I had gone years with minimal eBay complaints. I used to complain all the time, and then eBay went for a long stretch where they did most everything right. Now they've fallen apart again. Someone must be justifying their paycheck by changing everything they can. Instead, they're breaking everything.
Here is my last post on eBay's ineptness:
My Complaints on the New eBay Feed Page
Prior to that post, I wrote this one:
The eBay Feed Situation and Other Grievances
I have even more grievances to report!
But first, let's recap everything that's wrong with eBay.
1. Thriftbooks has dumped its entire inventory on eBay. This ruined all of my saved searches, and I had to create new ones to try to remove Thriftbooks' inventory. Inexplicably, the nuisance persists. eBay is so determined to ruin our searches that many of Thriftbooks' items still filter through even though I've blocked Thriftbooks' multiple IDs.
Just wait until all of eBay's inventory is dumped on Facebook Marketplace! Yes, indeed. If you haven't heard, this is going to happen. eBay might as well ruin all marketplaces while it's at it!
2. My store categories don't show in my eBay store unless buyers go through multiple clicks. What's the point of having categories?
3. eBay continually changes its feedback page with each change making the page even more difficult to use. The latest obnoxious change causes a pop-up window asking if I want to save the seller. I most certainly do not!
4. The eBay saved feed has been ruined.
Here is another complaint I made to eBay on the new saved feed (complaint #5):
The feed page is now intermittently broken. Sometimes I can only get 18 items to load. Other times, more items will load, but slowly. It's not my high-speed internet since all other sites load quickly. Remove the watched items from the page. We ONLY want to see newly listed items sorted by newest first. Please give us the old page back!
eBay and sellers are losing money while buyers are struggling to find items, since they must now complete dozens of searches manually in order to find items to buy. It's a headache and not worth doing when we also check other online sites that are working properly. eBay is now a slog to check. It was the easiest site to check until the original feed page was removed.
You have significantly downgraded your site. This new page is woefully inadequate. The old feed page was the single most important site feature for buyers, and it worked beautifully!
When I wrote this, my goal was to make my complaint as strong as I could to make it more likely that I grab their attention. This time I included my email address in case they decide to send a survey. I'm not holding out much hope that they will listen, but I'm going to keep complaining.
Later, the page stopped at 88 items. I complained again (complaint #6):
The page cuts off at 88 items. Please fix it!
Ina Steiner has now picked up the story.
eBay Made ‘Saved Feed’ Feature Harder to Navigate, Buyers Complain
Through the article, I learned that eBay has now altered the mobile feed as well. This proves to me that this isn't a glitch; it's by design. eBay ruined the feed on purpose.
Ina also mentioned that this could be part of eBay's winter update, which will be announced in February. If so, then eBay has made a mistake. Features that are significantly changed and degraded should be beta tested first while the bugs are worked out. They shouldn't just change an important feature to a buggy new version that is very hard to use.
And now...
Complaint #7:
The page is broken! "Oops! There seems to be a problem serving the request at this time. Please check back later."
I actually had a small amount of hope after the page broke completely. Maybe they'll reinstate the old page. I checked the URL, and it still redirects. If the new page is completely broken, then eBay should let us have the old page back. Right? No? We can hope...
The new page came back later, but does it matter?
I thought of some additional mistakes that eBay has made in recent months. The list goes on and on!
5. eBay is sending emails to buyers telling them that their packages are delayed when they aren't!
On December 17, a buyer sent me this message:
"What is taking so long for my item to get here? It should have been here days ago. i keep getting delayed messages. This really isn't great service. The shipping fee wasn't small either. I certainty hope I get it soon, as this is very irritating."
There wasn't a problem. The package had been mailed one week before, which was just two weeks before Christmas when the postal volume is extreme. The package had gone from Oklahoma to Michigan and was at the distribution center closest to the buyer's home.
I reassured the buyer, and it worked out fine when the package arrived the next day. I knew why the buyer was overreacting. eBay had originally given a fast delivery estimate. Two messages were sent out in the following days saying that the package was delayed, and the result was that the delivery estimate was changed to a realistic date. That's it, but the buyer had gotten upset because of the supposed delays.
eBay didn't use to send out messages like that. By doing so, they are alarming buyers when there is no reason for concern. I was quite annoyed in this case, and not with the buyer. I was annoyed with eBay.
6. eBay sends messages telling buyers that they have been refunded, making it sound like they have been fully refunded even when the refund is partial.
I send partial refunds for postage overages. This usually happens when a buyer makes two purchases separately, and I plan to ship the books in one box. I send a partial refund on the postage for the second book purchased. I say why I send the partial refund.
The problem is that eBay now sends a message to the buyer with the title "Order --------- has been refunded." The message tells the buyer that they have been refunded. If the buyer scrolls down, they can figure out that it was a postage refund, but eBay doesn't say that. Buyers then misunderstand.
In just the last week, I refunded postage on the second transaction made by a buyer. The buyer immediately sent a message asking why they were refunded. They said that they still wanted the book. I reassured the buyer that I was just refunding the postage overage.
I feel like eBay and I are working at cross purposes.
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