eBay Ask Seller A Question obstructionist design change

[ianoid]

Has anyone else noticed that when you try to ask a seller a question, eBay now gives you this useless menu tree of sorts?

 

And then sometimes I can't even find where I can ask a seller an actual question, not just get noob answers. Often I just give up and forget about the item. It shouldn't be this difficult to type in a question.

 

Seriously, eBay is doomed. If you have eBay stock, I suggest you sell it. I do enjoy selling there and buying things now and again. But the design is so Web 1.0 and the decision made to make things 'easier' are so poor, it's just a matter of time.

 

Meg for governor!

[Albert]

Yes, eBay has been making it more and more difficult to communicate directly with the seller for some time. Originally, you could get all the contact information from any eBay users trivially. You could see all the bidders for all auctions, except private auctions. You could contact any eBay users without bidding on one of their items. Communication was easy.

 

Today, it's a pain in the ass:

 

- You can only contact other eBay users whom you've had a transaction with, or users who are selling an item and you "Ask seller a question".

- You can no longer see who is bidding on auctions or who the winning bidder of an auction is, for dollar amounts over $25 or something like that.

- You cannot see the email address of a user you've had a transaction with after 'x' days (45?) It's possible they've hidden this entirely for all I know.

- I don't even know if you can still pull up contact information for eBay users. You used to be able to get their name, email address and phone number. Edit: It looks like you still can, for users you've had a recent transaction with. But it's well hidden--1. Click the Advanced Search link at the top of most pages. 2. In the Members section on the left side of the page, click the Find contact information link. 3. Enter the user ID of the member and the transaction's item number.

 

And other things such as what you described above with the menu tree. I haven't seen the menu tree, but that doesn't surprise me in the least. Basically, eBay would love it if buyers and sellers had no direct contact, as that would make it much more difficult to move transactions outside of eBay. Unfortunately, they are just making it a pain in the ass to use eBay at all. You have to jump through so many hoops and screens to do anything outside of bidding on an item (and even that used to be just ONE screen!)

 

Please, someone (Google) else launch an auction site and so we can move beyond eBay.

 

..Al

[Zwackery]

Has anyone else noticed that when you try to ask a seller a question, eBay now gives you this useless menu tree of sorts?

 

And then sometimes I can't even find where I can ask a seller an actual question, not just get noob answers. Often I just give up and forget about the item. It shouldn't be this difficult to type in a question.

 

Seriously, eBay is doomed. If you have eBay stock, I suggest you sell it. I do enjoy selling there and buying things now and again. But the design is so Web 1.0 and the decision made to make things 'easier' are so poor, it's just a matter of time.

 

Meg for governor!

See all this white space below the tree?

Scroll down to find the Contact Seller button. Problem solved.

[Albert]

LMAO, that's hilarious that you have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to see that. Typical eBay obfuscation.

 

..Al