Hi, nice to see you on the UK forums again!
No, there's nothing to indicate that there will be an AI summary of the full description when the listing is viewed on the mobile site or app.
Let me be clear: When doing the item description, there is the option to have eBay create an AI description either in addition to, or as well as, any text you yourself type into the description field. That's been around for a while, and most members here know how rubbish (and often plain misleading/inaccurate/nonsensical) it can be.
That's not what my OP was about, though. What I'm talking about is this: when you view a listing on a phone screen (on the mobile website or the app), you do not see the full item description (if there is one!) by default. Instead you see what can best be described as a preview or summary of the full description - to read the description in full, you have to click on the 'See the full description' link which appears beneath this 'summary'.
But the seller has no control over what text appears in this 'summary' (unless the solution posted by davman still works - and even if it does, it's a method that's hardly conducive to quick, easy listing, as well as being a method that virtually nobody would know about!).
You'd have thought that this ''preview' text would just be the first few lines of the full description, but instead eBay is taking what appear to be random sentences from the full description and putting them in the 'preview' - and not even in the correct order!
So, in my current listing, the first sentence of the 'preview' is an apparently random sentence, the second sentence is actually the first sentence of my item description (technically that's not true, as the first bit of text I placed in the description box is a repetition of the listing title), and the third sentence is another apparently completely random line plucked from the full description.
If you want to see what I mean, have a gander at my listing (I only have the one at the moment) on a computer screen, then take a look at it on a phone screen (either on the mobile version of the website or on the eBay app).
I'm really quite angry about this. Someone reading the 'preview' on a mobile phone would understandably think that I was unable to string a set of sentences together coherently, and might choose, on that basis, not to investigate further. I suppose, if I strain myself to put a positive slant on it, some people might click on 'See the full description' purely out of curiosity, to see what else this imbecile seller has written - then they would see the text as intended to be read.
The atrocious AI description generator plucks bits from the item description and bits from the item specifics (if added), then wraps them in flowery text. A similar - but not identical - thing appears to be going on here, the differences being that nothing from the item specifics is used, and there is no cringeworthy 'Be the envy of all your friends with this stunning radiator key'-type waffle, just sentences taken from your description and jumbled up. Which, of course, is bad enough!
It may be being done by AI (whatever that actually means - I won't go into that again), or it may just be a very simple program that selects the sentences to be displayed in the 'preview'. Frankly, I don't really care whether it is or not, what I care about is the fact that, yet again, eBay's meddling is potentially having an adverse effect on my (and other sellers') prospects of a sale.
It seems that there are obstacles to overcome at every stage of selling, both during the listing process and even afterwards. Does eBay actually want us to sell things or not?
