Is there a point in writing descriptions?

RFW

With lots of buyers using mobiles to purchase and a general inclination to not read descriptions, is it even worth bothering?

I have some listings on fixed price with best offer. Within the first three lines of the description I mention that best offers will be considered on 2 or more lots only. Not one offer (in almost 200) has been for more than one item.

Another auction listing that has gone up states the auction will run and to not ask for fixed price. I've had 3 offers in 24 hours. Incidentally if you are sending an unsolicited offer to someone, how about being polite?

I don't have long descriptions, just the pertinent points. I don't have long customer service messages that some sellers do. I even had one listing that contained a pretty bad error on my part (would have meant me selling double the listing for the same price), I sold over a dozen and no one noticed before I did.

I'm told that when the new Ebay search, Cassini, comes in in the new year that descriptions will form a part of search (without having to click for it).

I just wonder if I put some random nonsense unrelated to the item in a description if anyone would actually notice.

So do we just expect buyers will have to refund so reading descriptions doesn't matter? Are we just too lazy to click or scroll?

Flyonthewall

I always read descriptions and I read them carefully, especially the long ones with small text that may be trying to hide things. I buy a lot of used things where I want to know the exact condition.

It annoys me if people don't write a half decent description. For example, just say it's in good condition, especially with something like a book. You could have a book that's readable with clean pages and just some scuffs and creases on the cover, or it might have pen scribbled on the first page, or a ton of bent pages. Technically all are still in good condition as it's readable but I might not want a book with a load of bent pages or a load of pen on the inside cover., but I might not care about a few scuffs on the cover or a bit of pen on the inside cover.

As for offers, some people might just be really hopeful that despite what you've said that you will accept their offer.

If buyers don't read properly then they're going to cause themselves more hassle if they get something they didn't want and it may leave them out of pocket. As a seller it is annoying to think they may not be reading the description, but at least you may be able cover yourself in certain situations if you have described it properly.

sham63

RFW wrote: »

Incidentally if you are sending an unsolicited offer to someone, how about being polite?

Absolutely!

I sold a bike recently - with no 'best offer' option - but still received 5 unsolicited offers, all of them so abrupt that I didn't bother responding.

Things like "£850 cash - no quibble".

That's all it said - No "Hi", no "thanks", no name to respond to either.

What's wrong with "Hi, I'm very interested in your bike - would you be willing to accept £850? Many thanks, Joe" ?

RFW

sham63 wrote: »

Absolutely!

I sold a bike recently - with no 'best offer' option - but still received 5 unsolicited offers, all of them so abrupt that I didn't bother responding.

Things like "£850 cash - no quibble".

That's all it said - No "Hi", no "thanks", no name to respond to either.

What's wrong with "Hi, I'm very interested in your bike - would you be willing to accept £850? Many thanks, Joe" ?

Mine was "Hi, buy it now". So I did get a hi, but no question mark. I did reply. "Hi, it's an auction".

campdave

I have the important points for my items:

Size, I combine postage for items purchased together. All other information is covered by the information I enter when listing (postage price, despatch time, returns policy).

They're important to me in so far as CS will remove feedback if a customer complains about a point that is mentioned in the description, which happens when sometimes when people can't be bothered to read the description.

I have best offer on a few of my items, but I have set them up to automatically accept or reject offers so I don't have to waste time with stupidly low offers.

I do get a few people per day who purchase items separetely, but that's more down to ebay's system for purchasing multiple items being odd and them being unfamiliar with how it works. I refund extra postage, I suspect most sellers don't, so guess they will soon learn.

Would agree with the sentiment of some of the messages you receive though, no manners at all on some.

RFW

campdave wrote: »

I have best offer on a few of my items, but I have set them up to automatically accept or reject offers so I don't have to waste time with stupidly low offers.

I have that set up too. The problem I have is that the listing is inclusive postage. One item gets sent by Royal Mail, 2 go by courier and I can get up to ten sent for the same courier rate so there can be a substantial saving on 2 or more lots.
I've got them listed in bigger lots, just amazing how many offers I've had that have been for one. I only noticed it the other day as a lot have been automatically rejected, so were silly low offers anyway. I have sold a lot of single items so presumably at least some of those read the description.
In the great scheme of things I'm not really bothered just intriguing how few actually read descriptions.

thebestnameshavegone

I get lots of questions from what I used to think were very stupid or very lazy buyers - almost without exception the answers to their questions are contained in my listing description. It was only fairly recently when checking one of my listings on my phone that I realised that most of my description doesn't show up - so if those buyers were on a mobile my assumptions about them may have been wrong.

Similarly messages sent via phones are almost always abrupt, full of text speak, and with no punctuation (which sometimes makes it difficult to understand the query). Ebay seems to think that sales via smartphones are the way forward, so I suspect this is only going to get worse.

RFW

thebestnameshavegone wrote: »

Ebay seems to think that sales via smartphones are the way forward, so I suspect this is only going to get worse.

It is their biggest growth area and Paypal are putting fortunes into various phone payment technology. There seems to have been a tiny shift on the Ebay app to showing where descriptions are. I suspect the way forward is going to be item specifics. So the description box will start to dwindle away.

paddyrg

Absolutely, please do add a description - I always read them carefully to avoid wasting everybodys time!

cattie

Yes another vote here for comprehensive descriptions. I always think too much information is better than not enough. I always try to do full descriptions on my listings & it seems to pay off.

I've noticed a lot of listings when done via ipad or whatever are very short & abrupt, such as just 'sofa for sale'. No effort to put any more information is made, let alone a proper description & who wants to risk bidding on a costly item without any further info? I personally avoid buying from people who do this.

sgh1976

I sell an item that has given us numerous problems as people didn't realised it was a sticker, despite it being mentioned in the description plenty of times. So the title was edited to include the word sticker (actual name of the product is a "skin"). So we hoped that would end the messages of "Received the item, didn't realise it was as a sticker when I purchased it"

It hasn't.

We still get issues with an item that has the size in the title and people being surprised at the size when they get it.