Buyers receiving an order confirmation email as well as this item is sold out email

[#1]

Two buyers in the past couple days received 2 emails directly after their purchase. The first is an order confirmation.....the second is a this item is sold out. They are very confused as we are also. Messages below from our customers.  Is this a glitch, test or something else. Please look into this as it reflects on our shop as well as it is time consuming to try and explain something we are unaware of and have no control of on our end.

"First I got a confirmation, then an email that says it's SOLD OUT - I'm confused!"

"So the order did go through? First, I received an email confirming my order, then received an email saying, "It's gone for now."

[BlackRiverWoodshop]

We have had the same thing... 4 orders this week  were sent the sold out message withing 2 to 10 minutes after they purchased the item.

Plus Etsy is sending with the sold out message links to other sellers that they could purchase a similar item instead!!!  ( you know the copy cats that copy your work and designs)   Lost one sale that way because they purchased from another vendor and then wanted ours to be cancelled( they did not contact us until AFTER the item had been made)   

I contacted support yesterday and they TRIED to say it was because the had put the item in their favorites.  ( checked with the customers and NO they did not have them in favorites)     

[PetalPatchGirl]

That's horrible!  I have a no cancellation policy.  I wonder if we should have the customer contact Etsy for the error.  
THIS is NOT what we want for the busy season!  Especially Etsy sending competitor items to our customers.  

[Amaradorn]

@BlackRiverWoodshop that sucks. I wonder how many sellers are losing sales due to this bug!!!?

I just made sure all my items have more than one available where possible to try to avoid this happening again. 

[AVAFELT]

@BlackRiverWoodshop : compensation from etsy to you would be appropriate here, right? reading what is possible here is quite disturbing

[DoozleDesigns]

I had a customer contact me a couple of days ago asking if she could replace the one that was purchased but was now out of stock. I thought she was confused. She was happy to know that I did have the original one in stock. But these messages going out make us (the sellers) look incompetent. Plus it's taking up their time and ours.

[PristinityJewelry]

(Wrong spot)

[PetalPatchGirl]

I had the same thing happen to a buyer in the last few days.  She purchase the last item and also got a message "sorry the item is sold out".  Glad she contacted me and I reassured her I had her order.

[ColorfulCastAndCrew]

This just happened to my customer last night. She placed her order and then got an email stating the item is sold out, it isn't and the listing doesn't expire until March 6th.

[GetLuckyVintage]

NaturesHeavenlyArt Do you have etsy plus? I wonder if this is part of the Restock Notification option? 

[NaturesHeavenlyArt]

We do not....have not heard anything yet from Etsy so...

[ColorfulCastAndCrew]

Just got through with a chat exchange, it was a round about word salad of canned responses. It may help to reach out, if nothing else to let Etsy hear from more people that this is happening.

[NaturesHeavenlyArt]

We had a phone conversation with them Friday so whether it will be dealt with who knows.

[ColorfulCastAndCrew]

@NaturesHeavenlyArt - I sure hope so, I was stating that for others though who haven't reached out : ) I know my buyer is totally confused. The item she double ordered is $214 so she was understandably concerned when she realized she had ordered two. Sometimes buyers do order more than one but I would have reached out to her anyway, before her message to me, since she wanted both items to look identical. Regardless, for shops who are very high volume I could see this getting overlooked, such as supplies, etc. I hate to think, but in my gut feel, that sellers will be ones to take it on the chin when double orders are shipped out and customers are double billed : ( Whose going to pay to get these orders returned?

[NaturesHeavenlyArt]

Just an update..... we have not heard anything about this issue yet. Looks like it is still a problem from the more recent comments here. Coincidentally or maybe not, we don't know, but we received a review for one of the items where the buyer was confused and it was a 4 star. Now I know this is not a big deal or wasn't in the past, however with Etsy's new star seller rating system this has already had an impact as it reflects as 4.8 stars now. Since the buyer did not text I have no idea if this was the reason for the ding in rating.

Etsy please fix this

[ColorfulCastAndCrew]

I'm sure my buyer is wondering what the heck is going on, I'm fully anticipating a less than stellar review. It was suggested to me in the chat not to refund the customer in cases like this until checking in with Etsy. My chat feature wasn't available at the time, it was after 8:00 am EST, Monday,  so Etsy should have been open. Regardless, I would never worry my buyer further thinking she had just spent $428 instead of the $214 she meant to spend. My buyers peace of mind is more important than someone at Etsy POSSIBLY looking into the problem. How would that convo even go?"

 "I'm sorry buyer, I can't refund you until Etsy figures out what's wrong with their site. Thanks again for your business, double in fact! I hope you enjoyed your shopping experience here, please come again!"

[SarafinaDreams]

That happens all the time. I've had that issue for at least a year. 

[ElegantEyeletsDesign]

Seems like an Etsy glitch. While they sort it out, it would be a good idea for all of us to put this in our automatic message to buyers. Something like "Should you get an email from Etsy stating that this item is sold out, please ignore it. It is a temporary glitch on Etsy's part. I keep close track of my stock and if you have purchased something from my shop, it will be shipped to you in the stated timeframe."

[FreshPie]

Also had this happen with one order over the weekend. I'm thinking of putting something into my confirmation note to let a buyer know about this glitch. As a vintage seller most of my items are “sold out” when they sell.

[DaisyLaneAntiques]

Solution is not on our shoulders, I certainly don't want to let buyers know how unprofessional this outfit is in advance.  This needs attended to ASAP on Etsy's end.  

[PristinityJewelry]

There is something amiss?

Got an email today from a potential customer, "...Looks like there aren't any left?"

I know the listing is live, it appears in search results, and haven't sold any of that item recently.

But I have no order from her. Why would she think there aren't any left? 

Makes me wonder if other potential customers are getting some sort of "out of stock" message?

[beadmask]

OMG, I hope you're wrong about potential buyers getting errant Out Of Stock messages! Especially during the holiday shopping season.

[beadmask]

This happened to me recently as well. I mentioned it on the other thread, but I want to add my experience here in case Etsy Admin pays more attention to "tech issues" threads.

A buyer purchased an item, then followed up w/a cancelation request because they received a notification from Etsy that the item was out of stock (Etsy failed to tell them that it was out of stock BECAUSE THEY BOUGHT IT). I was able to save the sale, but the unnecessary friction came very close to tanking the sale. The buyer was definitely nervous and confused by it.

This wasted a lot of time with back and forth messages that never should have been needed in the first place. Etsy, if this is a test please recognize that it is NOT helping! If it's a glitch, please fix it ASAP. To have this happening during the holiday shopping season is just awful. It's not only getting in the way of sellers' success, it's undermining Etsy's revenue.

[WendyShrayDesigns]

I just had this happen to me, the person ordered an item, got the out-of-stock email, then went and bought the item again. I shipped out both. She messaged me this morning and now she wants a postage paid envelope for a free return on the second item and full refund, including the original shipping fee, as in her eyes I made the mistake and need to solve the problem for her at no cost to her. Now I am finding out that this is the reason why? Etsy is just causing confusion for both buyers and sellers. And this ended up costing me because of the free shipping on the return and full refund I had to issue.

[EDCCollective]

@WendyShrayDesigns  If the buyer has not opened the second one, have her put return to sender on the unopened package. (You should not have to be dealing with any of that but this is a less costly way to deal with the problem than sending return postage.

[WendyShrayDesigns]

I think she opened it.