Clear up confusion about ending listings

[mn467462]

I have read in this forum that cancelled order for out of stock items results in "defects" on your account. Whatever that means. Does that only apply to purchased items, or in general? I end listings all the time of items that didn't sell. Am I defected?

[inhawaii · Accepted solution]

The defect is when you sell an item and can't find it or it's broken or for whatever reason you can go through with the sale and cancel the order.

[mn467462]

Ok. I unlist items that don't sell. I didn't know if that was hurting me or not.

[44012]

Yes, if you are canceling an order due to out of stock or can't ship your item you are getting a defect.

You should check your selling dashboard and service metrics to see your performance and how you compare to other sellers. 

You can lose selling privileges if you cancel too many orders.

[ms.rodriguez*]

Defect occur only on items that sold and you can't find. I end ALL of my  fixed price listings before they restart. I want to tweak them. I don't want them to start at the same time.  I used to have a message that I did that but ebay removed it.

[pennysdream]

Hay, You can end any active listing that has no bids on it, at any time for whatever reason you want. 

You will not get dinged.

Dings happen when you end a listing that has bids. 

You cancel a sale for reasons that are your fault.  (i.e., There is a problem with the address, the buyer cancels, the buyer does not pay)

Something is not delivered on time, as expected, or you do not follow through. 

Or at any other time that eBay sees as necessary.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@pennysdream wrote: ...

Dings happen when you end a listing that has bids. ...

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If a seller ends an auction that has bids, and chooses to cancel the bids rather than selling to the high bidder, then there is a penalty fee equal to what the final value fee would have been if the item had been sold to the high bidder. This page has a chart which shows what happens when you cancel an active auction:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/cancelling-listing?id=4146

But ending an auction early doesn't give the seller a defect point on their account.  Defects for cancellation can only come from canceling transactions, NOT from ending a listing early.  Here's the policy page about the reasons why eBay would give you a defect point on your account:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/seller-performance-policy?id=4347

[pennysdream]

Cool, thank you.  I think I have only ever canceled one listing with bids.  I broke it.  That was many moons ago.