Ebay "See Full Item Description" Button

For the last few days or so there's been a "See Full Item Description" button in the item description field in every ebay listing I click on. It pops up a half-size window which shows the full item description. Is anyone else seeing this, or did I get opted into a pilot program unwittingly? Words can barely describe how bad this sucks. The half-size window invariably includes the seller's store banner, which means you can see about a third of a picture at a time as you scroll through the listing. I looked for something in settings to opt out of it but haven't found anything. Anyone got any ideas?

Yes, I see that too. To me it is irritating. When making an ebay philatelic purchase, who would not want to see the complete description? It did fool me a couple of times, since it looked like there was no description, so I passed on a few lots. There appears no end to the irritations that ebay can cause me.

It almost makes listings with lots of photos un-viewable. It's not a huge deal if we're talking about a stamp or two, but for collections and large lots with a lot of photos, it's a massive step backwards. Why on earth would they make it so you can only see half (or less) of a picture at a time? The only thing I can think of is that they're trying to save bandwidth and/or make listings load faster, but there's got to be a better way. Without the full item description, you really don't get much more information than what pops up in the gallery in search results. And even then, it wouldn't be so bad if the pop-up window was much bigger. but when it's half sized and the seller's store banner stays at the top as you scroll down, it makes it so you can barely see half of any given photo at a time. Brilliant move.

I don't see anything different. I've checked several auctions and they all look the same. Where is this button?

When I click on a listing, where there is normally a description, there is simply a button that says "See Full Item Description". If I don't click on that, there's nothing, zip, nada, except the ebay photos and the price. Any narrative information added by the seller or any additional photos in the body of the description aren't there. Then, when I click that button, there's a half-sized popup window that opens that shows the description, with all the photographs, etc. As I mentioned above, it's small enough I can only see about half of one picture at a time, and the popup window can't be resized.

If other people aren't seeing it, I must have been placed in a pilot program to test certain features or something. I've sent them multiple messages about it, which undoubtedly went to the Brick Wall Department.

That's odd, now it's back to the way it was and the button is no longer there. Must have been some new feature they were testing out and looking for user feedback on. I hope that one never comes back!

When you first posted this, my ebay page did not show anything different. Now it shows exactly what you described, I can only see the items description by hitting the "See Full Item Description" button and getting a ghost box over the listing with the description, annoying. There is also a link next to it, "Tell us what you think", so they must be beta testing as you suggest.

Sounds like ebay is testing something for the mobile device users and in the process they are "dumbing" things down. I looked for it and couldn't find it.

I used that link several times and told them every time exactly what I thought and why. For lots that have a lot of pictures on ebay itself (as opposed to Auctiva or another external link) I told them that it would be unlikely that I'd be buying or bidding due to the difficulty of viewing the full lot. Wasn't long after that things were back to normal. Probably just a coincidence, but I definitely gave them my honest feedback.

Everything normal here. The item description, if there is any, always shows up but if I want to see the postal info, that's another tab.

Here is a link to an ecommerce Bytes article where ebay admits to hiding descriptions.

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/a.../m02/i16/s01

Clark

They want a consistent look across mobile and desktop platforms? It will probably save money and open up ad space, so it is probably a foregone conclusion.

What a bunch of marooons.

Sheesh! "Welcome to ebay! If it works, we'll break it!". That should be their motto.

I wouldn't mind so much if the popup window was at least big enough to see a whole stinkin' picture. It would still be a huge step backwards, but at least viewing large lots with lots of photos would be possible. If they're going to go through with this, they need to at least make so you can resize the popup window.