What are these shipping options and why are they so confusing?

[slc_shop]

I ended my store subscription over a year ago. I just tried to list something for the first time in a long time and the attachment shows what the shipping options look like now. I thought that was because I had a free store and maybe eBay was trying to get people to buy a store by making everything in the free version as confusing as possible. So I signed up for a store again and tried making another listing. The shipping options are the same. Is it like this for anyone else? How are you supposed to decipher them?

[caldreamer]

You photos shows 3 different shipping options (first class, media mail, priority).   If you scroll down you will see more options.

You get to choose which options you want to offer (USPS, FedEx, UPS).   You can select up to 4 different shipping options.

[pjcdn2005 · Accepted solution]

Those look like shipping/business policies. eBay has been opting some sellers into without telling them.  You can opt out at the following link.

https://www.bizpolicy.ebay.com/businesspolicy/policyoptin

[slippinjimmy]

Those are Shipping Policies, if you don't like then then opt out of Shipping Policies and it will revert back to what you are more used to.

[slc_shop]

I know, but they're written in a confusing way. Is that how it is for everyone? They didn't used to be like that. For example, in the photo, you can see "Calculated: USPS Priority, 1 Business Day #15 (1 listing)." Just below where the photo cuts off, there's a listing that says, "Calculated: USPS Priority, 1 Business Day #23 (1 listing)." What's the difference between the two? What are the numbers representing? Is there a list on the site somewhere that I don't know about?

[wastingtime101]

The policies are based on shipping settings you previously used. You can completely ignore them.

Business policies help me keep my sanity. Manage and edit them (or disable them to go back to how you used to set up your listings) on this page. Once you set up your shipping policies and name them so you can easily identify them, you can go to your active listings and bulk edit to assign your new policies.

After the initial mess of policies that are created when you first sign up are no longer tied to active listings, you can delete them.

It takes a little time and work to set it up, but in my opinion it's well worth it.

But if you're low volume and have zero use for business policies then don't use them. Follow the link I posted above and look for the opt out link on the right.

[nobody*s_perfect]

When eBay oped me into business policies, it looked to me like the list is apparently either completely made up by eBay, or derived from every combination you have ever used for shipping method/handling time, etc.  There might be more info if you click on the 3 dots shown in the upper-right corner of your image.  

I can't imagine that list of policies being helpful in any way, or less work than just choosing from among the available separate options, especially since I usually just use "Sell similar" from one of my existing listings, so I just opted out as fast as I could;  there's a tiny text link in the upper-right corner of the shipping policies page, as shown in wastingtime's image.

[chapeau-noir]

What you are seeing is for business policies, something that a seller can create by selecting various options.  They are not necessary (I've never used them, nor even qualified) - just do what @slippinjimmy  says and opt out of them.  You will then see the usual shipping options (below example).  I'm not sure why eBay is opting people into those - this happened to a long time seller here just the other day, and it confused them, too (as it would have myself).

 

[iamalwaysright]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

I can't imagine that list of policies being helpful in any way, or less work than just choosing from among the available separate options, especially since I usually just use "Sell similar" from one of my existing listings, so I just opted out as fast as I could;  there's a tiny text link in the upper-right corner of the shipping policies page, as shown in wastingtime's image.

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Yes all of the shipping policies ebay automatically creates for you are all stupid. I created a bunch of my own which totally work to my advantage. But whenever a new listing is created either thru the site or my 3rd party lister, ebay plays games and creates these trash policies again. That's why I always have to revise a listing immediately after it goes live. Otherwise if I'm not careful I'll sell a bunch of items at free shipping when I wasn't supposed to. It's just a chore to periodically clean up my shipping policies list and remove/take out the trash.

[wastingtime101]

True - 3rd party listers don't play well with eBay biz policies. Since I don't use a 3rd party lister I never have to clean up my policies by deleting all the auto-generated policies and duplicates. Did it once when I opted in to biz policies and never had to worry about it again.

Sometimes I have issues with biz policies creating copies when dealing with the Inventory function, but that's an entirely different matter and a feature that most sellers don't have access to.