eBay Displays Higher Shipping Costs in Search Results

by: angryllama

NOT disputing how awful this sort of OverStatement of actual shipping charges, but for myself I've been seeing the OPPOSITE sort of problem.  My listings (all GTC fixed price) have been RANDOMLY UNDERcharging buyers for calculated postage/shipping.  NOT by horrible amounts, but when ACCURATE Calculated Shipping Charge has been one of the Regular Features of eBay that up until the past couple of months worked first time...every time for that feature to FAIL is not reassuring.

by: Mark4

will ebay ever get it's act together?

by: rhawk

The state of my ebay selling is horrid.  

Since around March 10 it died.  Only a few sales here and there since.

I am beside myself as to what to do....and thats the rub,....there is nothing I can do.

Revise, relist, start over with new listings does not change anything in search.

Seems once your account goes sour in the dimented mind of the great cassinni, you are finished.

Ebay changed search in March, saying that buyers are overwhelmed with the amount of items on ebay.

This is the kind of stupid, arrogant, wrong, and just indicative of the thing of leadership with ZERO selling experience.

Ebay recently created a new commercial....promoting their branded box, and...the latest, the greatest, most unique, most sought after, most rare item ever....

a rubber excercize mat.  A 8.00 piece of  foam rubber.

Not kidding.

A rolled up piece of rubber.

Bottom line....ebay deserves whats coming.  I think earning reports are out today.

They will be horrid. Because thats what a horrid and corupt company deserves.

by: Ric

There is a solution to eBays seemingly never ending series of daily system glitches.  Unfortunately, eBay's senior executives are not motivated to act.

The senior executive staff long ago made the decision to use the system announcement board when, and only when issues have leaked to the mainstream press. Announcements then downplay the severity of the problem and predict a quick fix even when system restoration takes days to accomplish.

The reason senior executive staff declines to inform buyers and sellers of every system failure is so that the frequency and negative impact these issues have does not negatively impact stock values.

If eBay publicly announced each and every system glitch when they occur as well as the severity and duration of the system failure, Wall Street analysts and investors would be scared off and share values would plummet.

eBay senior executives will gladly accept the drop in sales these system failures cause so long as they failures are not part of the discussion when it comes to analysts and investors.

IF Wall Street were to insist system failures are consistently reported, you can bet that the senior executive staff at eBay would be demanding permanent solutions as well as timely repairs when their systems fail.

by: toolguy

I don't have this problem because I took ebay's advice and offer FREE shipping on all my items.

It's not only in the listing it's also in the text of my listing.

"Buyer Pays FREE US Shipping"

Yes, I have it worded like that in my listings. The buyer does pay for shipping, it's included in the price.

by: iheartjacksparrow

@toolguy - If you offer free shipping, why would you have in your listing the words "Buyer Pays"? Even if the next word is 'Free,' there is still the connotation that the buyer is paying some amount for shipping. It would be less ambiguous if you just had 'FREE U.S. SHIPPING.'  

by: toolguy

@iheartjacksparrow

It's marketing ploy on my part that has the truth between the lines.

I want to be truthful with my customers, they're paying for shipping and I want them to know that.

IT WORKS FOR ME

by: bitbybit

When doing a search on mobile, instead of showing calculated shipping costs, ebay displays ''Ask Seller''. Between trying to rig results and a broken calculator, eBay has finally been glitched into a well-deserved corner. It gets to the point where some things or corporations are unrepairable or Humpty Dumptyed.

Also not working is listing my items as Fast & Free but ebay displays your item will sell faster if you change your listing to Fast & Free. I can't make it any more fast & free then it already is! Also ebay does not recognize auctions from the fixed format and vice-versa in their recommendations. For example: when listing a fixed listing a popup appears stating your listing would do better as an auction but if you change it does not note the change. No matter which format I am using, it is wrong according to eBay.

All of this really goes back to eBays manipulations catching up with them causing irreparable damage.

 

by: Frank F

Sales did die on March 10th as noted. They were bad before that but something big did change and of course for the worse for sellers.

Also, I offer free shipping on most items and a lot of my items have 'ask seller' for shipping. That causes they to shy away I sure.. Why would it have that if I have free or flat shipping on all listings... Because ebay has constant glitches, and this one has been going on for some time now...

by: kazaly

The real problem is eBay's constant tinkering with site functionality.
Too many changes are made without adequate testing.
It seems like every weekly maintenance introduces a new bug.
This forces another rushed change a week later which will likely introduce another bug.
And so it goes ad nauseum.
eBay has never properly got its head around site maintenance procedures and it shows.
And it alienates both buyers and sellers alike.
If they cut the updates back to monthly and went in for some good offline testing in a sandbox beforehand there may be fewer of these stupid and unnecessary glitches.
At the moment it's just plain emabarassing!

by: mindelec

@tool

I know you like to jump to ebay defense whenever possible, but did you even read the first sentence of the post?

"eBay is incorrectly displaying shipping costs in search results on some listings where sellers offer free shipping"

This glitch is only affect those who are offering "free shipping" like ebay told them too.

by: VV

The term 'glitch' needs to be retired.  It is Programming Incompetence.  Computers do nothing more than what a human has told them to do.  'Glitch' implies something just arbitrarily happened.

by: RKTOYS

"Buyer Pays FREE US Shipping"

It's really sad that you have to resort to that kind of manipulation.  I've been thinking of putting "FREE GIFT!1" in my titles and including a box of crayons or something.  I hate being forced to consider a stupid psychological trick like that.

"glitch"
Agreed.  It's poor logic.  Too many duhvelopers that shouldn't even be in the field.

by: DIANE1104

toolguy you better check your listings. I also have free shipping on all my items and search results are showing My Priority Rates instead of free shipping on quite a few in search results.  When you click on the item its showing correct. But I forgot your special to eBay. You always defend them.  

by: Don Wagner

I used to be in management in an IT development center - it would be interesting to see how eBay's broken development process works, but I can likely predict exactly why their error rate is so high. They can't even provide basic documentation on how the system works to their CSR's overseas, so what are the chances that people making code changes are aware of how a process is supposed to function? I don't see this changing.

by: psykick

@rhawk
I am a casual seller who has had to pack it up because when I put an auction up for a properly advertised item with free shipping or fixed I get only three page views in seven days.
I think some buyers have figured out they have little competition and will offer a price less than half.I did accept one out of frustration and got a paypal hold because it sold well under what Ebay valued it at compared to others.Its not just seasoned sellers suffering from this error.Its absolutely debilitating for the little guy.Appreciate your plight