eBay tell millions not to use the report button

by Chris Dawson

This post was written in August 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

If you look at the bottom of any eBay listing you’ll see a “Report this item” link. It enables you to easily report an item, but it doesn’t work!

Firstly the whole “Report this item” flow is flawed, you click to report an item, select the reason for reporting it and end up at a help page which endeavours to assist you decide if the report is valid. Hidden away at the bottom of that page is a tiny “email us” link, and you have to click that to actually transmit your report to eBay. Many quit at this stage thinking they’ve successfully reported the listing and wonder why no further action is taken.

For those that are successful and email the item number to eBay you’d expect them to be grateful for keeping the site a safe and secure place to do business. Not so! The next thing you’ll receive is an email which ends

In future, to help us investigate more quickly, please report questionable listings via our online form. Copy this link into a new browser window to access the form:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/contact_us/_base/index.html

Now forgive me if I’m wrong, but I actually used eBay’s form as supplied by the report this item link. There’s not a lot a user can do except not actually use that link. It’s down to eBay to change the destination of emails if they’re ending up in the wrong email queue at support!

The “Report this item” link has been live on eBay UK since January, it’s taking them a long time to realise they’ve implemented it incorrectly. I wonder just how many emails they’ve sent out telling people not to use it?

Tags for this post: ,
Author: Chris Dawson
Posted at: Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Filed Under Uncategorized
 

Comments

8 Responses to “eBay tell millions not to use the report button”

  1. Sue Bailey on August 4th, 2007 2:43 pm

    I wonder just how many emails they’ve sent out telling people not to use it?
    I’ve lost count how many I’ve had…

  2. Whirly on August 4th, 2007 2:56 pm

    About time Ebay did some work I don’t bother anymore
    “we are just a venue”…..so was the millennium dome.

  3. northumbrian on August 4th, 2007 3:05 pm

    the term NOT is against ebay guide lines when used in title as a form of key word spamming,
    yet all you need to do is enter NOT in search and you pull up of hundreds of examples of illigal titles

    why when so obvious and so easily detected is it still possible

  4. northumbrian on August 4th, 2007 3:07 pm

    i might add no the wonder they are swamped with emails
    a little pro active policing of their own conditions would save a lot of reporting

  5. Iantrepreneur on August 4th, 2007 3:38 pm

    i rarely use the report section on ebay - I think it doesnt provide me that enough information

  6. northumbrian on August 4th, 2007 3:59 pm

    I never use the report button
    I am a seller not a policeman

  7. Na on August 6th, 2007 5:50 am

    I’d like to report a lot of stuff I see, particularly fraudulent scripts from TV shows or autographs, but I tried using the ‘Report’ button and got so confused with their options that I couldn’t be bothered any more. You should just report something, and type in your reason. It’s eBay’s problem to work out who exactly needs to deal with it and what reporting needs to be done. Why is it up to me to learn about where the fraudulent item needs to fit in their system?

    Besides, even if I did report this stuff, nothing would happen. It seems that eBay is happy to let Powersellers with fake items continue on interminably.

  8. Sue Bailey on August 6th, 2007 7:55 am

    “Na”, Powersellers have to abide by exactly the same rules as everyone else, and if you read a little more around here, you’d see that. Powersellers are not allowed to sell fakes. And in fact, sometimes they’re not even allowed to sell genuine items they legitimately own.

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