How about this one? --- We had a buyer choose UPS, and UPS was not picking up ground shipments on December 24th, nationwide. (Yes, they were delivering, but delivery is different from pick-up...) Yet eBay said we had to ship the item on the 24th anyway. How do we do that if UPS is literally not picking ground shipments up? I don't think it's right to change the shipping method to one the buyer did not select (USPS). He had the option of USPS when he checked out and he didn't choose it. Maybe for good reason. Who am I to take that decision back out of his hands?
I think eBay needs to take into account the difference between UPS and USPS, at a minimum. Personally, I don't think they should require any sellers to ship on the 24th, as this is an observed holiday for the government and many businesses. (A similar argument exists for the 31st.) Yet eBay wants to force people to be open or take a shipping defect? When it's highly unlikely the customer will get the item by Christmas anyway?
While the 24th may not have been a nationwide USPS holiday, their own site said hours could vary from location to location. So how does eBay know what my location's hours are? If my PO is closed or has limited hours, do they expect me to drive to the next nearest town to drop packages off??
eBay, the answer seems sooo simple. Why not just allow sellers who want to be open and ship on the 24th (and 31st) do so if they are able, but not require it? It's not unreasonable to expect some sellers might be closed because of the circumstances. (No UPS pick-up service and a holiday many people are observing.) You are unnecessarily punishing sellers at the time of year they've been working hardest and are ready for a break...
A large number of people had off on the 24th (and will again on the 31st). Isn't someone who is expecting a seller to be shipping on those days, by any means possible, a hypocrite? They like their own holiday but they want to force you not to take one yourself...
...Until this is resolved (if ever), if you won't be able to ship (or would at least like to feel you have a choice), set up your Time Away in your eBay account. (We do so @noon on the 23rd and the 30th and set it so it shows us gone on the 24th and 31st, respectively. That eliminates the 24th and 31st as shipping days in eBay's eyes.) You can choose to still allow buyers to purchase and the shipment date will reflect your away time, so you don't get punished with a defect if you can't ship on those 'holidays'. It's not ideal that sellers are forced to manually put those time away entries in when it wouldn't hurt anyone for eBay to just consider those non-mandatory shipping days, but it's the only option we could come up with that works for us. Maybe next year they'll change their policy. (Which is what I said last year, and the year before that, and...)
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