eBay

fribblecollectables · ‎24-03-2025

Always does my head in!

So if I start an auction this evening at 7.30 pm, does it finish next Monday at 6.30pm, 8.30pm or will eBay keep it the same?

I had a feeling nothing changed when we went from BST to GMT last October. Fully prepared to be wrong though!

vinylscot · ‎24-03-2025

This was answered here https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/Clocks-going-forward-amp-eBay-policy/m-p/7805262#M714...

However, I'm not sure I would 100% believe it, going on eBay's past practices

wellingnorth · ‎24-03-2025

Auctions are supposed to run 7 x 24 hours regardless of the time change, so in theory an auction starting at 7pm GMT should finish at 8pm BST.

However, at the moment that is not happening and auctions starting at 7pm GMT will finish at 7pm BST so are running for only 6 days and 23 hours.

You can test this yourself if you like by listing a 7 day auction. If you look at it as soon as it goes live it will show 6 days 22 hours remaining and the finishing time displayed on the auction will have the same hour as the start hour (but BST not GMT).

This has been reported to tech and they seem to have acknowledged the issue but there is no time frame for a fix so I would assume this will probably stay as it is until the clocks have gone forward, but you can always check as above if it's critical.

fribblecollectables · ‎24-03-2025

Well, an auction that I started at 8.17pm says is due to finish next Monday at 8.17 pm.

This certainly is not what has happened in the past few years.
Auctions have deviated by an hour either way to or from BST and GMT. (Apart from last October).

I would have been nice to have the heads up from ebay, but I guess that takes effort.

Instead of sharing high fives and starting a conga line in the programming department when some kiddy spends all week before succeeding in changing the font somewhere, maybe they can concentrate on getting the site to run efficiently.

barry.110 · ‎24-03-2025

Glad I’ve just seen this thread, I scheduled an auction listing to start tomorrow at 8pm and finish this Sunday at 8pm, I totally forgot that it’s changing the clocks this weekend. I think I will change the time to start at 7pm, if after the clocks go forward the end time is still 7pm I’d be happy with that or if the end times changes to 8pm I would be happy with that. What I really don’t want to happen is to leave the scheduled listing at 8pm hoping the end time remains 8pm only for it to change to 9pm.

ett1954 · ‎24-03-2025

I finally got a response from eBay on a forum question a few days ago.

You can see the response at post 37 on this thread: Re: Clock change bug? - Duration 7d + 1 hour - Page 2 - UK eBay Community

We should stick to the policy and set listings finishing after the change an hour earlier. Obviously the tech department are confident it will be fixed in time.

wellingnorth · ‎24-03-2025

@ett1954 wrote:

We should stick to the policy and set listings finishing after the change an hour earlier. Obviously the tech department are confident it will be fixed in time.

I don't think there will be any fix for this that affects auctions that are already live - to do that they would literally have to add an hour to the duration of currently running auctions and change their end times.

My hope is that this will be fixed for when the clocks go back in the Autumn!

ett1954 · ‎24-03-2025

"Obviously the tech department are confident it will be fixed in time." - Surely you realised I was saying that with tongue in cheek. The tech team appear to be incapable of 'fixing' anything in a timely manner.

eBay's competitors don't need to compete with eBay; they are looking on laughing as eBay slowly implodes:

Can't manage time changes; even though it never used to be a problem until the last year or so.

Currently can't enter weights and dimensions with GSP listings without pulling them after activation for a bulk edit (twice the work and hassle)

Ongoing issues with app

The functionality issues with the introduction of the BPF - 4% + ~~75p~~ sorry 72p

From comments on the boards Simple Delivery seems to be going the same way.

Combined invoices for private sellers no longer possible

These are just in the last few weeks, and I am sure I have missed some. It's death by a thousand cuts. Sellers are now spending more time finding workarounds to problems than actually listing.

wellingnorth · ‎24-03-2025

@ett1954 wrote:
"Obviously the tech department are confident it will be fixed in time." - Surely you realised I was saying that with tongue in cheek. The tech team appear to be incapable of 'fixing' anything in a timely manner.

I have to admit I did not! To be fair I was perhaps unrealistically optimistic myself that they might have fixed it in time, having pointed out that it was going wrong on ebay.com earlier in the month.

I agree with you the developers have certainly got a lot on their plate at the moment - buyer fees and simple delivery seem to be having all kind of unfortunate knock on effects in the different areas you mention and more. I'm sure this time change is at the bottom of the to-do list and to be fair the way it's working is not the end of the world, would be good if they would just updated the polic to explain the current situation.