Pausing Sales During Holidays Due to Slow Shipping

[destrucity_shop]

I've decided to put my store on vacation mode for the month of December due to delays in shipping. This morning a customer contacted my about an item past due delivery, was shipped First Class a seven days ago-- tracking shows no activity. A forum search of recent discussions revealed many sellers complaining of severe delays in shipping. This makes sense with new disruptive Post Master rules, more people shopping online from pandemic lockdowns, postal workers calling in sick with covid, and the surge of holiday orders, the postal system is now overwhelmed. I've refunded the buyer, and will resume selling in January.

[autopartspuller]

Both UPS and Fedex are run more efficiently than USPS.  To date, I have had very little issue with Fed ex (other than weekend rural delivery).  I am still choosing Fedex over USPS if the price is relatively close.

[lind_sext]

I only sell once a year. Buyer bought item & I mailed on 12/3/2020 Priority mail & item is in a small package & by 12/14/2020 has not been delivered. I sent a copy of receipt & tracking information to Buyer & doesn’t really understand delay. Package did have to go from Ohio to Arizona. I have seen semi trucks lined up outside area post office for more than 12 hours. 

[maros9416]

Here in NYC they will not scan each item. They insist on the scan sheet. At first I didn't know what she was talking about until I looked in to it. No mater what the official rules are, if they tell you there is no time for this with a lone of people going out the door, you're not going to win. However, the scan sheet is a good solution to that problem in this environment.

[dinohead2]

My packages are running over 10 days late as well. Even my priority mail! Yesterday I received a message that something arrived broken. You can clearly see in the buyer's picture - all the bubble wrap and extra bag I used for protection.

My husband thinks it must have been crushed by all the packages literally piling up at the post office. I guess I will need to up my protection game for the rest of the month until the post office gets a handle on this. I'm debating pausing my sales but really need the income right now. The post office being overwhelmed is so on point for 2020. 🙄 

[moo*cow*corner]

Earlier this year, during the height of the first surge of the virus, some hard hit states called in National Guard troops to help USPS with the mail backlogs. The photos of soldiers delivering packages to NYC residents were awesome. Why the heck aren't they doing it again right now?

[innovatilife]

I won't stop listing and staying active, but I will put all the shipping methods on my listings to economy shipping with no options for expedited, but still ship first class and priority mail. This will add enough padding time to compensate for any shipping delays.

[nobody*s_perfect]

The difference between eBay's typical delivery time estimates for Priority vs ground shipping is usually just a couple of days. USPS delays are currently way more than that.

[innovatilife]

I'm not using ground though, I'm using economy, which is estimated 10 days at the latest, which I think is more than enough ample time.

[futuretomorrow]

Are you just dropping off your packages or are you getting a scan that they were dropped off?

[gwens*4saleitems*]

My sales have "paused" themselves. I've sold only 1 item in the last 2 weeks.

[maros9416]

To compound things, here in the Northeast we are expecting a big snowstorm. So what is anyone to do? I for one am not going to close my store. My handling times are met and I've been using the scan sheet to clock in all of my packages. When I check the tracking it automatically says ' Delayed '. I am equally as upset that I probably can't deliver for Christmas from now until Christmas Eve, but not all of what I sell is strictly presents, and there are others out there who don't celebrate and just want to continue to buy stuff even with the delays. 

[blueapples_22]

We were going to shut down, but I found a better solution to at least keep some sales flowing.  We usually offer free USPS shipping.  What I've done is change all of my listings to "buyer pays" to ship via UPS or FedEx.  However, I also offered a "Free Shipping for Purchases of $50".  Doing the math I lose about 5-8% per sale if I pay,  however I'm still in the green.  Just thought I'd share, you have to do some creative math.  I'll go back to free shipping USPS on Jan 1.

Good Luck!

[maros9416]

The stat that I seen on the news last night said the about 17,500 USPS employees out of 600,000 total currently have COVID. It's a big number, but not enough to shut down the operation. Hope they get the vaccine in the 1st few rounds.

[maros9416]

Even under normal conditions buying a gift online with less than 10 business days before Christmas is a risk. I think mostly everyone considers that when buying. Particularly if eBay did the right thing and extended the delivery times. I do still see a lot of ' Fast and Free ' listings though.

[jack_bucks_ghost]

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@jack_bucks_ghost wrote:

I'm sweating out a Priority Mail shipment that has not updated since Nov 30--it's a $400 loss if I get hit with a INR claim.  The clerk at the post office yesterday told me things are going to get even worse in the coming weeks--she said that some regional distribution centers are almost at a standstill.  So as of yesterday, I decided no new listings above $100 until after the holidays.

But where is the help from eBay? Obviously, shipping is a mess--why aren't the expected times being extended???

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UPDATE: my package was delivered to the buyer this morning!!! 16 days to go from St Louis to Knoxville, but it made it!!! Thank goodness for a patient buyer--thought about sending him a Christmas card to says thanks, but realized it wouldn't get there in time...lol. Between the pandemic, the holiday rush, and tons of us frustrated shippers and receivers, I do feel for the carriers, sorters, and post office facility staff--they've had a rough go of it for months now. All I want for Christmas is a quiet, uneventful end to this scourge we call 2020.