ebay item links land on wrong item!!

[star.fighter]

Hi - Tech issue - I am mostly a (power) buyer.  I recently sent a "best offer" to a seller on a fairly hot item that was already a reasonable price, but was higher than some previous sales.  I saw in my messages that my offer had been sent to the seller...i waited a short time, and when the seller didn't get back to me, i was getting worried someone else would buy it first (that's happened to me multiple times ), so i decided to just buy it now.  I clicked on it to buy it immediately and with my one-click pay on my ebay phone app, i bought it.

When the confirmation came right back showing what i had bought... it was the same product, but WAY higher price, and a totally different seller!  Now, i have inadvertently touched something on my phone in the past, so i thought i must have been too much in a hurry and didn't notice.  But, i kept thinking about it and wondered how i could have gone from the item on which i was doing the offer...to another totally diff item?   I know ebay displays other suggestions even as we are in the process of buying, so i thought maybe that was it... but i thought i was very direct in my clicks...

A day or two later, i was in messages and was looking at a message about another item.  I clicked on the item to look at it and it took me directly to a totally DIFFERENT item...different seller!!   I tried it several times, and it kept happening.  Using another phone, i took videos of it to document it.  I tried again the next day and got video of it happening on yet another item.   I sent an email to the ebay seller team, yet no reply...and today again it's still happening.

So, there's something funky on the buyer side as well.

I haven't tried replicating it precisely by trying to buy something because I already have an item i paid ALMOST DOUBLE for -- fairly big purchase -- from a seller who is making unfounded claims as to the condition of the item.  (If it was my own fault, i would feel a little better about being out the money).

No matter where it happens, this is not a good thing.  I apologize for posting... i wanted to discuss this first without publicly posting, but I haven't heard from anyone in a week, and it needs to be addressed.  I do have the videos showing it.

[star.fighter]

brittanie@ebay -  ok i found it -- here is the report.  i tested today and it is still happening.

[eburtonlab]

How did you find the original item? Was it from a search engine rather than an eBay search?

You may have been directed to a product or catalog page rather than an individual item page. I am not sure how the eBay app deals with product pages, but they can be seen with a desktop browser.

Here is an example of a product page:

https://www.ebay.com/p/243623812#ProductDetails,

Many individual item listings can be connected to one product page, and the page may point to one of several possibilities; when one seller's item sells, the product page will point to a different seller's item until all the current items are sold:

https://www.ebay.com/p/20034188898?iid=223891460119&rt=nc

Often, the wrong item can be linked to a product page -- typically when the seller uses the wrong part number to designate an item.

When you encounter a product page, it is always a good idea to follow the "See details" link to the individual item page to verify it is the same item before committing to purchase so you can actually see what you are buying rather than just relying on the generic catalog page.

If you were not encountering a product page, you may have been following a link to an ended item; when an item ends, eBay often suggests an alternative current item.

[star.fighter]

okay... i can see how that could mess things up (not a fan of those product pages - i avoid them), but you are ignoring some key details i mentioned.   first, while i cannot remember/verify exactly what order of clicks I went on the original item, i almost never search from outside ebay, and definitely not then because i had the item in my watchlist or cart.  plus, i had already made an offer on the item, and saw it in my mssgs...then went to do the buy-it-now.  the item did not sell -- it was still there after i ended up buying that over-priced alternate. 😞

MOST IMPORTANTLY... it was happening a day or two later...when i recorded the videos... and is still happening.  and the way it happened was that i click on the item title or picture from within my messages.  It even happened just NOW when i click on "view order details" - it brings me to a totally diff item AND diff seller.

...and yes, different devices, but both are smartphones.   it doesn't seem to do it on a desktop...only in the phone app.

p.s.  - what made you show me cobra stuff?

[eburtonlab]

I have not purchased enough with the eBay app to have seen what you are encountering, I just thought it might be related to the catalog/product page issue. But it sounds like you are familiar with product pages already, so perhaps you are encountering something else entirely.

The lego product page was the first result that popped up in my browser history when I added the /p/ after ebay.com -- it was from a recent thread where a user was trying to purchase a complete lego kit and wound up getting a minifig instead. If you look at the seven results tied to that product page, two of them are minifigs and the rest are the actual entire lego set. It is a handy example of a broken product page. And the Cobra product page was just a handy example of a sold out product page that I happened to have bookmarked (it was not sold out when I bookmarked it, though).

[star.fighter]

re: cobra - for a long time, we used to be cobra people here. 😛

[star.fighter]

brittanie@ebay - did you see this now???  PLEASE at least acknowledge that you saw it.

and, i just discovered that there are other funky things happening in the phone app (at least the android app).

THIS just happened today...  i had bought an item, and when i clicked on a notification in my mssgs about the item, it landed on the correct item page, but told me i had MISSED OUT on the item.  i did a double-take and went and checked...sure enough, it was sitting right there in my purchase history. whew!!

i realize it can happen if i make an offer on an item and then do a buy-it-now after that (where it cancels out my offer)... but that's NOT what happened here -- the seller accepted my offer.  ...but ebay is telling me that i missed out.  there seems to be a sync problem on the phone app.

see attached image...

[jirn_94]

Having the same issue. Just bought something totalling $160. Now when I click on the description or picture of the item I bought it's taking me to a completely different item that's $500! Should I cancel my order?

[eburtonlab]

@jirn_94 

Go through your Purchase History, you should find a link back to the original listing.

If the listing has been edited since your purchase, you may have to follow a link in the heading to the original listing, if you are using a desktop browser. Otherwise scroll down past the sponsored listings to see the original listing.

eBay frequently has ended listings point to new active listings, so that users that missed out on the original product have something else suggested to buy.

[kh-stanley1]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.