posted on July 17, 2004 03:54:59 PM new
Trying to build new auctions and when I start from scratch, the categories do not load at all. When I take an existing pending auction and try to go back to revise the category listing, only about half of them are there, the rest come up as "undefined". When you click on the "Undefined" list (and there are about 10 undefineds) you get subcategories ... but not all of them are even there. For example, when you click on the third undefined you are taken into a sub category called "GLass" with a second sub-category called "Undefined" ... clicking on that takes you into an INcomplete pottery/china listing. This is NOT just a pottery/china issue. You have about 10 missing categories off the main category menu. Can you check this out right away? Is is just me?
I just checked this, both in my own account as well as yours, but was unable to replicate this from either location, or from listing a new or editing an old.
Try the usual basics, clear the temp files, restart the browser. If this persists, try the following:
1. Look to your clock in the lower right hand side of your windows screen. Right-Click on any and all icons you see down here and use the exit, close, disable/etc option to quit out of these. It is important that everything you see down here is disabled or closed out of or the rest of the steps will not help correct this issue.
2. Once step one is complete, go to the category page. When it fails go to your Tools menu at the top of your browser, click on Internet Options and delete your temporary internet files.
3. Once step 3 is complete, close out of that window so your back at the category page. Hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard and while pressing CTRL, click the F5 key.
This will force the category to load for you and once loaded, you can re launch any programs you had quit out of and it will continue to load without error.
posted on July 17, 2004 06:16:59 PM new
Maybe I am not making myself clear. It's not an issue of the categories not loading. I can force them to load ... I know how to do that. The problem is that when they do finally load HALF OF THEM ARE NOT THERE ... THEY ARE CALLED 'UNDEFINED". For example, "Travel" isn't there ... but if you click on the next to last "undefined" in the listing, the travel category comes up with several of the subheaders specified and several of them undefined. Pottery & Glass is, of course, not there, it's UNDEFINED also. When you click on about the third undefined in the list, you find pottery and glass but it's missing about half it's subcategories. THERE ARE 11 UNDEFINED'S IN THE MAIN CATEGORY LISTINGS and, even on the ones that are there, there are undefined in their subcategories.
You were perfectly clear in your original message, we do understand what you mean when you say they are somehow only loading a part of the way.
We checked this both in yours as well as other accounts, using both IE6.0 as well as Mozilla, on Windows XP and Win2K, but the categories do appear to be loading fully in all cases, without any references to an "undefined" category.
We searched the incoming queue of email for users reporting the same, but thus far no other reports have been received.
Try running through the steps listed above, they could help with this issue given the effected area.
posted on July 17, 2004 06:53:55 PM new
Did everything you explained. Went through all the steps (in any case, my browser cache was not very crowded). Rebooted. Closed out everything in the systray. Still getting nearly a dozen categories as undefined. Also note that I have two pieces about to launch that had pottery & glass as their second category - these have been in pending for over a week. They both had item specifics and both errored out when I went into eBay Preview. The error message had to do with item specifics. So, I deleted the secondary pottery & glass category and they went through eBay preview fine so let's hope they launch.
I'm about to pack it in for the night. This is getting toooo frustrating.
posted on July 17, 2004 07:13:36 PM new
Nuts! I cannot for the life of me remember how to paste in a jpeg link into these message boards, but you can see this screen scrape if you look at my images ... it's the first one in my hosted images.
Also, I re-did the step by step in your instructions and rebooted as well but still the result if the fact that half the categories are still coming up as "UNDEFINED"
[ edited by lennonhall on Jul 17, 2004 07:16 PM ]
I'm not sure why your category list is appearing with "undefined" categories (I do see the problem in your screenshot, though.) Also, does the category selector normally appear at the top of the screen as it shows on your screenshot, or is this new behavior? It should appear as a drop-down menu. Do you have any ad blocking or popup blocking software installed on your computer?
I have escalated this issue to engineering but unfortunately I don't have an answer right now.
posted on July 18, 2004 03:08:23 AM new
OK - it's now 8 hours of sleep later after all these machinations last night and I still do NOT have all the categories. I CANNOT CREATE NEW AUCTIONS IN THIS ENVIRONMENT AND I NEED AN ANSWER.
Dumping temp files, refreshing and blowing up my systray does ZERO for this problem.
Try using an alternate browser like FireFox from Mozilla to see if this is an IE specific issue on your setup or if this will persist regardless of the browser used.
posted on July 18, 2004 11:31:18 AM new
You're joking, right? YOU ACTUALLY WANT ME TO DOWNLOAD A DIFFERENT BROWSER? Please stop wasting my time and trying to blame something or someone else and fix this problem. I ACTUALLY DID THIS AND GOT THE SAME RESULT IN FIREFOX (which crashed my computer, by the way).
In the past I have grown frustrated at Vendio over many different issues ... most of them involving non-response to problems and issues. I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE FRUSTRATED THAN I AM NOW nor closer to pulling out of Vendio. For you to simply ignore my problem and tell me to go get a different browser is tantamount to telling me to take a hike.
Right now I am having to load auctions in the wrong categories, wait tonight for them to launch and then edit every single one of them into the correct category. THAT IS RIDICULOUS. AND YOUR ONLY ANSWER IS THAT I SHOULD GO GET A DIFFERENT BROWSER?
I have a 5 month old Dell with Windows XP and MS IE 6.0. I also have Firefox which got the same result! I have not had problems before with categories, until yesterday.
posted on July 18, 2004 11:47:02 AM new
Why won't Vendio acknowledge this is their problem and not the Seller's computer?
We should be getting credit for the P&G listings we cannot relist thru Vendio!!!!
Lennonhall: the only fix for this is to list under a completely different category (ie Collectibles), launch, and go to ebay and revise to put in the P&G category.
posted on July 18, 2004 11:59:49 AM new
Downloading a new browser was suggested to help add new information to the problem you are experiencing. We can't test our software and services with every imaginable combination of computer hardware, browsers, Operating systems, and other software which affects internet services (like spam blockers, ad and banner blockers, firewalls, anti-virus).
We're trying to narrow down the problem and using a new/different browser helps us add information into what's going on.
I still don't have an answer right now. But I can assure you we're working on the problem and looking into the potential of bugs with our services as well as issues with your current system setup.
Best Regards,
posted on July 18, 2004 12:07:45 PM new
HERE's THE WORKAROUND!
The hard workaround is to launch under another category and revise (I had figured that out).
The easy workaround is to find the category item number through eBay's main category menu and type it in. Guess what, it worked!
Anyone listing in Pottery & Glass who is having this problem should be told about this workaround.
Vendio ... you should have thought of this workaround. I've wasted HOURS with this mess needlessly. Yikes. I cannot believe I have to tell YOU the workaround.
posted on July 18, 2004 07:38:15 PM new
Debra, Ebay just updated some of their categories (which is causing some of the trouble for the Pottery/Glass categories). Can you let us know what's going on with your setup?
Have you had trouble in the past selecting categories? When did this problem occur? And what are you seeing when you try to select a category? Is the area grayed out?
Best Regards,
posted on July 19, 2004 06:33:09 AM new
The catagories section is COMPLETELY blank.
I need to launch several auctions but can't.
I have even typed in catagory numbers but it won't launch them... it says error in catagories. I have spent a lot of time trying to get it to work. Please help!
posted on July 19, 2004 06:46:50 AM new
I just tried to launch again to NO AVAIL! No catagories. I thought I would call you for help but I see now that we have to sign up and pay to get help on the phone. I don't have time for all of this and really need to launch some auctions. Can you PLEASE FIX the catagories section so I can launch auctions? This has never happened before and don't know why it is hapening now.It is MISSING ALL CATAGORIES not just the pottery sections. I have many differnet types of auctions to launch but NO catagories are showing. It is BLANK in that section. Please...is there a number I can call without paying to get it to work? Please help.
Debra<><
posted on July 19, 2004 07:14:44 AM new
I am now on a different computer with an older version of Windows, a different ISP, etc. I can see ALL the categories now. However, this is not the computer I can use to build and launch my auctions ... so we still need to solve this problem.
So ... here's my new theory. On the PC that is having the problems, the one that cannot see the categories, I had just installed the lastest Windows security patch. I do not know all the details about this patch but I think it was specifically an anti-trojan patch for Outlook and IE. IS IT POSSIBLE THIS IS THE PROBLEM? CAN YOU ASK THE TECH PEOPLE TO LOOK INTO IT? If it makes a difference I can try to uninstall that patch. I did not have problems seeing the eBay categories before this weekend and the installation of this patch is the only thing that I can see that is different. IF it is this patch, there are a whole lot of other people that are going to start experiencing this problem so you'll have to fix it anyway.
DEBCOLLECTS: Did you install any "windows updates" this past weekend? If you have a newer computer, it will prompt you to do this automatically so you might have done the same thing I did and this could be what's causing your problem also. Can you see ANYTHING at all? I am getting a partial list of categories, after it takes forever to load and I just have dashes in the drop-down boxes ... then if I do click the dropdown box, a few categories appear and the rest just have the word "UNDEFINED". If I were seeing nothing, I'd think it was my computer but the fact that it is displaying the word UNDEFINED makes me think it's Vendio.
posted on July 19, 2004 08:41:04 AM new
Well I didn't do any updates and I don't think my husband did either.(He isn't here right now so I can't ask him We don't have a newer computer. We are using a windows 98 plus.
(The same computer we have been using all along for our auctions here.)
When I go to make an auction...there are NO catagories at all listed. NOthing! Just BLANK in the box even after it says it has loaded them.I don't see any words at all! This has never happened before and I don't know what to do as I really need to load auctions. Will they fix this??? Do I have to go to another auction hosting site? How long do I wait before I have to go somwhere else?
I have really loved using this hosting site and would hate to leave because of this problem.
I hope someone fixes this.
Can anyone help???
Note that these two users issues are completely seperate and should be dealt with as such. One is an issue with the categories loading, but showing some of them as Undefined.
It sounds like debcollects issue is the standard category not loading (at all) issue, which we do have an exact process for correcting.
debcollects
1. Look to your clock in the lower right hand side of your windows screen. Right-Click on any and all icons you see down here and use the exit, close, disable/etc option to quit out of these. It is important that everything you see down here is disabled or closed out of or the rest of the steps will not help correct this issue.
2. Once step one is complete, go to the category page. When it fails go to your Tools menu at the top of your browser, click on Internet Options and delete your temporary internet files.
3. Once step 3 is complete, close out of that window so your back at the category page. Hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard and while pressing CTRL, click the F5 key.
This will force the category to load for you and once loaded, you can re launch any programs you had quit out of and it will continue to load without error.
posted on July 19, 2004 10:27:49 AM new
THANK YOU CHRISTOPHER!!!!!!!
I followed your instructions and it is working! YEAH!
Thanks for you GREAT help!
Best Regards,
Debra<><
posted on July 20, 2004 04:59:03 AM new
You have done nothing to help correct my problem. Please, I need an answer. I am now looking at other hosting companies because these workarounds and revising-after-launch is taking too much time away from the rest of my business. I had hoped this was a temporary problem and obviously so did you since you seem to NOT be addressing it. PLEASE I NEED THIS LOOKED INTO. Can I email or call someone? Is there another way to communicate other than this posting board? I am getting desparate.......
Here are some additional things you can try to help correct your unique computer problem:
1. Run a full antivirus scan on your machine. Be sure your antivirus software is completely up to date with its definitions or it will most likely miss anything your PC was recently infected with.
2. The popups you mentioned running into in your other thread (when on sites that does not serve them) are spam/spyware. Download a free copy of Lavasoft's Ad-Aware here and follow the prompts to properly/safely remove the spam/spyware found on your machine.
We are sorry to hear of your frustration with this issue, unfortunately this is specific to only your computer currently and you will need to address this on your end.
If there were one other user with this exact issue, we may have more things for you to try and address the issue, however this still appears to only be specific to your setup and we will need to continue to address it as such.
We are available outside of the message center for assistance. Click here for the contact us page and available methods of support. While the message center is a good way to address common issues, email may be better suited and quicker for addressing your current dilemma.
(BTW - We are sorry to hear that FireFox did not run well on your system. This is an award winning browser that most all who try it love, and apologize that this advice did not pan out in your case. I would however not rule it out completely, once your computer issues are corrected, you may want to give it another shot, especially with all of the Microsoft/IE specific bugs/viruses floating around these days.)
Regards,
Christopher
[ edited by ChristopherCS on Jul 20, 2004 10:41 AM ]
posted on July 21, 2004 05:52:39 AM new
Firefox is horrendous. Everytime I try to import my IE favorites into it, it crashes. I used to be a big fan of Netscape. Firefox is NOT Netscape. It's as buggy as IE.
Regarding spyware, adware and viruses.... my computer has multiple anti-spyware, and anti-virus programs. It has popup blockers and a firewall. It's about as tight as it can be and I run the various anti-virus, etc. precautionary programs twice a week. There are NO bad bugs floating around on it.
I love your phrase "unique to my computer" - great way to write me off. I have been a Vendio customer for 5 years. I have TWO Vendio IDs (one in husband's name, one in wife's name). I am an eBay Power Seller. I really don't appreciate having this problem written off. Your lack of customer service has finally gotten me to the point where I am considering leaving Vendio. YOU WILL NOT(or perhaps CANNOT) HELP ME FIX THIS PROBLEM SO I CAN'T CREATE AUCTIONS WITHOUT ALL THESE WORKAROUNDS. Please give me a way to contact someone at Vendio directly without having to PAY for the privelege of having my problem solved.
In all the years I have been with Vendio, I've never been one of the chronic complainers you see on these boards; I've not been one with panic questions or threats of leaving. Until now. I really need help here and NO ONE AT VENDIO SEEMS TO BE WILLING OR ABLE TO HELP ME.
We've just updated the eBay category map to take into account the changes inside the Book categories. Simultaneously, an improved category menu has been released. Please give it a try and let us know if it is working on your computer.
posted on July 21, 2004 03:06:17 PM new
Hello usertom2,
We have introduced a new category selector that speeds up the process of selecting your desired listing category. We have also added your most recently used 10 categories to a selection list above the general category tree to speed up your listing process even further.
To enable proper operation, AOL users may need to force a page reload (by holding CRTL and clicking on the Refresh icon in the AOL browser) or clear their local internet cache (Preferences -> Internet -> Temporary Internet Files -> Delete files). If neither works or you otherwise have difficulty, we also enable you to switch to the older category selector if necessary.
posted on July 21, 2004 05:53:34 PM new
Well, hooray! You finally listened to me and finally acknowledged it was YOUR problem and not a problem that was (in your words) "unique to my computer". I guess it took another user to experience the same thing. Incidentally, I am not an AOL account holder - I have a cable modem.
In any case, the lastest thing you have done to your category menu has worked and I can now, finally, see all the categories.
This entire matter, unfortunately, has soured me on Vendio customer service. I really do think that Vendio needs to retrain all of you in customer focused management so you can learn that "the customer is always right" and that when you are in a service business ... no matter how hard it is ... you ACCEPT blame before you lay blame and you never, ever place blame on the customer.
OK ... Speech over and I am going away from these boards now for a looooong while (I'm sure I can hear the sound of Christopher applauding).
THANK YOU very much to whomever finally fixed this!
We don't have a newer computer. We are using a windows 98 plus.