Ebay classic spare parts what have they done!!!

[velocemitch]

I'm sure like most of us who run classic cars, I have a saved search set up on Ebay so I can quickly go in and see what's for sale in the spares and parts section. It is tailored to just look in the classic spares section with Alfa as a tag. It's worked very well for years, I usually see a few hundred suitable spares for my Alfas but as I look most days I can see what's new and watch it.

I'm seriously pi**ed off with Ebay today to find they seem to have abolished the classic sections and lumped all spares into one big hole, my search now comes up with about 27000 hits mainly selling crap I'm never going to need or want.

What the hell good is this to any of us!!!, I've just dropped ebay a strongly worded email to complain and I suggest if you are affected you do the same. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels an important source of parts has just been made damn near impossible to use now.

Rant over.....

[sim16v]

I use OZ racing wheels on my track cars.

Have given up lookin now, over 280,000 the last time i checked!

Makes it impossible to find the proper stuff.

[Faust66]

I noticed the classic car spares category has gone - thought my laptop was playing up!

I really can't understand why ebay would feel the need to do this... it's another nail in the 'bay's coffin as far as I'm concerned; I refuse to sell on the site any more due to the extortionate fees, and now it looks like I won't be buying much either.

I'll send a strongly worded email on the subject, but I bet it won't do any damn good.

[spoodler]

I've seen this complaint on other forums and apparently it is something to do with Ebay introducing a Master Vehicle List for their multiple (trade) sellers. Lots of folk have been complaining and have been asked to be patient for the moment, looks to most of us that it's ill considered, somebody forgot about all of us classic fans. Just be thankful you don't own a Chevy - you'd have to wade through all that Daewoo stuff!

[CCDbriz]

I do own a bleedin' Chevy! Nightmare.
This guys done a protest listing:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIte...

[john2443]

I guess that will be pulled as soon as they spot it!

If you go here and click email (bottom right) you can mail your complaint, not sure they'll take much notice, but might be worth it if enough people complain, but probably the amount of business they do for classics is prettysmall compared to all the other categories.

[steven f]

i also do a few classic jap bikes and now when i search its full of parts in the usa for £20 but £70 to post plus tax and vat after customs get its stopped me looking now to much to go through but hey ebay is paying there staff thousands of pounds in wages for getting rid of customers

[jonnylayze]

And I thought it was just me! Didn't know whether I was too stupid to find the category I thought I was looking for, or it had never been there in the first place.... if you see what I mean!

The one thing I hadn't considered was that it had been there, and I was looking in the right place, but that ebay had simply removed it.....

I'll send a protest email as suggested above.

[jamieandthemagic]

this is crap, ebay is one of the few ways to keep the rarer cars alive, not a good move.

[Erich Stahler]

I dont understand what the problem is, just do a specific search, eg. "TR4 water pump" which works fine and just returns (mainly) relevant items?

[velocemitch]

I think the issue is that if you are looking for something specific you will probably still find it, but I'm sure most of us constantly monitor Ebay for spares of any type for the cars we own, picking them up when they crop up. I have a search set up which went straight to 'classic car parts - Alfa Romeo' now they have abolished the classic spares section it goes straight to the modern stuff which is 75% tat, 20% spares for modern Alfa's, with a few classic bits intermingled.

[niagra]

The other way to look at it is if you are just searching for parts in the classic car section of parts you are potentially missing out on loads of parts that were listed in the car section, possibly because the lister either wasn't aware that there was a classic car section or didn't think their car was a classic (as in the case of my 205 GTI they could easily be listed in either).

[RichB]

Still don't get it. I have searches set up for DB2, DB2/4, DB MkIII, DB3 etc. If I just searched for Aston Martin I'd get thousands of hits, surely you just have to be model specific not right down to the individual part?

[arguti]

Another Ebay non-success.

Sure you can search for specific items but if you are like me and own several classic Alfas, I usually just browse the classic parts section and pick spares that I happen to see and decide to keep for a rainy day.

Seems like me general browsing days are over. Stupid move by Ebay.

[velocemitch]

It's not so much owning different Alfa's, but owning cars which go by different names... Giulia, Junior, GT, GTV, GTA, sprint, Bertone, 105...... that's before you get into other variants where parts still fit... Super, Berlina, Spider...etc

Searching for parts is impractical so finding them is practically impossible.

[john2443]

My cars uses lots of generic parts (eg Lucas, Wilmot Bredon) etc that were used on all sorts of 50s cars so it's no use searching by car manufacturer.

I've mailed ebay and have a reply (which was no help). I'll post it on here later.

[neutral 3]

And I thought I was the only one who is P off and Sick of flea bay...

[mph]

john2443 said:

My cars uses lots of generic parts (eg Lucas, Wilmot Bredon) etc that were used on all sorts of 50s cars so it's no use searching by car manufacturer.

I've mailed ebay and have a reply (which was no help). I'll post it on here later.

Agree with you entirely. I got a reply which said the classic car section was little used or some such nonsense.

It's virtually impossible to browse the main section and it's more full of endless lists of far eastern crap than the classic section was.

To the earlier poster - i don't necesarily want a specific item, i want to browse. try looking for a lucas switch for example, or a blaupunkt radio or marchal items etc. etc.

[Huntsman]

Its hopeless.

[SESH]

I complained to Ebay and this is the reply I got...........

Hello Mike,

Thank you for writing to us in regard to the car parts category changes.

Mike, firstly I apologise for delay in responding to your email. Most of the changes on the site are result of the community's feedback. However, it cannot overrule the fact that not all the members may feel comfortable with changes. Therefore, we always welcome feedbacks on the changes made on the site.

We make category changes for a number of reasons including, policy change, new feature integration or to improve the user experience through better classification of items. We are aware that category changes can have a big impact on buyer and sellers.

Therefore, we only do them when absolutely necessary and have limited frequency of changes to from a monthly basis to fall in the Seller Releases thus giving our sellers more advanced warning.

For recent updates on eBay, please visit below link:

http://sellerupdate.ebay.co.uk/august2011/index.ht...

I hope I have explained everything clearly. If you have any more concerns, do write back to us and we will be happy to help you with.

Kind regards,

Paddy Gallon
eBay Customer Support
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