eBay Says New Shipping Screen Is Here to Stay

by: Silver Ice King

Once again Ebay thinks they know best on everything  and refuses to listen to their sellers.  The only way they will listen and maybe change things back is when they lose the revenue to other shipping platforms.  Stamps.com offers all Ebay sellers an account that is free of the monthly fee and they import all of your orders and then transfer all of the tracking information back to Ebay so that you meet all of Ebays shipping requirements.  They do not accept Paypal for payment but that is easily taken care of by getting a Paypal debit card and using that to pay for your shipping costs.  The majority of their rates are the same as Ebay unless you are Top Rated and ship using Priority Mail then its an additional 3% if I remember correctly.

The other advantage is that they keep their data available for years rather than 90 days so if a scammer tries to claim INR after 90 days you still have the information available to fight the claim.  Ebays CEO is a complete idiot who seems to think if its not broken then they need to have the incompetent offshore programmers break it so the Sellers have only useless tools to use.  Remember these are the same programmers who still cannot get the American holidays programmed correctly so Sellers get late shipment defects for July 4th, Memorial Day, Labor Day and so many more and Ebay continues to laugh it off as something that we will take care of, but usually don't.

Why should the Sellers have to continue to put up with the incompetence of these programmers and a useless CEO who believes in Disruptive Technology and is dragging the entire platform and company down the drain.  Ebay needs to replace Devin Wenig ASAP if they want to have any chance to survive as he seems intent on destroying the company now that it has become obvious he is going to be canned as soon as Elliott has their board seat and they have their next Shareholders meeting.

by: ebayout

The worthless screen also forces you to change the shipping date for labels run after 5PM.
You can run a label today at 11PM and it'll show today's date.
THAT'S what I hate.

by: sasikat9

Gesh just didn't know anyone shipped anything with Ebay. Must be new users cause us old timers definately use a different program.

by: Lucy🌸

EBay has a big glitch on all my listing. I am not enrolled in GD and am not eligible for Fast n Free. I have my handling shipping time set for 3 days and offer free shipping. All my listing say. “ Free delivery in 3 days.” In red and that is guaranteed. It shouldn’t say that when my handling time is set for 3 days. I never enrolled in GD. This did not use to say this. It is impossible for a lot of packages to get to places in 3 days. Plus my handling time is set for 3 days. This will ruin my business because I will start getting negatives when they don’t get their packages in 3 days. Called 4 times. They think I have a bug and sent to tech department. Sellers if you see this on your listings that means they are guaranteeing your items. I would call them. This is the worse glitch I have had. I hope they get this off my page.

by: CanBrit

It really does suck when you're just shipping one label. I've selected priority shipping then moved down to add insurance. By the time I got back to the top of the page, it had changed the shipping from Priority back to First Class. What a bunch of Do Do.

I think a lower grade school class IT project should take on eBay for a week. I'm sure it would improve things. Duh!!

by: Snapped

It's a form of job security really.  If they do all their ''working hard'' fixing all the existing glitches, they'll have no purpose left.  

But if they keep introducing 'enhancements', especially if they're more cumbersome, confusing and inefficient - and themselves glitch infected, well, THAT's job security.

And if those enhancements also create issues with buyers, thus cost to sellers, well, that's a BONUS!  

Bet you thought there was a chance they actually cared.

by: Lightning

I use Ebay Shipping almost 100% of the time.  For the most part, it works ok, even the new page.  Better than paying for a 3rd party service.  The Bulk Ship page works well, international still uses the old page.  It took a bit of getting used to at first, but I learned long ago to just start adopting the new formats.  That way you are prepared for the day they pull them out from under you.

But NO QUESTION that they should have just left the old page as it was.  Years and years of tweaking to get it to work well for everyone, and then they just chuck it in favor of a ''new design''.  They have screwed up EVERY page on their site, when there was no need.  If you can add 15%-20% more function to a page, then that's worth changing it.  Instead, they change the ''appearance'' of the page - tabs instead of links, portrait instead of landscape to fit a phone, shuffling the tools around so you can't find them.  LESS function, after all their changes.  

They have messed up the Purchases page, Watch List page, Search page, you name it.  All in the name of ''change''.  PayPal does the same thing.  If the page DIDN'T change between consecutive sessions, I'd drop on the floor dead.  They just can't stop meddling.  

Someone in a new position coming in saying ''I can revamp our pages so that they are more functional''.  Trying to justify the need for their job.  Then they throw all the components in a bag and shake it.  A few will spill out along the way - no problem.  We probably didn't need that Sold Items link anyway (or whatever is next to disappear).  Let me mix up this seller's tools so he has to take a week to find them again.  Then next month we'll rotate everything one place clockwise.

by: pace306

You can ALWAYS count on eBay to do the wrong/stupid/illegal thing ... I for one am not suprised!

by: geoffreymason

I handle my shipping the old-fashioned way -- manually -- and have no problems. Of course, ebay doesn't like it, but so what?

by: ecommbyte

>''How do you like our label printing? Tell us what you think''

Click ''Tell us what you think'' link and get this error:

>''Survey unavailable at this time''
>''Thanks for your interest in this survey, please note we only allow one response per day. If you need support, please visit Help & Contact.''

REALLY!!!??? Only ONE Response per day????? AND it is LIMITED to ONLY 500 characters!

I would like to send SEVERAL feedbacks since the feedback text box is LIMITED to ONLY 500 characters!

Actually, the feedback text box is LIMITED to LESS THAN 500 characters!!  (somewhere between 470 and 495!)

We ship over 5000 packages a year with the eBay Label page, and EVERY additional keystroke and mouse-click takes time and adds up, so EVERY keystroke and mouse-click we can save helps save time!

by: RKTOYS

@ebayout
Sadly, the USPS page has the same problem with not selecting a smart ship date.

by: Silver Ice King

@Lightning

"I use Ebay Shipping almost 100% of the time.  For the most part, it works ok, even the new page.  Better than paying for a 3rd party service. "

That is why I mentioned Stamps.com as they offer a free Ebay account to all Ebay Sellers so there is no 3rd party service fee to be paid.  Besides having the information stored for a longer period of time which helps with phony INR's after 90 days, you can print labels through out the day or weekend and then still include them on one scan sheet for USPS.  I the 3 years i have been using them I have only seen their site down when I needed to ship 1 time, where Ebay is constantly having issues.  

They also do not continue to play around with the design so that Sellers have to constantly spend their time adjusting to more unnecessary changes just for the sake of changing the look.  Stamps.com did recently do a makeover of everything on their site and once it was live I have not had anything major to speak of and if i do have an issue they have great customer service who will remotely log in and work to fix your issues.  

Since this is how they make their money naturally they make sure things are working unlike ebay who has so many different revenue streams that they are never an expert on any of them.  I highly recommend changing to Stamps.com from Ebay shipping program as you will  not have to put up with Wenigs Disruptive Technology disrupting your ability to get your work done, plus you take money out of Ebays pockets as they make money on every label that you print from their site as they as well as other shipping programs negotiate lower prices and keep most of it for their profits.  Ebay used to pass some of it on tot he sellers but that went away around the same time that Wenig took over as CEO, once again needing to show growth.  

by: Vigilant Eye On eBay

Have not seen the new shipping screen because I use Pirate Ship, which imports your eBay orders, automatically forwards the tracking information to eBay, and provides discounted USPS commercial plus pricing (i.e., the same rate that Top Rated Sellers get from eBay) without any monthly service fees.

In addition, because a PayPal business debit card is used to make all of my Pirate Ship payments, I receive 1% cash back from PayPal on a monthly basis.

This is not the case with eBay shipping, where a PayPal debit card cannot be used because payments made to eBay are drawn directly from one's existing PayPal funds, or the bank account or credit card associated with said account.

by: Lightning

@SIK
Thank you for the assist, but I don't see where that is available.  I keep hearing people say Stamps.com is free, but it sure doesn't look that way to me.  There is a free 4 week trial, and you get $5 free shipping credit, and if you stay, a $10 additional credit.  Free scale, just pay shipping for the scale.  BUT, then it goes to $17.99/mo.  Here's what it says on their site:

Digital Scale Included* with Sign-up
Every new customer account starts with:
   Free 5 lb. Digital Scale*, connects via USB
   4-week trial
   $5 in USPS postage to use in trial period
   Free Supplies Kit including postage labels
   Additional $10 postage coupons to use after trial
   Only $17.99 per month plus applicable taxes, if any, including the first month if you stay past the 4-week trial
   *pay only S&H fee

Here's the url for that: https://www.stamps.com/shipping/ebay-plan-features/

At the top of the page in the "breadcrumbs" area it says:
    Home>Shipping>Free eBay Plan Features

Notice it says the word Free.  Note that the url is similar, but does NOT say Free.

Maybe it has changed and you have been grandfathered in.  If ANYONE can point me to where this is a totally free offer for ebay sellers or other online sellers (NOT $17.99), I'd appreciate it.

Also looks like it says $17.99 per month INCLUDING the first month, meaning the trial is only "free" if you DON'T subscribe.  So you try it, you leave, no cost. Otherwise, that first month "trial" becomes billable, unless I am reading that incorrectly.  I don't know how else to interpret this: "Only $17.99 per month plus applicable taxes, if any, including the first month if you stay past the 4-week trial"

In the meantime, I'll check out that Pirate Ship service.

by: Silver Ice King

@Lightning

Try calling their 800 number and ask customer service for the free
Ebay account.  That is what others, including myself, have done.  I hear Pirate is cheaper but have not tried it because almost all of my shipments are up to 4 ounce FCP which is pretty much a standard cost from every site.  Last I heard they still were giving the free accounts out because it is still found money on the postage they make.  At that time I was also offered a free scale but declined as I already had one and did not need another.  i don't think the free scale comes with the Free Ebay account now but don;t hold me to that either.

Good luck either way you go as both sites seem to have happy customers and if Ebay loses that money I am all for it.  I had used their site for years without ever thinking about changing until they refused to honor the $.06 difference in the first 4 ounces for FCP about 3 years ago until it hurt their bottom line from so many Sellers going to other sites, then we got ":You spoke and We Listened" comment as usual.  Ebay never listens to its sellers unless we hit their bottom line, then we suddenly are no longer just noise.

by: Rexford

eBay can never stick by something that is simple and something that works. And as someone noted above, they never listen to their sellers.

Always change for the sake of change.  Folks at eBay having to justify their jobs by ALWAYS recreating the wheel.

by: NoMoreEbay

Another day another major change. They come in so regular, so fast and furious every single day after day after day after year after year. And in the end, they really don't do anything but move this left, put that at the bottom. Change the color to blue. Delete this, add that. A bunch of worthless busy work to keep unnecessary outsourced staff on the payroll. All while frustrated sellers shake their heads in bewilderment and disgust.

ebay may very well be the most dysfunctional company in the western world.

by: iheartjacksparrow

Regarding postage services, I'd just like to mention Endicia, which is what I've used for years. It's $9.95 per month, and well worth the cost. I've had to contact customer service twice during my time using them, and the CSRs are so knowledgeable and helpful and spend whatever time it takes to resolve the issue. Plus their label program is so easy to use. Endicia and Stamps.com are now the same company, and I was very happy that my monthly fee did not go up (I deduct the cost as a business expense, but it's still nice not paying more during the year).

by: Number 6

You can be sure that once everyone is forced into ebay's 'managed payments' system, the next money grab will be forced to use ebay's shipping only, for more fees.

Of course, this will be announced with 1 weeks notice and it will be 'for sellers convenience to help you sell your item'.

Over at Amazon, for all their faults, the fee structure is clear, upfront and honest.  You know where you stand and can make business and pricing decisions accordingly.

If you pay $40 as a pro seller, you can list any number of items (admittedly on non-gated items), not some paltry ebay 'store' amount then more each extra item, and the only fees Amazon then collects is a 'referal fee' [which pretty much comes out of your shipping allowance same as ebay does] and a % of the sale price WHEN IT SELLS.  No GTC, no relist fees, no Paypal fees, no ebay 'fee' to 'manage your payments' as if they are doing you a favour collecting your money for you by enforcement.

The returns system is reasonably fair, open and honest, and customer service will deal with you if you encounter problems.    You can transfer funds to your bank account daily once you are in good standing.

Amazon is far from perfect, but if you provide the quality of customer service they expect from third party sellers, they don't put new hurdles and money-grabs in your way every few weeks, entirely change their rules and game their search engine and call you 'noise' just to put the boot in.

It's funny how Wenig wants to copy everything about Amazon except the good things it does.

by: RL15

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