eBay Auto-Generating Multiple Business Policies

[wilsonharborsales]

eBay has been auto-creating multiple new business policies (shipping policies and return policies).  Items that I have for sale are then being moved automatically into the new shipping policies.  Newly created listings are unable to go live because I get the following error: 'There is an issue with your listing: Shipping Policy'.  Not sure what the problem is, but it seems to be related to the new international shipping program.  If I don't keep on top of it, eBay will create hundreds of business policies automatically.  Each new policy has a string of computer code at the end of it.

Here is a video of someone having this issue:  https://youtu.be/isNLUnxnMYM

devon@ebay brian_burke@ebay 

[cardxcraft]

Same here.. I delete policies and more auto-policies appear.  In the meantime, I'll just keep deleting them until Ebay gets around to it.

After the last two Ebay CS debacles, I'd rather not deal with them.

[brightlightbookseller]

I know it would be a hassle, but considering the existing hassle you're dealing with, have you already tried or considered opting out of business policies and setting it up again from scratch?  You can opt out on this page:

https://www.bizpolicy.ebay.com/businesspolicy/manage?sellerAlreadyOptedIn=true

[cmf21]

Today when I was trying to create a listing I ran into this garbage.  When I came to the shipping section, I noticed Ebay made some sort of change that I couldn't figure out.  After searching this community I came across a post where someone was able to "opt out".  This caught my attention so I poked around my selling preferences and under the business policy page there is this tiny "opt out" wording in the upper right hand corner or the screen that I was able to click and now everything is back to normal.  Grrrr.

[rewindvariety]

I don't like it because I need international sales. However, I've removed International Shipping from my regular shipping policies, and this stopped the auto-generating of excess policies.

I no longer have the option of adding eBay International Shipping when I'm revising policies. I'm wondering if I am going to be notified when the issue is fixed and I can add eBay International Shipping back to my business policies.

[rewindvariety]

devon@eBay - Can I be notified when the issue is fixed so I can add International Shipping back to my policies?

[hk-resale]

Hi,

We are experiencing a similar problem. When eBay auto-enrolled us into EIS we wanted to make sure some of our listings were excluded from international shipping (knives, WW2 Memorabilia, cosmetics, etc.)

We created about 20 policies that cover most of the items we list. To make it easier to select them we gave them all a 1_ prefix and filled in the descriptions.

We took the time to go through all of our listings (22,000) and assigned them to the appropriate shipping policy.

But starting a few days ago it appears 1000s of listings were moved to auto-generated shipping policies. Some of the listings we excluded from EIS were now offering international shipping. So, we went ahead and fixed those.

This morning I just checked again and these policies are being generated again. It appears that when a listing renews, it doesn't maintain the assigned shipping policy, it creates a new auto-generated policy based upon the listing settings.

Attaching 2 screenshots below. The 1st is the policies we created and assigned our 22,000 listings to. The 2nd shows the auto-generated policies.

Policies we created (note the 1_ prefix)

Policies autogenerated by eBay

This morning it's a handful but a few days ago (Tuesday) there were 1000s.

[wilsonharborsales]

I opted out of international shipping begrudgingly today.  I was able to move everything back to the way it should be after a few hours of ending and relisting (with the correct shipping policy).  Opting out of EIS has solved the problem of the auto-generating business/shipping policies but unfortunately it will limit my customer reach.  Hopefully they get it all sorted out.  I have been grappling with issues for 55 days regarding business policies and listing visibility since GSP ended, so hopefully opting out of EIS for the time-being gets things back on track.

My head is spinning from all the detective work over the past two months.  On the bright side, I have developed a deep knowledge of the site logistics that I otherwise would not have had.

[devon@ebay]

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@rewindvariety wrote:

devon@eBay - Can I be notified when the issue is fixed so I can add International Shipping back to my policies?

---

Hey @rewindvariety! Whenever I hear back on this I will be sure to let you and others know! 

[ltldpr]

Hi Devon,

Does eBay use a dev (development) or prod (production) environment when tweaking code or rolling out new things and then apply it to the live version, or do they do it to the live version of eBay that we all use in real time while we're using it? 

Also, is there a place we can see a list of what they're actively tweaking at any given time? Not the code, just a list of what they are changing and when.

[rewindvariety]

Hi,

I chatted with customer service and got clarification; if you remove International Shipping from your Business policies, the system stops generating excess policies (this worked for me). If you haven't opted out of International Shipping, you're still in the program, and your listings are eligible for International Shipping. I tested this with an incognito browser.

So, devon@ebay, in lieu of a systemwide fix, it would be great to add this to this page. That way, sellers can update their shipping policies to end the error/extra policies.

Thanks, everyone, for collaborating on figuring this out. If it weren't for this forum, I would have assumed I was removed from International Shipping.

[redrockcollectibles]

We opted out of EIS (about 5% of our sales are international), and then fixed all of our shipping policies to remove international shipping. We had to end the listing that had been auto generated, but everything is now back to pre-EIS, only no international options.

[turtles-trading-post]

This is happening to me too.  I never start a listing from scratch. I always start with an existing listing "Sell A Similar Item".   It appears to be changing shipping policies... those with a string of code at the end.. upon automatic relists.  Both my auctions every week, and fixed price items monthly.

[devon@ebay]

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@rewindvariety wrote:

Hi,

I chatted with customer service and got clarification; if you remove International Shipping from your Business policies, the system stops generating excess policies (this worked for me). If you haven't opted out of International Shipping, you're still in the program, and your listings are eligible for International Shipping. I tested this with an incognito browser.

So, devon@ebay, in lieu of a systemwide fix, it would be great to add this to this page. That way, sellers can update their shipping policies to end the error/extra policies.

Thanks, everyone, for collaborating on figuring this out. If it weren't for this forum, I would have assumed I was removed from International Shipping.

---

Hey @rewindvariety! I can be sure to have this shared as well in the report I have put together!  

[glenvonnie]

Ebay is changing the shipping policies on my listings, some have been changed from calculated to free shipping.

If I edit the listing to change it back to calculated, the shipping policy reverts withing seconds back to free shipping right in front of me.

If I delete the newly created shipping policies in business policies, they come back also.

[sabicollectibles]

Same here, I tried everything. I was not selling much since they started that thing so I stopped my international shipping for 2 weeks and my sales were back on track until I put back my international shipping and now I sell only 1 item a week!!!

eBay's been changing my shipping policy every day and it drives me crazy, it changed my business completely since mid-April I believe. I sell a lot internationally so I really need to keep it. I am going to opt out of the "eBay Auto-Generating Multiple Business Policies" to see if it stops, we will see.