eBay Item Number Expansion Causes Headaches for Buyers and Sellers

[Kristijntje]

eBay rolled out expanded Item numbers last week that caused headaches for some sellers and vendors, and even for some buyers. eBay assigns each listing an Item number, and on May 11, it expanded the number of digits in Item numbers from 10 to 12. eBay announced the change the day after the roll-out, stating that the change was made "to ensure the site can accommodate a growing number of listings." eBay will increase the Item number up to 19 digits over time "to support future growth."

One buyer said he could not place snipe bids on eBay because the service he uses does not allow for 12 digit numbers...

On Sunday, sellers were still dealing with issues. One seller said when she deleted duplicate listings that had appeared, "it deleted the listings scheduled that were duplicates AND it deleted the original listings that were already up and running

full article: http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m05/i15/s01

[maryrussel]

eBay spokesperson Catherine England said on Friday, "As we roll this out we are, of course, monitoring its impact on the community and are addressing issues as they may arise."

That seems to be eBay's MO anytime they roll out something new. Instead of anticipating possible problems and preventing them, they deal with them as they arise, creating a lot of frustration and wasted time for the sellers.

[iron_chick]

"It's better to put something out there and see the reaction and fix it on the fly. You could spend six months getting it perfect in the lab or six days in the lab, and we're better off spending six days, putting it out there, getting feedback and then evolving it."  Meg Whitman, March 2005
http://www.usatoday.com/educate/kauffman/20050327.htm

[maryrussel]

[quote author=iron_chick link=topic=3759.msg14054#msg14054 date=1147722081]
"It's better to put something out there and see the reaction and fix it on the fly. You could spend six months getting it perfect in the lab or six days in the lab, and we're better off spending six days, putting it out there, getting feedback and then evolving it."  Meg Whitman, March 2005
http://www.usatoday.com/educate/kauffman/20050327.htm
[/quote]

Great plan. If we waste enough of the seller's time with bull shit maybe they won't have enough time to start their own websites and discover that they could actually earn a better living independently of eBay.

[xppman]

Great plan. If we waste enough of the seller's time with bull wombat poo poo maybe they won't have enough time to start their own websites and discover that they could actually earn a better living independently of eBay.

Ditto.   ;D

But what are they going to do about ALL the buyers who keep
hitting the back button on ebay or who have decided "the hell with this".
EXPRESS??? 

Those are the ones I'm catching at the ole website.
Biz has been REAL good too... and I am very happy to see any new exciting
thing ebay puts out.

[bargainbloodhound]

But what are they going to do about ALL the buyers who keep
hitting the back button on ebay or who have decided "the hell with this".
EXPRESS??? 

The people who designed Express were paid very well by Amazon for the great job they did :twistedevil:

[sneakymagenta]

eBay announced the change the day after the roll-out  :