products missing

[Anya]

I am new to Zazzle and not exactly sure where to post this issue or how to get it resolved, so I am trying a few different avenues.  I apologize if I am being repetitive.  Please let me know if there is someone else to contact, but it looks like other members had their issue resolved this way.  🙂  

Unfortunately, about half of my products disappeared.   I worked all December on these products.  It is not a copyright issue as I bought the heart with a commercial license; designs have been inspired by products I have sold on Etsy for years.  I never received any notification about why this happened.  Is this a glitch and they will reappear?  

I understand the Zazzle Team is on break, so I am at a loss as to have this addressed in a timely manner so I can move on.  I am feeling hesitant to do anymore work until it is rectified.  Thank you for your support and guidance.

With a grateful heart,

Anya

[Sara_H]

@Anya 

they could have been removed due to a tag that you used though normally you do get an email. (I see from your collections - you have a college collection. If you have used names of colleges in your tags - that could get your products flagged and removed automatically as college names are a no go)

As the forum is not moderated, it's unlikely you'll get an answer until they officially reopen. And perhaps you'll not receive violation emails until then either (due to staff being off over the holidays)

[Anya]

Hi Sara!

Thank you so much for your reply.  Yes, I set up the college collection just before I noticed all my products gone.  I did not make or save any college items yet, but this is good to know for the future.  

The products that were removed were all hearts and valentine's day items, coordinating with the phone cases that I just made and were not removed for some reason.  All of the tags I used were very benign.  

I was concerned I would not hear from anyone for a while.  It is so unfortunate as this is prime Valentine's time and I can see that I am getting views on my pinterest promotion boards, but customers will only have broken links which does not offer good credibility for my shop or Zazzle.  Is this still the best place to get answers from Zazzle?  

I so appreciate your support!  

Kind regards,

Anya

[Sara_H]

@Anya 

If you can get links to those missing products from pinterest - when the forum is back operating at full speed - you may get answers - but can't say when exactly

It's not really a technical issue so this thread may get moved over to General Discussion.

You can use the Ask a Question forum too for any general questions you may have.

Normally when you get products removed, you get an email to which you can reply to the Content Review team directly and ask why.

(and you probably should hide those pins on pinterest to the products that have been removed else your pinterest account may suffer due to linking to dead end links)

[Anya]

That is a good idea regarding pinterest - glad I posted.  I didn't know I could hide them there, which is a good idea and I will do that!  

Thanks for the appropriate direction where I can continue to go if I don't get information.  

No, I didn't get an email, so that is why I was wondering if it was a technical issue.

With a grateful heart,

Anya

[Anya]

Hello again, Sara!

I tried to "hide" my pinterest pins, but could not seem to do it.  Do you know how?

I know I had make a whole board secret - perhaps this is what you suggest?  

Thanks again!
Anya

[Sara_H]

@Anya  Sorry - thought you could hide a pin (I don't do pinterest lol)

secret board - next best thing

[Anya]

Yes, I just hid my boards with the items there so I don't have disgruntled buyers!  Hopefully it will all be up again shortly and I can unhide them.  Thank you for the idea, despite not doing Pinterest!

[MasterpieceCafe]

Can you post a picture of the image?  Is it just a plain heart? Nothing else? No text?

[Anya]

Hello!

Thank you for replying.

It is a variety of uses of the same heart - some plain with me setting it up as a template so they can change colors.  However, there were many other listings that had words - initials, valentine favor bags with words, tags with names, address labels, etc.  All gone.  I use this heart symbol as I have done well with it on Etsy and it is part of my branding (also having been a school counselor and heart issues myself), so I started with this in many of my products - especially as Valentine's Day is coming up.  I duplicated them, some with Valentines category, tags and titles and the other set as everyday since many can be used after Valentines Day.  I don't know that this should be an issue though as it is appropriate.  The heart (and my general style) is very versatile, chic, classic, modern, minimalist and something I and my customers buy often - similar to other images/patterns.  🙂

I love your vintage images!  So pretty!  

Warm regards,

Anya

[MasterpieceCafe]

Did you use the term "shabby chic"?

[Anya]

No, only "chic" in some of the products.  It really is not shabby at all.  🙂  Good brainstorming, though.  I only used titles/tags that I see populate.  Very simple - and not all the products would have the same tags, except for a word like "heart" - simple, modern, classic, minimalist, the color it is like red, etc.  I am really at a loss!  Again, I am hoping it is just a glitch and it will all miraculously come back.  If you have any more ideas, I am open though!  🙂  

The products will do really well when they are back on - so cute and aesthetic!  We all just need more hearts and love in our lives!  😉  

[Cat]

Did you receive an email from Zazzle Content Review telling you that the products were removed? Generally, they send those out if they remove a product for copyright/trademark reasons. (The email is just boilerplate and doesn't really give you meaningful info as to what caused the infringement.) But if you didn't receive an email, I'm not sure you can assume that Zazzle removed the products - it might just be a technical issue. Not sure if you can get help from support until they return from break, but you can try emailing them.

[Anya]

Hello Cat!

Thanks for your reply!

No, I didn't receive any emails from Zazzle.  I just double checked any junk/extra emails that I may have confused, but there was nothing (I am quite good at filtering everything that comes through).  I really hope that you are right and that it is an issue that can be easily rectified.  

I emailed the general address, then also found the creator email.  I have yet to hear back, but I will be patient.  Do those emails seem appropriate or do you have additional contact information that would be helpful?

 I am having a hard time knowing how to proceed with my future designing until then and frustrated that my many great valentine items are not gaining the traction during this time.  I will trust it will all work out!  

Thank you again for your insight - it has given me a bit of relief as I wait.  With a grateful heart.

Cheers,

Anya

[Cat]

I'm not sure of the best email to try - I'm actually a little bit confused about that myself. 

Did the products disappear from both your store backend as well as the public view? If they're still in the backend then it could just be an indexing problem (i.e. Zazzle's database is behind.)

If the products are missing from the backend too, you might want to check out this thread: When posting square cards for sale, they keep movi... - Zazzle if it sounds like the same issue, I'd definitely reply to that thread to see if anybody has any insights.

[Anya]

Ok - I hope I have my bases covered!  😉

Yes, as far as I can tell they are from both, unfortunately.  I had pinned/posted them all and the links are broken now (another contributor suggested that I hide/make my boards secret, as I was concerned about creating buyer distaste for both my shop and Zazzle).  I am hoping it will all magically reappear!  😉  I so appreciate your support and open to additional insight as it comes up.  It is hard as a new creator to navigate this alone, for all the reasons, so I appreciate the positive community.    

[Cat]

Good luck! I hope you get it sorted out!

[Anya]

Thank you, Cat!

[EM007]

The same thing is happening to me. I've been selling on Zazzle for 15 years. For the past week any new product I create doesn't show up in the store. When I click on the products in "saved designs" they all lead to an error page. It's not due to IP violations because I am using the same images and tags I have already published and sold. Zazzle sometimes has glitches where something just stops working (like not being able to share to Pinterest recently) and we just have to wait until they get around to fixing the issue.

[Anya]

Thank you for your insight.  I feel relief that you are having similar issues and that I did not do anything wrong, especially as you are someone that has many years of Zazzle experience.  As a newbie, with my 50+ posted products gone, I am feeling unsure how to proceed.   I believe tech support is back today, so hopefully all of these issues will be rectified soon.  However, I am confused about how we notify them of the exact issue so that it can be fixed.  Is that here in this thread?  Will I get a response from their tech support of the issue being fixed?  I also sent an email, but I am unsure that the person understands the root of the issue and that they can do anything about it.  How long is it realistic to wait?  I wonder if there is a phone number to speak to someone?  Thank you for filling in some of these unknowns!  ❤️

[Anya]

Hello again! I just had a brainstorm and wondering if anyone can help me? 🙂 My items still have not come back. I recall when I noticed that I was missing all of my products it was as I was learning about analyzing data. I was in the back end of all my products and I think was deleting some "fluff" / duplicate products. I wonder if I somehow had a the month of December checked, thinking I was going to delete a product or two, not realizing I had many checked and accidentally deleted all my own products? If I did indeed do this, is there any way for me to get them back? Thank you for any help! ♥️  (I am not sure if I need to start a new thread for this to be seen by the whole community?)

[Cat]

That's a bummer. I've done that before with products I was trying to optimize - the perils of distracted multi-tasking! At the time there was a thread going on in the forum where people were asking for deleted stuff to go into a trash folder or something so you could get them back in the event that you messed up, so I posted something on that thread and James said he'd see if he could get them restored for me. A bunch of them were backgrounds, which is a whole other story - backgrounds are really more beneficial to Zazzle than they are to me, so I think that was his incentive for trying to restore them. Honestly, I don't know if they ever came back or not - the actual products (as opposed to backgrounds) that got deleted were old and had never even been viewed let alone purchased, so I wasn't terribly concerned about it.

Anyhow, what I took from that is that Zazzle *might* be able to restore things from a backup copy, but I don't think it's a simple process. You can wait to see if a mod replies to this thread and/or start a new one, or you could try contacting support, but I wouldn't hold my breath. 

All that being said, I still think it would be a great idea if deleted stuff went into some sort of trash folder for 30 days or something because we've all done it!

[Anya]

Hello, again, Cat!  I am so appreciative of your engagement and response!  

This is helpful background information.  Yes, I would think that there would be some sort of safety back up.  I went to clarify the message that appears when deleting an item - it sounds permanent, but I know I felt like I was doing the right thing by deleting a duplicate item or two - not aware I was deleting a whole group of items.  It would be nice if it said how many items are being deleted (if this is truly what happened, many of the selected items would have been from pages that I was not currently look at.)  It would really be valuable to be if I could get these back from an accidental delete!  I put in so much time, research and energy into the titles, tags, descriptions, promotions as I am just learning.  And I think they were pretty great / timely items!  😉  Regardless, I am glad to hear that (if this is what happened), I am not the only one that makes these mistakes.  So embarrassing!  

I think I will go ahead and start a new thread as it may be a whole new issue now.  When you say "contact support" where/who/how is this?  I have been emailing with someone for the past few days, but I don't think she understands that these were items that I had already posted as she has brought up irrelevant guidance/solutions.  

Thank you so much for being there for me!  🙂 ♥️

[Cat]

I don't know the best email to use for this sort of thing, but I think that the general support email gets you to customer support instead of designer support. I tried that back when I was a newbie and got answers that were not terribly helpful.

Honestly, the few times I've had direct contact with any Zazzle employees it has come through the chat/message thing, and it was always initiated by them, so I'm not really sure of the best way to get help - it might be worth asking on the forum because I'm sure we're not the only ones who are confused on that front!

All that being said, I think that when you post something on the technical forum it opens a support ticket, so that's probably how I would start. 

Best of luck, I hope you get it sorted out!

[Anya]

Hello!  I started a different thread a few days ago as I am missing about 50+ products that have already been posted with tags, title, descriptions and posted/promoted on pinterest with good traction there.   I felt it was a technical issue, but I wonder if there is a chance that I accidentally deleted them myself when trying to clean duplicate products up and did not realized I had the whole month of December checked when I ok'd items to be deleted.  If this is the case, how can I see what items I have deleted?  If they are there, how can they be restored?  Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.  I am new and was working so hard on these quality items!  ❤️

[Sara_H]

@Anya 

Once items are deleted - they're gone. And it does give you warnings before products are deleted.

It's a hard lesson to learn

You could email zazzle directly and see if they can restore them (helpful if you can send them a full list of urls) but don't hold your breath that they'll come back.

Looks like you'll have to recreate them.

[Anya]

This would be unfortunate.  I am not completely sure this is what happened, however.   It was just an idea.  Is there a way for them to see recently deleted items.  I was just reflecting that about the time I realized they were gone, was when I was learning about analyzing my data and could have had the month of December highlighted for that reason.  Then, I was also cleaning up my shop and deleting a few items.  I do recall seeing the warnings, but I did not know the warning was for all of my products - just a couple duplicates.  If I did delete this large group of items, it would have been completely accidental.  How would I get the urls?  I can still see the products in my hidden pinterest board, but I don't seem to see the url anywhere.  What email would I make this request to?  Thank you for your continued guidance!

[Sara_H]

@Anya 

You would get the urls from your pinterest pins you hid. Click through from pinterest then copy/paste the url in the browser (probably will lead you to a oops - product's gone sort of page) then paste that url into a notepad until you've got a list of products that are missing.

You can add that list to one of your threads and wait until the forum opens up officially 6th Jan (not sure which email to send it too - sorry)

[Anya]

Hello Sara!

I hope you are having a nice weekend.  I just realized that I could get all the urls from my browser history, so I copied and pasted them in a document.  Will this make it possible to get all the products reinstated?  (I'm not sure if you saw in another post that my in progress saved designs are also gone, making the recreation of my items a mountain to climb!  😉 ).  I am hopeful this list of urls will be the golden ticket!  

[Sara_H]

@Anya 

It's best to keep all your problems is one thread as they are related.

If you have already emailed zazzle directly - wait for them to say yes or no on whether they can reinstate them

I've no idea if you'll get them back (sorry)

[Anya]

ok, thank you!

[Anya]

Thank you Sara.  I have passed this info on through email.  I will update here once my issue has been solved.  Thank you, again!

[Anya]

Hello Sara!  I wanted to let you know that my products came back!  I sent all my urls I found through my browser history.  I am not sure if that is what did the trick.  I also got a notification that I used the word "pantone" for one of my products, which I didn't realized was a business/copyrighted/trademark.  Good lesson!  Thanks for all your help!

[Sara_H]

@Anya  Yes items can be removed for using a tag that is trademarked. Using brand names is a definite no no. Always do your IP research and be careful moving forward. Happy you got them back!

[Anya]

Yes, I knew to not use brand names, but didn't even think that it was a brand name.  ;0.  Only 1 out of about 100 missing items used "pantone", so it is still a mystery why the others went missing.    Yes, I am happy I got them back too!  

[Sara_H · Accepted solution]

@Anya 

If the other products used the same artwork or an element that could cause them all to get wiped out from that one naughty "pantone" tag. Be careful

[Anya]

Interesting and good to know!  I will double check and be diligent going forward.  Thank you for the insight!