Can't Print Shipping Labels thru Bulk Editor - System Unavailable

[eagle_eye_toys]

I have been printing USPS shipping labels through eBay's bulk editor for literally years, with very few problems. But as of last Friday, 6/3/17, I am no longer able to do this. It's like someone flipped a switch and now I have suddenly lost this functionality completely.

I can open the Bulk Editor, enter in all my shipping info, change weights and dimensions and add insurance, but when I click "Purchase Labels" it goes to the processing screen as normal, but then immediately hangs and gives me the "System Unavailable - Please Check Again Later" error message. However, no matter how long I wait, this keeps happening. For example, on 6/3/17 I tried to print labels at 4:00PM, 6:00PM, and even 8:00PM (CST), and got the same error message each time. I was forced to print labels individually, which is insanely frustrating and absolutely NOT feasible going forward, as I ship a large volume of items each day. A call to eBay customer service provided absolutely zero information or assistance, as usual. I have not been charged for these labels, and the way in which the labels seem like they'll go through before suddenly cutting out to the error page leads me to beleive that there is some sort of check being performed by eBay, USPS, or PayPal that is telling the eBay servers to discard my labels, though this is only my guess. Again, this has never been a problem until last Friday, 6/3/17, which coincides with eBay deactivating Active Content. I have no active content in my listings, except for a link back to my storefront, which is now being flagged as a "Non-allowable Link," due to them not containing the target=blank formatting that eBay now demands. I don't care if eBay deactivates these links, but I am concerned that it may be related to my label issue.

I'm using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 Home 64-bit, my processor is an AMD FX-7500 Radeon R7, I use the Chrome web browser (Ver. 58.0.3029.110) and nothing, NOTHING has been added or changed in any way between last Thursday, when the bulk editor worked just fine, and last Friday, when it suddenly ceased functioning altogether. I have tried turning off all ad-blocking and anti-tracking addons, whitelisting eBay, and not using Incognito Mode (none of which caused any problems before 6/3/17) but the error is exactly the same.

Any information that anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated, even if its just a confirmation that other sellers are having the same issue.

[gatechick15]

Having the same issue since Friday as well. Yesterday I had priority mail and first class items to ship. When I used the bulk shipping, the first class labels went through but not the priority ones. Today I tried twice and was finally able to print all priority mail labels, but only when I did not select insurance. Fortunatey, all are low cost items so if something happens, I can eat it. But this is not good going forward.

No matter what browser I use or how many I times I clear cache or cookies, same problem. I've even tried going through the shipping labels and clicking on the print up to 50 labels at a time. Paypal isn't really feasible to go through either, since they are charging me more to ship than eBay. I'm sure others are having the same problem as well.

[eagle_eye_toys]

Thanks for responding! I tried printing labels through the bulk editor today, and I can confirm that I was also able to print them only when I did not select any insurance. I was able to print both First Class and Priority Mail labels without insurance.  I'm glad to figure out what was happening, but I'm still quite confused about WHY it's happening. I know that the USPS recently reduced the maximum amount of free insurance available for Priority Mail items from $100.00 to $50.00, but I have no idea if this is an eBay problem or a USPS one. However, the one thing that seems pretty clear now is that this WASN'T a problem on my end, like eBay customer service claimed when I spoke to them yesterday.

Calculating insurance amounts and associated pricing is the shipping carrier's responsibility, and ensuring that the shipping editor and related servers function correctly is eBay's responsibility. I'm pretty **bleep** off that once again they're either unaware or unresponsive about what seems to be a clear technical issue between eBay and the USPS. Meanwhile, I now have to choose between printing labels in a reasonable amount of time, or shipping items out with no insurance.

[gatechick15]

Yes, still the same issue today as well. No go when you select insurance. Sigh. This is a pain. If anyone has a work around please post it!!! Paypal is not really a great option. Sometimes the difference in shipping has been up to 50 cents in some cases.

[bowchief]

Same here- cant select USPS insurance unless they are printed seperately - cant combine orders in bulk shipping tool and add any USPS insurance...... third day. Last night couldnt list things unless it was through the "create similar" link- if I tried "create new" I got "system error Try again later....."

[gatechick15]

Well I called eBay today after 6 days of this not working. They were able to replicate the problem on their end, so we will see if they fix it.

[desdemona1013]

Same problem here.  Did they give a time frame as to when it will be fixed? I'm now going back to Paypal's multi-order shipping tool to print my labels.

[gatechick15]

The woman on the phone said to try again 2 hours after I got off the phone. It's over 3 hours now and it still isn't working. So I am not sure when.

[hvac33333]

I am having the same problem. Generates the 1st class labels but not the priority labels. Having to print priority one at a time.Called cs and got a foreigner which was 0 help also.

[eagle_eye_toys]

I'm still having this problem over a week later. Labels still won't print if I try to add insurance, and I still am being forced to print each label individually. Ignoring this issue is foolish on eBay's part and will no doubt continue to erode seller confidence in eBay's already lackluster customer service.

[bowchief]

Still cant print any labels with USPS insurance added today using bulk label tool. It just "5 labels could not be printed" for the insured ones. Called CS "selling" dept. They said they woud put in a report to technical it would be a week before they may know. I made them aware there were others as well posting the boards that also have this same issue.    

[bowchief]

Received today 6/17

We would like to let you know that your current issues that were reported is currently being worked. We are gathering evidence to help get this resolved and apologize for the time it is taking. When we are able to find a solution we will send you an email or if you get any new information with screen shots you can give us a call back so we can add it to your report. 

Thanks,

eBay

[moonyahoo]

Failed for 2 days.  Tried clearing cache and cookies but it didn't help.  Started to work again for me late last night.

[jtzvwbug]

From Announcements:

Label Printing Issue Impacting Some Sellers

[jtzvwbug]

Added to the Announcement:

**6/17 Update** We have rolled out a fix to all sellers to address the label printing issues on the eBay labels platform resulting from the Microsoft patch.

You may notice some changes within the printing process. The fix requires the label to be printed as a PDF instead of an image file. When you print a new shipping label, you will see a PDF preview of the label on the Print Postage Label confirmation page instead of an image preview.

For the vast majority of users, this PDF solution works without issues. However, Firefox users with the built-in PDF viewer may still face formatting issues with printed labels. eBay recommends these users install Adobe Reader and change Firefox settings to use Adobe Reader to view PDFs in the browser (see Mozilla support article for more details).

If you attempted to print labels and faced an issue, you should not attempt to reprint those labels. Instead, please void the original labels and print new labels.
As we mentioned, eBay will ensure this issue will not impact your seller performance metrics by removing late shipments and removing the tracking upload requirements for any impacted transactions.

We will continue to monitor the situation closely. If you are still experiencing issues, please contact Customer Service.