Anyone ever list something on Ebay and it won't show up in search results?!?!?!

[Mesa]

WTF man?!? I listed a couple of items earlier today and they don't appear. I listed them hours ago. I can use generic words, but enough to isolate it down to my item, and not check the "include title AND description" and they don't show up. I can enter the exact title and they don't show up. Plus, only 4 views after being up for several hours, and I know these would have had at least 10+ by now. What was it that I paid for again? So just the seller can view his own items but nobody else can. They do come up if I put in the item number, but that's the only way. Don't even appear under the category for most recently listed, and by the time they do go live, they won't be new listings anymore. I've used Ebay enough that I know people, including myself, search for "newly listed items" all the time.

Sorry for the rant, and maybe didn't need a new thread to talk about this, but I'm pissed. Why the hell did I pay listing fees if my items can't be seen by anyone else? I tried calling, but with it being Christmas, I didn't expect anyone to answer, but instead, after selecting the automated options and finally hitting "0" to transfer to an operator, it says, "Let me transfer you ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................." and never does anything. I put phone on speaker and let it sit for 10 minutes and did something else. At least have the courtesy to hang up on the other person.

Farkin' Ebay. I wish there were other options.

 

[The Ween]

This has happened to me before. Sometimes it can take up to 24 hours to show up. SUCKS!

 

[Mesa]

Normally I list, then pretend I'm a buyer to see if I can find it, and it's there within an hour, we're going on 5 hours now and still nothing. I got my email in, which can take up to 72 hours to reply

if I can even reach a real person tomorrow, I plan on doing some ?????ing. My past two months of eBay fees have been over $100 each. I expect good service if I'm paying them the equivalent of a lawyers retainer fees.

 

[The Ween]

Did you try signing completely out of eBay then signing back in?

Did you also try searching for the item number?

If you want, let me know what you're selling and I'll try and search it for you and see if I can see it.

 

[The Ween]

I found this. Check out the highlighted part.

Finding your item


To find an item you listed for sale, do one of the following:

• Search by item number. Click the Advanced Search link at the top of most eBay pages, and then click the By item number link on the left side of the page. If you don't know your item number, you can look it up in your confirmation email or in My eBay.

• 
  
  
  <LI class=unorderedList>Search by seller. Click the Advanced Search link at the top of most eBay pages, and then click the By seller link on the left side of the page.
  
  [*]View the listing in My eBay. Go to My eBay, and then click the Active link in the Sell section to see your current listings.
  

If you can’t find your item by searching or browsing

If you recently added or revised a listing, it might not appear immediately when you search or browse on eBay. Although listings are generally searchable within 24 hours, to help make eBay a safe place to buy and sell, there are times when this might take longer.

If it’s been more than 24 hours and you still can't find your item by searching or browsing, try the following:

• <LI class=unorderedList>Check for errors in your item’s title. Avoid using special characters (such as !, /, @) in your title. Make sure you haven’t accidentally run two words together. For example, you might have entered your title as BeatlesPoster rather than Beatles Poster. Learn how to change your listing’s title.
  
  
  <LI class=unorderedList>Make sure that your item is allowed on eBay. In some cases, items that aren't allowed or that violate our rules won't appear in search results. Review our Offensive material policy if you feel this might apply to your item.
  
  
  <LI class=unorderedList>If you listed a Store inventory item, make sure that your search includes Store inventory items. eBay Store inventory items aren’t automatically included in search results. However, these items will appear in the results for eBay Store searches.
  
• Make sure that you’re searching for words that are in your item’s title. Searching for Antique Clock won’t return your item if you haven't used the words Antique and Clock in your title.
  

 

[Mesa]

Thanks for the responses Ween,

Didn't really want to post links, because don't want this to turn into an ethical debate about "to flip or not to flip" but these are the item #'s:

300380857152
300380857553

Trying to make a little cash so I can keep supporting my addiction. Anyway, if you use the generic terms "Masters Universe Classics Lot" they should show up and they still don't.

I got a response from Ebay already:

Dear Scott,

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to item not searchable.

It seems that It's most likely that your item didn't appear in your search results because our system is still indexing it. It can take a few hours for our system to fully index the huge amount of information we receive. Depending on the item and the load on the system, it can take up to 24 hours.

Also, if you revise your listing shortly after submitting it, it can take even longer to get it into the system.

Additionally, in the meanwhile we also have the option for you to contact our Live Chat team to get instant and immediate assistance.
Through one-to-one correspondence, you will receive instant support from our representatives that will resolve such situations to your satisfaction. We're available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Here's how you can find "Live Help" in the future:

1. Click the "Contact us" link at the top of our home page. You may be asked to sign in.
2. Enter your question or your problem and click the "Ask" button, or click the link that best describes your issue.
3. If you entered a problem, click the link that best describes your issue.
4. If you still need help, click any of the links on the right hand side of the page. If we can address your issue through chat, a "Chat with us"
link will appear on the left hand side.

We are committed to making your eBay experiences pleasant and fulfilling.

Sincerely,
Nick A.

eBay Customer Support
_____________________________________________

Subject: RC=CU0106 Why your item isn't appearing in search results [#US 100880T A97 ?01 ]

User Feedback: 714

Message: Hello. I listed two items on Ebay tonight, and neither are
showing up when I search for them, unless I search by item number only.
I can enter the title and it isn't coming up. Why did I pay a listing
fee if no one can see my items? The two items I am referring to are:

300380857152
300380857553

I can take the title of my items and they don't produce any results.
I'm unhappy that they weren't listed immediately. It's been several
hours and still don't appear. Please let me know what is going on here.

Scott

So basically I need to wait till tomorrow to try and figure it out on live chat. I'm not doing it tonight as I'm already feeling a little "festive."


...I just checked and it looks like one has now appeared in the search results, some 7 hours later.

Again, probably making a bigger deal out of this than I should have, but I'm just used to items going live almost immediately and not used to having to wait for them to appear. I don't think I've raised any flags to cause an audit of my listings. My logic was that people would be at home for Christmas, get bored of the family after a long day of Christmas festivities, look on the computer, and buy my crap. Chances of that happening are less likely now that it is later in the evening and many people have gone to bed.

Still waiting for the other listing to appear in the search results...

 

[Mesa]

And what alerted me to the whole ordeal is the message I got from them in November that caused me to check to see that I get what I'm paying for:

Dear eBay Member,

On Saturday November 21, we experienced a temporary technical issue that resulted in searches returning either limited or no results.

Since we know this may have disrupted your business, we've issued a credit to your account for one day's worth of listing fees for each of your Fixed Price and Store Inventory listings that were active during the down-time. You may also receive a separate credit if you had Auction listings affected.

These credits will be included on your December invoice, which will be available by December 20. To view your invoice at that time, please follow these steps:

1. Go to www.ebay.com and click "My eBay" at the top-right corner. You may be asked to sign in.
2. Near the top of My eBay, click the "Account" tab.
3. On the right side of the page, under the "Invoices" heading, select your December 2009 invoice from the drop-down menu and click "Go."
4. Scroll to the bottom of the "Credits" section, under the "Miscellaneous credits" heading. The total credits for Fixed Price and Store Inventory listings will be displayed here, as "Invoice Credit" or "eBay Incidental Reimbursement Credits."

For more information on eBay's Outage Policy, please see the following page:
https://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/everyone-outage.html

Thank you for being a valued member of the eBay community.

I've done eBay enough to know when are prime listing times and the value of having your listings go live when people are home, as well as when auctions end. That's why this sort of crap pisses me off, especially after the increased fees, which I thought would result in increased service.

 

[The Ween]

These two are showing up for me by searching and by the number. So it's working that way.

I can understand you're fustration.

Is there a reason why you put the _ in the title instead of spaces?

 

[The Ween]

Other than Amazon, there really isn't any alternative to eBay. Wish there was. eBay cares more about their buyers than their sellers and if it wasn't for the sellers, there wouldn't be an eBay to begin with. Another company that gets big and then bites the hand that feeds it.

Good luck on your sales!

 

[Mesa]

These two are showing up for me by searching and by the number. So it's working that way.

I can understand you're fustration.

Is there a reason why you put the _ in the title instead of spaces?

I only got the "lot of 9" showing up using "Masters Universe Classics Lot" as search criteria. "lotof 10" still missing.

https://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=Masters+Universe+Classics+Lot&_sacat=0&_trksid=p3286.m270.l1313&_odkw=masters+universe+classics+lot&_osacat=0


And it shows, because "lot of 9" has jumped from 4 to 13 views while "lot of 10," which was at 5, is only 7 (1 of which is probably yours, and the other from one crossover from "lot of 9"). Okay, time for a drink, I'm thinking about this WAY to much.

I use the "_" as a separator, more visual than the "-" or just spaces IMO. Can you tell I'm a bit OCD?

 

[The Ween]

I only got the "lot of 9" showing up using "Masters Universe Classics Lot" as search criteria. "lotof 10" still missing.

https://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=M..._odkw=masters+universe+classics+lot&_osacat=0


And it shows, because "lot of 9" has jumped from 4 to 13 views while "lot of 10," which was at 5, is only 7 (1 of which is probably yours, and the other from one crossover from "lot of 9"). Okay, time for a drink, I'm thinking about this WAY to much.

I use the "_" as a separator, more visual than the "-" or just spaces IMO. Can you tell I'm a bit OCD?

When I did a general search they both showed up, one right after the other one in the listings.

BUT...on the lot of 10 listing.....you have lotof 10. That could be the problem. Take the word "lot" off your search and it should show up.

 

[Chapter 2099]

I'm know I'm late to the party, but this has happened to me before and sometimes I wonder why even call it a seven day auction when by the time it shows up with a search, there's only six days left.

Thanks for the follow-up posts, Mesa and Ween. It does help to clear up the mystery, but still uncalled for by Ebay IMO.

 

[Mesa]

I finally did go in as Ween suggested and changed "lotof 10" to something like "lot 10" (I was running out of characters). Even after doing it, I couldn't get it to show up, but the next morning using the same search criteria, it did show up. So bascially missed any prime time Christmas night viewing and they went live sometime after 1:00 AM. Plenty of views now.

Oh well, just pisses me off about the delay. And why were these two different than any of the other 100's of things I sold on Ebay? I hope this isn't becoming standard practice, to have a 5-8+ hour review period.

 

[Chapter 2099]

I finally did go in as Ween suggested and changed "lotof 10" to something like "lot 10" (I was running out of characters). Even after doing it, I couldn't get it to show up, but the next morning using the same search criteria, it did show up. So bascially missed any prime time Christmas night viewing and they went live sometime after 1:00 AM. Plenty of views now.

Oh well, just pisses me off about the delay. And why were these two different than any of the other 100's of things I sold on Ebay? I hope this isn't becoming standard practice, to have a 5-8+ hour review period.

^^^ That's the question I want answered. The chances of you getting randomly picked are slim to none and yet it still happened. I wonder the same thing. Like I said, it did happen to me twice and I called an Ebay rep. who said the system cycles though and lists auctions at certain time intervals. So if you just missed the cycle, your auction will be listed by the next one. They told me that the system cycles every 3 - 4 hours, if memory serves correctly. However, it took MUCH longer than that. It was every bit of 12 hours for me. When I called back, they had no explanation.