Impressions broken again??

[swiss_expert_uk]

Can you please check if there is another problem with impressions? Another counting glitch? These stats can not be correct. Organic impressions promoted views down to under 3000 views today at time of writing. This time last week almost 73000 views. Please help.  dave@ebay kat@ebay 

[aquaecraft]

 confused.................. werent we told that the big test was to end on the 7th? Why was this not mentioned on last weeks community chat?  I think I will go ask my AI for more answers.

[paul*tribesandvibes*]

This is NOT the solution to the question. Sorry Dave@ebay but this smacks of a brush off answer without even an apology to those of us who are truly struggling to pay our bills, let alone ebay's bills and to buy new stock! And a lot of the people present here on this particular thread will tell you that things are not returning to 'normal'.

Just out of interest - how to ebay define 'normal' these days??? My version would be a month on month decline in sales since oh ... well ... let's say since January just to keep it easier to work out the fractions.

I'm so pleased to hear that all of our real struggles and anxieties this past 4 weeks will help ebay to shape future updates. This is really good news for the Colouring-in Department, so that they can make new fonts and graphs for all of us. Of course, you realise that my time is not free - so how much are ebay going to pay each of us for being ebay's guinea pigs?

[rejuvit]

It seems as though as long as eBay continue to gain money out of it they don't care buisness sellers anymore. eBay will still be able to pay their bills. 

[auntietootieblue]

Unfortunatley Dave the damage is done as most people cannot last a month with no sales.  The lack of communication from yourselfs and owning up to something that ebay as done and not us sellers that it as affected and is still affecting.  

The truth is we don't get paid, you don't get paid so that means jobs losses at ebay as well.  

I have no faith in what you have said above as the proof is the figures you provide us with, wether they are true or not is another thing.  I have had items which have been listed for a month end with no views whatsover even with promotions on them which makes me think my listings have been hidden for the last month so what have I paid my shop fees for?  

[auntietootieblue]

They might be able to pay there bills this month and next but if we can't pay our shop subsriptions due to lack of sales then its gonna hit some time when we have to cancel them, it will be a matter of when?

[rejuvit]

I don't believe this has effected all sellers just selected stores, whilst I do think it's effected a very big number of sellers, I don't think this will hit eBay for a long time, we were just looking to see how much the CEO is getting per year, they seem to make more than enough to be very comfortable with effecting sellers globally or just the UK. 

We have already reduced our store from anchor to featured and have had to let go of most of our staff who are extremely good staff that we have had for a long time. We cannot sustain their wages whilst eBay are taking over half of our money in their fees. 

[paul*tribesandvibes*]

@auntietootieblue  I keep asking myself the same questions - what am I paying listing fees for? what am I paying promotions for?  The shop subscription I can understand because ... er ... oh yes, I get a few free listings (!)

But for crying out loud ebay, sort it out - get us seen in the right places, so we can make some sales! And if you're not sure where the 'right places' are, I suggest you look back about 10 years and do what you were doing back then.

[wakeson]

have actually seen a rise in impressions since the 28th but a fall in sales !! that dont make any sence, i also noticed that on one account i have this new promotion display !! cant find any detilas regarding it, and as with the other promotional bits its a total rip off, £68 in fees for £20 in sales, how do they work !! 

I strongly feel that ebay is looking to streamline its sellers, geting rid of the change so to speak and keeoping the big earning accounts, nobody can keeo this up with 50% of sales going on feesm its utter madness.

Turnover £17.5k in one month and after the fees postage, suppliers etc i dont have much left, i should be vacating in spain on a beach, while browsing aston marting new model with this turnover....(maybe not aston martin but you get the point.

[goingfishing]

---

@aquaecraft wrote:

 confused.................. werent we told that the big test was to end on the 7th? Why was this not mentioned on last weeks community chat?  I think I will go ask my AI for more answers.

---

This is it in a nutshell.  Now we are being told the 'test' finished before last weeks Q&A when there was no acknowledgement of such a test.  It seems to be one fib after another.  It's whack a mole on the eBay forums all the while my company (and others) are on the brink of collapse and I'm not sure how I'm going to pay bills this month.

Back to normal you say?  Normal for me is to have between £400 and £450 in sales by 4pm on ANY day.  Today I'm sitting on £18.  Please explain how this is NORMAL.

[aquaecraft]

I got to wonder if the numourous Daves in the Dave department talk to each other because theres no way that "A" Dave would forgot what he said in the weekly chat, perhaps he needs time off with stress cause hes getting forgetfull. Ive always found Daves to be quite helpfull and honest but im starting to rethink this, perhaps I will boycot their TV channel as he is clearly overworked.

[simplyessential_uk]

To be fair my Impressions nosedived on the 18th then shot up (trippled) on the 29th so this actually matches with what I was experiencing and happy its stopped but clearly it did effect something for ALOT of sellers and that is an issue in itself that hopefully what ever "new feature" they were testing does not come into use full time.  Its so frustrating that our "lively hoods" are effected so badly with 10 days of trading and no sales for so many people unless they forked out more "promos" when times are hard already and how so many sellers are completely disregarded in this affair and kept in the dark.  This has taken 2 weeks dave@ebay just to get a reply from yourselves and at least offer some sort of expanation or regard for seller who are working so hard to not lose their businesses.  How can ebay treat their sellers with so little regards?

[bennotbill]

I've never understood why there is always so much pass the buck answers on the weekly chat, and elsewhere for that matter. We'll ask our (fill in the blank) and come back with an update.

Even a stranger looking at these forums would know in advance pretty much all the questions that were going to be asked. Are the eBay reps saying they are that much out of touch with the numerous problems on eBay.

[aquaecraft]

Dave has given us his responses, on the weekly chat he said, 

"I have spoke to the ads team. The idea behind the beta test is to reduce overall impressions, but make the impressions gained more likely to convert. The ads team do not believe that this beta test has reduced sales - Our sales figures do not agree with this.

It is not possible to be removed from the test as they have now confirmed that it is product based and not seller based (Obviously, sellers who sell a specific type of product that is part of the test will be seeing a bigger drop). Test is due to finish August 7th."

And he also added on this thread, 

"There was some testing of new features which affected impressions. Testing on Promoted listings took place between 18th and 28th July and during this time some of our members may have noticed a different experience. 

This has now been completely stopped and the impressions will return to their normal patterns. "

I hope this clears up the Daves thoughts this should help him as he apears forgetfull as hes so over worked watching us complain.

[auntietootieblue]

My impressions have nose dived again today anyone else?  Absolute rubbish!!! 

[goingfishing]

---

@auntietootieblue wrote:

My impressions have nose dived again today anyone else?  Absolute rubbish!!! 

---

Yip and sales.  Infact I'm having my worst day ever on eBay.  I've said that a few times in the last few weeks but this is as low as it gets.  Under £20 in sales where normally this time of day I'd be looking at £450 plus.

So sorry Dave I'm not seeing how things have returned to normal unless normal is a dead business.

[stephenjames_1234588]

I have to say eBay's lack of concern really is shocking.

as it looks like we are currently all alone with this mess can i ask if anyone has tried:

-increasing promoted listing standard percent

-tried using promoted listing advanced to fix this (where you was not initially using it)

just to rule out ebay being sneaky here and confirming it is 100% a glitch of some type 

i have briefly tried the above myself but it made no difference at all, i got more impressions but no more clicks or sales, im just wondering if its the same for anyone else?

for the last 9 days i have been getting normal impressions but most of my clicks have been made up of external clicks (which usually mean bots) and they result in no sales, today my impressions are way down.

it would just be nice to rule out its not ebay being sly with the promoted tools and confirm its a glitch as i think im going to pull my hair out if i have to try any more of these tests to attempt to fix ebays mess

[auntietootieblue]

I'm the same, another *bleep* day unless they switch me on later, no offers either except for one, tried to accept it and got an error message 3 times and it wouldn't let me accept it.  It's a joke!!! 

I was told the other day by a rep that buyers now only get one offer that you can send them within a 30 day period on any one item.  I was under the impression and have been told by reps before that a buyer can have a max of 3 offers from me on any one item then you can't send anymore (they used to last 48hrs per offer, they now also only last 24hrs).  So if they have changed it to  1 offer to last 24hrs that you can only send that would explain why no offers are coming up to send to buyers yet I have loads of watchers.  I can't understand why they have changed this to just one, makes no sense, do they not want us to make a sale at all? Some buyers might not go on for days onto their accounts so would have missed the offer.

[pg_kicks]

Dave@ebay 

Just wanted to say thanks for the reply.

Sadly the reply isnt exactly great, it just seems like every passes the buck, there were no questions they could have replied with, we just wanted to know what they were doing?

Is there anyone at the ebay open day who would eb best placed to talk to this about?

[the_book_seekers]

I have spoke to the ads team. The idea behind the beta test is to reduce overall impressions, but make the impressions gained more likely to convert. The ads team do not believe that this beta test has reduced sales - Our sales figures do not agree with this.

Well that may be the case for ebay if buyers are still being shown products they want to buy from sellers not affected by this issue. It's almost like saying there isn't a problem as we're alright Jack. 

There was some testing of new features which affected impressions. Testing on Promoted listings took place between 18th and 28th July and during this time some of our members may have noticed a different experience.  This has now been completely stopped and the impressions will return to their normal patterns. 

I note the use of will not have returned to normal which implies ebay knows there is a hangover from the testing. I wonder if their testing has released a gremlin into the systems which is persisting despite the ending of the test. As ever I don't think we have been told the whole story.

[stephenjames_1234588]

not sure if this is linked to our issues as everythings a guessing game at the moment with ebay not even having a clue, but this morning on searching for a particular car part i get zero results, knowing that cant be correct i refresh the page and get 10 results, 

it keeps happening over and over again, i know its possible this is yet another new issue but maybe this is happening throughout the site and customers cannot even find our listings