eBay Bulk Shipping Label Printing IS HOPELESSLY BROKEN!!!!

[obtanium_enterprises]

This has been happening for more than 18 months...

Earlier today I went to print shipping labels and was presented with this:

Note where it says above "...a shipping label couldn't be printed on eBay" and "Please go to a local post office to mail them." (Think: What does that message mean to most people?)

After printing shipping labels "that COULD be printed on eBay" I went to the "Manage orders awaiting shipment" page and clicked on the "Print shipping label" link for the order whose "shipping label couldn't be printed on eBay" and was presented with this:

...which of course produced a proper "could be shipped on ebay" shipping label for the order whose "shipping label couldn't be printed on eBay." (Think: After at least 18 months of this moronity, what does THAT mean to most people?)

But it gets worse... Since eBay doesn't offer the ability to print a SCAN form on that page, unless you actually do take the package to a post office, wait in line for an eternity, and pester a clerk for a scan, you won't have proof of timely shipment and will likely be penalized by eBay for late shipping. Had eBay's bulk shipping label printing NOT BEEN HOPELESSLY BROKEN FOR AT LEAST THE PAST 18 MONTHS!!! then the package would have been included in the SCAN form.

Prediction: 18 months from now nothing will have changed.

[toomstoys]

alan@ebay

Another shipping glitch 

AND yes this has been called and reported before personally and it was shrugged off as not a big deal , "Well, you were able to print your label right? So, what's the big deal?"

TIME..........

As the OP states :

"After printing shipping labels "that COULD be printed on eBay" I went to the "Manage orders awaiting shipment" page and clicked on the "Print shipping label" link for the order whose "shipping label couldn't be printed on eBay" and was presented with this:

...which of course produced a proper "could be shipped on ebay" shipping label for the order whose "shipping label couldn't be printed on eBay."

( But, as OP noted,  you just can't include it in a batch or get a proper scan form for items that this happens to.  So I have to put post it notes on these and beg the desk clerk at the PO to scan these odd balls seperately as well as my scan sheets.)

I can almost plan on the fact (when , and as I see in the screen shot this is going to the Russian Federation - that this is going to happen) but not always, and some times it is another country, and some times RF is not affected and prints with rest of batch , so that make it even more irritating.

AND - It seemed like it did get better for a month or 2 and then started happening again..........

Another one is when the system deals with a package going to Puerto Rico...

It treats it as if it were an International shipment on the system - goes to the customs form pop up - fill in all the needed info and the it just goes into cyber space and prints a normal domestic first class or Priority mail label with none of that info needed. Another glitch wasting our time.  

Are we the only 2 users affected by ALL these glitches ? 

I seriously doubt it.  

[toomstoys]

............and just a side note - Most users would actually just give up and heed the system warning and stand in line at the counter at the post office and handle the mailing of this package at the counter, hand filling out forms and addresses and then hopefully remember to add the tracking numbers later. 

But we've dealt with it long enough to know what a glitch looks like and just ignore what it says and try again. 

[obtanium_enterprises]

So here's another facet of the brokenness...

AFTER clicking to purchase labels, Bulk Shipping will sometimes toss up a message that some labels could not be created. Typically these are international labels. Afterwards, when I go to print individual labels for the "unable to be created" orders, the problem turns out to be some issue with the buyer's address, typically that one or more address lines are too long, more than 40 characters if merember correctly...

1. Obviously eBay knows about this limitation, so why would this ever happen; why would eBay allow members to input more than 40 characters on their shipping address lines; why would eBay not require members to update non-complying shipping addresses before they can complete a purchase? (Rhetorical questions; we all know that eBay couldn't care less.)

2. After "correcting" the buyer's shipping address -- typically removing duplicated region/province name from street address line -- eBay warns that doing so -- shipping to a "different" address -- voids seller protection policy and in the event of a claim the wicked-evil-deviant seller will be subjected to pitchfork-bearing demons, fire and brimstone, eons of pain and suffering, etc. Building upon #1, eBay believes that sellers should bear the negative consequences of eBay's incompetence, like how bankers believe taxpayers should bear the negative consequences of their greed, instead of "fixing" the problem at their own expense. (As above; dumb-n-happy; it's ALL good.)

3. Sometimes though it's not too-long-lines, it's "invalid characters" in the buyer's address. So far, I've had this happen with orders going to Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and Asia. Apparently eBay accepts Unicode charaters in buyers' shipping addresses, but either eBay or USPS doesn't accept them in shipping label addresses. Does anyone outside of eBay see a problem therein? (Another rhetorical question, because "no worries" according to eBay.) Fortunately, in all instances so far I was able to transliterate the Unicode characters and the packages got to the buyers, but of course I was threatened with dismemberment by eBay for my wicked-evil-deviant altering of the shipping address.

And this moronity has been going on for YEARS without any attention from eBay. Yet, eBay has plenty of time to devote to rolling out "improvements" that make it ALL good. Hey eBay: "You can't have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat!" -- musical pun intended, because that's the wall everyone is bashing their heads against.