total_sales meta key alway incrementing

[jawad-ahmed]

Hello,

Wordpress v4.4.2 / WooCommerce v2.5.5/ StoreFront theme

I think I have found a bug. I have confirmed this with another plugin developer who has been able to replicate this issue. The meta key 'total_sales' increments when an order is placed. Subsequently, when a order status is changed to 'Refunded', 'Cancelled' or Trashed, it should deduct the 'total_sales', but this does not happen.

Instead, it remains on the same number and continues to be incremented for every new sale. This essentially defeats the purpose of the 'total_sales' meta key as the data would be largely incorrect if 'total_sales' does not get negated when an order is refunded/cancelled/trashed.

Please confirm if you can replicate? All you need to do is refund/cancel/trash an order and see if 'total_sales' gets deducted or not.

Many Thanks,
Jawad

[claudiosanches]

Not a bug, see #5928

[jawad-ahmed]

Hi claudiosmweb,

I fail to see how it's working as intended though? It is called 'total_sales' which implicates the total number of times the product has sold - if it's not doing that then it would make sense to call it otherwise.

I am using a marketplace plugin which uses 'total_sales' to report how many times a product has sold. But this data is incorrect because it doesn't take into account refunded/cancelled/trashed orders.

All the thread you posted to says is that it is a lot of effort for not so much gain, but it does not stop it from being a bug.

Many Thanks,
Jawad

[claudiosanches]

You can create a new field to track it if you really need.

[jawad-ahmed]

Hi again,

Thanks for your response. I am not using it to track it. The marketplace plugin 'WC Vendors' uses this field to display the total sales of a product. Very misleading now considering it doesn't take into account order statuses. Very odd how this isn't considered a bug though?

Many thanks,
Jawad

[claudiosanches]

Just read this #5928

[jawad-ahmed]

Hi Claudio,

I have read it. The thread mentions it is too much effort for little gain. However, this is only relevant when used for best selling widget.

The problem arises when a plugin starts utilising the field to report total product sales which is the case for the marketplace plugin I am using. I will speak with them to determine if there is any benefit to using the total_sales field as it is completely inaccurate.

Many Thanks,
Jawad

[claudiosanches]

The problem arises when a plugin starts utilising the field to report total product sales which is the case for the marketplace plugin I am using.

Still not needed on WooCommerce core. As I said, if you need, you can create a plugin for it.

[ssaltman]

Just fyi, I wrote a function to deal with this.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/59538372/612127