pyourdon
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posted on December 31, 2001 09:58:32 AM new
Dear AW:
The auctions I launched last night have lost some punctuation - the apostrophe (') and the double quote ( " ). Only a blank shows up instead. I can supply an item number if you email me. Is this eBay or AW? I wonder if I am the only one this is happening to. Many thanks in advance for your assistance.
[ edited by pyourdon on Dec 31, 2001 10:00 AM ]
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DianaAW
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posted on December 31, 2001 11:26:30 AM new
Hi pyourdon,
Can you tell us if the punctuation was stripped from the title of the auction, or from the actual description? If you'd like to email me an example, you can send it to [email protected] (please include a link to this thread as well.)
Thanks!
Diana
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BrianAW
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posted on December 31, 2001 12:25:20 PM new
Hi pyourdon,
I am guessing that you cut and paste your description from a separate program right? We have noticed this and have notified our engineers.
-Brian
Got Questions? Check out AuctionWatch.com\'s Customer Service center at http://www.auctionwatch.com/service
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pyourdon
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posted on December 31, 2001 02:52:50 PM new
Hi Brian and Diana:
The punctuation was stripped from the auction description - I emailed Diana an item number. Actually, for that auction, I didn't copy and paste, but I DID use the AW copy function, copying another auction from my pending file, and editing it. But, the punctuation was there when I scheduled the auction to launch, and it was missing when I checked out the item on eBay. Many thanks, and Happy New Year!
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letowt
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posted on January 4, 2002 09:21:31 AM new
I've got to jump in here. Me and a friend are having the same problem. Looks fine while pending, but once launched, it looses all those necessary characters.
<br />
<br />
ZIs this a known AW problem? When is it scheduled to be fixed?
<br />
<br />
Auctions I listed the end of November worked fine.<br />
I created the original doc with Word and then cut and paste it in. The disappearing act is on both the title and in the description.
[ edited by letowt on Jan 4, 2002 09:29 AM ]
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eagaduga
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posted on January 4, 2002 11:32:39 AM new
I am having the same problem (letowt and I are friends and have discussed this). Until this gets fixed, the only way to keep apostrophes, long dashes, and double quotes in your text and heads is to reinsert each one by hand in the AW copy before you launch your auction. (This seems strange, since all those symbols seem to be already in the AW copy, but if you do it, you'll see that your replacements look slightly different.) It's tedious, but the only other way to do it is to revise your auction at eBay after it's launched. There, the missing symbols appear as empty boxes in your revision text, and you just fill them in.
This seems to be a problem between AW and eBay. The seller's problem is, how are we going to know when AW has fixed this, except by launching an uncorrected auction to see if we retain the quotes, apostrophes, etc.????
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DianaAW
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posted on January 4, 2002 03:59:03 PM new
We are working on this, and I'm not sure when we will be able to correct it within our system as it is related to the eBay API. We have found a workaround, however, for those of you who are copy/pasting from MS Word:
1.) Save your file as a text file rather than a Word document before copying the text
-or-
2.) Do the following:
- On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect, and then click the "AutoFormat As You Type" tab.
- Under "Replace as you type", clear the "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes"
check box. Also, clear the check box for "Replace symbol characters with symbols"
Note: You can find and replace all instances of single or double curly quotes with straight quotes in your document. To do this, clear the "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes" check box on the Edit
menu, click Replace. In both the Find what and Replace with boxes, type ' or ", and then click Find Next or Replace All.
I hope these workarounds will make it a little easier for you to format your descriptions.
Thanks, and sorry for the inconvenience!
Diana
[ edited by DianaAW on Jan 4, 2002 05:20 PM ]
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pyourdon
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posted on January 4, 2002 05:04:03 PM new
I'm sorry to say that this is not a good answer or solution for any of us. I don't copy from Word or anywhere else. Until a few days ago, it was normal to type an auction description and title in AW and have them launch to eBay looking the same way. This is the least we could expect. Please provide a real solution that works for your customers. Many thanks in advance.
PS This also applies to the problem with paragraph separators discussed in the other thread.
[ edited by pyourdon on Jan 4, 2002 05:18 PM ]
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DianaAW
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posted on January 4, 2002 05:17:17 PM new
Hello pyourdon -- we have tested it from here, and typing quotes or other punctuation directly into our form appears to be working fine (regardless of whether they are copied in pending or not.) Are you certain that you did not paste the text into the original auction that you copied?
Also - note that the issue with the paragraph separators is completely unrelated to this. The paragraph separators are working in the live auctions, but are not displaying correctly on preview. This issue is also being worked on now.
Diana
[ edited by DianaAW on Jan 4, 2002 05:22 PM ]
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pyourdon
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posted on January 4, 2002 05:23:00 PM new
Hi Diana:
No, I'm not sure of anything. My point is that it shouldn't matter where I get my text from. We should be able to do our work in all the ways that are possible. It's a pain to work hard to make an auction description look good, and then to have it come out looking as if we weren't paying attention. I'm sure you understand, and that your programmers can solve this problem even though it's hard.
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roadsmith
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posted on January 5, 2002 10:12:10 PM new
I'm bumping this to find out if the problem has been solved. I'm afraid to launch anything until I hear that it is. Haven't launched in a month or so. . . .
Anybody know?
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richierich
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posted on January 5, 2002 10:36:19 PM new
I have had this or a similiar problem with / marks and ½ for a while. The first auction looks fine BUT when you relist it or copy it you get strange characters.
I have to go into each relist or copied auction and fix them. Then they look ok. Sometimes they appear on ebay ok other times they do NOT.
As I said - IT HAS BEEN HAPPENING FOR OVER A MONTH! Some time back there was a thread about this.
I sell clothing and a ½ is VERY important! It makes the difference in a size!
PLEASE advise us all when it is finally fixed.
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letowt
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posted on January 6, 2002 07:54:56 AM new
Has anybody heard privately on this issue, or are all comments from AW being posted here.
WE NEED TO KNOW WHEN WE CAN GET BACK TO NORMAL WORK!
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pyourdon
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posted on January 6, 2002 05:51:23 PM new
bump
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SonyaCS
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posted on January 6, 2002 05:57:25 PM new
Hello,
As soon as I receive an update I will post it here. Unfortunately at this time I do not have one other than the workaround presented earlier in this thread.
-Sonya
Got Questions? Check out AuctionWatch.com's Customer Service center at http://www.auctionwatch.com/service !
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pyourdon
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posted on January 8, 2002 05:29:51 PM new
Hello there AW:
I just relisted an unsold item, and the problem of missing punctuation is still there. It seems like the AW customers are the only ones who care about this. It makes our auctions look so bad. Can you please give us a time table, or an update, or something.... anything! Hoping against hope....
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DianaAW
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posted on January 9, 2002 10:35:49 AM new
Hello,
We have researched this problem on our end, however, it appears that the problem is related to how the eBay API handles XML. We have contacted eBay engineering about this, and we hope that this will be resolved shortly.
Thank you for your patience.
Regards,
Diana
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pyourdon
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posted on January 9, 2002 11:18:15 AM new
Well, if it's eBay's problem, I guess that sellers who use AUCXXXX and ANDXXX must be experiencing the same difficulty. Please please try to give this high priority! As usual, many thanks in advance.
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letowt
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posted on January 9, 2002 04:11:47 PM new
Hi Diana:
Would it help any if we on this thread hounded eBay? Who could we leave a message with about this?
Frequently, if a vendor gets complaints from multiple people, it gets addressed quicker.
I'm sure a few of us would be willing to drop notes to the proper person at eBay who can help you fix what needs fixing.
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DianaAW
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posted on January 9, 2002 04:32:56 PM new
Hello everybody -- we are working with eBay on this, but note that there is a relatively easy workaround. We will get this resolved as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience.
Diana
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pyourdon
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posted on January 9, 2002 04:48:23 PM new
Hello Diana:
The workaround you write about is only good for those who write their auction text in Word. Many of us don't do this at all. The problem also occurs for an unsold auction that gets relisted. Please take this seriously - it has been 10 days already. Many thanks in advance.
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letowt
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posted on January 20, 2002 02:19:11 PM new
Hello Diana:
Here it is January 20th and the problem is still happening.
After launching each of my auctions I have to go to eBay and revise the listing. In AW I read, re-read and read again my listing to be sure it is as perfect as I can make it. Then I have to proof read it again and make corrections once it is on eBay. I am doing everything twice.
If this continues I will start looking at other sites who manage auctions. I can't spend my life doing everything twice -- there's barely enough time to do everything once <g>.
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pyourdon
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posted on January 22, 2002 06:00:51 AM new
bump
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SonyaCS
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posted on January 22, 2002 10:13:25 AM new
Hi Pyourdon,
Your relists should be fine -- we have tested this extensively on our end. If you have examples where the punctuation is missing, please let me know the auction ID numbers so we can investigate.
-Sonya
Got Questions? Check out AuctionWatch.com's Customer Service center at http://www.auctionwatch.com/service !
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