Our Discrepancy Reporting (DR) System Explained

How do DRs work?

When an AmmoSeek user notices a discrepancy between what we're showing in our listings and what your product page says, they may file a discrepancy report (DR) by clicking the green flag in the listings.

Our requirements are that retailer XML data feeds be updated in real time (or at least every 5 minutes), so it's sometimes possible that discrepancies naturally occur between the time that the change has been made to a product page and when the XML feed has been updated to reflect the change. For this reason, we give a generous 15-minute grace period to allow adequate time for the XML feed to "catch up". Therefore, once the DR has been submitted, it goes into a 15-minute wait queue. After 15 minutes, our system downloads the XML feed once again to see if any change has been made to the record corresponding to the product in question.

• If a change has been detected in the XML record, then the DR flag will be silently cleared, automatically. No emails are dispatched, and all is assumed to be well.
• If no change has been detected in the XML record, then an email describing the discrepancy is dispatched to the POC(s) on file. The subject line of the email contains "User-submitted discrepancy"

If a DR email is sent, AmmoSeek will manually review the report to verify its veracity. If there does indeed appear to be a discrepancy, then the product in question is added to the Block List. (Retailers can view items they have blocked on their Status/Info Page). If we're unable to verify the claim made by the user, then we clear the discrepancy flag, and no harm is done.

If a product is added to the Block List, it is prevented from appearing in our listings. The product will remain on the Block List until a change is detected in the feed (presumably a fix to the problem). If a change is detected, or the item is removed from the feed, the item is automatically removed from the Block List.

Product blocks may be automatically removed, but they are not forgotten. If the same problem is detected in the future, another DR email is dispatched (this time with a "User-submitted discrepancy REPEATED..." subject line) and the item is automatically blocked again, without ever being listed.

Therefore, if you are receiving "REPEATED" discrepancy reports, it means that problematic items are appearing/disappearing/reappearing in your XML data feed. The problem should be corrected immediately to avoid receiving additional emails of this nature.

(Side note: some blocks cannot be automatically removed. If the change that fixes the discrepancy results in a change to the corresponding record in the XML feed, then this can be detected by our system and the block will be automatally removed. However, if the change is only to your web site (e.g. changing a price on your site to match the price in the feed) then our system has no way to know that any correction has been made, and the block will persist. In such cases, please contact us to request that we remove the block. The best way to reach is us is to reply to the 'User-submitted discrepancy' email you received).

If you have any questions about this process, please feel free to contact us.