Anyone dissopointed with the new classifieds layout?
Discussion
Hi,
Iv been a reader/surfer of the Ph forums for a long time and use the classifeds section often. Iv not really needed to sign up to the forum for replying to topics because ionformation is already there from fellow Ph'ers
.
Anyway, iv decided to sign up to express/discuss my opinions of the new classified section layout which has been causing alot of 'fuss' and 'confusion'.
More or less everyday i surf the classifeds section and i was incredibly impressed with the section for buying and selling vehicles until the new layout started, which tbh i and i guess the many other thousands of people who use the classifieds but not the forum regually must have not know about the change.
A few days into the change i started to use the search function which revelaed some of the cars i was after, then after further investigation on the Ph forums i realise there is a change in the layout.
Now i seriously think the new layout is a mess, visit the Honda civic section. All you get is 10-15 pages at the begining of cars from the same trader, then some more from another trader, then some olds adds classed as premiums, then the cars i will be interested in. By this time i am on page 20.
Iv sold many cars on pistonheads in the past and have always had many phone calls regarding them in the first day or so. But iv just advertised a car recently and had next to no phonecalls which i know for a fact is becuase people cannot find these adverts.
Being a business i understand why Ph has decided to do this but it really becomes irratating for the average tom dick and harry to find the cars they are looking for. Most people would rather not purchase from a trader and purchase a car privatly because 9 times out of 10 it is cheaper.
Now i dont want to come across as greedy as i dont mind paying but the other day i was looking at a advert (Premium btw) which was right at the front but now today due to a trader it is 12/13 pages back :O. That would be a dissopointing situation, paying £7 and having it sent to the end where know one looks.
Is it possible for pistonheads to reuse the old 'queing' system, Ie: newest advert first for everyone but give premium adverts the choice of say more pictures etc.
Or have a seperate section for traders, which means more and more people wouldnt mind paying the £7 but knowing there advert will be easily visible for a few days.
Or if this system was to stay as it is, maybe put up a big notice on the section letting people that dont visit often know how it works now. Im sure it ill stop around 80% confusion if everyone knew.
I wonder why i didnt sign up since i started viewing these forums 2 years ago, lol. Could have had it for free...... lol
Many thanks
(Ps: Sorry if i come out as angry/greedy but im not, just trying to help out in improving the system)
Iv been a reader/surfer of the Ph forums for a long time and use the classifeds section often. Iv not really needed to sign up to the forum for replying to topics because ionformation is already there from fellow Ph'ers
.Anyway, iv decided to sign up to express/discuss my opinions of the new classified section layout which has been causing alot of 'fuss' and 'confusion'.
More or less everyday i surf the classifeds section and i was incredibly impressed with the section for buying and selling vehicles until the new layout started, which tbh i and i guess the many other thousands of people who use the classifieds but not the forum regually must have not know about the change.
A few days into the change i started to use the search function which revelaed some of the cars i was after, then after further investigation on the Ph forums i realise there is a change in the layout.
Now i seriously think the new layout is a mess, visit the Honda civic section. All you get is 10-15 pages at the begining of cars from the same trader, then some more from another trader, then some olds adds classed as premiums, then the cars i will be interested in. By this time i am on page 20.
Iv sold many cars on pistonheads in the past and have always had many phone calls regarding them in the first day or so. But iv just advertised a car recently and had next to no phonecalls which i know for a fact is becuase people cannot find these adverts.
Being a business i understand why Ph has decided to do this but it really becomes irratating for the average tom dick and harry to find the cars they are looking for. Most people would rather not purchase from a trader and purchase a car privatly because 9 times out of 10 it is cheaper.
Now i dont want to come across as greedy as i dont mind paying but the other day i was looking at a advert (Premium btw) which was right at the front but now today due to a trader it is 12/13 pages back :O. That would be a dissopointing situation, paying £7 and having it sent to the end where know one looks.
Is it possible for pistonheads to reuse the old 'queing' system, Ie: newest advert first for everyone but give premium adverts the choice of say more pictures etc.
Or have a seperate section for traders, which means more and more people wouldnt mind paying the £7 but knowing there advert will be easily visible for a few days.
Or if this system was to stay as it is, maybe put up a big notice on the section letting people that dont visit often know how it works now. Im sure it ill stop around 80% confusion if everyone knew.
I wonder why i didnt sign up since i started viewing these forums 2 years ago, lol. Could have had it for free...... lol
Many thanks
(Ps: Sorry if i come out as angry/greedy but im not, just trying to help out in improving the system)
Hi,
Welcome to the forums
Some background first. The classifieds on PH have increased month on month by about 10% for adverts and the same for the amount of visitors. This has meant that more traders have become interested in us, and more private sellers have been selling cars through the site. The resultant traffic increase has meant the classifieds original design would be stretched by the increase in volume and for the popular marques (BMW 3 Series, Honda Civic etc) the category listings move very quickly down the page.
Technically we haven't changed any of the layout of the classifieds system, but we have changed the way adverts are ordered so that premium adverts and dealer adverts get premium ordering, which is where the confusion has risen.
We have always had filters and search facility in place across the site for filtering out the adverts a buyer does not want to see. Our stats on useage of the classified site shows that a high majority of buyers use these features to narrow down their search. This means that you can filter out private or dealer ads as you so desire.
We appreciate from your post (and others in the feedback section) that these filters are not working for some, or the knowledge they exist. This is something we will work on to improve the knowledge, visibility and use of these filters and searches.
The problem with the private ads are that the popular categories are suffering from this, but the performance cars across the site are still small enough for this to work. It is a fine line between satisfying sellers in 3 Series or Civic areas against those in our core business area of Ferrari, Aston Martin and other performance makes. We are looking at splitting some of the performance car categories into sub sections so they stay at manageable levels (e.g. M3 to E30, E36 etc) and are not swamped.
The problem you refer to with the dealer ads is due to the increase in dealers using the system as it has been found to be a very succesful tool for them. This means that if a dealer uploads their cars (or uses one of our third party feeds) this can then look like dealer ads are swamping a category at the time they upload or the feed runs. This would still be the case regardless of the way we ordered the private adverts.
Sorry for the long post, but didnt have time to write a shorter one (ref: Mark Twain) but we do take on board all comments on the forums and we are monitoring the situation with the classifieds to see what impact our changes have.
Welcome to the forums
Some background first. The classifieds on PH have increased month on month by about 10% for adverts and the same for the amount of visitors. This has meant that more traders have become interested in us, and more private sellers have been selling cars through the site. The resultant traffic increase has meant the classifieds original design would be stretched by the increase in volume and for the popular marques (BMW 3 Series, Honda Civic etc) the category listings move very quickly down the page.
Technically we haven't changed any of the layout of the classifieds system, but we have changed the way adverts are ordered so that premium adverts and dealer adverts get premium ordering, which is where the confusion has risen.
We have always had filters and search facility in place across the site for filtering out the adverts a buyer does not want to see. Our stats on useage of the classified site shows that a high majority of buyers use these features to narrow down their search. This means that you can filter out private or dealer ads as you so desire.
We appreciate from your post (and others in the feedback section) that these filters are not working for some, or the knowledge they exist. This is something we will work on to improve the knowledge, visibility and use of these filters and searches.
The problem with the private ads are that the popular categories are suffering from this, but the performance cars across the site are still small enough for this to work. It is a fine line between satisfying sellers in 3 Series or Civic areas against those in our core business area of Ferrari, Aston Martin and other performance makes. We are looking at splitting some of the performance car categories into sub sections so they stay at manageable levels (e.g. M3 to E30, E36 etc) and are not swamped.
The problem you refer to with the dealer ads is due to the increase in dealers using the system as it has been found to be a very succesful tool for them. This means that if a dealer uploads their cars (or uses one of our third party feeds) this can then look like dealer ads are swamping a category at the time they upload or the feed runs. This would still be the case regardless of the way we ordered the private adverts.
Sorry for the long post, but didnt have time to write a shorter one (ref: Mark Twain) but we do take on board all comments on the forums and we are monitoring the situation with the classifieds to see what impact our changes have.
Bradz said:
I have been Trying to sell my car for weeks but no matter what my add never gets past the awaiting for approval stage 
HELP
You had triggered one of the warning systems built into our email system in the past which was causing all your adverts to require manual approval.HELP
I have corrected this now and put your advert live. If you have any more problems then let us know
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