eBay

gramophone-georg · ‎09-26-2017

No, it's NOT a nine digit Zip code as you can see. This garbage is beyond aggravating. Can't you people make ANYTHING work properly?

I'm a buyer trying to buy things. I'm sick of playing whack- a- mole with shipping costs because YOUR PROGRAMMERS can't get it right. Sometimes it works, most times it does not.

SELLERS should be outraged by this. Is THIS what you are paying eBay and jumping through all these hoops for? Apparently so.

As I've said before, this happens nowhere else on the internet. NO. WHERE. ELSE. It's an eBay exclusive "feature".

Come ON eBay!!!

Chaos is NOT an "industry standard".

partial*eclipse · ‎09-26-2017

I wonder why you are encountring this problem so often.

postingid2017 · ‎09-26-2017

The zip code in the post is for Marcola, Oregon - if the OP is in Denver, then it is an invalid zip code. Happens to me when I enter a zip or Country and forget to change it for my zip code

partial*eclipse · ‎09-26-2017

The seller of the item in question is in Denver. Also, the shipping calculator only uses the ZIP Code, it doesn't compare it to a city and state, so that's not a way for the ZIP Code to be invalid. If the seller and buyer were both in the same ZIP Code, the calculator would work just fine.

The underlying problem here is that regardless of the actual error, eBay only has one error message, which refers to ZIP Code.

gramophone-georg · ‎09-26-2017

@postingid2017 wrote:
The zip code in the post is for Marcola, Oregon - if the OP is in Denver, then it is an invalid zip code. Happens to me when I enter a zip or Country and forget to change it for my zip code

It's for Springfield, Oregon and it's my zip code. I'm the (potential) buyer.

Chaos is NOT an "industry standard".

gramophone-georg · ‎09-26-2017

@partial*eclipse wrote:
I wonder why you are encountring this problem so often.

You arent the only one wondering, and I'm not the only one encountering. This is seriously impacting sales. This is the first time I've started a thread about it. The others have all been started by sellers who were contacted by buyers.

Chaos is NOT an "industry standard".

dtexley3 · ‎09-26-2017

I'm across the interstate next door. Is your shipping address a PO Box? The issue that Trinton looked into was initially thought to be a zip+4 but turned out to be due to the buyer having a PO box address. Trinton corrected his results in a later post. The items in question had PO Boxes not allowed, but the displayed error message claimed Zipcode error.

It also could be as the other poster suggested, the seller has some sort of buisness policy in place that's gotten corrupted and is manifesting as the same zipcode error.

Member of the Grumpy Old Man crew

d-k_treasures · ‎09-26-2017

@gramophone-georg wrote:
@partial*eclipse wrote:
That error usually happens when the seller has made a mistake in setting up the listing, and has entered package specifics that are incompatible with the chosen shipping method. For instance, a weight over 16 ounces for a First Class package. Or a typo in the measurements such as a length of 122 inches rather than 12.
Then every single seller with calculated shipping doesn't know how to set this up. Not only that, the mistakes in setting up the listing only seem to affect the calculated shipping... sometimes.

Some days, it only fails on auctions but is fine on fixed price listings.

Well, a little editing and warning/error messages on ebay's part might help ...........

_____________________________
"Nothing is obvious to the oblivious"

sharingtheland · ‎09-26-2017

@partial*eclipse wrote:
@sharingtheland wrote:
But then why does the message say "enter a valid zip code" ?
Because eBay programmers are incompetent, just not in the exact way that you thought.

You're right; silly me !

Sherry

=^.^= =^.^=
( ) ( )
" " =^.^= " "

thenobletuckylife · ‎09-26-2017

Afternoon George,

I think the amswer is more obvious than we want to admit.

Ebay sees all those knockoff sales from over seas are ridiculously low prices with free shipping and says that the issue your having is just noise...once agin the in differenc to anything that doesn't have FREE shipping...see...poof...the problems are gone.

I guess we simply don't see the big picture...and with it near to impossible to email the seller asking for help without ebay thinking we are trying to scam the system by taking the sale off ebay it is even more problematic.

I think you know that if it hasn't been addressed by now it probably will not.

Mr C

partial*eclipse · ‎09-26-2017

@dtexley3 wrote:
... turned out to be due to the buyer having a PO box address. ... The items in question had PO Boxes not allowed, but the displayed error message claimed Zipcode error.....

Sometimes, there IS a different ZIP Code for PO Boxes. The ZIP Code 02184 serves my sister's town, but her PO Box has ZIP Code 02185.

So a listing that blocks PO Boxes could refer to 02185 as an invalid ZIP Code (same as one in blocked states or territories). So that might be a case of the error message actually being (relatively) appropriate.

partial*eclipse · ‎09-26-2017

@gramophone-georg wrote:
@partial*eclipse wrote:
That error usually happens when the seller has made a mistake in setting up the listing, ...
Then every single seller with calculated shipping doesn't know how to set this up. Not only that, the mistakes in setting up the listing only seem to affect the calculated shipping... sometimes.....

I shop on eBay almos every day and have never encountered this message in a listing that I'm viewing. I've only seen examples that were brought to the board, and as mentioned above they often turn out to be setup errors.

gramophone-georg · ‎09-26-2017

@thenobletuckylife wrote:
Afternoon George,

I think the amswer is more obvious than we want to admit.

Ebay sees all those knockoff sales from over seas are ridiculously low prices with free shipping and says that the issue your having is just noise...once agin the in differenc to anything that doesn't have FREE shipping...see...poof...the problems are gone.

I guess we simply don't see the big picture...and with it near to impossible to email the seller asking for help without ebay thinking we are trying to scam the system by taking the sale off ebay it is even more problematic.

I think you know that if it hasn't been addressed by now it probably will not.

Mr C

Y'know, C. ... I was wondering about that myself. Seriously.

Chaos is NOT an "industry standard".

gramophone-georg · ‎09-26-2017

@dtexley3 wrote:
I'm across the interstate next door. Is your shipping address a PO Box? The issue that Trinton looked into was initially thought to be a zip+4 but turned out to be due to the buyer having a PO box address. Trinton corrected his results in a later post. The items in question had PO Boxes not allowed, but the displayed error message claimed Zipcode error.

It also could be as the other poster suggested, the seller has some sort of buisness policy in place that's gotten corrupted and is manifesting as the same zipcode error.

Nope. Not a PO box. Just a street address.

Once again... this only happens on random days, although it can persist for several days in a row. for the last couple days, every item with calculated shipping is showing up like this for me.

And yes, I clear cache and toss cookies every single night.

Even if I didn't... why don't I have these issues anywhere else???

See, while we can surmise what the problem is, what causes it, and what the workarounds might be... that will ONLY help buyers looking at this thread. What about the potential millions of buyers who aren't on the Boards here? How long do you think their attention span is?

When they wander off to Amazon or Etsy and find what they want and check out without issue, what's their incentive to come back to eBay? With the amount of sellers posting anguished threads about how poor sales are... shouldn't we be concerned?

The calculated shipping feature OUGHT to be strictly zip code based. So the theory now is that somehow eBay programming is smart enough to know it's a PO box? What if you're not signed in and just enter your ZIP code? you know what happens to me when I do that? Based on my ISP it defaults to 97401, Eugene, Oregon, 10 miles away. And even THEN I've gotten the "invalid zip code" message!

Chaos is NOT an "industry standard".

gramophone-georg · ‎09-26-2017

@partial*eclipse wrote:
@gramophone-georg wrote:
@partial*eclipse wrote:
That error usually happens when the seller has made a mistake in setting up the listing, ...
Then every single seller with calculated shipping doesn't know how to set this up. Not only that, the mistakes in setting up the listing only seem to affect the calculated shipping... sometimes.....
I shop on eBay almos every day and have never encountered this message in a listing that I'm viewing. I've only seen examples that were brought to the board, and as mentioned above they often turn out to be setup errors.

These are watch list items. And, like I said, some days it works just fine.

Setup error- good theory but why does every item on my watch list with calculated shipping have a setup error- some days and not others?

Trust me- I have been TRYING to get to the bottom of this for quite some time. Every time I think they finally fix it because it's been working fine for awhile BOOM here it is back.

Chaos is NOT an "industry standard".