Dealers leaving sold adverts permanently listed

[Bellatrix]

Like the throttle shop adverts , they have eleven ads and seven are out of date. Doesn't stop them refreshing their sold ads back to the top each day. And even better the sold prices have magically risen above the amounts they were reduced to before they finally appeared as sold.

[monthefish]

Scooty100 said:

monthefish said:

How hard can it be to setup a script that removes all sold adverts X days after they're set to sold.
Perhaps 7 days max?

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/porsche/911-gt3-997/porsche-911-997-gt3-rs/2419422


Case in point. Uploaded again today yet car sold many months ago

...and while they're at it, how about a script that automatically puts any car with either
- no price listed
-'POA'
- mickey mouse pricing (e.g. cars listed at £5)
right to the end of any search, irrespective of how the search results are ordered (price low to high, price high to low etc etc)

[markiii]

Just to test the principle that they aren't omnipotent and asked us to report stuff, I made a point of reporting every gt3 add, that had already sold, every gt3 add that wasn't a gt3

Guess what

They've done absolutely nothing, whoever mods the classifieds is a waste of oxygen

[LeePH]

Hi all, We are actively working through with a number of dealers around wanted ads and sold ads appearing in the ‘for sale’ section, which has been more evident with the PH classifieds marketplace cars for sale volumes growing by over 50% year on year.

A significant reason for the situation is that the vast majority of vehicles listed by dealers are uploaded by automated feeds from their stock system. As we clean out wanted ads, the next upload by their feed simply takes us back to where we started. With over 3,000 dealers listing on PistonHeads this is obviously no small task, but one that we are working very hard to resolve as we understand (and share) the frustrations.

To combat this situation the PH development team is reviewing improved smart filters and stronger advertising controls, along with more detailed rules to manage wanted / sold ads appearing in main listings.

The flip side to this is that our on-site analytics and customer feedback on the the wanted ads show that they're very effective and do get significant response. With this in mind we are considering adding a clearly identified section at the bottom of the 'for sale' listings page specifically for wanteds. Another technique you’ll notice a number of dealers are running response effective display banner ads for wanted vehicles rather than using the listings.

As we work towards solving this and further improvements on the classified marketplace we will be releasing a new beta testing area of the classifieds marketplace. This will be early in the New Year, and we will be actively collecting and measuring feedback as our primary goal is to deliver a great service for buyers, sellers and browsers. We'll ensure all on this thread are included on the invite for feedback.

Best wishes

Lee

[monthefish]

LeePH said:

Hi all, We are actively working through with a number of dealers around wanted ads and sold ads appearing in the ‘for sale’ section, which has been more evident with the PH classifieds marketplace cars for sale volumes growing by over 50% year on year.

A significant reason for the situation is that the vast majority of vehicles listed by dealers are uploaded by automated feeds from their stock system. As we clean out wanted ads, the next upload by their feed simply takes us back to where we started. With over 3,000 dealers listing on PistonHeads this is obviously no small task, but one that we are working very hard to resolve as we understand (and share) the frustrations.

To combat this situation the PH development team is reviewing improved smart filters and stronger advertising controls, along with more detailed rules to manage wanted / sold ads appearing in main listings.

The flip side to this is that our on-site analytics and customer feedback on the the wanted ads show that they're very effective and do get significant response. With this in mind we are considering adding a clearly identified section at the bottom of the 'for sale' listings page specifically for wanteds. Another technique you’ll notice a number of dealers are running response effective display banner ads for wanted vehicles rather than using the listings.

As we work towards solving this and further improvements on the classified marketplace we will be releasing a new beta testing area of the classifieds marketplace. This will be early in the New Year, and we will be actively collecting and measuring feedback as our primary goal is to deliver a great service for buyers, sellers and browsers. We'll ensure all on this thread are included on the invite for feedback.

Best wishes

Lee

Thanks for taking the time to post.

Appreciate that policing it is a big task, but you should put tougher sanctions on the advertisers and make it the policy that if their ads don't conform to the rules, their adverts will be deleted without notice. Put the onus on them to get it right.

[rscott]

To be fair, it does sound like they're developing tools to find these ads and either prevent their listing or list in a separate section.

It's a fine line between giving the browsing car buyer the experience they want (real ads!) and having oversensitive filters which prevent their paying customers listing cars..

[maffski]

LeePH said:

A significant reason for the situation is that the vast majority of vehicles listed by dealers are uploaded by automated feeds from their stock system. As we clean out wanted ads, the next upload by their feed simply takes us back to where we started. With over 3,000 dealers listing on PistonHeads this is obviously no small task, but one that we are working very hard to resolve as we understand (and share) the frustrations.

Could you not allow the advert to live in PH system so they don't re-upload it, but then flag it so it isn't displayed (or is displayed as a sold/wanted ad).

[Scooty100]

LeePH said:

Hi all, We are actively working through with a number of dealers around wanted ads and sold ads appearing in the ‘for sale’ section, which has been more evident with the PH classifieds marketplace cars for sale volumes growing by over 50% year on year.

A significant reason for the situation is that the vast majority of vehicles listed by dealers are uploaded by automated feeds from their stock system. As we clean out wanted ads, the next upload by their feed simply takes us back to where we started. With over 3,000 dealers listing on PistonHeads this is obviously no small task, but one that we are working very hard to resolve as we understand (and share) the frustrations.

To combat this situation the PH development team is reviewing improved smart filters and stronger advertising controls, along with more detailed rules to manage wanted / sold ads appearing in main listings.

The flip side to this is that our on-site analytics and customer feedback on the the wanted ads show that they're very effective and do get significant response. With this in mind we are considering adding a clearly identified section at the bottom of the 'for sale' listings page specifically for wanteds. Another technique you’ll notice a number of dealers are running response effective display banner ads for wanted vehicles rather than using the listings.

As we work towards solving this and further improvements on the classified marketplace we will be releasing a new beta testing area of the classifieds marketplace. This will be early in the New Year, and we will be actively collecting and measuring feedback as our primary goal is to deliver a great service for buyers, sellers and browsers. We'll ensure all on this thread are included on the invite for feedback.

Best wishes

Lee

Fair play Lee and understand its a big task to work through the various adds especially given you probably have an annual fee or monthly fee from various dealers.

The issue from an individuals standpoint is seeing cars that have been sold many many months ago so wasting time wading through what's actually for sale and what's not which im sure you realise.

Looking at cars that have sold and advertised as such is one thing but the 'wanted' adds are so annoying especially when its a car that has sold years ago!

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds?Category=us...

this car sold in 2008 and most in Porsche circles know this so it actually looks bad on you guys and makes Paul Stephens look very desperate.
I think this is the kind of issues you have to address

[macky17]

Or, again, this ad:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/n...

Not only sold but no mention at all in the ad that the car is no longer available (as of 7 months ago). I managed to get an admin to delete the ad, then the next day it was back. If they at least set the price to £0 and mentioned it was sold that would be something. Price starting to look low now!

[monthefish]

Scooty100 said:

LeePH said:

stuff

Fair play Lee and understand its a big task to work through the various adds especially given you probably have an annual fee or monthly fee from various dealers.

The issue from an individuals standpoint is seeing cars that have been sold many many months ago so wasting time wading through what's actually for sale and what's not

..which only goes to put off potential buyers, the exact opposite of what the PH Classified team are trying to achieve, so it's in PH's best interest to manage it properly.

rscott said:

To be fair, it does sound like they're developing tools to find these ads and either prevent their listing or list in a separate section.

It's a fine line between giving the browsing car buyer the experience they want (real ads!) and having oversensitive filters which prevent their paying customers listing cars..

Agree, but it's basic stuff we're talking here. No need for over-sensitive filters.