Industry blog Auctionbytes has been watching the situation, and made the same observation:
UPDATE: 6:12 pm EST - eBay replaced its previous Systems Announcement posts with one at 2:59 pm PST that suggests a workaround:
If you use the Advanced Search option at the top of the page, and type in your search query and click the title and description box and then run the search, the results for the title and description search will be returned. Likewise, if you receive a 0 results page for title search and choose the title and description box and re-run the search, you'll see the appropriate results.
Does eBay think buyers are going to first of all, find this announcement, and second of all, follow these convoluted instructions? Surely eBay is not paving the way to get out of calling it an outage?
eBay's outage policy only covers auctions scheduled to end during or shortly after the outage, so the majority of current listings will not be included under this policy. Watch for eBay's reputation to take a major hit after this incident.
Major Search Outage Leaves eBay Shoppers Empty-Handed (Thanks, Dale!)
(Photo: erikg)
]]>Ebay banned me after my very first purchase because I didn't receive what I had ordered and had the nerve to complain about their highly rated seller. F*** ebay!!
]]>"Watch for eBay's reputation to take a major hit after this incident."
...eBay/PayPal's reputation couldn't get any worse if they started posting videos of how to properly butcher kittens.
]]>@squishyalt: Craigslist has already absorbed alot of the casual or too big to ship junk sales...
]]>@Klaus_Kinsky: +1 point
There with you too...
]]>@zandar: "It's ironic, really, the eventual downfall of ebay will probably be tripping over themselves abandoning the original spirit of the site, trying to be an alternative to Amazon."
I thought they were already doing this?
R.I.P. Ebay
]]>Apparently I missed fact that baby swings, lunch boxes, cameras and computers encompass ALL the items for sale on Ebay but that's your world I guess where stereotyping is ok. Enjoy.
]]>@yodel:
Name one.
I can't. I am sure you can't either.
Need a camera? How about a computer? Maybe a whole-house generator? NOBODY selling these products on fleabay is honest.
How about a baby swing, a Brady-Bunch Lunch Box or a cat scratching post? Yep, you are about to be scammed, deceived or just plain ripped off.
]]>LOL
]]>@nakkypoo: I was about to play it, but some jerk jumped in front of me at the last second.
]]>It reminds me a lot of the state of file sharing during the fall of Napster. Napster had to crash hard before the userbase moved on. That's what it will take to motivate users to move on from Ebay. As long as it has a semblance of functionality, it will continue to draw the majority of buyers and sellers.
To get everyone to move to one other place, a site has to posess the same ease of use with none of the drawbacks. I've seen a handful of inferior sites make a run for it but none of them designed well enough to become THE Ebay alternative.
]]>It's ironic, really, the eventual downfall of ebay will probably be tripping over themselves abandoning the original spirit of the site, trying to be an alternative to Amazon.
]]>I stopped buying on Ebay a while back. The shilling got old. Amazingly, after I was outbid and did not up my price, 100% of the time, I was contacted by the seller for a 2nd chance buy. I declined 100% of the time.
]]>It's a sad place now. I used to buy things on Ebay frequently, but their high fees inflicted on sellers mean much higher prices for buyers. So I usually either find used things on Craigslist or go without.
]]>@StanTheManDean: Now, now, this eBay seller has a stellar reputation! I've saved thousands of lives with my bed bug proof mattress protectors (NYC, we're here for you!)
]]>A full day's outage? Huh. No big loss.
]]>My heart goes out to all those poor schlubs who waited around to be scammed on eBay.
]]>Yeah, try closer to 15%. Don't forget the bite that Paypal takes (owned by eBay) and the fact that Paypal is now the only choice for accepting payments.
]]>How about a bit less hyperbole so you don't insult thousands of honest sellers for no reason? I've bought plenty of things on eBay with no problem.
]]>I hope Google will bring eBay down with an international alternative. Soon.( I don't see anyone else with the necessary budget...)
]]>Amazon.com
]]>Well now...just where would they all go?
]]>"Watch for eBay's reputation to take a major hit after this incident."
Why? eBay and vendors selling on eBay don't have a good reputation to begin with so nothing is going to change with the latest farkup.
]]>@Dafrety:
Sure you moron, and pay another eBay fee ("Reserve Listing Fee").
@Hazel-rah: NOT 10:44PM EST
]]>I feel bad for the sellers that got screwed, they pay to put things up, but the average user wouldn't have been able to find their auctions for hours. Especially since most people only bid in the last minute, which I think is strange, because if everyone just bid their max amount at the start, the prices would be the same. If you got sniped you got outbid, if you wanted it, you should have put it higher.
]]>I've already seen giftcards sell for a quarter of their value :(
Ebay is such a frikkin mess, no accountability and no respect for their customers.
]]>@chrisholland03: agreed. i still have an almost 4-digit whatever-it's-called. amazon for me from now on.
]]>But seriously, they have a workaround, couldn't they redirect the title page search to do that automatically while they fix/upgrade whatever is happening? Or at least have an error page suggesting how to do it.
]]>That's their usual everything policy to everyone.
]]>