Good till cancelled Listings ended

[tech-line-direct]

Today I came across some of my "Good Till Cancelled" listings inactive. I found the listing on the "Ended" page, on the listing it will say "Sold" and I am not able to add the quantity to it.  From what I can see one listing went to "Sold" state the same day  I had sold it.  Clearly a glitch within the eBay system, I called them but they wouldn't admit it., They just say your listing was sold, and it went into that state, but when I ask why it did so being "Good till cancelled" they said we will investigate. Don't have much hope they can fix this

This was one of my best listings, with 1600 more sales since 2018, and it would be on the top page in the category, but now it's lost.  All I can do is to re-list it, but it would lose all the sale history and the feedback it ratings

has anyone had similar experience, are you able to reinstate a listing that's now ended ? 

[ojewellery]

The only time I've had similar its been followed up with a reason email from eBay for a (non) policy violation.  On occasion these messages have appeared some point down the line from the listing ending.  Not saying its not a glitch on this occasion, just painful experience.

I'd be carefully checking emails and spam just to double check.  I also take anything from general customer services with a big pinch of salt - its my impression they're rarely in possession of the facts regarding policy violations and their advice can lead to further account issues.

Regarding losing everything, if you go into your ended listings and relist, you should maintain sales history, anyone who has it in their watch list will get directed to the new listing if they open the ended watched item.

If you sell similar you lose history and its effectively a new listing.

[the-nutwood-collection]

In Site Preferences > Selling Preferences, did you activate the preference 'Listings stay active when you're out of stock'? 

If you don't activate this, when the quantity reaches zero, the listing will end.

[tech-line-direct]

Yes, I did check this setting is still on, This was a big surprise as to why the listing got ended, when the "Out of Stock" setting was enabled, very often I got items that go into "Out of Stock" state, but I am able to add the stock to them and continue to sell under the same listing. Is there any rules on how long the listing can be out of stock ? I mean for example If I don't add any stock qnt after lets say 30 days would it got ended then ?

[the-nutwood-collection]

The Help text doesn't say anything about the length of time the item can be out of stock.  All it says is:

When you set up the out-of-stock option, the following will happen: 

• All of your existing and future bulk listings use the out-of-stock option until you disable it
• When the quantity of the listing becomes 0 (either because all the items were sold, or you adjusted the quantity), your listing stays active but hidden from search results
• The listing will reappear in search results when you increase the quantity of items available
• You can still end your Good 'Til Cancelled listing yourself at any time

Maybe there's a time limit for out of stock, but the Help hasn't been updated to reflect this.  From the above, the listing would be hidden, but not ended.

Maybe an eBay mod can advise.

[tech-line-direct]

From what I can see after my research, I got 3 listings taken down that way. 2 of them being with lots of sales and good feedback history, these listings would appear on 1st page in their category. I rechecked my out of stock settings and it's all set up correctly allowing item to be active while out of stock.  

They all have some things in common; 

1st they were taken down between 30 - 31 st of December, I was off on these days, so I cannot be at fault by taking these accidentally 

2nd these were quite old listings, which I created between 2018 , 2019, 2021  

they all at some point were out stock and restocked without a problem

Not sure what but something must have happened on those dates, that made these got ended by a system mistake or a glitch I don't know, but what I know it wasn't me 

One of the 3 listings even got a sale on the 31st just before it went into that "Sold" state,  One thing I haven't checked yet is the quantity they had on that date, but I don't think they went "out of stock" as I keep a fairly good level of stock for them

How can I get and eBay mod to check this for me ?

[the-nutwood-collection]

Have you tried relisting, as @ojewellery suggests?

I suppose eBay could have used the quieter post-Christmas period to have a tidy-up by removing all ancient listings that were out of stock.  Maybe sellers that have thousands of listings aren't too diligent in removing dead listings if they've a high-level shop that has a huge allowance.  I spent my career in IT, and the Christmas period was a good time to clear the dead wood and free up server space.

As your listings disappeared on the same date, this could make sense.  However, before doing a sweep, users should be warned well in advance that it's going to happen - not that they take any notice of the warning, just moan after the event.  Also, there should be exceptions built into the script, in this case not to end any listing that had a sale in the last [n] weeks.  However, it is quicker and easier to just zap everything and deal with any complaints in the new year.

 marco@ebay , can you shed any light on this issue?

[ojewellery]

Can you still see the original list date, would the end date have coincided with what should have been a monthly auto-renew?

Over a six month period I typically lose a few listings that don't automatically renew

[wilsonbedslimited]

The time limit is about 6 months. It varies based on what point in the cycle the listing was when it went out of stock.

[tech-line-direct]

Yes, I have re-listed the listing, and this was suggested by the eBay Custumer service, but as I said this is now a fresh listing and lost all it's sale history and the feedback, also because of that it's doesn't appear in search result as it would with the old one, as it was popular

[tech-line-direct]

The original start date of the listing Nov 09, 2018 02:51:48 PM GMT , and it was ended 31 Dec 2024 at 2.42pm GMT 

And the last sale on that item was 31 Dec 2024 2.40pm GMT 

So 2 mins after the last sale it got ended , maybe it was the last unit that I sold on that date, but definitely this should just go as 0 stock in active listing, 

[tech-line-direct]

So tow of the listing last sold on the 31st of Jan, and then 2 mins after they got ended

[wyntersemporium]

Same here. Several of mine have finished even though I have plenty of stock. 

[wilsonbedslimited]

Is this possibly related to the GPSR requirements?

[tech-line-direct]

The thing is that these listing are ended without giving any notice to seller, even if it was for GPSR or for any other reason they should inform you about this . When asked eBay why they were taken down in the first place, I got a basic answers saying because you "sold" them which doesn't explain anything really. And when saying that they shouldn't be ended that way, I was told they will open a case to investigate, and later will give same answer, the listing has been ended you should relist it, even if you loose all the sale and feedback history