Annoying listing protocol and sellers listing on purpose in WRONG category.

[surfocollecto]

I have been with eBay as a seller (under another name) & a buyer pretty much since the US inception & then from day 1 on the Aus site.

Nowadays I'm no longer a commercial seller, more of a browser, buyer & occasional seller of unwanted stuff around the place etc.

When I browse the categories for whatever item I might fancy, either as a needed item or even sometimes as a whim, I get all the crap in the world listed under whatever I'm loking for. For instance I recently was searching for an ebook, I knew what I wanted after researching & simply typed in model # + NEW & "searched". What I got in return from eBay was an uncountable number of "sellers" using the buzz words netbook, eepc, asus & any amount of other "descriptions" actually selling cases for the product, unwanted parts for the product, software for any product, batteries unrelated to the product, second hand smashed bits of the product etc. ad infinitum. Amongst this load of garbage were about 3 of the actual product I was looking for!

It's annoying in the etreme. There are also the China sellers with deals & bad feedback that are ludicrous, products in the USA & elswhere with tempting prices & extortionate shipping fees, even when you stipulate Aus only! I've been with eBay through all it's various "improvements" & "upgrades", which is eBaySpeak for "What can we do to rip off more from our sellers & buyers via fees & PayPal & any other company we aquire along the way when it looks even vaguely like it might compete with us or dares to make a profit from our format".

eBay was FUN in the old days, now it's a freakin PAIN. Even when selling a decent item for a very reasonable price you are thwarted by listings galore of rubbish incorrectly labeled in the search headings. As if that's not enough, if you bid on or even look at an item of interest eBay directs you to what it thinks is something like it off site to one of their paying advertisers. Surely to hell this is totally immoral? You charge people to list a product then send anybody who is looking for it to another site???? If one happens to be outbid on something you then get bombarded with messages telling you to look at other items, which, mostly, are not even remotely similar to what you were bidding on.

I haven't made a comment on any of these boards for years, since they changed the format, I'm not even sure if they will allow anybody to read this but I had to get it out of my system!

Sorry eBay, it's just not good enough!!!!!

Anybody agree with me? Lemme know.

Peace.

[polocross58]

@ Digitalghost

Many of us with low numbers of purchases/sales on ebay have actually been on ebay since year-dot, you know.  For one reason or another, many of us have had half a dozen or more IDs.   Some people tend to underestimate the extent of ebay-experience possessed by other members, based purely on the little number next to their ID

This being the case (and as was also detailed at length by the OP) many of us are nowhere near as wet behind the ears as others would choose to believe or portray us

There's nothing 'complicated' or requiring of extensive search terms involved in choosing 'used'.  Used is used in anyone's language - and should be in ebay-language also

Yet ebay apparently turns a blind-eye to sellers who deliberately list brand-new, mostly mass-produced asian imported item in amongst the used items.  So, for example, if one is searching for a solid timber bureau in Used, one is not thrilled to have mass-produced, made of apple-cores and paper 'new' items wasting one's precious time, is one?

And so blatant !  There they are, describing these interloper-items as 'Brand NEW' ! --- in the 'Used' category.   Followed by their 'policies', i.e., flat packed, ' NO can pick up', wait sixteen weeks for delivery but payment MUST be within 3 days, blah blah

Now, does ebay PAY me for my time when I do ebay the favour of browsing items listed on its platform?  No.  Ebay does NOT pay for my time.  So WHY would I work for free for ebay by 'reporting' the 'new' items infesting 'used' categories --- particularly when 9 times out of 10, ebay does NUTTING about those deliberately mis-listed items anyway ?

No.  Far better that people make their dissatisfaction known in the ebay boards -- in order to warn others -- in order to let others know they are not alone in their general disgust -- and on the off-chance someone paid by ebay might see the levels of dissatisfaction and (let's not hold our breath or get carried away of course) might even DO something about the problems

[godspeedpluto]

In most cases it's the same sellers over and over and over. So given that sellers can "block bidders" to avoid unwanted transactions, wouldn't an easy way around this be for buyers to be able to "block sellers". No, this seems to be a "improvement/feature" that must have been overlooked 😛

[godspeedpluto]

As if that's not enough, if you bid on or even look at an item of interest eBay directs you to what it thinks is something like it off site to one of their paying advertisers. Surely to hell this is totally immoral? You charge people to list a product then send anybody who is looking for it to another site???? If one happens to be outbid on something you then get bombarded with messages telling you to look at other items, which, mostly, are not even remotely similar to what you were bidding on.

Hi surfocollecto, sorry I didn't respond directly to this first, I think I enjoyed it way too my much in my head then flowed on to my similar frustrations with listings. Either way I know exactly what you're talking about. Surely it's bad enough putting "similar items" from other sellers on the same page as the listing, but when I saw the kmart advertising on the front page... My first thought was "oh, have eBay bought Kmart too?"  Mind bending stuff hey!

[digital*ghost]

@ Digitalghost

Many of us with low numbers of purchases/sales on ebay have actually been on ebay since year-dot, you know.  For one reason or another, many of us have had half a dozen or more IDs.   Some people tend to underestimate the extent of ebay-experience possessed by other members, based purely on the little number next to their ID

I have a feeling you think I'm being condescending towards you - I'm not, just trying to simplify my answers to this thread, which are intended to (hopefully/perhaps) benefit a wider audience than you. 

The main jist of my posts, though, while acknowledging that searches can be time-consuming and frustrating, as well as the fact that eBay aren't upholding their policies in a fair way, was to put forward methods people can use to pro-actively eliminate unwanted results from searches. I might be wrong (and I'm certainly prepared to be), but it almost seems as if you feel insulted by the second part. 

I am also well aware of members having multiple IDs. I never look feedback scores and make assumptions about member's experience and knowledge.  This is primarily my buying ID and I use another to operate a store; that doesn't mean anything in particular, I've been an active member for about 4 years and while I've been a consistently regular participant in the forums, as well as possess a strong, natural curiosity about the workings of things, for everything I do know about eBay I'm sure there's A) plenty of stuff I don't, and B) plenty of stuff I get wrong, so I don't mind when people offer information that might help me solve an issue I'm having, as it is just my personal opinion that in some cases, doing something myself - whether I deem it should be necessary or not - is easier, faster and simpler than waiting for an entity like eBay to change what I want. YMMV

[polocross58]

@ Surfocollecto

My apologies too.  Same reason --- enjoyed your post immensely which led to my being reminded why ebay is, as you say, such a pain.  When it should be enjoyable and when the media portrays buying-online as a shopper's nirvana  (rolls eyes)

My view:  it's immoral, unethical, stinks of lack of integrity or even pretence of any of them when ebay throws multinationals and basically anyone who will PAY EBAY in unequal and pitted battle against ebay sellers

Ebay might think buyers are dazzled by this betrayal of ebay sellers.  If ebay does believe that, it knows nothing of human nature and greatly underestimates people generally

Ebay apparently judges all others by itself, by it's own lack of values and common decency.  Says everything about ebay.  And it's ebay which is paying for its cynicism and all too obvious greed

I have only two words for you, ebay luv:  ' Zuker - berg'.   Lol.  Zuckerberg

You work it out, ebay.  We already have

[godspeedpluto]

I guess we shouldn't be surprised that a company being run by last years MBA graduates is starting to behave like a spoilt brat, given these are people who were willing to fork out 100K for the most useless post-nominal in the history of post-graduate education. If nothing else it gives a nice glimpse into the diabolical minds of entry level CEO's... To them it's just the 2012 achievements on their CV and we were merely their lab rats. They're only just getting started, wait til they're in publicly elected positions... Yeeeeow (I've got my popcorn and armchair ready, cos it's gonna get messy)!!!

[surfocollecto]

Thanks to all of you for your comments, I didn't expect this sort of response. It is encouraging to see that there are still some intelligent contibutors to the eBay 'experience'. For the most part this has developed into a really good debate (political correctness and diplomacy used here).

Seasons greetings and peace to all.