Monthly Chat - August 2nd at 1:00 pm PST

[elizabeth@ebay]

We are excited to announce that our Shipping team will be joining us for the August monthly chat! Get your questions ready for our Shipping team on August 2nd at 1:00 pm PST, (one week earlier than our prior chats).

Edit: Thanks for joining us for the Monthly Chat with eBay Staff and Shipping Team.

The chat thread will remain open until 2 PM PT at which point we'll close it from additional responses. After that time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that might still be unanswered.

To post your question, click Reply in the lower right corner of this post, type your question, and hit submit between 1-2 PM Pacific Time. The format of our chat mirrors the format of our Community Discussion Boards, where each post will appear in the thread chronologically. The Shipping Team and Community Team will review each question as it comes in, and will quote the original question in our reply. This quote and the reply will appear later in the thread, so just keep scrolling down to see our answers.

As a reminder, we want Shipping Team to be able to get to as many members as possible during the allotted hour, so we have a few things to ask of you:

• Keep on topic
• Scroll through the list of questions to see what has already been asked to decrease chances of redundancy 
• Keep the message/question simple and no more than one to two items. If you include multiple questions in a post, please be aware that they may not be addressed during the chat and Shipping Team will do their best to follow-up with it after the chat has closed 

Missed the chat? Send your questions to the podcast by calling 888-723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com and maybe your questions will make it on the air! Or listen to past episodes while you wait for next month!

[joplinbargainreseller]

When selecting shipping options to make available for my buyers to select from, I noticed something. 

The first shipping selection offers a choice of free shipping for the buyer or no free shipping. I had selected free shipping for a listing and noticed that ONLY the first shipping selection was Free Shipping. The other 3 options I provided still showed that the buyer was to pay for the shipping.

So, out of 3 shipping options, if I select free shipping for the first option the other two are not considered free shipping as well?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[purpleguppy]

Hello and thanks for this timely chat. Will eBay be introducing USPS cubic shipping options for priority and/or ground advantage? 

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[deb@shipping]

The Shipping Team is here to answer your questions regarding all things shipping, including recent changes to USPS and the new eBay International Shipping program. 

You can find more information on eBay International Shipping here.
For more information on the recent USPS changes check out our Seller News Announcement and the USPS Seller Center landing page.

We’re excited to hear your questions! 

[dhbookds]

addressed to (specialist name)

Considering the touting of ebay as Technological leader..........how come Ebay is not able to help sellers with a list of listings that contain First Class shipping that has to be changed Ground Advantage.......

I note, on Pod Cast this morning, kudos were given to an Ebay member (not employee) who has developed a program to do  it..........  Why can't/couldn't Ebay do it?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[deb@shipping]

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@joplinbargainreseller wrote:

When selecting shipping options to make available for my buyers to select from, I noticed something. 

The first shipping selection offers a choice of free shipping for the buyer or no free shipping. I had selected free shipping for a listing and noticed that ONLY the first shipping selection was Free Shipping. The other 3 options I provided still showed that the buyer was to pay for the shipping.

So, out of 3 shipping options, if I select free shipping for the first option the other two are not considered free shipping as well?

---

Hi @joplinbargainreseller thank you for your question. In listing flows you can indicate the shipping cost and free shipping for each shipping service offered. If you encounter issues, please contact customer support.

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[shipscript]

deb@shipping 

This is going to be technical. When using the Shipping module of the Shopping API that returns items for eBay Partner Network, shoes destined to Authentication don't return a shipping option. Instead, an error is returned. That means Authenticated shoes can not be displayed in EPN marketing slots. 

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[wastingtime101]

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@joplinbargainreseller wrote:

When selecting shipping options to make available for my buyers to select from, I noticed something. 

The first shipping selection offers a choice of free shipping for the buyer or no free shipping. I had selected free shipping for a listing and noticed that ONLY the first shipping selection was Free Shipping. The other 3 options I provided still showed that the buyer was to pay for the shipping.

So, out of 3 shipping options, if I select free shipping for the first option the other two are not considered free shipping as well?

---

If you select Flat Rate, then you can check the free box next to the first service and enter $0.00 as the cost for each additional service.

If you select Calculated, then I believe you can only offer free shipping for the first service and the rest of the services will be calculated.

[deb@shipping]

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@purpleguppy wrote:

Hello and thanks for this timely chat. Will eBay be introducing USPS cubic shipping options for priority and/or ground advantage? 

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Hi @purpleguppy  thank you for your question. We are always looking for opportunities to provide competitive pricing options for eBay Labels services including cubic pricing.  We will communicate any updates as soon as they are available. 

[clarkphilatelics]

I believe that eBays shipping policies are fundamentally unfair to sellers of small, lightweight items. While the eBay standard envelope has provided some mitigation. The $20 limit on individual items and the $50 limit on combined shipments are too low. Rising rates for USPS First Class Package, now USPS Ground Advantage, continue to rise. Rates have more than doubled since I started selling on eBay. Prices of stamps for collectors or collectible color slides have not doubled. I am considering ending free shipping for items under $50, especially color slides which are not mailable with eBay standard envelopes. Unfortunately, combined shipping on eBay often results in overcharges requiring refunds, complicating accounting. I believe that separate labels are less secure than printing addresses and barcodes directly on the envelope.

 Recommendations:

1. Raise the eBay standard envelope limit to at least $75 for single or multiple items.
2. Add new categories like collectible color slides.
3. Allow sellers to combine orders paid for individually.
4. Provide a better definition of “not too rigid”.
5. Capability to print addresses and bar codes on various size envelopes.

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[wastingtime101]

EIS question:

Does eBay plan to set up combined shipping rates for buyers? Is this being worked on for 2024 (or sooner)?

With GSP the domestic portion was combined if seller had their shipping preferences set up and I believe the international portion was not combined.

With EIS right now nothing is combined so buyer pays separate full ship cost (domestic + international) for each item even when they pay for items together in the cart.

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[shipscript]

Is eBay automatically converting "Retail Ground" to "Ground Advantage"? If not, is there any reason not to if the Shipping Type is "Calculated"?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[deb@shipping]

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@dhbookds wrote:

addressed to (specialist name)

Considering the touting of ebay as Technological leader..........how come Ebay is not able to help sellers with a list of listings that contain First Class shipping that has to be changed Ground Advantage.......

I note, on Pod Cast this morning, kudos were given to an Ebay member (not employee) who has developed a program to do  it..........  Why can't/couldn't Ebay do it?

---

Hi @dhbookds  thank you for your question and for the  feedback. In order to provide buyers with the most up to date shipping information, eBay is asking that sellers update their listings as soon as possible. eBay will not take any action on listings with First-Class package service until after the end of 2023. We are aware of challenges sellers are encountering with bulk editing listings and are investigating potential solutions, however at this time we do not have a timeframe for a resolution.

[allthingssurplus]

To date eBay has yet to set a drop dead time for all listing to no longer have First Class shipping.  When will that date come, let me guess never.  The lack of support for this issue has cost my company $8300 so far with overtime pay and additional work hours revising listing and not listing new product.  We have 4200+ listings all requiring manual updating.  No your business policies will not work.  All of our listings are calculated shipping have multiple shipping services due to one offs and weight and size requirements.  We do 30% International sales which increases the problem with policies.  

eBay was clear when this was announced that First Class package in concert with calculated shipping listings would have to be manually revised.  If we revised to standard we would lose all of the additional shipping services we need for our customers.

Why was there no fix for Sellers in this position by your IT dept.  You seem to have no issue raising fees and implementing promoted listings on the fly.  As maverickindustrialsales has point out and he can write code, this should have been a simple fix by eBay IT.  You cost me thousands and you are costing maverickindustrialsales much more than I with his 30K+ listings.  

Just a simple answer why the three largest money maker for eBay, auto, computers and tablets and business and Industrial were not considered for this simple fix.  

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[deb@shipping]

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@allthingssurplus wrote:

To date eBay has yet to set a drop dead time for all listing to no longer have First Class shipping.  When will that date come, let me guess never.  The lack of support for this issue has cost my company $8300 so far with overtime pay and additional work hours revising listing and not listing new product.  We have 4200+ listings all requiring manual updating.  No your business policies will not work.  All of our listings are calculated shipping have multiple shipping services due to one offs and weight and size requirements.  We do 30% International sales which increases the problem with policies.  

eBay was clear when this was announced that First Class package in concert with calculated shipping listings would have to be manually revised.  If we revised to standard we would lose all of the additional shipping services we need for our customers.

Why was there no fix for Sellers in this position by your IT dept.  You seem to have no issue raising fees and implementing promoted listings on the fly.  As maverickindustrialsales has point out and he can write code, this should have been a simple fix by eBay IT.  You cost me thousands and you are costing maverickindustrialsales much more than I with his 30K+ listings.  

Just a simple answer why the three largest money maker for eBay, auto, computers and tablets and business and Industrial were not considered for this simple fix.  

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Hi @allthingssurplus thank you for the feedback and your question.  In order to provide buyers with the most up to date shipping information, eBay is asking that sellers update their listings as soon as possible. eBay will not take any action on listings with First-Class package service until after the end of 2023. We are aware of challenges sellers are encountering with bulk editing listings and are investigating potential solutions, however at this time we do not have a timeframe for a resolution.