Promotion Manager Markdown Sale Delays - Follow Up To Weekly Chat 10/9/19

[autopiacarcare]

I posted in the weekly chat yesterday about an increasingly common issue we are running into with Markdown Sales where there is a delay between scheduled start and end times and actual start and end times.  @Anonymous  asked for some examples, so I'm starting this thread to provide examples and hopefully anyone else who is experiencing this issue can provide some examples as well.

This issue has been going on for months, but as far as examples, I'll start with some from yesterday.

Item 253490280974  - This markdown sale only had 9 items.  When I created it, I set the start time to "start now" at 1:02 PM Pacific Time.  You can see from the revision history that the sale didn't actually start until 1:23 PM Pacific Time. It may sound like I'm being really picky to complain about a 20 minute time difference, but when I asked about it in the chat, I was told "most of the time, these promotions will go live immediately", so I am giving an example of a situation where a sale with a relatively small number of items did not go live immediately.

Yesterday I also attempted to start a markdown sale that had 500 items in it.  That sale was scheduled to start at 11:30 AM Pacific Time and was scheduled to end at 11:30 PM Pacific Time.  The idea was to test a limited time "Flash Sale" to drive a sense of urgency and see if that resulted in a mid-week bump in sales (where we usually fall off during that time of week).

As far as I can tell, that markdown sale never actually started.  When I left the office last night at 5 PM Eastern (2 PM Pacific), it was still in "pending" status.  Out of curiosity, I checked a few of the items from home last night around 9 PM Eastern (6 PM Pacific), and none of them were showing the discount sale.  When I came in this morning, that markdown sale shows in Promotions Manager as "ended", so I can only assume it changed status at the scheduled "end" time, even though it never actually started.    Item Number 253567659047  would be an example of a product that was supposed to be included in that promotion and you can see from the revision history shows no markdown sale starting or ending on 10/9/2019

Just to test, I attempted to copy that promo into a new one to start this morning.  That was scheduled to start at 5:28 AM Pacific.  It is now 6:17 AM Pacific and the new one is still in "pending" status.

[autopiacarcare]

I can also use the first one as an example of delays we saw with markdown sales we had set up on 10/4.

Item 253490280974  - Scheduled Start 7:14 AM Pacific 10/4/19 , Scheduled End 11:30 PM Pacific 10/6/19

                                              Actual Start  8:40 AM Pacific 10/4/19, Actual End 6:44 AM Pacific 10/7/19

[mcdougle4248]

Thank you for bringing this up in chat yesterday and following up today. 

I have two sale + markdown that were supposed to start over an hour ago.  One is stuck on processing and one is stuck on pending, so it is not just you.  

[autopiacarcare]

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@mcdougle4248 wrote:

Thank you for bringing this up in chat yesterday and following up today. 

I have two sale + markdown that were supposed to start over an hour ago.  One is stuck on processing and one is stuck on pending, so it is not just you.  

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Thanks @mcdougle4248!

 @Anonymous asked for specifics, so even if the markdown sale is "pending" and not active yet, it might be helpful to him and the team if we can give them at least a couple of item numbers that we are trying to add to markdown sales as well as the scheduled start/end times as examples.

If you aren't comfortable sharing item numbers here, I completely understand and appreciate you chiming in anyway to confirm this is an ongoing issue for other users as well.

[mcdougle4248]

@autopiacarcare wrote:

@mcdougle4248 wrote:

Thank you for bringing this up in chat yesterday and following up today. 

I have two sale + markdown that were supposed to start over an hour ago.  One is stuck on processing and one is stuck on pending, so it is not just you.  

Thanks @mcdougle4248!

 trinton@ebay asked for specifics, so even if the markdown sale is "pending" and not active yet, it might be helpful to him and the team if we can give them at least a couple of item numbers that we are trying to add to markdown sales as well as the scheduled start/end times as examples.

If you aren't comfortable sharing item numbers here, I completely understand and appreciate you chiming in anyway to confirm this is an ongoing issue for other users as well.

Here are two item numbers and a screenshot from just a few minutes ago:

[abfabvintage]

Hi, Auto. Great that sellers are providing specific item numbers to research. However, this is the last reply I saw from Trinton related to why markdowns not showing in a reasonable amount of time:

"Hi @autopiacarcare, generally these delays are not related to a matter of technical limitation but instead related to the topic of site security. Feel free to provide us with an example or contact Customer Service to have this reviewed in more detail."

Have no clue what that means. JMO.

[abfabvintage]

@autopiacarcare 

LOLOLOL. Now I am even more confused...this thread now moved to technical...where in Chat it was written off as not being Technical? Keep on trucking...Good Luck!

[autopiacarcare]

Why was this moved to Technical Issues?

This was specifically a follow up thread to the weekly chat and specifically put in the selling topic because I have seen other sellers reporting this issue and was trying to get the most visibility on the topic to provide more examples and specific information as requested by @Anonymous in the chat.  Also as mentioned, in the chat I was told this was not a known technical issue but instead had something to do with "site security".

Moderator - Please consider putting this back in the Selling category as this appears to be affecting many sellers and I am trying to follow up on the weekly chat.

[autopiacarcare]

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@abfabvintage wrote:

Hi, Auto. Great that sellers are providing specific item numbers to research. However, this is the last reply I saw from Trinton related to why markdowns not showing in a reasonable amount of time:

"Hi @autopiacarcare, generally these delays are not related to a matter of technical limitation but instead related to the topic of site security. Feel free to provide us with an example or contact Customer Service to have this reviewed in more detail."

Have no clue what that means. JMO.

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Thanks @abfabvintage ! Before this was moved, I was going to say that I did see that response in the chat and also have no idea what it means.

The only thing I can think of with it being related to "site security" would be https / ssl .  However, as far as we know, the content of our listings does not change between promotional sales and we don't have any unsecure /non-https content in our listings (again, as far as we know).

@Anonymous  - Can you please provide additional information as to what you meant about site security?  I want to make sure we are providing you the correct specific information you need to look into this further and also, if there are issues with our listings in regard to site security, I want to get that cleared up ASAP.

[abfabvintage]

@autopiacarcare 

Hi, just read the other thread from another seller having the same problems that is on the front page of Seller, yet I can't seem to find your original thread where it usually would say it has been moved...I just happened to click on your helpful you gave me and it sent me to the blue line that said it was moved. Unless my eyes are crossing reading through all of this...I agree with you...and with the Chat saying it was not technical and now have to find it somehow with lots of research, not sure how much more participation you will get. JMO. I think you can actually PM the moderator that moved it and ask your question if you can find it. Thanks for holding the fort. 

[abfabvintage]

General Comment:

I found the original thread way down the line on the Seller Board. My eyes are now really crossing. I sure wish that maybe there would be kind of alert when they move threads like maybe "ALERT: thread moved." In stead of just showing the thread title with the obvious moderator name but nothing else. But I don't run ebay. LOLOLOL. The Mod name is ornesh. Have no clue how you would PM them. But assume Trinton should be coming back?

[gracieallen01]

Respectfully speaking, many places, I've found that when something gets moved, and there is no 'forwarding address' obvious it it's place, it might be because it is the type of question on something that is found to be 'difficult' to answer or that shouldn't be addressed in great detail.  Just a casual observation of various occurrences, in different places.

[autopiacarcare]

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@gracieallen01 wrote:

Respectfully speaking, many places, I've found that when something gets moved, and there is no 'forwarding address' obvious it it's place, it might be because it is the type of question on something that is found to be 'difficult' to answer or that shouldn't be addressed in great detail.  Just a casual observation of various occurrences, in different places.

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Thanks @gracieallen01 

It is definitely frustrating when you take the time to bring an issue to eBay's attention and they ask you for additional information, so you take the time to gather relevant data and also try to get others involved to help out, and then it just gets shuffled to the side.

I suppose I could just accept the issues and keep it to myself, but it seems like we are seeing these issues with promotions more often lately and I've also seen an increase in posts here in the community lately with similar issues, so I figured there might be something bigger going on.  I would think it would be in the best interest of eBay, buyers, and sellers of all sizes to bring light to these issues. document them in detail with specifics, and pass that on to the proper departments for resolution.

At this point, I've offered all the info I can without further input/direction from eBay.  I'd encourage anyone who still manages to see this post and has some examples to get involved as well.  Hopefully @Anonymous will follow up and maybe even get this thread back where it can get more visibility to provide him with the data he and the team need to get to the bottom of these issues.

[autopiacarcare]

Also, just as an update, the test I started this morning at 5:28 AM Pacific with an end time of 9 AM Pacific never actually started.  It was in "pending" status and then once the scheduled end time came, it changed to "ended", but was never active and none of the items were ever shown as on sale.

[kartingwarehouse]

We also are having issues with the markdown sales. Some of our sales are taking over 2 - 3 days to apply and remove. For multi-variant listings if you want to add additional options, you must take it off sale, add your changes, and re-apply the sale, a ~30 minute task now taking over 5+ days.

Pending markdowns/sales also don't cancel when you apply a new price on a listing and will apply the sale a few days later, causing many pricing issues and needing constant monitoring of listings because of this. 

This issue started happening about 2 weeks ago and is becoming increasingly frustrating.