Sellers - Stop using 'AI' nonsense for descriptions, you are losing sales....

[leon9503]

It might seem an easy option but I won't buy from sellers who use the lazy option for descriptions, it's sometimes completely wrong or just nonsense and does not tell me want I want to know to make a buying descision so I don't.

I want real descriptions of the item not made up ones by a machine!

I recently looked at some Lens filters and I was informed they were circular, obviously the pics weren't a clue....LOL. What I want to know is the condition of the glass, nothing else not that they are a great item to have in my kit....Yawn.

Technology is even making websites dumb.

[wellingnorth]

Interesting to hear above people making productive use of the AI!

From my point of view the way it's being widely used at the moment it would be good if ebay could separate out the AI copy somehow so buyers could quickly see the information that the seller has specifically added and distinguish it from AI generated copy.

For example browsing the clothing category is quite hard now, there are so many listings where the item description is basically a 2 paragraph AI remix of details from the item specifics / title slotted into different combinations of the same stock marketing phrases - sometimes key bits of information that the seller has then added to this regarding the condition are hard to pick out.

For example lots of results come up for 'addition to any wardrobe', apparently a popular AI phrase

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/11450/i.html?_nkw=addition+to+any+wardrobe&LH_TitleDesc=1&rt=nc&LH_ItemCo...

Fairly often there is an extra sentence about condition tacked onto the end of the second paragraph that you might have thought should be the main point of the description. Or if the seller has provide extra detail then in most cases the AI paragraphs are just a distraction to scroll past.

In these cases it would be helpful if the AI description was a different colour at least or put in a different panel, maybe just as a different way of viewing the item specifics as it seems like that's often what it really is.

Maybe to cater for people using the AI description more productively you could just highlight or distinguish AI text that has not been edited at all as these seem to be the worst cases.

[btr.style]

It's just sloppy and the thing is you can spot it a mile away. 

Then if somehow the AI generation was wrong, the seller would be liable for INAD and so on. 

Only you know your product, and whilst AI can be handy in many areas of life, doing the most accurate and honest description can only be done by a human who isn't limited to a certain format of computer code (generated by rolling a pair of dice and formulating an "opinion" based on a few keywords and a search engine item comparison which may or may not be to the same spec)

[tribalgiftsuk]

If your adding more to it then it could work, depends on what your selling. But many sellers are using them and not putting any other details at all. So you get two short flowery word salads of paragraphs with no substance.  I just think that those sellers that think that is enough to sell their items will be stuck with them for a while and if the details aren't there buyers will click away.

I did try a couple of listings using it but i had to add so much more detail that it didnt work for me at all. 

Sorry to read about your mum. Mine also passed away last year. Take your time to recover, it does get easier but the first few weeks/month is the worst. Sending you strength and a virtual hug.

[heritag-97]

Hear, hear! Reliance on AI for listings of used items is useless. I.e. golf club buyers know what they are looking for and condition is very important. Yet, AI’s endless ‘marketing’ blurb is nonsense (e.g. “it will improve the game for top professionals and amateurs alike” – a six-year-old golf driver!!!).

AI gobbledegook is increasingly being used instead of a fundamental description of the condition often accompanied by rubbish photos. It makes me wonder if eBay management have any idea about what interests and motivates buyers of second-hand items.

[cke786]

I don't use eBay's AI description generator, I list the features of the product manually, always have done, but when it comes to making a flowery selling pitch statement, I don't mind using ChatGPT to make up something, though I don't rely on it.

[samnalfsdad]

totally agree, all the ai descriptions I have seen so far, and thier number is growing , are generic rubbish that tell me nothing about the actual item and waste my time , please sellers dont use it

[technthread]

Worse, the AI will say the item includes things that it doesn't and many sellers don't edit it so it is instantly an item not as described. 

Having bought few things last month on auction, I saw it a lot and it put me off bidding. I would rather see clear pictures and one honest sentence in the description. 

[kath3735_wxmjn]

probably one of the reasons i do not make many sales (amongst loads of others!) is that i carefully word my items to give a full and complete description and tend to under state things and highlight any faults, rather do that and not make a sale than have too many returns.   Not that people actually bother with description box too often, i carefully described one pair of boots with photos and highlighted the faults and someone demanded a return because they were 'worse' than shown.  In a pigs ear they were but what can you do, refund and smile(through gritted teeth).

[technthread]

I am guilty of doing that. If the condition is only positive my description is very brief as I'm not comfortable with being salesy.

I wouldn't mind the AI descriptions as much on brand new items but on used ones it is just a distraction from what we are trying to find out. It seems deceptive, similar to sellers using stock photos on new (other) and even used items.

[1956glyn]

i hate sellers who use stock photos and would never ever buy from one using such.

[technthread]

In fairness it is understandable with things like books / CD's where sellers have multiple used quantities so that's where I will still buy off a stock photo if I have no other option and start to trust their grading.

eBay sales history does show on those things that the sellers who use their own photos achieve a higher price. I noticed that the big media sellers often get away with an image not available photo if it isn't in the catalogue which most of us wouldn't get away with but they do get their fair share of negative feedback for it. 

[kath3735_wxmjn]

I have never bought anything that has a stock photo (exception being of course from a 'real' business) or has no photo at all.  If i cannot see it i do not want it.

[a45heaven]

Like wise on any listings with Stock or no photos.

Are not AI descriptions just stock text, with badly managed phrases inserted from a tedious inaccurate Item Specific section , which was promised to be the cure to all our search issues.

[moldosgifts]

I take my own photos on my trusty phone, i sell multiple items so 10 of an item in stock, i dont use a photo for every single item out of those 10 but they are all the same so why would i.

[a45heaven]

Just a thought , with sellers having to check and correct thousands of listings caused by AI indiscretions , might it be prudent to have fewer items running until 'something' happens to remedy the ebay problem ?

[theelench]

It seems that more sellers of vintage glass are trying AI out, probably without editing the inaccuracies or plainly wrong statements and are, I think, setting themselves up for returns from disappointed buyers.

Three examples of misleading descriptions I quoted on another thread on the topic that I think could easily result in an expensive return request as the items were all large(ish) vases.

"The unmarked brand ensures this vase is truly unique."

"This hand crafted design..."

"The vase features a stunning glowing green colour that will catch the eye of anyone who enters the room."

All the above were used to describe mass produced, pressed (moulded) glass.  The third quote is about a Uranium glass vase that fails to mention the Uranium content that some people are wary of.  Nowhere in the IS or description is Uranium mentioned, nor is the fact that the "stunning glowing" effect can only be seen if the vase is displayed under a UV light bulb.

 Any buyer who is expecting a glowing green vase who doesn't know this is bound to be disappointed and almost certain to want to return it when it fails to glow in day-light or under normal electric bulbs.

I didn't have to hunt for these examples, they are all taken from P.1 of a quick search for "Art Deco Glass Vase" and just by picking "likely" looking listings.  I'm sure there would have been more if I'd viewed every listing on the page.

Another thing I didn't like about most of the AI generated descriptions is they often looked like ads. from when I started buying on ebay 10-12 years ago, most include "stunning", "collection enhancing" or other superlatives trotted-out for quite mundane items.  Such OTT descriptions didn't work back then and still don't work, for me, today.

On balance, I think I'll stick to writing my own descriptions, simply because it would probably take longer to check the AI version, edit out what I didn't like and then re-write around what was left.

[theelench]

Another thing that occurs to me.   If the AI is basing it's description on the sellers title plus whichever IS they filled in, doesn't that give it a rather restricted amount of information to work on?

If that's correct, as more sellers start using AI with the same small pool of words and tick-boxes, isn't there a danger that AI will start to churn out more or less identical descriptions?  If these aren't heavily edited by the seller to give some individuality to a listing, won't searching on ebay become very boring with so many listings becoming virtually identical except for the photos?? 

[tommystrezures]

On reflection, its ebay's AI thats very very poor. 

I was doing some work recently on our website giving it a bit of an overhaul, and once in the backend of the website the little AI editor/creator appeared. Based on what I have seen  and some of the complete tripe that AI produces here on ebay, I thought 'oh no'. However I was blown away by the creator on our website development company. Literally four or five words of what you wanted to say, three options delivered near instantly, and all of the paragraphs it produced were perfectly acceptable, with or just with the odd tweak. It even picked up abbreviations and correctly 'translated' them etc.

Now the better half has had to play the "game" on the website of what I wrote or what AI wrote..... No she didn't get all of it right, which made me smile!

[_localhost_]

just another eBay gimmick as far as i'm concerned. jumping on 'trends'.

like others have said I wont buy from sellers using it, if they're too lazy to rewrite a simple description from other similar sales, that tells me a lot about the seller

[sumnites]

I write my own descriptions but sometimes add the AI version, saying so, to give searchers a laugh. Everything sold according to AI will enhance your home.