EBAY Complaints

I have been into buyer mode on ebay for the past couple of weeks or so and I noticed a couple of things about the things that are truely annoying. For starters why do they keep changing the layout? I like it best when all of the different buying formats are at the top of the items and not somewhere on the side.

Another beef I have is that why is there no option to skip to a certain page of your search? For example, say you are searching for "HOCKEY AUTO PATCH" and there are over 10 000 entries. You go through a certain number of pages and take a break and close your browser. It would be a lot more convenient if you could just write down the page number you stopped at instead of scrolling through the pages to get to the one you stopped at. Anyone with me on this?

There also needs to be an option to eliminate BINS from a search b/c I think 99% of people ignore these altogether. Also an option to remove other overpriced nonsense such as the cup artist proofs which seem to take up half of the results and I'm not even kidding!

Gotta agree with you on the Cup Proof, its impossible to search for any high end cup cards or 1/1s now a days with all those stupid cut up cards. What ever happened to framing the set they look great all together. People can't be making that much money from them.

on the left side under "Format" tick the box that says Auction and it will filter out any BIN

I know what you mean, John. They had a website format that worked. Now they - like many sites and services - seem to think that they need to be more like facebook. It's bloody annoying.

if you are searching for the cup but dont want to see proofs put this in your search

Cup -(proof)

you can exclude anything you want this way, multiple exclusions just need to be separated by a comma and a space

Cup -(plates, plate, proof)

Couldn't agree more with the format of the site. On my browser at work, I get one version of Ebay. At home on the same browser (granted different OS), I get a different version. Then on a third browser, there's no telling what version I will get. Trying to track down the completed auctions and other filters is a pain in the "improved" layouts.

FlyerGuy22 said:

if you are searching for the cup but dont want to see proofs put this in your search

Cup -(proof)

you can exclude anything you want this way, multiple exclusions just need to be separated by a comma and a space

Cup -(plates, plate, proof)

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THANKS!! This should filter out about 1000 pages of uselessness.

Steve, I heard the programmers there are just bored and that's why they keep flipping around the layouts. Fine, but one day I was on ebay and within 30 minutes it went back and forth like 10 times!

quincy said:

I know what you mean, John. They had a website format that worked. Now they - like many sites and services - seem to think that they need to be more like facebook. It's bloody annoying.

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I work in the world of web and this is the way things are moving. More and more statistics show that the new look is more inline with what people want. eBay is travelling down the same road as many other larger corporations. Also the rule of thumb now online is to update within a 2 year period. If you don't you are perceived as archaic to some degree. I do understand the issues with the layouts and yet I do see the benefits too.

Secondly data filtering is the new gold mine. The more you can allow users to filter, the better the site functions overall from a user interaction perspective. I am going to say that I love what the new site looks like and I like the data filtering options, but I am still not a fan of the tablet version and even a lesser fan of the mobile version. Yet I will use all three versions if I have to. I predict in the next few years, you will see responsive designs that will allow to handle all three platforms with unique experiences using similar back end technologies that will allow the sites to sniff the device being used and deliver the optimal experience that is uniform across all.

I could get into it in more detail but you have not seen the last of the changes. Apple's iPad and iPhones have changed the way the game is played.

Anyways with anything, you will get used to it. The old 18 month rule with techology and software went out the window with tablet and mobile. Sometimes you will see jumps in less than 4 month timespans and we are rushing to keep up with the hardware. But that is the age old problem, software always will lag behind hardware and the multitude of hardware options available.

wow, i didnt want to blab on but i did. okay I will stop there.

99goals said:

Also the rule of thumb now online is to update within a 2 year period. If you don't you are perceived as archaic to some degree.

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This would make HI prehistoric.....

Ebay is still more user friendly than MANY other websites out there. Solutions to the BIN and nonsense cards have already been commented on, so I'll add a word for when a search brings up thousands of results. Only go as far as the next time you think you'll be on. If you search ebay every day, go 36 hours or so in; every 2 days, 60 hours in; 3 days, 80 hours. Usually you can go as far as three days into searches in a reasonable time. If you're not searching ebay for something at least every three days it's probably not THAT important.

hederman said:

This would make HI prehistoric.....

Ebay is still more user friendly than MANY other websites out there. Solutions to the BIN and nonsense cards have already been commented on, so I'll add a word for when a search brings up thousands of results. Only go as far as the next time you think you'll be on. If you search ebay every day, go 36 hours or so in; every 2 days, 60 hours in; 3 days, 80 hours. Usually you can go as far as three days into searches in a reasonable time. If you're not searching ebay for something at least every three days it's probably not THAT important.

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That's just the thing though. I don't search for anything specific and I am just looking for good deals on high end stuff. I do make a note of everything that I might potentially purchase, but like I said earlier it would be easier if I could just jump to a page of search results and not start from the beginning each and every time.

chakhae1 said:

That's just the thing though. I don't search for anything specific and I am just looking for good deals on high end stuff. I do make a note of everything that I might potentially purchase, but like I said earlier it would be easier if I could just jump to a page of search results and not start from the beginning each and every time.

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That's the thing with the new eBay search... it tries to pinpoint an item or items for you.

eBay is a vast marketplace with everything from A to Z and like a lot of people, we don't really have a specific item we're targetting. We just want to browse and see if there's something interesting, but eBay's dead set on telling us what we want and should buy.

chakhae1 said:

That's just the thing though. I don't search for anything specific and I am just looking for good deals on high end stuff. I do make a note of everything that I might potentially purchase, but like I said earlier it would be easier if I could just jump to a page of search results and not start from the beginning each and every time.

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To me what you are saying doesnt make much sense, as items are constantly ending and being sold. So if you leave off at page 10, and log off for 6 or 8 hours and come back to search again, the likelihood of the last item you viewed still being on page 10 is slim to none.

Maybe I am missing what you are trying to say, but the way you have explained it doesn't seem to make much logical sense.

hederman said:

This would make HI prehistoric.....

Ebay is still more user friendly than MANY other websites out there. Solutions to the BIN and nonsense cards have already been commented on, so I'll add a word for when a search brings up thousands of results. Only go as far as the next time you think you'll be on. If you search ebay every day, go 36 hours or so in; every 2 days, 60 hours in; 3 days, 80 hours. Usually you can go as far as three days into searches in a reasonable time. If you're not searching ebay for something at least every three days it's probably not THAT important.

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Forums such as HI, will stay in this format for quite some time. These forums are content heavy and people are willing to take the time to spec out the threads. So this forum style tech defies the current logic. That being said, the average person spends 8 seconds on a webpage before deciding to abandon it. ebay is trying to capture the average user, the die hards are there and won't be going anywhere any time soon. They own that marketplace with their service offering.

Burner said:

That's the thing with the new eBay search... it tries to pinpoint an item or items for you.

eBay is a vast marketplace with everything from A to Z and like a lot of people, we don't really have a specific item we're targetting. We just want to browse and see if there's something interesting, but eBay's dead set on telling us what we want and should buy.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the new world of the web. Everything now is geared towards what you "might" be searching for. They grab data based on your search and show you the "best matches" etc. This is the new norm now. This will not change except that in the future you might find you will see more items that are geared towards what you are looking for. It's not a fine tuned science. This is a product base company and they invest millions upon millions to find the perfect back end to serve you contextual data. Last but not least, most impulse searches are being generated by the younger demographic that either a) will exhaust searches for the items they look for or b) buy the first thing that looks blingish and buy it.

To take this further, I have been on eBay for over 10 years. I only really ever search for Wade Belak or Wendel Clark cards. They already have my search criteria saved automatically and generate those searches for me. Secondly, they have that data given my history of searches anyways.

dunkie69er said:

To me what you are saying doesnt make much sense, as items are constantly ending and being sold. So if you leave off at page 10, and log off for 6 or 8 hours and come back to search again, the likelihood of the last item you viewed still being on page 10 is slim to none.

Maybe I am missing what you are trying to say, but the way you have explained it doesn't seem to make much logical sense.

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Like I was saying earlier, these companies are trying to perfect the science of search. This is why they nail people who do duplicate listings of the same item. It will never be perfect but its pretty good.

Someone mentioned earlier in this thread that you can't search the completed listings for more than 30 days. Of course you won't find that info because they sell that API to other companies like Terapeak so they can generate life history of sales. This is a means of getting revenue that they have lost in R&D. Well its an educated guess anyways. Data is the new gold. Google perfected it in the www instance. eBay has perfected in the niche market that they have created.

I hope people don't mind me doing this but i have so much experience with this stuff I thought I serve up a written lecture for all of you guys LOL..

Well enuff said for me.

dunkie69er said:

To me what you are saying doesnt make much sense, as items are constantly ending and being sold. So if you leave off at page 10, and log off for 6 or 8 hours and come back to search again, the likelihood of the last item you viewed still being on page 10 is slim to none.

Maybe I am missing what you are trying to say, but the way you have explained it doesn't seem to make much logical sense.

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Where did this word salad even come from John's explanation? Come back 6-8 hours? When you're searching for bargains on Sunday night, waiting 6-8 hours in-between searches is basically the same as not bothering to look that day.

There also needs to be an option to eliminate BINS from a search b/c I think 99% of people ignore these altogether

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You really think that? I list 99% of my items in my eBay store in this format (w/ Best Offer, of course)...I do a regular, decent volume this way...just sayin'.

dunkie69er said:

To me what you are saying doesnt make much sense, as items are constantly ending and being sold. So if you leave off at page 10, and log off for 6 or 8 hours and come back to search again, the likelihood of the last item you viewed still being on page 10 is slim to none.

Maybe I am missing what you are trying to say, but the way you have explained it doesn't seem to make much logical sense.

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Maybe you and I are both missing something because that's exactly what I was going to post.

I don't go on ebay to view a particular item or search for a particular item. I just look for the best deals I can find. If you have yet to understand how I conduct my ebay searches, then it is not worth explaining any further.

you can't go on ebay leave and come back and expect same page numbers to work. people keep listing stuff and things change. There isn't the same number of auto patch cards every minute. maybe not even every second.

I hates that ebay got different layout on my searching sessions every times, and not always with 100% accucary with the search engine.
I has missed many PC-cards across the years because that ebay couln't find those cards!

Even if I spelt the names correctly and at the auctions descripton was also spelled correctly but yet ebay's searching enginge manages has to miss those cards!?
Internet has gotten more and more user unfriendly at those last years.

chakhae1 said:

I don't go on ebay to view a particular item or search for a particular item. I just look for the best deals I can find. If you have yet to understand how I conduct my ebay searches, then it is not worth explaining any further.

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My understanding of how you search has nothing to do with my reply. I was simply asking if you could clarify what you wanted Ebay to do for you, as it sounded like you wanted them to remember exactly what the last item was that you looked at, and allow you to continue to browse from that point on.

If that is what you want, maybe leave your browser open to where you left off and start again when you feel like continuing to browse. Asking Ebay to intuitively know where you want to begin after starting a new search sounds pretty silly.

That was the point I was trying to make, along with the fact that items don't stay on the same page in an any search for more than a few minutes due to items ending and new ones being listed.

Feel free to leave another comment about how you don't think I understand what you are asking, and try to make me look like the bad guy.