New Item Pages, New Search

I have complaints, and the purpose of this post is to complain about them. All of the eBay cheerleaders just need to deal with it. The reason I say this is that often when I complain about eBay, a cheerleader shows up and berates me for it. I have a right to complain about eBay, since I still use it.

I was opted into the new item pages yesterday. Well, the new item pages are not that bad, but I preferred the old ones. I think the tabs are really stupid. I looked at a closed auction that I was watching, and I could not believe how many ads were at the top of the page. They took up the whole screen, and I had to scroll down to see the closed auction. Do I really need that many sample items that I might be interested in? They are useless to me since I never click on them. I am perfectly capable of browsing all of the Nancy Drew books by searching for Nancy Drew and sorting by "ending soonest." I will see any books of interest to me.

I still have to access my saved searches page from Google Chrome, which by the way, I am getting better at using. Google Chrome is an awesome browser. The problem is that eBay's new item pages are rendered oddly in Google Chrome. Take this one, for instance:

Lot of Vintage Books - Collectible - 11 Books

It looks fine in Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer, but in Google Chrome, the listing has a vertical scroll bar that is really obnoxious. This is what I mean:

I have to use the extra vertical scroll bar that is within the listing in order to view the last part of the seller's description. How idiotic is that? The first rule of web design is to make certain that websites are rendered correctly in all browsers. What is wrong with the fools who are working for eBay? What is wrong with eBay?

I looked at my own descriptions for my current and recent auctions, and they have the delightful vertical scroll bar. #%&@*!!! All descriptions that are longer than the height of the browser window will have vertical scroll bars in Google Chrome. So I use Google Chrome to avoid the problems that I have with Firefox and Internet Explorer on eBay, so eBay cooks up a problem that is unique to Google Chrome. I can't win!

It was my auction for some Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Super Mysteries that I checked to see if it had a vertical scroll bar, so eBay's home page shows me this:

I am selling the Super Mysteries, eBay; I do not want to buy them. I know I looked at a listing for the Super Mysteries, but I was the seller. Don't you get it?

And if that is not enough....

We have all been opted into the "new and improved" search today. All of my visited links are gone, since the new search is a different URL from the old search. I will be clicking on lots of items again this week since I will not know whether I have clicked on them.

I also do not like the layout of the new search any better than I like the layout of the "new and improved" message boards or the "new and improved" My eBay. I will get used to it, but I expect it to take a week or so. I have not seen any really funky results yet, but I find the new search pages harder to read than the old search pages.

Worst of all, the new search is also messed up in Google Chrome. When I click on an item and view it, I then hit the back button and should have the page stay where I was when I clicked on the link. But no! The page remains at the top so I have to scroll down. Double #%&@*!!!

This has been a recurring problem for the new search since October 2008. It has happened at times in all browsers but not for all users. When the problem first surfaced, eBay told users that it was their fault. Too many people have had this problem for too many months for it just to be the fault of the users. Please.

Someone defended eBay on the search message board (which will be my favorite place today since I love reading all of the fallout) by saying that eBay is a large company and it is hard to fix problems. Huh? Have the programmers look at the code! I understand that the problem might be hard to fix, but it has been eight months! That is plenty of time! As the Bonanzle site is getting built, there are problems that arise, but Bill, who is the programmer of the site, gets those problems fixed within one week! EBay surely has more than one programmer, so they should be able to fix their problems in fewer than eight months!

Remember that "misery loves company," so if any of you are having problems, I would love to read about them. And if you are happy about the changes, I am sincerely happy for you. Fortunately some people like the changes. I just happen not to be one of them.