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.

[bowchief]

Thanks but we are running a mac and have tried adding insurance to usps labels on chrome safari opera and Firefox after re boot, cache history clearing, etc.... it won't  print any insured labels just uninsured ones. Have to print each insured one separately so no scan sheet. 

[selvon2006]

That doesn't seem to be the issue most people are having in this particular thread. If you are trying to use bulk labels and add insurance it refuses to print. I can print bulk priority labels no problem as long as I do not select insurance. Otherwise, If I want insurance I have to do individual labels.

I wish eBay would fix this, it has been over 2 weeks now. Customer service sounded more confused than I was.

[myuniquemarket]

Hi ,

if you haven't found a solution to the problem of printing your shipping labels yet, I want to let you know that you can buy the shipping labels directly from PayPal. Just make sure you void the ones you have already bought from Ebay. 

[bowchief]

If the comm plus price discount was reflected in other platforms it would be feasible but going forward who knows whether PayPal will continue to network with eBay i.e. Uploading tracking to all order pages, combining orders that buyers can't figure out how to, etc... wouldn't it be easier if the service my fees are taken for was working?  It's costing us time money and extra ink and paper to print individually and have them not be on  one scan sheet.  the only urgency seems to be if we don't perform OUR obligations,  yet the promised tools to meet those requirements don't seem to be accessible. I pulled up an august 2016 posting showing screens shots of this exact problem from another seller.............still hearing crickets 

[gatechick15]

Have you or anyone else been able to print the labels yet with inurance? I tried today. I had a first class package and a priority. I selected insurance for the priority and once again, only the first class label printed out.

[bowchief]

Nope- never got another respons efrom CS- I spent 3.40 on Shp Cover insurance for  2 first class shipments today to test and see if I could bulk print if I selected ShipCover insurance instead of USPS.

Sure enough- went right through for the more expensive option of using Ship Cover vs free up to 100.00 worth of USPS for being "TOP RATED".  Our fee discount was sliced in half and now we have to pay more to insure things IF we want to bulk print rather than do individual labels and no scan sheet, making the PO trip longer and more work separating the bulk scan sheeted items and the individually labeled ones, as well as more ink and paper to process one by one..... Do I can and get a credit for having to test the other option to help them figure out why we cant bulk select USPS ins, or do I eat it. Doin alot of that lately.......

[gatechick15]

I sent a tweet to @AskeBay yesterday. Someone did reply, but I have not heard anything yet as to whether they are doing anything. I think I am just going to keep tweeting. Maybe something will get fixed, eventually.

[767flight]

I have been trying for over 2 weeks now to print from paypal multi shipping and all it does it print a blank page.  I am not selecting insurance and it still doesn't print.  This is totally unacceptable..........

[bowchief]

Called CS and tried printing just insured all together, no- tried going off of iPad, no- tried several browsers, no. Just SYSTEM UNAVAILABLE message.

Lawrence the CS rep said  he put through a new ticket number so if you are having this problem now would be a good time to to chime in and garner some attention. . Squeaky wheel gets the grease?.... Am printing individual labels for 13 items on top of a scan sheeted 14 of non insured today.

[767flight]

Hi even my first class with no insurance will not print out on the paypal multi shipping site.

[bowchief]

This has been escalated thru the CS rep Lawrence calle dus on July 4th- a holiday no less- to inform us It is now an "official bug" on the site and engineering dept. is working on a tweek. The service request ID is 1-120352155197 and will reference the history of the complaints. Process individually until it is sorted out. This guys was a big help and worked with us through several platforms, hardware software etc.... 

Keep calling, tweeting, and hopefully soon......

[pilgrimelectronics]

I had 1 Priority Mail (2 combined shipments) and 4 1st Class Packages to ship thru bulk shipping today. After adding insurance to the Priority package, I noticed that the column for Delivery Confirmation changed from "Free" to "-" (just a hyphen). And when I went to pay for the labels, of course only the 1st Class packages went thru.

After printing the valid labels, I went back to try to buy bulk postage for the remaining 2 combined shipments and after adding insurance, I got a System Unavailable message.

The third time, I skipped adding USPS insurance (which is technically not needed if your package is under $100 for comm plus or $50 for comm) and it went thru this time, except that the postage amount printed on the label when our default is to hide the postage amount.

[767flight]

Thank you.  I am so fed up with this printing issue.

[gatechick15]

Thank you!!! I have been tweeting, and was told someone would get back to me but they never did. I assumed it was because of the holiday. I am going to tweet again with this information. Hopefully they fix it soon. I feel your pain with having to print out individual labels. I'm fortunate, I know my P.O. people really well. They are patient and don't mind but the customers behind me get annoyed.

[desdemona1013]

I got messages back from ebay stating they were "working on it" and they were happy I found a "work around" ??? **bleep**?? I told them the ONLY work around was to go through Paypal's multi-order shipping and bypass ebay completely. I refuse to print multiple labels individually through ebay (which is the only way to do it when insurance is added), and my mail guy really appreciates one scan sheet for my fat little hard-to-scan jewelry packages.

Has anyone else noticed when they add the insurance (either way, USPS or ship cover) the word "FREE" in the tracking column goes away and there's a blank space?  It appears that the connection between the USPS tracking number and the package goes away, when insurance is added.  For whatever that's worth, I mentioned that to the ebay rep.