posted on February 18, 2001 05:17:55 PM
Since I started using eBay 2 years ago I have had this same problem hundreds of times. I'm not sure if its the html in my auctions or what. I have checked everything over and over and I still have the same problems. When I try and relist, or change the "About Me" page on eBay, I keep getting errors and I have to go back and press submit. Sometimes I find myself doing this for hours just to relist a few items. Has anyone else had this problem? Is it a certain tag or something?
posted on February 18, 2001 05:53:15 PM
Yes I have been working for hours trying to relist my auctions and it is not working. I have checked and rechecked the email address and my confirmation and still no luck I wrote to auction watch and the tell me to go to universal manager and look and my ID and password still it is not working this has been going on for ten days.
Dawn
posted on February 18, 2001 05:55:49 PM
I'm not talking about on AW, I'm talking about on eBay. Whenever I let eBay know about the problems they tell me that I am the only one having the problem and that it must be my "browsers cache." I have probably been using the net longer then any of the support team on eBay so that really pisses me off when they blame me for the problems rather then tell me what is causing the problems. It happens whenever I try and relist something or edit the about me page.
posted on February 18, 2001 06:16:12 PM
I have problems doing revisions or relists using any version of Internet Explorer. If I use Netscape, it works fine.
posted on February 18, 2001 06:39:49 PM
Yes I've had problems from time to time.
Generally the stock answer from Ebay support is something like what you've heard.
I have had sucess switching browsers between Netscape and Micrsoft IE.
The problem lies with the large Java script table that they insist on downloading to you for every relist. Every time the add categories the size of this file increases. They did charge the list auction format so you only have to download the subcategories.
They refuse to change relist because they want to discourage people from using thier free relists.
posted on February 18, 2001 07:17:01 PM
Yep, give Netscape a try. It solved all my error problems in listing and relisting. The only problem is that it makes my hard drive cache a lot, and it's slower than IE. But overall, I can list and relist much faster with Netscape & IE. I never get those error pages with Netscape (unless eBay is actually down).
posted on February 18, 2001 07:38:57 PM
This happens to me all the time. Netscape hangs and ie diplays the dreaded "connection reset by server". The problem is not the browser or it's cache the problem is ebay's database - Oracle 8. The connection has been reset by the server because of a db error. It has been broken since August 2000. This has been written about quite abit in industry periodicals. Interestingly they are also having problems with some of the newer sun servers. (locking up and having to be restarted). It is very clear that ebay does not have the cream of the crop working for them.
I was told by a technical support person that the problem was with the database and it was happened when you have a large description. I have had good luck when I compress the html as much as I can (remove all cr/lf and extra spaces). Just list it as one long string. It will format fine.
Here is a response I received from ebay back in Sept... Kinda funny that they mention "short term
alternatives" ...
Hello,
Thank you for reporting the trouble you are having relisting your item.
We are investigating issues that some members are experiencing with our
submission forms and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5. The determining
factor for most members seems to be the amount of information being
processed.
After several tries, most members who are experiencing this problem seem
to be able to successfully complete their submission. I understand that
this is time consuming, and wanted to provide you with some short term
alternatives.
1: Reduce the number of characters (including spaces) in your item's
description. Normally, something under 5,000 is handled much easier by
MSIE5. (NOTE: while HTML is not the cause of this problem, using
extensive HTML quickly increases the total character count of your
description).
2: Use an alternate browser, such as Netscape or Opera.
3: Attempt your submission during the least busy Internet times, as
Internet traffic does seem to exacerbate the situation.
We are working with engineering to better diagnose this issue, and we
hope to be able to find a resolution soon.
I am very sorry for any inconvenience this has caused, and we thank you
for your patience. Please let me know if you have any further
questions.
posted on February 18, 2001 08:52:52 PM
OBTW here is a simple vb program that you can use to compress the cr-lf and extra spaces out of html if you have vb. It uses the clipboard so you would just copy your html (Ctrl-C) run the program and paste the html back in (ctrl-v). Just drop a button on the form and cut and paste the text below. It would probably work in excel or word as well ...
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim S As String
Dim Si As String
S = Clipboard.GetText()
Open "C:\Comp1234.987" For Output As #1
Print #1, S
Close #1
Open "C:\Comp1234.987" For Input As #1
S = ""
While Not EOF(1)
Line Input #1, Si
S = S + LTrim(Trim(Si))
Wend
Close #1
posted on February 19, 2001 02:51:03 AM
I have been having this problem sence the middle of January. Anoying isn't it. What used to take a half hour to relist now takes half a day. I have found a free web site that will relist your auction for you, well the ones that ended with out bidders at least. It is http://www.vrane.com/. They have lots of other seller's tools too. There is no membership needed. Go check it out. For the auctions that close with bidders I fine it easier to just submit it as a totally new auction using an auction submiting software.
posted on February 19, 2001 10:30:47 AM
Thanks so much for all your help. Its always funny that when you ask eBay support they always blame you and say that you are the only one having this problem. That is what they told me anyway! Glad I could get this figured out. I am afraid of using Netscape though because everytime I have had Netscape and IE on the same computer after version 2, I have had problems. Maybe I will give opera a try or better yet that website vrane.com. At any rate, thanks for your help!
