Rubenerd

eBay’s saved search emails are almost—though not entirely—useless. Saved Search emails ignore any geographic parameters you defined in the initial search, filling your inbox with regular, irrelevant junk. Just like my RSS feed! :)

This is a problem for a few reasons:

• Shipping costs aren’t worth it half the time if you’re in a geographically-remote place like Australia. Worse, in our current global situation it could add months to shipping times, and I don’t want to burden overseas sellers with uncertainty about whether I’ve received their stuff.

• Some results explicitly say they don’t ship to where you live. So what was the point of showing them to us!?

• North American voltages are incompatible in Australia for a range of Hi-Fi gear and electronics.

And then there’s the sense of excitement turned to frustration at seeing something you’ve been waiting for years to appear, only to be inaccessible, incompatible, or just flat-out wrong.

Until eBay decides that a Saved Search is a Saved Search with all the parameters we defined, I’ve set some email filters to delete any eBay email that doesn’t include AU or NZ in the body. It means these searches now have to exist in two places and be updated concurrently, but it’s a start.

eBay, please fix your Saved Search emails!