Back

EBAY ONGOING PROBLEMS

Updated 1 Mar 08

The problems are:

1. If you have a listing that ebaY can twist into containing a "profanity", though the item will list, and you will be charged for it, it will never index. ebaY will not let you know this has happend, so unless you check all you items by doing a search for them via the search engine, you will not know if the item indexed. Here is an example of an item description that would not index
Two Colorful Birds Royal Worcester Porcelain Figurine
This is an English Cole Tits Bone China Royal Worcester Figurine. Two brown, black and green birds perched on a branch. This figurine stands about 5 inches tall and about 3 inches wide"
Some useful info on indexing may be found here.

2. The ebaY Shipping Calculator is almost always broken. For example on 6 March ebaY announced that, "For a few hours on Thursday, 3/6/08, listings using the shipping calculator to determine United States Postal Service (USPS) Parcel Post and Priority Mail costs were calculating incorrect amounts. This may have resulted in some buyers being undercharged for shipping between 4:30pm and 7:45pm PST. The issue was caused by a bug which has been corrected.". A more recent problem on 13 April 08, is showing the shipping that shows on the search results page as ridiculous amounts, some reading in the millions, some showing 6 cents. If you look at the images below, you will see where ebaY is showing shipping at 6 cents, but the seller listing it as $7.95.


Users are always posting complaints about ebaY's shipping calculator, which is broken as often as it works. Sometimes it is not showing handling or insurance charges, sometimes it just charges the wrong amount. The best workaround is to NOT use it, though ebaY is making that less possible all the time.

3. Item indexing is slow, on title search 2 to 4 hours or more, and very slow on description search 24 to 36 hours. This problem has existed for many many years and is never solved. ebaY has even starting claiming that items are slow to index so that ebaY can check the listings for fraud before indexing. This is total ebaY corprospeak (read that as lying) to try to cover their own ongoing problems.

4. ebaY has acknowledged two more ongoing problems with their system that affect listings. Putting an apostrophe in a word in an auction title can cause the title to not index properly, so it doesn't show up in search. This problem is caused by difficulties with the coding of apostrophes, and certain software programs can do it successfully while others don't. The best option is to leave them out of your listing titles.

5. ebaY checkout and Invoicing - another problematical system, broken as often as it works. Don't use it.

6. ebaY security breaches. There is no way to secure your personal and account information on ebaY. There are so many different ways scammers can harvest your information form ebaY and hijack your accounts, that you should take precautions on your own account. Keep a seperate bank account for online transactions, not connected in any real life way to any opther account. Keep a seperate credit card for your online transactions with a spending limit on it.

7. When relisting many options are defaulted to yes, even if you did not have them in the original listing, and don't want to use them. Of course you are charged for all these options, so be careful when relisting to make sure only the options you use (if any) are checked.

Several of these problems should trigger the seller to ask ebaY for auction fee refunds. The seller should judge the affect the problem had on their auction and act accordingly. If you are not getting the service you paid for, ask for refunds, report ebaY to the consumer fraud agencies and in cases of illegal Billpoint chargebacks, take legal action against them. REFUND INFORMATION