topic Re: Attention To those with eBay stores in Selling

Attention To those with eBay stores

rocket2retro — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 08:38:51 GMT

A message to long-term store holders.

Recenrtly the gallery photos on my older listings (approx more than 18 months old) have disappeared from a search.

It amounts to 108 listings with no gallery photos (or 11.4% of my total listings).

I rang ebay and it is 'a known problem' and given the old line 'we are working on it.' I was then told it had a fix timeframe of January 12th 2016.

So basically 108 liistings (for which I am being charged the monthly listing fee) will have no gallery, will have little hope of being sold and will not be properly visible during the Christmas period (when there would be an increased chance of a sale).

Of course no offer of compensation was offered.

I was told that the temporary recommended fix is for me to reload all of my photos to the 108 listngs (approx 5 photos per listiing) that date from 18-30 months old). I can only imagine how long that would take (and it assume that I've kept every photo 've ever taken).

I wonder if there was a glitch whereby eBay could not receive their monthly seller's fees, if it would take them 2 months (at least) to fix it? I think not!

Anyway if you have older items in your store it might be worth having a look to see if you're affected.

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

harley_babes_hoard — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 08:44:29 GMT

Did you not change your pictures when the new photo Policy came into being? If not then that would be why you are now having to do it now

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

rocket2retro — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 09:13:33 GMT

Hi My photos were deemed to be acceptable quality & I did not need to change any photos. All of the photos within the affected listings are still there and displaying properly. It is just the gallery that is showing as blank. Ebay are saying it is a system fault 'that has corrupted photos' (whatever that means).

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

*tippy*toes* — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 09:23:46 GMT

I had a look at quite a few of your listings and the ones where there is no gallery photo, they are all nowhere near the minimum required size. Quite a few of the ones still showing are too small too, so don't be surprised if they disappear soon too. I think in this instance, you don't really have much choice but to redo all your photos so they are at least 500 pixels on one side. The most yours are showing at the moment is 300. Even if eBay "fix" the "glitch", it's not going to fix your problem.

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

digital*ghost — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 09:49:12 GMT

@rocket2retro wrote:
(and it assume that I've kept every photo 've ever taken).

I do that... (Well, now I do I didn't when I was selling one-off stuff, I just kept them until the item had sold and I was sure there wasn't going to be a return etc). You may already have a system that works well, but in case it helps anyone else, I store my images on an external drive, in one folder that has several sub folders, which themselves have sub folders, and each image is named by item type etc, so all I have to do to find an old image is go to the folder and type a descriptive word or two and check the search results.

But I started doing that because eBay has intermittently had problems with images ever since I've been selling here, pretty much, and it's a nightmare having to fix it if you have several older listings that require it.

They have also resized my photos before - back when they changed the size requirements, I started getting notifications about some of my listings, which I thought was highly unusual since at that time 99% of my images were 1000 x 1000 pixels (I do 800 x 800 now, as that seems to be the right size for zoom, and is a bit easier on the memory usage). And yet, when I checked the listings they were talking about, they were 400 x 400 pixels. (I never uploaded an image that small )

Even new listings are experiencing this problem - I listed something 2 days ago and the second image was blank, even though if you mouse-over it you can still use the zoom function.

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

ozstockman — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 10:07:07 GMT

Only 2 months for a fix? They are being very easy on you. I reported them about a huge problem with updated invoices not being processed correctly more than a year ago, I called them regarding other small issues 5 times after that and each time I was reminding them about that big problem. It is still has not been fixed.

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

harley_babes_hoard — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 11:01:36 GMT

I found an old listing of mine that is not showing when I checked the picture just now it's too small at 300+ x 200+ pixels. I am going to do a revise and increase the picture then I'll see if it shows.

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

harley_babes_hoard — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 11:16:49 GMT

Ok so I revised the picture to a larger one and it's now showing in gallery view, so it looks like it is the size of your pics that is the problem. I must have missed this one of mine when I did the other 600 odd way back when.

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

dylan11235813 — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 21:30:48 GMT

@rocket2retro wrote:
A message to long-term store holders.

Recenrtly the gallery photos on my older listings (approx more than 18 months old) have disappeared from a search.
It amounts to 108 listings with no gallery photos (or 11.4% of my total listings).
I rang ebay and it is 'a known problem' and given the old line 'we are working on it.' I was then told it had a fix timeframe of January 12th 2016.

So basically 108 liistings (for which I am being charged the monthly listing fee) will have no gallery, will have little hope of being sold and will not be properly visible during the Christmas period (when there would be an increased chance of a sale).
Of course no offer of compensation was offered.

I was told that the temporary recommended fix is for me to reload all of my photos to the 108 listngs (approx 5 photos per listiing) that date from 18-30 months old). I can only imagine how long that would take (and it assume that I've kept every photo 've ever taken).

I wonder if there was a glitch whereby eBay could not receive their monthly seller's fees, if it would take them 2 months (at least) to fix it? I think not!

Anyway if you have older items in your store it might be worth having a look to see if you're affected.

Some of my listings do not show the picture in the selling manager (and also have a negitive view count). They seem to be OK when using ebays search. Sales rates are not huge so I don't really know if the listing/s are stuffed, but they do sell.

It is only the one group I have that are like that, I listed all of them (about 15) at one time ages ago.

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

*tippy*toes* — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 23:01:42 GMT

@digital*ghost wrote:
@rocket2retro wrote:
(and it assume that I've kept every photo 've ever taken).

I do that... (Well, now I do I didn't when I was selling one-off stuff, I just kept them until the item had sold and I was sure there wasn't going to be a return etc). You may already have a system that works well, but in case it helps anyone else, I store my images on an external drive, in one folder that has several sub folders, which themselves have sub folders, and each image is named by item type etc, so all I have to do to find an old image is go to the folder and type a descriptive word or two and check the search results.

I used to delete mine as soon as the item sold......well, after I'd sent it. Now with all the newer things, like 180 day claims, not to mention chargebacks, I now keep them for 12 months. I have 3 folders for eBay. One is just called eBay, which is the folder I upload my new photos to, for editing etc before listing. Another is called eBay current, which is where the photos of current listings are. Then there's eBay sold, which speaks for itself.

I used to have them all in one folder, but when I was uploading new photos, it took a lot of extra time to locate them in a folder that already had 100's of photos in it. Now when I add to the upload folder, I can find them at a glance to edit and when I'm listing, I just start at the top. As each item is listed, those photos get moved to the other folder. That means the next item I want to list, the photos are at the top.

So far I don't think any of my gallery photos aren't showing, but I might log out and go check. Some have been relisting for quite a long time, so I guess it's possible eBay has resized them on me.

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

rocket2retro — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 04:44:51 GMT

Thanks for your thoughts & comments. I can now see that my photos may not comply with the minimum requirements.

However I was not told that this is what is causing the problem. I e listings & the relisting.

I have tried cancelling some of the listings with the faulty gallery (using the 'reliist' button) and despite not adding new photos they now show up correctly with the gallery picture.

The thing I fiind frustrating is that I presume eBay downgraded my photos originally (to suit their old system requirements) and they now want you to upgrade your photos to suit their new minimum photo requirements. Is this the case?

To be honest if I have to go to this effort I'll probably just end the listings that don't comply. (and save myself some monthly eBay listing fees).

These items haven't sold in 2 years anyway, so I'd probably be putting in more work in to 'flog a dead horse'.

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

thebookshuttle — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 10:00:37 GMT

I had exactly the same problem, but with over 500 listings. I wrote to customer service over a 6 week period with no solution offered. Then the only solution they gave was for me to re-do the photos. Like you, I don't have days to re-scan products and load up gallery photos. Like you no compensation, they did not seem to care.

As eBay sellers we are expected to, and I do take so much care with my customer service to maintain 100% positive feedback. I go to massive lengths to solve problems with any of my customer's problems that may arise. It is a pity that eBay does not have the same superb customer service that sellers work hard to maintain!

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

harley_babes_hoard — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 10:21:48 GMT

we all had to redo our pictures to comply, if you didn't do it when you were suppose to then you have to now. we were given plenty of notice.

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

*tippy*toes* — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 12:24:16 GMT

I don't know if eBay is playing silly buggers with photos, but all my photos I make sure are way larger than required. All over 1,200 pixels. One of my photos wasn't showing just now, so I checked it and it's saying 200 x 300. Not sure why it's saying that when all my photos are square. That was a recent listing too, so not one that's been relisting for over a year and forgotten about. It's probably just something to do with this meltdown, but I'll be pretty cheesed off if it's not.

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

rocket2retro — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 21:24:53 GMT

If the problem is with my photo sizes can you tell me why they wouldn't comply

All of my photos (even the older ones) were taken with decent cameras at full-quality resolution (the 3 cameras I've had were 6, 8 and now 12mp)

I went to the original source photo from a listing & it was way above eBay's minimum size.

Does this mean I provided eBay at the time of listing a large sized photo & they have degraded it to meet their system requirements back then?

Now 2 years on these photos don't meet their new photo size requirements

I need to know this if I decide to use the original photos (which may not be suiitable in that case)

NB I do edit my photos in Picassa & use Auctiva to list my eBay items

Thanks

Re: Attention To those with eBay stores

harley_babes_hoard — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 22:29:32 GMT

yep that probably was the case back then. But now you have to increase them. Part of doing business on ebay is we have to follow their most of the time, stupid policies.

your pictures have to be at least 500 pixels on one size to comply