New Item Specifics Mandate - let the disasters begin!

[mr_lincoln]

Gee, imagine my surprise this morning when a Buyer purchased an item and then sends me THIS message.

"Hello,

I used Buy it now for this __________, and paid for it.  However, I got a message that it is not available any more, from eBay.  If that is correct please refund the payment.

Thank you,

"Buyer"

This item HAD the REQUIRED ISs updated ... gee, that message eBay sent the customer sure doesn't "Enhance the Buying experience" now does it?!?

Did I expect this to be another seamless eBay transition?  Hmmm, errrr, ahhhhh ................... Nope

Share your disasters here ...

[mr_lincoln]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

@luckythewinner   Easy, nothing on that list has changed for months other then the recently updated Required Item Specifics as indicated by eBay.   So the connection is eBay's Item Specifics mandate and implementation as of yesterday the 12th ...

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I guess would be asking the buyer for clarification about the exact nature of the message he received before jumping to the conclusion that required Item Specifics somehow caused eBay to send a bogus "out of stock" message to the buyer.

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I would agree with the exception that the only thing that has changed on this particular item is eBay's Item Specifics mandate and the Required IS that was updated.  I will be out this afternoon and this Buyer has shown interest in adding a 2nd item, same category and same IS updated ... so I am hoping they purchase it to see if they get another message ...

It is possible that eBay has been slow to update listings since yesterday was the deadline and I am sure many Sellers were and still are updating their items.   eBay's programming DOES have some snags and delays in updating information ... here's one I noticed this morning on my MP Payout ... they showed the exact same amount that they sent today as they do for Available funds ... it would be nice if it were true but it took a while for the Available Funds display to update to zero ...

[arisdisc]

Had the EXACT thing happen to me last Sunday. International sale too - buyer bought the item then immediately sent a message and said "it says it's out of stock! if that's the case please refund."

I had NO idea what he meant so I wrote him and said "not sure what you are seeing, but you just bought this! It's available to ship - do you still want it". He said "yes" so I shipped it and all is good. But I still have NO idea what he saw or why that happened.

[mr_lincoln]

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@arisdisc wrote:

Had the EXACT thing happen to me last Sunday. International sale too - buyer bought the item then immediately sent a message and said "it says it's out of stock! if that's the case please refund."

I had NO idea what he meant so I wrote him and said "not sure what you are seeing, but you just bought this! It's available to ship - do you still want it". He said "yes" so I shipped it and all is good. But I still have NO idea what he saw or why that happened.

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@arisdisc   Thanks for posting ... just more conformation that there is a glitch in the system triggered by eBay's new IS mandate ... I am sure in time they will figure it out ...

[mr_lincoln]

It was easily over an hour to update ALL the items on my Active list that had the "Required" ISs ... so today I get THIS message ... I already did this or is this just a mass mailing eBay is doing as part of the new Mandate?

[nuclearomen]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

Share your disasters here ...

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None so far - in regard to I.S. - but I did have item sell today on a promoted listing, for an item I never promoted in 3 years of selling...finding this interesting, I then went to listing on seller hub, yup, seem ebay somehow promoted that and another item I never have run promotion on, ever... so one sale, not going to bytch about on 1% - but I immediately removed those listings from promoted election. Not sure how/when this was done, but I made new campaign this past weekend, and I didn't select those listings they had entered into the campaign, I even checked all my listings directly after creation of campaign, and check them on active listings several times a day, it happened sometime last night best I can tell. 

[wastingtime101]

I didn't read past the first 10 posts or so, so if somebody else said this already then sorry for repeating it.

This has absolutely nothing to do with item specifics. This is a standard poorly-programmed e-mail to encourage buying on eBay.

Example 1:

• I view an item on eBay, let's call it a pair of Jordans.
• I don't buy them.
• Someone else buys them.
• eBay sends me an automated marketing e-mail saying the Jordans are no longer available, but check out these other kicks we think you'll like!

Example 2:

• I view an item on eBay, let's call it a pair of Chucks.
• I buy them.
• eBay sends me an automated marketing e-mail saying the Chucks are no longer available, but check out these other kicks we think you'll like! Yeah, they're no longer available because I'm the one that bought them, coding geniuses.

It's an automated marketing e-mail and per example 2, eBay programming is not making the connection that the item's no longer available because your buyer is the one that purchased it. This happens to me every time I buy something from an auction format listing, and sometimes when I view a listing, wait a couple days, then BIN.

[wastingtime101]

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@arisdisc wrote:

Had the EXACT thing happen to me last Sunday. International sale too - buyer bought the item then immediately sent a message and said "it says it's out of stock! if that's the case please refund."

I had NO idea what he meant so I wrote him and said "not sure what you are seeing, but you just bought this! It's available to ship - do you still want it". He said "yes" so I shipped it and all is good. But I still have NO idea what he saw or why that happened.

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Your buyer had a brain fart. The listing correctly showed as out of stock because your buyer purchased the last one. Your buyer caused the out of stock status. I've had no less than 5 buyers send me that same exact message and I had to explain it to them. 4 out of 5 responded with comments equivalent to, "Duh, I feel like an idiot."

[msmaggie060]

May be the sane glitch I ran into a week or so ago. I sold an item and my buyer received a message from eBay saying the item was out of stock. I don’t have the OOS option turned on and only sell one off items. I just emailed my buyer and let her know to ignore the message and I shipped with no problem.

[brian@ebay]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

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@arisdisc wrote:

Had the EXACT thing happen to me last Sunday. International sale too - buyer bought the item then immediately sent a message and said "it says it's out of stock! if that's the case please refund."

I had NO idea what he meant so I wrote him and said "not sure what you are seeing, but you just bought this! It's available to ship - do you still want it". He said "yes" so I shipped it and all is good. But I still have NO idea what he saw or why that happened.

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@arisdisc   Thanks for posting ... just more conformation that there is a glitch in the system triggered by eBay's new IS mandate ... I am sure in time they will figure it out ...

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@mr_lincoln if some buyers are inaccurately receiving a message that an item is no longer available just after they purchase it then we definitely want to investigate it. I suspect these buyers likely didn't take a screenshot of what and where they saw this message, so it's still pretty unclear why this happened. I don't have any reason to believe this is related to Item Specifics. To me it almost sounds like the buyer had the item on their Watch list and after they purchased got a message letting them know it's not available anymore. But without more details from the buyer it's hard to say. 

If you or any other seller receive a message from a buyer about this then I'd encourage you to ask if they can provide a screenshot of the message and/or ask them where on the site they are seeing the message. This will help us in getting it reviewed by our tech team. Thanks!

[wastingtime101]

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brian@ebay wrote:

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If you or any other seller receive a message from a buyer about this then I'd encourage you to ask if they can provide a screenshot of the message

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Aw man, too bad I delete them when I get them otherwise I could show you. I found an example in my e-mail archives from 2016. I don't suppose that'll help.

[itsjustasprain]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

This item HAD the REQUIRED ISs updated ... gee, that message eBay sent the customer sure doesn't "Enhance the Buying experience" now does it?!?

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Which sold item was it? Was it a quantity listing where your buyer bought the last one, or was it a one-off listing?

[wastingtime101]

This is an old example with info redacted, but your buyer is seeing something just like this. They buy an item then later (sometimes a few hours, sometimes a week) they get an e-mail saying the item is no longer available. The example in my screenshot was paid for and shipped before I got the marketing e-mail saying it was no longer available and to look for an alternative.

[msmaggie060]

I previously reported this about 2 weeks ago to Tyler on the .ca Weekly Chat. I didn’t have a screen shot but if I remember correctly, I was able to give him the item number. It hasn’t happened since (as far as I know).

[Anonymous]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

@luckythewinner   Easy, nothing on that list has changed for months other then the recently updated Required Item Specifics as indicated by eBay.   So the connection is eBay's Item Specifics mandate and implementation as of yesterday the 12th ...

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Correlation does not equal causation.

[dnasilver]

If you have the item available let the buyer know you do and ask them to send a screen shot of the message they claimed they received from eBay.