Generated AI texts from sellers are annoying – where are the facts?
Summary: olemole increasingly notices that sellers on eBay are having their item descriptions created by AI, which often neglect important details such as dimensions and whether the item works. perfect-sally explains that they ignore such listings when key features are missing. stubenkram also criticizes the AI-generated texts, but emphasizes that these issues were common even before AI. They mention that personal follow-up questions are often necessary to get information, and that visual aids like meter sticks in images can be helpful.
Hi everyone, lately I’ve been extremely bothered by the fact that more and more sellers are having their descriptions written entirely by the eBay AI. The texts may sound nice (“Step into the world of...”), but they’re completely useless. The dimensions are generally missing, and no one says a word about whether the items (e.g. watches) still work. The AI should be forcing sellers to provide this required information when creating listings, instead of producing hot air. Do you feel the same way as buyers?
lidor3073
·3 months agoI write texts with the “hard facts” like dimensions, condition, etc., and have the AI write formulations that appeal to people. Not because I’m too lazy - but because, as an autistic person, I can’t phrase things in a “flowery” way. Otherwise it comes across so harsh, and I don’t want that!
But I don’t do it with the eBay AI, which is useless and writes the kind of thing that puts people off: “Dive into….“ - I use a different tool for that. And it works well like that!
stubenkram
·3 months agoCould AI even recognize that the key details are missing from the sales description? ;-)
This flowery, meaningless, and in my opinion completely superfluous AI drivel annoys me a lot too. It is time-consuming and maddening to have to read texts like that, because in a longer text there may be information hidden about the condition or size of the item for sale.
However, even before the AI era, in my collecting areas it was already the case that I very often had to ask how big an item was, because these details simply were not provided. Many sellers photograph a meter stick or a comparison object as well, which is often still the best way to get a rough idea of the item's size.
Some people can't manage the measuring either in the listing or when asked: significant measurement errors, transposed digits, confusing height and depth...that keeps happening again and again.
At an estimate, for about 30% of the listings that might interest me, I have to ask because the measurements are missing. Whether that has gotten worse since AI, I can't say; I think not, rather.
perfect-sally
·3 months agoQuite simply: if there is an AI description and important item features and the item's condition are not specified, then I won't buy there.