Product out of stock but customer can still buy

Reading from here – Backorders being generated despite being set to Do Not Allow | www.ads-software.com and here Shows sizes that are Out of Stock | www.ads-software.com, can you verify your “Enable stock management at product level” option enabled and test with it?

Example screenshot from different WordPress support topic:

#1 Imgur: The magic of the Internet

#2 Imgur: The magic of the Internet

You can also find good documentation on this topic Adding and Managing Products Documentation – WooCommerce, check “Inventory section”.

ChatGPT pointed out:

Cache and Caching Plugins: Clear any website cache, as cached pages may not reflect real-time inventory status. If you use caching plugins, clear the cache or temporarily deactivate the caching plugin to see if the issue persists.

… did you also try to disable all plugins/activate default theme to see if there are any plugins/theme conflicts or special rules/custom code in functions.php?

Hi @dzulfriday,

I’d like to understand your site properly. Please share your System Status Report, which you can find via WooCommerce > Status > Get system report > Copy for support.

You could copy and paste your reply here or paste it via https://gist.github.com/ and send the link here.

Also, have you checked out what @rokmeglic had suggested?

Reading from here –?Backorders being generated despite being set to Do Not Allow | www.ads-software.com?and here?Shows sizes that are Out of Stock | www.ads-software.com, can you verify your “Enable stock management at product level” option enabled and test with it?

Looking forward to your reply.

Hi @rokmeglic and @ckadenge,

I forgot to tell you that this is a very rare issue. This is second time I faced this kind of issue. It is not happening to all transactions and orders. For your information, when I check the orders for this issue, there 2 orders made at the same time.

Could this causing the issue? Can 2 orders made and paid at same time cause the inventory goes negative? When is woocommerce really deduct from the inventory? When payment is made? When added to cart?

I can confirm you that:

• no backorder is allowed, never enable this setting from the start
• the stock is managed on product level from the start since products have many variations – https://prnt.sc/349-RHOknXDj
• I don’t enable this option “Hide out of stock items from the catalog” because I prefer to show sold out and out of stock items on the front end – https://prnt.sc/URT_1H2iyXuL

Can 2 orders made and paid at same time cause the inventory goes negative? When is woocommerce really deduct from the inventory? When payment is made? When added to cart?

Chat GPT

Payment and Inventory Deduction Timing:

• Clarify when WooCommerce deducts items from the inventory. Typically, the deduction occurs when the payment is successfully made. If two orders are made simultaneously, it might be worth investigating if there’s a race condition causing the negative inventory.

This is second time I faced this kind of issue. It is not happening to all transactions and orders. For your information, when I check the orders for this issue, there 2 orders made at the same time.

From the same customer or two different customers at the same time? Are those two orders create the problem with ordering a product that is out of stock already?

I forgot to tell you that this is a very rare issue. This is second time I faced this kind of issue.

Same question. In the first time you faced this, two orders were made at the same time?

From the same customer or two different customers at the same time? Are those two orders create the problem with ordering a product that is out of stock already?

2 different customers at the same time, the stock was just 1 that time

Same question. In the first time you faced this, two orders were made at the same time?

I cannot recall or check anymore, the first time it happened we just ignored it and just refund the customers. This time it happen again it must be something wrong somewhere.

Hello dzulfriday,

Thank you for your reply.

I understand you are facing a problem where customers are able to purchase sold-out products, resulting in your inventory showing negative quantities. This is indeed a strange event and certainly not the behavior we would expect.

To help us get to the bottom of this, could you please provide a screenshot of the order details where a sold-out product was purchased? Additionally, if you could share the product link, that would greatly assist in our investigation.

Further to this, if you could send over a copy of your site’s System Status Report, that would be very helpful. You can acquire this by going to WooCommerce > Status in your WordPress dashboard. Once there, select “Get system report” and then click on “Copy for support.”

After copying the report, please paste it into a new public Gist at?https://gist.github.com. With your Gist saved, share the link here in your reply.

This information will give us a better insight into your setup and help us understand what might be causing this issue.

I am looking forward to your response so we can resolve this matter promptly. ??

Best regards.

From the same customer or two different customers at the same time? Are those two orders create the problem with ordering a product that is out of stock already?

2 different customers at the same time, the stock was just 1 that time

That’s interesting. This would mean that customers bought the same article at the same time. That would be super exact.

Some more info from ChatGPT:

1. Both customers place an order: If the stock is initially 1, both customers can successfully place an order because the system hasn’t updated the stock level yet.
2. Stock is not updated in real-time: In some systems, the stock level may not be updated in real-time. This could be due to delays in processing orders or other factors.
3. Both orders are processed: Since the stock level hasn’t been updated yet, the system may accept both orders, leading to overselling the product.
4. Inventory becomes negative: After processing both orders, the system realizes that the stock is now -1, which is not possible. This can lead to complications in fulfilling the orders.

Hi @doublezed2,

Here is the gist URL, is it safe to share the gist here in public? – https://gist.github.com/dzulhelmi/6d8efef4d0728082fef0395418fe3b17

These are the orders screenshot:
https://d.pr/i/n3VEhW
https://d.pr/i/oGz78R

Product URL: https://tinyurl.com/muzesx98

@dzulfriday, both orders are at different times (1-second difference). Does the “Min and Max Quantity for WooCommerce: by BeRocket” plugin have any effect on this?

Hey, @dzulfriday!

Here is the gist URL, is it safe to share the gist here in public??

It is, thank you for sharing it!

Can you please go to WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Inventory and check how long is the store set to hold stock?

If the hold stock is too low, it can cause this issue.

Looking forward to your reply.

Have a wonderful day!

@carolm29

Here is the settings: – https://prnt.sc/ihv4czL5dZiU

How low is too low? How many do you recommend to set that?

• This reply was modified 10 months, 2 weeks ago by dzulfriday.

Hey, @dzulfriday!

Thank you for sharing the screenshot.

As I can see there’s no stock hold set up, correct?

The recommended time depends on each store, the time should be equal to the average amount of time someone might spend shopping on your site before checking out.

So, for example, less than 10 minutes is probably too low, but the ideal time really depends on how long you think people take to complete an order.

Please set it up for at least a few minutes and make some test orders to see if the issue persists.

Looking forward to your reply.

Have a wonderful day!