Wow, what a mess.
First, I'm sorry @chariot_badges for what you are going through. I don't think you'd be here venting or talking about what is going on if you didn't care and didn't want to get out of this mess. Everybody gets frustrated while the way you handle may not be the way others would, I don't see anything wrong with it. Probably half the neutrals and negatives you have seemed to come from ignorant buyers, so I get it.
I can vouch that USPS has been and is very screwed up. I'm in Virginia, and back in March at the peak I had over two dozen packages stalled in the USPS system. After two buyer complaints I looked into everything I had shipped that had not been delivered and observed that most everything was stalled. I use "stalled" because most of the time that's what is going on, rather than it being lost. Orders were remaining at my local USPS, where I dropped them off, for days at a time. One order stayed for two weeks. Others got stalled at various distribution centers.
Once I saw what was going on I proactively reached out to buyers. I reassured them I was monitoring things, and I emphasized that their order was not lost. I also explained the process where I would file a missing mail request if there were no scans in 72-hours. In the past, I've been able to do this and every time packages get delivered within a day or two.
Most of my buyers were understanding. The two buyers that were angry had purchased items that cost $10 or less. One reason I want to get away from selling very low dollar items is because I find those buyers tend to be cheap and cheap people also tend to want things perfect, including a bow on top of their packages. I'm kidding, of course, but probably not too far from the truth for some buyers who gravitate to inexpensive items.
My local USPS has gotten better, but there are still delays. There is only one truck per day now that moves mail from my town to the regional sorting facility. This is why things get backed up so quickly. Christmas is going to be a nightmare if something isn't changed, and buyers will need to buy earlier than normal. I can't speak for all post offices, but I was told here that it does not do any good to buy Priority Mail as that mail is sitting stalled, too.
My advice is do not give up. Be proactive. If you want your business to succeed, you may have to suck it up and do some things you don't want to do in order to get your metrics right. I wholeheartedly disagree that eBay wants to get rid of small sellers. Small sellers are their bread and butter. Most of the platform is made up of small one-man-band sellers. Like any business, they do want to get rid of problems. I'm not saying you are one of them. I don't think that. But someone looking at your feedback who does not know the context might think you are the problem. IMHO, that's what you need to fix.
I also don't see why you can't take a vacation (which I agree with the other poster, we all need one sometimes), and set up the auto response for messages. This way you don't have to worry about personally responding within 24-hours.
@pikabo-icu , FYI, some post offices have implemented limits on how many packages they are willing to scan at the counter. Mine is 10. During Christmas peak they will only scan 5. Anything more than that, you have to leave them without getting a receipt.
