Buyer selected UPS Ground but all options but USPS greyed out.

[cdub661]

I have been selling on eBay and shipping products for years. I always use UPS or FedEx. My last two items to ship the only option was USPS even though I had UPS as the option and that is the buyer selected option. USPS is twice the price of UPS ground because of the weight and dimensions. I have talked to at least 10 people at eBay including shipping, managers(supposedly). NOBODY can tell me why the options are greyed out. I still have 3 more items to ship and still only USPS available. If I have to keep using USPS I will be loosing money on them. eBay has said it was a computer glitch, updates from UPS and FedEx, account issues... blah blah blah. There seems to be nobody that can help. The addresses to ship to are normal addresses and I can't believe 5 addresses in a row have issues. Help... anyone...please. 

[wastingtime101]

The typical culprits are either the buyer has an address where UPS won't deliver (like a PO Box) or that you didn't expand the shipping options on the label page. Have you verified that UPS will ship to the addresses in question?

The screenshot below shows how you can de-select carriers like USPS and show only the carriers you want to see. If that's not working then we would need more info - maybe a screenshot - to help figure this out.

[cdub661]

Thanks but it is 5 different items to ship to five different customers around the US and no UPS or FedEx options are available. They are all greyed out. I've been shipping with them a long time so used to the screens etc. It just isn't available. If it was just one shipping company I might think it was a glitch but both UPS and FedEx not shipping tells me it is something on the eBay Side. I just keep chasing my tail with them trying to find out.

[wastingtime101]

I can suggest an immediate work-around until this is figured out.

Sign up for an account at pirateship.com - it will integrate with your eBay account and the UPS Ground rates are comparable.

[richard1rst]

For what it is worth I have both UPS and FedEx available on my screen so I doubt that it is eBay doing it.

I agree with wastingtime101 - I regularly use Pirateship and sometimes (not always) they are cheaper than eBay.

There is one thing you might want to look at:

At the top of the shipping page are 2 buttons. One says "custom size" and the other says "carrier packaging".

If you click carrier packaging then only USPS shows up. Click custom size and they all appear.

[cdub661]

Thanks, I'll look at Pirate Ship. I did not know they did more than USPS. As to the carrier packaging, no that is not selected. It defaults to custom which is what I have to use. Good to know it is working for most folks though.

[wastingtime101]

I've now come across 3 discussions in less than a week reporting this problem (link 1, link 2, link 3) so maybe there's a commonality we can figure out to solve it.

@Anonymous @cdub661 @letsgetkraken2021 

What have you guys tried so far?

• cdub already confirmed the suggestion in post 2 above did not work.
• cdub and estateliq confirmed factors such as package size and non-eligible shipping addresses (like PO Boxes) are not the problem.
• What browser are you all using and have you tried a different one?
• Do you have a second eBay selling account and are you having the same issue on the other account?
• estateliq reported that they're getting a non-sufficient funds message. Do you see the same message cdub and jgedasilva?
• Have you tried switching the payment source from eBay funds to PayPal?

[letsgetkraken2021]

Thank you for the Pirate Ship recommendation... that is how I got my item shipped out today. All signs point to the system simply not allowing an alternate payment method (non-Ebay powered) for a UPS or FedEx label when the available funds balance is negative due to a hold for pending return. Whether or not this is on purpose or not on eBay's part, who knows.

I will give an update once the return is accepted, the hold is lifted, and the refund is processed. It is taking a long time because the returned item is a watch that went through eBay Authenticity Guarantee so there are extra return steps.

Lastly, it is possible this is only an issue for a certain level of negative balance (e.g. if you are $10 in the hole maybe it is not a problem). I say that because this return was a high value item (>$1,000) so maybe the cutoff for blocking these labels is set at a certain level that is rarely triggered. Just a hypothesis if others have not had the same issue with smaller return holds.

[hudsonsellers]

I just ran into this problem for the first time. I googled:

Note: UPS cannot deliver to a PO Box. If you cannot obtain a street address and use a PO Box, the telephone number of the recipient must be on the label. A shipment addressed to a PO Box can experience delays, is not covered by any UPS service guarantees, and is assessed an address correction surcharge.

Mine was for  P.O.Box - and yes - it's twice as expensive 😞