back to article Tat bazaar eBay takes a rest for 'scheduled maintenance', goes offline

eBay is currently out of action for its users, but the downtime is not because of an unexpected outage. It is instead due to "scheduled general maintenance", the company has confirmed to The Register. That said, fans of second-hand goods cannot presently bid for a pair of old smelly shoes on the popular online tat bazaar. The …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is it just the herd effect?

    is there actually a lot more bigname internet downtime than usual in the last few days?

    or is the usual downtime just more visible than usual for reasons which as yet escape me?

    The "Internet Traffic Report" doesn't seem to show any visible blips on its 30 day chart, but then if what they measure is GB/s of kitty videos, maybe it wouldn't show anyway...

    1. andreas koch
      Black Helicopters

      @ AC 0847h GMT - Re: Is it just the herd effect?

      Oh my.

      And I thought it would be Dell. Stupid of me; eBay has four letters as well.

      Really? Do I really need tinfoil?

      http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2013/08/22/fanbois_wail_and_gnash_their_teeth_as_icloud_falls_down/#c_1934849

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is it just the herd effect?

      Previous post withdrawn as I'd missed Kingston Black at 13:41 on Friday making the very same suggestion (downtime due to the NSA-funded kit being removed, to reduce the risk of the American people using it as evidence against the NSA).

      1. chris lively

        Re: Is it just the herd effect?

        Either removed or upgraded.

        I'd bet on the latter.

  2. Alister

    The site, ebay.com at least, is instead, at time of writing, serving a "connection reset" message to visitors.

    ebay.co.uk seems to be working now.

    1. hplasm
      Angel

      Oh no-

      it isn't!

      We may need a Panto icon if this carries on...

      1. Goldmember

        Re: Oh no-

        I keep getting in, get a 'welcome to ebay' button, then chucked out back to the login screen and a 'password incorrect' message, on the UK site. If it was scheduled maintenance and not a problem, why wouldn't they just display a holding page and stop users logging in?

        It's a conspiracy, I tell you...

        1. squigbobble
          Meh

          Re: Oh no-

          "I keep getting in, get a 'welcome to ebay' button, then chucked out back to the login screen and a 'password incorrect' message"

          I've been getting that or variations on it for a week, on and off.

    2. Nathan Barley
      Stop

      reply to "ebay.co.uk seems to be working now."

      It did for about 5 minutes, but not properly.

  3. Jon Green

    We have initiated two hours of scheduled maintenance...

    ...followed by another hour of bowel-looseningly-unscheduled maintenance, and finally a pink slip handout to celebrate its successful completion.

    We would like to apologise for the inconvenience...but for reasons beyond our control cannot do so at this time.

  4. Neil C Burns

    uk down www.ebay.co.uk

    The connection was reset

    The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

    The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few

    moments.

    If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network

    connection.

    If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure

    that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

  5. Neil C Burns

    uk announcement - its now 10am bst. (gmt+1 or utc+1 lol)

    UK announce,

    ***Scheduled maintenance for this week***

    22 August, 2013 | 12:13PM BST

    Hello,

    The eBay system will be undergoing general maintenance from approximately 7am to 9am on Friday August 23rd. During this maintenance period, certain eBay features may be intermittently unavailable or slow and we apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused.

    Regards,

    The eBay Team.

  6. Neil C Burns

    ebay forum link

    few comments here about it too, looks like the furum went down earlyer.....

    http://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/My-eBay/bd-p/21900000768

  7. Neil C Burns

    cant re-login again now. its booted me. Also the android app of course is screwed too. unable to login. and bombs.

    1. Gnomalarta
      WTF?

      What a way to run a business, still I'm sure they will be compensating us business users for loss of sales and inability to ship on time.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        loss of sales and inability to ship on time

        "they will be compensating us business users for loss of sales and inability to ship on time."

        Of course they will, in line with the agreed service level agreement.

        Oh.

        SLAs aren't worth much to anyone other than lawyers and purchasing departments anyway.

        If your usage is important to the business, you need a system that stays working (with or without an SLA), not a contractual agreement that offers you 30 days free service if the service goes down for more than an hour on the third Tuesday of the month starting after 14:15 and ending before 14:45 (or similar worthless rubbish).

        SLAs are the IT industry equivalent of Payment Protection Insurance :)

  8. Victor Ludorum
    Pint

    When I were a lad...

    Back in the steam-powered days I remember eBay would go down for 'scheduled maintenance' every Friday morning. Maybe they are bringing back the old ways... Or the NSA wanted to plug in...

    Beer? Well it is Friday!

    V.

    1. Kingston Black
      Big Brother

      "The NSA wanted to plug in"

      Quite possibly, or are they are busy "plugging out" - getting rid of the evidence fearing Mr Snowden has proof of their illegality?

  9. Nifty Silver badge

    Nasdaq and iCloud also had serious downtime this week...

    Is someone not telling us something?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So Passe Darling

    " fans of second-hand goods cannot presently bid for a pair of old smelly shoes on the popular online tat bazaar."

    Oh we are superior aren't we? The Register used to be a great site with witty and informative articles.

    Now it's a tech version of The Sun with articles written by hipster toss-pots.

    1. Gnomalarta
      Happy

      Re: So Passe Darling

      "hipster toss-pots" is that where they brew designer cider?

    2. Khaptain Silver badge

      Re: So Passe Darling

      " fans of second-hand goods cannot presently bid for a pair of old smelly shoes on the popular online tat bazaar."

      But isn't that a relatively correct description of what ebay is...

      By the way "passe" has an accented e - Passé ( do people really still use that phrase) Nothing like a nice piece of pedantry on El Reg.....

      1. Don Jefe
        Happy

        Re: So Passe Darling

        Indeed, people still use passé, although it's best to be rather blasé about it or you risk coming across as a hipster toss pot.

      2. incog88

        Re: So Passe Darling

        smelly shoes? I want to bid on a $65,000 dollar piece of antique furniture. I guess the seller won't sell it tonight.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: So Passe Darling

          Does the house come with it?

    3. LinkOfHyrule
      Paris Hilton

      Re: tech version of The Sun

      El Reg has better jugs though!

  11. Vociferous

    So, as of now...

    Amazon, Yahoo, Google, NASDAQ, Apple, Microsoft and eBay have had downtime in the last four days, and eBay is the only one to leave any sort of explanation of what the cause is.

    1. Vociferous

      Re: So, as of now...

      Oh, and Facebook.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Big Brother

      Re: So, as of now...

      Not one to jump to conclusions, generally, but it all does seem a mite weird.

  12. MJI Silver badge

    Just tried

    Login screen but no Ebay

    Oh

    Your email/user ID or password is incorrect.

    And no it isn't

  13. Mike Wood

    Just try and call them

    This is the message you get when you try to call them

    "Due to unforeseen circumstances we are unable to take your call at moment, please try later or alternatively use our self-help service."

    Also ebay.fr ebay.es is also down along with a few others, but interesting NSA.gov was also down earlier, has someone been selling government secrets on ebay i.e. Edward Snowden lol

  14. Phil Atkin

    Tits are still up

    Big tits, very much up.

  15. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A disaster for many sellers

      Won't this be a disaster for many sellers[?]

      Yup, but think of all the fees that eBay will also be missing out on :-)

  16. Pookietoo

    login via ebay.com seems fine

    It's just ebay.co.uk that's a bit poorly.

    1. iaincoe

      Re: login via ebay.com seems fine

      Ebay.com France Germany Canada Spain Ireland and Australia have all been down as well this morning.

  17. Neil C Burns

    uk working ok now, at the mo.

    1. Mr_Dave
      FAIL

      Nope, its still down! It may seem to work on the surface, but once you get into trying to print orders, create or modify listings or action anything on the Resolution Centre an error pops up 4 out of 5 times. We're now some 5 hours into the 2-hour scheduled maintenance.

      Brilliant for us sellers trying to get stuff on for the Bank Holiday weekend selling bonanza eh?

  18. Nathan Barley
    FAIL

    Way past 9 though aint it?

    And still totally broken. Oh dear...

  19. incog88

    I give up 9 mins to go on 6 auctions and site is impossible. I'll keep my money.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Has a serious vulnerability been discovered in hardware shared by all these large (mainly American based) companies ?

    A bodged firmware update or patch maybe ?

    Or something more sinister ?

    "General Maintenance" sounds like a good catch all to me

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Has eBay been hacked

    Ebay.com France Germany Canada Spain Ireland and Australia have all been down as well this morning. Surly eBay has back on their backups and have a plan in place so that a major update could be rolled back if something went seriously wrong. Is this maintenance or have they been hacked?

  22. KSam

    eBay still down and their maintenance post doesn't explain this

    If this really is planned maintenance it is the worst plan of that type - ever.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bidding on goods in Europe

    I am trying to bid on very expensive antiques out of europe. The items are about to expire (0400AM Mountain) and I might fail making a winning bid. I am sure the European dealers are thrilled that they choose a time that disregards their time zone.

  24. rogprov

    Maybe a revenge attack for their intention to charge 10% commission on shipping costs? :)

  25. incog88

    Maybe they put EBAY into the cloud and they cannot find the phone number of the cloud guy.

  26. incog88

    Bidding

    I have 17 minutes to get my 65k bid in and I am getting page reset on firefox. This seller is gonna be ticked off.

  27. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Big Brother

    Wow

    The NSA is really covering all bases.

  28. Col_Tubbs

    Still down @ 11:00

    Both UK & US still down

  29. Omegazeta

    UK site works from web browser but from iOS app it's still screwed as of 12.30pm

  30. mark l 2 Silver badge

    I have a all in one multifunction printer on ebay atm which is worth a couple of hundred quid but currently has 1 bid of 99p and is due to finish in about an hour so i will be seriously pissed if this downtime means i don't get anymore bids on it.

    I just tried logging in again 12:45 and although it appears to work, i tried replying to a message and got kicked out and told the function is not available

  31. mrdalliard
    Joke

    Feedback

    Brilliant "scheduled maintenance!" AAA+++++++++++

  32. Bod
    Black Helicopters

    Scheduled Maintenance

    Scheduled sure... by NSA

  33. SEDT

    Has the Register ever actually visited ebay

    "Tat Bazaar, second hand smelly socks".

    I guess all the above are available in ebay, along with part worn ladies shoes (don't ask), but for many it provides a good outlet for shed loads of new stuff that they sell to happy customers everywhere. So, old and tatty are somewhat past their sell by date.

  34. Mr_Dave

    Amazingly at 5pm UK time its STILL bloomin broken! Trying to get some stuff listed before the weekend and I’m hit with:

    Feature unavailable

    This feature is temporarily unavailable

    Your selections have caused errors. Please click Continue below to go back and correct your errors.

    My 'errors' was to click on Sell Similar. We've had 3 sales during the day instead of the usual double-figures. Brilliant eh?

  35. Mike Flugennock
    Coat

    All together now...

    "...and nothing of value was lost."

    Thanks, you've been wonderful. I'm here all week. Enjoy the buffet.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Meh

    I took down the back-end database servers of a major commericial retailers' UK Web site at 6am this morning for an essential system upgrade. Everything was back up at 6.12.

    /Smug mode off

  37. Christopher Blackmore

    Time for some new clichés

    Every news item your pissed old hacks churn out about eBay uses the same cliché about "tat". Please try to put as much effort into your writing as I put into selling quality items on there. Lazy sods.

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Continuous delivery needed

    eBay need to move away from the old fashioned 'big bang' maintenance schedule and move towards continuous delivery as per Amazon.

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tat Bazaar?

    Is the author deliberately trying to provoke responses, billing Ebay as a 2nd hand smelly shoes only place?

    Ebay, the, or one of the, largest markets in the world, probably sells more new electronics than quite a large number or large online retailers put together.

    That the kind of the thing the author wanted? (Perhaps he secretly wants to praise Ebay through people correcting him. Strange article.)

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