Ebay system randomly over riding my custom Shipping policies on Active Listings to FREE SHIPPING

[teedebor-1]

For the past several months my sales have been going down lower and lower.  I used to sell between $700 and $1200 montly, not a ton, but enough to bother.  Often 2 to 4 items daily...Not so much anymore. I'm lucky if I can sell a single item each week at this point. The ebay system raandomly continues to change my Custom Shipping Policies in place on my Listings to, their favorite, naturally, FREE SHIPPING.  I am sure this is a large contributing factor to my decline in sales. I have been offering the same variety of items since I started this in 2015.  I can only imagine if I am being plauged by this glitch there are even more affecting my account that I'm unaware of.

I am not even able to maintain adding new Listings anymore since I must go and check all of my currently listed items daily to see if there are any changes to my shipping policies. I have it typed out in the item description what I am using as a shipping policy for each item so at least I don't have a bunch of orders to cancel, just hardly any at all.

Buyers see there is a discrepancy and figure if my information is inconsistent I'm a careless Seller then...move on to the next. I will be closing my store when my current subscription ends. It's too annoying and I'm not making any money so what's the point. 

I haven't called C/S. With just a basic store subscription, 9 out of 10 times I spend way too much time explaining my issues to one, often more, individuals that speak my only language as their second, and not very fluently, way too often to bother.  It just adds to the frustration that I am already paying to experience.  Teedebor-1

[dhbookds]

I see 116 items with free shipping and you state in the descriptions, it is free........ 

Can you give an item # of one ebay changed to free shipping and you had to change back....?

[teedebor-1]

Sure the 3 that I changed back today were ID# 163455659404, 163500551082, 163461775757.  Looking into any one of those should point to the issue. The reason that they are correct is because I go thru them daily now that I know what is happening. Thanks.

[berserkerplanet]

(you are not talking to eBay here - only other users. If you don't provide information and things for us to look at we can't help)

All three of those show calculated shipping at the moment (2am PT). Come back and let us know when "eBay changes" them again before you fix them so they can be scrutinized.

There is no known problem where this occurs that I'm aware of (there is years old an ongoing issue where the mobile app shows buyers free shipping when it is not, but those listings still show correct shipping to desktop viewers since the problem is on the app/viewer side - not on the seller/listing side)

[dhbookds]

All three of those are relists, and the originals did not have free shipping, nor were they revised, while they were running.  If simply relisted, there would seem to be no reason for the new, present listings, to have free shipping.

All new listings were revised 1/23.......I presume they are your revisions. 

only 163455659404 shows revision to shipping........

Oddly, all show a change on returns from NO to a restocking fee???? 

Item Specifics: - Return Policy
Changed Restocking Fee from No to --

Did you change that for some reason?  restocking fees are no longer allowed.  Did that somehow get changed or did you change it?  (Am just trying to find anomalies)

  Don't understand why the other two would not show revisions to shipping.......

Beserk does have a point that free shipping has been know to show on mobile devices, even when the listing actually has shipping charged.  I assume you are on a pc? 

@teedebor-1 

[teedebor-1]

Hi. I have made no changes to the return policy on any but one listing in the past few months which was an item that had "NO Returns" to "Accepting Returns".  I realize that there are no stocking fees allowed so it would be pointless to change that myself.  I have noticed other changes in my shipping policies not just to Free (most recently) but from a set amount of cost which has randomly changed to a different set cost. At first I assumed that I had accidentally hit it with my mouse to make it change in my policy list but once I became aware of it I know that it was not my doing, thereafter.  For example, this is the only case I am aware of that the Buyer paid an amount different from what I had stated in the Listing that had been changed mysteriously to a different shipping price, not set by me. Item (163451271360). The Buyer paid $15.00.  It was meant to be $14.00 OR $18.00, his choice.  I have no idea how it was changed. Thank you for looking into this.

[teedebor-1]

I was just looking at this Listing, #163454131576 NY&Co Sweater, it shows up as $5.25 OR $7.50 for shipping. I open it to reduce the price, make price changes and a few description changes, go to close it out AND whoa, the shipping is NOW FREE! I did not touch it prior to after this, I went and manually placed it back on the correct policy. Hope this helps.

[dhbookds]

yep, see no revision to shipping, but the return thing again..........  let's ask an expert.....

@Anonymous 

Can you make heads or tails of these problems? 

[dhbookds]

That sounds like something in the revision process is triggering the free shipping to come in.......

Hopefully Trinton can help.....he can look at more of the back stuff than we can and do a test to see if he can replicate.........

[berserkerplanet]

There may be something weird going on with revision logging. I made a series of shipping section changes to a listing a day or two ago for testing something I can't recall, and the listing revisions showed a single description modification entry for those instead. Wish I'd paid more attention at the time and could recall which listing it was.

[dtexley3]

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@teedebor-1 wrote:

I was just looking at this Listing, #163454131576 NY&Co Sweater, it shows up as $5.25 OR $7.50 for shipping. I open it to reduce the price, make price changes and a few description changes, go to close it out AND whoa, the shipping is NOW FREE! I did not touch it prior to after this, I went and manually placed it back on the correct policy. Hope this helps.

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Hi, 

How are you revising these listings?  Are you using a phone or tablet app or desktop browser.?  If you are using a browser, which one and are you using the Advanced Listing tool or the basic listing tool?

All the apps and the basic listing tool will try to default your listing to free shipping when you are relisting, not usually when you edit, but it wouldn't surprise me.

[teedebor-1]

I forgot to mention previously when I am creating a Listing and upload 5 or 6 photos, leave the page open without saving it, go to my Google photos in another window make a collage to add to the Listing, get back to the Ebay Listing page which is still oprn, all the photos previously uploaded have disappeared. It has been going on for about a month now. It just happened in the Listing I'm working on right now. Thanks

[teedebor-1]

Hi. I am Re-Listing on a laptop which is the same device I've used for 2 years now.  I use Selling Manager, I think it is basic I really don't know.  It's not an item I pay extra for.  Thanks

[berserkerplanet]

That shouldn't be happening and I've never heard of it happening. I leave listings in that state all the time for days, and they don't change - I think I've even restarted the browser with listings in a half revised state, and the listing form comes right up just the way it was before the restart.

There is either something oddly broken with your account, or your laptop (malware?), or whatever browser you are using is sub-par. (I'm assuming Chrome from your mention of Google photos).

Are you not uploading photos from your laptop hard drive to eBay but instead are uploading via URL - cloud hosted photos? That could be the key. I have no idea how that aspect of the eBay photo uploader works, but it may be that photos are not really "uploaded" when referenced by URL, and are only completely obtained by eBay at or after listing submission.

[teedebor-1]

Sorry, yes I use Chrome. I tried  the new Windows 10 browser when I bought this laptop but it was exceptionally glitchy with Ebay so I switched back to Chrome.  I have an active subscription to McAfee Livesafe which has been in place since the day I bought this laptop. My windows 10 is updated regularly.  I don't think I have a virus. Is it something that you could tell with remote access?  I'd gladly grant this to you. The device is 95% for Ebay. I have personal Email but not much else.

I have always had issues with Ebays software on every device, the laptop and the home pc I used prior to it.  What I mean is when I am typing the "text" of my Listing, anything below the data fields up top in the "body" whatever "font" I select it is always reverting to Arial. I used to use Western and Georgia but since we started having the ability to check Listings with the "Mobile friendly checker" I have used Tahoma exclusively, except for when the system auto reverts the text back to Arial.  I have never ever complained about this since I figured it was an option.  Not a real need, I could use Arial but I do not like it.  However it is maddening to tell the truth.  I have become so used to picking out random pieces of sentences which have reverted to the Arial that I can normally spot it immediately when 3 or 5 words in the middle of 200 just randomly revert on me.  They look quite similar. Each time I re-list with any revisions, I go thru every word of the entire Listing to check for the Arial.  If I can't be sure, Ill move the mouse thru each line of text and read what font it says the text is with the word processing features. This takes alot of time but I don't like the Listing to look like a mess, like I don't care.  In the process of creating a Listing I have to correct the text font at least 3 times each and every time I list an item.  I assumed it was a glitch that everyone just managed with.  Maybe it's not.

I have several of the paragraphs in my Listings saved as "Listing Templates" in my "Seller Hub" when I create a Listing I can easily insert this info. SOMETIMES when the Listing expires and I'm reviewing it, I find that these "Templates" location, the exact specific order that I place them in each time is all jumbled up.  The "Shipping" section is at the bottom of the page, the "Signature" near the top...etc. and they need to be all re-arranged.  I know 100% that the change occured after I clicked "LIST THE ITEM". I often look the entire thing over once I've pressed "List" and throughout the "Listing Active" period but this takes so much time.

As far as the photos that I have placed into the Listing that is open in an unfinished state, I use a memory card that I transfer from my camera to the laptop. The photos that have been put into the Listing come from that card, which is still in the computer, it remains there until I am ready to take more photos.  I don't store them on the computer. There is not alot of space on the hard drive. The photos that I am working on to create a collage of multiple photos are in my Google photos where I uploaded them from the removable memory card in my pc.  I do not know how to make a collage on any other program that I have acess to.  But those aren't the ones going missing anyway. Except occasionally I have had all the photos in a saved draft dissappear.  

I have also had entire "Drafts" dissappear from time to time...several. It says I can save 500 or 5000 but I have nothing over a few months old, they vaporize.  Which is frustrating because it takes me alot of time to create. I don't just slap a photo and price I actually create a Listing of the item.

I'm not trying to complain about every little thing here but if these things are related, or you can say my account is no good or whatever so I can get to a better state than this, is the goal. I don't expect the system to be perfect but functioning really good would be great. So bottom line, if you can say for certain that it is my equipment causing the issues that I have I will replace it.   I do think it is the software but I'm not a computer person either.  So thanks for looking into this.  I am grateful & hopeful. Debbie