Ebay classifieds: A model for bad customer experience

This one will be short, but was still too long for a tweet. It's a bit rant-y, but here goes.

What I was selling

WARNING: This sort of turned into a pre-rant about Wyndham's timeshare program and the shady people involved in that program.

Last year I attended a sales pitch for a timeshare company (Wyndham International). Usually you can sit through these and get some kind of gift certificate, so my wife and I thought it could be worthwhile. She was also 7 months pregnant and it was 90+ degrees outside, so it gave us a decent indoor activity for a few hours.

One of the things we got out of the program was a free 7 night vacation. I asked multiple people in Wydham if the vacation could be used at the properties they were mentioning that they wanted people to buy into the timeshare program for. All these people confirmed that this was absolutely the case. I also asked if the certificates had a tight booking window around them, or if they could be made either months in advance or as a last second deal. Every person confirmed that: yes, the 7 day free package gave you access to all the properties they were discussing with no booking limitations.

So after ~4 hours of presentations (including lunch, which was promised to be bbq and ended up being cheap sandwiches) we ended up turning down the deal (duh) and walked out with a Visa gift card and the 7 day certificate. We were legitimately excited about the ceritifcate, since some of the properties they were discussing were quite nice. When my wife and I got home that evening, we started checking out information about the certificate.

It turns out the certificate was from https://www.resortcerts.com. The site is owned by Wydham, but it seems to be used almost exclusively as a gift for timeshare sales pitches. And what you get lines up with what you expect from a timeshare sales pitch free vacation. Exactly 0 of the properies that multiple people had mentioned would be available were available. Also, booking more than 90 days in advance was not even supported through the site.

After checking the options a bit and comparing what we could get through alternative budget vacation options like AirBNB, we decided to ditch the certificate. I had heard that eBay was a decent place to sell these, so I went to set up a listing.

Why I chose classified ads

I chose that format because that is the only format that eBay allows for digitally delivered goods. I tried to list the item as a normal action, but there was no way for me to list a digital item, so I had to remove the listing and create a classified ad.

See:

• https://www.thebalance.com/dos-and-don-ts-for-selling-digital-goods-on-ebay-1140532
• https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/compilation-informational-items-policy?id=4313

Problems with classified ads

Classifieds seem like a second class citizen on eBay's site. Almost all the documentation you find on eBay' website pertains to auction listings, with no reference to the exceptions caused by classifieds.

Creating a classified listing

There is no support for classified ads in their eBay's main "quick" listing tool. Even if you select a classified ad and pick "sell one like this", the listing that is generated is not a classified ad, and there is no way to change the format to a classified ad from within the tool. The only options for format are "Auction-Style" and "Fixed Price".

To actually generate a classified ad, you have to

• switch to the advanced tool (you are warned that this tool is for power sellers)
• select the category of item (you must select a category which supports classifieds, and you have to know what categories these are in advance)
• scroll down to "Format" and now there will be 3 options instead of 2 options, one of which is "Classified"

That "Info" button to the right of "Format" does take you to this somewhat helpful page, however, aside from the extra item in the drop down nothing on the listing changes to indicate that you are in an item category that works with the classified ad format.

Finding a classified listing

The search interface their main site search allows filtering down to 3 types of listings: "all listings", "auction", or "buy it now". Showing classified items specifically requires going into advanced search menus.

Top menu:

Side bar:

After expanding side bar:

Viewing a classified listing

When you actually get to a classified listing. You see this message on the page.

That link takes you to this page about bidding, which is quite strange for a listing that does not support bidding.

Documentation about classified listings

When I was searching for information about how to work with classified ads, here are some of the top articles I kept bumping in to.

• https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/selling-buy-now/adding-best-offer-listing?id=4144

  • no mention of classifieds at all

• http://www.ebay.com/gds/eBay-Classified-Ads-/10000000004609975/g.html

  • article from 2007
  • mentions the price was raised to $10 a listing
  • mentions that it is hard to even find classified ads on your seller page (which is still true...)

• https://www.thebalance.com/ebay-classifieds-more-robust-than-craigslist-1139944

  • article from 2018
  • mentions the site is free, which hasn't been true for >10 years!

That last one may be a bit unfair since it is not eBay managed content, but it was still one of the top 3 pages showing up when I searched for "eBay classified ads". I did reach out to that company to let them know their content was very out of date.

@thebalance This article was last updated Jan 2018:https://t.co/NmTBuasofX
It mentions that classifieds on Craiglist are free, but that has not been true for >10 years. Please consider updating.

— Timothy Van Heest (@turtlemonvh) March 18, 2018

Aside from that link, most of the other top results from a Google search for "ebay classifieds" were to eBay sites operated in other countries or press releases. Many mentioned "visiting the ebay classifieds site" which isn't actually a thing anymore (the classified results are now integrated into the main eBay site).

I don't think it is too much to ask that eBay create a little content explaining classifieds, and link to that content a little more frequently. If they do that, the content they produce will surely show up first in search results, and will be up to date. Just that small change in documentation would vastly improve usability.

Summary

So, why do I dislike eBay classifieds? Let me count the ways.

1. Expensive for very little value. The main benefit over Craigslist is national exposure (i.e. you are not confined to a single geographic area), but $10 for a 30 day listing is pretty steep.
2. No help making transaction on the platform. All payments must be handled outside of eBay.
3. Hard to figure out how to list classifieds. Especially since most of the content you find in a quick Google search talk about deprecated methods of creating listings.
4. Hard to figure out the limitations of classifieds. I read somewhere between 10 and 20 articles on classifieds and still missed the part that you cannot collect payment directly through eBay. I even made the mistake of re-listing the item (so another $10) so the buyer could "make an offer". Apparenly neither of us knew what we were doing.
5. Hard to figure out where to find classifieds. I wanted to find another classified ad to see what options were available from a buyers point of view so I could walk a buyer through purchasing. It took me almost 20 minutes just to figure out how to find a classified listing on eBays site.

In the end, using classifieds cost me $20 ($10/listing x 2), and I got just $75 for the item, so net $55. I spent ~2 hours researching classified ads when I tried to post the first time, and another ~3 hours tonight. Also, I ended up just having to send the item to the buyer and hope they would pay, which they thankfully did.

I hope the eBay team can fix some of these issues. The idea of a nationally available classified listing is appealing, and may even be worth $10, but the experience was so bad that I am likely to stay away for quite a while.