I broke my Ebay store
Summary: hansatrade experienced a problem with their eBay store, where their listed items were not all visible in their store. After contacting customer support and receiving no resolution for weeks, they experimented and found that listing items slowly resulted in a higher item count displayed, suggesting a glitch when listing too quickly. Other sellers, like intimewithmusic and ilikehockeyjerseys, reported similar issues, with some dismissing it due to eBay’s generally flawed store features. reallynicestamps and recped suggested alternative support channels and shared links to known issues. Some participants, like shoppergurl08, received confirmation from eBay that it was a recognized bug, and others, like hansatrade, later noticed improvements. However, lotzofuniquegoodies noted that the problem persisted partially for some sellers.
I wonder if anyone has the same problem. I list around 3.100 items. However, my store and "items for sale" show 1.900. I contacted CS, they confirmed my store is broken and they will fix it. They provided a ticket number 2 weeks ago. As you guess, nothing has been fixed at all. I started some experiments and noticed, if I list items slowly, my store will show MORE items, that I have 3.200 instead of 3.100), but If I list too fast, more than 1.200 will be missing. So I suppose I broke my store by listing items too fast, right?
hansatrade
OP2 years agoOn the US Board people say it has been fixed "partially" - they still are working on it. On my side I see an improvement: only 30 items are missing for 3.200 listed, so I am OK with that result.
flipistics
·2 years agoTry downloading the listings quality report. It may shed light on why some of them are being hidden if there is an actual reason for it.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·2 years ago@flipistics
I generated the report for my listings as a test. States it would take 144 pages to print so their report would be quarter of that. Any idea where they should look? Total gobblegook to me. It sounds like something internally at eBay's end. Unsure of what would cause eBay to hide a sellers listings. Defeats the purpose of paying for features. I personally don't like and breathe by spreadsheets. Maybe I am just overly optimistic with the thought that everything within eBay should work properly. If it doesn't it would get fixed in a timely manner.
-Lotz
flipistics
·2 years agoI'm getting an error right now whenever I try to download the report, so can't check atm. If I remember right, the report mentions any critical listing errors as well as lots of suggestions to improve listings (which you can of course ignore).
Don't print it out. It's not designed for that. Just look through the pages and see what it says.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·2 years ago@flipistics
Did a preview. Nothing that I can find of use.... for mine. The other seller still has to generate that report to confirm if anything jumps out. Thinking out loud, are there valid reasons why eBay would be hiding any sellers listings? I did notice for the column marked categories is just the number that is assigned. Not the name. If the name was there you could confirm items are listed in the correct category. Critical for FVF rates. Something eBay seems to be less concerned about. Items in the incorrect category. With eBay's merging/purging of categories finding items that do not belong with the other happens routinely with every search.
And nothing about shipping options in the columns that I could find.
-Lotz
hansatrade
OP2 years agoA short update: it seems the problem has been fixed! I found happy "new" 1.300 items today in my store 😄
lotzofuniquegoodies
·2 years ago@hansatrade
@devon@ebay
It seems like this is STILL a problem for some random sellers. I'm in contact with a Canadian seller. Their seller hub pages shows 503 listings. When you check store it only shows 486. It's been like this for approximately 2 weeks. It they were to sell an item hub page would drop to 502 but available listings still shows as 485. It is not an issue of listings with variations. They don't use. Same goes for missing item specifics. Thought it might be lag time (eBay's version of tape delay) but that is not the problem. Any other thoughts or ideas as to why 17 items are hidden???
-Lotz
Promote even says 503.
Store View:
shoppergurl08
·2 years agoI've noticed this issue for the last couple of months with my account. The discrepancy between my active listings and store front listing is around 4,000 items. I contacted ebay today and below was the response I received.
"After further examining this on my end, I've discovered that our system is now experiencing a bug regarding the discrepancy of the sellers listing though it is all active the discrepancy is on the numbers. And we are receiving multiple reports regarding this. We're working hard right now to fix this problem. In order to give this issue top priority, I am now adding your account to the list of accounts that are impacted. I apologize for any difficulty caused you this."
dobo5250
·2 years agoi have had this problem for about 6 months ago mine was 2100 listings showing 1600 at one point -- i had to go in and redo about 500 listings manually to get them back new pictures etc new descritions etc so waiting did not work for me -- a lot of work -- and it paided off a little as i had a sudden rush of sales for about three weeks after completing those lost listings --- now since jan nothing again slow slow to no sales and i have reduced all inventory 45 % off for this week so see what happens --month end is coming and those expenses ,only lost about 4 listings this week so not to bad -- -- you need to check conteniously for missing listings and keep your old photos somewhere else and organized i learned that lesson the hard way -- good luck all-
hope this 45 % off works for a few sales --to cover month expenses or it will be another red month
good luck all
hansatrade
OP2 years agoIt's still unclear, the missing items are just "not shown" in the store or "not accessible" to buyers att all. I did some experiments, looking for missing items, and was not able to find any. It seems that all the items are accessible throught the main Ebay search engine, but not visible in store and in the "seller's other items" section. Needs to be confirmed 🙄
recped
·2 years agoFrom all the reports I've seen the only "error" is the numbers displayed, there are no actual listings missing or any extra listings appearing out of nowhere.
hansatrade
OP2 years agoThis a little bit more complicated. Imagine a buyer, who wants to browse my store for XXX items. My store shows 400. If he goes page by page, he also only will see 400. Also the store search engine returns only 400 items. I list 600. I suppose if someone is looking for 1 item only, all 600 items will be shown in the main search engine results. Unfortunately, many of my customers are bulk buyers and often browse for more, adding 10 or more items to the original order. Not possible anymore with this bug.
regs43
·2 years agoMy Store sometimes shows things in Euros, even though my settings are set to ship to Canada and I'am on ebay.ca
This is NOT the first time I have seen this, it usually goes away when I refresh the page, but still weird
My store also doesn't show the accurate amount of listings, each day depends what it feels like showing
lotzofuniquegoodies
·2 years ago@regs43
Unsure which is more baffling when it comes to eBay.... the sheer quantity, quality or the length of time to repair these "glitches"? How they choose which ones to fix or ignore?
In just doing a general search for the other site came across this.
https://www.sellersnap.io/amazon-glitches/#:~:text=Some%20Amazon%20users%20reported%20that,on%20the%20Amazon%20Seller%20App.
Wonder if there are the same quantity, quality or timelines for corrections to be made? Faster? Slower? More or less proactive?
With eBay it just tends to be on the side of disheartening!!!
-Lotz
PS. The only thing I do know about those slight fluctuations in a sellers current listings, that all has to do with the speed both new listings and listings that renew take to refresh in eBay. 'Fraid to imagine how badly that potentially affects a time sensitive auction. Basically missing out on potential eyes due to no fault of the seller. Probably why auctions have, for the most part passed there best before date.
recped
·2 years agoThis is a known issue
There is a link in this post to have your account added to ALERT15129
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Report-eBay-Technical-Issues/Current-and-resolved-technical-issues-updated-as-of-01-08-2024/m-p/33786064#M112408
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoPhone or Chat?
The phone reps have a terrible reputation for getting you off the phone as soon as possible even if that means giving you the advice you want to hear instead of the advice you need to have.
https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/ — Message button in upper right on landing page.
https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851 -> Automated Assistant, type AGENT -> enter. You will then get more options.
The social media Chat accounts are covered by trained eBay employees with some authority.
And you get a transcript so you can compare what you heard with what you were told.
That transcript also may mean that your plaint has been passed on to someone with some authority.
Or we can nag the usual suspects @devon@ebay
hansatrade
OP2 years agoThe chat. Phone agents don't know anything - seriously, they just read text from manuals. It often makes no sense at all and is irrelevant to the problem.
I use the chat for "standard" problems and FB Business for more serious issues.
Phone? Never ever again!
ilikehockeyjerseys
·2 years agoI just looked at my store, and I have the same issue.
As long as the items are able to be found via the search bar on the main site, I don't think it is a big problem. It would only be a problem if you are in a category where you successfully are able to cross-sell via the store to most customers. To me, the store front is an afterthought because of how ineffective it is.
The eBay store front is basically useless due to the lack of marketing features available on the Canadian site. I'd even go as far as to say that the store front design is a negative if a customer is redirected there from your listing instead of being redirected to the traditional "seller's other items" page that looks the same as the normal eBay search but only contains access to your own items. I would guess that most people would have an easier time finding additional items and browsing through the traditional search that they are used to.
Although, that's a discussion for another day.
intimewithmusic
·2 years agoHi @hansatrade
Same with my store for weeks. I ignore it. It's a small "fish glitch" swimming in a sea of great white shark glitches.
IT
hansatrade
OP2 years agoGood to know I am not alone 😄