Expired listings not expired?

[LaRenaissanceGirl]

I have 13 ornament listings that expired on Nov. 30. Yet, as of Dec. 4 they are still visible in my shop. I've even checked it signed out on another browser. 

What is the reason for this. Can someone actually purchase one of these listings, 4 days expired?

If anyone wants to check for me, my shop (according to what I see) has 166 visible listings. Of those 166, there are 32 in the "holiday ornaments" section. However, 13 of those ornaments are in my expired folder in the shop manager listings tab. So, the number of ornament listings should be 19. And my total shop listings should be 153. 

Can you tell me what numbers you see? Thanks in advance.

[dayspringcollectible]

This is a glitch that has been going on for two years, and some sellers have items that have not expired in that entire time.

Yes, your items are still for sale.  The big problem is that Etsy is not taking responsibility for this, so when they finally do expire, Etsy is charging sellers for any listing fees that should have been.  And if these are auto-renew items, everything is renewed on the same date, instead of being staggered like sellers may have had them.

It's another example of how unprofessional Etsy is.

[LaRenaissanceGirl]

@dayspringcollectible I see, thanks for your reply. In my 7 years on Etsy, I've not had this happen to me before now. 

So... I want those listings to expire. Is there a way to manually force it? I don't want to pay a bunch of fees later, once Etsy catches up to the glitch.

I deliberately activated them at the end of August to coincide with my planned Holiday shop closure. Ugh. 

[dayspringcollectible]

@LaRenaissanceGirl 

There is no way for you to "expire" them.  All you can do is  deactivate them.  How Etsy will deal with the time and relisting issue on a deactivated item is anyone's guess.

[LaRenaissanceGirl]

@dayspringcollectible  Hmmm...okay thanks. I just tried setting the expired listings to auto-renew and then back to manual (something I saw mentioned in a similar thread) but it did nothing. 

[dayspringcollectible]

That's not likely to do anything.  But if you don't want them up any more, deactivate them.

[DKVintageandBeyond]

You are correct then get charged all at once leaving all listings the same date for renewal! Been there. Still have some and multiple times informed them. 

[LaRenaissanceGirl]

@dayspringcollectible  LOL, one of those expired listings just sold and now it’s not due to expire until April 4. Face palm. 

[PinkBirdCottage]

Putting your shop on vacation will expire those listings. You won’t be charged for past renewals if you have listings on manual renew. It’s only the auto renew ones that charges you.  

[LaRenaissanceGirl]

@PinkBirdCottage 

Yes that’s true. All of my listings are set to manual. I’m just wondering why I have listings that have been expired for four days that are still active in my shop. But it seems like it’s a glitch, from everything I’ve read.

[ChillwolfArt]

Congratulations on your sale! Right now I see: 166 (All),   32 (Holiday Ornaments) 

[LaRenaissanceGirl]

Ha ha! Thanks for checking.

[HollysCollageCorner]

@ChillwolfArt - you are always so nice and positive.  

Yes I noticed the same thing with all my Halloween listings.  I was waiting for the expiration because I get tired of looking at seasonal stuff after the season.  I know there's a minuscule  chance I could sell something after the season, but... that's when I noticed that they were past their expiration. I deactivated them.  Leave it to Etsy to have a bug and charge sellers back listings fees.  Insert eye roll emoji.

[LaRenaissanceGirl]

@HollysCollageCorner Ugh, that's so annoying. Will they continue to rack up fees if the "expired" listings are deactivated?

[ChristmasMemory]

You have no fees on deactivated listings. There are also no back fees on listings that should have expired but didn’t if set to manual renew.  

[BriarMoonBeads]

I have several listings in my vintage shop that have past their expiry date LOL but they're still there and still indexed, still findable in search. It's been an ongoing glitch; but the bit of my brain which wears a tin foil hat wonders if it might be Etsy hedging their bets. There's been a marked downward trend for a lot of people this year, and with the economy also weighing hard, there's likely to be an uptick in people just not renewing their expired listings, feeling like they might as well give up.

If Etsy's system 'glitches' and those listings don't expire, there's no need for Etsy to worry that sellers won't renew them. If an expired listing is still active, it can be sold, and Etsy retains the chance of getting transaction fees on that sale. They can't make any fees from inactive/expired listings.

It's sneaky, but not in a way that's detrimental to us so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[dayspringcollectible]

@BriarMoonBeads 

Well its detrimental in a couple of ways.  First, once they finally do let them expire, you get charged for all the back fees at once.  For some sellers that has been hundreds of dollars!  And they are all expired on that date, meaning you can now have dozens or even hundreds of listings on the same date, instead of staggered throughout the four-month listing period.  To get them restaggered means you would have to spread the renewals out over 4 months again, losing lots of exposure.

For a while we were getting so many of these reports, some of us wondered if Etsy was gradually working towards no listings fees being charged anymore, like Ebay does.  That would also be to Etsy's benefit, because more listings would be put up, especially the cheaper listings that people seem to be buying right now.

[IndustrialBlonde]

@dayspringcollectible  What I find so disturbing about this is that it’s Etsy’s fault. Etsy’s programming and programmers that are at fault. I would hope that sellers would not be held responsible for “blip” that they did not create.  But perhaps I just dreaming….

[dayspringcollectible]

That's why I said above they are so unprofessional.  A company exhibiting professionalism would absorb the loss their mistake caused, not try to charge someone else who had nothing to do with it.

There is no guarantee the sellers would have renewed those listings.  Many sellers don't watch their inventory closely, especially if they have a large shop.  Sellers have admitted they had no idea this was happening in their shop.

It is Etsy's mistake.  It is their responsibility, not ours as sellers.  We have no way to "expire" these listings ourselves even when discovered.  And sellers have reported this to Etsy, often to no avail, and obviously still not corrected.

[BriarMoonBeads]

@dayspringcollectible  so there's actually been people reporting that the glitched listings suddenly renewed? I've never seen any (not saying there aren't, I must've missed it) I assumed they just sat there since mine have been sitting there as far back as June, still going. If people have actually had them all renew at the same time then that's different, and yeah very detrimental.

[dayspringcollectible]

@BriarMoonBeads 

They don't renew, they finally expire and you get a bill for all the past listing renewals that should have happened for the period they were "stuck."  A number of people on one of my teams have noticed the same.  I haven't seen any threads lately.  I think regulars to the Forum have decided to just ignore it to avoid (or at least delay) drawing attention to it and the chance of getting hit with huge bills for back fees.  But once in a while a new report like this one will surface again.

Sort active listings by Expiration: Soonest First.  Many sellers have listings still active going back nearly three three years.  Etsy hasn't fixed this for at least that long, but every now and then will finally update a bunch of them and hit some sellers with the back fees.

I have my shop set up so I have daily expirations I can renew.  I manually renew so I can review the listings before putting them back up.  I now have huge gaps where nothing renews because of this, and days where dozens expire at once.