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@a_c_green wrote:
Recently I've been doing battle with the new Shipping label form in an effort to understand why anyone would need to change the existing one, or what problems they thought they were solving by doing so. A number of issues came up that really need to be addressed. What follows is a reworked discussion group posting from a couple of weeks ago in this thread here.
I had a number of shipments going out recently, so I gave it the ol' college try, frequently veering off to click the "How are we doing?" link at the bottom to report the latest oversight or redesign silliness I had just discovered. My initial rating in each report started at "2," but by the time of my, I don't know, fourth or fifth report, it had sunk to a "1." As I said in one report, "This form appears to have been designed by someone who does not know how Shipping works."
Things I noticed, in no particular order:
- There's no way of changing the Ship From ZIP designation when mailing from a post office other than that of your Return Address ZIP. It's not even shown on the form. The Ship From ZIP is needed to indicate that the shipping was correctly calculated from the ZIP code of the Accepting post office. This could be a showstopper under certain circumstances, such as a seller taking packages with him on vacation to mail when payments are received. I use it routinely when mailing my packages from my office ZIP code rather than my home ZIP.
- The new form commandeers at least double the vertical screen space of the old one, then does nothing with it. You have to scroll and scroll and scroll, or page down through acres of whitespace to complete the form.
- The new form offers alternate Shipping methods that have nothing to do with those offered in the listing, nor with the product being shipped (e.g. offering Media Mail on an item that doesn't qualify for it). Last night I was trying to ship bicycle parts, and yet I was offered Flat Rate Envelopes or Media Mail as alternate Shipping methods. This not only makes no sense (I do offer Priority Mail as an upgrade over the free First Class Package) but also has the potential for trouble if, for example, a seller who doesn't know any better falls for the cheap cost of Media Mail, then gets his non-compliant package inspected and hit with surcharges along the way.
Getting back to the Ship From ZIP issue for a moment: the survey form adds insult to injury by asking if we would like to see it added, as if it was some sort of form decoration. IT'S REQUIRED for certain circumstances (forgive me for shouting), and its absence from the original form, coupled with its mention in a survey, as if we were supposed to... vote on it, or something... strongly indicates that the redesign is being conducted by people who simply do not know what they're doing. This needs to stop.
The form has errors and omissions that should have been caught before it was ever released for testing, and (more importantly) whoever is working on it needs to show a lot more responsiveness in terms of fixing glaring oversights, such as the missing Ship From ZIP function. It's been literally weeks since that was reported, and there has been no reaction, and no correction. There is no indication that anyone is reading or acting on the feedback that is so desperately needed on that form. What were they thinking, and what problem(s) with the old form are they attempting to address?
Hi @a_c_green - thanks for this input, it's very valuable. I'll make sure that the shipping team receives it!
@tink012 wrote:
I have a question as a buyer - when I look at items on my phone, I can only click to "see other items by a seller", not their store. Yet when I go on my desktop I do have a link to their store (if they have one). I'm using an iphone. Same result using the app as using a mobile browser.
Another user told me that was on purpose, that there isn't a store link for mobile users and won't be.
Is this correct or are there plans to put a store link on the mobile platforms?
Hi @tink012, I'm looking into this for you. I'll reply to this thread when I have an answer 
@xcaliburcollections wrote:
For over 2 years my account has been crippled by ebay. With an account perfromance as high as what we have, I am being told (with being burined in Mest Match Search Results) that I have to do more then others. What happened to TRP and 100% meaning anything anymore?
Hi @xcaliburcollections - you shouldn't be expected to do more than others, though there situations in which you may be asked to adapt to changing market conditions in order to stay relevant. While TRP is a contributor to your Best Match placement, it's not the final say in where your listings rank.
If you're looking for advice on how to tweak your listings or improve your placement I strongly suggest making a thread on the Selling board - members there are a great resource and can take a look at your items and give you feedback that can be immensely helpful. Thanks!
@a_c_green wrote:
Recently I've been doing battle with the new Shipping label form in an effort to understand why anyone would need to change the existing one, or what problems they thought they were solving by doing so. A number of issues came up that really need to be addressed. What follows is a reworked discussion group posting from a couple of weeks ago in this thread here.
I had a number of shipments going out recently, so I gave it the ol' college try, frequently veering off to click the "How are we doing?" link at the bottom to report the latest oversight or redesign silliness I had just discovered. My initial rating in each report started at "2," but by the time of my, I don't know, fourth or fifth report, it had sunk to a "1." As I said in one report, "This form appears to have been designed by someone who does not know how Shipping works."
Things I noticed, in no particular order:
- There's no way of changing the Ship From ZIP designation when mailing from a post office other than that of your Return Address ZIP. It's not even shown on the form. The Ship From ZIP is needed to indicate that the shipping was correctly calculated from the ZIP code of the Accepting post office. This could be a showstopper under certain circumstances, such as a seller taking packages with him on vacation to mail when payments are received. I use it routinely when mailing my packages from my office ZIP code rather than my home ZIP.
- The new form commandeers at least double the vertical screen space of the old one, then does nothing with it. You have to scroll and scroll and scroll, or page down through acres of whitespace to complete the form.
- The new form offers alternate Shipping methods that have nothing to do with those offered in the listing, nor with the product being shipped (e.g. offering Media Mail on an item that doesn't qualify for it). Last night I was trying to ship bicycle parts, and yet I was offered Flat Rate Envelopes or Media Mail as alternate Shipping methods. This not only makes no sense (I do offer Priority Mail as an upgrade over the free First Class Package) but also has the potential for trouble if, for example, a seller who doesn't know any better falls for the cheap cost of Media Mail, then gets his non-compliant package inspected and hit with surcharges along the way.
Getting back to the Ship From ZIP issue for a moment: the survey form adds insult to injury by asking if we would like to see it added, as if it was some sort of form decoration. IT'S REQUIRED for certain circumstances (forgive me for shouting), and its absence from the original form, coupled with its mention in a survey, as if we were supposed to... vote on it, or something... strongly indicates that the redesign is being conducted by people who simply do not know what they're doing. This needs to stop.
The form has errors and omissions that should have been caught before it was ever released for testing, and (more importantly) whoever is working on it needs to show a lot more responsiveness in terms of fixing glaring oversights, such as the missing Ship From ZIP function. It's been literally weeks since that was reported, and there has been no reaction, and no correction. There is no indication that anyone is reading or acting on the feedback that is so desperately needed on that form. What were they thinking, and what problem(s) with the old form are they attempting to address?
Hi @a_c_green - I wanted to let you know that I got a response from the shipping label team based on the feedback you provided, Their response is below:
- Item 1 (ship from ZIP code) is in progress at the moment and we expect it to be live in the next few weeks
- Item 2 (too much white space / vertical scrolling) is under discussion and we are working with the design team to improve on it – the current design works well on smaller devices such as mobile, but we recognise there are improvements to be made here
- Point 3 (irrelevant services) is inherited behaviour from the old platform which also maintains every option regardless of category / dimensions. While it has been partially solved now on the new platform (Media Mail is blocked where we are confident the category is not eligible), we've agreed the team will look into hiding irrelevant flat rate services based on dimensions provided. Based on the volume of work that currently exists for this project, however, we cannot provide a timeline for implementation
