Are eBay pushing private sellers more than business sellers?

[susapric-68]

So today I thought I would look up a DVD I know my Hubby would want, Jason X. Top of the list was a big online store at £2.69 with free postage. So I do what I normally do to get a better price and click "Lowest Price + P&P" an d all of a sudden that's gone and replaced with £1.79+£2.72 as the cheapest, In fact the search is now full of private sellers all working out more than the Business price of £2.69. What's going on? Sorry if there's a post already, I did search but could not find one

[papso22]

Looks like the P&P is being excluded and the search is just looking at the item price.

Do you think that's a change?

[susapric-68]

Can't be just looking at the price as the results quickly go £2.75 + P&P and the Original £2.69 with Free postage is no where to be seen in the results. I have to go back to best matched to find it. What's the point of "Lowest Price + P&P" if it excludes business sellers

[darth_baggins]

I thought I'd give it a try. I'm getting any DVDs with Jason Statham in them that are part of a 3x bundle etc. I added -bundle to filter them out, then I got Guy X with Jason Biggs.

Then I got a 2x job lot with David Jason...

Search is awful to try and find a DVD.

But on topic, the lowest + P&P is indeed £2.69 from a bird that allegedly collects shiny things. I'm not seeing any private sellers with postage on at all.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

I get a selection of Jason X DVDs when I sort by “Best Match”, but when I switch to “Lowest Price + P&P”, I get complete rubbish - irrelevant bundles, Guy X and Jason Byrne at the top.  Then I get a row of sponsored listings which are correctly Jason X but not in price order, then lots of David Jason DVDs.  Eventually I get a couple of Jason X DVDs from big business sellers, before going back to Guy X.  It’s all complete nonsense, which I’ve complained about in the Community Chat, but I’d lay odds that nothing will get done to improve the search function.  I’m not even convinced that their technology is capable of improving it.

 

 

[vintage_clearout]

You can bet your bottom dollar that eBay is probably like many other businesses, there will be an office with 'Search Algorithm Team' on the door, with some head who has made an undeserved name for themselves by convincing gullible CEOs that they do something 'special' and earned multiple above-company-average pay rises, all the while doing a little silly 'wink' and saying 'well, I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you, LOL!' routine whenever actually asked what it is they do. The probably also well paid (for silence) underlings will quite sensibly never complain or bring it up, unless THEY want to be fired. And, if ever it looks like they are about to be outed, there's 20 other tech firms to big up their '10 years at the top of one of the biggest firms in Silicon Valley' CV in front of to mesmerise the recruiters.