Browsing ebay

Am I going mad or have ebay changed their categories for the worse? I am sure I used to be able to browse something like 'photography->lenses->large format' but they seem to have done away with the formats altogether. Browsing their "telephoto" category, for example, is useless unless one knows the format of the lens one is after. A 150mm lens is a "standard" lens on 5x4...

Arrgghhh.

Don't even get me started on their pathetic excuse for a help system.

K.

I don't like the changes either! I keep an eye on any 150mm-500mm with a Pentax fit and get now daily mails for any fit and not only the Pentax fit.

Forget the help system, I get to call them straight away.
I just search their help till I get a PIN and then let them tell me what I need to know.

Bonus is that you will get a survey of how well they have done and I just leave the steam out in there.

If many more people do that they just may change it again or at least look in to the problems that have risen from recent changes.

When looking for a Pentax fit I just add the word Pentax in the search...try it out.

Here is the enquiry I sent to ebay:

I used to be able to browse a "lenses->large format" category. Has this been got rid of? It now seems impossible to ask for lenses for a specific type of camera (e.g., 35mm, medium format, large format). Thanks, Kris.

The reply I got was:

Thank you for contacting eBay Customer Support about the item you purchased with your seller.

Kris, I am very much eager to help you with your concern however the the information you supplied is insufficient for us to continue with investigating your case. Please provide the following:

User ID: Trading Partner
Item Number: Item Number
Transaction Amount: Amount
Transaction Date: Date

Should you need further assistance, please call us at 0800 358 6551 to speak to our Customer Support department.

Clearly, they were so eager to help that they didn't actually read the email......

K.

Seems to be the way of the world these days

I gave up browsing for lenses a while ago. Now I just save a few specific searches and check from there.

I did that. Try it out, you will get all the fittings there are listed.

For Pentax stuff where I have an idea what I might like that works, but I don't know the options for large format lenses so well and it was easier to just browse that category, particularly as there were usually only a couple of hundred entries and most of those where Chinese-made lens boards. Now I have to rely on the vendor remembering to put "large format" in the description!

What is it about human nature that insists on taking something that works perfectly well and messing it up simply for the sake of change?

K.

Vitually every change ebay have made in the last five years has been for the worse. They just seem concerned with making things easier for themselves and stuff the ebay users. Trying to communicate with them is pointless, you would get far more sense out of a dead frog.

Have you noticed how difficult they have made it to try and communicate with a seller now?

What's difficult? You click the tab "Contact Seller" and send a message.

From the look of his last few posts I think Steve maybe having a bad day.

I think Steve might mean the way in which you now have to go through an FAQ-type menu before it'll offer you the option of just sending them an email. Or at least that's definitely the case when you're chasing up something you've bought and paid for.

I suspect the problem is that many ebayers lack, shall we say, a full deck of cards and indeed the box to keep them in. By including the FAQ ebay hope to shield sellers from people who expect the item they paid for to arrive next day even though it clearly stated in the listing that it will be sent parcel post and might take a week to arrive (for example). It's easy to forget that not everyone is as patient, understanding, and inclined to read the small print as we are!

John,

some time ago they moved the send seller message tab from the very obvious place it was (right near the seller info), to right at the bottom of listings and not at all immediately obvious. They added an awful menu which was not needed and they added that rubbish numerical so called 'safety' feature, which at times is not clear what the numbers are, so you end up sending twice or even three times

It used to need two clicks, now it needs anywhere from four to six or even seven.

I am just highlighting that the ebay UK IT team have no idea whatsoever what users really want and find useful. They purposely made it much less obvious, harder and more time consuming to mail sellers, because at the end of the day, ebay do not like sellers and buyers communicating easily.

You have to be very careful when browsing ebay that you
don't accidentally click on 'BUY IT NOW' and then accidentally
click on the Paypal buttons and pay for it!

Not too bad if it's only a few quid but this chap accidentally
paid out £480

=============================================================================
Negative Feedback: I did not order this item.
Buyer: Member ID XXXXXXXXX ( Feedback score of 0 )
20-Mar-11 17:51 Feedback conversation

*
Reply by XXXXXXXX (24-Mar-11 16:41):
You Ordered this item You paid for it and you received. If you did not order Return it

NEW SEALED APPLE iPAD Wi-Fi 64GB TABLET COMPUTER 64 GB £479.90
===============================================================================



I just noticed this on a sellers site, when I checked his
negative feedback

As Dangermoouse said :-

regards
Bernard