All weekend we’ve been receiving emails from sellers telling us that eBay search is not performing correctly and that many of their listings are missing from search results.
The problem we have here at Tamebay HQ is narrowing the issue down so that we can replicate specific problems and it seems that many of the reports are identifying slightly different issues. However the number of reports we’ve received does suggest there is a significant problem.
The best demonstration we’ve had of a search anomaly on eBay was supplied to us by video. The eBay user says that they cleared their cookies and cache and therefore were effectively visiting eBay as a fresh visitor.
They then searched for ‘Capo’ and using the Chrome browser’s page search function looked for ‘Nordell;’, the brand of the capo that they are selling.
First search – It’s there, Refresh the page – it’s not there, Refresh the page – it’s there, Refresh the page – it’s not there, Refresh the page – it’s there….
We’ve been told by our readers that there have been many reports to eBay on search issues and that eBay are working on the problem as a priority.
The net result of what we know is that many sellers are reporting problems. And we’re told that eBay are fixing them and we have a video which appears to show a product repeatedly appearing and disappearing in search results. What’s your experience over the past few days – have you seen any problems? And as a seller are sales where you’d expect them to be?
1600hrs Edited to add: eBay have given the following statement confirming all issues should be resolved
Due to a technical issue, some eBay customers may have noticed a problem with their listings not showing up in search results over the weekend. The problem has now been fixed and we apologise for any inconvenience caused
11 Responses
eBay say this is normal, but it’s not normal when almost 500 of my listing have vanished. Not just from the search but also from my shop. Got half of them back now. A bit late for the weekend sales I should have had.
Starting last Friday listings started to disappear from the shop. Worse than that, the listings were not appearing in search.
As this went on all weekend the lack of sales amounted to a vast sum taking into account how many sellers were affected.
It allowed competitors an open doorway to sales and worried the substance out of sellers through lack of information.
I was told by CS on Friday evening that all is O.K. as your items can be found by item number and why don’t you give potential purchasers that?
It beggars belief
.
I even seen that seller id is not found when i try to search for seller items.
ebay is becoming crazy since few months.
When you report these issues in support they simply ask for 48 hrs, which will never come in a year, and issues will be unsolved for months as ever.
My category has been a nightmare to trade in since March.
I have had listings removed for offering choices – that had been live on the site for 4 years with sales of 12000+ units.
The choices were the main item only or the main item with different accessories relevant to the main item, not talking about paperclips etc.
They linked two accounts selling similar but not identical and told me they will be treated as duplicates – and ended the listings.
When I separated the choice listing in to multiple listing with only the main item and accessory they removed them as duplicates, when they were not.
And then this week end all the items in this category where hidden from Saturday onwards only able to view them from Selling Manager. They were not visible anywhere else on the site and were in 1st, 3rd and 4th position for the relevant search. Sat & most of Sun they were invisible but sales were made by I assume watchers/favourites plus they were appearing on the right of the main search as “popular” on eBay.
I think this weekends debacle was due to eBay releasing a duplicate bot that had not been fully tested, that is my theory.
The really strange thing that has had me scratching my head is that I cannot find any evidence of this Choice/Duplicate activity in any other category. In fact one big seller in my category has 2000 items across loads of categories and the only ones that where consistently getting removed where the ones from my Cat despite him using the same MVL and single listing strategy on all their items.
This issue must have a high chance of being part of a botched implementation of:
https://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/201507.shtml#2015-07-01084550
A bit of background. We’re one of a few ‘enterprise’ sellers in the automotive P&A (parts and accessories) categories and have been for the last five years or so.
I’ve personally written dissitations on algorithms for duplicates within P&A that will take into account locations and Ktypes (fitment).
We have calls with their developers in the US to help them develop ideas.
We get around the table with key people in Richmond.
YET we have not a f**king clue what’s happening within ebay right now!
Policies & ‘best practices’ are put ahead of site changes that need to be made in order to conform to policies.
Ebay say they’re waving at us but in reality they’re moving a lighly clenched fist up and down repeatedly!
There certainly is a problem. A very big one. I went on holiday on Thursday and uploaded stock to eBay before going away.
All the time I was away I couldn’t understand why I had zero sale or questions and the new stock uploaded had only got 1 view each.
I returned today and couldn’t find any of my listings via search or in my shop, yet they were showing as live on the app and selling manager.
After a grueling conversation with eBay they confirmed they can’t find my listings either and as it looks serious it will take another 48 – 72hrs for them to investigate.
This means potentially I will have had no revenue for a full 7 days – I rely on eBay as my sole income – i will be down a serous chunk of money because of this.
What can I do… nothing. It’s money lost and I know eBay couldn’t give a damn. It’s the most frustrating situation to be in and a real cause for concern financially
Early in April we (and probably EVERY P&A seller in the UK) had a blackout on fitment. After much research we discovered that no matter what vehicle was selected the compatibility checker stated “THIS PART IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH YOUR VEHICLE”.
Major issue for us as 90% of our listings are fitment. Ebay had it fixed in under two weeks. It must have cost them millions in lost sales.