15-JUL-2022 eBay
Internal Search of My Own Listings Can't Find
Exact Word Match Items, and Neither Can The
Customers on the Main Site.
On Tuesday 12th July I was searching
for "Variable Capacitor" within my own listings in eBay Seller
Hub, Selling Manager Pro, or whatever it is supposed to be
called. That's strange. Less than half of my items
that I know have "Variable Capacitor" in the title are
showing. Oddly enough, it's exactly the same for the
customers using the most obvious search term "Variable Capacitor,"
on the main site. Oh Dear! Is it any surprise that I'm
selling less than half of the variable capacitors that I should
be?
When I search for variable capacitor within my own listings it
looks like this:
One selects "All Categories," "All Formats," "All
Statuses," "Item Title," "Contains," and you enter
"Variable Capacitor," and hit search. Currently this
brings up eight results where the title contains "Variable
Capacitor," and oddly, two results where there is no mention
of "Variable" anywhere in the title or listing.
I have many more listings containing the exact words "Variable
Capacitor," sometimes right at the beginning of the
title. I also have many more listings for capacitors
which are not variable, so why don't they appear as well as
the other non-variable capacitors in the ten results?
You can see some of the other variable capacitors when I
search for "AM Capacitor" below. There are 14 results,
one of which is for fixed AM Capacitors.
This in itself is one of many annoying eBay failures.
How can it be so difficult to search for an exact text match,
a facility reliably operational in early versions of MS-DOS in
the 1980's, and something taught in detail at code level in
the first year of computer science degrees? It's a
mystery.
That would be bad enough, but the same thing is happening when
customers do the same search on the open site.
A typical guest customer search for "variable capacitor"
brings up more than 100,000 results. The image below
shows a typical example. There is one of my variable
capacitors, and surrounding it are the 95% of search results
for non-variable capacitors from China. These bear
absolutely no relation to the intended search, and none of the
results are for the variable capacitors which are not found in
my internal search.
Similarly, a general site search for AM capacitor shows up my
variable capacitors which are shown on the internal search for
"AM Capacitor," the Variable Capacitors of many other vendors,
and the many thousands of unrelated capacitors.
This is either madness, or is somehow intentional. Is
eBay deliberately blocking many search results which are the
most obvious, popular, and appropriate for the potential
buyer? It looks like it. For me, that could
explain a great many things. It could explain one of the
mechanisms by which eBay systems have limited my turnover to
exactly £85,000 per year since 2017 because they have failed
to recognise my VAT registration. For the other variable
capacitor vendors who are also affected, only they can say how
obviously capped their turnover totals are. (See Ebay,
and Invisible Sales Throttling, Caps, Levelling or
Limits Related to UK VAT Thresholds)
So, on Tuesday 12th July 2022 it was onto the eBay Telephone
Line Of Lies aka Seller Support to see what they have to say
on the matter.
12-JUL-2022: Call to eBay Customer Support
Concerning eBay Direct Match Listing Search Failure 1:
Sorry, my recording of the first call failed. During
this call, the person could not even manage to use the
internal listing search tool, insisting every time that there
were no results at all. She was seemingly incapable of
typing Variable Capacitor into the search box seen in the
first pictures above. I was rather rudely cut off after
politely suggesting that she was a liar, and was deliberately
trying to avoid dealing with a well-known eBay search
manipulation issue.
12-JUL-2022: Call to eBay Customer Support
Concerning eBay Direct Match Listing Search Failure 2:
Recording of
eBay Customer Support Call Concerning eBay Direct Text Match
Listing Search Failure Number 2
YouTube
Video of The eBay Telephone Line Of Lies Call Concerning
eBay Direct Text Match Listing Search Failure Number 2
You can click on the link above to hear the call with only
hold the music removed or if you really want, you can watch me
on the telephone on YouTube.
Call Summary:
1) This time at least, the operative can reproduce and
understand what I consider to be a major problem.
2) I am told that this is a completely new and unknown
phenomenon. Lie.
3) I am told that it will be fixed within 24 to 48
hours. Lie. (It certainly wasn't, and was never
going to be)
4) I suggest that this obvious failure is of sufficient
importance to warrant the personal attention of Murray
Lambell, V.P. of eBay U.K. who, "Is responsible for all eBay
U.K. activities."
5) I complain, and make it clear that I have been lied
to.
How many other examples might be found of this strange
behaviour, where the most obvious and popular search terms are
ignored and inexplicable, irrelevant search results are
returned instead? I have combed through those 21 or so
variable capacitor listings to find some explanation, have
tried changing some titles and can find no explanation other
than gross failure or deliberate manipulation.
______________________________________
For completeness, here is the text that is present on my
YouTube video for call number 2:
"My apologies for losing the recording of the
first call mentioned in this video. Suffice to say that the
individual in question was incapable of even doing a simple
search without lieing, and was apparently not happy when
politely confronted with the truth. Click! Oh Dear. If you
are wondering why I was poised for action above the
telephone while waiting for this callback from the EBay
Telephone Line Of Lies, that's because the ETLOL standard
procedure is to allow your telephone to ring for about half
a second, end the call before you pick it up, then the ebay
system sends you a message saying, "Ooo Betty: The call was
not answered!" Thus from the call centre computer analysis
point of view, the call is resolved successfully, that's one
less in the queue, and it's your fault. So you have to be
quick.
This call concerns me searching within my own listings in
eBay's seller hub tool. It doesn't work. It brings up some
listings with the text "Variable Capacitor" in the title but
not many of the others. I wonder why that could be? I also
noted that the same thing happens with general searches as
an ebay guest viewer, i.e. a potential customer. So about
two-thirds of my "Variable Capacitor" listings are
completely hidden when buyers search for the exact text
"Variable Capacitor," instead being shown thousands of
completely irrelevant non-variable capacitors, generally,
nasty crap from China.
That's not good enough, Murray Lambell V.P. of eBay U.K. who
is responsible for all eBay UK activities. MSDOS 3.2 had a
better text search method than this, and I can only assume
that deliberate shenanigans are occurring. However, it adds
insult to injury when your programming monkeys do that, and
then *don't* stop me from seeing it happening when I search
my own listings internally. As eBay lies go, that's just
pathetic."
_______________________________________
18-JUL-2022:
Call to eBay Customer Support Concerning eBay Direct
Match Listing Search Failure 3
Nothing has happened to fix this failure after six days.
I was promised 48 hours! Oh dear. Let's get onto
the eBay telephone Line Of Lies and see what's happening,
shall we?
18-JUL-2022
Recording of eBay Customer Support Call Concerning
eBay Direct Text Match Listing Search Failure Number 3
Call Summary:
1) It would appear that when Ariel on the last
call promised a solution within 48 hours, that was a bad
thing to do. I call it a Lie.
2) No IT support REQ number was attached to the
last call notes. I'd say that no such REQ was ever
made.
3) I get a new REQ number REQ000003443862.
4) I am actively engaged in an argument over eBay
lies. Apparently some eBay call centre operatives
in South Africa don't like being faced with the
truth. If you want a fight, you can have one.
5) The call moves onto me mentioning giving eBay
legal notice, again, that I know my sales are still
being silently and illegally limited to £85,000 +/-5%
p.a. over five years since 6th April 2017.
6) After many minutes on hold, I speak to a
representative of eBay's (don't laugh) "Trust and
Safety," department.
7) I give permission to end the call with no
resolution on either matter.
YouTube Video of
The eBay Telephone Line Of Lies Call Concerning eBay
Direct Text Match Listing Search Failure Number 3
Local
Video Copy listing_search_fail_edit_12072022.mp4
The silent sales limits part of the conversation will be
dealt with on this page here: Ebay,
and Invisible Sales Throttling, Caps, Levelling or
Limits Related to UK VAT Thresholds
So, Murray Lambell, SVP of eBay UK. More
lies. When will they ever end?
My email address checked daily
including spam folders: vila_nestor@hotmail.com
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