One of the worst aspects of Christmas shopping is the insufferably “festive” muzak that blares from every storefront. For some reason, eBay has decided to replicate this unpleasant experience for online shoppers. No really. For a limited time, eBay customers will be able to play soul-sapping Christmas carols directly through the browser. Bah-humbug.
Christmas picture from Shutterstock
The new “feature” comes via a partnership with Spotify which is supplying a selection of free Christmas-themed tracks to eBay customers. Available songs include Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song, Dean Martin’s Baby It’s Cold Outside, Bing Crosby’s Winter Wonderland and Frank Sinatra’s White Christmas.
The company will also be handing out gingerbread-scented scratch and sniff stickers to commuters and shoppers for a full sensory-festive experience. (It says here.)
“eBay is encouraging online shoppers to enhance their Christmas cheer by bringing all the scents and sounds of Christmas to life while they shop,” eBay explained in a statement.
“Whether shopping on the bus or train, at work, on the couch or even on the toilet (we have the data to prove it!), now eBay will offer some Christmas cheer to all eBay Australian shoppers.”
We feel obliged to point out that if anyone plays eBay Christmas carols on the bus or train, we are legally entitled to hurl their devices out the window. [Citation needed.]
If you wish to partake in this unholy abomination, you’ll need to join Spotify first. Existing members simply need to log into their accounts before hitting eBay. You can then click on the play button that appears at the bottom of the screen.
eBay members can also add to the open playlist and share their favourite Christmas tunes to “inspire and delight fellow shoppers”. We suggest Crubump’s “F*ck You If You Don’t Like Christmas” which we’ve handily included below. (Warning: contains swearing.)
Comments
7 responses to “eBay Just Ruined Online Shopping By Adding Christmas Carols”
You can just turn it off.
It’s difficult to turn off your ears in store, noise cancelling headphones may help, but may also create other issues around sensory awareness.
Even better, it won’t bother you unless you log in to Spotify and then intentionally turn it on by hitting the play button.
Given the opt-in nature it’s quite over-dramatic to claim this is “ruining online shopping”.
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No they ruined it by taking a 10% cut of shipping costs…. really? really? How many people were listing items for $1 and charing $200 shipping ffs.
I’ve actually seen this (albeit with more sensible numbers than the exaggerated ones you chose) quite often, it seems to be a regularly employed tactic amongst unscrupulous sellers.
And it doesn’t bother me. When you’re getting some pretty decent savings regardless. (wife bought her wedding dress on Ebay and it was perfect, was in total about $250 with the majority of that shipping)
Sheesh. As if it ain’t bad enough hearing those stupid songs in all the shops.