100's of FAKE "views" added daily to items I have listed for sale.

[mykelmont]

Items (pot plants) which normally sell or reach the end of their selling period with perhaps only 25 - 40 "Views" at most are suddenly receiving , starting on the second day of listing 100 exactly  "views",  and always at the same time of day. The next day, another 100 or maybe 110, and the next day another 100, and so on until at the end of the selling period of 7 days there are 700 plus of these "views.

They are most certainly FAKE. No doubt about it. They could not possibly be genuine arriving in the listings always at the same time and the same round number.

Is anyone experiencing this sabotage or knows where it comes from?  It has been occurring daily for 2 months and of course it is impossible to know exactly the correct number of genuine "views"

[davewil1964]

it's still a non-issue. The amount of time and angst you have spent on this could surely have been used productively.

[jellybirddesigns]

OP - I think you're in a situation of "analysis paralysis".

You're seriously overthinking this.

I would be more concerned with the all capitals in your listings descriptions, which make things quite hard to read. Even worse is your listing with all capitals in bold! All caps is actually considered the online etiquette of "shouting".

Your photos are lovely though.

Buyers do not care about the postage issues detailed in your listings. Perhaps revisit the listings and try and see why it doesn't allow you to select pickup. Starting a fresh listing (with no caps throughout), might work? Even a different browser sometimes does the trick if Ebay gets glitchy. 

[mykelmont]

I have to tell you that I've HAD (capitals) to shout abut the items being for collect, because a glitch won't let me proceed to list the items unless there is something shown in postal details - package type, weight, dimensions. I know very well what capitals mean, but I' m forced to use them purely to shout loud that the items are local pick up and why I have to do it.

It does allow me to state in the normal selling details that the item is for local ick up, but as I've said I still can't click on "list item" unless there's something in the postal details! 

(Exclamation points are also considered shouting.)

Thankyou for kind comment re the photos. I take a lot of trouble in that area, believing that a good photo can help a sale better than a bad one.

Actually, I have an ever-growing circle of contacts who I visit on call to take photos for them of the item(s)  they are about to list, charging a little more than the expected cost of the petrol to take me to and from their homes. Nothing too big or small! (Exclamation point.........) Advertising and word of mouth recommendations.

I have just begun a phone-around of these folk, especially those who normally have low viewer counts like I have had in these past weeks, and 2 out of 10 so far are having precisely the same trouble, so that makes a minimum of 3 out of 10 so far that are having the hundreds of fake views added in just the same way.

So I have to ask again, not only is it happening to me, but to other sellers, and how many more in the world  when this is just a small corner in the outer west suburbs of Melbourne? It's getting spooky.

I still strongly believe that it's a move by eBay to boost the morale of sellers who might be discouraged from listing items for sale if they get only small numbers of views, whether they result in sales or not.

I must know accurately in the cases of selling pot plants the viewing trends because the plants have to be prepared for photography before listing so they look their best. Fortunately it's not a business concern but purely a tidying-up of our back patio for a few dollars.

But now I'm finding other people with the same thing I find it absolutely unsatisfactory,  eBay interfering in this way in a person's business, dangerous, insidious, in fact.

I've tried the Microsoft browser so far and it's exactly the same. But I will have a think about  going to lower case - although the people I've spoken to who have the same bug have theirs in lower case anyway so I mustn't get very confident and get carried away in that respect. 

As a last remark ending this note to show that it's all self-defeating, and that is those of us I have spoken to with the same infection are planning to give away selling on eBay for as long as it takes for this to stop. They like me are retired and don't depend on sales for their livelihood and it's just a casual thing for us.

Thank you for your continuing interest.

[jellybirddesigns]

None of us can really help you with this issue. Ebay do not read here, only forum moderators.

The only other thing I can suggest is to add your postcode in the heading of your listings, so that people can tell at a glance whether your listing is of interest to them.

Instead of PICKUP AND COLLECTION, just change it to Pickup Only 3000 (or whatever your is, obviously).

[mykelmont]

Thanks for that. 

I may not try out your recommendations for a while because of my intended withdrawal from selling on eBay for a while.

The plants will keep; I may even sell them locally.

I also sell model soldiers. They are by no means local pick up (3023),  many have sold not only interstate but internationally, and if I'm angry now you ain't seen nothin' yet if this happening affects the sales in that category where the pricing pays for the hours of concentration in painting the little men.

I will occasionally list an item and if the stupidity begins in the middle of the second day as it always has done, I  will simply end the listing and try a genuine item and see how that goes.

But I and my contacts have grave concerns about not only the interference into our sales but the easiness with which it's done.

Thank you again for your interest and help.

[p9games]

I would suggest to you that Ebay is not really the ideal platform for 'clearing a few plants off the back patio'.  Maybe try FB or Gumtree which is free, and perhaps better suited to local sales.

Secondly, I still can't understand why you equate this with some underhanded and dastardly tactic of Ebay.  Sellers care about sales, not about views.  I don't measure, track, or care about views.  There is far more likely to be an innocent answer than thinking you've stumbled upon some conspiracy.  Online marketing is often capped at number of impressions and scheduled, and is a more credible cause than some plot to bring about the undoing of potplant sellers.

[mykelmont]

Thankyou.

I've never had any problem before, always receiving plenty of all the encouragement  I need to continue tidying up our back patio or any other reason I want to give as describing my occasional sales as a complete contrast to running a business, which is where some people are coming from in passing unwanted and unheeded negative judgment rather than help. I wish that helpers who can't help would not even comment. And I'm going to continue in the same way I have for years. There has never been a problem until these past few weeks.

The views are particularly important when I plan to tidy up the patio. Being plants not bricks, there are better times than others to offer them up for sale and can be prepared for that occasion best when being able to refer back to previous tidyings-up and the number of views at any particular time of year. It's as simple as that, too hard for some to handle, and it's unfortunately obvious. But I get a better chance of a sale which of course is all that matters, isn't that so?  Well that is how I get mine, so please understand if you can that simple requirement that I rely on.

Maybe it's not a dastardly underhanded tactic of eBay. Maybe it's a well-intended, well-meant scheme to boost the morale of a seller who is only showing a low - or no - count on views. The planter of the views obviously thinks it is needed or the views-missing seller might get discouraged by the apparent lack of interest and decide that eBay is not for him and go elsewhere and take the probable seller's fees with him- a loss to eBay.  Only it's a bit heavy-handed  and certainly not very subtle to hit with numbers by 100 exactly and at the same time every day, every day ,during the listing. That certainly requires an explanation rather than being told how useless views are.

Applying that mentality to pot plants today - other items tomorrow: I also sell model soldiers locally, interstate and internationally. Views are definitely of less interest in that category but I'll still scream if the same interference occurs when I next put one or two up for sale next.

They (views) and possibly me therefore by inference may be regarded with scorn having only a very minor place in the world of eBay trading, and therefore not worthy of consideration. 

I am fed up with people with no expertise telling me with unfortunate attitude what  what my problem is NOT. I contacted the Forum to get help in finding out what the problem IS.

To demonstrate your expertise in your responsible position within the Forum and display the authority behind all the suggestions and opinions you have expressed, you are now warmly invited to advise me what the cause of my problem is, and what it is. Over to you.........

And while you're solving my problem and keeping positive please tell me that if this is not eBay based, why can't  - or don't - eBay stop it. After all, it should be a cause of concern to everyone, whatever their category or volume of business, that eBay can interfere in someone's listings or care when there's complaint, or prevent it happening.

[jellybirddesigns]

Please understand that this forum is just members like yourself. We don't have the answers for you. For us, this is a complete non-issue. Even a Customer Service rep will not be able to give you an answer you seem to be desperately seeking. Whilst most of us are well versed in many areas of Ebay, we do not have access to the inner workings of the system.

Chalk it up to an Ebay glitch, as there are plenty of them to go around. Come into the forums on a Friday to see the number of people suddenly having a range of problems.

[p9games]

Let me be frank.  You don't have a problem.  Keep on selling your items, focus on whether or not they sell.  You're wasting your time and energy on a non issue that bears little or no relation to actual results (sales)

[mykelmont]

Thankyou anyway.

I have to disagree, though. It's obvious  that my point is being overlooked, ignored or somehow is not getting through that the information from previous sales is crucial (exclamation point, upper case, bold italics) for timing for having these items look their best for photography (my speciality) and listing, as they differ in many ways in different ways at different times of the year and at any time of the year they are just right for a certain feature to be emphasised. When I'm going to sell a certain plant (two, four, eight plants?) I know, I'll look up my records from previous sales and they're always an excellent and reliable guide to views, watchers and sales.

Hang on a minute......I don't have any......I've been told quite dogmatically by a help in Forum who obviously knows far more about manging this kind of living item than I do about these matters than I do after my pathetic little 8 years of selling these plants and the value foolishly placed on records from over that period.

Only 4 piddling pot plants for about $140-ish? Some people deal in multi-hundreds or even thousands! So why is this man  creating such a fuss? And why does he object to being treated with scorn?  

But before I say "goodbye" and thank you for your help, I'm going to state absolutely categorically that it's spooky the way that eBay has either created this apparent, so-called non-issue (or allowed it to happen) for whatever reason.

The charitable commendable morale-boosting "help" is favourite among my contacts - I've spoken to 14  by now in a ring-around, with now 4 with the identical non-issue as mine, all 14 in agreement as to the cause and just as worried about how and why eBay can stick their noses without permission into one's business.

With  sufficient support  coming in a reasonable time I shall be going public on the interference issue rather than my own special reason for asking Forum for help.

I certainly won't be wasting my time and hopes in contacting Forum ever again, whatever the reason. While I thank you for your interest and help I was disappointed there was no feel for, or any attempt at understanding of the particular kind of help  needed - dealing with living items rather than inert solids such furniture, machinery or electronics,  bricks and lawn mowers .

Let's do each other a favour and not continue this conversation. I'm sure your time is far more important than mine, so don't waste any more of it on a non-issue,