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eBay's "You've been outbid" e-mails no longer say "outbid" in the title

Started by roadman, September 18, 2017, 06:27:33 PM

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roadman

Another recent dumb change from the rocket scientists at eBay.

When you're outbid on an item, they used to send you an e-mail with the title "You've been out bid on ..."  Now the title reads "🔴 Bid now and you could win ...".  Not only that, but you get the 'bid now" e-mail even if you're the winning bidder. 

Since this change, which is recent and came without any forewarning, I've lost a couple of items I was very interested in because somebody doesn't understand the concepts of (a) emphasizing the urgency of a situation (in this case, that you now have a losing bid) in an e-mail title and (b) that informing someone with a winning bid that they STILL have the winning bid is UNNECESSARY.

Yet another example of the idiotic practice of web sites changing and updating things that work perfectly well just to justify employing web page designers for the sake of changing things.  If it ain't broke, fix it anyway.  Pure idiocy if you ask me.



"And ninety-five is the route you were on.  It was not the speed limit sign."  - Jim Croce (from Speedball Tucker)

"My life has been a tapestry
Of years of roads and highway signs" (with apologies to Carole King and Tom Rush)


ColossalBlocks

Meh, eBay (and any other big-name website eg: Imgur, YouTube, etc) is ran by idiots.
I am inactive for a while now my dudes. Good associating with y'all.

US Highways: 36, 49, 61, 412.

Interstates: 22, 24, 44, 55, 57, 59, 72, 74 (West).

Jardine

Ebay will do the smart thing after all other possibilities have been exhausted.

I noticed Paypal is no longer harassing me about using the 'wrong' (in their opinion) payment option in their system.  How many years did that take?  3 or 4 at least . . .

Duke87

That does sound like a really dumb change. Telling a user they've been outbid is informative. Saying "bid now and you could win..." makes it sound like spam that people are going to ignore or delete.

Of course, I'm sure someone somewhere complained about the "you've been outbid" wording of those email titles being harsh and suggested changing it to something more friendly to improve the customer experience.

I also would not be surprised if plenty of neurotypical individuals prefer the friendly new version to the blunt old version, and that it will therefore stay that way after being generally well received. This follows a broader trend of replacing blunt technical messages in computer interfaces with messages that are written to sound more personal.
If you always take the same road, you will never see anything new.

Max Rockatansky

Anyone happen to know where eBay is hiding the pages for the sellers I follow?  All I see now on the home page is all the sponsored shit that I don't care about with no apparent option to change it.

bandit957

EBay is a scam. They won't stand behind purchases made there. I myself buyed something there which turned out to be the wrong item, and EBay wouldn't refund the cost for me to return it. When I complained about this on their stupid "forum", all I got was attitude and lip.

Post Merge: September 18, 2017, 11:54:41 PM

Also, I had canceled my order for the item in question, but it was shipped anyway - forcing me to pay the cost tor return it.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

bandit957

Quote from: Duke87 on September 18, 2017, 07:38:42 PM
That does sound like a really dumb change. Telling a user they've been outbid is informative. Saying "bid now and you could win..." makes it sound like spam that people are going to ignore or delete.

Especially because EBay spams people.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

SectorZ

Quote from: Jardine on September 18, 2017, 07:11:04 PM
Ebay will do the smart thing after all other possibilities have been exhausted.

I noticed Paypal is no longer harassing me about using the 'wrong' (in their opinion) payment option in their system.  How many years did that take?  3 or 4 at least . . .

Try over a decade, like back to before when Ebay bought them originally in 2002. I know it was cheaper to take money from a bank account from a credit card, and you have less protection as well, so they always preferred that route first. I was shocked when they changed that recently.

J N Winkler

I wonder if the change in standard subject header for "You've been outbid" emails is designed to address complaints about the platform enabling auction sniping.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini



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