eBay acknowledged a glitch on Wednesday that caused it to
remove sellers' listings in error. The exact number of sellers
impacted is uncertain, but the problem is widespread, and many
of the sellers who were impacted said most of their listing were
pulled from the site. Sellers trying to reach eBay customer
service were greeted with a message, "High phone volume leading
to extended wait times." Clicking on a link for more information
revealed the following message:
Status: We are aware that some listings have been removed
in error. We are working urgently to fix this. Thank you for
your patience.
Those sellers who were able to reach a customer service rep
who knew of the problem were told it could take eBay 24 hours to
fix the problem, but there's no reason to believe that's an
official estimate.
An eBay Store seller who reached out to EcommerceBytes said
she had listed 200 auction and fixed price listings. "Today, all
of the items without bids were ended and I received a message
saying that I exceeded my selling limits for the month." A check
of her store on Wednesday evening showed only 6 items for sale.
eBay sellers reported the problem on
EcommerceBytes EKG and on the
eBay Technical Issues board. Those who were impacted
received the following letter from eBay:
RMC999 NOTICE: eBay Listing(s)
Dear XXXX,
We've noticed you've exceeded your monthly selling limits.
Because of this, your most recently listed unsold items have
been removed and all associated fees have been credited to your
account. Selling limits are put in place to help you establish a
positive selling history and provide excellent service to your
customers.
An EcommerceBytes reader told us, she had over 2600 BIN
listings and about 250 auctions, all of which eBay pulled from
its site. "This is scary stuff. To be put out of business for up
to 48 hrs is mind boggling."
A seller on the eBay boards wrote, "We are a small seller,
our current listings without bids AND scheduled items were
pulled. Just got off the phone with eBay - it's a site wide
technical problem - eBay tells me that they are in the process
of fixing this problem, and they will restore active items and
put scheduled items back in the scheduled list.. They do not
know when."
A seller on the Ecommerce EKG board worried about the impact
of the glitch on the sales history, which is a factor in getting
higher placement in search results. "Hopefully when the roll
back and re-list our items, the previous sales history is not
lost," they wrote.
Some sellers who were impacted by the glitch said they
relisted their items after discovering the glitch, but others
fear what will happen if they relist and then eBay relists them
as part of its fix to the glitch.
Wrote one seller on the eBay boards, "obtw it's also
happening on the UK site. And you might want to check before you
try to do any relists......because if they fix it and pop your
listings back up you don't want to get caught up in a bunch of
duplicate listing violations. What a mess and so sorry you
guys/gals got snagged in it."
eBay has not informed sellers on its
Announcement board, nor did it mention the problem on the
Town Hall Meeting broadcast it held for sellers on Wednesday
afternoon.
An eBay spokesperson reached by phone said he was looking
into the issue and he followed up by email later Wednesday
evening stating he was still gathering information.
Leave a comment on the
EcommerceBytes EKG board.
Update 3/21/13: Very early this morning eBay
spokesperson Ryan Moore provided the following statement in
response to our questions:
"Due to a software issue which has been resolved, a small
percentage of seller listings in global markets including the
United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Australia were
inadvertently removed from our platform, impacting approximately
10,000 sellers. We continue to make progress in restoring these
listings, a process that is rolling out in stages and is
expected to be completed for the majority of listings within 24
hours of the incident. Separately, we are reaching out to eBay
sellers most impacted and assisting them directly in their
recovery efforts. We will keep our sellers apprised of our
progress and apologize for any inconvenience resulting from this
issue."