Unable to bulk revise listings to add local pickup option

[a_grade_delivery]

Hi, so to be clear, I have over 100 active listings with various shipping options and I'm not enrolled in business policies. I've tried bulk revising to add local pickup in addition to the shipping options already on the items. Even when I tried two items that only had one shipping option. When I select 'change to' in the domestic shipping options, the shipping information is cleared and it won't let me apply any changes without inputting the shipping info again. I've also tried using a spreadsheet and adding the headers:

ShippingService-2:Option
ShippingService-2:Cost

With the values being:

LocalDelivery
0

That gave me an error saying:
"Error - If you wish to offer either flat or calculated shipping, then you must select at least one domestic shipping service, other than or in addition to Local Pickup."

I've communicated this issue with ebay customer support several times, followed their instructions on how they say to do it, and they finally they just threw up their hands and said it apparently isn't possible. So before I go and start revising each item one at a time, I was hoping someone out there might have an answer for me. Please and thank you!

[shipscript]

I spent some time experimenting on the Seller Hub Bulk Editor (BEAR). I do not use policies. I took three identical listings that offered only eBay Standard Envelope with free shipping. Using BEAR, I selected "Domestic shipping" for revision and toggled the switch to add Local pickup. The overlay would not activate the "Apply" button without more data. As you noted, the system would not update those listings unless I restated the shipping service and shipping cost.

So I went ahead and reentered the domestic shipping (without adding local pickup), just to make sure all three listings were, indeed, identical.

When I tried again, I got exactly the same screen with the same request.

Next, I used BEAR to change all three listings to buyer pays calculated priority mail. The system did not ask for dimensions or weight. When I opened the three revised listings in the Unified listing tool, the weight and dimensions from the original listings were as before, and shipping had been correctly converted to calculated priority mail. The free shipping toggle was turned off in the listings, as requested.

It appears that whenever the Domestic shipping overlay is selected in BEAR, the type, service, and cost must always be restated if any revisions are to be made.

Since your File Exchange test matches the requirements of BEAR, I next investigated there by reading the manual first. The File Exchange manual states this:

Shipping fields: If you revise a shipping field, you must include all other shipping fields if you want
to retain them. For example, if you change the ShippingType field, you must include all the other
shipping fields you want to use. If not, they will be dropped from the listing.

• ShippingService-n fields – any ShippingService-n fields not included (such as ShippingService-1:Cost) will be dropped from the listing
• IntlShippingService-n fields – any IntlShippingService-n fields not included (such as ShippingService-1:Option) will be dropped from the listing
• *ShippingType
• ShippingDiscountProfileID
• PromotionalShippingDiscount
• InternationalShippingDiscountProfileID
• InternationalPromotionalShippingDiscount
• PaymentInstructions
• UseTaxTable
• ShippingInTax

So we can understand why the File Exchange error occurred. It is merely adhering to the requirements of eBay's API by requesting a restatement of all dependent shipping parameters.

It is not clear to me why BEAR can not surface and display the existing Shipping Type, Service, and Cost when using the bulk editor. I could understand that being an issue if all the affected listings had differing services, but in my case, they did not. However, in many cases, I suppose the services may differ, and perhaps eBay can not deal with that situation in bulk, thus preventing it in all cases.

I even tried revising just a single listing in BEAR and it still would not accept the shipping change without a restatement of ShippingType, ShippingService:Option, and ShippingService:Cost.

[mtgraves7984]

@shipscript 

You're goooood. Now... should the OP be able to flip the 'Add Local Pickup' toggle and expect that to stick? 🤞

[shipscript]

@mtgraves7984 

Excellent question! The local pickup that I added in BEAR is showing in my listings. When I again select those listings for revision in BEAR, everything is again blank, as displayed in my initial screenshot. 

Since local pickup is a ShippingService-2, it is reset just like the ShippingService-1 we were struggling with. So, the bottom line is that a bulk Domestic Shipping revision will reset the Type, Service, and Cost for all Domestic services offered in the listing, and they will all need to be restated with any type of bulk revision, whether in BEAR or FileExchange.

[my_dvd_collection]

Thank you for the very in-depth reply! So is it possible to download my active listings with ALL of the spreadsheet information that can be used to revise my listings? That way all my current listings with their shipping parameters could be downloaded into a spreadsheet and I could simply add local pickup while more easily restating the current shipping policies. Any way to do that?

[shipscript]

@my_dvd_collection 

I do not find any Seller Hub upload or download report that can retrieve any shipping parameters.

More data can be accessed through eBay's programming API, but that is a major endeavor unto itself. Third party listing services use the more complex APIs to access your account data, and should be able to pull that info.

If you were using Shipping Policies, it would be simpler to then update the policies, but only if most of your items have similar shipping parameters.