking Protection is a recent addition to most browsers; it blocks certain types of cookies that can be shared among sites to keep "track" of a user. Tracking Protection is not related to anti-virus protection, and disabling Tracking Protection does not open you up to viruses, though it may allow some sites to share information about some aspects of your browsing history -- for instance, to allow eBay ads to appear for you on other sites such as Facebook which contain links to items you may have previously viewed on eBay.

For some reason Firefox's implementation of Enhanced Tracking Protection seems to cause problems for some eBay users -- not always, but in some cases. Apparently this can prevent page formatting information from working properly. I do not know if the problem is on eBay's end, or Firefox's end, but the interaction of the two seems to cause problems.

There is a note that can be seen in that Enhanced Tracking Protection feature indicating that it can cause issues with some sites, and to turn it off if those issues prevent a site from working, and a link to send a report to Firefox:

springs_2013 · ‎09-07-2020

Thank you! I had the same issue and this fixed the problem. 😌

ibt_computers · ‎09-22-2020

eBay is now changing all the clickable text color on it's web pages from BLUE with an underline in blue (so you know it's clickable) to, drum roll please... Pure black with no underlining, just like all the other text on their web page. So, now in eBay's infinite (stupid) wisdom, we have no idea what is clickable and what is not clickable unless we move our mouse over the text on their entire web page to see what ultimately turns blue. ABSOLUTE NONSENSE!!! How on earth is this "BETTER"?? eBay is taking away all of the color cues that used to be on the screen and just making everything either white, grey or black. Argh!!!!!!!!!! Stupidity!!!

billybobdaddy · ‎09-30-2021

I turn on Enhanced Protection to protect me from tracking cookies and adverts. Why should I lower my protection level for eBay? Amazon manages to cope with it turned on.