EBay pages not displaying properly with Safari (extra scroll bars)

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Level 1

8 points

EBay pages not displaying properly with Safari (extra scroll bars)

While IE and Firefox continue to display eBay pages correctly, Safari is now having a problem displaying the description section of eBay listings, which is provided by the seller and contained within a frame in the middle of an eBay listing. If there is only a small amount of plain text written by the seller, it will look fine, but most eBay sellers use various templates and multiple pictures, which are no longer displaying properly. They displayed fine just a week ago.

Instead of the description frame showing the entire seller description with any accompanying backgrounds and photos (the way it has forever), Safari (Google Chrome is also experiencing the problem) now only displays a small portion of the description with one or two new (and annoying) scroll bars added to the iframe window. These extra scroll bars are in addition to the scroll bar already present on the right side of the eBay web page. This makes for a very unpleasant user experience, having to scroll within the already small "Description" frame.

I have tried everything I can think of to get rid of these extra scroll bars, but to no avail. I have cleared Safari's cache and cookies, cleared my libraries' caches, reset Safari, repaired my disc permissions, and restarted between all of the steps. Nothing has helped and my software is up to date: Safari (ver 5.0.5) running on my MacBook Pro (Snow Leopard 10.6.8).

What's strange, is that when you open your first eBay listing after opening your Safari browser, that first listing will open without the annoying extra scroll bars. All subsequent items you open (in a new window, new tab, or within the same window) will have the extra scroll bars. If you refresh the first eBay listing, which didn't have the scroll bars when you first opened it, once you refresh it, they will appear. This happens whether or not you've cleared your cache and/or cookies.

If anyone has any ideas how to get rid of the annoying scroll bars, I'm all ears. I'd also like to know whether the phenomena is happening to most eBay Safari users or a minority of them. I would have thought it was a widespread issue affecting most Safari users but there hasn't been much discussion of this yet.

Another curiosity is that the eBay listings don't have this problem when viewing them in Safari on my iPhone 3GS.

Frustrated,

Rob

Posted on Jul 12, 2011 11:56 AM

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Answer 1

Rob McElroy Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 12, 2011 9:49 PM in response to Rob McElroy

After 24 hours of searching, I have discovered the cause of Safari's problem of not being able to correctly display eBay auction pages, and there is a simple fix for anyone who is as annoyed as I am that multiple scroll bars appear in eBay descriptions. The multiple scroll bars provide a terrible user experience and prevent users from seeing the entire description and photos in an eBay listing without unnecessary scrolling.

I found out that a similar (but not identical) problem was happening to the Opera browser in 2010. An Opera programmer figured out that the first time your browser opens up an eBay listing (no matter which browser you use), eBay checks your computer to see that, "...JavaScript is supported and that your browser should be able to handle the complex version with IFRAMEs," that eBay's computers prefer to use.

EBay then automatically sets a cookie on your computer so that any subsequent eBay listings you open up, will then start using the complex iFrames style of auction listings that eBay "assumes" your browser knows how to display. Well, IE and Firefox know how to display it, but Safari and Google Chrome do not.

The simple fix (until Apple decides to upgrade their browser and fix the issue) is to remove all of Safari's cookies and simply not accept any new ones (Go to the Safari/Preferences/Security tab and select "Accept Cookies -Never.")

It is an inconvenience, because you will have to turn cookies back on for other sites that require them, but at least you will be able to view eBay listings properly when your cookies are turned off.

Regards,

Rob McElroy

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Answer 2

Rob McElroy Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 13, 2011 12:13 PM in response to Rob McElroy

I have alerted Apple (and eBay) to the scroll bar problem (Apple case #232023702) and I would encourage everyone reading this to please also send Apple a complaint so that they will fix the Safari browser's inability to properly render the frame-within-a-frame iFrames used on every eBay listing. The more complaints they get, the faster they will address the issue.

If IE and Firefox can interpret the iFrames code properly, then Safari and Google Chrome should be able to too.

The only way I know to send an email specifically to Apple's Safari team is to click on "Contact Us" at the bottom of this page and then find "Website Feedback" (it's in the bottom right corner) and click on "Product Feedback." Scroll to Mac Apps at the bottom of the page and click on "Safari" where you will be able to submit your comments. Select "Bug Report" under the "Feedback Type" tab.

Having to regularly turn your cookies off is a major inconvenience, because not only will you have to turn your cookies back on for other websites that require them, but other eBay pages that sellers use to list their items, require the iFrames format to work properly and if your cookies are turned off, you will not be able to see all of the available listing options.

Simply not accepting any eBay cookies is only a temporary fix for this problem. It is NOT a permanent solution.

Thanks to all who are willing to send a complaint to Apple so that this problem will get looked into and get fixed.

Regards,

Rob McElroy

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Answer 3

Rob McElroy Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 14, 2011 6:27 AM in response to Rob McElroy

Well, it looks like someone at either Apple or eBay listened, and realized what a huge inconvenience (and bad user experience) this scroll bar issue was.

It appears today that Safari's browser now works fine (no extra scroll bars) and without having to turn off your cookies. I tried Google Chrome's browser for Mac and it is now working properly most of the time but is intermittent.

If anyone else is still having the problem, please report it here so the powers that be, will know.

Cheers,

Rob McElroy

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Answer 4

Mar 19, 2013 10:18 PM in response to Rob McElroy

Thanks for the helps guys!😁

On my PC laptop i have found through your help that you can follow these steps to fix this problem on Google Chrome

1. Go to the "Settings" page

2. Click "Show Advanced Settings"

3. Under "Privacy" click "Content Settings"

4. Under "Cookies" click "Manage Exeptions"

5. Then type in:

www.ebay.com

and/or

www.ebay.com.XXX (countries code)eg. www.ebay.com.au))

6. Then for its "Behaviour" select "Block" for both.

7. Click "Done"

8. Click "Done"

9. Close the "Settings"page

10. Reload an ebay page with the problem, hope its fixed.

This disable the cookies for ebay.

And this should fix ebays description-in-a-tiny-box-with-another-scroll-bar-problem for Chrome

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Answer 5

Oct 13, 2012 10:57 AM in response to Rob McElroy

On my iMac I discovered it was the Superfish addition under Awesome Screenshot extension. Unchecked both and now Ebay displays properly. HOOAH!!!

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