Sold items being relisted

[programgirl]

Is anyone else having a problem with items that have already been sold, magically being listed and bought again? This has happened to me twice now, and it's so frustrating! After looking through all of my items twice, I then have to contact the buyer to apologize and explain that I can't find the item. Makes me, the seller, look so incompetent! So I cancel the sale, refund the buyer, and decide to go through my records for my own piece of mind. I found the shipping receipt for the item that I'd previously sold- the sale was over a year ago! WTH is going on?

[im-poor]

Same thing happened to me.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@programgirl 

@im-poor 

Was there ever a cancellation or non paying buyer for the items in question. When ebay processes they are "supposed" to relist automatically. I've had cases where that has not happened and had to either relist or update a quantity manually. There seems to be no rhyme or reason when this happens. Another policy could be your settings for out of stock items. Causing items to mysteriously relist. Best of luck in trying to resolve the problem. I understand how it can be a major frustration.

-Lotz

[gwzcomps]

This bug seems to be growing in severity as there are multiple complaints just today.

[dennis_fastone]

Put me on the list also. Happened twice now, one recent and the other about 45 days out. Yes, it does make the seller look bad.  Great record keeping satisfied me with the answer after thinking I had lost my mind. Better days ahead, I hope........

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@dennis_fastone 

Unfortunately the mind was the first thing to go with me. The 2nd thing I forget. <Sigh>

-Lotz

[gracieallen01]

If it wasn't for a bad memory, I wouldn't have one at all.  Thank goodness for small favors.

[mr_lincoln]

@programgirl   Yes, this has happened to me on more than one occasion but not recently.  It is frustrating messaging a Buyer explaining a very, very long standing issue that eBay will not admit happensand then politely asking them if they would request a cancellation.

On one sale I decided to take a different approach ... the Buyer bought one train car but I shipped them two with a note explaining eBay's glitch and if they were not happy with the replacements I sent to process a return request for a full refund ... apparently that worked, the Buyer never replied to the message and never left me Feedback ... fine with me because "no news is good news LOL!"

[femmefan1946]

In another post, I was saying that this has been happening since we started selling here in 1998.

My system for avoiding the problem is to occasionally put my Active Listings in alpha-numeric order and scan them quickly for duplications, and for relists of items I'm sure are sold.
All of these go on my Unsold List with a note, then either deleted (again) or relisted (because sometimes I'm wrong and the item is still in stock.)

Then I went and did just that.

And found six listings that had to be removed. Two were recent sales, the others duplications of items I have only one of.

Do not trust any computer program to work properly every time. They may be better than humans in some ways, but they still need oversight.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@femmefan1946 

@mr_lincoln 

I do a check/sort from time to time to confirm I don't have any duplicates or items suddenly missing photos for some magic reason. (By title or by price)

The other day at I accidentally ended a listing and using sell similar re-created it twice. Just was in a hurry and not paying attention. The only reason I caught it was duplicate emails. Normally if you create an identical listing eBay gives you an error message telling you so. I guess that is not 100 % a given. As soon as I spotted I cancelled it immediately.

Kinda bizarre problems that have been reported for eons or longer, don't appear to be on the eBay's radar for proper fixing. Features sellers and buyers love suddenly require either major tinkering or outright deleting.

-Lotz

[johnsonsales-wisconsin]

Yes, I too have had that happen and about to lost my Top Rated Seller status because of their glitches.  Also have had the other problem of listings disappearing.  I was going to merge some like items together in one listing and discovered a number of items in my inventory are no longer listed.  

[janet9988]

Just how does ebay still have that listing on file when they only keep it for 90 days??  LOL

[flyingmvp]

+1

[femmefan1946]

FWIW-- The same thing has happened with my AZ account. Sold items (usually ones sold on eBay) have been deleted and then reappear.

[southern*sweet*tea]

Probably a dozen times over the past decade and a half, but not in the past couple of years ::knock on wood::

Luckily I was able to catch the listings and end them before they actually sold.  Some had sold over a year prior before they magically appeared again in my active listings.

Ghost listings.  Ebay knows. They've known for  years. They don't give a flying toot.