Why so many misleading listing results?

[parachuter2006]

It becomes increasingly impossible to search for items and hope to get the actual price in the search results.
Even with quite detailed and creative search terms you are bombarded with results of suspiciously low prices.
Search for a simple 24V 2Amp transformer and you get hundreds of switchmode power supplies instead.
Often starting as low as 3 bucks.
You check the listing and instead of the expected single item with the shown single price you get a menu to select what you want.
And of course the low price from the search result corresponds to something totally different, like a case, adapter or plug....

What exactly is the point of allowing faked multi item listing that cover a price range from under $5 up to several hundred Dollars?
Someone actually looking for something has to waste hours comparing listings and go through menu options - often to find out the item he wants is not even available at all.
If I search, for example, for a heavy duty phone cover then I don't want to get tons of results starting at a few bucks where the low listing price is a USB cale instead of the protective cover that then suddenly shows up to cost about twice as it should cost.
And of course it is again the power sellers listed first and with the most misleading listings.
Promoting through buyer frustation?

I often have to waste valuable time creating quite long search terms with exclusions and all only to get a chance to actually find what I am looking for.
Multi item listings should be limited to selecting quantities or for example with clothes sizes but not to list totally unrelated items to fake a low item price that results in the top of the search.
Yes, I tried the support suggestion and searched for "Best match" instead of lowest price.
But then I get usually totally overpriced results and it ends to be a total mess as it becomes impossible to compare prices and find the best deal.
Until recently there was at least a price range listed, like $3.95 to $298 and you could expect that if you look for something relatively expensive that the higest price would be what you look for.
Now this bit disappears as well and the buyer only sees the $3.95 and nothing to even suggest it is in fact a misleading multi item listing.

For crying out loud: If you want to sell an expensive amplifier then why do you make sure it appears as a low priced item in the results, especially if the corresponding item has nothing to do with an amplifier??
In the real world this is called misleading advertising and punishable by law, Ebay however supports it to the fullest.
As a result honest sellers listing properly and as single items miss out on buyers while power sellers with an endless list of negative feedback are presented as the prefered choice.
Sure, someone might find a true bargain on the way of finding what he is actuall looking for but it is no longer worth the frustration of wasting hours on a search that should be done in minutes...
And funny enough almost all of these highly misleading sellers use Chinese Paypal accounts.....

An item search should not be a task for a rocket scientist.
Common sense like with any other search engine should be enough.
Sure, if one would search for "mobile phone case" it would be a bad idea as it is not specific enough to get a result for an Iphone or Samsung.
And well, if you search for "small screw" in the hope to quickly find a specific M3 screw then you should go to a real store instead.
Power sellers however get more and more creative to cater for even the most complex search requests by simply adding everything possible and impossible in the listing.
Be it tools, electronics, machines or replacement parts, you never find what you need without going through endless amounts of faked multi item listings.
It is not a feature at all to provide the option to find accessories, attachments or just a faked warranty in the selection menu.
If I see an advertisement in the window of my local retailer for a good camera then the price shown is for the camera and not a lens cover, bag or microfibre cloth.
In Ebay however the same camera shows up as a bargain under 10 bucks until you find in the menu it actually costs 60 bucks more than at your local retailer and does not really come with the same manufacturer warranty ....

Bring back real listings!
Make multi item listings again what they were in the beginning and ban their use to fake a low price for the item pictured in the search results!
It is misleading advertising and should be treated as such!

[lyndal1838]

It is well known that Chinese sellers are misusing the multi variation listings and ebay Australia cannot do anything about it.

They can only refer it to ebay China who do absolutely nothing.

To be honest, I would not be looking for electrical items from China.....the quality is very suspect and there are no enforceable warranties.

[parachuter2006]

Not all electronics from China are bad, I found some really nice ones over the years.
But for cheap electrical items I could not agree more - buyer beware LOL

It is sad to know that making money trumps doing the right thing but well, it is Ebay and Ebay is US based.
What you can take and get away with is fair game...

[kopenhagen5]

I skip all listings with a price range i.e. 1.00 - 35.00.

And I check the registration of an account I am considering purchasing from on the feedback page.

[brerrabbit585]

Why did you bother typing all that when it's been said a thousand times already?

[gutterpunkz05]

You could try searching for product identification codes, UPC, etc.

You can search via general search engines, which will show direct links to ebay related items.

[caberelectric]

I agree it is getting harder & to search for the actual item you want. Search for a sink eg $29.00 - $89.00, and either it's a small item such as a plug for the lower price or everything is sold out except the plug. I complained to Ebay when I noticed this trend starting some years back. But nothing came out of it as they suggested to send in seller's and item details & they would look into it. But I told them there were too many sellers doing it to keep reporting them. Nothing further happened. It has taken some of the enjoyment of buying through Ebay as I get fed up with these multi price items.

[parachuter2006]

That is exactly the reason why I keep talking about the problem.
It does not matter anymore what official Ebay policies state as Ebay looks the other way when sellers abuse it.
As soon as you get power sellers, especially chinese ones, in the results you are literally subject to scam.

Just for the fun of it I tried to create a multiple item listing myself.
And to no surprise it was not accepted and taken down so I can "fix it" by Ebay.
Appearently I can not list a picture of a priey amplifier at a price of 2.99.
The description clearly stated I am out of amps and only the audio cables are left.
Isn't it funny how a private seller gets a warning for copying the same methods power sellers use every single day?
Ebay support wasn't helpful at all and insisted it was a breach of policies.
They also insisted, like they do for years, that they closely monitor power sellers to prevent this type of abuse LOL Good joke Ebay.

Let's face it:
Progressive education is a nice tool on many levels.
The reactions here clearly show it is working fine for Ebay.
The funny things about all the suggestions and "hy bother" comments is that it works in favour for Ebay.
The support does not bother to inforce policies and handle violations from power sellers.
The community is already in submission and suggests to other people to ignore it, suck it up or to find workarounds.

Over the years the problem got worse.
Not just because Ebay has no interest in helping but also because they close all possible backdoors one after the other.
Years ago when the troubles started on a low level, I had a topic in a related forum.
It was all about using the advanced (hidden) search options and exclusions/inclusions to find what you are looking for.
Was a great success with lots of positive feedback from the users.
Within 4 months Ebay closed ALL the used "backdoors" that worked as a search term....
The only thing still working is to "-(exclusion terms)" without the "".
Like this you can just list and seperate with a "," what you really don't want to see in a tilte.
Like all other options, power sellers found a way around this by misusing the tags.
So even if they won't have "plug adapter" in the title, it will be added to the tags and circumvent the search term options.
Similar story for the Google interaction.
Unless you go really private on your computer Ebay searches are linked to Google search attempts.
To make things worse, a generic Google search like "Ebay samsung galaxy S9 new" will give you tons of results from other countries and power sellers only.
Quite often to no longer existing listings.
Duckduckgo provides far less results but at least they link to still existing listings.

Let's have a look how all this **bleep** actually works, shall we?
Ebay uses an AI to provide you with suggestions that you find everywhere so it is easy to click on them.
Said AI also provides the info about your shopping habbits, like how intense you to try to be specific in searches and how many item listings you check before you decide to buy.
And all of a sudden a totally unrelated Google search gives you results to Ebay listings.
Cookies and your stored profiles are linked, so whenever the Google AI finds an option to give you additional hits it will do so.
In theory all this is a good thing for the user, which is why in most countries these advertising tactics are still legal.
A private seller has a few items here and there and often from all possible areas.
Nothing to worry about until the volumes are high enough to offer the position of power seller.
For a small fee you get tons of extra options,especially in the areas of automation and multiple choice.
But it also means that Ebay now starts to value your business and the money you provide through fees.
Sponsored results, free shipping, protection from negative feedback, better positions in search results....
Every click counts, so it is no surprise that providing ads by forcing the user to search through endless amounts of results provides revenue already.
And every item a power seller manages to sell brings fees.
It is then really convinient to "officially" put the responsibility of using the selling tools in the sole hands of the power seller.
Same goes for the interpretation of the terms and condtions.
It is at the descretion of Ebay to enforce violations.
It does not state that there will be consequences but instead just lists possible options to handle violations.
Means it is an artificially created legal loophole.
The amount of identical user complaints does not matter if you are in full control.
Shut the user up by giving them a refund that also conviently removes the easy option to provide negative feedback.
Not every scammed user will know how to go through the resultion center or hidden transactions to find the feedback options once a case was closed.
And for some reason negative feedback left early in the process never shows up on a power seller account.
Imagine you go to real shop and pay good money for an item.
You come home, unpack it and find out it is broken, does not match at all what was in the shelves or is of the totally wrong color.
No problem, you take it back and get the right item or if that is not possible a refund.
Ebay pretends to do the same for us now through the buyer protection scheme.
But where a store can close down soon if every months hundreds of people come with refund claims a power seller just moves on, if in doubt to another account.
With a delay of often more than 6 weeks from purchase to refund it is wide window of opportunity to go on with the scam as the amount of negative feedback will be artificially reduced and making it a private thing deprives the user of knowing if his item is affected.

Ebay still states the USER shall check the feedback rating of a seller before deciding to buy.
And quite often the community here clearly blames the user for failing to do so or for buying despite knowing the feedback rating.
I wonder why it this way around and not the other way around !?!?
It is a recommendation from the days where Ebay was still a trustworthy platform and scamming sellers a rare thing to see.
95% positive back then meant a seller was still a good guy until proven otherwise.
Feedback was visible and with the full response(s) from seller and buyer.
Now even 99.7% positive feedback can easily mean the seller got way over a hundred negative feedback replies in a single month.
What is concerning here is not the community and Ebay gives a damn but that true and honest sellers suffer from it - they are being weeded out by Ebay!
I have met such honest sellers when I picked up items.
Their struggle is not how to cheat and scam the best possible way though.
Their struggle is how they are scammed by users.
Imagine you sell a perfectly fine phone, pack it like it is an uncooked egg and the buyer opens a claim stating the thing arrived with a broken screen.
You can see in the provided images that it is not your phone - Ebay stll rules in favour of the buyer and makes you refund.
Once you got the broken phone and take pics to sow the Imei and other things don't match the phone you sold it is agan weeks until Ebay might make a decision in your favour.
In the meantime you account is closed for business...

So guys, just stop offering workarounds and blame a newbie if he falls for the traps Ebay created and maintains.
Wake up and see the reality and help to address and actually solve the problem.
Ebay won't listen to a single user complaining about things far too many complain about.
Like with the latest policiy changes that were in part positive for the user change can only happen from outside pressure.
But not through blaming people to fall for traps that are a Ebay policy violation and should not exist 😉

[joshcool2009]

I was just about to post a complaint thread about this **bleep** too. Cant even look stuff up anymore i have to sift through all the **bleep** to find a real product

[parachuter2006]

I had a phone talk with Ebay last week.
Started as a complaint about 3 sellers advertising identical items in identical multi item listings without having any stock available.
Main complaint was again the misleading info in the search results.
After quite some evasive answers I was informed that Ebay is taking listing violations very serious and will check the sellers.
Needless to say the listings are still there and nothing happened at all.
Next complaint was of the general kind for sellers stating a postage time from 3 days to 3 months.
So far I had no items from such sellers that arrived before the last week of the 3 months was over.
And in no case so far the item that was listed as local actually came from here - they all came from china.
Again I got absolutely nowhere.
Ebay claims the postage times are generated based the feedback.
So if items tend to arrive later the postage times in the listings is adjusted up.
The fact that the items were not locally shipped was of no concern to Ebay at all.
Might not be available locally was the answer I got with no regards to the import taxes that are avoided this way.

I finnished off with a list of mainly mobile phones.
For example if you search for a Galaxy S10 plus without any modifications for the search then you end up with a long list of sellers that can be safely avoided.
The first 10 to 20 results are all from power sellers of the highest rank.
The prices start as low as 850 bucks but the second price stated can be as high as 1800 bucks.
And for many the selection box never has the model or color you look for anyways.
This wouldn't concern me too much as in some way a multi item listing is actually justified here.
However, if you check the other itemes those sellers have available you often get nothing at all.
There might be 5 or more results from the same seller but his profile shows that no items are on sale.
Did deeper and you also find proper, single item listings from those sellers - at competetive and not increased prices.
I stated that when I click on the other items for sale then I should see what the seller is offering.
If nothing shows up for items and nothing shows up in his store than IMHO something is fishy.
Especially if you consider that the overpriced multi item listings appear first in the search while the normal listings of the same seller come much further down.
From past experience I also noticed that the number of available items in a multi listing drops with the number of items sold in the single listings.
Clearly means the seller has way less items available than what he is listing if you count all the multi item and single item listings.
The, at this point still nice and friendly support guy tries the best to assure me they are taking violations very seriosly.
So I had to ask why then after now about 3 years of ongoing complaints by myself about these issues they are not getting better but worse by the month.
It would indicate that Ebay in fact is doing the opposite and support these kinds of violations because they maximise the profits through listing fees and selling fees.
Add the fact that for a normal, everyday user it is next to impssible to avoid these traps that are created on purpose.
The line was disconnected at this point.

About an hour later I got a call back from another Ebay person stating to be with the high level customer and seller support.
Apologuised for the technical issues that caused the disconnection and delay to call me back as he had to first go through the recorded conversation.
According to this guy the real problem lies with the selling tools available and how a seller might misinterpret the proper use.
But of course it will all be checked properly now because customer service and satisfaction is important to Ebay.
At this point I could not stand it anymore and decided to go full blast.
"If customer satisfaction would be important than offending sellers would be banned from selling instead of being allowed to close the account with a bad feedback and move on to a fresh one.
Buyers would also have options to directly report offending listings without having to buy an item first.
And if buyer claims and feedback clearly show a seller is fraudulent then the seller should be taken down for good with ALL accounts.
Since nothing like this ever happens Ebay clearly protects fraudulent sellers as long as the profits made through them outweigh the need to pay back buyers.
The total ignorance to tax evasion by avoiding import duties already caused a flood of sellers misusing this backdoor."
There was a long silence after this and I though I got disconnected again.
Seems the guy need to sort his thoughts first.
His reply was "You see things that are not there because you judge based on a few negative experiences you had.
If you think that a few bad deals you encountered mean that the entire system is corrupt than it might be best to avoid it."
I tried to get an explanation for this indirect insult but it was clear the guy did not want to talk to me anymore - go figure.

Ebay is not all bad, but rules, guidelines and regulations are for everyone using OR PROVIDING the platform.
At the moment however it seems that the "Ebay law" is about as honest and trustworthy as a catholic priest stating there is and never was child abuse happening.
Listings and feedback are kept private - a clear violation for almost all items listed but keeps the business going.
Misleading advertising is an offense in almost all countries - glad to see that local laws are nothing Ebay has to acknowledge.
Fraudulent sellers keep doing business with the same paypal account - I mean REALLY!!?? You ban a seller for violations but only the offending accounts and not ALL accounts linked to the same paypal or home address?
Sellers unable to communicate in the local tongue should not be allowed at all - How many claims start with complaints that a seller is unable to understand most basic english?
Ongoing negative feedback that items come from oversea while listed as being locally shipped mean intentional import tax evasion - A company supporting this is subject to the corresponding tax laws but Ebay neither reports those sellers nor pays the import duties that should been added during the checkout.
Is then any surprise that no matter where or how many times people complain that nothing changes for the better?
Lets face it world: Ebay is not platform that provides a service for individuals to buy and sell things.
That is how Ebay started but not anymore.
Ebay is like any other company - they want to maximise profits at all costs.
Power sellers are the driving force of the business, as such they get the benefits, promotions and nice things to decorate the office with.
Unlike a physical company though Ebay, for us, only exists in the digital online form.
If an online store operates locally then it is subject to all local laws that come with a business, like warranties, returns, advertising policies, business plans...
The problem starts with the definition of "shop", "business" and "selling" in regards to differenciations of online and real, pysical operations with a retail store.
Ebay somehow manages to convince the world that they are not providing any goods and with that defintion are not an online store but instead a platform provider - like pay TV.
To keep this outlaw status and avoid being made responsible for offending or fraudulent transactions Ebay had to give in and make sacrifices.
Certain items just can't be listed at all, in some countries you can list a chemical while in another you can't, same for refunds.
The buyer protection is a way to get your money back if a deal turns out to be really bad and the seller is unresponsive.
More importantly though it makes sure a buyer won't get the idea of taking legal action.
Yes, in some countries you can actually get insurance policies for legal stuff...
Imagine there would be a class action law suit against a very bad seller.
Hundreds of people got scammed and now want the law to be enforced.
Difficult to say the least, impossible if the seller is in one country while the scammed people are from all over the world.
Also a very neat way to shut people up because why would anyone take the complaints serious if the person got refunded....
In the real world it is quite easy to get a business adress from an online store - it is listed on their website.
In the real world an item you buy in an online store comes from the company you order from unless of course you order adult toys or such 😉
You don't get any business information from power sellers on Ebay....
Except of course from those good and trustworthy ones that operate locally and actually have a listed business number and provide real invoices that can be used to tax claims.
Imagine a really bad comparison if you replace Ebay with a drug dealer and that listed items are sometimes drugs.
"Hey! I saw you just sold drugs to this person, I have to arrest you!"
"Oh no, you got it wrong officer! I did not sell anything to anyone, I only provided a service here!"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, the person did not buy anything me, he bought it from someone else and I did not get any money either that went right to the person that sold it."
"Ok, then all is fine here, sorry to have bothered you! Have a nice day!"