Private listings are getting listing sort/order priority, even at 'lowest price' (excl. sponsored)

[strangestash]

I recently noticed across a lot of my business listings, private listings are getting listing sort/order priority, even in situations like sorting/filtering by 'lowest price' and them not actually having the lower price. This obviously excludes sponsored listings.

For example; Why is the purple listing below ordered 3rd below more expensive items when ordered by price?

Link:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=+Niv-Mizzet%2C+Visionary&_sacat=183454&_from=R40&_trksid=p233...

[technthread]

That doesn’t work with the other examples does it. 

My last shot at an underlying cause is maybe as you offer express postage options for an extra fee, the eBay algorithm is somehow factoring that in to display orders. The competitor cards I looked at (granted I don’t check them all), only had the 2nd class freepost, no optional upgrades. 

[jlovie]

The sort by lowest price P+P has been rendered completely useless.

I was searching for a CD and the results bear no resemblance to the sort order I specified.

Deacon Blue Our Town Greatest Hits for sale | eBay

[technthread]

Wow that is a horror show. Hopefully they get these issues fixed there seems to be a lot of tinkering with the site at present. 

[4_bathrooms]

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@technthread wrote:

Wow that is a horror show. Hopefully they get these issues fixed there seems to be a lot of tinkering with the site at present. 

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It seems to be happening no matter what is searched for. The "Sort: Lowest price + P&P" search option is being skewed by the BPF; if you were to remove the BPF from private seller's listings (or if eBay factored it in to the calculation) the sort order would be correct.  

[jlovie]

Is the BPF only charged on the item price, and not the postage?

If so, we'll end up back with cheap items with massive postage like it was many years ago.

[strangestash]

Sadly that's not it either, see below example without offers. It seems eBay's search algorithm is just sorting by 'buy it now price EXCLUDING the new buyer protection fee' ... which looks to just be a massive oversight in rolling out the new fees. This results in prioritising private sellers with more expensive listings.

Again, a request for any business sellers to please call eBay support and raise it as an issue, as they are not considering it a 'bug' right now and only logging it as 'feedback'.

[technthread]

If you have time later I would post here at 2pm:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Chat-with-the-eBay-Community/Weekly-Chat-with-the-eBay-Community-Tea...

Have item numbers ready as they always ask for examples to take away and check.

[*kittylou*]

I just came on to see if anyone else had noticed this was happening. Will try and remember to report on Weekly Chat next week. Assume it's to do with Buyer Protection fee. 

[fatbobfan]

I noticed something on my listings this morning and its shows on the Deacon Blue greatest hits post

Listings with offers, multibuy, coupons, discounts, seem to be the ones effected, the ones with red selling tools being used. 

But 

There are some without 'red letter offers' Cant figure it out, 

Has a time scale been given?

[strangestash]

No timeframe, and they wouldn't even acknowledge it was an issue ... only allowed me to report it as 'feedback'. I would very much encourage any other business sellers to raise this with support so they can be made aware it's not just affecting me:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpi

Lines open between 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays.

9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends.

[jlovie]

Another one I was looking at today, there seems little point in selecting sort by lowest price + postage.

I had one listed at £7.95 with free postage and it was over half way down the page, even below the £7.99  listings with free postage (one business and one [private).

John Miles-Stranger in the City for sale | eBay

[*kittylou*]

I raised it with the Community Team today. They are going to get back to me... 

[jlovie]

Something else odd in my example - if I click BIN Only the order changes. My £7.50 BIN then shows as cheaper than £7.99, as it should.

[strangestash]

This is still ongoing with no escalation to tech/it from eBay. I encourage any other business sellers to report this to ebay support to ensure it gets resolved, as private sellers with more expensive listings are still getting search listing priority!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpi

Lines open between 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays.

9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends.

[klouk75]

I have raised it on 2 weeks of Community Team chats and haven’t had any update, I was away this week so couldn’t bring it up again but will follow up again next Wed if I haven’t heard anything. It’s so frustrating. 

[technthread]

The private seller gets the great price badge on new condition barcoded listings even when their total price is well above a business seller’s price. The search is an absolute shambles haha.

Honestly as ridiculous as it is, it has been raised with them and I’d leave eBay to it. If estimated delivery date complaints are anything to go by, banging your head against a wall with eBay on the weekly chats won’t change anything.

[jlovie]

This morning I noticed they've removed the Private or Business text next to usernames on listings.