The processing and communications keep getting better

[TiasTreasures]

While adding a large number of new items this morning, I accidentally listed the same item twice. This is surprisingly easy to do. A few minutes later I got an email from eBid notifying me that they had detected a duplicate item and removed one of the listings. Only one, not both!

I did not get hit on the head with a club. Instead I was notified and the problem was fixed. I didn't have to do anything! Except say "Thank You."

[billsstamps]

I use a spreadsheet for my listings and in Excel I can put a formula into listing which detects any duplicate listings before I list them. It is important for me with over 8000 items, I can't remember everything.

Despite the technology, things slip through...

[TiasTreasures]

We sell one-of-a-kind items, so it was not on the spreadsheet yet. What happened was that I forgot to flag the item I had just listed and so repeated it. I found the emails, two in a row for the same item. This has happened before, I found and deleted the duplicates before eBid did when I finished the batch and checked in the auctions I'm running. The duplicates jumped out at me and I deleted one of them.

[suesjools]

Good to know eBid takes care of things. WTG eBid!!!

Best wishes for many sales to all,

[kreativebargains]

That is great. It can be very easy to relist duplicates especially when you have lots of listings. I have done so a few times in the past and both were deleted, meaning you have to start again and if it was listed with similar items you have work to do to get them all together or have one out on its own. deleting just one is a far better policy, thanks guys.

[deanosaur1972]

That is good - although.. there is a very occasional glitch on doing an 'all repost' from the unsold section - it re-lists items fine but somehow the same items manage to re-enter into the next lot of unsold items which then get re-posted in an 'all repost' list creating duplicates. The system doesn't pick those up - so they don't get removed. It is a system glitch because if you are doing 'all repost' it blanks out the ability to re-post the same item. Last Sunday 9 listings got duplicated which luckily I spotted reasonably quickly. Happened to me and several other sellers last May (something like 20 that time). With me spotting the last one quickly I was straight onto support so they could track it through.......

Sadly it looks although the opportunity has been missed because the replies I received from support were baffling to say the least.. The reply I got in May last year stated 'we are not aware of any glitch on those dates' which again was puzzling because I knew duplicates were created then and I was finding duplicates on other sellers listings for months afterwards all originating from the same re-post date.

I am doing the same as Bill now - spreadsheet with a formula to look for duplicates. Duplicates are dangerous.

[TiasTreasures]

Duplicates are dangerous.

This is a very important observation. Those of us who sell collectibles usually only have one of each available. An accidental duplicate is not only against the rules, it means I could get caught selling an item I no longer have!

[Tropical_Trish]

Well, I find this thread very interesting.

I bought some clothes from a seller not so long ago, and she 'couldn't find' 2 of the items I had ordered.
I know for certain that one of the items had been previously sold, (checked sellers feedbacks) don't know about the other one.
When I contacted seller, she said her sold items kept relisting.
She now has 4 neutrals, 3 negs and 9 positive comments from buyers that actually never got their goods, but received a refund.
Her selling record previous to these last feedbacks was very good.

I have checked her items for sale and there are many duplicates, and I have done my best communicating with her to try and get her to remove the duplicates before she gets any more negs or neutral comments. I advised her to close her auctions, take stock of what she had, and relist only the items she still has - I went to great lengths explaining what to do.

Duplicates are still there - (no idea why she prefers to keep refunding buyers and risking getting more bad feedbacks) - so I am wondering how on earth eBid detects an accidental duplicate, yet allows some sellers to keep relisting the same item - time and again - especially as it's sold previously.

It is important when relisting to tick the repost AND delete boxes at the same time, within your unsold section. The items reposted and deleted totals should be the same. (I have occasionally checked the repost box and omitted to check the delete button, so it's easily done).
I'm pretty sure that this is how duplicates are made, especially if the seller isn't too familiar with how to manage and relist their unsold goods, as my seller obviously isn't.

[hurryb4itsgone]

Well, I find this thread very interesting.

It is important when relisting to tick the repost AND delete boxes at the same time, within your unsold section. The items reposted and deleted totals should be the same. (I have occasionally checked the repost box and omitted to check the delete button, so it's easily done).

I'm pretty sure that this is how duplicates are made, especially if the seller isn't too familiar with how to manage and relist their unsold goods.

Trish, thanks for this ... now I know what I did wrong when I went to do my 1st batch of re-lists!

[deanosaur1972]

It is important when relisting to tick the repost AND delete boxes at the same time, within your unsold section. The items reposted and deleted totals should be the same. (I have occasionally checked the repost box and omitted to check the delete button, so it's easily done).
I'm pretty sure that this is how duplicates are made, especially if the seller isn't too familiar with how to manage and relist their unsold goods, as my seller obviously isn't.

Trish if you are using the tick boxes in the unsold section and then doing an 'all repost' - even if you do a repost and don't delete you can't repost the item again because the tick in the repost box is removed:



I understand what you say but the danger of ticking both boxes is that the email confirmation of the repost comes through and says unsuccessful results - that means the listing has been lost forever. Which could be a reason for missing listings. I always 'all repost' (checking the total) and once my shop figure and e-mail confirms there have been no problem then I go and 'all delete' checking my totals correspond to those exact same listings deleted.

Definitely agree with you on making sure the repost and the deleted listings should always tally - I could imagine all sorts of problems if they don't.

Also on your seller managing to repost sold items - it sounds although they are reposting from 'auctions I ran' which would repost sold and unsold items because it contains both. That is an area that I fail to see the logic in - we have sold and unsold section so why does there need to be a re-post facility from 'auctions I ran' which is effectively repeating what is already available in sold and unsold?

Looking at this thread though....... and others with missing listings and my unresolved system duplicate listing glitch, maybe at some point the whole re-post system could do with being looked into....

As per Tia's original post - the removal of duplicates is wonderful...... but it seems to miss things.