Deceptive Listing Practices?

[kxeron]

Hi all,

I just have a question about listing policy/ethics or a possible suggestion for improvement of the eBay website..

I very, very often see listings that rather deceptively clutter search results, making it appear as if products are cheaper than they are in fact, let me present my exhibit:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wireless-Gaming-Bluetooth-Keyboard-2-4GHz-Optical-Mouse-Adapter-For-Laptop-P...

Item ID: 310874600889

Now, give yourself some time to try out some of the "options" the listing has to offer (noting the "Keyboard" and "Keyboard Accessories"), note the dramatic variance in the price range along with the item types.

What I believe is deceptive about these listings is that while searching, you are often presented these listings in amongst cheap items. While searching "USB Mice" using "Price + Shipping: lowest first" my exhibit was presented above the 99 cent items as "$0.89 to $26.15". This is deceptive as it promotes that listing above everything else that is more than the lowest of the listing, thus deceptively promoting the $26.15 item over a $0.99 item.

So my question:

Is this practice prohibited by eBay listing policy? If not, why?

If not, I believe an amendment to the eBay website software would be prudent. This amendment I'm suggesting would calculate the median (The middlemost value of all items) of all of the items under that listing should be calculated and the item listed accordingly as according to that median (e.g. the exhibit would be listed as if it was a single $13.52 item regardless). The reason I'm not suggesting an average is because deceptive sellers may storm a listing with all sorts of cheap items but have one expensive item in amongst them and have the expensive item in the search results photo. This effect would remove such listings from "Page 1" of "Price + Shipping: lowest first" results where currently  there are potentially hundreds of say, $5.00 to $10.00 items shifted down the by these listings.

If so, what kind of action will be elicited against sellers who partake in these practices? Will their listings be removed/made hidden until corrections are made? Will repeated incidents result in suspensions?

[pjcdn2005]

So my question:

Is this practice prohibited by eBay listing policy? If not, why?

Yes it is. Multi variation listings are supposed to be for variations of the same or similar product. For example, a mouse in different colors, a pair of jeans in different sizes..

Is or will anything be done about it? I don't know..it seems that quite a few sellers get away with it.

[reallynicestamps]

. While searching "USB Mice" using "Price + Shipping: lowest first"

You can avoid most of these sketchey listings by using Price + Shipping : Highest First.

It is usually faster to drill down through dozens of accurate listings that to slog through hundreds of inaccurate and dodgy ones.

[dmil8030]

Hello 'kxeron',

What you describe is very common among sellers in a certain country. (ahem)  You are

looking for electronic gadgets, but it also happens with women's clothing where a gorgeous

evening gown is pictured for 9.99 but what sells for that price is the garter belt.  The dress,

one discovers, is priced at 249.99.

If ebay were to ever crack down on policy violations it would be a massively labour-intensive

expenditure.  And what you decribe is a violation, although it would seem not a particularly

offensive one (not to ebay, anyway).  See here:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/variations-selling-manager-pro.html

Scroll waaaay down to where it says Best practices, down at the bottom you will see:

    <<Don't list variations that aren't for the same product. Examples of what's not allowed would be

a watch band pin variation of a watch listing, or a gloves variation of a dress listing. These products

are not the same.>>

The fact that ebay puts this absolutely as far as possible down the end of a very long list will

provide a clue as to how 'important' ebay thinks this is.  For shoppers, however, it is utterly

infuriating.

One thing you can do is, - when shopping for something, over on the left side of the page under

Location you can choose North America only. 

Or if you wanted something, say, made in Germany, you could always go to ebay Germany (ebay.de),

sign in and from the left side of the page choose either Germany or Europe (up to you) and

from the Sort bar use Price + Shipping.  That will provide you all those who are willing to ship

internationally.  

It will be a grand day when ebay installs a 'filter' by which we can 'box check' the countries from

which we wish to buy, bypassing all those others, the way sellers do when deciding where they

are willing to ship.  Until then, we will all have to creatively manage the best we can.