Mystery item sold
An item shows sold yesterday. It is not in my inventory. I scroll thru my store quite often and don't remember ever seeing it, like in6 or 8 months. Was surprised for it to show up as sold. I've heard stories of finding things in your listings that have already sold. Does that really happen ? If that's not the case, where has it been, how did the buyer find it ? What do I do now ?
10 comments
chapeau-noir
·4 months agoI've had a few 'ghost' listings. Two incidents I've traced - what I noticed is that the listings never appear in my store, but simply on the site, which tells me it's a simple indexing error, fortunately in my experience very infrequent. Databases are not infallible, eBay's is huge, and errors happen.
m60driver
·4 months agoI too recently had an item sell that I don't remember being in my inventory. I seem to have a very faded memory of having removed it. I have no memory of having seen it in my inventory although I regularly scan my inventory. Is it a ghost in my mind or a ghost in the machine of Ebay, well I just don't know. What I do know is that there is little to be done about it other than canceling the sale. Hope fully your metrics are currently in good standing and this won't be a problem for you by canceling the sale.
Just cancel and move on. And don't bother contacting Ebay. There is little chance they will help you as you have sold nothing recently of a high enough value for them to get interested.
nyr134
·4 months agopost deleted: already answered.
12345jamesstamps
·4 months agoLet the buyer know you can't find it at the moment and offer a generous credit of item(s) to replace what is missing from what you sell.
Doing a 'out of stock' will give you a 'ding' for a year on your ratings.
Tell the buyer it might be misplaced but you are still looking for it and will send it if found.
But something should be sent within the time frame.
nyr134
·4 months agoTo @oh!brother : this would be a good time to again peruse your listings and see if there are any others that have shown up as available for sale that you really don’t own.
powell-collectibles
·4 months agoYou are referring to ghost listings. Some people think they exist, others don’t. I’m in the camp that they don’t. Seems to me that those that think they exist Don’t see a need to take steps to prevent them. Consequently, those folks have a lot more than those of us that think that these “ghost listings“ are simply human error.
The subject has been has out plenty of times on these boards. There are so many ways that it can happen – from not paying attention to what you have in stock, starting a draft, finishing it after you actually create a duplicate. Could be relisting something and having a higher quantity shown than you actually have available. Could be just an advertent button pressing while a phone is in your pocket.
regardless, there are tips and tricks to how to avoid an out of stock cancellation. That’s another one that’s been hashed out on these boards.
albertabrightalberta
·4 months ago@oh!brother
Although there are naysayers that claim there's no such thing as "ghost listings," my opinion is that they do happen but it's rare enough that many users aren't aware.
It happened to me a few years ago on an item that I'd sold at least 18 months-2 years prior. The old listing wasn't even viewable so how it got relisted with the correct pictures and description is unknown.
Although I could have canceled as OOS, I handled it a bit differently and because the buyer was flexible and understanding, I didn't have to take the defect.
My sale was for an item that I still had another of the exact item but in a different color. I offered the buyer a full refund of the "green" item they'd purchased and offered to send a "blue" one free of charge.
Although I lost money on the refund, I had a happy buyer.
But again, the answer to your question of how this happens, I have no idea!
adamcartwright
·4 months ago@albertabrightalberta
I have definitely caught "ghost listings" at least twice in my active listings.
Stuff I already sold that was listed again, but not by me.
Fortunately, I only have several hundred listings at a time, so I can scan through the list pretty fast.
jonathanbrightlight
·4 months agoThere are various reasons it could have ended up being relisted without you realizing it. At this point I don't think you have any option except to cancel as Out of Stock and let the customer know (assuming you're positive you don't have it available to ship).
If you look at the listing page, it should show you the start date and edit history, so you can see if you can use that to figure out if you accidentally relisted it after it sold previously, or something like that.
I don't see any reason to contact eBay about this, customer service isn't going to be able to change anything.
simba6
·4 months agoYour going to have to speak with eBay about that. Use this link.
https://www.ebay.com/help/call_me?initFrom=HOME