eBay

musicyouneed · ‎11-22-2023

October I sold an item, I did a refresh on my listings and somehow it got relisted even though the quantity was zero. It got sold again, I spent hours looking for it and then checked my emails and saw that it had been sold, last month. I had to appoligize to the new buyer. Has that happened to you? Other than doing a complete inventory check vs ebay listings is there anyway around it? Well now I have got a ding and there go my sales for a few months.

ricarmic · ‎11-22-2023

As you well know, I like to have pre-written stuff for "difficult" situations.

This is the pre-written one I made up for this situation:

"Hi! Thank you very much for your purchase!

I humbly apologize because I cannot find the item you have purchased.

I can provide a number of options to resolve this:

-I have a similar item. I can send it instead, with a free bonus to make up for the fact that it won’t be exactly the same as the item you purchased

Or

-if you see any other lots in my store that you are interested in that are valued anywhere up to $XX I can send it instead. (please just advise me of the title and item number you do not need to purchase it)

Or

-if you see an item that is worth more than $XX send me a question about that lot and I will send you an offer reducing the price by $XX which you can accept and then follow the normal payment process

Or

-I can provide a full refund

I apologize again for being unable to provide the item, let me know which option above you prefer when you have a chance. Thank you very much for your understanding and have a great day!!"

Note that XX would probably be 2x the price for stuff up to maybe $75 (so $150 if it was a $75 item), and then a portion for larger items.

I'm in a bit different situation in that I have multiples of stuff in backstock, similar stuff or a wide enough variety that there's a pretty good chance I have other stuff they would want.

Fortunately for me, I can't say if it works, so far this has remained an unused pre-written response......hopefully me saying this doesn't change that!!!

There really isn't any way to "catch" these before they happen aside from a massive inventory review, which I'm never going to do and I only have 5000ish items.....I view the "cost" of my options to be like cookie jar insurance and worth it if I can avoid related defects....

reallynicestamps · ‎11-22-2023

This has been happening for years and eBay seem incapable of correcting theproblem.

My only way of controlling this has been to put all my listings in alpha-numeric order, then scroll through them looking for duplications, since that seems to be part of the problem, and for listings that feel familiar in case they are recent sales.

The former is more useful than the latter.

This only works for listings that are for unique items. Obviously if the seller has multiples of a single item, selling the very last one on the shelf then finding a relist a month later for a dozen of them may not be caught.

But it does work for singletons and is feasible for sellers of a few thousand different items.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎11-23-2023

@reallynicestamps wrote:
This has been happening for years and eBay seem incapable of correcting theproblem.
My only way of controlling this has been to put all my listings in alpha-numeric order, then scroll through them looking for duplications, since that seems to be part of the problem, and for listings that feel familiar in case they are recent sales.
The former is more useful than the latter.
This only works for listings that are for unique items. Obviously if the seller has multiples of a single item, selling the very last one on the shelf then finding a relist a month later for a dozen of them may not be caught.

But it does work for singletons and is feasible for sellers of a few thousand different items.

@reallynicestamps

@ricarmic

Here is the other tool for checking for duplicates. Works like a charm.

https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/DuplicateListings.htm

Like stated, too bad eBay refuses to acknowledge this as a problem along with items ending on their own as if my magic. Both of these problems get reported too often to count. Remember emails for ending listings? Having that "papertrail" came in handy.

-Lotz

ricarmic · ‎11-23-2023

@lotzofuniquegoodies

@reallynicestamps

I think we've drifted off musics original problem, whereby there was an item accidentally relisted, ie the problem isn't a duplicate listing, it is a listing for which there is no item. (same situation as for an item that is listed but the seller can't find it when it sells).

There isn't anything automagic one can run to find this because running scripts can't see what we have in our store room, warehouse, scattered throughout the house etc.....

femmefan1946 · ‎11-23-2023

I suspect that some of the problem listings are duplicates so running the script wouldn't hurt.

I find a few exact duplicates every time I do this, something that eBay says cannot happen.

musicyouneed · ‎11-24-2023

I did find the issue. Turns out when I ended my listing to sell similiar, some of them there was a issue, Some got listed and some didn't. When I went to do sell similair some got listed twice. I can't blame ebay for that, except that there was in issue with sell similar. I did a sort alphabetically and found 3 others. I also did the duplicate listings check (thanks for sharing that). Hopefully I have resolved the problem.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎11-24-2023

@musicyouneed wrote:
I did find the issue. Turns out when I ended my listing to sell similiar, some of them there was a issue, Some got listed and some didn't. When I went to do sell similair some got listed twice. I can't blame ebay for that, except that there was in issue with sell similar. I did a sort alphabetically and found 3 others. I also did the duplicate listings check (thanks for sharing that). Hopefully I have resolved the problem.

@musicyouneed

Glad you have it "hopefully" figured out. The concerning times are when sellers are unable to figure out the reason something mysterious, behind the scenes has happened. The tool definitely is very helpful. I try to run at least once per month. Just for peace of mind.

-Lotz