eBay Search

[goingfishinguk]

Morning all, hope you are all well.  Like many others we come to these boards to find solutions to our problems and/or offer insights to eBay and other users - you know the way a forum should work. 

In the last 12 months or so we have been hit as sellers with a lot of obstacles.. service metrics not been looked after as promised = huge loss of sales, new advertising system dynamic = don't pay don't play.  July's tests, EDDs etc etc.

Some of us have managed to limp through those issues and still remain in business, just in my case.  Well lost one company.

The problem is the current issue, by reading the forums seems to be the 'SEARCH FUNCTIONALITY.'  Dozens of reports with evidence show huge numbers of listings not being found so potential buyers can't find our listings, if they can't find our listings then they can't buy our products, simple enough yes?  Remember we are paying good money for these listings to be visible BUT eBay are not giving us value for money.  We are NOT getting what we are paying for.

So my question is to anita@ebay    marco@ebay    or whoever has the power to honestly answer is the current search system here to stay or is it broken and being fixed?  

I personally retired from my 25 year career to do something I love due to mental health reasons and that is selling fishing tackle.  Until this time last year it was a breeze and I was looking forward to enjoying my formative years.  All I did was tweak a few listings now and again and leave my standard promoted listings at say 2% to 5%.  I sold loads, I had loads of suppliers and loads of loyal customers.  Obviously on top of this I was giving eBay many tens of 1000s of £££ in revenue.  It's all but gone.

All the above reasons since this time last year have put a huge strain on my family financially and a huge strain on my mental health.  Sales are down 80 to 90%  My account seems capped at the exact number of sales per day - 25.  I've heard rumours if you are vocal on these boards you get capped.  Is this true anita@ebay?  All I want to do is my job.  All I want to do is have as little stress as possible and interact here with some great characters, post my orders, buy my stock, list my new stuff (which I loved doing) and generally enjoy the eBay experience.  So all I want to know is will this ever be possible or am I wasting my time?  Remember as I've mentioned, I jumped through all the hoops, watched all the videos, hiked up % promotions etc etc, but if my account is crippled or the Search is forever against me those are things I can't change.  So instead of lying awake at night wondering how 'I' can change things I just want to know truthfully without the 'clear your cache, spin round three times, drink a pint of glitter' or whatever else if I'm wasting my time, money and efforts.

So please tell me and the countless others here who have proved beyond doubt the search facility is hiding in some cases in the high 90% of listings is the search working as eBay want it or is it broken and going to be fixed?  (Oh please can you remove the cap on my account, thanks.  I know it's there..)

Kindest regards.

[vintagewatchpart]

dave@ebay 

Every time I use Ebay for work, research etc. I am becoming more and more frustrated and concerned by the clear issues with the search engine and I think it should be looked into, you stated in the weekly chat it was working fine, but I present to you another example. Happy to provide 5 if you wish, perhaps 10 or 100.

"Tissot Two Timer Watch"

This is a particular model of vintage watch. Search for this and be presented with 9000+ Tissot watches, none of which have Two or Timer in the title. One example was just "Tissot Watch" so why is this watch being displayed when I have searched for something specifically?

Google search "Tissot Two Timer Watch"

It brings up what you want and behold! The Ebay listings I was seeking show up on Google and not within Ebays own search engine.

If you are a customer and you are searching for something and it does not come up, what do you do? If you regularly use the platform and you search for things and they do not come up but you get thousands of irrevant products instead, what do you do?

You shop elsewhere. Not only that, your items do not sell because when people look for them they are not being shown in search results.

There are rife reports of sellers on these forums and probably many quiet who are seeing the same decline from the same time in many niches but are NOT being affected by other platforms, so something is wrong, and I can provide more examples if you want but this needs escalating so that sellers items sell and that Ebay actually continues to be viable for sellers and buyers.

[dave@ebay]

Hi @vintagewatchpart 

I tried searching Tissot Two Timer Watch, this is what I see:

Are you not seeing any of these results?

Thanks,

Dave

[vintagewatchpart]

I get 4100 results as per the screenshot. 

The search "Tissot Watch" also yields 4100 results. It is like it completely ignores my specific elements of the search.

I mentioned this one a while back too, my search here is for a specific vintage watch but the algorithm throws up hundreds of rolls of motorcycle decorative tape and thinks I am looking for car parts?

[dwtrading2015]

I would be more worried about the feds turning up on your door step whilst searching for a Universal Bom-b Timer!  In this case, maybe it is better the search fails.

[theelench]

When some sellers have problems trying to sell a butter-knife, I'm amazed that bomb timer  isn't on the Prohibited List.

[vintagewatchpart]

Google knows what it is, but ebay seems to think it is tape for my car?

Another example, "Cartier 19mm link" throws up every cartier bracelet link on Ebay, not just 19mm ones. But ones in every size. 

If I remove 19mm from the search box, it shows the same number of results... so the search is ignoring my measurement of 19mm.

Same applies to every size, every brand, every category.

Here I search for a specific Seiko watch model number, instead it shows up every single Seiko watch listed on the entire of Ebay. 

If I remove the word "watch" from that search query it brings up the model I am looking for.

This is just for my niche but I guess everyone can find examples of this for the categories they sell in. I get the same issues when looking at clothing and shoe sizes, when looking at anything that requires a measurement or number. 

It is clear the search function is not working, how can anyone look at the above and say its all fine? 

I should note this is happening across multiple accounts and I know people who use Ebay who are experiencing the same issues.

Please can this be looked into? 

[vintagewatchpart]

dave@ebay 

Is there any news on the search issue above, I see it every day and it is becoming time consuming to manually look in a sea of results for the one item or two that I am seeking.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

If people want your items and the price is right then they will buy from you.

Promoted or sponsored listings wont make people who dont want your items buy them.

Listings are manipulated by ebay.

I got a return on an item I sold and then my listing disappeared !

I ended the listing then relisted it and it appeared again.

Ebay manipulates "cheapest" items and doesnt display very cheap items even if they are relevant.

Ebay sales for me have always been up and down. Sold 5 items one Friday then next Friday sold none.

[unclestein]

I've just been searching for a "Directional receiver antenna" and the first few pages which came up were for an "Omni-Directional receiver antenna".

I gave it ONE JOB to do, and they had to screw it up!