API dropped condition?

someone tell me if this is the wrong area!

I think you are in right area.

I have lots of API warnings saying item specifics were dropped, like over 3,000 warnings. Sometimes I check a few and the specifics are still there but is extremely frustrating because I do not take time to check each listing that shows error.


Here is note I got in October 2009 from support that I believe relates to this:

**********
For the selected category, eBay no longer allows both Item Specifics and Custom Item Specifics to be specified. You can choose either of the two, but not both.(Item Specifics will be discontinued at a future date so it is recommended that you specify Custom Item Specifics.)

There is nothing you can do to make the error message go away. It is just there to let you know that it is a category for which eBay no longer allows regular item specifics with custom item specifics. If you were to try posting a listing directly through eBay in that category with both regular and custom item specifics selected, you would receive a similar error message.

Any time you see this message, you will just need to make sure to specify custom item specifics OR regular item specifics (not both) in order to be able to post the listing successfully. It is probably best to go with custom item specifics because eBay will soon be doing away with the regular item specifics.
***********************


Auctiva, this is frustrating to go in time after time and see these warnings, and feel the need to check and make sure what we put is still there.

SYM-IX says some of the specifics are missing (which I have also noticed on a few when I went into ebay to revise some listings.)

Frankly we do not have time to go in and check each and every api warning to make sure our info is still there.


SYM-IX, hope this relates to what you are asking too, if not let me know and I will delete.

Vickie

Thank you Vickie; yes, this is exactly what is happening to me, and, whereas I do not have the amount of listing you do (yet), I also do not really have the time nor feel like going in and checking every listing I put up.

And, the biggest annoyance, and one that quite frankly is costs me money in potential sales, is that the item specifics are not always there when I go in and check a listing!

I thought it was my error at first, but, then after checking several listing, no, it wasn't.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

SYM-IX, you are right on. Custom Specifics is not filled in it does not show up when buyers get specific with their search.

It is HUGE issue. And I would bet that most people ignore it and do not check each listing. Who has time to do that? Time is Money, and not having this on properly is money.


(Also, SYM-IX some of this 3,000 ish are repeats of relists) so I do not have near 3000 listed. Wish I could get motivated enough to do that).

AUCTIVA. . is there a fix for this??? This is irritating waste of time for us to have to check each time. Or am I missing something here?


Vickie

Sorry Vickie & SYM-IX, but those API warnings come directly from eBay, and we'd get into a huge heap of trouble if we stopped passing those messages onto our users. They are just warnings, and your listings will still post to eBay even if they send you a warning.

To avoid seeing the "dropped item conditon" message in the future, make sure you aren't selecting a "Condition" in the Item or Custom Item Specifics if your listing category has the new Item Condition field available (located directly below the category # box.) Since a majority of categories now require sellers to use eBay's new Item Condition field, they (eBay) will automatically drop other references to the condition from your Item Specifics. That's all the warning from eBay is saying. And we can't just remove the Condition field from the Item Specifics on the lister page since it's still relevant for some categories.

So, I understand it's an annoyance, but there's really nothing we can do on our end to prevent those messages from being sent by eBay.

SYM-IX please file a Support Ticket if you believe there's a problem with the Item Specifics transferring to your eBay listing so that our team can look into the matter for you.

Thanks Rebecca, let me make sure I have this right as this could be MY issue. I list say a purse.

1. After Category under word Browse, it shows Item Condition. I should fill THAT ONE in with Say NEW WITH TAG and leave the one in CUSTOM ITEMS SPECIFICS blank. I normally fill in BOTH.

OR should I just:

2. Ignore the one under category word BROWSE, and fill in all of the Custom Item Specifics which has New with Tag area too?

I have been doing both. I thought the one under browse was going to be dropped (do not know why I thought that) and did not want to take a chance on it dropping and having to redo all of my listings again, so did as both.

Will it work ok both of these ways, or just one of them.

I did know they were posting anyway, but did not want to have to go in and check each one to see if the custom specifics transferred over to listings.

Hope this makes sense???

Thanks.. this may shed some light on the problem.

Vickie

I get the messages no matter what I do; enter item specifics in the catalog listing page or after, or before and nothing, or... every permutation. So, it's crap to have to deal with that if it's their problem, but, if it is just a simple tweak to igonore it here, then I don't understand why not do it vs. just saying there is not much we can do? I have the slightest clue how many users you might have here, but, pretty sure it's a bunch and we all pay you so much a month to use this service, but, you are telling us that, hey, great that you are using and paying for our services but we have some bugs that we just simply don't want to fix.

You know, another thing here: this Specialist, Apprentice rookie **** it extremely condesending and I find it highly insulting on a site that more than likely is pandering to all semi-professional people trying to make a living? And, you have these silly little game titles for when you post? I'm sorry, I'm not an apprentice, nor an idiot.

So, 'they' are deleting the item specifics from within your own system, heh? So, having just a small bit of programming my background I know that 'you' decide on what happens with 'your' own code. If you don't want this erroneous error to show up, it won't, because you won't Allow It To! This just really rubbed me the wrong way, like, hey, sorry, just live with it?

Auctiva,

I have not researched thoroughly just a few categories that I use, but wonder in my case of using purse as an example. When I go to list in ebay it shows as follows:

************ Sorry this is cut & paste I am not sure how to do another way. . .


Condition
Item Specifics (then has the drop downs with condition for us to fill in)

Add more information to help buyers find your item in search results. Buyers can use popular item specifics to refine their search and locate your item faster.


UNDER THAT IS THIS:

Style Remove
Main Color Remove
Material Remove
Brand Remove
Size Remove
Add your own item


I may be wrong but this leads me to believe that auctiva has CONDITION in both places and ebay does not and that could be WHY this is being dropped in ebay system which carries over into auctiva. IF auctiva shows same exact as ebay would it still be dropped? Hope this makes sense???

IF so, seems if auctiva dropped CONDITION in the custom area that would fix problem and their's would be like ebays???

I have not searched numerous categories, just a few and that is what I found.



Thanks

Vickie

http://stores.ebay.com/VICKIES-VARIETY

quote:

Originally posted by lookandbuyme:
Thanks Rebecca, let me make sure I have this right as this could be MY issue. I list say a purse.

1. After Category under word Browse, it shows Item Condition. I should fill THAT ONE in with Say NEW WITH TAG and leave the one in CUSTOM ITEMS SPECIFICS blank. I normally fill in BOTH.

OR should I just:

2. Ignore the one under category word BROWSE, and fill in all of the Custom Item Specifics which has New with Tag area too?

I have been doing both. I thought the one under browse was going to be dropped (do not know why I thought that) and did not want to take a chance on it dropping and having to redo all of my listings again, so did as both.

Will it work ok both of these ways, or just one of them.

I did know they were posting anyway, but did not want to have to go in and check each one to see if the custom specifics transferred over to listings.

Hope this makes sense???

Thanks.. this may shed some light on the problem.

Vickie

You're right on target Vickie! #1 is correct==that is the "new" Item Condition Field that eBay introduced last year, and will eventually be the only place where you can input the item condition in the future. If you have the item condition selected there, as well in your Custom Item specifics, eBay will just drop the one from the Custom specifics area when it lists.

quote:

Originally posted by lookandbuyme:
Auctiva,

I have not researched thoroughly just a few categories that I use, but wonder in my case of using purse as an example. When I go to list in ebay it shows as follows:

************ Sorry this is cut & paste I am not sure how to do another way. . .


Condition
Item Specifics (then has the drop downs with condition for us to fill in)

Add more information to help buyers find your item in search results. Buyers can use popular item specifics to refine their search and locate your item faster.


UNDER THAT IS THIS:

Style Remove
Main Color Remove
Material Remove
Brand Remove
Size Remove
Add your own item


I may be wrong but this leads me to believe that auctiva has CONDITION in both places and ebay does not and that could be WHY this is being dropped in ebay system which carries over into auctiva. IF auctiva shows same exact as ebay would it still be dropped? Hope this makes sense???

IF so, seems if auctiva dropped CONDITION in the custom area that would fix problem and their's would be like ebays???

I have not searched numerous categories, just a few and that is what I found.



Thanks

Vickie

http://stores.ebay.com/VICKIES-VARIETY

I agree! It would fix the problem if we could just remove the unneccessary item condition from the list of Item Specifics we show. Unfortuanately we can't just drop the specifics that eBay gives us. Those come directly from eBay through their API and aren't customizable by Auctiva. This is just the way eBay has their API set up, and we have to take what they give us. So until they update it in all categories, you may still see the option to choose the Item condition in the Item specifics. Hope that helps to explain it all

Rebecca, thanks for response, I guess they are already dropping in some categories is why auctiva still has both?? And that auctiva will drop all when ebay drops all? See I thought they were dropping Item Specifics and replacing with Custom Specifics.

I will make sure first one is done and then api error should not occur right?

Also, I think SYM-IX concern has been somewhat hi-jacked again (by me sorry). It is related topic but I am not sure his concern has been addressed and maybe he is working with support too. .but did not want his concern ignored, as it could help us all later too.

Thanks
Vickie

Rebecca. . I just started doing some relists, I started checking the API warnings (left on notifications so you could see them) to see what they were. I went into ebay and see what exactly was dropped. Nothing was dropped at all. The condition area under the category area was marked as well as the Custom Specifics Area marked and both show up in listing on ebay. Why is it showing they dropped when they did not drop.

(I had thought I do not want to change all of my listings so I will just let them drop them each time).

Here is warning I got on these, below are links for 3 in various categories.

API Warning Dropped condition from Item specifics.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...SE:IT#ht_3622wt_1249

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...em&item=190493948259

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...em&item=140504198039

It appears to me this could be a false warning or a glitch in system. If they are not dropping anything why would it show API that they dropped?

Thanks for your help.
Vickie

Auctiva.. I do not want to let my notifications pile up again the way I did before. HOwever, I do not want to delete them until you can look at them. I am showing API Warnings - Dropped Condition from Item Specifics on almost every listing. (149 listings and 172 warnings - some of which show warning for items caluclated by weight which are fine or quantity listings which are fine) But most for condition. However, when I check nothing is dropped? Why are notifications saying dropped when they are not, the conditions are still there, just as I put them. Please do not send me to ebay, as when this happened in past they 2 hours later they sent me back to Auctiva saying I use a third party listing service and that I should contact you. Plus I am sure I am not the only one getting false warning messages.

I realize I could go in and take off of the custom specifics area, but really do not want to do that on 1,000 + listings. Mainly because IF ebay changes their mind and leaves in custom specifics then I would have to go back and re-do.

I also do want to go in each time and check each listing to make sure still on there.

Thanks
Vickie

http://stores.ebay.com/VICKIES-VARIETY

Dear Vickie,

I see that Rebecca has been trying to help you understand what is going on with this issue but, since we're still not all on the same page, let me see if I fully explain what is going on with these API warnings once and for all.

I believe the most important thing to emphasize here is that the API warning you are referring to is not indicative of a problem with the listings. As you pointed out, all the listings for which you have received these errors all reflected the item conditions correctly when they reached eBay.

The reason eBay is returning these warnings is because our system is actually sending the item condition to eBay twice - once because it was entered in the Item Specifics section and again because it was also selected in the separate Item Condition field just below the Category field.

Ideally, you would not see the option to enter the Condition in the Item Specifics menu when the separate Item Condition field is available for a category, but it is showing up in the Item Specifics section as well because eBay is returning that option when we call their API to get the recommended Item Specifics for the category in use.

If you would like to avoid these warnings and having to enter the Item Condition twice, you should just need to specify your conditions in the independent Item Condition drop down menu and not within the Item Specifics section. We also do not need to see these warnings, so you are welcome to go ahead and delete them whenever you would like.

I hope this helps clear things up.

-Mike