Dear Ina,
I got (shipping solution) Pirate Ship's notice that they have just implemented integration with PayPal and unfortunately leaped before I looked hard enough at all the ramifications. I'm sure I won't be alone; and while I'm sure it is going to be truly helpful for many, it is not going to work for me. In fact, it would actually create more work.
I did the integration and discovered to my horror that it does not work going forward from when I did it - rather, it "imported" PAST orders for which customers had used PayPal to pay, but as far as PayPal was concerned, were still "unshipped" because I hadn't added tracking numbers to them - which is true because I never have, and never will, use shipping/buy postage through PayPal. At present, on PirateShip, there doesn't seem to be any way to delete these records from my account, which I would like because they are completely irrelevant to PirateShip. At least Pirate Ship says they can be "ignored" and thankfully won't affect any reports I need to generate.
Some background: Earlier this year, out of the blue, PayPal froze funds in my account, which after some detective work I realized was because I had "unshipped" orders in my account, to which I had not added tracking numbers. Once I added tracking numbers, the freeze was lifted and it hasn't happened again, despite my not putting any more tracking numbers in. I do not see why I should have to do anything regarding shipping in PayPal, because PP was used only to pay for the purchase. My postage/labels come from a completely unrelated site (first Stamps.com now PirateShip). By offering guarantees on purchases (for which they demand sellers input tracking numbers) is PayPal trying to get more sellers to switch to PayPal's postage/label generating function?
Foolishly I thought being able to have address information integrated from PayPal into Pirate Ship would be easier and save time, but actually it's the opposite. I sell on Ruby Lane and also with personal connections, and many times a customer uses PayPal to pay, but asks me to mail the item to an address different than what appears on the PayPal purchase - for instance, sending a gift directly to someone else, or if they've recently moved but not updated their PP account. Unfortunately for me, I forgot that PayPal won't allow this!
Which means ADDITIONAL work for me, because I have to check what my customer specified for the shipping address on their original order and compare it to what PayPal demands. If it's different I have to make a totally different label, discarding/ignoring the PayPal integrated information.
Accordingly, for me the PayPal integration is problematic; I realized after the fact that I should never have done it in the first place. I switched to PirateShip some time ago and am MORE than absolutely, totally pleased - it's been tremendous for me. I know this integration will be truly helpful for others, just not for me. Lesson learned.
J.