Free Insertion Listings
Has anyone else checked to see if their free insertion listings are being taken by old listings that have not been listed in the current month nor have they renewed in the current month?
Don't confuse listings that are set for GTC as they will take up a new free listing spot every month. This is items that are completed/unsold and listed in prior months that are quoted as taking up a free insertion listing spot.
I am currently in a case where I am being charged hundreds of dollars in insertion fees because of this issue.
Premium store: 38000 active listings. 31000 have been relisted this month by manual means, 1883 listings can or will relist by GTC renewal and the rest are being canceled and relisted manually by a 3rd party vendor application called Sixbit.
Listings are canceled before GTC occurs (verified this is happening and that they were not renewed) and then relisted as a new item. Also verified that there is no date overlap (originally thought 30 day cycles would produce this, hasn't happened yet, may adjust for 30 day cancel and relist on day 31 but this is not the case here either).
Also verified all of my unsold item start dates to quarantine any double listings... only 100 or so listed in march are unsold or completed.
As my sales is roughly 300-400 a month, this isn't going to push me over either.
Zero quantity listings are turned off.
Below is where it occurring.
Here's the top few of my 29001 February listings showing to take up half of my March 60,000 free insertions. As none of these were relisted by GTC in March, nor renewed, there is no insertion for these items in March.
To figure this out I pulled all of the item ID's from the 10,000 and 50,000 free insertion listing promotion links. I then pulled all my active and unsold listings and did a crosswalk.
| ID | Insertion Fee? | Active? | Active Start Date | Unsold? | Unsold Start Date | Unsold End Date |
| 315149885534 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 05:19:22 PST | Mar-10-24 00:30:08 PST |
| 315149885993 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 05:19:30 PST | Mar-10-24 00:30:09 PST |
| 315149886247 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 05:19:41 PST | Mar-10-24 00:30:09 PST |
| 315150228231 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 09:49:20 PST | Mar-10-24 06:00:06 PDT |
| 315150228569 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 09:49:26 PST | Mar-10-24 06:00:07 PDT |
| 315150228967 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 09:49:31 PST | Mar-10-24 06:00:08 PDT |
| 315150229148 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 09:49:37 PST | Mar-10-24 06:00:08 PDT |
| 315150229371 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 09:49:44 PST | Mar-10-24 06:00:09 PDT |
| 315150229727 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 09:49:50 PST | Mar-10-24 06:00:10 PDT |
| 315150229897 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 09:49:55 PST | Mar-10-24 06:00:11 PDT |
| 315150229993 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 09:50:01 PST | Mar-10-24 06:00:11 PDT |
| 315150230128 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 09:50:07 PST | Mar-10-24 06:00:12 PDT |
| 315150230216 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 09:50:12 PST | Mar-10-24 06:00:13 PDT |
| 315150230424 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 09:50:17 PST | Mar-10-24 06:00:13 PDT |
| 315150230564 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 09:50:23 PST | Mar-10-24 06:00:14 PDT |
| 315150230697 | #N/A | #N/A | #N/A | Yes | Feb-10-24 09:50:29 PST | Mar-10-24 06:00:15 PDT |
wastingtime101
·2 years agoHi @commanduncomm . I believe I can tell you what's happening.
First, please read this discussion and the linked tech issues thread in the first post:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Listings-created-March-1-2024-potential-unexpected-fees/td-p/34322569
I looked up one of your listing examples, item 315149885534
Start Time: Saturday, 10-Feb-24 13:19:22 UTC
End Time: Sunday, 10-Mar-24 08:30:08 UTC
You listed it on Feb 10th which means it erroneously renewed on March 9th due to the tech issue discussed in the linked post. Because you were unaware of this error, when you ended the listing on March 10th you did not realize the listing had already renewed the day before and used up one of your free insertions.
commanduncomm
OP2 years agoROFL.
This MIGHT be the cause. I was going to say that this is totally true, however, I have the dates that the listings ended and relisted and I have confirmed that none of the 29001 were ever renewed. So maybe? Sounds like the closest I've seen to an answer yet.
wastingtime101
·2 years agoI guarantee you that's what happened. All listings created Feb 10th - Mar 9th are renewing a day early.
Do yourself a favor: update your Seller Hub Active listings page using the 'customize' link on the top right. Make sure you have both the start date and the end date columns checked and visible.
Look at any listing created during the dates above and you will see they are set to renew "end" a day early.
Not sure why you manually end/relist your items every month, but if you've been doing this every day, you will be able to match up those numbers starting with those items listed Feb 10th and ended Mar 10th a few hours before you expected them to renew.
While I'm hoping eBay will forgive insertion fees generated by listings that auto-renew on both the 1st and the 31st this month from that error, I cannot see CS agreeing to refund you such a hefty sum for tens of thousands of listings when you are voluntarily ending and relisting. You can try saying you didn't know about the tech error and never checked the renewal date, but you might be wasting your time.
commanduncomm
OP2 years agoI have a few in the FUTURE that have the incorrect end date, however, all of my unsold/completed listings dates are correct.
wastingtime101
·2 years agoCorrect in what respect? You you cannot see the renewal date on unsold listings. All you can see is the time stamp of when you manually ended them, plus the original listing time stamp.
If I create a listing Feb 10th and it renews March 9th then I manually end it March 16th, the only dates I will see on the unsold page in seller hub is created Feb 10th and ended March 16th. I will have no visibility to the March 9th renewal.
What you're seeing is created Feb 10th and ended March 10th because that's when you chose to end them.
pjcdn2005
·2 years agoThey were renewed by you. eBay listed those listings a day early because of a programming glitch. Then you ended the listings that had been renewed the previous day. On that same day you relisted them.
commanduncomm
OP2 years agoYou would think... however I had one of their folks check renewals and they were not renewed either.
wastingtime101
·2 years agoThen you got bad info from CS. This tech issue is sitewide. Your listings created Feb 10th - March 9th did and will renew a day early.
Listed Feb 10th
Erroneously renewed early Mar 9th, used up a free insertion
You manually ended Mar 10th
You manually relisted Mar 10th and used up a second free insertion on the same (re)listing
You did this for probably every listing manually ended and relisted for the past 16 days - since Mar 10th.
If you continue this process, you will experience the problem on all of those listings now through April 10th when things normalize.
commanduncomm
OP2 years agoWell as a glitch, they will be reimbursing me. It is not against any eBay policy to cancel and relist items manually; however, it is stated in eBay policy on when item renewals will happen.
"Good ’Til Canceled Listings
When you list an item as Good ’Til Canceled, it will relist every month on the same day until it’s sold. For example, if you list your item on the 1st of May, it will relist on the 1st of June.
If you list your item on the 29th, 30th, or 31st of a month, the duration will be adjusted if the following month is shorter, but will revert to the original day for longer months. For example, if you list an item on the 31st of May, it will relist on the 30th of June, and then again on the 31st of August and so on."
nobody*s_perfect
·2 years agoJust one small point of clarification: Good Until Canceled listings (i.e., all fixed price listings) roll over each month on the same date that they started; a listing that began on February 10 would roll over on March 10, April 10, May 10, June 10, etc. Sometimes that's 30 days but often it's not.
commanduncomm
OP2 years agoFair point, however, not the case in this instance. Checked for that.
Correct - sold items that you keep as active, even with an available quantity of zero, count towards your total listings. You can always remove the out of stock option on your listings.
commanduncomm
OP2 years agoEdited original to reply.
lacemaker3
·2 years agoIf an out-of-stock listing has a quantity of zero for the entire calendar month, then the seller should get a credit for any insertion fees and upgrade fees that were charged for that listing.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/multiquantity-listings-listings-variations?id=4150#section5
fern*wood
·2 years agoDo you have out of stock set on your listings? I don't understand what listings you are talking about, because that sounds like unsold listings you ended if GTC or didn't get a bid if auction.
nobody*s_perfect
·2 years agoAll fixed price listings are GTC. You have over 38,000 listings, only two of which are auction format, plus it is the 26th of the month so most of your 38,000 listings have either been listed in March or have already rolled over for March. So if you don't have a Store subscription at a level that provides 38,000 free insertions per month in the categories that you use, then of course you are incurring insertion fees when those 38K listings roll over.
commanduncomm
OP2 years agoEdited original to reply.
slippinjimmy
·2 years agoHow about an example?
commanduncomm
OP2 years agoEdited original to reply.
commanduncomm
OP2 years agoEdited original comment to reply. Includes examples of theory.