Shipping Policies Changing On Their Own

[urban_picker]

Careful when listing today, I use flat rate shipping and when trying to list it is automatically changing to a generic shipping policy. 

[diamondbirdvintage]

Experiencing the same issue… tried to switch items to the correct policy in Business Policies to no avail… wound up ending the items and will wait to list. 

[vivabe]

Same problem for me as well today. While revising new listings (for postcard mailed in an envelope), I found out shipping for international standard mail envelope has been changed to international package rate. My actual shipping international mail charge is 1.90. So if some international buyer order a postcard they will pay 1.90 and I will have to mail pay package rate!!!

I tried to reassign affected listings to the correct policy and delete the wrong one (which I did not create) but it did not work. And it looks like it is spreading to more listings.

[wastingtime101 · Accepted solution]

Is this about international shipping for all 3 of you or just for one of you @urban_picker @diamondbirdvintage @vivabe ?

In reviewing my own biz policies, I can definitely spot the change and advise how to fix it.

Two days ago when looking at my biz policies there were a bunch of odd shipping choices and it appears eBay cleaned that up.

The problem with the clean up is they did not default sellers usingn the deprecated services to the current valid service.

Former choices on the left, current choices on the right:

The very first option on the left: USPS First Class Mail International / USPS First Class Package International charged package rates, not mail rates.

Earlier this year eBay added additional options to listing form & biz policies as shown on the bottom left -  I'm not sure why eBay added them since merchandise cannot be shipped through international mail service - I tend to think maybe it was an error as it occurred around the same time eBay was updating domestic First Class letter services on the listing form. Removal of those services is probably a correction of that error.

As of today, all those services in blue on the left are gone, replaced with the one service on the right in green.

I was one of the sellers that had USPS First Class Mail International / USPS First Class Package International selected with calculated rates and eBay always charged my buyers package rates. I am disappointed that option did not defer to the new USPS First Class Package International as one would expect it to. As soon as I finish writing this post I will be going in to all my biz policies, which are currently "blank" under international service and choosing the new USPS First Class Package International selection. Anybody in the same shoes as me will apparently need to do the same.

As for the USPS First Class Mail International services:

Here's documentation showing USPS does not allow merchandise to be shipped through FC mail international and has not allowed it since Jan 2018: https://www.stamps.com/article/important-usps-making-changes-first-class-mail-international-flats/

That's a stamps.com article but it does link to the USPS official ruling, and it also links (red text) to a very affordable alternative service offered through stamps.com.

All that said, some sellers do ship merchandise (postcards, stamps, etc) with untracked USPS First Class Mail International even though it is against USPS regulations. That is between the seller and USPS if they are willing to risk consequences with USPS. If you are one of those sellers, eBay is obviously not promoting the option any longer, so you would have to choose flat ship (not calculated) then choose "economy international shipping" or perhaps "standard international shipping" without specifying a service and set up flat rates.

Updating my post to add:

Even though the service selection is blank on my biz policies, my listings do still show the old USPS First Class Mail / USPS First Class Package option with calculated rates, so buyers are not having trouble making purchases. Should be pretty quick to update biz policies, thank goodness.

[vivabe]

After spending so much time trying to move the listings to the correct policy, I finally figured out how to correct the issue. The wrong policy (which I never created) was on newly listed auctions only (19). 

When I checked my business policies it shows change was "successful" but it was not. The 19 listings were still not accepting my flat international standard rate. I look into the International shipping services setting  and, sure enough, international was set on International package service. I switched to International standard service and it worked . I was then able to select my flat rate US and International policy and it did not revert. And I hope it stays that way.

What a waste of time. I did not change my shipping policy in a very long time. The only changes I make are when I change the cost, but the service, never. 

[vivabe]

I forgot to post the screenshot setting for Standard International.

[wastingtime101]

Yep @vivabe - that's the exact solution I posted above. Glad to hear it worked out for you.

I managed to get all my biz policies updated. Would have been a pain if I didn't use biz policies.

[urban_picker]

Thanks, I see that. Going to change my policies now. Why do they not address the problems when they make changes lol

[kds99]

So does this mean that my thousands of postcards listed can no longer use first class international letter with a stamp any longer? They are all changed to first class international package today but still charging the buyer only 1.50 for postage. Yikes!

[kds99]

Nevermind - I just removed all international shipping and will reinstate as time allows. That seems like a cleaner course of action.

[vivabe]

No need to cancel your international shipping. I also use stamps for international mailing, flat rate. However, you want to go to your business policies, click  International Shipping Services and make sure to click on International Standard Shipping.

If you do not correct the issue, not only your settings will be wrong, but also every time you update or revise listings in bulk, you will see warnings about shipping. That's what happened to me before I make the correction.

[kds99]

Thanks but I already pulled the plug on all international shipping. As you and others have suggested, I went into business policies for the first time but have no clue how this works. No one business policy would be useful for the multitude of types of items I sell and I can't afford to spend the next 5 years fixing a problem created by screwing up business policies. I've read all the horror stories of batched business policies over the  years.

[tori_729]

Thanks for this. I was relisting items and noticed all of the shipping policies were reverting to those hated default created ones. I should have looked into it then and there but I didn't so now I have to go through and change the copies (because if I try to change the original it says there's already another one with that policy), THEN change the original, move the listings to that one and delete the created one. PITA. Why eBay, why?

[leopatti1910]

Thanks for the info!  

[dolinks]

I am having the same issue when using sell similar item. It is creating new default policies instead of using my stored policies, and when I try to edit to fix the applicable policy, it keeps reverting to the new default policy. I am unable to fix them; every time I do an edit it just ignores the edit.